SAGE ‘08 In Depth: Lee Brotherton Chat
This year’s SAGE Expo hosted a chat with Lee Brotherton, who most know as director and executive producer of UK-based The Remix Factory. Now under his new alias of Bentley Jones, he is known well in the Sonic community for his song “Dreams of an Absolution”, which appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 06. Check out the chat below from SAGE, which TSSZ News went through and compiled all of the questions and answers for you to read:
SmidgeD3: For starters: Could you tell us about the things you’ve done as a professional? Various projects etc?
Lee Brotherton: Yikes! We could be here a while… (^_^)
Well, I started doing remixes for lots of artists from all over the world …then I started making my own music, for a while I was working with Universal.
It was my own music that got noticed at SEGA who recruited me for Shadow the Hedgehog.
Now I have an album coming out and I’m scoring for another game.
Shadix: Just out of curiosity, many of us know you have some tunes on OCRemix. Did any of this help you out?
Lee Brotherton: Hehe… that was such a long time ago. When I first started out in remixes I would remix anything! (^_^)
But I’ve always been passionate about video-game music from the very beginning.
DashXFox: Will LB be working with Crush 40/ Jun Senoue anytime in the future?
Lee Brotherton: I’m still in touch with Jun and another collab is on the cards at some point… will keep you posted on that one.
Kroze: Hey, any chance you will be submitting anything more to OCremix in the future? You haven’t been on the forums since 05 if I remember correctly
Lee Brotherton: It’s been much longer than that… I can’t remember the last time I was there… :\
No plans at the moment. Maybe if I had some free time…
SonicTweaker: If you did have free time, and you had considered remixing a classic Sonic tune, which would you choose? Out of curiosity.
Lee Brotherton: Yiiiikes… that’s a tough one… if I ever remix a classic I like to make it kinda epic and unforgetable.
Offer something completely new in comparison. I can’t think of any particular track. I’m open to suggestions.
Turbohog: Okay. Out of all your songs/remixes, which do you think had the best outcome?
Lee Brotherton: Out of my Sonic tracks, I think the remix of DOAA with Jun’s guitars came out great.
When I started arranging it I wasn’t sure, but then it suddenly all came together – a sort of pop/rock eclectic soundscape that really works.
JJ4eva: How did you and REMIX factory end up officially working for SEGA?
Lee Brotherton: I was shopping around an instrumentals album at the time and somehow a copy ended up with SEGA and Jun got in touch with me.
It was as simple as that really. (^_^)
Shadix: I was under the assumption you were already in contact with Jun
Lee Brotherton: No, Jun just sent me an e-mail saying he liked my work and would I like to get onboard.
Neon: I just want to know: Would you choose to go with another group to work on music for, or would you prefer to stay with SEGA?
Lee Brotherton: Just to clarify in case anyone’s wondering… I only work WITH SEGA, not FOR. I’m freelance so I work with lots of different people. I’m currently working with a UK (games) studio.
Neon: Do you like working with SEGA?
Lee Brotherton: Yeah! I’d love to do more work with SEGA. But variety is still good and I’m enjoying stretching my wings for the meantime.
I’d happily do another Sonic game. 😉
Shadix: Alright, so LB, this is has been bugging me since you got on board. How much music have you actually contributed to the Sonic series? Did your work include more than just DoaA on 2006, and did you compose any of the ingame music in Shadow or Rivals 2.
Lee Brotherton: Yeah, I composed a couple of tracks for ‘Shadow’ and a handful of tracks for ‘Rivals’. I also did some work on ‘His World’ for 2006.
Yeah, I did BGMs for ‘Rivals’.
Kuja: what was it like to work with Jun Senoue?
Lee Brotherton: It’s great to work with Jun. It’s mostly over e-mail but it’s still really exciting.
Jun’s a great guy. I’m hoping to see him again when I visit Tokyo.
SonicTweaker: Can you provide an example of a track you did for Shadow, bar the remixes? Because outside of the remixes in the game, everything I can see is mostly credited to Jun Senoue
Lee Brotherton: I only did the theme of Eggman and one of the bosses. They were adapted from tracks from ‘Sonic Adventure 2’
triattackhax: When you wrote Dreams of an Absolution, were you already familiar with Silver as a character or did you pretty much just have to go with what you were given by SEGA –in other words, when writing the song, had you known about his relationship with Blaze the Cat beforehand?
Lee Brotherton: SEGA sent me a bunch of info on the character and the story so the song would corroborate with the game.
Slingerland: I didn’t the song had to do with the character at all. I just thought it was…a song that happened to be Silver’s theme, too
Lee Brotherton: Hehe… well, there are parts of it where I had the characters in mind. But yes, I did want people to appreciate it as a stand alone song too.
Shadix: That’s good, because if you tried to hard to incorporate story it’d end up sounding like Sonic Heroes :E
Lee Brotherton: I think it worked really well. We all have regrets and things we wish we could change… and in the game the characters actually get the chance to go back and change the past.
RedEchidna: How did you get into remixing?
Lee Brotherton: I loved the idea of taking a piece and transforming it into something different while keeping it recognisably similar. With that concept alone there are infinite possibilities…
It fascinated me and there were some really big-name remixers here in the UK at the time that inspired me.
Jeiku: What was it like working with T.J. Davis and Richard Jacques for Dreams Dreams, and how did the idea of collaborating on it first come about between you three?
Lee Brotherton: The guys asked me to take part and when I heard Rich was also involved I gave him a call.
Shadix: Dreams Dreams? Was this a remix on Wii NiGHTs?
Slingerland: yeah
Lee Brotherton: Kevin (Eva) joked about forming a sort of ‘Sonic Super Group’, but I saw an opportunity and took it kinda seriously…
So I suggested it to Rich and he was completely up for it. He then called TJ and got her on board.
Because it was such a busy day we all pretty much met on stage.
We managed to say hi to each other as we came in, but everything else was off-the-cuff.
Thankfully it went incredibly well. I’m very proud. And I was chuffed to bits to perform with them both!
Because we were all different ends of the country we couldn’t physically rehearse.
So we all rehearsed our individual parts and just prayed it came together on the day.
SonicTweaker: Were you trying to do harmony or something? Because in a couple of bits it seemed like you were off key?
Lee Brotherton: Maybe. We only had such a short time to get to grips with what were going to sing.
Considering it was completely non-rehearsed I thought it was great!
Shinginta: How involved were you with the His World track, and which version of it did you work on?
Lee Brotherton: I worked on the Crush 40 version. I did some arrangement and engineering.
RgxSuperSonic: Besides games you have done music for, which would be your favorite sonic game and why?
Lee Brotherton: Not at all! Hmmm… classic Sonic would be ‘Sonic 3 & Knuckles’, and new Sonic is still ‘Sonic Adventure’.
xNight: How is it that you make your music? Like…does it take a whole bunch of equipment? …..I doubt it’d be something I could do with the keyboard in my room.
Lee Brotherton: Yeah, it can take a lot of gadgets and doo-dahs… some of my electronic work I get get done on software alone but I like to encorporate as many live instruments as possible.
Generally, these days all you need to start making music is a computer and some curiosity.
Ben\Rio: Why do you think DOAA went down so well with the fans? Did you set out to make it that way or was it more a humble effort that got a better reaction than you expected?
Lee Brotherton: I’m always suprised when a song goes down well, I try not to take it for granted. When you’re making the track, you just hope people will like. But when DOAA got such a great reaction I was thrilled.
I think it was because it was something different compared to other songs from the franchise.
Ben\Rio: And I’ll assure you first off this friend is female – she would like to know if there are any songs or artists that inspire you for anything?
Lee Brotherton: It depends on what music I’m making. I’m doing a lot of work in Japan at the moment so I’m listening to EXILE, Koda Kumi and Utada Hikaru. I’m also doing some scoring so I’m listening to composers like Marty O’Donnell and (funnily enough) Richard (Jacques).
Neon: Do you find it really tiring and hard to make your music? Or do you enjoy every moment?
Lee Brotherton: Making music is a blast – I never stop enjoying it. The bit that gets hard and tiring is everything else that comes with it…
Huepow00: What would you say were you most influenced by growing up (musically)
Lee Brotherton: Erm… growing up I was more influenced by songs rather than artists. So as you can imagine that list is pretty long…
I listened to a lot of Brit pop growing up, along with a lot of club music from Europe – house, trance and electro.
Huepow00: what type of music – any 1 particular style more than another though?
Lee Brotherton: It’s just a couple of chords… but yeah, they do sound kinda similar.
MagicMan_EXE: Hello, LB, I was simply wondering what your favorite game (or movie) is, judging it solely by its music (or ear candy).
Lee Brotherton: I saw a film once called G:MT which had an incredible soundtrack. I’ve never managed to hunt it down since though. 🙁
Games-wise I can’t think… there was a game on the Dreamcast but I can’t think of what it’s called at the moment. Sorry.
