Texan Mosaic

by NICOLE TRUGILLO/Editor-in-Chief

It takes talent, time, and success to create an album.

One YouTuber named Tyler Sederwall has incorporated video games to express his musician abilities.

I’ve been a big fan of Sederwall since high school. He’s a YouTuber who makes a profit from playing through video games. Ever since I’ve followed him on YouTube, he would always express how he loves music and how it helped him through his life.

Sederwall released his second album, “Game Face,” on March 11. He incorporated video games into his songs. It wasn’t a surprise to me. But I know for other people, the genre might be a little bit strange because our generation isn’t familiar with it.

The first song on the album is “Taking Charge,” which is the intro to the album. The intro has a pop feel to it that helps you feel motivated when listening to it. If you listen to the lyrics, Sederwall tells his fans that we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone when we need to.

“Gamer Revolution” is another song that has a pop-style and includes little segments of rap. In this song, Sederwall talks about his hobby, which is video games. In part of the song, he says, “taking a hobby, making it more. Making connections and opening doors, sharing my life, making it yours. Versus some games, settling scores.” These lyrics are explaining his life as a YouTuber and sharing with his fans what he does as a profession.

The next song, “Do It Our Way,” isn’t a video game-related song. But this song has a catchy beat and lyrics that I think anyone would enjoy. Sederwall did explain that this song had a Kesha style to it, and I agree.

“Chasing Happiness” is probably the only song on the album that has emotional ties that anyone can relate to. The lyrics to the song describe that everyone in the world is chasing happiness they can’t seem to find. It’s a song that everyone should listen to because it has great meaning. I think everyone is chasing something that makes them happy, or they think it does. So, it’s definitely a song worth listening to.

The next track is “Pokégod.” If anyone watched the Pokémon series, it gives a 2016 style to “I Want to be the Very Best” Pokémon theme song. It does have a pop style to it, and that’s what Sederwall wanted. He told his fans that even though he isn’t the best at Pokémon, he wanted to create a song that suggested that he was the greatest Pokémon master.

“Get Bananas” is one of my favorites on the album. The song is based on the character Donkey Kong. Sederwall took inspiration from the original Donkey Kong rap, but added dubstep and rap lyrics to the song to make it enjoyable to his listeners.

The next song is “Old School,” which is a slow-paced song, but it does include some rap as well. The lyrics “old-school games are my tradition, running them all in mint condition” explains that Sederwall likes playing old-school video games, which are in good condition. Sederwall also made a tribute to Satoru Iwata, a game programmer and a businessman who served as the fourth president and CEO of Nintendo, who passed away on July 11, 2015. In the song, the lyrics are “R.I.P to one of the greatest that will ever exist, developed a lot, there is a long list, Satoru Iwata you are going to be missed.”

“This is War” was the second single that Sederwall released off the album. The theme of this song is Super Smash Bros. for the WiiU console. The song really describes the Super Smash Bros. characters fighting each other, and Sederwall does use their fighting voices in the song, while he raps about the characters fighting each other.

Definitely my favorite song on the album is “Release the Beast.” It doesn’t have a lot of meaning to the song. The lyrics are “I will release this beast that is stuck within me. Eat the flesh of our enemies…I’m the beast, so (explicit) primal, whatever I say is final. I’m feeling so ambitious, good thing I’m so (explicit) vicious.” The song mainly explains that you’re vicious, and you can take on anyone.

The beat is what makes it great for me. The beat of the song makes you feel like a beast, which is what Sederwall wanted his fans to feel. He also had no repeating elements on the song, which is impressive.

“Still See the Sunshine” is based on the storyline about the video game Super Mario Sunshine. Sederwall does include rap lyrics, but you can tell this song has a rock vibe to it. Sederwall included screamo vocals. Even though that’s not his forte, it definitely suited the song well.

The next song is “One I Love,” and I mainly love this song because it’s a love song that still involves video games. The only video game element is Sederwall calling the girl he loves his princess. The lyrics “everybody loves somebody, and princess you are the one, the one I want,” is very sweet and true. I think that every guy has that particular “princess” in his life who they want or love.

“Smash It Up” was the first single that Sederwall released on the album, and it doesn’t have a lot of meaning. The lyrics and beats are good. But since I’ve listened to it over and over again, it’s one of those songs for me that I don’t enjoy often anymore. It’s still a great song, though.

“I’m Ratchet” is probably my favorite I like to sing, because the lyrics, “I’m ratchet, I’m ratchet, I’m ratchet, yeah, you know who I am, I’m ratchet” is something you don’t hear every day. The word ‘ratchet’ in our society describes someone who’s out of hand. But in this case, Sederwall wanted to make a pun.

He wrote this song based on the video game “Ratchet and Clank.” In the lyrics, he does talk about the video game characters.

“The last song on the album is “Game Face (Outro),” which wraps up the album with Sederwall thanking everyone who helped him finish the album.

Sederwall deserves so much respect for the hard work he put into this album. It gets boring hearing the same songs on the radio about the same stuff. But when have you ever heard someone write music based on video games? It’s a great idea, and I loved every song on this album.

I’m going to rate this album high not because I’m a big fan of Sederwall, but because of the creativity and the passion he used for the album. If anyone would like to listen to the album, it’s available to download on Spotify and Soundcloud. If you would like to buy the album, it’s also available on iTunes.

I give “Game Face” 5 out of 5 stars.