2018

Viewing posts tagged 2018

19 Apr 2019

*UPDATED* Musashi (Original Game Soundtrack)

By BAO
UPDATE: A mobile game that I created the musical score for is now available in the US. People have been playing “Musashi World Warriors” in Asia for a while. If you feel like winning actual cryptocurrency while playing “Rock–paper–scissors” using ancient warriors, you should get this game on your smartphone and put on some headphones to enjoy the music and sound effects by yours truly.

Download on Apple’s App Store
Download on Google Play

Late last year, some friends invited me to compose the music for a game called Musashi, which is scheduled to be released in early 2018. It was the first time I had ever created original music for a game, so the experience really made me want to do more projects like this. This soundtrack album consists of full length versions of the musical clips used in the game. Enjoy streaming the music on this page or on any major digital streaming platforms and learn more about the game and my creative process below.


Buy The EP

Also on: Spotify | iTunes | TIDAL | Amazon | Google Play | Youtube

Musashi Intro
Musashi Theme
Arabic Theme
Siberian Theme
Far East Theme
Victory and Defeat


About Musashi the Game

Musashi is a simple role playing game for mobile devices. Your character travels through ancient lands to battle opponents and win virtual gold. Players trade in that gold for armor and other powers for their characters. The thing that makes Musashi stand apart from other RPGs is that the fighting is ultra-simplified and is based on rock–paper–scissors. You can just play it casually while waiting for your coffee to get made. I really enjoy the game’s retro artwork, reminiscent of the Street Fighter II character art from the 1990s. And hopefully, players will also like the game’s music.

General Approach to the Music

Overall, the Musashi soundtrack is mainly electronic music with many sampled and digitally distorted acoustic instruments. I used classic synthesizer sounds and effects as the basis of the music, while adding traditional world instruments to create certain vibes that match the scenes in the game. But even the real instruments were heavily altered using digital effects because I wanted everything to have a decayed, unnatural feeling. For example, most of the orchestra strings were played on a software version of a Mellotron so that there’s something unnatural about them, but you can’t quite place what it is. While the game required short, monophonic loops (one speaker only), the full versions on this album were mixed in stereo with a few additional effects that help create the illusion of large antique spaces.

Vietnamese-inspired Musashi Theme

Musashi’s music all started with the main melody that you hear in the Musashi Theme, played by a sampled and digitally distorted Erhu, an old Chinese two-stringed instrument similar to a fiddle. I came up with this melody while in the shower after having played around with the game for a couple days. I wanted a melody that felt like a conflict between seeking adventure and longing for home. Once I had this melody recorded onto my iPhone’s voice notes, the backing music came out pretty naturally. The last part I did on this song was to add an electric guitar with lots of delay and reverb. There was a Vietnamese guitarist that was hugely popular in the 80s and 90s named Vô Thường, whose style inspired my guitar part. You’ve probably heard his music playing in the background at the Pho restaurant. LOL. Here’s four hours of his insane music.

Musical Themes for Each Ancient Civilization

We decided early in the process that we should have a few musical themes that correspond to the various ancient lands that your Musashi character travels through in the game. My approach was to use the main melody from Musashi Theme and use variations of that throughout all the other themes, even though the rest of the music could be significantly different.

The Arabic and Siberian themes are probably my favorites. For the Arabic theme, I found a loop of some tablas that had a cool rhythmic pattern and tuned them to my liking. I then added some synthesized and sampled vocals and detuned them, causing a melted feeling. The rhythm of the vocals on some parts sounds a little like chanting, but it’s actually accomplished by taking a long and steady “ahhhh” sound and using something called sidechain compression to make the voices pulsate to the rhythm of the tablas. For the Siberian theme, I listened to a bunch of traditional music from Siberia and Mongolia, which helped me pick some instruments that had a similar vibe: a primitive flute, a clanky guitar, and some deep voices that sound almost like throat singing. Put all that on top of a pulsing electronic beat and you have Musashi’s Siberian Theme.

How to Support BAO’s Music

How did you like the music? Let me know in the comments. When Musashi becomes available to the public, you’ll be able to download the game on the Apple and Google stores. You can also support me in a few different ways:

Text me maybe: (629) 888-1938
❤️ BAO

17 Oct 2018

New Release: No Filter

By BAO
Hey it’s Bao. I’m super happy to share with you my latest single No Filter. I’m currently in the Sacred Valley of Peru expanding my brain and recharging my life energy, so I’ll have to write more about it later. I hope you like my new song and would appreciate if you share it.


Buy The Single

Also on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Youtube | Amazon | Google Play

No Filter

Written, performed, produced by BAO. Additional production and engineering by Davy Drones. Photography by Black Fade Media. Special thanks to Taylor Shechet for help with the mix.

If you’d like to support my work, here are a few other ways:

Thank you!
❤ BAO

19 Feb 2018

New Release: She Looks Like You

By BAO
Happy Lunar New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Today is Presidents’ Day and it’s also my birthday, so here’s a treat from me to you: a new single for the month called She Looks Like You. It’s basically about TFW your lover has a doppelgänger the doppelgänger turns out to be a vampire. Read along to learn more about the song, its origins, and why I had to have a flugelhorn in the song.


Buy The Single

Also on: Spotify | iTunes | TIDAL | Amazon | YouTube | Google Play

She Looks Like You
She Looks Like You – Instrumental Version

She Looks Like You is a pretty old song. It was probably started in mid-2014 as a GarageBand idea on my iPhone. The main synth that starts off the song was the first part I wrote, then I added the low key house(ish) beat and a few other basic instruments. Then I laid down some scratch vocals with no actual lyrics, except for the main line in the chorus.

I had had the concept for the lyrics stored in my phone for a long time, “She looks like you, but she’s not you because you’d never do this sort of thing.” The rest of the lyrics came about pretty quickly. They deal with vulnerability and betrayal – telling a story of a lover’s doppelgänger who gradually sucks the life out of you. I guess it’s a roundabout way of describing the slow and painful denial that people have when they realize someone they love doesn’t give the same love back.

For about a year, the song had a fake horn section in between verses, and I knew that I wanted to replace that with real flugelhorn eventually. Flugelhorn is kind of like a trumpet, but it’s bigger with a lower, more mellow, and more dorky sound. I had been listening to old songs by Burt Bacharach and I just loved that relaxed vibe that the flugelhorn gives off – and nobody uses it anymore! So I found a musician in Belgium called Groundfish and sent him some files showing him the basic horns I wanted in the song. I was keen to point out that the horns kind of bend downward at the end of the long notes, in a sad way, and Groundfish nailed it. He also played horns on Let’s Make Jam from the BAO EP.

The song remained in an unfinished state for about three years until the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 when I touched up the mix, added some drum fills and accent sounds, and re-recorded some of the vocals. It was time to let this one go out into the world.

If you like my song She Looks Like You, here are some other artists that I love who have a similar vibe: Poolside, Rhye, and Classixx. You can also support me in a few other ways:

Thank you!
❤ BAO