Here’s a game I’ve been talking your ear off about for months, but what can I do? It’s not every day that composers behind Persona, Ace Combat, Daytona, Sonic, TMNT, Splatoon, and many more come together on the same project. While Denshattack! is shaping up to be my Game of the Year, its soundtrack has already earned a spot in my personal hall of fame—it’s an absolute no-skip album, and I’m convinced it will leave a lasting mark on video game music history. Case in point: it's currently the second best-selling soundtrack on Bandcamp.
Yet out of all the composers on the project (around twenty!), one of the lesser-known names blew me away the most. Andrew One isn’t a complete newcomer, but until now, he mostly worked behind the scenes as a mixing engineer on incredible projects like the Streets of Rage 4 DLC or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. On Denshattack!, the Portuguese composer flexes his muscles with 17 tracks, each more spectacular than the last. Easily my biggest surprise from this monstrous 80-track OST. Naturally, I wanted to chat with him about the massive workload behind it all!
Hi Andrew! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview. Out of the three composers behind Denshattack!, you’re the one I’m least familiar with. Could you tell me a bit about your musical background and how you got into video game music?
Andrew One : My pleasure!! And thank you for your passion and interest!
Well, I've always had music in my mind and I've been playing around with music since I was a kid, when I got my hands on the arranger keyboards my grandmother, who used to play a lot, had. I actually started composing my own stuff with the Music software for PlayStation 1 and a bit later Music 2000, which lets you sample. This was life-changing to me. I actually formed a hip-hop band back then for which I made the beats and sang, and we as kids actually got on radio shows and a couple of concerts, with music recorded live from PlayStation to minidisc, and then from minidisc to cassette with added backing vocals.
Good times!
I first got into video games around 2009-2010 when a guy who knew me from making those hip-hop songs asked me to create music for a game. These were the first mobile games appearing back then. And I did a few years of this, actually scoring some big mobile game hits, like Gravity Guy and Fragger.
I also wanna add that I ALWAYS loved video game music. Streets of Rage 1 & 2, The Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic 1, 2, 3, CD, 3D (Saturn version), Sonic R, Castlevania: Symphony of The Night, Nights Into Dreams, Project Gotham Racing, Jet Set Radio, (among many others) are some of my favorites of all time.
Did you know the Undercoders team before? When did you join the project?
AO : I honestly did not! I was the 2nd composer to join the project, right at the beginning.
I was in the chat during the album’s listening party, and I was cracking up at the banter between you, Tee (Lopes), and Sean (Bialo). Do you know them well in real life?
AO : Well, Tee is a long-time close friend. Me and this guy have been speaking (and insulting each other) daily for 23+ years now!
Sean, I met while working on Penny's Big Breakaway and quickly realized he's as silly as me. We actually gave him a nickname in private back then, which is "The Comedian". He's also the young kid in the group, so the banter just evolved naturally, because he obviously needs to control his chord OCD problem, amongst many other problems he so obviously has.
On that note, how exactly did you guys split up the workload for this massive 80-track OST?
AO : Well, there wasn't a specific split on the workload, besides the tracks each one of us had to make. However, some things did happen naturally. For example, me and Tee regularly spoke about how each track sounded and maybe I would suggest he do some touch-ups (since he was the main guy) or say something in private. Other times I would do it myself or actually speak with the artist in question. Some collabs happened precisely like this, because even though there was total freedom, sometimes some tracks would be way too off in sound and style, or maybe needed some boost in production. Sean also naturally ended up helping on some tracks in this regard.
I learned during the listening party that you not only composed 17 tracks for the game, but you also mixed and mastered the entire album. That side of the job rarely gets the spotlight when people talk about game soundtracks, so I’m super curious about what kind of challenge that was for you.
AO : That's true, it's a very technical side of the whole picture, that a lot of people just don't know about, but matters a lot for getting a cohesive sound and a balanced listening experience.
This one was the biggest challenge I've ever faced and honestly I wasn't really ready for the gargantuan amount of work it was, so it was an incredible learning experience, but also meant dealing with the stress of super tight deadlines and very little sleep for long weeks.
This happened for several reasons: the sheer amount of music there was, the sheer amount of completely different styles, the large number of different artists, the different sound they all have and organizing all of this, while trying to make them sound like they belong in the same place. All of this while also making my own songs and also composing all the cutscenes of the game alongside Tee, near the end of the project! It was something, let me tell you!
The OST is absolute fire, especially with its impressive list of featured artists. Were you intimidated at the thought of working on and tweaking tracks from some of these big names?
AO : These are very interesting questions! And the answer is a resounding YES.
The way this worked on the game was pretty unique - each of the artists had their own "room" on Discord to show their music and talk with devs about it. But the rooms were public to everyone, so everyone could check out the stuff everybody was putting out, including the reactions to it.
When I came in, it was just me and Tee, and we have worked a lot together. All good. Then came Sean, I thought "yeah, super talented kid, gotta give it my all! Let's go!". But then other names started appearing, like Ryo Nagamatsu, Kohta Takahashi... and yeah I definitely felt the pressure strongly. Also, to be completely open and honest, I knew I was one of the least known artists there, so in my mind I have to over-deliver, I have to show why I'm there! You know how it is.
In the end, I think this made us all better, which is what friendly competition is good for. It elevated our game that bit higher, and maybe took us to places we wouldn't go if it didn't happen like this. Also, having spoken about this with many of the artists, they all went through the exact same feelings!
Which track was the biggest challenge to mix?
AO : Probably the track by Harumi Fujita. Reason being it hasn't got a defined structure, has a lot of bass-heavy drums and bass-heavy sounds colliding, and sometimes it was hard to define what should stand out.
On top of all the guest artists credited on the OST, there are also all the session musicians playing guitar, saxophone, and other instruments. Could you introduce us to them?
AO : Regarding my tracks: on "Dead Ball Run" I had Daan Demmers playing distorted guitars.
On "Sunshine in Seto Nakai" I had Daan on electric and acoustic guitar, Sam Silva on Saxophone and cartridj on Trumpet.
On "Still Playing", I got Emma Rose Williamson to sing the chorus I had written, and Daan again, on funky guitar.
Daan is an incredibly talented young guy who I became friends with recently and we just clicked and started doing stuff together. I invited him for this game and he delivered on all fronts with one full track, his guitars on my tracks and a little something in a cutscene.
Sam Silva I had mixed his saxophone on a TMNT: Shredder's Revenge song and so I got him to do some real life juicy sax on my track. He nailed it. As per usual!
cartridj is a guy I knew recently through Daan, and is also a super talented composer. One afternoon he just said "Hi" and sent me an unrequested pack, with some trumpet playing over my "Sunshine" track which I wholeheartedly appreciated. It's this type of passionate people every musician wants to surround himself with!
Emma Rose Williamson is the sister of Garret Williamson, another incredible composer, and I just absolutely love her voice and singing. We needed that in like 1 day, so I spoke with Garrett and they delivered what you hear. Fantastic work.
Also on Tee's "Unstoppable" track, he brought Johnny Atma to play drums and guitar. Johnny Atma is an unreal virtuoso. A true master of his craft, and once again, he delivered the goods. What a surprise! There are more, but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head.
What role did Kid Katana Records play in bringing everyone together?
AO : Kid Katana are great, fun, dynamic people and great to talk to, with a lot of movement in them, they make things move and keep them moving! They are masters of networking and connecting with other artists, and I would say they were crucial in getting this enormous cast of artists assembled and maintaining a smooth experience for everyone! It wouldn't have happened without them.
80 tracks, almost 4 hours of music, an incredible variety of genres… and yet, the whole thing sounds amazingly cohesive. How did you guys manage to lock in THE signature sound for Denshattack!?
AO : I take that as a big compliment. Like I said before, that's a big part of the mastering and especially mixing process, and one of the things I almost lost my mind trying to achieve.
Regarding us three in particular, I think that we naturally influenced and molded each other's music, through that friendly competition I spoke about earlier. Maybe Sean tried to make his music HIT more, be a little heavier and crazier? Maybe Tee tried going a bit more off the wall with styles and production techniques? Maybe I tried pushing myself out of the box completely and exploring unique things? Yeah, I think all those things happened! But nothing was pre-programmed, besides all the talks we had during production.
Am I crazy, or is the guitar melody on Glow Up a nod to the sax line in Tadow by FKJ and Masego? Even if it’s not, are there any cheeky little references hidden throughout the tracks?
AO : You know that's funny. I must have listened to that track 1000 times. I remember when it came out, the long session they had in the studio just playing. I loved that, shared it everywhere back then. Then the song version came out and I listened to it again repeatedly.
However, any similarity is completely unconscious as I didn't think about Tadow while making it.
Regarding cheeky little references, oh yeah..... there are quite a few, especially between me and Tee.
Your tracks often feature vocals (I’m thinking of "Sunshine in Seto Nakai", which I love, or "I Like The Way"). Do you use samples, sing them yourself, or bring in friends to record them?
AO : Those 2 tracks in particular are me singing the leads, exactly as you hear them, but I used software to change my voice tone, in the case of "I Like The Way" to a woman's voice. It actually became a little joke in our development Discord. "Here comes our favorite singer's new track" referencing me singing with a woman’s voice. But I also have my original voice spread out throughout a lot of my tracks. Some examples: in the OST version of Sunshine I actually added a 2nd verse with a lot of new harmonies and accents with my vocals. Also, on my collab track with Noble Demon, I scream from the top of my lungs in a kind of "Opera" tone. On Tee's "Densha ni notte ne!" the English gentleman speaking is me, and of course on the Bonus track, I rap in Portuguese, which takes me back to my origins.
Speaking of vocals, I need to know more about that incredible bonus track at the very end of the album. I’m familiar with Liqid’s rap career, but I definitely wasn't expecting so many surprises packed into one track! What’s the story behind the scenes?
AO : Liqid came to me a few times in private, months before the end of the project, saying he wanted to rap on a track of the game, maybe my track, in French. I said let's do it! After speaking about this a few times I told Tee about it and he was interested too. By this point, I had already made a version of the main map track with me rapping on it, in English, with a chorus of me singing (as a girl), which everyone really enjoyed.
But this only got going when it was really close to the deadline of the whole thing. So when Liqid actually sent me his finished verse (really close to final delivery) I knew we had to make this.
So I started making a special instrumental version of "Whenever You're Ready", assembled everyone quickly, told them what was needed, contacted Emma and Garrett, sent them the chorus I did with me singing, they returned it perfectly, got 2 Mello's verse, did my verse, got Tee's verse, cut everything as needed, asked Dan to quickly lay down some guitars, actually sang the guitar parts I had in mind to him, he gave them back perfectly and added some of his own, mixed it all, and there we have it! We got a multilingual worldwide funky hip-hop track!
To wrap things up, got any recommendations for us? What would you suggest listening to for anyone who fell in love with the Denshattack! OST?
AO : Well, we have the obvious OSTs of the Jet Set Radio games, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, some Persona. Maybe some 90's Prodigy albums from which I took a bit of inspiration, some UK garage (or 2-step as it used to be called). Some Jungle and Liquid Drum and Bass.
But in all honesty, the Denshattack! soundtrack is so unique and varied that I could probably name 100 different things and still not cover the whole spectrum of music this OST covers.
So, what I recommend is, keep listening to the Denshattack! soundtrack (which is equivalent to like 7 albums anyway) until the next one comes out..............! Maybe............?!!!!?
Support independent VGM journalism
NOWPLAYING is a publication dedicated to video game music news and the people who make it. If you enjoy my work, consider making a donation — it makes a real difference.
