Impromptu Q&A with Ape from the Symphony livestream - Part 2

Part 1 can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/1rfzmdc/impromptu_qa_with_ape_from_the_symphony_livestream/

I have gone through the full chat from the Fangamer Symphony of Seasons livestream and extracted all the fan questions and answers from Concerned Ape, since there was a lot of things he talked about and it was hard to see all the questions as it went.

I'm posting the summarized/categorized Part 2 facts learned (everything after the first hour of the livestream) here in the body and will put the verbatim questions and answers in the comments.

Game Development:
He makes his pixel art in Paint.NET with mouse/keyboard, not a drawing tablet. He's used to it and pretty quick with it.
He chose Clint as a marriage candidate because he wanted to expand on his character arc, plus he is single and marriage age
No plans to add NPCs marrying each other in 1.7
He would like to do something with the mouse hat house in the future
He specifically thinks Gunther and Marlon need more depth/development and would do that before adding any more new characters
He knows a lot of people hate Clint
He won't say who else he might like to turn into a marriage candidate
No release date yet for 1.7
"Maybe" there will someday be an option to put hats on farm animals
He is still using monogame for haunted chocolatier
The first character he made for Stardew may have been Abigail
Learning to do pixel art was difficult and he said he was awful at it for a long time

Inspiration:
Marnie was not inspired from the Studio Ghibli film "When Marnie was There", the parallels are just coincidence
Some of the character storylines have personal elements to himself
He feels "a connection" to Mr Qi

Music:
He got into steelpan because someone in a local steel band met him and invited him to their practice because they played a Stardew song. He was good at it so they asked him to join their band.
Some of the most popular songs, like "dance of the moonlight jellies" and "Mines (cloth)" were random tracks he had made for his own private music hobby and shoehorned into the game
He makes the music using reason studios (and yes he did all the music himself)
His musical influences are classical music (like Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart) and classic RPG music (chrono trigger/cross, super mario rpg, earthbound)
The seasonal songs, especially spring, were kind of tough to write and took many iterations
He really likes Dance of the Moonlight Jellies
Of the marriage candidate themes, his favorite is Maru's
The pirate cove song was fun to make because it was so different
He doesn't mind people using his music with credit in youtube videos, even if it's not stardew content
SoHo does plan to release a Symphony recording on streaming and vinyl, but it will take a long time
The most recent album he listened to/liked was Oneohtrix point never
Listening to the OST does make him nostalgic sometimes
His favorite Harvest Moon music is the fall music from Harvest Moon DS
When composing, he starts with backing and the melody comes last
He did not write the conductor's script for between songs

Stardew fun facts:
His favorite food in game is spicy eel because he eats it so much while mining
There used to be a raft in the game that you could ride around in any water
If he could cook something from the game irl it would maybe be pepper poppers
His favorite crops to harvest are blueberries and cranberries; he likes the ones where multiple pop out
He "absolutely" checks the wiki while playing and says using the wiki is not cheating
He has completed perfection about 3 times and has beaten the arcade games
When he plays stardew it's usually with a specific dev-related goal in mind, but he still enjoys it. He doesn't usually play his own game for fun in his free time though.
He has never doved his kids in-game except for testing
He thinks Elliott is probably either an only child or has one sister. He named Elliott as one of the harder sprites/portraits to design.
He has not seen the voice acting mod
If he could meet a character from the game he'd want it to be Krobus or the Wizard so he could learn about their magic powers
If he woke up magically transported into the game the first thing he would do would be go introduce himself to the mayor

Non-stardew fun facts:
The only South American country he has visited is Colombia, near Cali. He said "the atmosphere had a vital energy to it that was so different than where I'm from" and he liked the people and the food.
A lot of his hobbies (music, art, writing) are incorporated into his work
He loves vanilla ice cream and mint chocolate chip
His favorite holiday is Christmas
His favorite book is The City and The Stars by Arthur C Clarke and he is currently reading Lonesome Dove.
He kind of likes cooking, but sometimes it makes him angry. He likes a lot of food but really loves authentic mole sauce.
His favorite chocolate is dark chocolate, around 80%
He is right-handed
He has done some farm work and has kept chickens before
It's true that he used to role play Friends of Mineral Town
He drinks kombucha (during the live his flavor was goji, blueberry and hibiscus)

Other games/media:
His childhood favorite games include chrono trigger, harvest moon, earthbound, super mario RPG, Quest for glory 1, Age of empires
Favorite TV show is probably twin peaks
He has played and enjoyed fortnite, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the persona games
He has played Undertale, Mother 3, and the Monkey Island games
He has not played Ninja Gaiden 4, Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing, Pizza Tower, any Devil May Cry game, the pokemon ranger games
In Pokémon Red his starter was Bulbasaur
He doesn't really watch anime
He has watched Akira
He likes Ocarina of Time better than Majoras Mask, his favorite Final Fantasy is 6, and his favorite souls game is 1 but he's not a DS2 hater
Lately he's been playing Elden Ring Nightreign with friends (He plays Ironeye and asks us not to make fun of him for it)
Recent favorite indie games are Baby Steps and Ooo
He voiced a character in Silksong (would not say which, but said he's never seen anyone guess correctly) and has played most of the game