ReMix:Sonic Colors "Everybody Wants to Rule the Wisps" 3:51

Happy birthday to Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal, who co-wrote the smash hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", a legendary song that has also inspired The Good Ice's latest OC ReMix. I promised we'd have a great follow-up to Trevor and Nick's Twilight Princess mixpost last month, and there's no more unique way we have to honor Roland Orzabal's 61st birthday than the Good Ice's latest Sonic Colors piece! The wordplay fans among you can't help but appreciate the title of their synth-pop take on "Planet Wisp". (Having grown up with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" in the 80s, I also recommend everyone checking out Binster's own spin on it, "Closed​-​Eyed Astronomy".) In terms of this fusion of Kenichi Tokoi's composition with Tears for Fears' style, Later Vader (Nick Bello) walks us through the concept phase:

"Several years ago, I started messing around with the chords of this song on an old Fender Rhodes running through a 6505 and some delay, recorded a video and promptly forgot about it... until it popped back up in my Snapchat memories. I then started a new skeleton arrangement, just a few bars, and sent it to Trevor for first thoughts and impressions.

It must have struck a chord with him as he took it, ran with it, and expanded it into a dreamy, synth-pop-type beat. We soon hopped on Discord, got to work finishing the arrangement, and recorded the guitar parts."

That beat, yes. :-) One of the hallmarks of OCR since we came around to making it an explicit rule, is that we don't allow mashups or arrangements of non-VGM music, since our singular and purposeful focus is on arranging game soundtracks. That said, props to the Good Ice for successfully working stylistic influences from and homages to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". The beat, the Rhodes chords and other parts carrying on the two-note Tears for Fears cadence we all know and love, the warm synths padding the soundscape, and the Orzabal-inspired guitar work; it all comes together beautifully and seamlessly. Ridley Snipes (Trevor Burch) elaborates on how the various threads pulled together:

"Ayyy, a break from the grind! Kind of a mish mash of different "Planet Wisp" acts, but I don't think anyone's ever done it with this groove before.

Nick has wanted to do this song for several years now, but we could never decide on what kind of groove to go with. I'd been browsing some SynthHacker videos when Nick sent me his sketch, and I guess I felt particularly inspired by this beat. Not really the tempo one might expect from "3D Sanic game," but I knew we could make it fit.

The melodies honestly translated to compound meter easier than I expected, and we built a new call and response into the hook. The bass is fun too, as it kind of jumps back and forth between the different acts and lands on some different chords from the originals. This mix was also a much-needed change of pace after working on "Midna" for almost 6 months, haha. Not super complex, but very fun!

My only regret is that we couldn't fully lean into the crunchy live Rhodes idea. That'll have to wait. :)"

Everything The Good Ice touches turns to gold (and ice... but also gold), so I'm indeed looking forward to the crunchy Rhodes idea! Hopefully, we have the time left to see it through. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears are still going strong off the strength of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" nearly 40 years later, thus I'm prepared to give Nick and Trevor of The Good Ice another 40 years too! Long may they all continue. :-)