| Sean Hodges | |
|---|---|
 Sean "Cheshyre" Hodges | |
| Birth name: | Sean Hodges |
| Activities: | Musician, flooberdoober |
| External links | |
Sean Hodges, better known by his screen name "Cheshyre" is the main musical artist for Madness Combat who has made the vast majority of music for the series, as well as contributing multiple pieces of music for MADNESS: Project Nexus (Classic), and MADNESS: Project Nexus.
He has been making music for the series as early as Madness Combat 3, and is childhood friends with the series' creator, Matt "Krinkels" Jolly.
History
According to Krinkels, he and Cheshyre have been friends since their early childhood, the friendship apparently going as far back as elementary school. Cheshyre began composing music at a very young age, eventually making digital music with the use of FL Studio, which he continues to use to this day. Both Cheshyre and Krinkels' creative journeys paralleled each other, which eventually crossed over each other, creating an iconic duo of animator and musician.
Cheshyre's first ever music track for Madness Combat appeared in Madness Combat 3: Avenger. The track is named "Calliope" and has become heavily associated with the character Tricky the Clown, oftentimes to the point where the song is considered his theme song.
Another of Cheshyre's first tracks, simply titled "Madness Combat 4", was inspired by the many raves that he and Krinkels would attend in their youth. Both of them were avid partygoers, which inspired the setting of the cartoon as well. Further according to Krinkels, Cheshyre's involvement in the music making process of Madness was simply because he had asked him to.
Cheshyre would then go on to make many more iconic soundtracks for Madness Combat, producing most of the music the cartoons have to offer. When describing his process for making music for the cartoons, Krinkels typically shows him the cartoon first. Then, Cheshyre composes his song based on the "mood" or "feeling" of the animation in question.
Interestingly enough, the effective opposite was done for the soundtrack of MADNESS: Project Nexus, with one of the lead developers, Micheal Swain, saying the game was "built around the music", and that the soundtrack was one of the earliest things that was finished for the game.
Cheshyre's musical style would also go on to spawn what is known as "Cheshcore", a subgenre of music based around Cheshyre's music, with many tracks attempting replicate the iconic sound used in many of his songs, which is simply named "basicdistortion1."
MADNESS: Project Nexus (Classic)
Cheshyre composed almost every song for this particular Madness game, with a notable exception being Killbot, which was composed by Devin Martin. His avatar also appears as an enemy in this game, specifically the stage [1-G] Bar, where he is killed alongside Krinkels, Swain, and Luis by Sanford and Deimos.
Overall, Cheshyre composed 11 total tracks with one being unused, with songs appearing in both the game's story and arena modes. Some of these tracks, notably Swamp Zombies and The Day Before were reused for MADNESS: Project Nexus.
MADNESS: Project Nexus
Being Gibbing Tree's most ambitious game project yet, Cheshyre was called on to compose 1/2 of the game's soundtrack, with the other half being composed by Devin Martin. Cheshyre composed 23 original tracks for the game, with 2 of them being reused from the previous title, MADNESS: Project Nexus (Classic.). Most of Cheshyre's tracks appear in the game's Arena Mode, with some appearing in Story Mode as well.
Cheshyre apparently composed the game's music very early on in development, to the point where the songs were done long before the game was. Because of this, the game was, in part, built around the soundtrack.
Trivia
- His favorite Madness character is Tricky the Clown.
- His name was inspired by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, along with the avatar he uses for many of his album covers.
- Cheshyre claims, usually in jest, that his beard is alive and sentient and compels him to do evil things.
- Cheshyre calls his fans "floobers".