I knew I wanted to have a horn section carry the main melody in this piece, so I dusted off my trusty trumpet and started crafting a funkified version of this tune. I am such a fan of Lalo Schifrin and Henry Mancini's work, and the way they used brass, strings, and percussion in their jazz-infused scores, so I knew I wanted to capture some of that.

I often use field recordings in my work, and since the game features all text dialogue and simulated sounds, I felt like it would be really interesting to add recorded voice and field recordings of the inside of a subway car to bring that moment of the game to life. I called upon the talented Andrea Kasper to be the voice of the Midgar Lines train system. I fixed her computer recently, so she was happy to return a favor. She perfectly articulated the tenor of a calming "everything is fine (despite all evidence to the contrary)" pre-recorded voice to announce train schedules, next stops, and the presence of unsavory characters.

The middle section breakdown was a tad tongue-in-cheek, as Barrett and AVALANCHE are desperately trying to escape the train after being detected as unidentified passengers. So slowing that down to half-time all laid back and funky was a fun spin. Thanks to my good friend Brian Bodley for his percussion advice and skills during that section…he even talked me in to letting him do a human Cuica.

Called upon Nathan Madsen and his tenor sax for the solo on the end reprise of the main theme. He graciously talked me through changes he wanted in the transcript and never balked at the iterations I threw at him…even with the double sharps! That tenor line really helps to finish the reprise in a way that elicits a scoring session with a smaller orchestra and jazz instruments.

The end finds the listener back on the train and departing to the next station…with one of the passengers, a Shinra employee, shaken a bit.

Appears on MATERIA: Final Fantasy VII Remixed