Maniac Mansion is one of my favorite point & click, no, dare I say NES, dare I even say video games in general. It taught me the meaning of “It won’t budge”, the dangers of microwave ovens (there’s a reason we don’t have hamsters), and probably inspired my weird sense of humor (I still quote its sequel Day of the Tentacle on a regular basis).
A couple of years ago I started messing around with cheap synthesizers. For my first attempt at a complete song I chose to cover a Maniac Mansion song, the game’s protagonist theme (Dave’s Theme or The Boys Are Still Back, by David Hayes). It wasn’t a great cover, but it reignited my love for music making (first time since 1993). I made more game covers followed by some original work, but after 3 years, I came full circle. Today, thanks to my 11 year old daughter’s fearless singing, and yours truly taking courses at the music academy to get actually better at this thing, we bring you Hey Dave.
Hey Dave can be categorized as fan fiction. We listen to Dave’s ex, who isn’t too fond of Dave heading to the mansion. Not just because she knows it’s dangerous and Dave might die, but maybe because she isn’t such a big fan of Sandy, Dave’s girlfriend who has been kidnapped by Dr. Fred. And Dr. Fred, well, he’s not a bad guy. He just got brainwashed by an evil meteor. Gotta love the 80s and its plots.
I do want to thank Ron Gilbert, Gary Winnick and Tim Schafer for creating some of the best games out there and their attempt to keep the genre alive. Playing Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle are still some of my favorite teenage memories. If it wasn’t for those games, I might not have gotten so obsessed with video games. I would have never aspired to get a PhD like Dr. Fred and I would probably be living in my parents’ attic collecting stamps…
Currently Hey Dave is only available on SoundCloud, but I’ll probably be sharing it on other platforms soon!
Thanks for listening! <3