Video Gamers Podcast - Making the Music - Ft. Rachel Hardy – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan sit down with the incredible Rachel Hardy, the voice behind some truly unforgettable music in gaming. From creating powerful songs for video games to the process of bringing emotion and storytelling to life through music, Rachel takes us behind the scenes of her work. We talk gaming, her journey as an artist, and what it’s like creating music that sticks with players long after they put down their video games. Music, laughs, and plenty of gaming talk with one seriously talented guest on the Video Gamers Podcast! (P.S. Please follow Rachel on all platforms it helps out artists more than you know! -Ryan)   https://www.rachelhardymusic.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcxZOARrMHXpKCsP4WnJLAQ https://www.instagram.com/rachelhardymusic/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://x.com/rachelhardy306?lang=en     Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps, Bobby S, NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp, DingusKhaaan and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: Milkman, Drewsky, Jigglepuf and BadGam3rDad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@videogamerspod Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod     Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Discover coffee plus on nispresso.com. All right, well, let's check this out. Also, Rachel Hardy, I didn't know this until we started doing research for this episode. Rachel Hardy, shout out to you. I mean, if you ever want to come on the podcast, because her voice, honestly, in gaming is iconic at this point. I'd no idea how many video game songs that are so impactful that she has sung. She does a ton of covers, too. She's got a bunch of cool Skyrim stuff and all kinds of stuff. She's got an amazing voice. for people that remember that have been around for a while when we interviewed Hair Brain Studios,

the Graft, the makers of Graft, which is coming out, we talked, go look up the trailer. We don't have it built into this episode, but go look up the trailer for Graft. And there is one of the most

bangers songs for the trailer for Graft. And that's Rachel Hardy. And we talked to the developers about that. And if you remember, they were like, bro, she's incredible, dude.

Like the fact that she made that song just for the trailer of Graft was not. nuts, dude. So Rachel Hardy, shout out to you. Hello, fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast. Music and games and movies is what takes them from a passive viewing experience to something that resonates through time. We recently talked about gaming moments that gave us goosebumps. We've talked about iconic game music and more, but what does it take to actually make the music we all love so much? Who are the people that help us make the memories? Well, on today,

episode, we've got a very special guest who has been directly responsible for making some of our favorite moments possible. Before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh, and joining me, he wanted to open the episode with a brand new solo track called I'll probably give it a try. Hit it, Ryan! Oh, God. Nope, you're not going to get anything out of me. Come on. your big moment.

No. Like you said, put me on the spot. What are you trying to do to me? Oh, man. That's too. All right. I had to do it, Ryan. I had to.

So. And joining us. She's a modern day bard whose voice has graced many of the games we know and love. She's worked alongside some of the most iconic people to ever create video game music. And, well, she's kind of an icon herself. It's Rachel. Rachel Hardy. Well, hi.

How you doing, Rachel? Good. How are you? You weren't ready for that intro, where? No, I'm so much energy. I'm like, I don't know if I could meet this level of energy here. Somebody once called me a caffeinated golden retriever, and I think that's the best description somebody has ever had for me. It fits. It fits.

I'll get there. I'm currently re-caffeinating, so give me a couple more minutes. and then I'll be at that level. There you go. Well, welcome into the show. Thank you so much for being willing to come on and chat with Ryan and I about just gaming and music and, you know, what it's like to kind of combine those two. I will be the first to say that I have zero musical talent. I tell a story that I got kicked out of third grade band.

Oh. People have heard this before. But I legitimately took trumpet lessons for an entire year when I was in third grade. And then I finally was like, okay, you're ready for band. And I went to band. I remember being very excited because we got to ride the bus and go to the high school. Sure, boss. Yeah.

And then they kicked me out. They said, I remember like after practice, the band director came up and said, hey, you're not ready. And I don't know. There's three buttons, dude. There's three buttons on a trumpet. I don't know. I'm not musical, man.

And what grade? What grade was that? Third grade. So I was, I was like, seven or eight? You're out. Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, this was, to be fair, this was the 80s.

No big deal. Oh, here it goes. Oh, here it goes. Yeah, Ryan can sing a little bit and he plays instruments and he's great of karaoke. No, no. So we'd love to get to know just a little bit more about music. You know, we just. We just covered Yeldrum in a recent episode when we talked about gaming music.

And so that was really incredible. We interviewed Hairbrain Studios for Graft, which is honestly the first time that I had ever heard, like, your voice. And I remember talking to those guys and saying, like, hey, where did you guys get this trailer for this game? Because it's one of the most like, banger trailers I've ever heard. And they were like, oh, that's, is it John Everett? Is that the name, right?

Yeah. John Everett. So that was John Everett. and Rachel Hardy, and I was like, this thing's insane, man. This is so good. And then when we did our gaming music episode and Yeldrum, I saw your name again. And I was like, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

And then that's what led to this episode, thankfully. Crazy. Wow. Yeah. So let's start off by getting to know a little bit. We are a gaming podcast. And one of the things we always like to ask people is, you know, How did you get into gaming? How did I get into gaming?

So actually, the very first job I ever got, like, connected to a video game was when I was about, I think it was like 16, 15 or 16 years old. Like, I was in school still. And I got like a vocal commission for a video game that was called remothered, tormented fathers. It was like a horror game, really scary. And so I got a commission to, like, co-write. this old piece. It was supposed to sound like it was from the 40s. And then I sang that. And that was kind of like the first time I dipped my toes into games. And then I was heading towards film. Like, I just didn't really think about pursuing games further at that point

in my life. I started pursuing film music. I really wanted to get into film. And then I kind of fell back into games by accident. I was asked to write some songs for a game that unfortunately, never came out, but I wrote some songs for them, and then they asked if I wanted to work at their company in-house, and I moved to Seattle, and I was a music supervisor and composer for this studio that was working on a AAA game that unfortunately did get canceled. And so I just learned a ton while I was there, and I was like, this is super fun. I fell in love with just the process of making games and game music and interactive music and all of that kind of stuff.

And ever since, I've just been gay music. That's awesome. And you are a gamer yourself, so I think that kind of helps as far as combining these two interests for you. Yes. Yeah, totally. What kind of games do you like?

Ooh, I will play anything. I'm a very, like, curious gamer. I haven't really found, like, the type of game that is my type of game. But I kind of like that. I kind of like that. just doing everything. I'm best at like kind of like strategy.

Like I'm playing a lot of city builders right now. I'm playing Manor Lords a ton right now. I love those kinds of games, like the more laid back games that aren't so. Sweaty. Yeah, sweaty. Exactly. Yeah.

But I do like playing those kinds of games too. I'm just not especially good at them sometimes. But it's still fun. Yeah. Absolutely. What would you say is, what's the best one you've played, you know, in recent, you know, the last few months or something like that that you've won through? And then I guess what would be your favorite of all time if that's this recent one or something just ever?

I don't know if I have a favorite of all time. I have been asked that question many times before I'm not. I don't think I have one. It fluctuates, right? Does it kind of change like day to day? Yeah. Yeah. But let's see.

There's one game that I played about a year ago that I feel really kind of flew under. the radar. But you guys should definitely check it out if you haven't already. It's called Hauntie, H-A-U-N-T-I-I. I've never heard of this. Yeah, it was... Google Machine Go. I found it from the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is outstanding. And it was so good that I was like, I need to play this game. And I played the game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a very laid-back, fun experience, and just a lot of memorable moments. I really enjoyed it. It's kind of like a puzzle, puzzle game. Like, you need to, um, twin stick shooter and adventure game with puzzle elements is how it's described. Oh, wow. Is that accurate? I've never heard of this. That's accurate. Yeah. I was just, I was just starting to try to figure out how to describe it. I was like, I don't even know. But yeah, it's very quirky, very unique. Um, I really,

really enjoyed it. And I met the devs at, uh, GDC a couple years ago. And they were all such nice people. They were great. Oh, that's awesome. Look at it. This game looks really cool. This is cool. Ace is going to lose his mind over this too. I was going to say, because this is such an Ace game.

This is such a check it out. Yes. He always will send, we have a group chat in our Discord and he'll always send us links to these crazy Steam games with like three reviews. And we're like, Ace, what are you doing, man? And some of them actually turn out to be pretty dang good.

But yeah, he's always sending us this crazy stuff. But yeah, he's going to love this. Yeah, this one deserves so much love. The music is by a composer named Michael Kirby Ward. And it is just next level.

It is so much fun. Especially if you play it because it's very interactive music. It changes a lot according to your gameplay. So yeah, it's just a great, great experience. Check it out if you can. Okay. Now you just said something that I want to ask about because, you know, obviously we did a little research on you. You know, you're coming on the show.

We want to know who we're talking to and stuff like that. But this, you just kind of mentioned that the game changes, like depending on what you're doing, like the music in the game changes. And if I'm correct, this is something that's very near and dear to your heart and kind of what you do with gaming and music. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah. So I've, you know, at my last job, I was working as a music supervisor or like a music designer. So majority of my job was implementing music into the game and finding really interesting ways to make more memorable kind of gameplay experiences for the player by using the music.

So it's one of those things that kind of people don't always notice when they're playing, which is probably a good thing because the point in using music to create interesting experiences is to do it sneakily sometimes. You know, if you're playing an RPG, when you're in combat, you want the music to reflect how stressful the situation is at the time. So if the player flees, runs away, you want the music to adjust in a smooth manner rather than just kind of like, cross fading out or, you know, awkwardly kind of transitioning to something else. So there's a real art to it. And it's something that I'm just, I'm really into, really passionate about it. Okay, because this fascinates me. And I'll be honest, like I said, I'm an idiot when it comes to music.

So like, so when you're doing this, because, you know, we've all played these epic games. And I think if people, and I love what you said about it, it shouldn't really be noticeable, right? Like you feel it necessarily, but it's like you don't want it to be like jarring, like a jarring transition or something like that. So when you are doing that, are you like actually looking at the gameplay like at the same time and going like, oh, like, okay, well this is like, how do you combine the two? Because games go through so many things and they have the player like, you know, people are controlling what's happening on screen and stuff like that.

So how do you like go like, hey, during this moment, we want to kind of bring it up some. And then if this happens, we want to bring it down some. Like, are you watching gameplay? Are you seeing, like, choices? Like, how does that tie together? It's fascinating me. And I have no idea how many of this would happen. Yeah, totally.

Yeah. It's always a balance of figuring out what are the moments that you want to support. Because there is such thing as doing too much. You need to kind of figure out what are the most important things that we want to highlight or, you know, change in the music. And focus on those things. And yes, it's watching a lot of gameplay, doing playtests, getting feedback. Also just like playing a game yourself a lot to feel what the experience is like. It's a little tricky when you're actually working on the music to not get into your behind-the-scenes brain because you know how it all functions under the surface.

And so sometimes you need to kind of separate yourself from that and just play it and try to experience it as a player would experience it. it, which can be tricky. Yeah. I bet. I mean, you can tell in a lot of games, I mean, there's so many that when you, when you haven't thought about it, you know that they did a good job. Like, you just know when you hear that music, you couldn't, you couldn't really recall it offhand, but when you hear it, you know it's time to panic or a boss is coming

or something else. A cinematic's about to start. You can feel it and it connects with you, which I think is so cool. And it's cool to hear, like, the behind the scene stuff of all the work you put in just to tie those things together. Like, that's so neat how much goes into just what the music means for that scene or that situation within a video game. That can be, you know, you can do a million different things, you know, in these games a lot of times. So I'm sure it's so much work. Yeah.

I will also say, like, a music designer can only do so much. Like, the composer has to do a lot of that work as well. So the more the composer kind of knows and understands about music design and the more that they can write with the design in mind, the better those things are going to work and transition. I love working with composers who know how it all works. And so they send all their assets and everything's named properly and it just makes sense. Like, I know exactly how it needs to be implemented. Usually you would have a meeting with the composer and work all those things out together. But yeah, it also takes, you know, game composers are different than film composers

and that they do need to understand how the interactive systems work behind the scene so that they can write specifically for them. You're making my job easy here, Rachel, because one of the questions I literally had for you was like, explain it like I'm dumb, right? Like composer, designer, technical supervisor, like I was doing some, like, I was doing some, like, you know, some research on just game music. And it's like, I'm seeing all these different terms. And it's like, I know what a composer is. You know, that's the guy that's like helping to like, you know, making the music, right? Like, you know, not a conductor, but a composer who's

coming up with this. But like, what's the difference? Like, what is, what's the difference between like a music designer versus a composer versus like a technical director versus whatever else there is in this industry? Well, I will say that it's usually only head of, not always, but it's usually only AAA companies, big games that will have a dedicated like music supervisor or a music lead or something like that to oversee specifically the music systems. Often, especially with smaller games, it's the audio director and they kind of, like, you know, they'll implement the music and they'll talk to the composer about how the systems will work. But maybe the music systems will just get a little less attention and the composer would

probably have to pull a little more weight in that situation where they'd have to come up with more ideas of how the music should work and communicate that with the audio director. So you don't always have that person in the middle to give the music a lot of attention. But I think a game can always benefit from music design. Oh, yeah. But I'm biased. So the person in the middle is that the director that goes from the composer?

closer to the designer or like what's the what's the hierarchy I guess yeah so usually you know if there is a music supervisor or musically they would be um in between the audio director who is kind of in charge of the audio of the game all the audio okay um which includes music and sound effects and all everything you know so the audio director is kind of at the top the top right above them above them would be like creative director and and those sorts of things then audio director If there's a music supervisor or a music lead, that's usually below the audio director. So, you know, they're communicating with the people within the studio, the audio director, maybe the narrative director, art, you know, programming, all those sorts of things. And then the composer, sometimes there's a composer in-house, but more often the composer is external to the

developer. Yeah. Does that kind of make sense? So the composer would talk to a music lead, they would talk to the audio director. I have the sickest like gaming music pyramid in my head right now of like how well goes down. Yeah. You have to like visualize it. Yeah.

It's like, all right, here, here, here, here, here. Yeah. And it doesn't always work like that. You know, each company has has their own way of doing things. But that's probably the most common, common way that things work. Yeah. We got to, we got to interview Tobias Lilja, who was the composer for Little Nightmares at one point.

And so it was really cool to kind of talk to him because Little Nightmares is such like a horrory game, like where it's got, it's got this like, it's eerie. It's got the horror elements. It's got kind of the surprise elements. And he was really cool to kind of pick his brain and kind of go like, what? Like, what does a composer do? Like, how do you come up with this stuff? And he gave us, you know, some demos of like, you know, he was telling us about a story where it's like, you know, you got a pack of cards and you like drag something across the pack of. cards and it makes this kind of shrieking sound and it's eerie and our brains don't like it,

you know, that kind of thing. And it was just really cool to kind of get some insight. And I mean, as gamers, you know, we love these games. We love the experience. We love the stories, the music, the gameplay, you know, all that stuff. But I think we don't understand a lot of the nuance that goes into it. We just know, hey, we really like this and maybe we didn't like that so much kind of thing. And it's why it's always like really fascinating for us. and our listeners to kind of get this peek behind the curtain a little bit to go like, this is how it all happens. You know,

there's a lot of, you know, ins and outs and technical things and people that don't necessarily get the limelight a lot of times into making these experiences that we love so much. And then occasionally we get something. Now, I got to ask you, have you played Expedition 33? I have not.

Oh, here we go. Here we go. Okay. Well, okay. Well, number one, we've got to fix this, number one, because, oh, my goodness. I've heard it's excellent. It is unbelievable. It is on my list.

I just haven't gotten to it quite yet. It looks great and has great music. I'll tell you that much. Ryan's not a fan of turn-based combat. So he's like, he loves parts of the game, but he's like, I don't like the combat. We'll have to talk after this about getting you to play Expedition 33 because it is unbelievable, like unbelievably good. But I think, like, that is a good. recent example where the music in that game, Lillian Tustard, you know, he kind of came to the forefront

with this because it was like the music in this game is so unbelievably good throughout the entire game, you know, the people really started to notice. And, you know, people love soundtracks and OSTs and stuff like that. But this was, I think, where at least in recent memory, where we had a game that came out blew everybody away. And for the first time in a while, and again, you know, there's certain games that do kind of stand above others where it was just the music in this game is unbelievable. And we loved seeing that like people actually noticed like that aspect and were fascinated in how did this come around.

And so there were these documentaries and kind of videos and stuff showing how like he went about creating the music for this game. And, you know, there was the, they found him all. on SoundCloud. So he was not really well known before all this and stuff like that. So it was really fascinating story to kind of get that glimpse into this aspect that people love, but we don't necessarily get to talk about all the time either. So I guess, you know, in your, in your opinion, now you mentioned the hauntie as being a

game that you love, but is there a game that stands out to you as being like, this is, this is the best soundtrack. This is the best music in a game. I don't know if you can tell. I don't do well with the like, what is the best blank. That's fair. That's fair. I don't have a favorite film soundtrack. I don't think I have a favorite game soundtrack. I don't have a favorite game. Like, I don't know. Maybe I'm just, maybe I just haven't found the one yet. But no, there's so many great soundtracks. Let me think about that for a second. I'll say mine is Expedition 33. And as crazy as that sounds like, You know, I mean, I grew up, you know, Halo, the Halo soundtrack and that music is, is legendary.

You know, there's a lot of these, like I said, we just covered, you know, five songs in a game where it really just hit in a certain moment kind of thing and really made that moment in a game. Yeah. But I, there's not many games where I went around, like, playing it in my house and in my car, like, on the way to work, like, listening to video game music. And I mean, I'm a gaming nerd, you know, but like that was the first time where I was like, this soundtrack's so good that, like, I'm legit. legitimately playing it, like, throughout the day at the same time. Oh, we just lost Ryan. We lost Ryan. Oh, no.

Oh, no. So, yeah, if you have not played Expedition 33, and I know you do a game, you know, and it's a, that game. It's on my list. I will play it. Yeah. I will say, like, I don't know if I would say this is my favorite game soundtrack of all time, but I will say, like, the soundtrack that kind of opened my eyes to game. music because I was very into film music.

Starting when I was in about middle school, I was just obsessed with film soundtracks. But the soundtrack that kind of opened my eyes to game music, my brother wanted the game Journey for Christmas. I don't know if you played Journey before. I haven't played it, but I know a lot about it. Yeah, you should check it out sometime. It's not too long of a game. You could knock it out in an afternoon, I think.

But yeah, so I got my brother Journey for Christmas. and I watched him play it. And I remember just being, like, amazed with the music. I was like, wow. Like, I didn't know that game. I guess in my head, you know, I was in probably middle school at this point. In my head, game music was like when I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my Game Boy growing up. That's what I think of, which Sonic the Hedgehog music is great, by the way.

That was not a dig at Sonic the Hedgehog music. I love it. But you know what I mean? Like, in my head, I had kind of the eight-bit type music. And so when I watched my brother play Journey, I was like, wow, this is like, this is like the film soundtracks I listen to. This is incredible. Yeah, it's, it's heightening the experience and it's memorable almost. Like you feel it, you know. Yeah, it was like, it was like an emotional experience. And so that was kind of the first time I was like, oh, this is really cool. Game music is kind of cool.

It's funny because you mentioned like the music going to moments and kind of adapting. And the first thing I thought of was, and I hate this so much because it gives me so much anxiety, but like the sonic drowning music. Yeah. I don't know if you remember. I don't know the last time you've heard that song, but like if you hear it, it literally makes you like anxious. And I'm not an anxious person at all. Anxiety inducing. Doesn't the tempo speed up or something?

It's just like. It's the worst. It literally makes you go like, no. Like I hate every part of this whatsoever. Yeah. But it does its job. That's exactly what is meant to do is make you realize. that time is running out.

All right, Rachel, one of the things, this blows my mind. And this has to be like one of the coolest experiences that I think somebody can have with what you do. But when you were working on Absalom with Gareth, you know, this, this absolutely, and I had to double check this because I was like, there's no way. There's no way. So, but you got to work with Gareth, which in and of itself, now for people that don't know, Gareth is responsible for Ori and the Blind Forest and Ark for some of the music there. But then just this little, you know, this little trio of other people that you got to work with.

So like, Mick Gordon, Yuka Kitamura and Motoy Sakaraba? Like, is this real? Like, did this actually happen? So they all worked on Absalom. Unfortunately, I don't, I've never gotten to speak with any of. them. So I didn't get to, I didn't get to work with them personally, but our names are on the same sound check, which is cool. That is pretty cool. And hopefully one day, I will meet them and talk to them and, you know, all that cool stuff. That's insane. You just show them the credits

be like, look, we're right here. We're here together. See, we're friends. This means we're friends, right? Yeah. Yeah. It amazes me that like an indie company, because, you know, the thing with Indies is, you know, we always say, and this is why we, you know, we have a dedicated indie episode that we do all the time. Ace is, you know, a big indie guy. You know, and it's one of these things where it's like, one of the things that we love about Indies is that they put so much emphasis on like the feeling, right, the music. I mean, most indie games like Hollow Night, Expedition 33 that we were just talking about, you know, journey that you were just talking about before recording was, was like, you know, there's these games in these indie studios that make

these incredible games. But this. focus on their music is what really kind of brings them to life a lot of times. And then it's just crazy to think that like, you know, Absalom is a phenomenal game, but like how you get Mick Gordon, Yucacitamura, and, you know, Motoy Sakaraba involved in that is is absolutely fascinating at the same time. Yeah. And so this kind of leads into the, like, how does it work? Like, how does, you know, if somebody comes to you and says, hey, Rachel, you know, like, like for instance,

graft, right? Because I, I, I can love that song. I'm a big fan of EDM, number one, grew up in the 80s and the 90s,

you know, I've been to my share of raves and it was just, you know, the height of techno back then and stuff, and it stuck with me. So it's like, I love that kind of vibe. And so,

you know, that song really, I just really like, because it suits my taste as well. But like, do people just reach out to you? Is this something where like you reach out to them? Like,

how does that actually work? Like, how do you get a job? I guess, in the music industry, when it comes to gaming. For most of the things I've done vocals for or written for, it comes from just personal connections that I have to people in the industry. So, you know, when I'm talking to someone who wants to get started in the industry, I always tell them, like, connections are key.

Because it is a very small industry. The game's industry is pretty small. And so the more people you can, like, genuinely connect with, the better. In the case of graft, John literally just hit me up and was like, hey, can you write like some kind of cyberpunkky type vocals for this? I have no idea what, like, what made him think of me?

I know clue at all because I do covers on YouTube as well as like a side gig. And I'm kind of known for doing kind of like fantasy, ethereal, like, kind of like, very pretty music. I love your Dragonborn cover. Oh, thank you. It's so good. Yeah. So, yeah, when he reached out and he was like,

hey, can you do this kind of like grungy, like cyberpunkky type stuff? And I was like, are you, did you call the wrong person? Like, did you think I was someone else? Or like, what? Like, I have no idea what made him think of me. But I was like, yes, I do want to do that.

Let's do that. That sounds great. And so I think I sent him back the, like, basically what is the final draft within the next day or two. Like, it just came super easy. I sent it back to him and I was like, oh, I can change the lyrics. I could change whatever. Like, just let me know.

He was like, no, it's good. This is fine. I was like, okay. That's awesome. One take. Yeah, so it worked out. And then that graft song led to some more jobs as well, stuff that hasn't come out, so I can't talk about it quite yet.

But it does kind of work like that. you know, you keep people in mind people who would be good for this or that. You know, I've always got kind of a list of musicians and composers that I know have different strengths. And so I'll hit them up if something comes up that's not right for me or if I need an instrumentalist or something like that, you know, and vice versa. People kind of, I don't know, people within the industry just kind of hire each other for different things. Kind of figure out who you like working with, who you vibe with. that kind of thing and then say, hey, like, this project sounds like they'd be a perfect fit for it. That's really interesting to me.

Because, like I said, I've always wondered, is it like, like, we've interviewed a lot of voice actors, right? And so the voice acting community is very, very competitive where it's like, you know, you have thousands of people that are all vying for like this one role, you know? And then it's like, so that is like, you know, you're submitting, you know, 500 samples in a month to go like, hey, I want this, I want this gig. And the competition is so fierce. And then it's neat to see kind of with like with the music side of things that it is this kind of tighter knit, you know, people know each other and you keep each other in mind. And like you said,

one phone call from John to say, hey, you want to do some vocals. And then, you know, you've got this awesome song on a trailer. So for people that don't know, you do a lot of vocals. And, you know, you brought this up. But anybody that has not seen your YouTube, number one, absolutely needs to do that. We'll put a link in the episode description for people. But your voice is incredible. Like honestly, like just plain and simple, you have an incredible voice. I think it's- Oh, he was talking to me. He was talking about it.

Sorry, Rachel. This is Ryan's segment of the show right now. Well, let's hear it, Ryan. No, no, no, no. Give us a little taste. I've been told it's a combination of Fergie and Jesus, but, you know. With a touch of Kermit thrown in there as well. There you go.

But, you know, I love fantasy. I grew up, like, you know, loving fantasy. the Lord of the Rings is like my favorite trilogy ever. Me too. I just love this stuff, man. I love this stuff. It's my go to bed movie. Lord of the Rings.

For sure, go to bed movie. Yeah. So to hear you singing these just ethereal songs, like that's my vibe. Like honestly, you know, so it's like I love that kind of vocals. Again, I'm a big fan of EDM. So like you get a lot of those, I call it angelic. You know, these angelic kind of ethereal vocals in like trance and stuff like that.

Which I absolutely love. You know, so like, when did you realize you have this, like, great voice? Like, you know, you mentioned when you were a teen that you were kind of doing some vocal gigs and stuff like that? Like, when did you, like, realize like, hey, wait, I think I might have, like, a talent for this? Well, that's actually kind of a funny story because the reason, the actual reason I started my YouTube channel is because I tried out for my school's vocal jazz group in high school. As I was going into high school, I tried out for it. I did not get in. And then I tried.

Yeah, look at me now. I auditioned again the year after, and I did not get in. And so I, at the time, I was like, maybe, like, I was like, am I one of those people where I think I can do something? But, like, I'm actually tone deaf and no one wants to tell me, you know? Like those American Idol audition? Yeah, yeah. I was sorting to question. I was like, you know, what's going on?

Like, I don't know. I thought I was completely delusional. But anyway, I decided to start my YouTube channel as kind of a way to keep practicing and kind of also just kind of document my progress, I guess, as I learned to sing a little better because I really enjoyed singing. And I wanted to do it, like, because I enjoyed doing it. So I started making videos, and then one of those videos kind of blew up. I did a song from The Hobbit when The Hobbit came out.

and I was, I think, 16. This was back in like 2013. So that kind of blew up and I was like, well, I guess I'll keep doing this. I, even to this day, I don't feel like I am a professional singer, honestly. I don't have a very strong voice. I don't, I can't belt. I can't do these things that professional singers should be able to do. And yet, I've somehow kind of found a little pocket in the industry where my vocals fit in for certain situations. And when those opportunities come up, I really enjoy participating in them. So I think, you know, like I mentioned, everyone in this industry kind of always has ideas of someone who would be good for this or that.

It's with vocalists, each vocalist has something very unique because your voice is your voice. And so I've just happened to find my pocket in the industry. And, yeah, I don't know. That's amazing. Well, I mean, my wife will kill me for saying this, but Taylor Swift can't really sing either, and she's a billionaire. Brian's always trolling his wife about Taylor Swift, man.

I'll make sure she listens to this part. There's a lot of very famous, famous artist singers who you could say, can't sing. Yeah. Bob Dylan, he basically just talks, but you did great. So, you know what? Just because you're not, you know, a certain type of singer.

Like, when I was younger, I always wanted to be like a Christina Aguilera singer. I am not. I don't think I ever will be. I don't think that's ever going to happen no matter how much I practice. And that's okay. Like, you know, just because you're not a certain thing doesn't mean you can't find a space for what you can do, I guess. Absolutely. I noticed the instruments in your background there.

But on top of being a vocalist, you're also somewhat of a musician. I did see a little video of you playing the hurdy-gurdy, which is my favorite word to say, by the way. It's hurdy-gurdy. So like, you know, do you have like a preferred instrument, like one that you, you know, is a guitar? Like, you know, like I said, on top of some people can sing, but they can't play anything. And you have this talent where you can kind of do both. So do you have a favorite instrument that you enjoy playing? Well, I did go to University for Music.

And when you go to University for Music, you have to audition. Even though I was taking composition, you still have to audition on something. So I auditioned on piano. So I can play piano pretty decently. I like to say that everything else I can play like a composer. So I can play it well enough to get like one good take. Yeah. But could I ever like perform in front of an audience on a guitar?

No. So, yeah. Piano it is. Piano it is. That's more than I can do. I can't. I hope that I get to a level with the hurdy-gurdy where I'm good at playing performance-wise.

That's my goal. I love the hurdy-gurdy. It's great. It is a good word. It's the best. Is it considered a stringed instrument? Yeah. It's considered a stringed instrument, right?

I think so. Yeah. Because it's basically a violin, but with extra steps. Yeah. Yeah. Violin's my favorite instrument. I think it and cello, like, I'm a strings, like, I don't know what it is about strings that I just absolutely love. But that's probably my, no.

No. I got too late. I got kicked out of third grade band, man. I've never looked back. They gave him a recorder and they're like, yeah, you can't even do this. Yeah. Carry, carry on. Oh, it's not good.

Trust me. That's my wife. Occasionally I'll go around the house singing a little bit, and she's like, yeah, no. She's like, I like that you try, but this isn't your talent at all. It's okay. You know, know yourself, right? Yeah, I love music and I love instruments, and I have a ton, but I also don't have the patience to sit and practice.

Yeah. So that's, it takes consistent practice. That's the hard part, is doing it consistently and regularly. that's the that's the tricky part dude covid times i think i bought a guitar in like two ukuleleys and then i bought a couple other things and yeah it's they all just sit in the sit put away for for the next covid yeah there you go no i don't want to jinx it right you say you love music i do love music how uh how good do you think you know music start the theme music dun da da da da da da da how good i mean i may have put together a little game for you too, that I want to put Ryan on the spot. And Rachel just a little bit too. But what I have

done, what I have done, I'm sorry I'm springing this on you guys, but I have put together some snippets of songs. And it is a race to see who can identify the song. And you get bonus points if you know the actual name of the song. Now, I will say these are not very difficult. I try to make this easy for, you know, both of you to not make it too awkward on you, as well as our listeners so that they would kind of be able to identify some of these, too. So you say that, but now watch neither of us at any. We're just going to stare at the screen. I have a couple that I'm like, okay, I don't know if they're going to know this one,

but I know the answers to these because I created the game. So what's the music coming from, though? What is it, is it, is it games or is it, what is it? It's mostly games, but there are a few movies in here, too. So there's a couple, like, iconic. movie and again these are just short little like 10 to 15 seconds snippets what are we buzz in with what's you just say it just if you know it you just yell it out and then I'll be like okay yeah all right are you guys ready we're gonna do the first one here here we go oh god here we go I that was so

close that was really close that was so close I took to the voice I'm really sad that it took till the the vocals came in for me on that one but yeah that's yeah I'm rich I'm impressed because I didn't know if you knew God of War on this one or not. Oh, yes, of course. Point for Rachel on that one, since she knew that one, even the Ryan might have said it first. Okay. Point for Rachel on this. It was the leg, because I'm in Canada.

Yeah, that's right. It takes longer for the answer to travel. All right, here we go. Number two. Maybe. I think it has queue up for a second here. Zelda. Oh.

Which? What's it from, Ryan? Link to the, no. Oh, Prunia T's hot? Or length of the past. It's the Great Fairy song. Oh. But Ryan got it.

Ryan got Zelda, so we'll give that one to Ryan. Okay. Yep, that was the Great Fairy. The Great Fairy from Legend of Zelda. Okay. All right. All right. Here we go.

So it's one to one. All right. The next one up here. Peter Pan. Oh, E.T. E. Yes. Oh, it is a T.

T. Yes. I love the soundtrack. This soundtrack was the first. soundtrack that I remember remembering as a kid. I remember watching E.T. and just being like, oh, and I was probably like four. I don't know why I was allowed to watch E.T.

when I was that young, but. Oh, I remember seeing E.T. in the movies and literally bawling my eyes out as a kid because he's like in the ditch, you know, and you think he's dying. And I remember just being, like, sobbing as a kid. And my parents were like, it's, it's okay. It's just a movie. And I was like, ah, this is the one that like everybody knows, but they don't know. It's like, I know that. But what's it from kind of thing?

Yeah. Well, for that little intro part, I was like, it's John Williams. But I was just waiting for like which John Williams is it? This is what I love because on a few of these and as I was putting these together, like John Williams, the strings, right? Like you can kind of just identify because he has the heavy emphasis on the strings. And there may be another movie one in here that maybe puts emphasis on something else here. All right. So it's two to one.

Rachel's in the lead. All right. Here we go. Here's the next one. For now. For now. Yeah, Did you not get that?

At the beginning. What part of Harry Potter's that from? That's Hedgewick's theme. It just took a while for the theme to come in. Because at first, like, again, with the intro, I was like, Hogwarts Legacy, but then I was like, I don't remember this in a Hogwarts Legacy. No, yeah, with that great game, by the way.

Hogwarts Legacy is great, yeah. All right. Beautiful world in that game. Dang it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very immersive.

Yeah. All right. Now, I'm going to say this. I have two of these. This might be what I consider one of the most beautiful songs ever, but I don't know if people know this. Rachel, you might know this

because I feel like it kind of fits your vocals on this one. So if you guys don't know this one, don't feel bad, but you might. So here we go. Oh, no, wait, wrong one. Wait, sorry. This one, this one. I click the wrong button.

Here we go. Oh, Gliderator. Lord of the Rings. Oh, Lord of the Rings. It is Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Even Star. Even Star.

I love this song so much, man. It's so good. It's so angelic and just like. So beautiful. Yeah. That's when they're flying with the Eagles, right? No, this is Arwin and Strider. Right, where they're having their little love scene.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And she gives them the little pendant or whatever. Yeah. I love that song. Something similar does play right in with the. the Eagles, but I think that might be like, that's in the Hobbit.

There's like a solo boy singer with the Eagles. Oh, okay. And I think it also plays with the ants sometimes for some reason. I love the ins. But yeah. Okay. Well, we're going to go back to this one that I started playing. All right, here we go.

This is going to be a quick one because this is going to be very identifiable. I'm impressed. You guys got that one. Very good. All right. Lord of the ring. Ryan, you get smoked here, Ryan. Yeah.

I told you I was going to get beat. That's five to one. He was just vibing. He was just too big. He was vibed. You started it before and it was still in my head. You know, I was just like chilling. All right.

There is, we have a few more. So, Ryan, you can catch up still. All right. Here we go for the next one. Parks and Caribbean. Wow. Wow. Ryan, that was so fast.

That was fast. That was, I'm impressed, Ryan. That's another go-to-bed movie. Yeah, that was. All right, so it's five to two. Next one up, here we go. Oh, Sky. No.

No. No. Don't fucking. No, looks in. Oh. That's one of, that, I put this one in there for you, right? That's going to hurt, dude. I want to think about that for a long time.

With how many times, just with how many times I've bought that game, you know, that. Do you also just kind of sit on the menu screen for a while? Oh, yeah. A couple rotations of that song before you're ready to play. Yeah, absolutely. It gets you're so hyped, man. Oh, all right. Well, six to two is the score.

Ryan, you're not out of this yet, but you're running. You're running out of time here, Ryan. All right, right, right. All right, here we go. Next one up. The Witcher three. Yeah. Rachel knows her songs, man.

She's good, man. Yeah, I totally. I can't remember what it's called, though. I don't, I'll give it. You can have the point. if you know the title of the songs. I can't remember. Oh, I just, I looked this up the other day.

It is the... It's something and something, I think. Yeah. Songs of the past. Yeah, I can't remember the name of it. So unique, though. I love that music. All right, here we go.

Seven to two. Ryan's getting smoked here. It's like a half second after she says it. Then it like clicks in my brain. So like when the words come out of her mouth and then your brain goes like, oh, it's that song? As she's saying it, I think of it. But I can't say it before she's already said it because she's much better at this. Because you hear it and you're like, I know that song.

And it's hard to like place it sometimes. And it's like, ah, ah, ah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, was that? So this is seven to two now, I think. Yeah. If I'm in the lead.

Correct score. Okay, seven to two. All right. Ryan, there's a couple game ones in here. So you have a little bit better chance. That's made a difference so far. Next up. So that's why I'm

133 Oh Dim Ding da da da da Dim Dada da da Dim Dada di Dina

I love That's why I say The music in that game man Oh All right Ryan got a point Finally All right

Is this the start of a comeback 7 to 3 7 to 3 Don't call it a comeback Okay Here we go next up Oh nice

Ryan That was Cyberpunk Well done. It might be a comeback 7 to 4. Another one. Okay. Here we go.

Next up. This sounds so good. Once that heavy line came in, that's when I was like, I knew it. The pheromine is so like, ooh, so good. Is that what that is? The strings on that. The swoopy thing that's like, Oh.

Is that the weird where you... I think. I'm actually not sure. I don't want to like to say it as like a concrete sound on that one too. All right. This might be the hard one. I don't know if you guys are going to get this one. Oh, bummer.

I get the point. Wait, it's not a fair event? I don't. He just wanted the point. Wow. Okay, last one and I'll be impressed if either of you know this one. It's a very, want to give you the answer if you don't know it, you'll be like, oh, okay. But here we go.

Oh, that's all we get. That's all you get. I know it, I know it, but I, oh my gosh, I can't, I can't. What is that? I don't know. I don't know. It's Eldon Ring. It's the opening, yeah, it's like the title music for Eldon Ring.

Okay. I thought about it, but I've only had a little bit Eldon Ring time to my credit. I knew I've heard that before. Like it hit my head. I'm like, pain, misery, repeated runs over and over. All right. Well, in a landslide victory that, I mean, let's be honest, we all kind of expected. Rachel wins.

I want to recount. That's amazing. This is why, like, guys, I, you know, I'm putting these together and I'm listening. And it's like, like you said, we're just going to call it a theramen, you know, from Hades, like that unique sound, right? And then you've got like the horns from like the Eldon Ring, you know, where it's just these like this overpowering, you know, you know, know, sound to it, like John Williams with the strings where it's like these, like, I love that like they're identifiable. I got a buddy at work that absolutely loves Star Wars and everything John Williams. And I was like letting him listen and he was like, I love the strings that he

uses like so much, you know? And then I was like, I thought about pulling like the, the no time for, what's the one from Interstellar? No time for panic? No time for something where it's a Hans Zimmer and it's like the organ and stuff like that. It's so good too, yeah. But it's like, you don't, again, and Rachel, you said this, you don't notice it until you start to pay attention to it. And then that's when you start to go like, oh, Hans Zimmer has these like big, like, you know, these like instruments that he focuses on. And then John Williams with the strings and the builds and the like, you know, that kind of stuff. And it's just, this is what I love about music.

It's what I love about music and video games is these moments that touch us, these soundtracks that touch us. you know, the memories that we have from it. Like, you guys knew every one of these songs. Like, even if you didn't know it right off the bat, it's like your brain just knew, you know, like that there was something there. And I don't know. For me, it's just, it's amazing. I'm not a musician at all.

But, like, for me, music is like the, there's not a person alive that doesn't like some kind of music. You know, like, we all have different tastes and stuff like that. But the fact that, like, literally every human being on the planet likes music of some kind is just telling. Every culture ever, man. Every culture all has. all their own style and like they've all no matter what separated from thousands of miles they all have something that they do within music you know not only just within video games obviously but like they just in general and so that's what it's so cool about it tied into video games because it

it brings that connection it brings that feeling to to bring you even more into the moment which is so cool with video games is where you're playing that you're experiencing it and then the music that ties in with it it means so much more. which, oh, man, I am a renowned sucker for trailers if they have really good music, even if it's a horrible video game. And so it's, yeah, if it's got banging music and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is going to be great game and it's, sometimes it's not. And vice versa, too.

Like, I think something that's so special about game music specifically is that they're attached to the experience of playing the game. So when you hear that song after you've experienced. that game, it kind of brings that story back, those characters back that you love, which is just like, it's so special that they're connected in that way. There's a nostalgia factor there that's hard to quantify for a lot of people. You know, we were talking about Sonic earlier. And it's like, you know, everybody remembers Sonic because the music in that game was

incredible and unique. You know, we talk about Halo, right? Because it's like, that's one of the most, like, iconic, you know, that opening menu, you know, song. And then, you know, as you're playing the game and it's like, you know, it's like getting and then, you know, Golden Eye, right? Like the pause music from Golden Eye is another one where it's like,

you don't think about it until you hear it. And then you're like, oh my gosh, like I forgot about this, you know? And so the memories that it brings back, even decades later, I mean, honestly, like decades later is just incredible. So even like speaking to that like specifically for you, Rachel, Ace and I originally, when we were playing Absalom, we were streaming it. and we got to the part with the bard. We carried the bar through to the end.

And then your song came on and we listened to it. And then we just stopped on stream and we just listened to the whole thing. And we went, whoa, that was crazy. And that's when we looked you up and we started looking at it. And albeit I did say I was going to reach out to you maybe like a year ago. Ryan's a procrastinator, by the way. Better late than never. Better late than never.

I'm pretty scary. The impact. Every time we still, I mean, I'll play the song. on, you know, our Alexa and stuff and throughout the house. And it's, it's just, it, it creates a connection because of that, that played experience with the music. So you're not just listening to it, but you're also experiencing it, which is such a cool thing for your niche within music and gaming. And so like, they go together so well. And it's such an awesome thing for you to be able to do that, especially, you know, as a

game of yourself, um, it's so cool. I'm super jealous. I wish I was talented at all with music. Well, with Absalom, I was, I was so happy that they took that opportunity to put that moment into the game because it's, if you think about it, it's not really unnecessary. It's not necessary to the gameplay. It's kind of like an extra thing. But, you know, I've heard from so many people who played saying, like, that was such a special moment or, like, that was such an interesting moment to be able to stop for a little while and listen to this story that the bard is telling you through song. And I think it does, like, it does really make a difference when it comes to player experiences when developers insert those, just those little moments that just create something special to lose. the player with. So yeah. I'm super glad they reached out to me for that and it was it was so much fun. We are too. We are too. Yeah. Yeah, we really are because it's just like you said, it's those moments,

especially in a game like Absalom that's, you know, it's a fighting game, right? Like it's fast-paced. It's, you know, it's violent. It's, you know, this kind of thing. And then you have this moment where it's just this moment of calm and then this beautiful song playing and you get to just kind of cause. Yeah. Yeah, it was like Zen. We're just like, whoa. So, well, Rachel, thank you for what you do. Like I said, as gamers, you know, it is people like yourself that make this, this hobby and this passion that we have, what it is. You know, in all honesty, it's the memories that we get from this. It is the moments with friends, you know, in a multiplayer game or something like that that we remember.

And it's the kind of underlying heartbeat for a lot of games and a lot of those memories and those moments that we get to share with each other, especially in today's world, you know, with the internet and social media. And, you know, let's be honest, there's a lot of toxicity and things going on out there. To be able to just relax and form those connections with people that might be across the world. And to share those together is honestly really, really special for us. And the fact that people like yourself, you know, are, you know, dedicate so much of your time and effort to make it special for people is really, really impressive. And that's one of the reasons we were so happy to have you all. on the show and to be able to pick your brain a little bit about it,

you know, it was really cool. So thank you for giving your time and coming on. Where can people follow you? What's the best place for people to kind of see what you're doing and see what's going on with you? I'm on all the things. Instagram, um,

uh, YouTube, Facebook. Um, and like forgetting what social media, social media is, that's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing.

It's just. TikTok. Uh, uh, you can find, me at Rachel Hardy music. That's my handle on all the things. Yeah. Definitely.

People go check it out really genuinely. There's a huge set of music on our YouTube. So please definitely lots of covers, lots of the other songs, some of the stuff she's done in the game. So absolutely go check it out. Make sure you like and subscribe. As always, it's fantastic. Highly recommend and you won't regret it. Yeah, just don't go too far back on my YouTube channel.

It starts getting embarrassing at a certain point. That's what we do with our old episodes too. I don't know how many we have now. We've been doing this for a lot of years. And like the old stuff, we're like, that's about time. We're just going to leave those in the past. And we're just going to chop that away. And we're just going to use this stuff when we are mildly a little bit better.

Yeah. But I will say, I don't want to self-promo too much here. But I do do covers of a lot of video game. on my YouTube channel and I'm always looking for cool songs coming out in video games to cover. I just love video game music. So I'm always, I'm always looking to see what's, what's new and fresh and what's, what's happening. So, do you have, I don't know if I've seen it on your, on your channel. Do you have a, uh, the god of war blood upon the snow? Have you done that? I don't, but it's on my list. I, that's okay. It's on your list. It's a call out right now for you

to do it because it's one of my favorite video game songs and I just play it repeatedly and I think that one would fit you well. I think that would I almost added that to the list but then I was like I didn't know if Rachel knew God of War really well. I would have got it in a heartbeat. It's iconic. It is really really good.

I've only, I haven't played the full game. I need to finish it. Back when I was working full time in music design, sorry, I don't mean to keep stretching out the conversation. No, we're not complaining at all. I used to hop into game and turn all the audio off except for music and just listen to the systems. And so basically I hopped into God of War just to listen to the different systems that they had going on.

So I haven't really played like the actual gameplay experience the way it's supposed to be played yet. But I've, you know, I've played a little bit trying to creep what they're doing with their audio systems or music systems. It's my favorite game of all time. Like it's my number one. In the top 10 list, it's my number one. Amazing. Part of it is that I'm a dad and they kind of go into. like the relationship with his son.

Part of it is like, it's like, you know, he wasn't a good person earlier in his life and then he's trying to turn that around kind of thing. And so there's kind of like a redemption story there too. It's, like I said, it's unbelievable. But also, I think we can all agree you should really play Expedition 33. Yes.

I will. You know what? I'll move that to the top of my list just for you guys. And I know you stream. And so, you know, if anybody's interested, You know, check out Rachel Streams. She is a gamer. But that's one of those games that is really, really good for people to watch as well because of the story and the characters and all that as well.

So it translates really well to that also. And I will all in our description, the episode description, I will link all of her handles on all of her stuff for everybody. So please, it should be easy. Just look at the description and you'll be able to click on whatever you need to, but absolutely check it out. Oh. Oh. Yeah. It'll come through.

I thought it was me again. I thought I was walking up. No, wait a minute. You started to. You started to. You're good now. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. This has been awesome to get to chat with you.

It's been a lot of fun. Thanks for playing my dumb little game with us and smoking Ryan at the same time. He won't admit it, but he's really competitive. So he hates losing. Sorry, Ryan. It's okay. Well, thank you guys so much for having me. I had such a great time.

That's good. That's good. We did too. So thank you so much for joining us. Everybody check out her stuff. It is truly incredible. You're so talented, Rachel. It's really, really impressive. I wish I had some kind of talent for that. But apparently you took it all. So, you know, there we go. All right. That's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya. What does a sunny getaway with Air Canada sound like? Sunny Jamaica moves to its own rhythm. Rio comes alive long after the sun goes down.

Philippines slows everything down. And just when you think you've heard it all, there's sunny Lima. However you imagine your sunny escape, Air Canada can take you there. Book hot fairs and vacation packages today. Night travels