4 classic songs by Peter McConnell that you need in your Music Library
Composer extraordinaire, jazzcat and live performance artist, we recently spoke with Psychonauts 2 composer Peter McConnell and M4G asks what 4 hot tracks he enjoys from his vast repertoire of genius songs….
Check out a few of his favs and musical notes from his personal playlist:
Swanky Maximino (Grim Fandango)
Sometime in the early days of working at LucasArts, either on Monkey Island II or Full Throttle, a melody suddenly popped into my head. I thought “Wow, that’s got nothing to do with what I’m doing, but maybe someday there will be an opportunity to do a gangster tune,” so I wrote it down. A couple years later, along came a project called Grim Fandango, and the fit was perfect. Always loved the live performances on this one, especially Bill Ortiz on trumpet and Ralph Carney on clarinet.
Swanky Maximino (Grim Fandango)
Who Camel, Whoa (Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time)
A cartoon desert romp with a nod to Looney Tunes wackiness, “Whoa Camel, Whoa" was a barrel of fun to do from beginning to end. I’ll never forget recording it at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville. The trombonists were (ever so subtly) bouncing up and down during whole thing, really getting into the spirit of it.
Who Camel, Whoa (Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time)
Don’t Let Your Guard Down (Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft)
Hearthstone gave me a chance to do something I’ve always loved: fingerpicking an acoustic guitar. I built most of the Hearthstone pieces around a guitar part, adding percussion, live winds, strings and brass. This particular piece is one of my favorites because of the guitar part, which seems to me to evoke folk blues and something mediaeval at the same time.
Don’t Let Your Guard Down (Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft)
Meat Circus (Psychonauts)
Originally called “Big Top,” this piece is a Hollywood circus take-off infused with the sounds of Roma folk music which Tim Schafer gave me to listen to, which you can hear especially in my violin part. Sheldon Brown’s klezmer clarinet makes this one sing for me.