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C418 (Producer/Sound Engineer for Minecraft) shaped a new era in audio for gaming, and became a staple artist in my listening repertoire. The combination of genres and sound design such as ambient, electronic, and downtempo beats all have a sense of place in its arrangement. Its seemingly simple yet well constructed melodies and layers are very calming to me, and suits the purpose of his discography of OST’s in gaming.

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With pure experimentation, Aphex Twin goes beyond the boundaries of electronic music and breaks the moulds of traditional sound. His eclectic catalogue, the array of genres, technicality, sound manipulation have given artists an incredible amount of inspiration especially for C418. To quote, “When I was 12, my brother gave me some Aphex Twin CDs – so I tried to imitate the more ambient stuff that he made.” (L. Burns, 2015)

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UK musician Chris Clark is a prolific electronic artist with classical music at the core of his foundation. The melodies fuse together with electronic soundscapes and harmonies that give a wide array of texture. Clark can achieve eeriness with an emotiveness that’s pleasing to the ear and can manipulate synthetic sounds to produce well crafted tracks. He’s one of the very few artists that C418 has stated as an influence with his interview with Red Bull Academy “Q: What other music has been an inspiration? I saw you mentioned a Clark CD a while ago. A: Oh yeah, Chris Clark! Body Riddle was one of my favorites. “Herzog” is basically a song without percussion, but it doesn’t need any. That blew my mind.” (L. Burns, 2015).

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A pioneer for the contribution to minimalist music in the mid to late 1960’s, Reich’s experimental sounds of non-phase-shifting music and layered melodic patterns have a very similar textual feel to those of C418’s melody structures. Quoting C418 "I bet some kid is like, "I totally want to listen to Steve Reich now!" (Vice, 2015) is referring to his work on Minecraft and how the influence continues on through generations.

Upon discovering this new connection, I can hear repetition of ideas that are continually added through organic instruments creating “a dreamy, hypnotic haze of repeated notes.” (NPR, 2009), which is a focal point in C418’s production but with electronic sounds.

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DIIV is one of the most influential artists for me personally, and was one of the very few bands that motivated me to start my journey of music making. I continue to be inspired by the atmospheric sounds of distorted reverbed guitars and the catchy melodies that are both drowned out and shined through at the same time. DIIV put me on a path down the Shoegaze genre, which then led me to Krautrock which are elements that I try to replicate in my own compositions to this day.

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Baba Salah, one of the kings of music in Mali, is virtually unknown outside of Africa. Zach Cole Smith (DIIV) was inspired by Malian guitar players and replicated the Kora with a guitar to create repeating forms based on a single note interplay. Quoting Zach "As for Baba Salah, I was kind of into these Malian guitar players for a while. I was living in Seattle at the time and I was seeking out artists that played guitar." (Kulsh 2023). As a new discovery for myself, I can hear the relation within DIIV’s music especially with the melodic lines of lead guitars through Salah’s fusion of traditional and contemporary blues.

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It would be an appropriate guesstimation that Elliot Smith is one of the most influential singer-songwriters for any indie musicians, with his unique ability to create emotion through lo-fi sounding records. While the music can be softer at times, the correlation between these two artists is the raw feeling that can be portrayed in their individual stylistic choices. DIIV have even covered Smith with ‘Needle In The Hay’ and ‘Ballad of Big Nothing’ as acoustic renditions (DIIV, 2023) and stated "I’m really inspired by the way Elliott Smith experimented with layering and multiple takes." (Lewis, 2016)

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NEU!, the founding artists of the Krautrock genre in the early 1970’s revolutionised the type of sound which is still influenced in bands today. The hypnotising and repetitive nature of the ‘Motorik’ 4/4 beat heavily inspired many of the recordings I’ve produced over the years. As did for Zachary Cole Smith, with his homage to Krautrock quoting "I had just done this documentary thing where I recreated my favorite song from scratch," Smith continued, "a song called 'Hallogallo' by the German band Neu! I was like well, I could kind of do that maybe?... it's kind of my homage to Neu! and to Krautrock in general." (Leight, 2016). The unique sound of NEU! was also an inspiration for their first record ‘Oshin’ as stated “we kind of eschewed pop structure-- it was much more influenced by German psychedelic bands like Kluster, La Düsseldorf, Neu!, or Can." (Cohen, 2013).