Career
Early work (1997–2002)
Stemage began writing and performing music in high school. He recorded an original album in 1997 named Organized Uproar, using a cassette 8-track in his dorm room. The album was later released for free via his website. He then joined a band named MiniVoid.
Metroid Metal and solo work (2003–2014)
In 2003, Stemage formed Metroid cover project Metroid Metal, later recruiting other artists such as Danimal Cannon. While the group were initially simply recording cover songs to release online, Metroid Metal made their live debut at MAGFest 7 in 2009, and became a recurring act at the event. Stemage released several albums with the group over the following years, including Varia Suite (2009), Expansion Pack (2010) and Other Album (2014). Stemage along with the other musicians from Metroid Metal Live formed the "backbone" of Yes Mayhem, a second band that produced original material beginning in 2010.
During this time, he released two original albums as a solo artist- Strati (2006) and Zero Over Zero (2011). He also began working on original video game soundtracks, beginning with the Xbox Live game Alpha Squad (2010). In an interview shortly before the game's release, he described composing for video games as "acting on a blue screen with a director telling you that the Master Control Program is off in the distance, and it's big—except that there's no director, and the MCP is a sketch of a dude with a gun."
Stemage also produced some cover material for charity. The proceeds from his Grandia II cover album Frets of Valmar (2011) went towards Japan's recovery efforts after the earthquake and tsunami. He later took part in the five disc Chrono Trigger cover album Chronicles of Time (2013), which supported Doctors without borders.
Steven Universe and collaborations (2014–2019)
Stemage began providing guitar work for Cartoon Network's Steven Universe from the second season. Initially this was for the revised opening theme, but he worked on the remainder of the show's soundtrack. The first soundtrack volume reached #22 on the Billboard 200. A second volume followed in 2019, peaking at #28 on the Billboard 200, and #12 on the US iTunes chart. Stemage also co-composed the soundtrack for the 2019 film.
Stemage performed with several bands over the period, including a brief tenure with LONELYROLLINGSTARS, working on their 2014 album CARNIVORTEX and performing live at MAGFest 12 to support the release. His departure later in the year was announced by the band in the form of a music video. During the video, Stemage walks out midway through a performance of Royal Rainbow Road to be replaced by new guitarist Mega Beardo. Stemage joined Viking Guitar in 2014, alongside Travis Morgan, Mega Beardo, and founder Erik Peabody. Viking Guitar originated as a solo act fronted by Peabody, with which Stemage had featured as a guest on several occasions. The new incarnation of the band released their debut studio album Legion later that year while continuing the annual Danse Macabre projects that Stemage had been involved in earlier. In 2018, Stemage also joined a band called Super Strikers, along with video game composers Keiji Yamagishi and Manami Matsumae. The group performed live for the first time at MAGFest 2018, the recordings of which were used for the second disc of Yamagishi's album The Retro-Active Experience.
Stemage released one further original solo album, Narrowband in 2016. In a blog post he expressed a desire to continue producing original material in a shorter format and at a faster pace. One further cover album followed the next year, with Retrogression (2017). The album featured various video game tracks played backwards; Stemage was inspired by the main theme of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword which is simply Zelda's Lullaby played backwards.
Focus on soundtracks (2019–)
From the late 2010s onwards, Stemage worked on a number of game soundtracks including Card of Darkness (2019), Ikenfell (2020) and Hextech Mayhem (2021), both as a composer and as a session guitarist. When discussing his work on the Bubsy: Paws on Fire! soundtrack, which was released via video game music label Materia Collective, Stemage indicated that it was a challenging but enjoyable project, adding "If you hear a hi-hat playing Morse code during one of the songs, don't say I didn't warn you."
Outside of his soundtrack work, Stemage also released his fourth album with Yes Mayhem, Bandwagon (2020). In 2022 Stemage performed live with both Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar at Bit Gen Gamerfest in the same evening. The set was further complicated by both bands missing members due to COVID infections, which required getting guest musicians rapidly up to speed. With the aid of three guests between them, both bands were able to perform live; the event marked the first live Metroid Metal performance in four years.
