I've been stepping for a long time
I thought I would write a post about the stepartists who have influenced my work throughout the yers.
I can actually go into a lot of detail about this because there are lots of people and simfiles who have influenced my work whilst was still maturing. I feel that this is worth writing because this is all cyclical, and I write this primarily for the people who mention me as an inspiration to show you that I also have my own stories growing up and that I too have people I look to for influence.
Anyone who saw my very first pack knows I was shat on during my time on R21Freak; I made some really unfun, uncomfortable content during those days and my technicals like syncing and cutting were far worse (mid-2009). I must have known my work was bad because I added little footnotes in readme files in folders, warning players that some ill-omen will come and haunt them for life should they play my simfile.
Feedback was harsh enough that I was deterred from releasing anything for a solid 3 years afterwards whilst I went away and figured out how to do it. Everyone has had their moment being stepped on while vulnerable. If I hadn't had my ass kicked like that, I wouldn't have been as motivated to improve my work since.
Some screenshots from my first pack, for better or worse, S21Works:
Comment thread: http://r21freak.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9368&p=385473#p385473
Alot of people have been my inspiration
My primary influences are of course, the stream stepartists. Throughout 2009-2012 in the ITG era these included Brandon (DRAGONFORCE), Matt (Tachyon), Arvin (Rhapsody of Fire and Fast Track to Brutetown) and Ninevolt in the former half, Ian when Disbalance 3 made its big splash and Sam when he started pumping out Oh Henry and Jim when he got better at writing fast stuff. Each of these guys all had a niche strength that I spent alot of time looking over and analyzing, and the stepping style I have now is a fusion of everything I've learned over the years, with my own personal style added to make what I learned my own. I also want to add Jayce, Little Matt and Tyler to this list and I'll add smaller notes about them below.
Right now though, I want to mention Fraxtil, Thomas Prag, Mute, Sudzi, ITGAlex and Valex, as well as keyboard stepartists DukAmok, HST, Zaghurim and Toph. I can't reference any one specific simfile in the course of your work, but anyone on this list here whose work I've downloaded, played and studied over time, I always see you put interesting quirks here and there, like something I haven't seen before, or something I didn't know about until I saw it in your simfile. Particularly on the technical side of things, wherein I'd started incorporating those elements into my work and seeing how I could similarly express myself. It would be disingenuous of me not to mention you when your work does have an influence on mine. I'll give a special one to Mute because he's always resynced my packs without me ever asking, and I figured I should kick my own ass into gear and get good at that so that I wouldn't have to imagine him shaking his head at my waveforms anymore. I'll talk about the keyboard players at the bottom.