Kawai Sprite
“Kawaisprite, the kingpin himself. In 2011, Kawaisprite was charged with armed robbery. He was sentenced to 14 years. In prison, Kawaisprite found a dusty Akai MPC3000 in the shed of the yard. After stabbing a fellow inmate over whatever, he was sent to solitary confinement for 7 years, with nothing but the beat machine. The initial prototype of Friday Night Funkin' was released a week after Kawaisprite got out jail. The rest, is simply history.”
― Friday Night Funkin' Kickstarter campaign description
“musical human, carving tunes from digital rubble.”
― Twitter description
Isaac Jacob Garcia, better known online as Kawai Sprite, is an American musician. He is the main composer and sound designer for Friday Night Funkin'. He is responsible for almost every song and several voices and sound effects in the game.
Involvement
Kawai Sprite was the first person to be contacted by ninjamuffin99 after coming up with the basic concept of the game he wanted to create for Ludum Dare 47. With his experience in music, he was tasked with creating tracks appropriate for a rhythm game. According to ninjamuffin99, he wanted it to go in an old-school direction, specifically noting PaRappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man as examples for what he was looking for in the music that were to be added. Additionally, voices were unanimously decided to follow in the style of Vib-Ribbon, leading to the "boops and beeps" vocal style the game is known for. During the course of the game's creation, Kawai Sprite created the start screen theme, Bopeebo and Fresh, as well as providing the voices for Boyfriend and Daddy Dearest.
Kawai Sprite continues to produce most of the game's music, sounds and character vocals. However, not all tracks in the game nor all the voices were done by him. Two tracks were contributed by Bassetfilms: Monster, a Week 2 track, and Winter Horrorland, a Week 5 track. Other weeks in the game had their opponents voiced by other people such as Sr Pelo for Skid and Pump, Bassetfilms for Monster, l0litsmonica for Mommy Mearest and JohnnyUtah for Tankman.
Trivia
- Kawai Sprite used to work at Firehouse Subs.[2]
- Kawai Sprite has released the stems for most of the songs he composed in-game, excluding Klaskii Romper, Lunchbox and Breakfast.
- Monster and Winter Horrorland are excluded because Bassetfilms composed them.
- Additionally, he has also released the chromatic scales for several characters, including: Boyfriend, Daddy Dearest, Skid and Pump, Mommy Mearest, Senpai/Spirit and Tankman. Monster and Pico are excluded because Monster sings in normal English and Pico's Week 3 voice is atonal.
- The chromatic scales and song stems are all viewable and downloadable online.[3]
- Kawai Sprite currently uses Ableton Live 11 to make the music for the game. Prior to the composition of Week 7, he used Ableton Live 10.
- Kawai Sprite has released a video on Twitter showcasing how he does the voices for Boyfriend, and by extension, all the other characters voiced by him.[4]
- Kawai Sprite was originally named Kawaii Sprite, but he was forced to use one "i" as the Twitter handle @kawaiisprite was already taken.[citation needed]
- ninjamuffin99 has described Kawai Sprite as being the coolest person he knows.[6]
Gallery
Kawai Sprite's icon.
A photoshopped image of Kawai Sprite made to resemble Boyfriend. Used in the cover for Fresh (Boyfriend Remix).
Art of the Friday Night Funkin' developers from the FNF art booklet.
References
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