Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen

So a couple months ago we hatched a plan at The Onion AV Club to string together some cool interviews around the topic of games and music. We shortlisted some musicians who work on games, game developers who are obsessed with music, and came up with four interviews that represent very different points on the spectrum.

The first one ran today: Gus Mastrapa interviewing the amazing Mike Patton, vocal talent for The Darkness, Portal, and other titles; frontman for Faith No More and Mr. Bungle; and a soundtrack composer in his own right, who had fascinating things to say about the difference between game music and film music.

Friday – Harmonix Music (a whopping four-interview special about the culture, influences, and weird cyberart of the team behind Rock Band)

Monday – Tommy Tallarico (long-lasting game composer and self-made legend in the gaming community – the quotes are priceless)

And headlining on Tuesday – Jonathan Coulton - oh yes.

Dig it.

UPDATE: I’m updating links as we go. In today’s Tallarico interview, we got to include a lot of the interview, but some of the discussion of the Video Games Live tour was cut, for length and maybe accuracy. I enjoyed it, particularly the part about the AARP magazine spread, so I’m reproducing it here:

But what really makes Video Games Live and why it’s become the huge success it has, is that we’re not just catering to hardcore gamers, or hardcore Final Fantasy fans. What we’re doing is catering to families. Catering to grandparents, just as much as we cater to an 8-year-old.

AVC: How do you get grandparents to go?

TT: We advertise to symphony crowds, because when we use a symphony, they have a mailing list of 100,000 people over 50 years old. Are you familiar with the AARP? We have a huge spread coming out in AARP Magazine next month. Grandparents would love nothing more than to take their grandchildren to the symphony. Give ‘em a little culture, right? The reality is, young people don’t view symphonies as something cool that they want to go to. Symphonies and orchestras have lost touch. They’re not connecting with people under 40, right? Because people 40 and under like myself, we grew up on video games, rock and roll, laser beams, interactivity, MTV, and Star Wars. Right?

So, from a grandparents’ or parents’ standpoint, the spin of the article is basically, “I didn’t know what to expect when I saw this thing. I don’t know the first thing about video game music, but oh my God I was completely blown away. And how refreshing was it for my grandkids to be taking me to the symphony! For the first time ever, I told them about it, and they wanted to go and they wanted to bring all their friends, and so now I was the cool grandma. And by the way, I never knew how amazing video game music was, and how powerful the imagery was, and the characters, and the storylines, and – I get it now! Now I know why my kids are so into video games. Thank you so much.”

This is a typical letter that we get. Every time we do a show, we get hundreds of those.

AVC: And at the same time, maybe they can get the kids to listen to Beethoven after that?

TT: Um … probably not, honestly. [But] it’s one of those things where, not only are we changing perception around the world of what video games and their music are, but on the flip side of that, we’re also ushering in a whole new generation of people to come and see a symphony. Now, will they go see Beethoven the week after next? Maybe, maybe not. But at least they’re being exposed to it, right? Whereas, previously, there was no exposure to this world at all. Because again, when we think of symphonies we’re like, “Oh, a bunch of old people on stage in tuxedos. Not for me.” We’re making it for them. And all of that haughty-totty wine-sipping, cigar-smoking, tuxedo bullshit? We throw that out the window.