An Interview with Myslie –

The creative world surrounding Myslie sits somewhere between a late-night gaming session, a nostalgic anime binge, and the hazy glow of early-2000s pop-punk drifting from a bedroom stereo. In this conversation with A&R Factory, the artist opens up about how rhythm games, Japanese soundtracks, and formative bands such as Green Day and Fall Out Boy quietly shaped the tonal DNA of their music. From childhood obsessions with game composers to the emotional punch of key moments in Pokémon and Rhythm Heaven, Myslie reflects on how those sonic memories gradually evolved into a musical language of their own. The discussion also explores the growing universe behind Walker of the Sunset Path, a narrative-driven game project where songwriting, voice acting, and world-building collide. Along the way, Myslie shares insights into collaboration, directing performers, and turning fragments of inspiration into an interconnected creative world.

When I was younger, my older cousin was the cool guy to be around. He listened to a lot of Green Day and Yellowcard back in the day. I naturally gravitated to those types of bands which led me to listen to a lot of Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, and All American Rejects. I attribute a lot of my vocal tone from those bands, especially Green Day. I mimicked a lot of Billie Joe’s vocals as a kid, and it sort of spilled over as the way I naturally sing.I also played a lot of rhythm games, most notably the Rhythm Heaven series which pushed me into listening to a lot of Japanese music. This as well as watching Naruto exposed me to the structure of Japanese music. One very specific track that I still look back onto this day that really exposed me to traditional Japanese music is from – get this – WarioWare. In the GBA release there is this track called “4 Seasons.” It plays during a mini game where you jump rope. It’s a really intense song for a generally silly game so I found myself really struck by that dissonance. Even though I couldn’t name it, I attribute that song to my discovery of enka music. I actually intend to create an enka song for my video game.

Another really big inspiration from my past would be Jamiroquai, more specifically the song “Canned Heat.” The intro was so striking to me as a kid, just four chords and it already set the mood so vividly. You could hear the emotion drip out of the keys, hearing that unlocked another part of my brain that really latched to the idea of chords as a medium to push emotion and color onto a track. When I was first learning how to make music I used to listen to that track specifically while I was learning how to make music as a sort of guide on how to make chords give emotion to a song. Ironically the first time I ever heard “Canned Heat” was on “Elite Beat Agents” which is also a Nintendo DS game.

When I initially started making music I was really pushing the idea of genre. The funny thing is for whatever reason the song that played in my head wasn’t translating to what I wanted on the DAW. Eventually I kind of gave up on the idea of pushing hard for genre and just went with what sounded good to me. That’s where my sound comes from, it’s all my inspirations and interests pushing up against each other.

Tsunku, the composer behind the Rhythm Heaven soundtrack is one of the most notable when I was a kid. I attribute this song to my obsessions with the flourishes that I really like in music. I also attribute him with seeding the idea of having vocal tracks in video games as well. In Rhythm Heaven DS “Struck by the Rain” plays during one of the levels where there’s this guy Karate Joe punching pots and light bulbs and barrels and such. It’s really meant to be him training, but the game makes it so intense. Booting up the level for the first time I was thinking oh cool karate minigame, and then you play it. And suddenly it’s the most intense level in the entire game, with the snow blowing in the guy’s face, and this song with these really sad lyrics of this one sided love.Pokemon Platinum was another game I attribute to this, notably the “Pokemon League” night theme. A very emotional song that plays right before the last challenge to beat the game. I remember very vividly this song would play after crossing through the waterfall, which on my save was my Empoleon, my starter made strong through our battles together pushing me up against the current to make it to the Pokemon League. My day one got us to the top of the mountain, and as soon as we made it up that song started playing. I was just kind of frozen there taking it all in, I couldn’t bring myself to move from that spot. We were at the end looking at the final gauntlet of the game against the setting sun.

Really thinking about it, I would even say Super Smash Brothers Brawl pushed my thoughts on music appreciation in my earlier years. Looking back I really liked some of the remixes they created specifically for that game. Some that come to mind are the remixes for Stickerbrush Symphony and Gourmet Race. The original tracks are phenomenal, I particularly love the ambience that David Wise brings to Donkey Kong Country’s soundtrack. The remixes however really bring so much life into the track. I think it’s because through the remixes the tracks are no longer limited by those old sound fonts, pushing those emotions found in those songs to their limit.

Those memories really showed me the beauty of music and the power it has to push the emotion of the scene. The Pokemon League song in Platinum for instance could have been a standard, almost like a march or the sort of standard Pokemon League sound that lends itself to more of a score rather than a song. They instead chose to make it this more reflective and emotional song. You weren’t getting pumped for the Pokemon League, you were reflecting on the journey where you saved the world from the gods of space and time, and their emo sibling. These moments in video games taught me how a song could push emotion a certain way. You’re not just playing as Karate Joe, you’re there with him in the snow. Maybe even following into his headspace with the song that’s playing. It’s not just the scene it’s the song in tandem with the scene that sets the tone. I found that really magical as a kid as I couldn’t really explain why music left such an impact on me. Well, ok I knew it was the music but it was those moments that really had me seeing music as more than just background noise, you could imbue emotion into music and pull scenes in different directions depending on how you create music for that scene.

I used to have a guy who was composing for me a while back, this was during the initial stages of Walker of the Sunset Path. Things weren’t working out, so I ended up terminating. I wasn’t really sure how to move forward so I asked the voice actor for Yuhuan, who happens to be my DJ partner, what I should do.

She told me, “Make your own music”

I think I needed to hear those words for my heart to sync what was circling the back of my head because I sort of wanted to do that for a while. My grandma bought me an Ableton for my 18th birthday but the DAW was so confusing I really struggled to make it work. But to make this dream a reality I had to see that part through, given my history of music appreciation. I had to learn how to make music to move forward with this project.

I was looking for a voice actor for one of my characters in my game “Walker of the Sunset Path“. There was initially going to be two characters in the game but I felt it was lacking in character, especially since the game was pushing further into this narrative heavy game. To remedy this I thought a trio would work better so characters can bounce off each other a little better.

During those first days of making the game Keira and I were working a job that had us in close proximity for a period of time. I happened to catch her natural voice as something that would work well for the third character I was making at the time. So I asked her one day if she wanted to voice for one of my characters.

At the time of making the script, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted for the middle and beginning and how things connected to each other, but from the start of making the story I knew how the climax was going to set up emotionally. That was one of the reasons why I ended up writing Double Stepper.

So on the first day of recording I kinda just shot the idea of making a duet with her hours before our first recording session. This whole project was a push in a different direction for her but singing on a track? That sent it sideways. Initially the song was only going to be a verse and a chorus, no more than 2 minutes. Really, it was only going to be the characters singing to the other character. It really was just going to be the song for the game, nothing more.

At the time however I was still learning how to make music and I wasn’t sure how people would react, it sounded nice to me but I usually wanted output from other people as audience input is important too, at least in the sense of like ok does it work as a song. I would always ask, “is it at least competent?” I know music taste is subjective so I don’t really look for validation in the traditional sense.

I was showing pretty much everyone since it was my second song with lyrics and pretty much everyone asked me why I didn’t finish the track. It wasn’t until my mom listened and she asked me “why hadn’t you finished it yet?”. My mom was the tipping point. So really, making Double Stepper and really making music for something more than just the video game came from the voices of a hundred plus and my mother pushing me to complete a track that initially wasn’t intended to be its own stand alone production.

I kind of sat there after I had released the single and I thought, man that was fun I really enjoyed making music with Keira so I asked her if she wanted to make an EP.

They sort of worked hand in hand actually. I’m not formally trained in either of those roles so I just winged a lot of how I directed during the EP, and how I direct for voicing.

One of my main philosophies of my direction in both is the aesthetic of natural voicing. I was inspired by MTV’s “Downtown” how the voicing in that show was very natural. Just like real people you could find on the street. That to me is, in no disrespect, the power of the mundane. There was something beautiful in the voice of the everyman. In both departments I always say just keep it natural. I didn’t choose people because they are voice actors, I chose them for their voice.

I think that pushed further into how I crafted 2 AM Confessionals. I was trying to figure out a 4th song, because I had made the other 3 already. Since Keira was already featured in the duet I thought it would be cool to give her a track that she sings by herself. So I sat there studying her voice, and then trying to find songs that would fit her voice naturally. I eventually landed on this sort of PinkPantheress vibe, something airy, while still maintaining the early 2000s soundtrack aesthetic.

I wanted to make a game that I could finish.

My first experiences with making video games comes from using a tool called RPG Maker. The problem I had was I kept learning new things about the tool as I made games, and I would think “Ok I can make the beginning better”. So I would go back, but I would keep learning new ways to make the game better so I would go back and make the beginning again. This cycle continued enough times for me to take a break from making RPGs entirely as I couldn’t make something I was happy to deploy.

There was this one night many years after I stopped working with RPG Maker where I found myself at one of those classic arcade bars with my friend. That night I booted up Dig Dug. Something hit me as I was aggressively completing levels, watching the score go up. It made me realize, maybe I could complete an arcade game. If I keep the areas limited to a few zones, I could just refine those parts. That way I wouldn’t have to keep going back to fix things.

Committing to this however had its own hurdles as I couldn’t walk away from creating a narrative around this video game. It was that realization that I couldn’t step away from making a story attached to this video game that I realized music would be a big part of the experience as well.

When you’re building a world that exists across both music and interactive storytelling, how do you keep the emotional thread consistent between the two mediums?

Double Stepper is made for a very specific emotional moment in the video game. I had that moment in mind when I created Double Stepper. I branched out ideas I based the lyrics of Double Stepper on into an EP of its own. Past that I use a lot of plugins that sort of push that aesthetic of a video game soundtrack. I did it partly because when I first started composing I really wanted to make pluggnb but it just wasn’t working so I started making my own tracks the way translated from my head to the DAW I use. It was less about me thinking of keeping the emotional thread consistent, and more of keeping the same vibe through instrumentals.

Ironically it was my lack of proper equipment that pushed me further into the video game instrumental aesthetic. During the “Under Rental Lights” production I had a very cheap computer I was using to produce. It was old, it was dying and falling apart. One of my favorite plugins that I use still to this day is Purity which is easy on the CPU and lends itself to those classic 90s sound fonts. I had other plugins but over time the machine would start to chug if I used too many more intensive plugins. Purity became my emotional thread through necessity.

Looking ahead, where do you see the Myslie universe expanding next, whether through music, game development, or other creative outlets you’re curious to explore?

There are a few tracks I want to release as a starter to pull people into the world of the video game. I’m excited for that and in an effort to bring more people to see my work I started filming for a Tupperware music video. Doing a lot of promotional stuff by myself really pushed me into the video editing scene. I came up with an idea for a quick and easy, but stylish music video as a way to promote the creative world I am building. I’m working on that marketing side of creating right now, as I’m at a point where I feel I have enough in the project to actually begin promoting. At first it was just a bunch of small pieces of the larger project that were akin to scraps that don’t exactly have a very obvious connection to each other. But I’m at a point in the project where I feel I can begin to push the game and its world a little more forward.

Discover Myslie’s discography on Spotify. 

Follow the artist on Instagram. 

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Interview by Amelia Vandergast