Mega Ran, K-Murdock & Rob "88bit" Kovacs Discuss Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition for Album's 10th Anniversary (The Witzard Interview)
It's great when things come full-circle, especially, when they happen naturally, organically entirely on their own. So, our site has been around since 2010 and both Kyle "K-Murdock" Murdock and Raheem "Mega Ran" Jarbo were both amongst our first interviews back in our earliest aughts. We believe, we met K-Murdock through our friend and then-record store owner Jamie at Blinding Sun Records in Frederick, Maryland and we must have been introduced to Mega Ran through Kyle. While we can vividly recall helping crowd-fund their 2010 album, Forever Famicom, together as Bits & Rhymes, we're not entiely sure, if we ever covered said album here across the pages of The Witzard. Either way, it's easily one of our absolute favorite albums released during the 2010's and still amasses frequent listens to this day. We've since covered a handful of Mega Ran's solo releases, as well, including Notorious R.A.N: Ready to Live, Stranger Things-inspired STRANGERS EP, Emerald Knights 2 with Bag of Tricks Cat, Extra Credit, Beyond The Stars: The BTS Tape, educational aide THE DEWEY DECIBEL SYSTEM with MC Lars, and AGES, Vol. 1.
Since our initial interview, which primarily focused on A Tribe Called Quest-influenced Breaks, Rhythms & Loops (2009) K-Murdock has stayed pretty busy himself, continually working alongside Mega Ran, as well as his one-time Panacea bandmate Damu The Fudgemunk, Apollo Brown, Georgia Anne Muldrow & Declaime, ODDISEE, Kaimbr & Kev Brown, SkyBlew, and more. Now, Mega Ran & K-Murdock have re-connected for a special 10 anniversary Diamond Edition of Forever Famicom. Plus, this time, they brought newfound collaborator Rob "88bit" Kovacs into the fold to help spruce it up a bit. Kocavs is an award-winning composer, pianist, and singer/songwriter. He fronts Indie Rock bands, Return of Simple & Math + Logic and is the creator of 88bit, wherein he performs note-for-note piano-aided renditions of Nintendo classics. We were lucky enough to hear about Bits & Rhymes' Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition during an early pre-order a couple months ago. We promptly decided this would be a great occasion to re-interview Mega Ran & K-Murdock, as well as Rob "88bit" Kovacs on their special updated version of Forever Famicom. Mega Ran, K-Murdock & 88bit's Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition is now available to purchase digitally, physically as apparel, and even a crowd-funded multi-colored vinyl edition exclusively, via Bandcamp.
Sincerely,
Matt "The Witzard" Horowitz
Nintendo/Hip-Hop Enthusiast
I. What made yourself and K-Murdock (Bits & Rhymes) decide to re-visit 2010's Forever Famicom now as Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition?
Mega-Ran: K [K-Murdock] & I are both BIG on dates and anniversaries. Almost every time we talk, I mention some moment from our past and Kyle is like, "Yo, that was (x) years ago; can you believe it?" And oftentimes I can't! Since the beginning of my career, I made sure to release projects on dates that were significant to me or the process; even if I never shared the details on it with anyone. So, as 2020 came around, we knew even as far as a few years back that we would want to commemorate such a special album. Many people say it's our best work (together or apart) so, I wanted to make sure that it was remembered and updated for our newer audience. I'm just glad we met Rob [Kovacs] at just the right time to help make it a reality!
II. What might you cite as some of your greatest source of inspiration and influence while creating the original Forever Famicom?
Mega-Ran: I don't even think K knew this, but A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory (L.E.T.) was the album that I listened to the most while making this record. It's an album that means a great deal to both of us. "The Goodness" is my "Check The Rhime," "Girl with The Make-up" is my "Butter," [and] "For The Gamers" is my "Scenario." I wanted to make an album that tied my love of games in with my love of Hip-Hop, like L.E.T. did for me with Jazz. I remember reading those liner notes back then and seeking out the songs that they had sampled on that album and discovering so many classics for the first time. I wanted people who heard this album to go back and pop in an old [cartridge] that they had laying around and recognize K's genius in sampling that made these records so special.
K-Murdock: So, ironically, the reason why you hear the games you hear in Forever Famicom, from Secret of Mana to Earthbound or Chrono Trigger, Little Nemo... those are actual games that I picked because I grew up really loving those games and really remembering that those games had great music. So, when I did this album, it was just originally supposed to be an instrumental project. I kinda got bored with just sampling the same old, like, records a lot of Hip-Hop people were doing, like, Jazz or Soul and stuff like that; and even if you listen to the music I was making at the time for Panacea, you’ll notice a lot of the music that I was sampling from was, like, more Progressive Rock or just different, like, Folk music and stuff like that.
So, when it came to do Forever Famicom, before it was even called "Forever Famicom," it was just gonna be a beat tape full of just samples from games I really liked. So, I had already kinda earmarked over the years from growing up, like, certain games, so I can honestly say there was probably none that Raheem, or Mega Ran, mentioned on the first one because I picked, literally, everything from every sample that we used from Faxanadu, which is, like, a really quick piece that we used for "World Tree" to "Double Dragon" to Duck Tales... that might have been the only one that he was, like, really adamant that we do Duck Tales, so we did "The Moon Theme," which is really popular. But, yeah, going forward, though, after that, like, with the D.L.C.'s [Down Loadable Content], those are, usually, his recommendations. So, yeah, just to give you a little background clarity on that.
III. What can you tell us about the additional installments in the Forever Famicom series? What can we expect to see/hear next from Bits & Rhymes?
Mega-Ran: In true gamer fashion, we made three "expansions" on the original album or "DLC's," which were commissioned ideas from fans that we had met along the way. Many of those turned into tracks that are almost Mega Ran staples to this day, like "The Ruler's Back" or "By Your Side," which people ask me to play everywhere we go. I tried to make sure that the songs we sampled were games that I had played and loved, but with the fan suggestions, it took me into a new place creatively, which launched the idea of our Patreon where we take sample ideas and turn them into new tracks twice a month. If anyone is interested in hearing what we do there, peep [it here!]
IV. How exactly did you go about incorporating references and lyrical allusions to Famicom/Nintendo throughout the original Forever Famicom?
Mega-Ran: It wasn't super-hard, as a guy who had been playing games for my whole life; but, I think, these sessions were where the concept of revisions came in for me for the first time in my writing process as a rapper. I think, I had written and recorded several versions of most of these songs because I just wanted to make sure that the best version of me was going to be represented. At that time, no one thought of Random [pre-Mega Ran] as an emcee; I was just this guy who had struck gold sampling video game tracks. I knew that working with K-Murdock would bring a different set of eyes and ears to my music and that excited me, so I had to go with my strength, which I still feel is my story-telling ability. So, while some songs are merely referential tracks, on others, I really worked hard to stretch the limits of what I could do with existing intellectual property by re-telling the stories of games and changing the endings, like I did on "2K10" and "Double Dragons." I had a lot of fun, once I realized I wasn't limited to the storyline of the existing game and that I could dig deeper and pull something new from these stories. I think, that is the charm that helps to make Forever Famicom special. I hope to re-visit it again in 10 more years!
V. How did you go about incorporating your own unique references and beat-aided allusions to Famicom/Nintendo into the production end of things across the original Forever Famicom?
K-Murdock: [Referring to his answer for Question #2] ...but, basically, yeah, just to kinda touch on that again: I picked those unique references because those are the games I liked. I did, like, of course, Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda and Metroid and stuff, like, which, actually, I had sampled, too, Super Metroid. But the reason why you hear very specified games, like, again, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and a lotta RPG's, specifically, is because I grew up playing a lot of Role-playing Games. So, that was kinda the reason, they were just the games I love to play, games I love to... that, actually, had really memorable music to me, too, and a lot of that drives me when I sample. I like to sample just stuff in case I'm given stuff that I might not have a connection to, but, usually, the stuff I sample, the reason why I take so much time in producing and I care and try to handle the stuff so well is because I wanna do it justice because I really like those sounds, so that’s why.
VI. Little-known Fact: you were one of our very first interview subjects here on The Witzard, Kyle... but, I think, I neglected to ask you last time: How did you initially meet Mega Ran/Random and decide to form Bits & Rhymes together?
K-Murdock: Back in 2007 or '08, at the time, I was working for what is now SiriusXM Radio. I was working at XM Radio, at the time, as a, they called us "audio animators," but I was a, basically, production, director, and engineer working on channels, like, creating the sound, the sonic landscapes, for certain channels on the platforms' service. Like, I did the Old School Hip-Hop Channel, I did the Jazz Channel, wound up going on to do stuff for the Pop Channel, 20's On 20, and blah, blah, blah... but I was, specifically, known for doing a lot of the Hip-Hop stuff. At the same time, I, also, was hosting a radio show called Subsoniq, which really played a lot of progressive and, at the time, they called it "Underground Hip-Hop," hence, the name "Subsoniq," like "underground sound." And I would get submissions from... a variety artists, whether it be Mainstream or, in this case, Independent. So, one day, I get a package from RAHM Nation and in it were two CD's both from Random [Mega Ran.]
One was called The Call, which was, like, his more straight-ahead progressive album, his debut album on RAHM Nation and, then, I also got the Mega Ran album and the first thing I could think about when I saw it was, like, I just laughed because it was the whole idea of the character, Mega Man, but I could tell his face was Black and was, like, "oh, this can either go one of two directions: it could be really dope or it could be something that turns into a coaster..." So, I decided on my way home, after getting this CD, I took a flyer and I listened to it and I tell people that, even though I lived less than 15 minutes away from XM, at the time, I started listening to Mega Ran as I left work and because I was, like, so entranced and I had never heard anything like that before, I wound up sitting in my car for, like, another 30 minutes and listened to the whole album all the way down to the "Robot City" [password-MM2] Remix at the end because I was, like "this is tight!"
And, I think, as a result, I decided to hit up Random back in the day on MySpace, when that was, like, THE platform for social media choice, at the time. And we wound up having, like, a mutual admiration. He found out I was "K-Murdock," not only who hosted this radio show that he had submitted music to get played on, but, also, K-Murdock from the group, Panacea, and he was a fan of my group and we just hit it off, man. So, from 2008 up until now, for 12 years, we've been working together, just recording music and it's been amazing. So, that is how that came about: he submitted music, I would have, probably, never really paid attention to Ran beyond The Call. I mean, The Call was dope, but I just didn't know he was doing this other stuff the video games and that was, actually, the thing that made me really get in contact with him and let him know, like, "I really dug The Call," but, I, also, really dig what he's doing with the video game stuff, too, and, of course, the rest is history.
VII. What exactly was your overall role in the creation of this special 10th anniversary/Diamond Edition of Forever Famicom?
K-Murdock: So, when I knew this was coming up, about a year ago, I kinda had already started having ideas flowing through my mind and it really wasn't until we started working, Ran brought out Rob Kovacs AKA 88bit and he performed live with us at, I think, it was PAX South and, then, it was PAX and, then, he would be at, like, Mag Fest and other places and Rob was just a really good dude. And it was one night, in particular, I think, we were at PAX last year in September and Ran hadn't got in town yet and I was at the hotel, me and Rob. I told him just to "come up and let's chat for a little bit" and it's funny, he came up and, like, and hour or two later, we were just sitting there talking about everything and I was just so in awe of Rob just because of his playing skill and he was just telling me he used to play "Dueling Pianos" by himself. I was, like, "how do you do that!!?" Like, it's just amazing to me because my background, coming from the way I do production vs. someone like him, who's a, obviously, trained and classically-trained pianist and teaches it, too. It's amazing!
So, I was in my head that was kinda what planted the seed of, like, "OK, next year is the 10-year anniversary of Forever Famicom, what could be special?" I was, like, knowing where I am now as an engineer and just how my sound has advanced, I was, like, "let me go back and re-visit those original sessions" that I just, at the time, had produced, mixed, and mastered everything myself with, really, I don't wanna say any know-how, but I'd just say, a real rudimentary style of putting it together. Like, I knew what certain things were and how to mix and engineer and how to get it to sound like I wanted to, but I was, like, knowing what I know now, having been more schooled, literally, going to school, and getting my Master's in this stuff and just having more experience, let me apply that and make sure I can go back and re-visit this stuff and do it the way I wanna do it and that's what I did. So, the idea came about, I was, like, "what can make it special is having Rob, actually, re-play these samples," so I don't have to, like, go into sessions and use the original stems from video games.
So, basically, I would send Rob just the tracks: the instrumentals, then, I'd send him a version of the songs that were just the drum beats with the tempo and everything, he would set a metronome and play line-by-line, and put in part-by-part all the pieces for the songs. So, some of the songs, he plays so well that I don't think some people understand that they're not hearing samples, they're, literally, hearing a person with settings on his keyboard. I think, he used a Prophet 5 and a Rhodes to get a lot of those sounds. And Rob played 'em so exactly that some people don't even understand what happened and why this is the Diamond Edition and they're just like, "it DOES sound a little different." Hopefully, it sounds a lot better, as far as the mix, and I've been getting really good feedback, too. But, yeah, my creation was, essentially, as a producer, really, as a producer, like, coordinating, taking Rob, taking these old sessions in, as the engineer.
I guess, like, taking Rob's stuff, mixing it with Ran's original vocals, the original vocals that people who guested on the album, and different parts, like that and just, basically, re-engineering and re-mixing it, so it sounds more "now" and it sounds, to me, a lot better; to the point, like, I listen to the original, I love it because it has that personality, but I kinda cringe because I'm like, "oh, man, my mixing skills, at that time." I mean, it was 2009 vs. me in 2020. It just, ya'know, I'm glad this sounds better, as opposed to, "man, I can't get 'em sounding better than they did 11 years ago." So, yeah, my role was, essentially, as just the producer, but not just the beat-maker, but, also, a producer in the sense of, like, I made it happen by coordinating, getting Rob to send me his stuff, and, then, I switched hats to engineer and made it happen, as far as taking what Rob did, as far as re-playing those samples, and mixing it with some of the old original stems, like, Ran's vocals and some of the drums, and making it sound like it does now.
VIII. What can you tell us about the other involved parties, such as Kevin "The Grey Ninja" Merriman & Rob "88bit" Kovacs, who were integral in helping bring Bits & Rhymes' Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition to life?
K-Murdock: OK, so, this is great! I kinda touched on Rob's involvement in the last question, but... when it came time again to re-visit this album, I said, ya'know, the best thing to do is, also, try to get everyone who was originally involved that we can. For the most part, I didn't touch the vocals 'cause those were fine. Ya'know, so not only Ran's vocals, but the contributing people who did vocals, like, Ariano, who sings the hook on "The Girl with The Make-up" and [Int] 80 & Schaffer [The Darklord] did such a good job, originally, of sending me vocals for "For The Gamers," I didn't touch them. With, like, the cuts on certain songs, like, "World Tree" and "Double Dragon," I didn't touch any of that. The only thing I, literally, had re-done just to make it special because the meat of the album is based on these samples, was just having Rob re-play ALL the samples over again.
Even re-playing the samples for "Drop The Load" Remix, which is really not even... a lot of people don't know "Drop The Load" is not borrowed from a game, it's, actually, just my original composition. I was using some synths, at the time, that sounded like they had 8bit kinda like Sawtooth sound, a lot of Nintendo and games of that era had and Rob just decided that was, actually, gonna be one game [track] I was gonna tell him to skip because it didn't have an original sample. I mean, it didn't have samples from a video game, but he, actually, re-played that, too, and I feel like he re-played what I originally did even better than I did it. So, yeah, so... but getting Kevin, Kevin Merriman, The Grey Ninja, who's, like, super-talented. We always laugh and we met him on tour in 2011 finally and we were laughing about the fact that when we met him last time, he had just gotten over having Swine Flu and this time, he didn't have COVID, but it's kinda like we contacted him in the year of another pandemic to do Forever Famicom.
So, I don't know, that's kinda weird, right? But it's just one of those, like, quirky antidotes that I'll just throw in there... but, yeah, I really wanted everyone who was originally involved in this to kinda pop back up. So, of course, myself and Ran had the original vocals from the people who participated and their blessing to use their vocals again. And I was like, "why not re-do the art?" and so, I hit up Kevin, who I'd been in contact with the last decade, anyway, and still a big fan of his work and he's really been getting more acknowledgement for it. And, yeah, we hired him to, basically, do the art again and he did an amazing job. So, it was kinda cool! It was like a reunion, so to speak, of the original and, then, bring in Rob with that new energy to re-play the original samples. It's kinda cool, it's like the blending and the best of both worlds.
So, yeah, I'm really excited, I'm really happy with the way it came out and, hopefully, anyone who's heard it now has a new appreciation for what went behind the music and all praise due, not only to Ran, but, also, specifically, Rob "88bit" Kovacs for really getting down and, ya'know, man, he... we hired him to do this, but, at the same time, I feel like what Rob did was WAY, he went WAY beyond the call of duty in re-playing the stuff 'cause he would send me stuff and, then, add arrangements and stuff, like, I guess, he felt kinda hesitant at first of doing it, like, he didn't wanna "disturb the original recipe," but I was like, "dude, I want this to be different" and I'm always the type to say, like, when I bring someone in to play something, "feel free to add your touch on it." So, I'm glad the songs, like, "CONtact" and "For The Gamers," he really did his thing on, as far as putting, like, a little new touch on it or some more instrumentation on another arrangement. I think he did a great job. So, hopefully, you all do, too. Thanks a lot for everything, Matt!
IX. How did you initially come to get involved in this Diamond Edition of Forever Famicom?
Rob "88bit" Kovacs: I went to PAX West 2019 to play with Mega Ran for his Main Stage set and that's when I first met K-Murdock. I believe, that's where he first told about his plans to re-make Forever Famicom with all the samples re-made. Maybe, K can answer this better, but, I think, he'd only heard my piano-playing and none of my production stuff yet. So, I'm not exactly sure why he thought I could re-make the samples 😂. I'm probably getting the dates mixed up, but, at some point, I sent him some original film scores, as well [as] tracks from a soundtrack I was writing for the VR game STRAYLIGHT, (slight plug 🙂.) Then, K reached out about re-doing the whole album!
X. What exactly did your "beat-making" process entail while tediously re-creating/playing Forever Famicom in your trademark 8-16bit/Chipmunk styling?
88bit: Man, this could be a long answer... K sent me the vocal track, the drum track, and BPM for each song. I, also, had the original MP3's and loaded that all up in Logic. For each song, I'd find the game soundtrack that was sampled and transcribe it very tediously by downloading the original NSF file (if it was an NES game) and loading it into NSF Import, which feeds into Famitracker. That allowed me to see in great detail every note and effect on every note in the sample. From there, I used Plogue's Chipsounds plug-in, which is an amazingly accurate 8bit plug-in that (as [stated] on their website) "authentically emulates 15 vintage 8bit-era sound chips." This plug-in allowed me to re-create each NES sample extremely accurately, but, also, with additional control for mixing as we now have isolation of every voice. I was, also, able to layer sounds at times, making them sound thicker and wider, but still authentic.
Really, though, the hardest part was getting Kyle [K-Murdock] to remember what game each sample was from 😂. In addition to re-creating the samples, I re-did a lot of K's synth parts and almost all the bass using an analog Prophet 5 synthesizer. K, also, allowed me freedom to add additional parts or change things as I felt, adding pads, new chords progressions, etc. I had a lot of fun with tracks, like "World Tree," "For The Gamers," and "Thank You for Listening." A lot of time was spent just trying to create the different sounds on the Prophet 5. Once a sound was dialed in, I'd record a section into Logic, via MIDI. I'd then have Logic play it back to control The Prophet, sending the analog signal back into Logic, and record that. And since The Prophet is analog and doesn't produce the same wave pattern every time, you can layer the exact same part multiple times and get a really thick and wide sound. Each song on average took about a whole day. Once each one was done, I'd ship it off to K to do the mixing magic!
XI. We know Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition "features ALL new versions of the original 14 tracks..." but what can you tell us about this mysterious fifteenth bonus track, "Thank You for Listening?"
88bit: K can probably answer this better... but, I believe, it was, originally, a one-off single back in 2010. K wanted to add this to the Diamond Edition and I'm glad he did 'cause it MIGHT be my favorite track. It's the last one I worked on and, I think, I put the most time into it, re-creating everything from scratch. I will say that K's use of this sample is frickin' brilliant and it's worth pointing out. The original sample is from [Super Mario Bros. 3] after you defeat an airship. It's a great little theme and was programmed to sound like there's an echo on the melody. K took that theme and slowed it WAY down and by doing that, we hear the "echo" notes as part of the melody creating a new melody all together. In addition to re-creating the sample using Chipsounds, I, also, re-created it using layers of Prophet 5, widening the sound and giving it some serious warmth. You'll hear the Chipsounds version in the beginning in the choruses and the Prophet version is used during the verses.
XII. Would you mind telling us a bit more about your unique Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) library re-created on piano style and how you incorporated it into Forever Famicom: Diamond Edition?
88bit: Sure! So, I transcribe, arrange, and perform note-for-note NES soundtracks on piano under the moniker 88bit. These soundtracks were never meant to be played by humans and are extremely difficult on piano 😂. But this music holds a unique place in music history, being some of the earliest massively consumed computer music. I started this project almost three years ago, uploading videos [and] playing classical concerts, as well as gaming conventions (which is how I met Mega Ran.) Anyone can go to 88bit to learn more and watch some videos. The software I mentioned earlier is what allows me to transcribe the original soundtracks accurately and not rely on some MIDI that someone else has uploaded that may or may not be 100% correct. So, having learned to transcribe NES music like this, made it possible to authentically re-create the Forever Famicom samples.