Kyle Ward
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Kyle Andrew Ward, born on July 4th, is an electronic music composer from Vancouver, Washington who produces songs in many different genres, including dance, techno, trance, happy hardcore, and drum and bass.
Ward began playing piano at age 5 via the Suzuki method (by ear). He soon integrated his love for technology through keyboards, computers, and all forms of electronic instruments.[citation needed]
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[edit] Pseudonyms
Kyle uses many different pseudonyms to sign his music. He has a different pseudonym for each genre of music he works in:
- KaW (from Kyle Andrew Ward) is the most common of Kyle's pseudonyms. Music signed "KaW" is typically dance/trance, tends to be moody and sometimes dark, as well as often melodic. Dawn is a good example of KaW's musical style. KaW is also used when referring collectively to all of Kyle's work.
- Inspector K is used for faster paced, more aggressive techno music, usually with an emphasis on drum and bass. Liquid Moon is a good example of Inspector K's musical style.
- ☺ (Smiley) songs are happy hardcore, and are thus very fast paced and are uplifting if not imposingly happy. Delirium is a good example of ☺'s musical style.
- Banzai is used for Tribal/House music. Banzai songs tend to be slower paced, and feature ethnically inspired melodies. Exotica is a good example of Banzai's musical style.
- KBit songs tend towards Rave/Techno styles, and often feature 8-bit sounds. Robotix is a good example of KBit's musical style.
- KeeL songs are usually slower paced, drum-heavy Electronic/Techno music. Anonymity is a good example of KeeL's musical style. KeeL is sometimes used instead of KaW to refer to Kyle's work collectively, especially on web forums.
- Symphonius is used for songs inspired by or based off of classical music. Symphonius has only ever produced one song, Tell (a synthesised remix of the William Tell Overture)
- OscillatorX is the name used by Kyle and fellow musician John Mendenhall when they collaborate. DJ Superstar is a good example of OscillatorX's musical style.
On occasion, Kyle mixes musical styles in his songs. Euphoria has trance influences and an emphasis on melody, but is more cheerful than most KaW songs, and so was signed "KaW feat. ☺". Another song, Duality, alternates between styles rather than mixing them and is signed "KaW vs ☺ vs Inspector K".
[edit] Kyle and In The Groove
[edit] Featured Work
Kyle Ward is the main music composer and sound producer of RoXoR Games' dance arcade series, In The Groove.[1] In the Groove and its sequel, In the Groove 2 features music from KaW, Inspector K, ☺, Banzai, KBit, and Symphonius.
Kyle has so far confirmed that new KBit, KaW and Inspector K songs will feature in In the Groove 3.[citation needed]However RoXoR lost the rights to In the Groove and will not produce an In the Groove 3.
Kyle is considered by many to be RoXoR Games' counterpart to Naoki Maeda, a composer who works for Konami producing songs for use in their Bemani line of rhythm games (mainly Beatmania IIDX and, more importantly, Dance Dance Revolution, with which In The Groove competes). Both produce a significant proportion of the songs for their respective games, and both do so under a variety of pseudonyms which change depending on the style of the music. Kyle lists Naoki as a musical influence on his website.
[edit] ZiGZaG
In the Groove and In the Groove 2 featured four notoriously difficult electronic songs - Pandemonium, VerTex, Energizer, and VerTex2 - which were all signed "ZiGZaG". These four songs are considered by ITG players to be among the most difficult songs in ITG's history. Players recalled that in Dance Dance Revolution, there was a series of difficult songs of similar notoriety (the MAX series) which were all in actuality created by Naoki Maeda, using a different pseudonym for each song, and suspected that ZiGZaG was another pseudonym created by Kyle for the purpose of writing acid/hard acid techno and hardcore techno music. However, Kyle does not, and never has listed ZiGZaG as one of his pseudonyms.[citation needed]
When questioned on the subject, Kyle claimed that ZiGZaG was in fact, a different person. In a statement on his website, Kyle said: "ZiGZaG's identity has been kept secret by his request. ZiGZaG is an artist local to the Pacific northwest [of America] that uses very unorthodox techniques to create music."[1]
Some people still believe that ZiGZaG and Kyle Ward are the same person. Supposed evidence towards this conclusion includes the fact that a user account called "ZiGZaG" was created on RoXoR Games' web forum in October 2003, whose posts were signed "andy z". People suspected that this was simply Kyle going by his middle name of Andrew, although others have pointed out that it is equally likely that "andy z" is a pseudonym of ZiGZaG. Other evidence commonly cited includes ZiGZaG's song "Pandemonium" clearly being a remix of the KaW song "Indulgence", and his song "VerTex" previously having appeared on one of Kyle's webpages as credited to KaW. When asked about these songs, Kyle's reply was that ZiGZaG had simply touched up and remastered the songs. Also, Kyle once claimed that ZiGZaG owned a purple iMac, but pictures from Kyle's Flickr show that he uses a purple iMac himself. None of this evidence is conclusive, however, and the debate continues.
[edit] Discography
- Urban Comatose (2006)
- Synthsations (2003)
- Caddywhompus (1999)
