Chat with Mike Brassell (Space Mountain Music)
Posted: Oct Tue 04, 2011 3:41 pm
I recently chatted via email with Mike Brassel, the musician who made the new Space Mountain exit music for Disney. Namely, this track here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2mvaWbRJM
I asked him a few questions, and I thought some of you might be interested in his responses. I did make sure that he was good with me posting his responses here.
I'll edit this down into a sort of QA, to make it more readable:
BL: Hi there. I've been doing some searching around the net, and was wondering if you could confirm that it was you who composed this music: (youtube link above)
MB: Yes, I am the composer of the new Space Mountain track! It was an honor for me to do this and as a composer, a highlight for my career!
BL: I imagine it's got to be pretty satisfying to have so many people have a direct association between one of your compositions and such happy times.
MB: Yes, so glad to be associated with Space Mountain and the TTA...
BL: I made a tweak to that live bootleg to make the loop point actually correct. Is the composition 2:40, or is there further portions of the composition that get rotated in occasionally?
MB: Mount Bop (which is what I named it) Total Run Time is 2:41 - no further portions...
BL: Out of curiosity, what equipment was used to produce it?
MB: The equipment I used included Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, Omnisphere and Trilian - Kontakt 4 - EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra - EWQL Goliath, Native Instruments Vokator, Muse Receptor, Avid/DigiDesign ProTools as my DAW on an 8 Core Mac Pro.
BL: What kind of direction and interaction did you have with Disney with regards to what they asked for, etc? (If you cannot talk about this, I completely understand. I worked with Disney at a previous job and the NDAs we had to sign were... comprehensive.
MB: LOL.. yes, you indeed have worked with Disney to mention such restrictions, but there's not much to mention in terms of direction outside of wanting the feeling of constant motion, energy and no theremin...
I sent them many passes and made many changes until the final product you hear now running...
All in all, a fun experience creating it. Hearing it in the Mountain the first time was unbelievable!
BL: What other tracks did you do for them?
MB: I've done no other tracks for them .... yet... I'm always on the hunt to do more though - Disney is a great client!
BL: Do you know of a place to purchase this track? I'd love to have a higher quality version of it for personal listening.
MB: As far as purchasing the track, I have heard nothing official from Disney in terms of releasing a CD. I would imagine with the new additions they are adding to the Magic Kingdom, they may wait until completion before releasing all of the new music. As my site gets updated, I will include CD release information as I receive it, if I receive it. With that being said, I certainly hope you enjoyed the track and thank you for contacting me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2mvaWbRJM
I asked him a few questions, and I thought some of you might be interested in his responses. I did make sure that he was good with me posting his responses here.
I'll edit this down into a sort of QA, to make it more readable:
BL: Hi there. I've been doing some searching around the net, and was wondering if you could confirm that it was you who composed this music: (youtube link above)
MB: Yes, I am the composer of the new Space Mountain track! It was an honor for me to do this and as a composer, a highlight for my career!
BL: I imagine it's got to be pretty satisfying to have so many people have a direct association between one of your compositions and such happy times.
MB: Yes, so glad to be associated with Space Mountain and the TTA...
BL: I made a tweak to that live bootleg to make the loop point actually correct. Is the composition 2:40, or is there further portions of the composition that get rotated in occasionally?
MB: Mount Bop (which is what I named it) Total Run Time is 2:41 - no further portions...
BL: Out of curiosity, what equipment was used to produce it?
MB: The equipment I used included Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, Omnisphere and Trilian - Kontakt 4 - EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra - EWQL Goliath, Native Instruments Vokator, Muse Receptor, Avid/DigiDesign ProTools as my DAW on an 8 Core Mac Pro.
BL: What kind of direction and interaction did you have with Disney with regards to what they asked for, etc? (If you cannot talk about this, I completely understand. I worked with Disney at a previous job and the NDAs we had to sign were... comprehensive.
MB: LOL.. yes, you indeed have worked with Disney to mention such restrictions, but there's not much to mention in terms of direction outside of wanting the feeling of constant motion, energy and no theremin...
I sent them many passes and made many changes until the final product you hear now running...
All in all, a fun experience creating it. Hearing it in the Mountain the first time was unbelievable!
BL: What other tracks did you do for them?
MB: I've done no other tracks for them .... yet... I'm always on the hunt to do more though - Disney is a great client!
BL: Do you know of a place to purchase this track? I'd love to have a higher quality version of it for personal listening.
MB: As far as purchasing the track, I have heard nothing official from Disney in terms of releasing a CD. I would imagine with the new additions they are adding to the Magic Kingdom, they may wait until completion before releasing all of the new music. As my site gets updated, I will include CD release information as I receive it, if I receive it. With that being said, I certainly hope you enjoyed the track and thank you for contacting me.