Yes, Mister Scorpion – The inside story

Yes, Mister Scorpion is a music project started by Russell Sprake. We had in detail discussion with him about this project and other things related to his music career.

Twist Online : First Tell us a little about the starting of your music career.

YMS : I started making music back in 2001 when I was 11 years old. I had a Talkboy cassette recorder and a CD of official World Wrestling Federation theme songs that I used to rap over because this was the only instrumental music I could get a hold of. I was a huge fan of Eminem at the time and I wanted to be just like him, and he was the artist who got me into music in the first place. Him and S-Club 7. That was the start.

Throughout the years my musical tastes changed slightly and I began to listen to other things and before long I discovered Nine Inch Nails, which was a pretty big discovery for me because it was NIN that inspired me to start composing my own music instead of just stealing The Undertaker’s theme song and rapping (poorly) over it. I soon moved away from rapping to singing, and then from singing to purely instrumental works (because I can’t sing very well).

Twist Online : What’s the story behind your project ” Yes, Mister Scorpion” ?

YMS : For starters, the name “Yes, Mister Scorpion” comes from a paraphrased Homer Simpson quote from that episode “You Only Move Twice” where he calls his new boss, who’s name is Hank Scorpio, Mr. Scorpion. I thought it was hilarious and so I stole that and named my musical project after it. The actual project itself came about after a trip to the cinema with my brother to see the movie Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. I loved the movie and everything about it. Then when I got home I went over to SoundCloud and discovered a Chicago-based instrumental music act called The Eighth Bit, who make music based on 1990’s Sega game console music. Seeing the movie of my dreams that morning and then hearing some awesome new music caused a pleasure overload and it inspired me to finally get off my arse and start properly
creating my own music.

Twist Online : Tell us about your recent Releases ?

YMS : I am currently in the process of releasing my debut EP “Ultimate Sauce” one song at a time with the final track expected to hit the net by the end of June 2016. I currently have five out of the eight songs available and I have released a music video for each one.
I plan to release a music video for every song I ever release. When I release an eight track EP like “Ultimate Sauce” I will also release eight music videos. When I release a full-length album with 15 songs I will release 15 music videos. We live in the YouTube and Netflix age and I think subtlety has had its day. People want to drown themselves in a ton of instant videos and visual content so I plan to give that to them.

Twist Online : Is there any one you are inspired of?

YMS : My two main inspirations are Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who I feel is the greatest musician who ever lived and ever will live, and the film score composer Hans Zimmer, who has done all of the recent Batman and Superman OST’s. I think he is the greatest composer to have ever lived and ever will live. One more honorable mention is a guy named Michael Bross, who composed the music for the Oddworld video games that came out for the Sony PlayStation back in the late 90’s.
The music from those games and the ambient soundscape he created is something that has stuck with me for basically the past 20 years, from the age of 7 up until this very day. It’s haunting, it’s soothing and it’s so, so memorable and it’s something that is just there in my mind all of the time and probably always will be.

Twist Online : Do you write and compose your own songs?

YMS : Yes. I honestly couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. I’m not much of a team player.

Twist Online : What’s your music genre?

YMS : Is “Inaccessible” a genre? No? OK. I suppose I would place my music within the Electronic genre, though I would also describe it as Alternative or, at a nasty and violent push, Electro Dance Music. I think that technically you could dance to it, though I’m not sure if it would be particularly enjoyable to do so.
Just watch the music video to my song “Caverns” which features a lovely Venezuelan lady named Alessandra dancing to the song for its’ entire duration. Is she having fun dancing to that song? I’ll let the viewers be the judge of that.

Twist Online : What’s the next target you want to achieve?

YMS : I think the next target I want to achieve is to finally have the full version of Ultimate Sauce finished and uploaded to the net in its entirety. Gauging fan reactions and engaging with as many of them as possible on a personal level is something that I am really aiming for as well, so building a good and lasting relationship with as many fans as I can get is priority right now.

Twist Online : Any new project you are working on? When it will be released?

YMS : Right now it’s just the songs from the “Ultimate Sauce” EP that I am working on, though I do have an idea for a follow up which I will probably begin work on after completing and releasing Ultimate Sauce. It will have a different theme and tonally will be quite different to Ultimate Sauce, from it’s overall sound to the artwork and also the kind of music videos I will be making for each of its’ songs.

Twist Online : Are you on Social Media? Your fans would love to follow you.

YMS : I’m on a whole bunch of social media sites. I’m on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I’m also on SoundCloud, Dreammy.org, Vimeo and I’m also the proud owner of
a neglected Instagram account.