Beware the Forest's Mushrooms (Geno's Theme)

in may on 2013 I returned from my first ever trip to California and found myself, freshly out of college, without really anything to occupy my time outside of work.

I recall feeling this vague longing and angst to put myself out there and do something cool like so many other people my age were doing on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms. I really felt like I could get my life somewhere that I'd be more happy with, outside of just having an okay job in my home state of Michigan.

I recalled listening to Powerglove on and off through high school and thought that maybe I could do something like that - make metal versions of video game songs that I liked. I'd been playing guitar to myself for about 10 years at this point, why not try something more public with a bit more risk for ridicule?

This theme was the first cover I settled on, I really like it. I sat down in front of my trial verison of REAPER with my pirated EZDrummer kit and started arranging. I had to borrow a friend's bass and I did most everything in one take and got it done in a day or two.

It sounded awful, but I was really proud of it at the time. I showed some of my friends from school and they thought it was cool too and said I should upload it to youtube. I did and watched the numbers climb from 0 to 1 to maybe 100 in the span of a week. I recall being completely floored by that, and shortly thereafter started making friends with other people online that were doing the same thing.

That was 7 years ago, and here I am now in 2020 doing it for a living. I'm made hundreds of covers, written music for AAA and indie games, contributed music to movies, and written themes for people and professional entities. I've been doing this stuff professionally since 2015 and I don't really want to stop.

So here's to another decade of music from me, eh?

Thanks all for helping me achieve this little dream of mine :)
-Rich