Xenoblade Chronicles "The Road Home" 3:48

We JUST featured minusworld repping Xenoblade Chronicles X on the DoD side, so it doesn't get any more perfect to double up the franchise love! Now it's Lucas repping Xenoblade Chronicles on the Pixel Mixers side as Lucas Guimaraes teams with TSori on trumpet and TheManPF on guitars, and it sounds to us like the road to home is paved with good vibrations. :-) Guimaraes tightened and hefted things up on the production of his beat- & bass-driven take on "In a Refugee Camp" since his original album version:

"So, has anyone checked out Chain Attack by Pixel Mixers yet? It's a pretty sick Xenoblade album comp. It was also my first track with coming back to Pixel Mixers. The whole story behind this track is a silly one, hoh boy, strap in. I was planning on doing it myself, but then I realized the "two collaborators" rule this track had. TSori was itching to play something on trumpet, and I knew PF would be great with guitars thanks to my experience with him in Dwelling of Duels. I gave them a lot of freedom. PF some loose instructions, leads, and chords, and TSori the melody to mess around with.

And then this track picked up REALLY fast when TSori said "I know this feels uncharacteristic from me, but it feels like there's too much trumpet", so we changed the structure to fit that. Introducing the trumpet at :50 seconds in was a risky move, but it definitely paid off. Giving the trumpet a break and doing a synth solo halfway in was also DEFINITELY the right call. I was a bit uncertain about my soloing skills, but this might be one of my favorite solos I've done!

I loved the master so much after spending weeks away from it that I was like "What if I did a redux for OCR?" I think the original is pretty good (it's become a few people's favorites on the album ?), but this gives it a lot of that extra production oomph! And it was fun to go back and forth with Hemophiliac learning small, little things to make the productions, and future productions of mine, have a bit more oomph. Revisiting old tracks I've done used to be a dread, but now that I know more about the process and more about how to not overwork something that's working, I'm having a lot more fun! Rest assured, this is one of the first of many old tracks of mine you'll see reduxed.

Uh... what else? Funny enough, TSori and I had a conversation about Emunator's "Gold Soul", and TSori was telling me about how he felt a good name for it would involve starting a journey, while mine was more like a return back to home. Enter this arrangement. I've only played a few hours of Xenoblade, so I had to brush up a bit on the Refugee Camp. I noticed a quest titled "The Road Home" and felt that was a very fitting name for this arrangement. Coming back home and seeing that nothing is quite ever the same before - picking up the pieces from where parts left off. [...]

Finally, and I can not sing their praises enough: TSori and TheManPF rock. I look forward to working with them again. They really gave this track so much extra juice that really elevated it to the next level.

Hope you all enjoy! And as usual, I love putting energy into revamping and addressing as many corrections as possible. It's funny 'cause I used to get more bothered by rejections, but now I'm like, "Cool, I love the process so much, so this is just a bonus.""

If you view a NO from the judges as just a bump in the road rather than a brick wall, then you've got your mind right and you've got the power. :-) As noted, judge Hemophiliac's coaching helped Guimaraes repave the road, so to speak, so it's only fitting to hear Hemo's encouragement for the finished product:

"I think Lucas sent me this one every day for at least 2 weeks straight to get feedback when he was initially working on it. There was a lot of potential then but still a lot of bugs to work out. [...]

This actually turned out really nice. It's one of your best produced tracks to date. There's a lot to be proud of here.

I personally really like the countermelody synths, the counterpoint on them fits in perfectly all while adding your own personal touches. This really lets the source melody play out so close to the original, but adding your own spin on it. It's frankly one of my favorite things to hear in remixes. Kudos. [...]

Great to see the growth from you Lucas, and the track is quite enjoyable!"

The source tune itself is a beautifully intimate-sounding theme, so there's not just kudos for Lucas's personal improvement in making it more cohesive, but also for transforming the mood and feel into something more deliberate in the first place. While the journey may be perilous, Lucas's made the discomfort surmountable thanks to support from the scene. :-) With TSori and TheManPF's important live parts in tow and Hemo's helpful critiques, this has the weight and imagery of a stoic trek towards home!