So, let's talk about Muses. You might expect that a Muse would be a foxy Greek godess, or maybe a supermodel or maybe even Jodie Foster (Hay, maybe you are inspired to shoot a president, right?). Well, in my case, my muses are a rad southern dude (who makes incredible pottery and ceramics and who also happens to write code) and his amazing wife.
Keith and his wife Gina (aka Gi Gi) have appeared in music I've been a part of for many years. Going back to Volumen, Gina was the inspiration for the "That's niiiiice" in Underwater. Years later, Keith and Gina warranted at least 12 lines of the PWT song BBQ Funk. Most recently, Keith created a freaking rad video game called Redneck Jellyfish and he asked me to make the soundtrack for it.
Yup, you heard me right. After a lifelong addiction to video games and a recent obsession with the Ukulele, I was finally able to dip that chocolate into that peanut butter. I was part of making a video game! I can die a happy man now. Here's a trailer for the game:
When Keith first asked me about it, he wanted to know what I would charge him. Charge?! Pshaw. I feel like I should have been paying him for the privilege. Especially considering that he designed the original Volumen logo (which you can see at Volutunes) and also the logo for my wife's toy store (Walking Stick Toys, y'all!). He didn't charge us for either of those so money was not changing hands.
Well, Keith got the last laugh by naming the main character in Redneck Jellyfish after my youngest son, August. Yup, the jellyfish is named "Gus Hickey". RAD.
Keith created this game with a lot of help from his amazing kids Greyson (age 12) and Iva (age 11). The concept was based on one of Greyson's drawings and I think Iva had a lot to do with the design of "Gus" and also some of the other art in the game. Gus's voice, in the game, is 100% Greyson and it's pretty freaking hilarious! Also, his crazy sayings are probably going to be tough for you to figure out if you happen to have been born north of the Mason-Dixon line. 😉
Anyway, if you have an ipad/ipod touch/iphone then y'all should shell out the measly $.99 and get this rad game. There are 64 freaking levels! So, it'll definitely be worth your money. Also, I think the most recent version posts your scores to Facebook so you can get in some bragging rights.
I'll make another post soon with tabs for the main song in the game, in case you want to play along with your uke. 😉 In the version of the song that appears in the video game, I was playing my aNueNue Banjolele and also my 1974 Gibson EB-0 bass.