A FNF musician on Twitter was asking what people exactly liked about Spookeez from Week 2. With it being one of my favorite songs in the game, I wanted to answer. I took some time to think about it and spewed word vomit from my keyboard. This is the following text...

The song's initial objective (and that of all beginning songs for the week) is to characterize and create its theming through its use of popular music genres from the early 90s and mid-2000s. Spookeez, as a song, is all about the child-like whimsy the Spooky Kids experience on a day-to-day basis. In every Pelo cartoon with them, the comedy and a lot of the humor came from the innate contrast of these children being so woefully unaware of the macabre evils that lurk among the two. Their childish innocence blinds them to the true evils of the world, and that combination is perfectly executed in the song. In an interview, Isaac. G did on the Newgrounds Podcast (NGP #31: Friday Night Funkin' at around 32:58), he said his main issue was finding a balance between the elements of groove and horror. 

Week 1 had an impact on people because of its use of "old-skool" genres like hip-hop, house, and funk. What made it interesting was Isaac's stylization of these genres to fit the "Y2K Flash game aesthetic," as he would combine old and new to make this weird love letter to music. I say that to say that the late 90's/ early 2000s vibe of Funkin' is present in every song, so any genres that are put in it sort of fit that mold up to about week 7. So the real question was "What early 90s genres of music can be transformed to make the Spooky Kids fit the Y2K vision?".

In terms of vocals, they feel so weird and experimental because it was Isaac's first time tuning samples that weren't his voice singing. The formant knob was not enabled in Reason when he was making the vocals, so in tandem with the already high voice of Pelo, it left the Spooky kids sounding charmingly unnatural and cartoony (my best example of that is the voices of the singers in the Tem Village). When combined with Boyfriend's voice, which might be high, but has a formant shifted to accommodate, it gives the impression of a child singing along with an older figure of sorts.

The instrumentation of Spookeez can be broken into two parts, A and B, for the sake of explanation. The song is led by a lot of oldskool jungle breaks and DnB drums of the 90s, with plenty of both goofy and eerie sounds to suit the spooky groove the kids would have been around the Boyfriend. The use of a synthetic string gives an eerie feeling while also signifying the period the music is based on (the Solina was a popular synth back in the day to make strings). Contrasted with that is the organ playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" to subconsciously tell the listener that the song isn't as scary as it may seem. However, elements like the bells and the distorted groan make the vibe uneasy again, balancing the Funk and Horror like I keep saying. I think one of my favorite instruments in the entire track is the Prophet bass that continually plays that wub-wub-wub sound during the verse sections. It gives a sense of silliness but also rhythm with its constant notes. All those elements together in part A combine to form a mish-mash of cheesy horror sounds formed around a breakbeat skeleton.

Now that would be okay on its own, but Isaac has a way of making different parts of the song sound totally different without changing a lot about the instrumentation of it all. Part B, after following the "Break it down!", explodes into this all-out jungle track by merely removing and adding different sounds used throughout the track. There is an unnerving drone that can be heard throughout the track as short chopped slices that carefully foreshadow the hidden darkness of the track. Once part B begins, the drone becomes the lead for the track, pushing the chords down and up to give an uneasy feel to the already spooky song. 

All and all, I love Spookeez for the same reason I love Senpai, Pico and Ugh. They all do a great job at implementing the charm of Funkin' in their music within the confines of characters and their identities.

Thats pretty much the post, I hope it was a good read! (art by Maya Wiley)