I had the opportunity to conduct a follow-up interview with the singer-songwriter d4vdwho recently contributed to the American animated television series Invincible about some of his recent works and influences. You can read the first interview here.

H: Last time we talked about Naruto, Tokyo Ghoul and Jujutsu Kaisen, and you mentioned that you have a preference for “high-energy action” series. I want to ask: is anime the only “genre” you take inspiration from?

d4vd: Mostly shounen, action-based anime. That's what I grew up with. My dad—he showed me Dragon Ball, which was the first anime I watched, so I've been super into action anime since I started watching anime, but I also like a few anime about life somewhere, like Your In April, legendary Studio Ghibli animated movies like Spirited Away and the like, so the series is definitely going beyond shounen right now.

H: Have you gone deeper into it or are you sticking to your roots?

d4vd: I like to stay close to my roots. There are a lot of good shounen anime coming out right now, so I still like the action genre.

Q: We talked about your influences and how you like Minami and Tricot, and I think it's interesting to hear the contrast between the really anime-inspired music you make and your roots are indie.

d4vd: My inspiration comes from everywhere and I wasn't… well versed in musical taste very early on until I was 13 in middle school and found all these bands and then, you know, fell in love with anime and then fell in love with the artist who composed the soundtracks for those anime. It's interesting to see the styles that come from my own music when I listen to them and all the sounds kind of blend together and you can hear influences from all over—I especially like it when it comes to music. Japanese pop-and-rock because of the rhythm they use with the Japanese language and their way of finding new ideas and thinking creatively as a writer, according to the lyrics, is probably one of The best things I learned from it.

Q: Do you ever get inspired by soundtracks, movies or anime?

d4vd: Of course. Some of it—or, most of it, I should say—is actually like the standard soundtracks of the likes of Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer, like full orchestral and musical soundtracks. instrument that I try to get as many notes as possible because I'm trying to work more with live bands, violin and cello; and things are starting to click, so I'm trying to figure out how to be a real “musician” and not just an “artist.”

Ask: I noticed while listening to “Leave Her” that your songs don't always focus on'you', so to speak. There's often an equal power between your voice and the instrument, which I think is common in the films Hans Zimmer is in. [Lưu ý: Tuy nhiên, đây thiên về khía cạnh trộn âm thanh trong phim hơn]

d4vd: Yes, exactly.

Q: Lately, I think your music has evolved since we last spoke. “2016” has a late 2000s alt-rock feel.

d4vd: That's right.

Q: And “Leave Her” itself also feels a bit boring, similar to Tokyo Ghoul [Lưu ý: phần lớn đề cập đến các bài hát của TK]but I don't think that was the inspiration behind that.

d4vd: That right. I mean, we've tried to make sure that the inspiration comes in a way that's not too noticeable unless you're a fan of the things that I'm a fan of, which is why I'm glad you got it. see that because “2016” is a lot like 2005. And the problem with my music is [rằng] when I make those kind of songs, you can mute the intro of any shounen anime and put my song on top of it, and it fits perfectly. So that was my intention with these types of rock-bass songs.

Q: You're getting more out of the stylistic beats of these songs and these creators than just sampling or something.

d4vd: Yes, exactly.

Q: You've also recently attracted some attention of course for your contribution to a rather large animated series—namely Invincible. How do you feel about making it into a 'mainstream' animation?

d4vd: It's amazing—it's like something that I've been a fan of for such a long time, and you know, the Invincible soundtrack is perfect for me to express my love of animation and my love of singing, because because I basically started writing music for visuals. Like, I wrote “Here With Me” after watching Up, the Disney movie, so it had a feeling [rất] fits what I do naturally; and then having the opportunity to actually do it for a reality show was amazing.

Ask: Were you a fan of the comics or the show Invincible before work? It?

d4vd: It's really crazy, I had never read the manga before watching the movie. When I watched episode one, I thought “Oh, this is based on a manga” and immediately fell in love with the whole plot, and I started skipping and spoiling myself by going to the manga to see what happens in there. The next episode and the next season and all that, so it's a crazy story.

Ask: Was the song written specifically for the show?

d4vd: Yeah, I became friends with the music supervisor, Gabe Hilfer, and immediately fell in love with the group, and then I went and wrote songs in one day. It's about 45 minutes to an hour in the studio, and we're looking at that scene, trying to pin down every emotion that we can get out of Mark flying around with Amber, and then trying to match that one scene. the most perfect way possible; and the most important thing for me was to not only create a soundtrack for this theme from a background music perspective but also make it feel as if they were listening to that song in the actual show so that it felt even more natural than.

Thank you d4vd and his team for giving me the opportunity to discuss anime and its influence on his work, and hopefully in the future we can talk again.

Credit
d4vd
Interviewer: Sarcataclysmal
Support: Tamara Lazic (AnimeCorner)/Drew Ingall (The Oriel)
Photo by d4vd in profile picture: Nick Walker