One of my favorite podcasts is Top Score, a show produced by Minnesota Public Radio that features tightly edited interviews with game composers. The show is hosted by Emily Reese and the technical producer is Sam Keenan. I love the show so much that I decided to make a video feature highlighting their work. Check it out below.
At the end of the video profile I snuck in a clip of Sam and Emily winging a performance of the Super Mario Bros. theme that blew me away. Emily frequently mentioned that Sam was a great musician and his acoustic rendition of that song stuck in the back of my mind for months.
Listen to one of Sam's tracks underneath Andy McNamara giving a demo of the tablet app.
There's a common trend in videos that cover video games to embed a mindless techno track underneath people speaking. I've never been a fan of overwhelming viewers with auditory information, but I like to highlight the music of the game being discussed in some of my videos by embedding it underneath the conversation. Every once in a while there's a video that doesn't pertain directly to a game, and I scramble to find appropriate music. I've used Keaton Monger's music in the past, but I was on the hunt for a more subdued and less digital soundscape. I sent out an e-mail to Sam Keenan and he provided thirteen tracks within a month. Using acoustic guitars, pianos, violins, Emily Reese on the trumpet, and more, Sam created an incredible variety in music that he was kind enough to let us use.
Going forward, if the music in one of Game Informer's videos catches your ear, odds are that Sam Keenan's name will appear in the credits at the end. This blog is a thank you letter for his generosity. I hope the viewers will come to enjoy his tracks as much as I have. You can learn more about his work and listen to/purchase additional music of his at his official website. Let me know what you think of the music choices in future Game Informer videos and show him and MPR's Emily Reese some love by listening to the Top Score podcast.