ReMix: EarthBound 'Twoson Hits the Road'

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Some of my earliest musical memories are from family trips, listening to Guthrie's "City of New Orleans" or Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" while driving past the blue ridge mountains. I can remember the specific mid-Fall temperatures, the succession of sedans and station wagons we all piled into over the course of about a decade, the word games we'd play to pass the time, but most of all, and with the greatest degree of clarity, the music, and the way it seemed to define the moment. To me, folk music, or genres that are folk-infused, have always made the best traveling music. Not for a ride to the supermarket or into the city for a night on the town, but for a much longer trip, all the better if it's going to take multiple days to get there and there's no agenda or itinerary. To risk demystification through analysis, I think it has to do with the rolling acoustic guitar patterns, simple and steady percussion, and melody that flies over both and seems in contradiction to be both distant and immediate. It's music for looking out of windows at moving landscapes for long periods of time, thinking about where you've been and where you're going. It's the antithesis of Zen - it's specifically NOT in the moment, not in the present, but instead simultaneously conjuring past and positing potential.

This is pertinent, and not just an excuse for micro-memoir, because it explains why a short ReMix of the Twoson theme from Earthbound can mean quite a bit to me. I'd been planning to arrange this theme for the last two years, ever since I scoured the EB soundtrack looking for something that spoke to me. Twoson is perhaps the most melody-centric track off the OST, which is not surprising given what I tend to like, and I had always envisioned doing an elaborate orchestral arrangement. When circumstances dictated that I finally sit down and actually write the damn thing, though, something didn't click. The essence of the melody to me didn't seem to be asking for something intricate, intertwined, or formal; it seemed to be honest, simple... humble and unaffected. A little happy, a little sad, blue-collar, hopeful, aware, and mostly content, but with a strain of restlessness. I'm not saying orchestral composition can't capture all of that, but when I sat down and started from scratch on a folk/rock instrumental, it felt absolutely natural. What I actually ended up with draws from Guthrie, Zydeco, Danny Elfman's soundtrack to Midnight Run, and Paul Simon's "Graceland", amongst other influences. For better or worse, it's in a genre you don't see applied to game music, either in the remixing community or in the original scores themselves. I honestly don't know what to expect in terms of reaction, but I view this as a personal accomplishment regardless. I love the Twoson melody, I think this musical genre lets it breath and reach and stretch, and without a mix like this, I feel like a big chunk of myself would be conspicuously absent.

― djpretzel