Fans of cozy games with great atmosphere surely already discovered the serie Coffee Talk, where you get some sweet looking drinks, learn some interesting stories from your guests, but also can enjoy a great amount of very atmospheric lofi chill music from Andrew Jeremy. And since I very much enjoyed his contribution to the games, it was a great honor, that he accepted my invitation for an interview and answered some of our questions and talked to us about his journey as a musical composer.
Firstly, can you tell us something a little about how your journey to making music began? When did you start making first songs?
Since I was kid, my parents encouraged me to have music skills. From there, I learned various music instruments, from drum, guitar, organ, even trumpet. I grew up with my friends playing as drummer in our rock band. I was prog metal music lover back then, I used to see how Mike Portnoy played the drum for Dream Theater, and learned how they composed their crazy music and influenced the whole progressive genre. I also joined a marching band playing percussion section in my teen age. Until now, I still play drum for church ministry and it actually help shape my song-writing skills even more. Back then on 2010, Kris, Toge Productions’s CEO, asked me to join the studio as the audio guy. Since then I composed many Toge’s game audio music. So it’s safe to say that my first music I made was for our earlier games on Flash web
What kind of music or which artists influenced you the most?
As I had mentioned, during my childhood I used to listen to Dream Theater, as well as cool bands like Helloween, Coldplay and some others. As I grew up to adulthood, I loved to hear gospel and jazz fusion music as I really acknowledge how really cool it is to play gospel drumming. I think from there I listened to lots of jazzy tunes and music to which it eventually gives the biggest influences for Coffee Talk music.
What instruments can you play?
So as you already know by now, I can play drums (as my core skill), I still play guitar on some occasions and in my free time. I learned a bit of keyboard and brass skills.
In what software do you create the songs?
Initially, I used Sonar Cakewalk and Acid Pro. Right now, I use Ableton a lot for music production. However with my audio team at Toge, we want to streamline the workflow using Reaper.
How did your work with Toge Production actually start?
Before I joined Toge, me and Kris used to work together at our little cameratography club (initiated by Kris) in our university. He asked me to create some music for some video projects and he liked them. After we graduated, he urged me several times to join until I was keen and ready to work and make games together. The game industry scene in Indonesia back then was still very new and not really mature enough, so it took a lot of courage to get into it and help shape the industry.
What is the process behind the music in the game? Do you make the songs based on your imagination, or do you use the stories of the characters in order to make the atmosphere work?
Good question! Basically this is difficult to answer lol. I never had music theory class or learning lessons, so I made them with my imagination and feeling. I think listening to lots of kinds of music helps this. But as our studio developed, we had to think about how to make our team better and produce better music. First we need to understand the game, how and why it needs to deliver a particular experience, and from there the audio design and music follow. We need to work a lot with the game director to discuss the vision of the game they want to have. One of many things we have to make sure is to have iconic leitmotif of characters, or factions, or similar things. This would help give them the identity through the music and make them memorable for the fans. Ah, big shout out to Masdito Bachtiar and Budhi Luhur, our audio team members who also make great audio stuff in their own way, and we still want to grow together as a team and make great game music in future projects.
For the Coffee Talk series, it’s rather unique. It was my first time doing lofi music, so I just heard lots of chillhop lofi music on the internet and learned how the music was delivered and how it gave a certain relaxing experience in a ‘lofi’ way. I guess back then we decided to just have some cool lofi music into the game and I just needed to make as many songs as I could do. But along the way, as I finished my works, I just then realized that some certain songs really fit some characters' personalities, which is cool lol. That's it, that’s the way it is and I just continue doing it that way xD but I’m happy as the music is loved by many people because of its chillness and how it fits the game experience really well.
Do you collaborate with other people on the songs or are they all your work?
As we have the audio team now, we make the music internally but we have unique internal collaboration in some projects. I usually do the composition, Masdito helps do lots of mixing and mastering, Budhi helps with sound engineering and implementation to the game engine. Don’t get me wrong, they also compose a lot of great music for our other cool projects in our studio! Their skills for music are top notch and great assets to the team. Externally, we did also have some collab with guitar sessionists and voice actors, as well as other similar works.
Regarding the Coffee Talk music, I made the music on my own for the first and second series. For Coffee Talk Tokyo, the three of us worked together for the citypop music album in the game.
How do you feel about being a character in the Coffee Talk universe? And making a song with Rachel? :)
It’s cool! I actually want the character to be in the next Coffee Talk stories xD When they proposed to have this in-game character as the lofi artists, I was buying it. And I chose the in-game race myself as golem lol
Do you have a favorite song of yours from the ones we can hear in the games?
It’s hard to choose, you know lol. I love them all, each one of them on their own style. Probably you can tell which one is your favorite :)
(That would be Sweetheart Latte from Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibbiscus & Butterfly and Truly Miraculous Resolution from the Tokyo)
While playing the game I noticed that the songs are not chosen so randomly. Is there an intention to find the one to best fit the situation?
Actually some intense scenes in the game happen and they need some certain songs to help convey the situation. So yeah, it’s intentional.
Do you have a favorite character in the series?
Neil! In all interviews if they ask me, I will always say Neil lol
Why? What makes him so special for you?
Because of the way he acts, speaks, and interacts, it's just so much like a funny alien xD. I love how he tried to blend in with the humanity and culture so much that he sometimes felt unsure and confused, but he did it anyway.
Did you produce music for some other games to? Or may we have heard your music somewhere else?
Yes, I did the whole audio work for our Infectonator and Necronator series, and our previous Flash games. I collaborate with my audio team for Kriegsfront Tactics.
Do you believe people can enjoy the songs even outside of the games?
I believe so. It’s perfect for study time, bedtime, even for real coffee shop :D And of course I’m happy to see many coffee shops play our songs and be heard by lots of people when they’re hanging out!
(That is truly amazing. Maybe I will visit Indonesia once just to experience that as well. :) )
Have you ever visited a place like the Coffee Talk shop? It looks pretty cozy.
Well, I often go to Starbucks to work, even when I’m answering these, I’m in it! But I think the whole coffee shop vibe in Coffee Talk was mostly inspired by late Fahmi’s experience with his favorite cafe.
Did you ever try any of the drinks from the shop? If yes, how did you like them?
I mostly like cafe latte, cappuccino, and green tea latte. If they have them, cool. But of course due to my age, I don’t drink them a lot nowadays.
I meant those really special ones. Like the Sweetheart Late or Five Stars. Because many of the drinks look amazing on the glance. Kinda wondered how would they tase if I had them. Or the Mount Fuji drink in Tokyo, I also kinda wonder.
Ah I see. Might be Matcha, or Five Stars. Yes! The artist did amazing jobs at designing those special drinks. :D
Will the soundtrack for Coffee Talk: Tokyo also be available on the internet?
Yes of course! I’m sorry for making you wait for it, but always stay tuned for some cool news about it!
Could you provide a picture of your studio and yourself for our readers in Slovakia?
We usually work from home or any other places, so I don’t go to the office really often. This is the best picture I have for it:
Thank you very much for your time AJ, we are very happy for your answers. To our readers all I can say is, go check out Andrews music (either on Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube or Bandcamp), it is really worth your time to listen, or simply just play the Coffee Talk games for the best experience. We wish AJ all the best in the future and hopefully we shall see him as a real character in the next part. That golem character seems like a very cool idea. Would love to see that.
