Tape 0305 ~
samb_rules

The relentlessly kind London mainstay talks Minecraft, his new(ish) album, and space. The mix is not even a mix, it's a soundtrack to mundanity swept right out across 4 hours. Leave it running in the background.

~ How does this mix feel?

i hope like wandering around

~ How did you begin to approach a project based on a soundtrack already so beloved - probably the best known piece of videogame ost ever?

slowly! and not looking to compete with the original at all, to try to make something unique that still feels at home and makes sense when you listen to it while playing. the newer ost additions, by artists like Lena raine and Kumi Tanioka, were a huge inspiration too! they really have their own sound while still feeling apart of the world the original came from.

~ Has your relationship with the original soundtrack changed as a result?

i dont think so! i didnt listen to it anymore than i usually would while putting the album together, which is to say hearing it occasionally while playing the game! i cant imagine those songs are ever going to stop feeling nice to listen to, i have so many comfortable and fun memories tangled up in there it wouldve taken a lot of work to separate all that!

~ Are there particular parts of the OST which you built the album around?

i was definitely inspired by the “weirder” moments! the strange little 1min tracks. especially for the scarier parts of the game, the nether etc! and getting the right amount of reverb on the piano.

~ C418’s original ‘Alpha’ is almost a vernacular, with a memetic and metacultural life of it’s own. What does the OST mean to you?

possibility. the opportunity for adventure, getting lost in a place no one else has ever seen apart from you and your friends or just you, seeing this perfectly shaped tree on a perfect hill. thinking about what you want to create inside of that space, seeing what your friends thought to create or do. shared hours spent on making things in a shared space.

~ A lot of people (myself included) really connect that music with a particular time and place in their lives. Do you think the freeform energy of minecraft helps people to associate with it as a temporal / metaphysical space?

these questions are awesome. i wish i knew a bit more about this stuff! it has made me realise that my minecraft feelings and memories do feel all mixed up together, all swimming round in the same pond. is that what you mean?

~ And what do you make of nostalgia for a version of what is, ultimately, a “product”?

yeah. im not sure! the product bit just feels like the key to get into the big garden to me, even though i know its the whole package really. but once youre walking around it feels different, feels like its ours. most of my nostalgia is connected to products i guess, or the unique experience we made with them or despite them.

~ There’s an elegaic tone to this music (both the OST and your refraction), somewhere in between lonely, hopeful, lost, and exploratory. It’s not necessarily a unique mood in terms of indie games, but what do you think it means that something so tonally diverse has such an enormous audience?

its awesome! we need more! i think people of all ages should have the opportunity to experience “weirder” media. theres a whole world of brilliant exciting stuff out there and they still play vengaboys at school discos. its fucked!

~ The ‘Apart’ version of this tape leans into the concept of a soundtrack as a sporadic interjection, a highlight instead of a background. Is there a particular setting that it’s best suited to (beyond playing Minecraft).

tidying up or cooking maybe! somewhere you can have time to/with yourself but your still a bit busy. let the back bits of your mind free for a little bit, let them sort some stuff out and stretch their legs.

~ How long have you been playing Minecraft for?

bought it in 2011 after i walked out on a crappy job and was too worried about leaving the house and bumping into other folks that still worked there that i didnt leave the house for a few days. made a castle. started “playing” the game for real, with my little brother a few years later which was the best, then have probably played on a server with friends once or twice a year for a few weeks at a time ever since. nothing beats that new server smell!

~ What kind of objectives do you set yourself in the game, if any?

go find a nice spot of scenery first. then think of what i can make there that suits that space, design it all in a creative world. then go out and get all the different bits i need to make that for real

~ Do you find that it ends up reflecting the way you work in real life, on music or anything else?

yeah, in that i always have 20 things i need to get done and cant ever focus on one for long enough to finish it! my mc worlds are full of half baked half finished buildings and structures. it has helped me be okay with that though, i think. something doesnt have to be finished to have been worth it

~ How much do you listen to music in your daily life? Do you ever make a conscious effort to choose the soundtrack for particular moments?

im pretty bad at listening to music these days! if i have an dj gig i really focus in on that, ill just listen to the playlist im putting together or look for music to add to it. i find that i dont really listen for pleasure anymore which id love to change. putting this mix together was really nice though, swimming around bandcamp looking at hearing what everyones been enjoying and finding new things. so thank you for that!

~ What does listening mean to you?

a lot!

~ Does silence ever really exist?

i wish. i dont live in a quiet space currently and sometimes i could really do with some

~ What’s your favourite mob in the game?

frog! i wish we’d gotten those rock hopper penguins from the controversial mob vote a few years ago though

~ The moments in Minecraft when the music swells out of nowhere bring a rhythm to the game. They can highlight beautiful moments or make the mundane into something majestic. I'm interested in what you make of the randomness of this process, both as a player and a composer?

i love it. all of the best things come from those kinds of moments. you cant imitate or emulate that stuff. all my best chords have been accidents.

~ How does play in a wider sense inform the way you create?

i think you have to try your best to do what you want in that moment, you have to be as free and flexible as you can be. if you force yourself to make something that thing will feel forced. if you go where you want to go you’ll be happy!

~ What part of the album are you proudest of?

that it feels like a whole thing, i think. using the same sounds in different ways on different tracks. im a real want to start a new thing kind of guy so any time i stick to one thing im proud of myself.

~ What part of your Minecraft world are you proudest of?

made a pylon/telephone pole in creative that i was well happy with, for an abandoned train station base i stopped working on.

~ What’s your favourite noise?

my wife does this laugh when shes with her siblings that sounds like one of the cursed pots from dark souls 2

~ What would be the soundtrack to your funeral?

soulwax remix of muscle museum by muse

~ You have a time machine and can travel into either the past or future to experience a musical performance. Where, and when, do you go?

radiohead in rainbows basement recording would be cool. or that oneman boileroom from 2011/12 where he plays the french fries amerie remix for the first time, be one of the guys saying “cheez”! go down in history as one of the cheez guys.

~ A song that always makes you move?

nobody move nobody get hurt by we are scientists. pretty ironic huh!!!

~ A song that always moves you?

peanuts by tindersticks

~ $$$ Plug Zone: Tell us about upcoming projects, news, shows, spam, advertising, useless info etc

if you liked what i did on glint i have some other music on my bandcamp that i think turned out pretty nice.

Interview
Christian Jones

~

Index

Instagram / Soundcloud / Telegram / Mailing List

© 2025 Texture Magazine