Hi I’m Lone!! I was asked to draw a Rhythm Heaven style MV for “Spoken For”, and how could I say no to that?! It was a really fun project to draw for, so I got most of the assets done in just a few days— the biggest inspirations for poses & backgrounds were the Fanclub and The Dazzles minigames in particular. “Spoken For” is all about loss of identity, so I thought to shove in Defoko and Momo in the MV as a way to call back to what Teto started out as, compared to who she is now. Stardom can be a wonderful thing, but it can be lonely and confusing, too… I see Teto in this MV as a sick lost girl, rather than someone who’s scary or malicious, who thinks she has to keep smiling even when the smile is obviously fake. The art style fits that whole idea well, not having any light meet her eyes. Let’s see, one last fun fact about working on “Spoken For”… I originally priced my artwork for this MV at the cost of a Nintendo Switch game, then the Foleys beat me with hammers and had me charge more. In a way they spoke for me. This is so deep. Anywayz! Thanks for having me, guys!! (Starts clapping and jumping like a Fanclub monkey) |
Jamie: this one is my baby. you can tell because it's got cassain tito on it
this song technically predates flavor foley's existence as a band, and was actually relatively fleshed out when i brought it to the others - i had already written both choruses and done a decent amount of production on them, because i had a different project in mind for it entirely!
back in early 2024, i was trying to think of interesting thematic ways to utilize human + vocal synth duets, and my dear friend Fina suggested a concept album about a Virtual Tuber slowly having their identity subsumed by the character they play, their avatar seemingly gaining its own consciousness and talking back to them through a digital voice. i dropped the concept album idea after writing like a fourth of a single song because it felt like a little bit Much for me… but, like, i wrote the freaking chorus for Spoken For, and that chorus kicks ass, and also when i wrote it i hadn't yet become part of an incredible music circle of geniuses who helped push me to start exploring proper storytelling and character building in my music. so it felt more than correct to hand it over to the other foleys - and i'm really glad i did!
rice: this is actually the first i've heard of this! from my point of view i kind of blinked and then spoken for was kind of dropped into our laps like basically fully formed…. it was probably the song i had the least to do with on the album; i only did the album topline and a small amount of the lyrics. because it was already peam when it came to me, you see!!!!
Vane: i also didn't hear of this until later whoa….so cool…
rice: for this song we cast Kasane Teto!
Teto started off as a "joke" Vocaloid back in 2008- she released with an UTAU voicebank, basically freeware (as opposed to Vocaloid, which is software you buy). her entire bit was that all she wanted was to become a real vocaloid and stand on the same stage as Miku and the others! and she got just that when her Synthesizer V voicebank came out, with far more advanced technology that made her way easier to use, and she became super popular!!!! yay!! it's a dream come true…. right??!
anyways as for casting process: jamie pitched the song with teto already in mind and we were like yeah okay that seems to suit her :thumbsup:
Jamie: (side note: at some point before i handed the demo over, i had taken the basic arrangement in a heavily General MIDI Soundfont direction. i wish i could tell you why i did this but i have no recollection of it. it just Happened, as things are wont to do in my digital audio workstation. and by the way just so you know IT'S NOT A FREAKING BALDI'S BASICS NOISE ITS A CUICA!!!!! IT'S NOT EVEN A PERSON GOING "HOO" IT'S A DRUM. DID YOU KNOW THAT? DID YOU KNOW THAT A CUICA IS A FRICTION DRUM WHERE YOU PRODUCE SOUND BY ALTERING THE TENSION OF THE DRUMHEAD AND SO IT MAKES A SQUEAKY NOISE THAT KINDA SOUNDS LIKE A LITTLE GUY GOING "HOO". IT'S BRAZILIAN. IT'S USED IN SAMBA A LOT. IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS BEFORE I AM GLAD I COULD BE THE ONE TO TEACH YOU. I HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY)
Vane: I mostly helped write a base for the verse and prechorus instrumental! I was a little nervous to try to start something for it since I really wanted to do the song justice, I honestly felt like I kept getting stuck because i was overthinking it! in the end though, i decided to just go with my gut while putting down the chords and that worked!! i felt pretty confident about the prechorus chords since i knew they felt moody and auraful, but i genuinely was so nervous to show the bassline i wrote for the verse because i thought it was Too Silly. And like that's kind of the point in a way? in my head, the chromatic baseline just going up and down is suppose to feel like…sleepy, sluggish, like it's moving through Sludge. Cus that's teto trying to wake up and get out of bed you know!! it feels silly to describe it like that, but that's the sort of visualizations i like to think about when composing. i love you baldis basics
there's two little spots in the arrangement that i wanna highlight!!
1. i'm very fond of the piano arrangement i did in the second verse, i was super proud of it went i showed it to the others.
2. there's some sound design i did that sounds really cool layered with everything in the context of the song. i'm really fond of this weird ass synth i made that ive namely the "darling synth." it does this weird ass thing during the bridge, and it also adds this cool texture in the chorus when it doubles the keys. i love weird sounds
i also just found out by looking through the project file that i apparently recorded my hydroflask and that's just a main percussive instrument.
by the way, project mikan did such a fantastic job with the horn arrangement in this song. genuinely they might be geniuses, i'm still so in awe by way they elevated the instrumental. so so awesome so so cool
rice: oh yeah so i thought the HOO!s in the chorus (i have learned this is the cuica) were funny and cute and they kind of reminded me of rhythm heaven prompts!! so i pitched a Rhythm Heaven-inspired MV and the others liked it!! and i was like wow My Girl Lone is really really good at drawing rhythm heaven style so i was like!! wait this could be perfect!!!
fanart of the chinese utau dongfang zhizi drawn in the rhythm heaven style (星空★Lone)
so i asked her nicely if she would do the art for this song and then i blinked and she had finished the art. she's so cool. i love you lone. lone are you reading this. lone i love you lone can you hear me lone lone i love you lone
Jamie: in the previous flavor foley files, i mentioned how i'll sometimes show up to our writing sessions with an entire section of a song already written, just sheepishly holding it up to the others and hoping for approval. well, i did it again with this song. i wrote the bridge in one bleary, delirious session, just sort of emptying every neurosis and anxiety i could into my notes app (like all good art should be doing, really), and when i shamefully handed it to the others, like usual, i was shocked when they told me it ruled and they didn't want to change a thing. scary…
rice: it was awesome
Vane: it was really awesome
Jamie: speaking entirely for myself here (har har) -
portraying a character is disarming, in a lot of ways, and that emotional air gap, the pretense of playing pretend, can often paradoxically get you much closer to your honest truth as a person than a straightforward approach. it's dangerous, because that honesty can sneak up on you something fierce, and if you're not careful, it can really Fuck You Up. i actually experienced this to some extent when Spoken For first released - i realized i had put words to a lot of the nebulous unheard fears bubbling in the back of my mind, and the words in question were incredibly harsh and dire. it was admittedly a bit terrifying, and i had to quietly step back from some stuff for a bit while i got myself in order.
ultimately, though, i think it was good to spill my guts like that, even if i didn't mean to - and honestly, the catharsis of screaming those bridge lyrics along with people at our Digital Stars performances erased any residual trace of complicated feelings i had left. i love this freaking song dude. i'm really proud of what we did.
even if my bandmates keep calling it a fucking BALDIS BASICS SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rice: i didnt say dat #learning #listening
Vane: i did #thedaysgobysouniformly #baldismathquestionsarekindaboring #yeah
rice: rewriting the lyrics and intention of the song without the consent of the original creators it's almost like you're, heh, like you're, uh, heh, like you're uh, i guess you could say, sp
Jamie: :(
