Take us through how you see the planets right now. We'll start with ArcCorp: what is ArcCorp to you? How did you approach ArcCorp?

Well, ArcCorp for me was like... Taking the question two steps: two things before going through ArcCorp. Each planet is so much work from the team. It's so much dedication that everyone pours into it that I feel that it requires a completely new set of music. I try to be as original as possible, without being so original that no one even relates to it, but trying to be as original as possible.

And ArcCorp in particular, I loved doing it. It took me a while to do it. That was not a fast piece. New Babbage was done at a much faster pace. But I tried to merge all the cultures. Everyone looked at ArcCorp, and everyone's immediate response would be, oh, this looks like something futuristic, punkish, whatever stuff. And I looked at it and said, no, no. When I looked at this planet, I saw a merge of cultures all working together as one. And I wanted the music to feel futuristic, but with roots in each kind of style of culture that we could think about. So to me it was not an easy process. How could I do this without sounding ethnic, without sounding African, without sounding Japanese, without sounding anything in particular, but sounding like everything at the same time? So I think it was a lot of work. I was getting a bit nervous at times, because when you go into unknown territory, you feel unsafe in what you're doing. But I think in the end it really worked well. I love the piece till now. I still love it. And I know what others feel about it, but it's very touching to me.

Also, when I make music for a certain planet, I try to make the music not only describe the planet, but also describe some message, what I feel when I look at the planet. And since ArcCorp is that monstrous, global constructed city, I thought, oh man, this is traffic everywhere. Everyone crazy going from one side to another. And it's probably so populated, but a bit like in the real world, maybe people just go on their routine: work, home, work, home, stuff like that. So I tried to put that in the music a little bit, the frenziness of the world, and everyone on their own. That's what I thought.