Merancapeman

Want to listen to my composition portfolio? Listen at www.soundcloud.com/merancape/sets.

My name is Micah McQueary, and I started my own little musical gang of one and called it “Meran
Cape.” I made it up for no reason one day, but as it went on I came to
realize that I lived in another world in my head. A cheerful place on
some occasions, and on others a terrifying nightmare. It seemed fitting I
named my inner reality Meran Cape after so many years of having that
random name.

It began, like most other aspiring artists, with my
family. Growing up, my sister played piano and my dad owned a video
store. I’d watch movies and, in attempt to mimic that feeling I’d get
watching those adventures, I’d come home and find the desire to form
those feelings into another medium. For a while – and even today
sometimes – it was writing, or acting, sometimes even cooking (my
attempt to make “dynamic” food has been an ongoing trial). I found, as a
child, playing it on the piano my sister practiced on worked just as
well. I would plunk out theme songs, and once in a while I’d venture
into my own original works. As the desire to play what I heard grew, so
did my necessity to learn how to play. Teachers never worked for me –
why should someone else need to show me what I wanted to discover
myself? So from early childhood onward, I taught myself the piano by
ear, and thanks to my supportive parents I was nudged along with an
occasional keyboard and a little familial audience.

The real
booster came when our family got a Playstation. You may think, what does
THAT have to do with anything? Well, we weren’t always up with the
times, and while most households had heard of this doohickey for about a
year now, me and my siblings were thrilled. The first game I ever owned
was Final Fantasy VII. It was a breakthrough in everything I was
familiar with; being a part of a compelling story that’s original and
interactive blew my mind. What I will always remember, however, was the
music.

For a game to have midi loops going on and on and on for a
particular scene, you would think it would grow tiring and boorish.
Final Fantasy opened new avenues in my creative mind, and allowed me to
see the story in music and its genius in the way it made me feel each
scene without even having to play it. No matter how many times that song
ran around, it would fascinate me how often I could discover something
new about the song. That’s when I knew I wanted to compose music for
video games. Film, sure, maybe. But while film was a smorgasbord of
stories and action, it wasn’t as interactive, and the music didn’t have
to be a focal point. Don’t get me wrong, John Williams will always be
one of my favorite composers, but Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the first
ten Final Fantasies, became my role model.

Since then, I’ve taught
myself techniques working with programs like Reason, Fruity Loops, and
other live recording studios, and have been slowly teaching myself other
instruments in case I need a live recording (I like working with
myself) such as violin, flute, the guitar, and other miscellaneous
things. My self-teaching has done wonders except in one case: reading
sheet music. I’ve never read a note in my life, and it’s hard for me to
do but hopefully I can reach that stage. Until then, my heart has taken
the brunt of the work, and my mind slaps it into reality.

I’ve
dabbled in singing lately, and have found that to be satisfying. It’s always been a personal
pillow-hidden dream of mine to sing for a band, but we’ll see where that
goes. At the very least, I have done some covers of other artists using
my voice, live instruments, and synths.

Another hobby of mine lately has been voice acting. As I've always been into acting and took part in several musical and theatrical events, voice acting was just a natural extension of that desire. I've since been building up my own little recording studio, and hope to see it grow into something long-term.

As a listener, I ask you
to spread my name if you can. If you know someone who needs music for an
independent video game (or even a professional one), a voice actor, a singer, or even a freelance cook (heheh) please refer me if
you like my work. I have studied this field of music for years and I
believe I am ready to get out there. Time will tell. Thank you for
reading.