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Meena Shamaly is a singer, an instrumentalist, a composer, a radio host and a performance poet. While not a definitive list of his artistic talents, it's a list relevant to our conversation we had at the end of July. So, we talk about how he sang, played oud and served as an Arabic music and language consultant for Christopher Tin on Old World. We discuss his one-hour radio show on Australia's ABC called Game Show, where he talks about and plays video game music. We also talk about his poetry - he is a performance/spoken-word poet. It was great chatting with him! You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Composer Will Savino talks about his music for Souldiers, a metroidvania platform puzzler with RPG elements, pixel art and a retro-ish soundtrack. So much music in this game! It was fun to talk about it with Will! Also, Will composes loads of music for tabletop gaming, a topic I haven't explored very much, and was delighted to discuss. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

A few things about my conversation with George Sanger. It's the longest single-interview episode in my 11 years as a podcaster, and the interview itself flew by. I felt like each question could've been its own episode. I kept wanting to turn the page and discover more. Alas, we barely scrape the surface of this game audio legend. We talk about his music for Wing Commander and The 7th Guest. We talk about writing lyrics, loving The Beatles, and math. George's nickname is The Fat Man, thanks to a typo on a business card decades ago. I encourage you to spend time listening to as much of his music as possible. You can do so on his Bandcamp page. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Joel Schoch's music for the Far series of games is truly wonderful (Far: Changing Tides from 2022 and Far: Lone Sails from 2018). I can't recommend it highly enough. Joel does a laudable job scoring the open, watery worlds in both games. An abundance of live instruments but with respect for the, well, "simplicity" that the games present. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

There are 14,000 sound effects (aka "Foley") in the game Unpacking. That's a handful. And what a charming game, no dialog, just art and sound. You learn the story as you unpack the belongings of a young girl as she grows up, goes to college, moves in with friends, then experiences different relationships in adult life. Jeff and Angela van Dyck are responsible for the audio, and Jeff wrote gleefully chill, melodic and thoughtful music to represent various phases of the woman's life. I love it so very much. Be sure to grab yourself the soundtrack on Bandcamp. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Imp of the Sun is a gorgeous 2D platformer from Sunwolf Entertainment, a company co-created by the game's composer, Jose Varon. The game was inspired by the landscape, history, culture, art and music of Peru, where the developers live. Jose got the chance to record instruments in a museum, some of which were 6,000 years old. And he highlights other instruments with roles in Peruvian culture, like pan flutes, the quena, various percussion, charango and other strummed instruments, wooden trumpets, and more. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

The music for Loot River was composed by two brothers in Vienna, Austria - Markus and David Zahradnicek. Markus and David, who go by Wobblersound, are a full-service audio package, so for Loot River, they supplied not only the music, but the sound design and implementation.   You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Chase Bethea talks about his music for Questlike: Pocket, a mobile monster-hunter RPG with a rhythmic component to battle. Chase wrote four battle tracks for the game, all in the same time signature of 5/4, and all at 60 beats per minute to match battle tempo throughout the game. In addition to the four battle tracks, Chase also wrote the main theme. As always, it was a pleasure to speak with Chase about his music! You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Composer Ben Nichols talks about three soundtracks: OMNO, a gorgeous adventure game (for which he received an Ivor Novello nomination); Before We Leave, a colorful world-builder; and The Falconeer, a dogfighting aerial combat fighter. So different from each other and delightful to discuss each one! You'll find a YouTube video on our channel (sometimes they post a few days after the audio version). You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Join us on Discord to discuss the episode!   This is music by John Robert Matz for Ambition: A Minuet in Power, an adventure game/interactive visual novel with all sorts of romance options, set during the ramp-up of the French Revolution in the 1780s.   John Robert’s music is also set in the 1780s, the height of the Classical era in music, and composers like Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn were popular in France even if they  weren’t of French origin themselves.   Two things: a neighbor started mowing their lawn right as we began our interview. The noise from the mower will stop eventually! And I forgot to hit record on the video, so when you view it on YouTube, it'll be about 20 minutes before the scene kicks in :)   You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

Composer Carlos Eiene began his career at age 14, uploading video game music covers to YouTube from his living room on piano and saxophone. He posted a video at the beginning of 2022 stating he would no longer be uploading game covers, but that he would be focusing on original composition. Carlos and I talk about some of his new music, and some of his old music, on this episode. Find him on YouTube, Spotify and elsewhere by searching insaneintherainmusic. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists, including a special playlist from Carlos.

Video game music remix artist Lacey Johnson is a content machine! You can find dozens of remix videos of Lacey’s on YouTube, she’s got a Persona 4 album on Bandcamp and several more album projects planned (including Persona 3!) with dozens more YouTube videos scheduled. I got to meet Lacey in April at VGM Con here in Minneapolis. We were on a panel together and we chat about that briefly, but also her background, all the instruments she plays, we talk about Elden Ring, Kirby, Final Fantasy, Persona - and 80s music, including the B-52s. Patrons have access to a special 5-track playlist Lacey prepared of some of her favorite music! You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to special Discord events and special guest playlists.

A song by composer Robert Wolf is nominated for Best Original Song in the upcoming Game Audio Network Guild Awards on May 25, 2022. He composed "Immutable" for the game Arknights, a mobile tower defense/ tactical RPG from Hypergryph. Robert is a composer for Hexany Audio, a company that provides music and sound for many different game projects around the world. Robert also composes for Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile. Visit the Level with Emily Reese YouTube channel to see our conversation. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon. Find us on YouTube and Twitter. Patrons have access to the Level with Emily Discord server.

Mark Schimmelbusch - known as "Mahn" in the VGM world - talks about his album called The Old Blood: A Bloodborne Concept Album. This album was recently awarded best remix album at the 2022 VGM Con Remix Awards in Minneapolis. Mahn has remixed many other favorites from game music, and we enjoyed talking together about his musical adventures! You can support Level with Emily on Patreon. Find us on YouTube, Twitter and Discord.

Composer Mason Lieberman works for Tencent Games, and writes music for all types of games and projects, like PUBG Mobile and Teamfight Tactics. He's composed for tons of different anime projects too, like RWBY and Beyblade Burst Evolution. Mason has a keen ear for composing J-rock, and other J-styles and C-styles, and was exposed to these styles starting at a young age when his family had a foreign exchange student from Japan.  You can view the conversation with Mason on the Level with Emily YouTube page, and subscribe to be notified of new videos from us. Support Level with Emily on Patreon.

Drummer Dom Palombi talks about his new album Game Night! with game music covers and three original tracks. The album features several seasoned video game, anime and all the J-styles performers like Patrick Bartley (J-Music Ensemble), Carlos Eiene (insaneintherainmusic), the Super Soul Bros., Charlie Rosen (8-Bit Big Band) and more. Dom and the Game Night! band recently traveled to Minneapolis for VGM Con to perform. Dom and Emily talk about that experience, Dom's background and his KILLER Game Night! band and album. Find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon!

Andrew Hulshult's music for the Quake-like retro first person shooter called Dusk is fabulous. Dusk, from New Blood Interactive, originally came out in 2018. Andrew’s music for the original Dusk is symphonic metal - a lot of electric guitars and epic orchestral music. And that’s all wonderful and amazing and you’ll hear a bunch of it. EVEN MORE AMAZING, in 2021, New Blood released a tiny prequel even MORE retro than the original Dusk called Dusk ‘82, with pixel art and a conversion of the music from epic orchestral metal to 8-bit metal, and it’s WONDERFUL music. We loved talking with Andrew about his music for Dusk and Dusk ‘82, and you can catch a video of our chat on YouTube - please subscribe!  Find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon.

This is a panel from VGM Con with composer Andrew Benon for Chex Quest, a game that came out in boxes of Chex cereal from General Mills in 1996. Andrew, at the time, worked for a company in Minneapolis called Digital Cafe. General Mills also is located in Minneapolis (well, a suburb called Golden Valley, to be more precise). In any event, Andrew will tell you the story of the CD Rom cereal game, Chex Quest. VGM Con just happened here in Minneapolis over the weekend of April 1st 2022, and it was amazing - we cannot recommend this con highly enough. The musicians who performed were spectacular. It was incredible and if we didn’t see you this past weekend, we hope to see you there next year. You can see a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon.

Composer Lee Jackson's legacy in the world of game music includes the theme song for Duke Nukem 3Dcalled “Grabbag”. Lee talks about writing music for Duke Nukem 3D and other Duke projects, as well as how quickly he wrote music for Rise of the Triad, and how he made sounds for Balls of Steel (all games from Apogee Software / 3D Realms). Lee also takes commissions to write new music, and his albums on Bandcamp include music he wrote inspired by Duke Nukem, and other Duke projects. No video for this interview, but please do head over to the Level with Emily YouTube channel to find our newest videos - and subscribe! You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon.

You’ve probably heard DB Cooper's voice at some point in your gaming life. I first heard her in BioShock 2 as the voice of the PA system. Most recently, she cast and directed the voices in Lake (in my intro to the episode, I mention she voiced characters in Lake, which is incorrect). And she is one of only two who voice ALL of the characters and sounds in the strategy roguelike deck builder Monster Train. And there have been many, many others. Currently, DB is on the Voice Over Team at ZeniMax Online Studios, the makers of The Elder Scrolls Online. You can support Level with Emily on Patreon.