War Game

Written in 1989 and 1990 / Recorded in 1990

Things motivate me for writing music are usually quite trivial, especially for works written when I was young. This instrumental tune was originally titled The War, but I knew there was no significance in this title. It was more about pragmatic reason that motivated me writing this tune, which was to utilise the chord progression in the Major Key that had been originally written for an abandoned conceptual work in the previous year. The main body of the tune, in Minor Key, and the chord progression for the guitar solo were new materials at the time of this demo recording. The fake helicopter sound-effect in the intro and the outro was one of products of my long time indulgence in sound editing on the analog synthesizer. Ever since I first heard the Doors song The End in a movie theatre, mixed with the helicopter sound, in the beginning of 1980’s, the core imagination for this tune began to grow within my mind.

When I finished this demo recording, I had no idea on what to call this tune. Though I definitely knew where the inspiration came from: The Doors song featured in a film set in the Vietnam War, personally I have known no war as my first-hand experience. Therefore, I likened my musical struggles and efforts I put into for making this tune as a light-hearted game to play.