Sonic Mania Release Interview with Tee Lopes by Jun Senoue

News from 2017.08.18
Archived on 2017.09.01 on Tumblr

Here it is - Translation of a Sound Column by Jun Senoue on Sonic Channel.

Visit the original website first!!! There are nice photos which you can only see there too!
http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/soundcolumn/senoue/20170818_001397/


Translation:

Sonic Mania Release Interview

Hello everyone, this is Senoue, Sound Director of ‘Sonic’ series.

Come to think of it, I haven’t written for this Column for a long time, but the timing didn’t fit and ‘I couldn’t write even though I wanted to’ ! I may write things as look-back in near future, so please look forward to it!

This time, as a Sound Column, I thought of making an article related to Sonic Mania that was released just few days ago, so I interviewed Tee Lopes who did the sounds of it! Since I’ve been taking contact with him in daily life, the content became pretty deep, I guess. Enjoy it!

Interview with Tee Lopes 

Senoue (S): Well then Tee Lopes, let’s begin. This time I would like to interview you for being in charge for sounds of Sonic Mania, but first of all please introduce yourself to the readers.

Tee Lopes (TL): Hey everyone! I’m Tee Lopes from Portugal. For few years I’ve been remixing game music starting with ‘Sonic’ and uploading them on YouTube as my hobby, and now luckily I’m doing the sounds for Sonic Mania!

S: You mentioned before that you knew Sonic for a while. What was the first title you played?

TL: I’ve played the Mega Drive version at a friend’s home, but the first Sonic game I actually owned was that of *Master System with amazing music by Yuzo Koshiro. It is one of my favorite Sonic games and my source of music until today!
*It has the same content as ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ which was released as Game Gear version in Japan 

S: Also, please tell us which title in your opinion had the most impressive music and the reason to it. 

TL: This is a very difficult question! One of the common points to most of the Sonic games is that their music is amazing!
 Regarding Master System’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’, even though there was technical restriction to the sounds’ ability the hardware had, what the sound creator reached musically is to be praised!

S: It is well known that this time, Sonic Mania’s development has been done by some of the literary ‘maniac’ fans of Sonic titles. How did you get involved to the development of this project?

TL: I began remixing game music in 2008, but to make long story short, the people who later started up a company called “PagodaWest Games” noticed my works and then we started to work on a project to have fun.
 After that, the company was established and they started creating their own games, then they met many talented people who joined the project. As they got the chance to develop Sonic Mania, they invited me to do the musical creation!

S: The development team including you showed up at the 25th anniversary event of Sonic in west coast of the US last year. Was the response of the audience that of what you expected as this game was first revealed?

TL: It was awesome! Personally, it was an emotional moment! As the trailer was aired and people were shouting in excitement, I realized that ‘Wow! This is real! Everyone really love it!’ But well, actually I knew that Sonic Mania was something Sonic fans were waiting for a long time, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise!

About Sonic Mania’s music

S: From now on, I’d like to hear about the contents. In this work, brand-new stages and renewed popular classic stages with new gimmicks are co-existing. First off, how did you work on the re-imagined stage music?

TL: About the re-imagined music, I put most of them together as “digital music of the 90’s” while leaving the atmosphere of the original sounds as much as possible. They needed sound tracks like what people have heard on SEGA Saturn titles, so I aimed to create one music from different era’s music and different hardware by using each track as motives.

S: Please tell us what you enjoyed, what you made sure of, and what made you struggle.

TL: The dev team is absolutely full of talents, and I was able to watch how the ultimate Classic Sonic game was being made by combining the music I created and their techniques. Every experience was a fun one! I listened to my music in by paying attention to small details and made sure that the music isn’t too distracting or too repetitive.
 The most difficult part was probably creating an unforgettable melody for the title screen. It is what people hear right after the first voice logo of SEGA, so I was thinking that it really has to be something special. I remember me trying out many times before reaching the final version, but it was pretty frustrating. The hardest music was that for the first boss battle, and I don’t know how many times I made changes to it! *lol*

S: By the way, which one is your best work from the music of re-imagined stages? Please tell us your appeal points too!

TL: I don’t know which one is the best, but “Metallic Madness Zone” is special to me. I wrote the lyrics myself and added the rap part, and those are my long-time passion. The recording itself was also very fun as it was like doing something different from typical sound making!

S: Now, please tell us about the new stage music. Which one did you make first?

TL: “Studiopolis Act.1” was the first one you guys listend.

S: how was the process of sound making and the approval by the project team side? Were there any difficulties in composing what you imagined?

TL: At first, I wanted to emulate in the style of Japanese ‘Sonic CD’, but I grew up by playing Mega Drive’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and its sequels, so my heart naturally tend to be influenced by those.
 I could shape the “Studiopolis” music rather early, and the dev team really liked it, so it became my guideline for creating other stage sounds. “Studiopolis” music didn’t have many changes to it, so it was probably the sound I could release most easily.

S: Did you keep any of the past Sonic music in your mind while composing sounds for new stages? There are points where people will grin while listening to them – are those what you woven into the sounds to make the ‘mania’ happy since it is Sonic ‘Mania’?

TL: If I was able to make people grin, then that means my mission is accomplished! It was my priority to create good sounds, but to make maniac SEGA fans grin, I used some small phrases from other Sonic titles – in some cases, I also picked up phrases from other game titles of SEGA!

S: In the music of new stages, which one is your favorite? Please tell us your appeal points too!

TL: I love everything what the Mania’s dev team is expressing, but personally, I’ll pick ‘Titanic Monarch Act.2’ since I could especially relax and form what I felt on my instinct as an musical artist!
S: Did you make everything of the sounds from beginning to end for this work alone?

TL: I did everything for composition and remixing, but Falk Au Yeong did the mixing and mastering of each music. He is an amazing artist, and his work lead to a huge improvement in the quality. I am so glad he has been invited to the team.

S: Do you have anything you expect on the release of this game?

TL: I would like the fans to enjoy ‘Sonic Mania’ in full, and I hope that a new door will be opened to ‘Sonic’ series through this! I’d be happy if I could work on further ‘Sonic’ titles.

S: To wrap up, please address to the mania waiting for ‘Sonic Mania’.

TL: First of all, I am very thankful for all fans for the excitement around ‘Sonic Mania’. Your expectations and supports were great encouragement for the development team. I hope you will enjoy ‘Sonic Mania’ as much as I enjoyed the musical composition for it. Through that, I think you can feel like back then where things were simple.

S: Thank you very much for today!

TL: My pleasure!


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So, did you enjoy the interview with Tee Lopes? The sounds made from a perspective of a maniac fan are all catchy and surely will remain in your head! My favorite number is also “Studiopolis”! Sonic Mania has been released and is doing well. Please play it!

Until next time…
See Ya!!


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That’s it for the translation!

Please visit the original website before you leave!!!
There are nice photos which you can only see there too! http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/soundcolumn/senoue/20170818_001397/ 

Sorry for the delay as usual. I haven’t forgotten the former Sound Column by Tomoya Ohtani talking about Forces’ music. Please be patient and wait for the translation!

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