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Legendary Tunes

 Introducing, Legendary Tunes!

 

Crickhollow Music recently sat down with Almiyan from Legendary Tunes, to talk a little bit about how they got started, a little bit about their music, what they've all been up to lately, and what to expect from Legendary Tunes in the near future.

CM: Hi Almiyan!

Hello! Thank you for this interview!

CM:  Our pleasure, for sure!  Legendary Tunes just recently played as Closing Act for Winterfest, Crickhollow's second biggest music event of the year.  From the perspective of one of the newest bands to play Winterfest, how did it go?  Tell us how you felt before your set, and after it was all over.  And were there any surprises?

Yes, we made a Legendary end! *laughs*
It was a great event for sure!  With so many bands with their own style and creativities!  It was really cool 'specially because it was held on that frozen lake! *hehe* 

And 'specially for me that I started making the band after watching Shirefest performances, and I was waiting for such event, to play a set like those bands! And when I heard that we also have the Winterfest, I was very excited about it, because I could be in as a band this time!

I am really happy that I didn’t miss it! That was close! *laughs*

And I chose our best songs, and some new ones, to be played there, and we had a good practice before our set with my friends and we were able to sync quickly.  I think everything went very good.  Also, we could play as much as we like after the event ended!

I think people liked our set, 'specially those who had not heard our music before.

CM:  We all absolutely love how every band that plays has their own unique style, based on what kind of music they play, how they play those songs, which instruments they choose to use, and their own performance style.  Legendary Tunes definitly has it's own style.   What, or who, influenced or still influences Legendary Tunes style?

I always used to love very popular, great, and epic songs around the world, either it’s classic or from movies games, pop or anything else. The songs that anyone may know but don’t know their names! So I started to find their names and listen to them very much. And I found Yanni a long time ago and realized that I knew his songs without knowing him! And I love his songs. So when it came to making songs for band I started doing these kind of songs that were my favorites.

Also I’d like to thank Blaidgwin and others in our band who really helped me in finding great songs! I didn’t know about Two Steps From Hell before Blaidgwin told me about them, and after I listened to their songs … wow they are very epic!

So now you know why I named our band Legendary Tunes!

And about choosing instruments I don’t really follow a certain kind of music and making all songs in that style, and I don’t say this is bad or something, but I just try to make them like the original version or just sound great! *smiles*

CM:  Is there any particular song that you like to play the most, or that you think sounds the best?

Really can’t tell one or two songs! I love many of them.
I love most of Yanni's songs like Keys to Imagination and Marching Season.  From Tow steps from Hell like Blackheart and High C’s, and in classics Morning mood turned out very beautiful with that nice lonely mountain fiddle part also O Fortuna is cool.
In movie themes like How to train your dragon that had a great midi file and orchestra like, and I like Iron man 3 too, also some have great lonely mountain fiddle parts like Requiem for a dream, Rocky Going the Distance, Conan the Barbarian and Braveheart, also I should say Eye of the Tiger! And Misirlou, also Concerning Hobbits turned out very similar to original song.  In game themes I like Dark souls 3, Skyrim and Morrowind.
And some other songs like Hall of fame and Faded are nice! Celtic songs like Star of the County Down and Where I Belong, and of course from Vangelis, Conquest Of Paradise.
Game of Thrones is one of my favorites that when I am alone I usually play the solo version of it.

I think that’s enough for now! *smiles*

CM:  Legendary Tunes plays at Bread & Jam, and of course Crickhollow's Fests now.  What made you decide to play music, and then what made you (all) decide to become a full-fledged band, instead of just having a regular job such as Orc Exterminator?

Well, we are all Orc Exterminators! That’s our duty in these dark days! *laughs*

But once, when I was in the crafting hall in Bree I heard a dwarf playing Eye Of The Tiger with a horn! And that was really exciting for me! So because I was a big fan of music I started figuring out how to play music.  After a while that was my hobby, to play in the crafting hall for the audience that was always ready there! And my songs were only ready abc files and solo. But even that was enough for some people to be excited like myself. And they thanked me and once someone gave me some gold!

Then I realized that my friend in kin, Blaidgwin is also interested in playing music and sometimes we played some songs together.

And it was the Shirefest that gave me the idea of making our own band! Yes why not?

There was a night when everyone went to The Green Dragon tavern after the sets ended in Shirefest and it was my first Bread and Jam! And there I played some solo songs that I just had made from Yanni!  Before that time I just had found a few of his songs in abc files, and when I could make more songs from him it was really cool!

And I’d like to thank Genovefa who was my first teacher in music!

And after that we started coming to B&J with our new band that was me and Blaidgwin, and we could play Yanni songs and other stuff that I had made for 2 parts this time! And cool things started happening!

And then I started making new alts for band and also asking my friends and people who were interested in playing music to join our band. And some joined like Aryrian and her alts. I found some good friends while playing music like Bellarean and Tessandra who joined us after a while. And once I asked in in kin chat and didn’t expected that someone would join but Fersinda joined us who also has his own band and we play together now.

CM:  Legendary Tunes has definitely grown in size for sure!  Do you think you'll stop at a certain number of members, or is the full 24-man Raid band your ultimate goal?  And how would you like your music to evolve as you grow?

Oh no! I always like to find new friends and more musicians. Unfortunately 24 is the maximum raid size, I hope that SSG take care more about music system, and it would be nice and more realistic to be able to sync songs without being in a fellowship or raid.
And another problem is that Maestro and ABC player can’t play songs that have more than 14 parts.

I think more parts is usually helpful and I can improve the quality of the song, and you can have more creativity, more realistic and more beautiful songs and also louder, don’t miss notes due to fading in other things, especially for orchestra like midi files that have too many tracks, this is needed. Also for medley songs that need many different instruments.
So in general you can have a more cool song and performance!

When I am making songs I usually put as much instruments as make the song better and currently the maximum number is 14 that we can have, then I make different versions down to fewer number of parts.

CM:  Aside from Bread & Jam, does Legendary Tunes play any other scheduled events, or do you (all) have any plans in the future to claim a time a place to play regularly?  

Not yet, aside from B&J we play at random times and locations like south gate in Bree.

I would like to make a scheduled event, I need to think about it more seriously!

That also helps all band members to make their plans to join all together at least one day in each month.

CM:  Do you play on, or have you thought about playing on other servers besides Crickhollow?

No I haven’t played on other servers so far.  That would be cool to do, but a bit hard to make everything ready in another server again.

I hope that we can make a monthly event on Landroval!

CM:  Tell us about the biggest challenge you've had, as a band.  Was there a time when everything that could go wrong, did?

I think the biggest challenge is the hours that are needed to make a good song.
And another challenge is to make everything ready-for-play, having band members updated with songs, and managing the performance.
There are usually some times that someone is not ready and we will drop the number of parts.
Also game crashing and internet disconnections is a problem! *smiles*

CM:  And for fun, can you tell us about the craziest, strangest, weirdest thing that's happened during a performance?

*hahaha* Not once! I have had those stuff many times and in different kinds! *laughs*

Disconnecting power cable of computer while playing with full band! Crashing of the game and losing all or some parts of the band! Starting before sync! Playing with incorrect instrument! Starting when it’s not your turn! *smiles* Don’t getting ready when it’s your turn! And others things.

CM:  Legendary Tunes is obviously a multi-person band, not a multi-box band.  What made you decide to go this route, and what are, in your opinion(s), the benefits of having band-mates?

Oh, good question!
Playing with your friends has more fun! Also you make new friends when they join your band and having more players is very good for playing most of the songs.

Another important thing is this helps the band to improve.  My friends in band helped me to find many new and nice songs to make and gave me good suggestions.  Also band members can help in making songs and other things.

I know that playing with just alts has some benefits, like having control on everything, and playing any song you like anywhere and anytime you want, and sometimes I do this too, but I am glad that I chose to have real players in our band!

CM:  That is wonderful!  Excellent answer!  It seems like you've definitely found a great group of musicians to play with!  So, final, wrap-up question...do you have any advice or suggestions for any new aspiring bands out there?  Any words of wisdom for musical nOObs that might soften the experience?

Yes my friends are great! Thanks!
Something that I can say to anyone interested in music is don’t fear! Start making your favorite songs and join the great music community and play them and have fun!
Making songs in Maestro is easy to learn and you get better and better after making each song. And if you don’t know something don’t hesitate to ask. 

Be sure to install songbook plugin, it makes everything easier and more professional.
Most simple computers can handle running about 4 clients so you can have a good band at the beginning and also you can gather your friends and play together.
About making songs in Maestro, I usually add as much instruments as needed and improves the song, that usually goes up to 14, then I go down and make versions with fewer parts, and the interesting thing about this is I realize newer things in fewer parts then go back to other versions and edit them again and maybe find some newer ideas then edit other versions again!

And after some cycles the song get better and better. I think if you just make the song for a certain number of parts you probably won’t think enough on it and won’t find better ideas.

musescore.com is a great place to find midi files, and midieditor is a free and nice software to edit midi files especially when you want to put some parts of a track to a new track, it’s just a few clicks! I think it’s much better than anvil studio, and if you want a more professional tool you can use Cakewalk by Bandlab that’s another free software and a great DAW.

CM:  It's been wonderful talking to you, getting to hear some of your stories.  Not really a question now, but giving you a soapbox to stand on...is there anything that you would like to say to any of your fans or fans of music on Crickhollow in general?

 I’d like to say a great thanks to all awesome people of Crickhollow! Who have made this wonderful music community and everyone who helped me to learn and grow up. I really appreciate their encourage and kindness! And all of our audience who may like or don’t like our music! I thank them very much! There is no music if there is no people to listen to it.

Something that I should say to game developers is that please see this great music community and so much events, and take more care about updating music system. We need so much more and better instruments! Bug fixes! Especially that annoying continues horn bug. Also Maestro and Songbook need update.

I am working on an update to Songbook and I am adding some new features and fixing some problems of it. I hope to release it soon!

Thanks again! And see you in great music events!