Interview with SirRus
Name: Ravi Sharma
Songs: Morning Sunlight, Manifest Destiny, In Search of the Light
SirRus is an up and coming remixer who's already blazed a trail of innovation. He completed two tracks before leaving for medical school.
1. When did you first play / why do you like Chrono Trigger?
Around 5th grade, somewhere in there. I believe one of my friends told me about it and then I saw it in Toys R Us and the picture on the front cover of Crono and Marle attacking and Frog lying in the snow was so dramatic I fell in love on sight. It has been my greatest RPG experience to date.
2. What do you use to mix?
Reason 2.5 and I ReWire to get some VST's and extra goodies into my songs but mainly Reason is the backbone for my mixing these days. I use an old school Yamaha PSR keyboard for midi control cause I like to whip out my old school keyborading most of the time. I never liked just inputting notes with mouse on the computer... for me it feels a lot more satisfying to flesh things out on the keyboard and then adjust on the computer after.
3. Doing 'Corridors of Time' is tough nowadays. How did you seek to make your version distinct from the plethora of other attempts?
Haha yeah... plethora. If anyone has seen Three Amigos they will understand why I love your use of the word plethora. Anyway, I think most everyone wants to do a Zeal mix and everyone definitely knows its been overdone. I had never got around to attempting one myself and this project gave me an opportunity to approach it through orchestration. And yet I knew I wanted to throw in some deeper percussion and more lush woodwind, etc. so I might have been a little liberal with the instrumentation but Claado never got on my back for it, heh. I guess we'll see how the listeners respond to my take and it will be judged in the scheme of all Zeal mixes by that reaction.
4. There's a noted Indian influence in your remixing. Did/how did you stylistically apply this to your entries in the project?
Definitely. Indian music is full of texture and emotion and that is my goal 100% of the time I sit down to arrange a song. I want emotion. I want people to feel and see what I have in my head. I love completing a song and sharing the entire experience with other people. I have grown up listening to all sorts of sappy Indian love songs but they do a great job (most of the time) with the emotional value and telling a story (99% of Indian songs are tied to Indian movies). I most definitely have been influenced in this way in my own song making and it comes in handy with a project like this that asks us to read a script and portray the scene via music.
5. How was working with sephfire?
Man I had admired sephfire's work since I heard his Kingdom Hearts mix on OCR, it has truly been one of my favorites on the site. So I jumped at the opportunity to collab with him. He is really motivated and hardworking and kept pushing us forward when I was slacking off for whatever reasons, and in the end I was happy with how our rearrangement and medley of songs came together.
6. Planning on doing any remixing in the future?
Yeah. But first I gots to get into Med School. So much school work and crap, but I am working hard to continue developing my mixing and contributing to the community.
~7. How's Med School coming at OU?
I am actually an Undergraduate student currently in my third year at The University of Oklahoma. However, straight out of high school I applied and was accepted to a highly selective Med Program that provided me early provisional acceptance to the OU Medical School (I'm not that old just yet! I turn 21 next year... which will be orgasmic).
At any rate, I plan on becoming a physician one day, many many moons from now. Until then I am doing the best I can to attend my morning classes in college and not pull too many all-nighters.
8. Plan to work in another project?
For sure! I love the concept of remix projects and how they evolve and bring the community together. It's great to get to work together with other talented musicians, many of whom I had been a personal fan of before even getting into the music-making scene. Good schtuff.
9. How's it feel being part of a ChonoOCR site project now that it's complete?
It actually has been quite a while in development, and I did not realize it until the discussion thread mentioned how it was the 1 year annivesary of the project. I was a little surprised at first about how it had already been so long, but it has definitely been worth all the time and effort from all the project members and directors. Awesome schtuff.
10. Anything you'd like to say to Chrono fans?
Eat sleep and drink CT. Chrono Trigger is life. The rest is just details.
Author Comments on Tracks
Morning Sunlight - I was definitely visualizing the advent of adventure. The awakening of a warrior as his tale unfolds without him fully being aware. The world invites him to start a new day full of life and bustling spirits. The world is at peace and naive to the evil that may lurk, and this is not entirely a bad thing. I wanted to capture the harmony and peace endemic to the beginning of the tale.
Manifest Destiny - Full of magic. A mystical realm and a world of enchanted beauty. The music I composed for this one had to bring deep and exotic ways of life to the forefront. Intended as a short piece, I was striving for a prelude and introduction to a mysterious and awe-some people. There is definitely a feeling of excitement and mystery on the part of those who are observing and listening, so in essence I was trying to write the music from the point of view of the travelers who have found themselves immersed in one of the most beautiful dimensions of time and space.