Alternia

By Toby Fox tobyfox Bandcamp tobyfox Twitter toby.fangamer.com Other fwugradiation Tumblr ← Earthbound Halloween Hack Previous album by this artist → The Baby is You Next album by this artist.
Cover art by Cindy Dominguez → Squiddles! Next cover art by this artist and Andrew Hussie andrewhussie Twitter → Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent Next cover art by this artist.
Wallpaper art by Cindy Dominguez → Squiddles! Next wallpaper art by this artist and Andrew Hussie andrewhussie Twitter → Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent Next wallpaper art by this artist.
Released 7/18/2010.
Duration: ~33:45.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube (playlist).

View additional files.
View gallery page or commentary page!

Main album: (~24:13)

Bonus tracks: (~9:32)

(2:10) The Thirteenth Hour
(0:37) Spider's Claw
(1:21) Staring
(1:55) Keepers
(1:28) Theme
(2:01) Walls Covered in Blood DX

Added to wiki 11/15/2019.

View or download additional files:

Album Booklet
- Alternia_Commentary.pdf (4 MB)

Artist commentary:

Toby Fox: (booklet commentary - front)

Hey, just a brief (LOL JK) message from the guy who made this album - Toby "Radiation" Fox, if for some reason you haven't seen that name anywhere yet.

First. thank you so much for buying this!!! I haven't been composing music for very long but I greatly enjoy doing it, so I composed these tracks as a fun way to make some money for college. I also created this album primarily to challenge my own creative limits; I'm usually known for creating hard-rocking, fast-pumping tunes with very obvious video game overtones. With this album I tried to show that I can manufacture a soundscape beyond that... that sometimes I'm capable of variety! (probably not what you'd normally expect from me! SORRY BROS)

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the track for the fourteenth troll, Larry, whose track is comprised entirely of the sounds of horses neighing. It was a new genre Andrew and I invented together, and with it I would have consummated my quest to create every type of music known (and unknown) to man. The fact that I didn't finish that track is my only real regret. It keeps me in tears. But overall, aside from that one little fluke, I'm happy with the amount of stuff I was able to pull off, and the amount of improvement I made because I decided to defy the notions of my original style.

So how did this all start, anyway?

The scene: Late May 2010. I was talking to Andrew Hussie (as we are soul twins) when I asked him if I could do a solo album called "Alternia." Alternia's idea was thusly: The trolls have an entire game that none of us would probably ever see in any detail. Taking free reign over this unscripted world, I would go ahead and make a soundtrack to their game session as a parallel to that of the kids, mocking the tracks found in the early Homestuck albums - Harlequin would be recalled by a track called Crustacean, Showtime by Showdown, Aggrieve by Aggrave, Sburban Jungle would be Skaian Summoning, and the list went on. When fully-formed this album would form an alternate "troll version" of the original Homestuck albums, revealing the similarity in the alternate worlds through song - hence the name "Alternia."

Obviously Andrew was fine with this idea. (Unless in fact you are reading this in the alternate universe where the album was canceled and replaced with the other one we were planning. The one filled with horse neighs.) In fact, he only had one thing to say against my original concept.

I said: "We're not gonna see their game session."

He said: "Whoops don't be so sure!"

And then on 6/12, the troll game session arc started. WHOOSP AGAIN.

Luckily, I was there the exact moment the arc started, and I rushed to the forums to enter "Alternia" in the suggestion box. Hilariously enough, my name was chosen to be the planet's name (Alternia I mean. Although I'm sure Planet Radman McDoucheface was a close second in Andrew's mind). If if hadn't been able to post in the suggestion box when he was choosing the planet's name, and it was named something else, I probably just would have renamed the album "Hivebent." (Or "Radman McDoucheface's BIG HITS.")

By that point I had only completed 4 tracks - Showdown, Crustacean, Skaian Summoning, and "Theme," the latter of which I had to scrap because it was too nice-sounding for the trolls, to phrase it terribly. As Hivebent kept updating I realized that I really couldn't do whatever I wanted with the album because we were actually seeing the trolls' world. I decided that I would just scrap the parallelism and make a track for whatever struck my fancy. And boy was my fancy struck. My fancy resonated rapidly and colly, generating sweet, sweet overtones to each of Andrew's inspiring updates until I had accidentally created a track for every single troll and then some. (Maybe if Larry had debuted in the comic I would have finished that track. Blame Andrew.)

Now that I think about it, I guess that by making music for points in Hivebent without any established tracks as themes for the trolls, I imitated the first couple of albums in their sort of brave, musical pioneer sort of feeling more than I might have if I had chosen to parallel them completely and more literally, track by track.

So that's that story.

Also I'd like to clarify that this album is supposed to be 12 tracks long, but I can't stop myself from making music when the opportunity arises. So now the album is 12 tracks long, plus a bunch of accidental bonus songs.

Now, as if I haven't gone on long enough, let me toss some rude thank-yous towards some particular people:

Cindy for being chill with this whole thing and helping me set it up. Also for being an awesome fan.

Andrew for unintentionally inspiring me to make music to go with almost every update he's ever made (and the ones he hasn't).

Alex Rosetti (Albatross Soup) for being a cool dude and giving me pointers on some of these tracks.

My brother James for listening to my stuff.

Seth Peelle (Beatfox) for being unreasonably nice and supportive.

My radio listeners for being chill, nice dudes and dudettes, especially the radiologists (Blueberry, Shaon, angela, and Linnet).

AndrewNeo and Solatrus for helping that radio exist and encouraging it (skaianet, too).

The FanGamer / Starmen.net / RadioPSI crowd for putting up with my lazy bullcrap

You, by supporting my music with your cash and/or ears (JOIN MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE).

Larry, for being the best troll.

Linnet: (booklet commentary - back)

Raised from infancy by the mysterious but melodious Rhythm Monks, Toby set out at the age of 10 in pursuit of a single goal: to be the master of all the beats. After years of travelling, he has clearly achieved this goal. None dare challenge him to a battle of rap; humiliating defeat would be the only possible outcome. He is the champion. Today, always in search of a challenge, he has moved on to musically depicting cyborg tits.

He's pretty cool.

-minibiography written by Linnet, and is presumed to be 100% accurate

Andrew Hussie: (MSPA news post, excerpt) captured 7/19/2010

What have we here?

MORE MUSIC!

An album titled Alternia by the prolific and electric (prolifilectric) Toby "Radiation" Fox.

Yes, this is a solo album, meant to put music to the troll universe which has been taking shape recently. I believe you will find this album shall only further crystallize the atmosphere of this arc. It will do this because we say it will.

But there is some trivia here! Before I started act 5, Toby talked to me about working on an album like this, couched in the assumption that the troll story would never be examined in the detail it is presently, and that this album would only serve as a tonal exploration of a purely hypothetical adventure supplied by the imagination. Turns out he assumed incorrectly! Which only made the project that much more timely and apropos. In fact, the planet Alternia was named after the album, and not the other way around!

This is really good stuff. It should go without saying that Radiation's work is always among my personal TOP PIX. This is obvious, since I have leaned heavily on him for HS scoring. Leaned hard. Like he is a diner jukebox, and I am the coolest fucking dude you ever saw. I am seriously making the Fonz look like the Star Wars kid from that old meme. Thrashing around like a spaz with a mop handle in the garage of whatever the fuck family he lived with.

I don't know a goddamn thing about Happy Days, honestly.

Cindy Dominguez: (whatpumpkin.com news post) captured 2/8/2011

And now, presenting...

THE ONE...

THE ONLY...

Mr. Toby "Radiation" Fox, and his stunning new one-man act, Alternia!

Please imagine "Crustacean" is playing during the preceding introduction.

Oh, you don't know what Crustacean is? Then you'd really better go check out Alternia, the album composed solely with trolls on the brain. Toby's brain, that is. This is the soundtrack of the adventures of Karkat, Terezi, Gamzee and all the rest of the gang!

When you buy this album, you not only get the 15 quirky and amazing songs you can preview, but also 3 extra SUPER SECRET tracks, plus a PDF booklet, which is full of commentary by Toby ("Radiation" Fox) and scenic Alterniascape art, PLUS a bigger version of the album cover. I can personally attest (with great gusto!) to the awesomeness of the whole package, so check it out!

Homestuck: (whatpumpkin.com side blurb) captured 2/8/2011

The most official Hivebent album you may ever get. Maybe. It's got tunes for all our favorite (and most hated) trolls!

Homestuck: (whatpumpkin.com "about the albums" blurb) captured 7/18/2011

The first official Hivebent album, by the incorrigible Toby "Radiation" Fox. It's an album about our dear Alternian trolls and their silly and/or terrifying trolly adventures!

Homestuck: (Bandcamp download blurb) captured 7/22/2010

Includes PDF booklet with musician commentary and bonus artwork, plus larger version of album cover.

Quasar Nebula: (wiki editor)

Track art for Alternia and AlterniaBound is from the Alternia/Bound track art anthology projects! Original track artworks, which were largely (though not entirely) crops of panels from the webcomic, have been left in the commentary for each track.

Toby Fox

Homestuck

Official Discography

Solo albums

Alternia

Alternia