^^This. It doesn't have to get maked up for it, after all, the goal is still find out the truth about who composed which song, right? Also, what if you also ask about the experience of composing the songs and working in the project? I mean, how was it to work with the team, and stuff like that. Would that sort of things help to create a more comfortable interview? It helps to create a conexion, I mean, I'm not only interested about the songs, but also about the team and stuff. Sounds more human :p
This is a very good approach. However, many years ago, before the MJ involvement came to light, someone emailed Brad Buxer to ask him about his work in Sonic 3, for composition advice, to compliment him on the great soundtrack etc... and was promptly told to get bent. Not suggesting we actually do this but.... Geoff Grace looks to be a freelance guy. You could pretend you're looking to hire a video game composer and can request demos of his Sonic work...
Is his reply still available to read anywhere? Knowing me, I like to see what and how it was said. It interests me. And yeah, just as ICEknight said, lying to people is a bad idea. If he finds out you're lying, especially about a subject like that, it could lead to him becoming extremely hostile.
Yep, intentional deceipt, especially when the plan's been aired on a public forum is just dumb and incredibly disrespectful, especially so when it's a freelancer who is always looking for the next client. Remember those guys who set up an interview with Mike Pollock just to make him say "Snooping as usual I see" in Eggman's voice? End result: He googled it, saw people laughing at a penis "gag" and now he pretty much doesn't do the voice for anyone who isn't Sega anymore and declines all requests to do so, whilst before it he was happy to say a line or two for fans. The thing to remember about my example is that the people who were doing the interviewing had a solid background in documentaries for broadcast television, and also happened to be working for the organisation the guy was previously in charge of! They had to word questions in a way that he might bring up Doctor Who as had they outright asked him: "So, why did you cancel Doctor Who? WHY WHY WHY?" the guy would have promptly told them where to shove their interview! The only people MJ's team will even mention Sonic to would be journalists working for big publications and mainstream websites relating to the music business, and they'll be more interested in asking them about MJ, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and the likes, not Launch Base Zone or the Competition Menu. Bobby Brooks (he of the "talk to my lawyer" response) for instance boasts a CV which most people in his field could only dream of having, so even if there was no legal issues, he wouldn't be talking to some random guy on the internet about an obscure (to him) video game from 1994 unless they had the credentials to back it up. Remember people in the past have taken the aforementioned "mention X on the side" route when contacting these people and have either been blanked completely, or told to piss off. Google is a powerful tool and these guys aren't stupid. Another thing to remember is that Sonic 3 was in development 22 years ago now, and knowing freelance creative types the way I do, there's always a chance someone has fallen out with someone else somewhere down the line and it becomes a case of "I worked on X but John Smith also worked on it and he's a moron now so I'm not talking about it".
We'll find out all the answers when we die, then we can meet and ask MJ himself =P You mean someone got him to say that line, then added it to some offensive gag? That is a bit disrespectful. No wonder people don't want to help fans out anymore.
His reply was posted on a forum which I believe is now defunct. I spent ages trying to find his reply but couldn't. To be honest I don't remember it being very long - 2 sentences tops, one of which was something like "don't ever contact me about this issue again." I didn't intend to suggest that we lie, it was much more for the lolz.
There's also a chance he simply won't remember anything interesting. Some hardcore freelance composers put out 50-100+ demos a year - they write fast, ship the songs, and largely forget about them. Howard Drossin mentioned this in one of his interviews a few years back.
I don't think Geoff Grace is a hardcore freelance composer, however he probably doesn't remember much, regardless. He probably doesn't give a damn anymore about his works for Sonic 3.
Geoff Grace IIRC does a lot of library and production music, that would amount of tonnes and tonnes of tracks and variations of them per year, in different styles. Sonic 3 probably just another job for another client one weekend in 93.
Yeah, because it was only the sequel of one of the best selling games of the time, in which Michael Jackson was supposed to collaborate.
She did, here's the tweet. Takaoka also stated that she did a bonus stage theme as well, so I had a friend send her the three bonus stage themes, but she stated that none of them were hers. Meaning, either her song went unused in the final version, or it was reused in another part of the game without her knowledge (one of the 2P themes?). I didn't want to continue to bombard her with link after link, so I never followed up on that. I can try and find the tweet where she says that, if anybody wants it.
Maybe she meant the special stages (the one with the emeralds), not the minigames you get at the checkpoints.
The emerald special stage theme was composed by Yoshiaki Kashima. As Dissident93 said, it's likely Takaoka's special stage tune was either unused, or used in another part of the game.
It's possible Kashima was mistaken as well, and his song went unused/used as one of the bonus stages. All we know for sure is she did the MGZ included in the final game.
It's pretty clear that Kashima composed the special stage theme, as of course he said it himself and his alias is credited on Sonic 10th, which features the track. I believe Takaoka's special stage tune may be one of the 2P themes, and she wasn't aware of its final use. Who knows, though. It's unlikely it got used for a level.
