Vagrant Bard

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing an indie icon I truly admire. Joseph Toscano, better known by the moniker ZhayTee, is a computer programmer and musician. Having already worked on the soundtrack for free game projects, his involvement with the MOD community stood out with the track “Absconditus” for Minerva: Metastasis (listen to it below). Now, having recently released the game “Luchi Garage Sale”, ZhayTee sheds light on his thoughts on inspiration, licensing, MODs, and future projects.

Arthur Protasio: So, for starters: name, age, nationality, and profession?

ZhayTee: Joseph Toscano, 26, American, Computer Programmer.

AP: I got to know your work, musical works to be more specific, through the HL2 MOD Minerva. How does that fit into your history and the “Computer Programmer” classification?

ZT: Actually, the history there is quite short and simple: I was browsing the Internet several years ago for nice-looking Half-Life 2 mods, and I stumbled across the work-in-progress that is now known as Minerva: Metastasis. I thought it looked quite professional, so I promptly e-mailed Adam Foster (the author of the mod). He was very receptive to the idea of original music for his mod, and so I went to work. The first song I produced is called “Absconditus”, and it was included in the game shortly after I finished it. After that, Adam Foster and I kept in touch and I produced several more works for Minerva during its final years of development. I didn’t expect anything to come of it, but Absconditus became well-liked by many fans of Minerva. Read the rest of this entry »