Everyone has to have a favorite Stevie Wonder song, right? What’s yours? Mine is “Lately.” It’s a simple and sad song that I never tire of listening to. I wanted to keep it simple, so I used only piano and voice. I played to a metronome click, but I didn’t do any corrections. Kinda live, if you will.
The trouble with covering a Stevie Wonder song is that one of the best performers that ever lived did it before you. I’m saying not to expect much. Also, sorry that the piano is sloppy — it was one take.
I’ve always loved Luna’s “boat song” from GameArts RPG Lunar: Silver Star Story. The cinema at that part of the game was so well placed, and it’s such a pretty song! I took the single verse and lyric right out of the game and did my own version, focusing on layered piano and bell parts over a string orchestra. The vocal starts out very soft and quiet, but builds as the song does.
I *tried* to cover one of Brian McKnight’s first hits, “One Last Cry.” I’m afraid I didn’t do a very good job. My version has its high points, but it has its low points too, and that’s mostly because the song has…well, high (pitch) points. I think the second verse and the bridge sound the best. Sorry, Brian. If anything, it was a good way to learn how to play the song.
I do at least one Christmas arrangement every year, and this year I’ve started with the classic, Silent Night. I was inspired after watching a documentary that talked about how old the song really is. I did a really simple piano and strings arrangement.
This remix is my version of 恋の実験室 or “Laboratory of Love,” from the Rhythm Tengoku Gold soundtrack, better known as Rhythm Heaven in the US. The original song, by Japanese producer Tsunku, has no lyrics, so I thought it would be fun to create some of my own.
I imagined the song being about a boy in love with his lab partner in science class, taking a cue from the game’s visuals. Aside from singing the melody (poorly), I’m also performing all six harmony parts.
A fan took my string and piano arrangement of Xenogears‘ “Valley of the Wind” and tweaked it for a live performance on piano, cello, and violin. The end result is stunning, and this is an absolute thrill for me to listen to.
The anime Romeo X Juliet featured a Japanese cover of “You Raise Me Up” by Lena Park, and I fell in love with that version. Because of this, I also ended up doing my own arrangement of this tune, which has now been covered over 125 times. I’ve performed this song in both Japanese and English.
In keeping with tradition, I’ve recorded a couple of arrangements of popular Christmas tunes. This one is another version of my favorite hoilday tune, “Have Yourself a Merry LIttle Christmas.”
This was inspired by a gorgeous fall day in October. Imagine soft winds and leaves rustling across the grass in the late afternoon. Dedicated to my friend Tim Sheehy, who shares a love for electric pianos and seasons.
In keeping with my tradition of Christmas remixes, Tim “Kaijin” Sheehy and I put this together. The Sailing Ship theme is blended with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for your holiday listening pleasure.
Mustin and I arranged this piece for the OneUps. We took songs from the Super Mario series of games and made them into a videogame-themed Christmas medley.
This is something I did to test out a new microphone. The rest was just filler. But it qualified as a remix, so I submitted it for fun. I didn’t know the words (in Japanese) so I just made up English ones.
As a big fan of the Star Ocean games and series composer Motoi Sakuraba, I wanted to do an orchestral cover of one of Star Ocean 2’s most prominent themes, “Rena’s Theme.”
Paying tribute to the fun music of Noriyuki Iwadare. This doesn’t stray too far from the original, but it’s a fun song to play, and so that was my excuse.
The old Nintendo game Battle of Olympus wasn’t that much fun, but I loved it anyway, and adored the music. I’ve always wanted to do this mix, and finally did in mid ‘02. It’s pretty much just orchestral; a short song.
This was the first work under the OneUp Studios name. Mustin and I wanted to do something big, and we ended up with a 12-minute long audio drama with 11 arranged Zelda songs, voice acting, and sound effects.
This short remix was actually supposed to be the credit roll for the “Legend of Zelda 2002” special . It was more of a bonus remix. One of my never-submitted mixes.
Being big on Christmas, I decided to start a tradition of making Christmas mixes. This first one was well received as people claimed it “got them into the spirit.” Word got to me later that even John Romero is a fan of this arrangement.
A Dale Special: Piano and Strings. I dosen’t stray much from the original, but I didn’t think it needed to. The second section is more arranged and a flute is added.
Josh Culotta and I worked together to do this comical piece. It may sound one way, but its not. You can draw your own conclusions on whats happening, but I’ll tell you that the creaking noise is a violin effect.
This was my contribution to the Radical Dreamers flood of 2001, where a group of remixers pre-planned to all submit an arrangement of this song to Overclocked Remix on the same day.
Mustin and I got together to take this less than half a minute song from Chrono Trigger and make it a full blown audio experience. There’s singing, sound effects, and unnecessary rap lyrics involved.
“Needles” is the first collaboration between Mustin and I, kicking off a relationship that would eventually launch OneUp Studios and the band The OneUps. This song’s live instruments, inside jokes, hand clapping and stomping set the tone for our future collaborations.
This is, hands down, the worst thing I’ve ever done. When I was 9 years old I created better stuff. It was an interesting idea, but I just didn’t know enough at the time to make it work.
This is one of my earliest remixes. I wanted to do something that would combine several Final Fantasy themes; this was quite an undertaking for me at the time.
This is the song that started it all. I was always into game music, but this is the first song I ever tried to do anything with. Web site Daily Radar managed to find it and featured it in a front page story. Later, DJ Pretzel of Overclocked Remix heard it and asked if he could add it to his Web page.
Welcome to DaleNorth.com. I am a singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, engineer, and independent artist. Here you'll find many of my musical works. Enjoy!
