A New Brunswick musician has composed an original score for one of the world’s most popular video games. Edmundston’s Gabriel Plourde, known online as Gabocarina96, has produced a ‘combat-rock orchestra’ for a world inside Fortnite – which globally has about 650 million registered users. Plourde was selected by CooliSushi, a well-known Fortnite world builder, who was looking for a musician to compose an original piece for Anime RPG Tycoon, a new fantasy-style world released earlier this month. “This guy has 25 million people playing his maps and he credited me right at the start of the map,” says Plourde. “It’s a big deal for me.” Plourde, 29, has already made a name for himself posting video-game soundtrack adaptations from his own guitar and keyboard arrangements. His YouTube channel has over 37,000 subscribers, and his productions have been streamed in more than 150 countries over the past 13 years. This is Plourde’s first original piece to be featured in a video game. It all came about after Plourde responded about a year ago to a social media post from CooliSushi who was looking for a composer. “There was a back and forth between him and I trying to figure out how we wanted the music to sound,” says Plourde. “This was right up my alley in terms of style and everything, so it didn’t take me long. It took me a week to complete the draft.” For Plourde – who was inspired to pick up a real guitar at age 14 after becoming a Guitar Hero expert – the career milestone is also a personal achievement. “It’s really awesome to hear music that I’ve created playing in the background of a game, with the sound effects and everything going on,” says Plourde. “It’s kind of surreal, as a longtime video game fan myself, to have my own music playing in the background.” Plourde is hoping the Fortnite project will lead to more original arrangements in the future. “It’s great exposure,” he says. “I’m really hoping it will open up new opportunities for composing music for games.” For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
