Music

Music composed and produced by Keith Hayden (HAC Studios)

I was a math teacher when I made music for the first time.

The connection between the two domains fascinated me. That led to a two year long deep dive (borderline obsession) with the art form.

Fast forward dozens of online classes, some self-taught piano lessons, and out-there experiments with AI music and you get the collection of songs below.

At the time, I was producing the audiodrama version of my first novel Cereus & Limnic.

What's my style?

I'm very much influenced by the classic video game music I heard on endless loop when I was a kid.

Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Yoko Shimamura (Super Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles etc.), and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger) are big inspirations.

There's also jazz and cinematic fusion, combined with lots of electronic beeps and strains.

Like a lot of video game music, I like to let the story guide compositions. That leads to some seemingly disjointed chord progressions and melodies only readers or listeners can appreciate.

I've also experimented with AI music. From early rough cuts of ChatGPT generated melodies to AI-human mashups (Sync Whole OST)--just like in writing--I'm pushing the frontier of the definition of music and how we make it.

I hope you enjoy what I've got here.