@SabakuKyuut777: Imagine if you will a young boy in his backyard alone waving a stick around like a sword and if you will imagine if you were a passerby who saw this sight what would you think?  It really doesn't matter cause in that little boy's head he sees more then a backyard and his stick is more then a stick.  I wanted to convey this through the music that at first what seems like something innocent looking is actually something quite grand and epic that most people would not see it...cause it only exists in the mind of a single child.  This is imagination at play and the emotions represented show this. 

@ajfox: VERY WELL PUT! Yes the journey we take in our imaginations leads us to places the world cannot see, this is the epitome of a child at play, to see what cannot be seen to hear what cannot be heard and to feel what cannot be felt by those around us.  Yet we see it at play in movies, on TV in video games and deep within ourselves.  Some us grew up and left our worlds behind, while some of us still go back and bring something back with us, those are the people who you can tell have a gleam in their eyes, those who are unafraid to let their inner child come out and remind us...

Growing Old is Manditory
Acting your age is Optional 

"While there is a need to be a grown up and act like it
Never let the child in you die cause that is when life loses it's magic."
-James Delorey-

@Thorvald: HAH! Well I keep politics out of my work as I am an entertainer not a politician

     Yes Two Steps From Hell was the kind of music I wanted to make when I was starting out as a music composer first taking baby steps by playing simple string synths back on my Roland U20 keyboard which back then I thought was the most advanced piece of music equipment I had ever owned.  I NEVER would have thought years later I would be making the self same music I heard in movies and on TV, it was like a fevered dream that decided to jump out of my head and become real.  Crazy to say yes but at times I am still gobstruck it's my reality.

I had not used Piano much cause while a lot of people love piano, I felt it was overused in productions and so I strove to put strings and percussion first and foremost into my works to prove that they can lead an orchestral piece quite well when utilized.  I cannot deny the emotional impact piano has though and so to represent that, the main character sitting down at that old piano in his Aunt's living room while he waited for his favorite cartoon show to start, without knowledge on how to play a piano starts to push one ivory key after another.  Years later that child now a man sits at a different set of keys and that simple few notes as turned into something quite beautiful and memorable.  It's also a sign of maturity and how the man had grown through out the years and how his passion for something he just started out of mere curiosity has grown.

I adore pan pipes as well but overuse just like piano can be overwhelming when it comes to a certain style of composition so I use both very sparingly.  Not to worry as Legends of Stanza will have more pan pipe and even irish tin flute in some of the tracks and Piano will get its chance to shine as well.   I take all instruments into consideration when making music and use what is fitting to each track.

@BadKarma: You and me both brother!

  I had simple idea for the start of the Legends Of Stanza novel I am writing and it's a powerful one indeed
as stated in my other comments here, the story will start with an aged man sitting at a keyboard his shaky hands outstretched as he lowers his fingers to the keys on the keboard.  Finally he gently presses down on the keys and from it the beginning of the track shows what he is playing.  It's full of emotion and longing but it's also a memory of the past of innocence and of the promise of grand adventure taking place.

The end of track has bit of finality to it but also a "Promise Of A New Beginning"