Trust the First Note: Dale North on Musical Instinct and Emotional Composition

I’m Dale North. I'm a California boy that partially grew up in LA, Tokyo, back and forth. Tokyo, L.A., Tokyo, L.A. That kind of defined how I learned and made music. I always knew I loved video games and video game music. I've always wanted to write video game music. I remember, very specifically, telling my father at age seven this and he was probably like, “Sure, dude.” But, It did work out and so, I've been doing that for 14 or 15 years full time now. The first few of them were a bit off and the last 10 have been really rock solid, thankfully. I hope to do it as long as my hands and fingers and brain work (laughs).

I've worked for mostly independent game developers and publishers. I'm happy to just kind of be inserted wherever anyone wants my music, and I'm not really picky about who or where that is. Just happy to do the work. This is my soul.

I got into this to write music that moves people and I really love to write pretty music. Not everyone wants pretty music for their game though, so I will probably go the extra mile to sell it to them (laughs). If it's moving and it makes someone remember or feel something about the game they're playing, then that's huge for me.

It was really just playing games. It's one thing for you to be a kid and say that you want to do this. It's another thing to be a young adult and come out of school to say, “Hey, I really do want to do this. I'm going to kind of double down and commit and for me, it was just a few video games. “Lunar: The Silver Star story,” “Grandia,” which by the way, had the same composer Noriyuki Iwadare.

Basically, four or five games around the Sonic the Hedgehog era. At that point in my life, I had to decide what I was going to do. Playing those games, hearing those music and picturing myself in that space… Yeah, it was definitely that moment. That was so pivotal and I think about it a lot. I know that's not a very exciting answer, but it’s very personal to me.

When composing for video games, it's figuring out what the music is going to sound like, whether that be talking to someone about what they hope to get or me suggesting ideas to them. What that could be, it's so fun. More than anything. It's like there's no limit, you know? So, I look forward to the start of a project more than I think. It's like the new guy at work. The first day of school should be terrifying, but for me it's like, “Oh no, this is gonna be great!”

So yeah, easily, the best part is deciding what it's going to sound like.

Not usually because I'm very, very strong on trusting my gut. One of my first mentors, ever, instilled into me that I should go with my first instinct because creatively, that's probably your strongest. And that means so much to me. Now I’ll tell anyone the same thing. In fact, I just told someone this like 15 minutes ago. It really sticks when you feel it and when you try to express it, someone else will feel it.

And that's a resonating point where everyone thinks, “This is something, you know?” That usually comes from trusting your gut. There are times when I’m asked to change directions, but generally I try not to because I think that initial inspiration is so special. Sometimes you have to talk your clients into that. It can go either way, but I think most people are responsive to it.

The most rewarding has been really recent. I can't talk about it a lot yet, but I can say that it's working for a creator who I'm a fan of and I really respect him. Out of nowhere that creator called me. The company, the entire staff had decided that I would be best for that project and with no prompting, just reached out to me and since then it's been a couple years. That amount of trust in me in what I do, it just meant the world. I've written a lot of music for this project so far and it's gone really well.

This game will be announced soon. I think it's something pretty special, but it literally happened in the way that I dreamed it would happen: getting a call out of the blue because they respect what you do and they want your own brand of music. That's huge for me. No matter how this game turns out I don't think I'll ever forget how great that felt to be called.

Having an international upbringing and kind of coming from both coasts I always kind of wondered how much I would fit in (musically). WHISTLER has facilitated conversations in my work, and working alongside people who I like and some of them long time friends has just made it feel a lot more concrete to be a composer working in an international kind of scope and view.

And I feel like I have some kind of home base when I'm technically away from California so it's meant a lot. It continues to be something that's really valuable to me. My agent in America, who I’ve known for a long time, we've been friends a long time and WHISTLER, everyone involved, decided that it would be best for me in my career path if we can figure out a way where we could all work together. WHISTLER is extremely accommodating and continues to be super integral to a lot of stuff that's going on with me right now. It is one of those things that feels like it's been a long time coming. It's working out beautifully.