Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble! / Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble! / Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble!

Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble!
Comments from album director Wes McDonald (Emunator), co-director Cody Wedel, and producer Mike Birch (Flexstyle)
Album freely available at http://dkc3.ocremix.org

The Donkey Kong Country series has always held a special place in my heart. Ever since I first picked up the controller at the age of 3, I found myself in love with everything about the games… the innovative level design, the gorgeous graphics, and especially the music. I would find myself pausing the game mid-level and listening to my favorite songs for hours on end. So, as you can imagine, when I first discovered OverClocked ReMix back in 2004, when Kong in Concert was first released, I was hooked.

Fast forward 6 years… as the release of Serious Monkey Business drew closer, I knew that a DKC3 album was inevitable, and I felt like I could make it happen. At the time, I was merely a lurker on the site, and had no musical talent of my own. Nevertheless, I had the vision and a limitless amount of free time at my disposal, so I took the plunge and started recruiting. After 3 years of tireless work, I couldn't be happier with that choice.

Given the stellar reputation of the previous two albums, I knew that this album had to be something special. This 5-disc album contains remixes of every source from both the GBA and SNES versions of the DKC3 soundtrack. Clocking in at 77 songs and nearly 5 and a half hours of music, this is OCR's largest album to date, featuring arrangements and collaborations by the legendary David Wise himself. Words can't properly capture the scope of this album and the efforts of the artists that made it happen, so I'll let the music speak for itself.

I would like to thank Cody Wedel for being the most dedicated co-director I could have ever hoped for. When I began looking for a co-director for the album, I was essentially a no-name on the forums, so it might have made sense to choose a well-established member of the site with more clout in the community. However, after meeting Cody and seeing just how enthusiastic he was about the music of DKC3, I knew there could be no choice. Your motivation and passion for this project from day one has helped push me to make the album as good as it can be. I like to think that our work here proves that, if you have dedication and the right mindset, you don't need to be an OCR veteran to pull off a successful album project.

My sincerest thanks to David Wise and Eveline Novakovic for creating such an amazing set of soundtracks that have inspired us all, and for supporting this project and the video game arrangement community in general. I'd also like to thank Mike "Flexstyle" Birch and Jason "Theophany" Gallaty for going so far above and beyond the call of duty with their contributions to the project, and for their constant encouragement along the way. Thanks to Adam Aubin and José Felix for putting together such a killer visual component for the project, and to Stevo Bortz and the rest of OCR staff for putting up with my neurotic demands and making this release possible. And lastly, to every artist who contributed to the project, I'm so proud of what you've created, and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to get to know each and every one of you. Thank you for helping make this the biggest and (hopefully) the best OC ReMix project to date!

Enjoy!

- Wes McDonald (Emunator)

I somehow stumbled upon the DKC3 project thread on the OC ReMix forums the night it was revealed. I read the intro post and saw that the album was tackling both the SNES *and* GBA soundtracks! I loved the SNES soundtrack, and DKC3 GBA was definitely my favorite game soundtrack ever, so you could only imagine how happy I was. Little did I know the album would have a predominant influence throughout the next 3 years of my life.

I emailed Wes on a whim about remixing one of the SNES tracks. Having provided a 30-second WIP as well as some insight on how I intended to develop the track stylistically, I ended up getting the claim (which made me very happy)! He contacted me on AIM a short while later just to say hi & to share some of the project WIPs/finished tracks. We got to talking -- not just about DKC3, but about everything and anything. Our conversations escalated from once a week, to a few times a week, to pretty much every day. After I got a bit more involved in the project (in terms of its developmental direction), Wes asked if I wanted to co-direct the album. Needless to say, I accepted that offer with open arms.

As co-director, I didn't directly talk to many of the remixers involved with the project. I instead focused mainly on the backend: that is, the tracklist, promotional media, and directional feedback. Wes would oftentimes integrate my feedback into his regarding the development of a particular track. In any case, I certainly got valuable insight on how the whole album process works, and seeing/helping the album come together over such a long length of time was simply a magical experience.

My deepest gratitude goes to Wes for not only starting the project, but allowing me to be such a huge part of its success. When I first discovered OC ReMix in 2003, I never would've imagined I'd be part of it at all and here I am 9 years later co-directing the biggest project in the organization's entire history. It goes to show how little we really know, how we can't possibly know what is out there beyond the tomorrows and beyond the stars.

I can only hope you enjoy Double the Trouble! as much as I enjoyed seeing the album blossom from a little seed into a huge, beautiful, colorful flower which is (in my honest opinion) larger than life!

- Cody Wedel

This all started so innocently -- Emunator asked me if I'd take on a single track for the project, since he'd heard a previous ReMix of mine and thought I'd fit in well. Little did either of us realize just how involved I'd get. We discovered that we lived decently close together, so we got to meet each other in person over Fuddruckers burgers.

Turns out, we'd spend a lot of time eating at Fuddruckers together. Burgers are tasty, man.

Wes was already a good six months into the project by the time we met, but the next couple years would see me take on another five songs on the project, plus two extra bonus songs, and also tackle the task of mastering and gapless-playback-ing the entire album. Not only that, but I ended up being one of the main quality control voices as well. Talk about a cool responsibility!

By the time we finished, we'd consumed loads of burgers, stayed up all night working on the project at my house several times, and spent countless hours tweaking the songs, the mastering, and the playback to perfection. I'd say the moment I knew this album was solid gold was when I got to listen to the entire thing through, with no interruptions, during a six-hour drive from Mission Viejo, CA, to Glendale, AZ, where I live. Didn't skip a single song. That's how good this thing is, and I'm picky.

This album is Wes's baby, and it really is a labor of love. However, I'd like to think that I could call myself the doctor who helped deliver it. I hope that you, the listener, can enjoy hearing this album at least half as much as we've enjoyed putting it together. Every artist, every person behind the scenes, and the OverClocked ReMix staff have poured their heart and soul into this amazingly huge mass of quality, and I hope that shines through.

- Mike Birch (Flexstyle)