Clover "Chain Reaction" Stockwell: writing, production, instruments and stuff, 2a03+SID fangirling, lots of midi keyboarding, other hippie metal princess duties. 60 hours of my life that i will never get back, which only remain as memories shot out of focus
chainreactionmusic.com
soundcloud.com/chain-reaction-music
my personal nethandle just about anywhere is 'soullessclover' so feel free to say hi if you wanna chat!!

Lucas "Kry.exe" Toews: writing, gameboy obliteration, beautiful synths to remind you that you have emotions, that one riff that shows up in every section, trusting me completely from the very beginning with said riff, achieving immortality through Grv Snareclap 08
krydotexe.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/krydar
www.facebook.com/krydotexe/

Stuff that helps us share things from our brains to yours: fl studio and native image-line effect vsts, plogue chipsounds, shreddage 2, acoustica pianissimo, famitracker, deflemask*, lsdj, reaktor, omnisphere,

*patched so that pcm doesnt break, you can find the patch in the youtube description for overdrive 2 megadrive demo by strobeflux

Meet the band!!! (in order of appearance):
guitar: haha just kidding hes actually a midi keyboard but he got dressed up as a guitar for halloween but it seems to get him more gigs
glitch percussion: some kid who thinks they're a cyberpunk protagonist decided to sneak in and put that there. your guess is as good as mine.
less-weird percussion: nes dpcm+noise channels. often very layered and can contain non-chip samples so do not try to eat if you are allergic or picky!!! if youre hungry, the main dnb loop (pretty isolated at 0:43 and 2:32) *is* strictly nes, one dpcm one noise.
more-weird less-weird percussion: c64 noise+filter. my risers are pure.

piano: no i probably cant play this whole song in one take. but hey, i can play it if i divide it up into make separate takes, apparently! wow, jesus, how did i do that
filter-y synth doubling the guitar: one c64 channel with filtering (again, filters are c64. seriously, the sid sound chip heckin ROCKS)

guitars???: surprise! guitar is rly good at multitasking
main synth bass: 2 sid channels (ring mod ftw) with filters
pulse lead: two nes pulses that like to do everything together!!! arent they so cute? my nes pulses are lesbians its canon deal with it
nes triangle bass: self explanatory. just an nes and like some eq probably
pwm leads: 1 sid channel, and fancy delay effects bcuz theyre hot
amen break: nes pcm (not the same as dpcm). yea this is nes for some reason i stuck to that limitation
supersaw: all 3 sid channels, i dont believe i actually use the filter on this one but i might be wrong
glitchy bass in the chorus: gameboy wav channel, run through an eq and minor phaser/compressor effects

pretty synths: is mayonaisse an instrument
bass guitar: not actually a guitar or a keyboard this time! its nes dpcm (yep, back to dpcm again) being run through a bass amp lol

glitchy triangle: one sid channel with filters
that lowpass bitcrush thing leading into the second chorus: combo of a couple native fl studio effects. its pretty intuitive


So what's the track about?:
hi! clover here! so when this track was in its early stages, i already knew what i wanted to write about, which was this general sense of being overwhelmed, and having too much rolling around in my head. there are so many elements to this song (chiptune progmetal gay folk synthrock jazz dnb j-core?), and none of them are subtle! so going into the song with that in mind, i wanted a title that conveyed the anxieties from things like loud large conversations and overloading information. i was starting to settle on 'shutdown' because i could tap into that feeling most when thinking of powering off a computer after a long and exhausting day. but while the name was certainly an idea i had, i hadnt cemented it as this definitive idea yet. which is why im really grateful to chiptunes4autism and knew i needed to do THIS song for THIS compilation album - because i learned from reading the c4a blog that 'shutdown' is a term actually used by neurodivergent people to describe an experience they have.
while im sure there are people who could articulate this a lot better than i could, and i cant claim to understand and relate to all of the specifics, i think i ultimately wrote this to say that if youre overwhelmed, youre not alone. life can throw a lot of things at us, sometimes all at once, that we want to shut off. its no coincidence this track sprung out of an 8 month old proof-of-concept made by a friend. maybe it took me until now to try and turn the world back on again, and i couldnt have possibly made this track on my own.

for real, kry was fucking amazing to work with. i had a blast enjoying this process with him as musicians and friends, and he also brought some really strong ideas to the table. things i wouldnt have thought of but now cant possibly imagine this song without. i am SO grateful!!!



i also want to thank the people i know in the chiptunes=win community (i love you all <3) as well as chris, linko, my dad, nathan, carla, and tamsin. and for all of those people, this isnt a simple thanks for supporting me and the stuff i make. this 'thank you' is for accepting me even when i am far from my best self - being gracious with me on rough days but also being understanding of me during times like this week when ideas are bouncing in my head and you know no matter where i am my mind is somewhere else. this is me saying thanks because you help keep me from shutting down.

Now for Kry's section in the liner notes:
"Special thanks to Clover for being a crazy music genius and turning my ideas into pure magical bliss"

...
That's it that's all he asked to put in the liner notes. In hindsight I really went overboard on this didn't I?