Ever wanted to hear your favourite video game soundtracks in a different form to the awe inspiring orchestra? The piano instrumental arrangements by Kyle Landry are amazing pieces of art and if you haven’t heard them, here’s your chance.
Kyle Landry is a 23 year old male, who has aspirations of becoming a well known video game composer. To coin the phrase: ‘started from the bottom’, Kyle originally used his Youtube channel to share his music with his friends and family, but soon found success through fans of the soundtracks listening to his magical arrangements. He started his channel in 2006 and by 2007, he had over 10,000 subscribers on Youtube.
However, this fame bought a lot of attention to his channel. Youtube banned it in the summer of 2007, due to copyright issues. Over half of the videos he had made, originally for his friends and family, were lost, even though many of his fans strived to retrieve them and repost them on his behalf. This didn’t stop Kyle, only a couple of days after the channel was shut down, he opened a new one under the username ‘kylelandry‘, which he is still found under today.
His arrangements of video game and film soundtracks launched him into a music career, after the feedback from his fans told him about how they wanted to listen to his music the next time they play a game. In May of 2012, he graduated from the Hartt School of Music and never stopped uploading videos to Youtube, something that the fans are grateful for. Video game culture has recognised him as an active and respected member, enough so that in July 2012, Kyle was invited to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) to perform for fans, alongside two friends and fellow Youtube musicians, Taylor Davis and Lara de Wit.
Close to 200,000 subscribers on Youtube, the boy who started playing piano for fun when he was 8 is now pursuing it as a career due to the feedback he has gotten from fans. Sharing his talent through Youtube helped him grow as a musician and he thanks his fans for that every time he posts a video; makes another arrangement and releases another album.
As a fan of Kyle Landry myself, I thought it’s time that all video game fans at least know his name, as he dedicated his teenage years to video game and film, producing arrangements and performing them for the world. One of my favourite videos remains his Kingdom Hearts arrangement, ‘Passion’, originally composed by the world famous Utada Hikaru, which is featured in this article.
If that video was enough to make you a fan of Kyle, you can find him on various social media websites, as well as his own website: kylelandry.com, Facebook and Twitter. As he arranges music, he also produces sheet music from it, which he posts on his website, available for the fans to give the arrangements a try. If that’s not your style, there are Youtube Synthesia videos, which show you how to play the music. Kyle even offers 1-1 Skype lessons, or if you’re close enough to his location, which is North-Eastern Massachusetts. Let me know about what you think of Kyle’s arrangements; post your opinion in the comments below!
