You never know who’s going to show up in connection with a game project. Sometimes, this includes big named musicians involved in obscure titles. Take for example, former Guns ‘N’ Roses legendary guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thai and his involvement in the soundtrack for SEGA’s Wild Woody. Recently, Thai shared more about his experiences as the composer of Wild Woody’s soundtrack in an interview with NME.com.
The oddball game was developed by SEGA Multimedia Studio for SEGA CD and released in 1999. Featuring advanced concepts of 3D rendered cutscenes with motion capture animation, the game follows Wild Woody, a pencil come to life. He searches for totem pole segments that magically brought him to life. The segments broke apart and created their own worlds, threatening to destroy the “normal” world.
Unfortunately, the game had very limited success. Mostly having been panned by critics and players for clunky controls and ahead of its time visuals, its sales were underwhelmingly low. It also didn’t help that SEGA CD was on its way out.
Not a wooden tune
Despite being overshadowed by the negative reception, the game still had a killer soundtrack. And this was due to the composing genius of Thai. Keeping the songs as light and fluffy during the first parts of the game, and gaining intensity as the player erases their way to the end, it’s a hidden gem of the 90’s.
Thai’s journey to SEGA is a bit of a Cinderella story. His debut album came out 1995, a strange amalgamation of metal, prog-rock and flamenco. Its unique sound caught the attention of then – head SEGA of America’s audio department, Spencer Nilsen. Already a video game fan and programmer from a young age, Thai agreed to composing Wild Woody’s music.
Short on time, long on music
Unlike most game music departments, which usually have months to write their music, Thai only had 28 days to write and record the entire Wild Woody soundtrack. “I locked myself in my apartment in Staten Island NY for the month of February ’96 and every morning I’d write a song and record it in the afternoon. There was no time to second-guess or re-do, I ran with whatever the first instinctive idea was,” Thai told NME.
There were 16 levels, six animated transitions, five game-over songs and the title- ironically totaling 28 tracks. Each song represents the level in its own style, with a good mixture of everything that made the 90’s interesting. Take a listen to one of Thai’s ultimate favorites, “Yo Ho!” and hear for yourself.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of Thai’s musical gaming adventures. He also worked on the music for Of Bird and Cage, and he’s contributed tracks to the Test Drive franchise, Outlaw Volleyball and Rock Band. He is still wailing the riffs for Sons of Apollo and Asia.
