As a composer, so many things that I listen to inspire me. From jazz to R&B to pop to video game music, my inspiration to create new music comes from just about anywhere. Majority of the things are write is mainly jazz oriented and even sometimes minimalistic (repeating melodies and harmonies over and over again). The other chunk of my portfolio is electronic music. It’s always a great experience writing a new electronic tune/composition; including my jazz-funk original tune called “The Royal DK.” Two major things inspired this original; the pop artist Lorde and the Nintendo video game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. Now the question is, how exactly did I fuse the two??
How’s it inspired by Lorde??
Lorde is a popular singer and song writer from New Zealand. She first came onto the scene through her debut single “Royals.” This is one of her most popular songs that climbed the charts worldwide. And it partially inspired “The Royal DK.”
As I was creating the tune in Garage Band, I came across a really cool drum sample that reminded me of the one used over and over again in “Royals.” I had previously come up with chords played in the electric piano of the tune. Now I wanted to see how it would sound with the new drum sample. And guess what? It worked well! And I knew then and there that I had to keep it.
Check out the drum beat that inspired me down below!
Where did the inspiration from Donkey Kong come from?
So I mentioned earlier that the other part of my inspiration for writing “The Royal DK” came from the Nintendo video game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. There’s one song from the soundtrack that really stuck out to me when writing my tune; “Kannon’s Klaim.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the game, Kannon is an enemy in the game. He’s literally an oversized crocodile with a “dad bod” that holds a cannon. The cannon usually shoots out cannon balls at Diddy and Dixie Kong, but sometime shoots out barrels.
“Kannon’s Klaim” is in the key of D minor, which is the same exact key that “The Royal DK” is in. More of a reason why the song from the video game inspired me. Another thing that triggered my inspiration was the bass line (mainly within the first 30 seconds of the song. It’s such a catchy line and set a nice slick and funky groove.
Check out “Kannon’s Klaim” down below!
According to music law, the use of another composer’s exact melodic ideas without permission is illegal. The composer of “Kannon’s Klaim,” along with the other masterpieces on the soundtrack, is Dave Wise. Though Dave has amazing ideas, I could not steal his catchy bass line. But I did make one inspired by it.
One other fun fact about music law is that nobody can copyright a chord progression. If they were, just about every song writer and composer would be sued. Some would be sued by composers that have been deceased since the 17th century. I mean come on. Think about it. Do you think that Maroon 5 was the first one to use the chord progression ii-V-I (2, 5, 1) in their hit song “Sunday Morning?” I guarantee that Johann Sebastian Bach used it in just about every one of his compositions.
So where am I going with this? Good question. In “Kannon’s Klaim, somewhere after the main groove is set (I would say about close to the 1 minute mark) is the chord progression Bb-C-Am-Dm-Bb-C-Dm (B flat C A minor D minor B flat C D minor). This is the same chord progression that I used for “The Royal DK” with small alterations.
Fusing the two: The finished product
After taking influence from the two popular songs, I fused the both of them and added my little spin on it to make it original. You can find the finished product down below.
You can find this original on my very first instrumental album Songs For Dance: Vol. 1. You can download the original, or the entire album, on iTunes (Apple Music), Amazon Music, and My Website. You can also stream it on Spotify and My Soundcloud. Really hope you like it!
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