The first impression from Halifax-based electronic pop duo COMPOSIT’s latest single, “Make It Right,” is that someone decided that Mega Man should have a love interest, and thus required a romantic theme song. That impression, however, is incorrect; that’s because the inspiration for this track was not at all Mega Man but, in fact, Jurassic Park.
In 1993, John Williams, the Brahms of Blockbuster himself, surpassed many of his already legendary orchestral works by composing the score for probably the most impressive film of its time: Jurassic Park. The soundtrack received critical acclaim and went on to reach No. 28 on the US Billboard 200.
Later that same year, Ocean Software would release the official Jurassic Park game for the NES featuring a chiptune soundtrack composed by British musician and programmer Jon Dunn that sounds absolutely nothing at all like John William’s masterpiece. It was the end theme from that game that, nearly three decades later, would inspire COMPOSIT’s “Make It Right.” As Dr. Ian Malcolm would say, “Life, uhh… find a way.”
The song was the first to be written and recorded for what would become COMPOSIT’s upcoming EP, which has been inspired by music from classic video games.
It’s also inspired by COMPOSIT vocalist Dean Boudreau’s experience of being launched back in the world of dating in his thirties, and just how much the landscape has changed since his last venture into the pool.
“Dating in a world where you have these epic conversations on apps and then meet in person and it’s a dud… it’s odd,” says Boudreau.
Dealing with the fears and anxieties became the focus of much of his music. Fortunately, “Make It Right” is the happy ending at the end of that rainbow; it’s about “meeting someone and not feeling all of that fear and pressure to impress and the relief of that.”
“Fresh off the heels of finishing 1.1: The Depths, a breakup album distinctly void of positive thoughts and feelings about romantic entanglement, I found myself trying to navigate the world of in-person dating in this mostly digital world, a scene I’d mostly sworn off after a series of heartbreaks,” explains Boudreau.
“As we finished up our first album, which was a breakup record with an over-arching ocean theme, Mark [Pineo] was really feeling music from the chiptune and glitch-hop scene and he started making some tracks and sending them to me. Mark pulled from the chiptune tracks of some games when he was building the tracks for the EP.”
“For Make It Right, it was Jurassic Park from NES, of all games,” laughs Boudreau. “Others from the EP were inspired by songs from Ninja Gaiden, Journey to Silius, James Bond Jr., Xexyz, and Shatterhand. In this case, it was the end theme from the video game that he drew from.
“It’s kind of amazing that there’s this entire world of very unknown game music composers. Some who know the genre well—Mark more than me, though I love games too—know there are superstars but aren’t known at all in the larger music community.”
While COMPOSIT’s music is exclusively chiptune, and really simply derives some of its inspirations from it, Boudreau says the influences can be heard in some tracks more than others. The duo has another EP expected out later this summer that’ll give you a chance to pick them out.