It’s very nice to meet you Shane Mesa, we’re aware that you do a lot of music-related content as an electrical music producer, but what lead you to make music for Oddity?

Well at the time I made music for MOTHER 4, so technically I only made music for MOTHER 4. That was the first time I actually got into making music, my first thing I ever did was a highschool symphonic composition for an entire wind ensemble. We played it on our spring concert and that was when I really got into music composition in general but that wasn’t really scale-able and it took forever to write. Having notes on paper for every single instrument wasn’t really that fun to do. My best friend Dani, who also works on the Oddity project, was looking around for video games to make music for. At the time he loved EarthBound, which was then followed up with the interview with Itoi where I recall he said Mr. Itoi just wanted to be the player. Everyone then assumed that Itoi wanted a MOTHER 4 by someone else, so everyone got to work on a MOTHER 4 or something like that…so there were all of these projects that were trying to make a MOTHER 4. What I did, and I would actually suggest this to anyone who is trying to get into video game music, is to make a song that would you think would fit into their game and just pitch to them if you have the time. Which is what I did to this other MOTHER 4 project, which my song was turned down. The creator informed me that she disliked the piece entirely. Instead of making another song, I took it to another project, which was under Chaisu and pitched it to him, and he loved it!

Did you study music or anything of the sort in college? Was there anything before college that drew you to music specifically?

No music in college, actually later on in life around 2014 I went to Berklee College of Music for a little bit and I dropped out because I wasn’t really learning anything. Not trying to insult anyone, but the music teachers are not working musicians, so it’s a little different and, I don’t know, it just seems like the school was a little bit behind and like I said I simply felt like I wasn’t learning anything. I honestly picked up music from listening or learning by ear. I loved music and I listened to music and the way I learned was by listening, and I feel this is the best way to learn. You don’t have to know music theory or anything…I guess it helps in some cases, but I’m not gonna dog on music theory. It’s interesting to know for sure, if you have an interest in the mechanics of music and how it works it can be really fascinating and exciting. Maybe that’s how some people learn, especially in the genre of jazz.

Out of all the MOTHER-related titles, which one spoke to you on a musical level? Was there any sort of zaniness that drove you to make the music you make now?

I believe Tanaka was the lead guy I think, I’m pretty sure he was the lead guy on EarthBound. I haven’t looked too deep into his life, but his music really inspired me. If he’s the guy that is responsible for the melodies and musical director for EarthBound, with how the music goes and certain sections and stuff then for sure, I would say EarthBound is one of those games. Tanaka is a brilliant man, and he’s a big inspiration of mine. So I would say EarthBound’s melodies and quirkiness because that’s where it all started that whole quirky music era right? EarthBound’s music is what got me to not be afraid of my own creativity and break some rules, because Tanaka sure broke a lot of rules.