Inside the Code: How David Wise Pushed the SNES to Create 'Stickerbush Symphony'

A Viral Phenomenon Born from Nostalgia

During the 2010s, a specific YouTube video became an unexpected digital sanctuary for thousands of users. Uploaded in 2012, the video featured a 15-minute loop of David Wise’s “Stickerbush Symphony” from the 1995 Super Nintendo classic, Donkey Kong Country 2. The track, accompanied by imagery of thorn bushes from the game’s bramble levels, would appear algorithmically for users, serving as a checkpoint for reflection. In the comments, listeners shared sentimental passages regarding addiction, grief, and life struggles, cementing the song’s reputation as a therapeutic anthem for the internet generation.

The Soundtrack to Difficulty

Rareware, the British developer behind the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, was renowned for pushing the SNES hardware to its absolute limits. While the games were visually groundbreaking, utilizing pre-rendered 3D animations, they were also notoriously difficult. Wise composed “Stickerbush Symphony” specifically for the game's challenging bramble levels. The song was nearly cut from the final product but was selected at the last second to provide a soothing counterbalance to the frustration of repeated failures, making the struggle feel worthwhile.

Technical Innovation: Coding with Hexadecimal

The creation of the track was a feat of technical engineering. While most SNES composers utilized standard development tools and shared MIDI instruments that fit within the console's 64kb audio limit, Wise took a different path. He viewed the standard tools as insufficient for his vision.

Instead, he coded his own instruments from scratch using hexadecimal code in a tracker, manipulating pitch, length, and timbre second-by-second. This was an arduous process; tasks that took seconds on a synthesizer could take Wise days or weeks. However, this method allowed him to maximize the potential of the SNES's SPC700 sound chip. By the time he composed “Stickerbush,” Wise had mastered this workflow, able to translate his ideas directly from humming into code without needing a keyboard intermediary.