Why (from "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII") | Instrumental Rock cover by Trey Hodge

Track 6 from my FF7 Tribute album: SOLDIERs
Original Release Date: November 24, 2020
I'm releasing each track on YT individually, so please go check it out on other platforms using these links, if you want to hear the whole album.
Here's the link again to the whole album: snd.click/dpwmwt
And here's my artist link, in case you want to check out any of the other covers on Spotify or Apple Music: fanlink.to/ciXV
MERCHANDISE: hodge-bros-app...
If you're new here, I'm using these descriptions so you can follow along and read about arranging thoughts and processes, and some mixing and production ideas. I wanted to be able to help if you like listening to, or making, songs like these. I've wondered about other people's thought processes and procedures many times, and I figured I would outline some of those here, in case anyone was curious.
For this track, an absolute personal favorite, I loved the original pop/vocal version way more than the instrumental one from the OST, it's an amazing piece of pop music that deserves so much attention. But I just wanted to have that feel, and work it into a 80s/90s pop-rock jam with the moving pianos and guitar solos of some of my favorite pop songs from the 90s.
I love playing pop piano, and that's really the only interesting thing of note here for a little while. The rest is sparse electric playing, and a lot of work on a fatter tone for the lead. The guitars were all played on a Stratocaster, to really be able to get a variety of funk/pop/smoother tones than the metal tones of my MusicMan. And the Strat is much more responsive to pick and player input than the other. Feel counts for a lot in tracks like this. I tried to nail an emotive attack and vibrato, attempting cries and tears, much like what happens in the game when this song is playing.
Couple of country licks in the bridge, and we are off to the races for a bigger last chorus and solo outro.
A chord progression like this is so much fun to play over because you feel more than think, so I recommend playing solos over pop progressions to work on attaching feel to chords.
It may be obnoxious, but I don't care. It was a blast to play and ended exactly the way I wanted, silly bends and licks and all. Fade out with a Keith Urban rip-off lick. Can't go wrong.

[@Hero38210]

Wow this is a really good cover. Nicely done to modernize the sound for 2021!

[@TreyHodge]

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

[@sonatina3]

This rocks! I love the energy you bring to the song, full of hope and maybe even unabashedly triumphant, like the story could have gone another way....

[@TreyHodge]

Wow! Thanks! I think a lot about that, too. That's why I did my version of Aerith's Theme the same way, attempting more positivity. :)

[@gilgameshvolante]

I love this

[@TreyHodge]

Thanks for listening!

[@mags3376]

Such an amazing cover!

[@TreyHodge]

Thank you!!

[@MultiMadness_]

I absolutely love this

[@TreyHodge]

I love that you love it, I put a lot of time and love into that album, and I'm glad it gets some love back.