KSPC radio’s Video Game Music Show, one of the few awesome places with a dedicated game music show here in Southern California, has recently sent word that their show will play host to not one, but two awesome guests this Friday in nerdcore artists IllGill and Nameless, both rappers from Los Angeles.

The show kicks off Friday (Aug 20th), from 4-6PM PST and will feature a couple great live songs from the in studio guests along with interviews and more! So remember to tune in to KSPC 88.7 if you are near Claremont, CA, or just head over to kspc.org and tune in to the live stream!

Welcome to the sixth episode of This Week in VGM, a weekly podcast of news and music from the video game inspired music community. This week we take a look back at PAX East and all the video game music therein. We take a look at GM4A’s album IWADON, listen to some classic tracks from disasterPEACE, and new ones from A_Rival. We also have an exclusive interview with the man behind Sunken Colony, an upcoming tribute album to Starcraft, and much more. Be sure to listen in!

You can check out, download, and subscribe to the podcast at
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If you would like to get in touch with news, questions, or perhaps to be a guest host alongside me in a future episode, you can email me at gamemusic4all@gmail.com

Recently I had the chance to talk to two members of a collective of video game music fans turned composers. The group Audio Aggregate (audioaggregate.com) is comprised of several members from the world of video game inspired music. This includes Jace Bartet, AKA chiptune composer Prizmatic Spray, Brion Helmsman, and Luke Fields of speed running rockers Bit Brigade, as well as Joel Hatstat of Cinemechanica, not to mention Mike Albanese of both of the latter groups. They also have several other accomplished musicians in Alfredo Lapuz, Coley Dennis, and Matt Weiss.

Separately this group of musicians has dedicated themselves to some great musical projects and bands, but together as Audio Aggregate have created and contributed to soundtracks such as the first true iPhone MMO Outer Empires and Geometry Wars style PC shooter Sentinel. I was able to shoot some questions at Mike Albanese and Jace Bartet about designing music as a collective, as well as a look into the indie game music scene and more. Read on, but first, get a feel for this group with a special single MP3 included for this interview.

Jace: Mike had the idea to get this thing rolling, and for me it was really a dream come true.  When I was discovering the NES around age 6, I immediately became obsessed with the music in many of the games I happened upon, especially Time Lord, Mega Man 2, and Duck Tales.  I’d just chill out in levels that had cool jams and feel the vibes.  A few years later, I figured out that the little red output on the side of the NES was an audio out, so I hooked it up to my boombox and recorded game music and sounds onto cassette tapes to listen to at my leisure. The idea of designing sound for games seems like winning the lottery, or being a “Rock Star.”

Mike: Athens is 2010 America’s Capital for Undercompensated Talent. The cost of living is extremely low, as is compensation for all the service industry jobs traditionally associated with a musician’s life. This is our opportunity to take something we’ve long since dedicated ourselves to and actually get properly compensated for it. The fact that our cost of living and general overhead is so low definitely helps keep us competitive, price wise. It is not unreasonable to believe people not living in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco should not have to exclusively make wrapped sandwiches to pursue their artistic goals.

What games have you worked on so far?

Mike: After doing some smaller projects to get our collective feet wet and learn the process, this year we’ve completed an Iphone MMOPRG called Outer Empires, wrote arena rock themes for a slot machine sim and delved into latin chiptunes for a short called Spanish Gold!

screen from Outer Empires on the iPhone

What games are you working on now?

Mike: At the moment we are working on music for a pilot for Nickelodeon involving wizard bunnies, cute sidekicks and a metal version of flight of the bumblebees (post-manowar if you will). We’re also doing some work on an forward thinking title being developed by the NIH/SEPA program at the University of Georgia. We are busy bees, but aggressively looking for work that demands something different than “canned” faux-cinema music.

How do you decide on what projects to work on and which to pass on?

Jace: I suppose something would have to be pretty damn janky for us to pass on it outright.  We’re really pumped about exploring as many game environments and music integration possibilities as we can.

Mike: Having minimal business experience before this, it’s been interesting trying to find a balance between keeping the company afloat and actively pressing developers who we want to work with at (read: minimal) all costs. Our collective is diverse enough to shine in a pretty wide spectrum of environments though.

In a collective, how do you decide who works on which song?

Jace: Mike plays a large part in this process.  He’s basically our Dr. Dre.

Mike: Ya’ll know me, still the same ol’ G.

Jace: All project proposals pass through him first.  What has happened thus far, really, has mainly involved Mike throwing an opportunity out there to all of us, and anyone who feels that they have something viable to contribute can take a crack at it.

How do you go about writing songs together?

Jace: Many of us have worked or currently jam together in fairly involved music endeavors outside of AA.  Over the years, a synergy has been created that allows us to speak the same basic language of music.  I don’t have any formal music training, but I have a very fluid relationship with, for example, Brion Kennedy, who has music training oozing out of every pore.  When we get together with guitars, things just seem to start happening.

Mike: Most of the guitar centric players are/were in a quadrophonic guitar + drum ensemble called ‘Powers …. which due to the complexity of the layouts required a hybridization of collaborative and authoritative songwriting. Basically, one person is in “charge” of the melodic content of a song and has the final say on the arrangement, but anybody involved is pressed to innovate and take the lead ideas as far as possible. Generate -vastly- more ideas then we need and pair the end product down while retaining the original composer’s vision via auditing. We’ve adapted this process pretty handily towards composing for game audio … I man the helm, studio and production wise, to ensure some semblance of continuity between tracks for a given project, but in the end, we’re aggressively looking for the unexpected (and inspiring) musical moments that occur by mashing individuals with grossly different backgrounds and fields of expertise together.

From left to right: Coley Dennis, Alfredo Lapuz, Matt Weiss, Matt Albanese, Joel Hatstat, Brion Kennedy, Luke Fields, and Jace Bartet.

Do each of you have certain strengths or musical talents and styles?

Jace: Absolutely.  I’m sure everyone has a different idea of what their own strengths are, but I can say for myself that I’m a slave to long melodic figures.  I’ve also spent a lot more time working with chiptunes than most of the other guys.

Mike: It’s wickedly diverse. How many solo-composer-with-mid-sequencer type cats can claim they’ve dedicated years to learning and dissecting every krautrock band … -and- do remixes of contemporary electronic music live, -and- have a voracious appetite for chiptunes. Only by taking it collaboratively and using whoever is most appropriate/thought provoking in combination can you end up with non-derivative music in as diverse a palette as we have.

Is there a style each of you loves to or refuses to do?

Jace: I love working on basically anything that benefits from using Milky Tracker or Renoise, and anything that needs bombastic rock guitar.  I wouldn’t “refuse” to do anything, although I’d have a hard time with an assignment that called for a generic “unce-unce-unce-unce” beat.  Speaking only for myself, one of my biggest dreams for Audio Aggregate is to help get video game music as far away from the ghetto of bland “orchestral” string swells and mind-numbing, flaccidly pulsing electronic beats as possible.  That’s not to say that some great work isn’t being done in the industry, particularly for handheld systems.  But I pine for the days when it was more common for game music to really jump out and excite the player, acting as an integral part of the game experience and not just background fodder.  I must find a way to make every assignment musically interesting for myself.

Mike: What Jace said, but in my case substitute “odd-meter drums” for bombastic rock guitar and “circuit bent electronics” for Renoise.

What advantages does having a full group of musicians bring to music creation in this game soundtrack setting?

Jace: We get to put a lot of ears on something.  If you have four guys with four different backgrounds and interests in a room listening to something and they all get a kick out of it, that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s strong.  Also, one of the ideas behind having a collective is that theoretically we should be able to produce solid material in just about any genre or sound set and do it with a very short turnaround.  There’s probably someone to take on just about anything.

Are there any disadvantages to this structure?

Jace: Not yet, really!  Something may come up over time, but at this point it has been too invigorating, and too much fun for me to come up with any significant disadvantages.  Some may balk having to split pay up x-number of ways, but I don’t mind that because I believe pretty strongly in the talents of each of us and in what we’re doing as a whole.

How did everyone get involved in this project?

Jace: This guy named Rufus came to us in a telephone booth when we were hanging out in a parking lot one night and told us that the future depended on it.

Mike: Excellent!

Several members of Audio Aggregate performing live with their group Bit Brigade, a band that performs music while speedrunning NES games live. Photo Credit - Tim Redman

Do you plan on releasing original music as a group as well?

Mike: Since various configurations of us play in different bands all working towards releasing records, I wouldn’t say a compilation of Audio Aggregate original music is at the top of the priority list … but its -absolutely- a possibility, especially if we can release a soundtrack to a larger title that will showcase the diversity of our group.

What games and composers are you influenced by?

Mike: If we both gave our lists we would fill ten pages.

Jace: This could go on for a while…first and foremost, Iku Mizutani.  On the soundtracks for games such as Toukon Club, Shatterhand, Power Rangers – Time Force, and Dragon Fighter, he has proved himself to be a true alchemist in combining insanely catchy melodies with interesting rhythms and unconventional transitions.  I could write an essay on the importance and influence of the following composers on my style and life:  Neil Baldwin (Magician, Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge),

Mike: Imma let you finish, but Neil Baldwin is the greatest 8-bit composer of all time. Of All Time!

Jace: Manami Matsumae (Mega Man 2, U.N. Squadron), Tim Follin (Silver Surfer, Puzznic), Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Mega Man 2, Duck Tales, Street Fighter 2), Chris Huelsbeck (Turrican), Jeroen Tel (Robocop 3, Cybernoid), Jake Kaufman, aka virt (Shantae, Contra 4, a billion amazing original chiptunes), Samuel Ascher-Weiss, aka Shnabubula (mind-altering original chiptunes).

Are there particular games or genres you like to or would like to create music for?

Jace: My primary interests are in shmups, 2D platformers, puzzle games, and anything kind of left-field and experimental that under-showered guys out there are toiling away on in their bedrooms/basements/studios.

Mike: I want to create spacerock for RPGs. It’s a niche my drumming style and the guitar-ebow-is-that-guitar-or-angel-spaceships tonalities we have at our disposal are particular suited for. It also enables me to sublty work my Hum influences into something commercially viable. Life goal, check.

What do you think of the proliferation of independent games on iphone and console downloads?

Jace: It’s wonderful in that real experimentation and innovation has an outlet; it’s troubling in that good works may become increasingly easy to overlook, because the mountain of pointless nonsense to sift through seems to grow exponentially.

Mike: Independently motivated people + outlet for distribution = freedom from day jobs and a cottage industry built on boutique titles not suited for crossplatform, million dollar development deals. At least in theory, its quasi-utopian and very much in the spirit of how our bands operate. Itunes more or less instantly created a bullshit free internet based revenue stream for Cinemechanica (my band) and it has helped our touring and logistical needs in a not subtle way. Most of the Iphone devs we have worked with have a love/hate relationship with the submission process, but in the end, the review process will go through revisions and the strength of digital distribution with sweet user front end will emerge triumphant.

Do you think there is a large difference between large developers music creation and that of indie developers?

Jace: Budget is a big deal. Many of us work unglamorous day jobs, and making the time for an Audio Aggregate project sometimes means, or at least has for me on occasion, wreaking havoc on my sanity and wellness.  It would be cool to have the luxury of not having to murder brain cells to produce passable work, but I’m more than happy to do whatever it takes to hammer at our goals.  I am quite sure that everyone doing good work at any level of game design works long hours, and hard, to do what they love.

Mike: Our goal is to create music that we are proud of and that resonates with gamers in a way that (forgive me) “typical” music just can’t. The end platform matters, of course, in terms of production execution (sample rates and what not) … but in the end, it’s the difference between Movie Score X and the score to Requiem for A Dream. Could Clint Mansell have composed and executed that score for an indie? Absolutely. Would it have driven him completely insane, finding string players and local studios to record in piecemeal? Absolutely. Would he (we) have done it anyway? You get the idea. Eventually we’ll get properly compensated for the somewhat over-the-top amount of time we invest … but right now, promotional bullshit aside, we want to work on great, forward-thinking games with great scoring potential … and hopefully make enough to feed ourselves and remain clothed.

Many VG inspired musicians have started to find their way into video game composition such as yourselves, Another Soundscape, Stemage (of Metroid Metal), and most recently Anamanaguchi. Do you think this is a growing trend, and possibly the beginning of a new era of game composers?

Jace: Whether or not this is a “new era” of VG composition really depends on the developers/publishers to me. virt and Alex Mauer are the only modern, active chiptune godheads I can think of who have also been heavily involved in professional VG work. But they’re by no means the only chiptune artists doing incredible work. If VG developers paid any attention to websites like The Shizz or 8bitcollective, I think they’d be amazed at the quality of composition happening in those places by average joes, obsessives who know the different versions of Space Harrier based on the first transitional drum fill. It’s up to developers to decide whether or not they want to push beyond generic “symphonic” soundscapes or bland “techno” pulses. The talent is out there. Anamanaguchi has had a very high level of visibility in the chiptune world for some time because of their live presence, but there is a whole universe of talent underneath the surface.

Who are some game composers and/or chiptune and VGM musicians you think we should keep an eye on in the near future?

Jace: Alex Mauer and virt (always); also, EvilWezil, Zan-zan-zawa-veia, J. Arthur Keenes, Josiah Tobin (aka Bit_Rat), Norrin Radd, Shnabubula, Wizwars, Derris Kharlan, Spamtron, and Unicorn Dream Attack. I’m sure there are tons I’m forgetting; this is just off the top of my head. Things have gotten insane and awesome in the past couple of years in the chiptune scene.

What do you have to say to those who also hope to start composing game music?

Jace: This is not pretty. Love it with all your heart and be certain of your passion.

Mike: Confirmed.

Any final things you would like to add, or wisdom to impart before we finish this interview?

Jace: Study the ancient masters, always and forever. Never stop studying.

Mike: Thanks for being so awesome and interviewing us. We are immensely appreciative.

I am preparing quickly for PAX East as of this time, but there is still lots of news to dole out in large quantities to eager listeners. I want to quickly plug this tidbit for you all! Looks like Los Angeles based chiptune artist EvilWezil (who you may know from his releases on iimusic.net) will be on KSPC radio in Claremont, CA. Full info below!

Chiptune artist EvilWezil will be a guest and live performance on ‘The Video Game Music Show’ this Friday March 26th from 4 – 6pm on KSPC 88.7FM Claremont, CA. You can listen to the live webcast at kspc.org

So be sure to tune in and support a great show! Not to mention listen to some live chiptunes courtesy of EvilWezil. If just hearing him live isn’t enough for you though, be sure to set aside some free tim on April 8th, and head out to Rosemead, CA where EvilWezil, alongside Wizwars, Zealous1, and SXEZSKOZ will all be performing free at Super PIZZA and CHIPS 3!

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Welcome to the fourth episode of This Week in VGM, a weekly podcast of news and music from the video game inspired music community. This episode is a very lengthy special in which we check out the sites, but most importantly the sounds of Beep City.

This entire podcast is all about the first release from Beep City, Love Songs From the Future Volume 1. You can download the album free at http://www.beepcity.com/music/beep-city-presents-love-songs-from-the-future. This episode clocks in at nearly an hours worth of music, talk, and more!

I go over all 12 tracks from the release. I also talk with Beep City founders Moldilox and Djinnocide, as well as many of the musicians from the album.

If you would like to get in touch with news, questions, or perhaps to be a guest host alongside me in a future episode, you can email me at gamemusic4all@gmail.com

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Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue was a landmark achievement in the history of recorded sound. It not only pioneered modern Jazz as we know it, but also refined the art of recording and completely changed the way musicians produced albums. Since its release in the summer of 1959, Kind of Blue has been consistently regarded as one of the most influential recordings of all time. In honor of the record’s 50th Anniversary, Andy Baio of Waxy.org assembled an all-star team of chiptune musicians to create Kind of Bloop, a complete re-imagining of the seminal Jazz classic, created using obsolete videogame hardware.

Go ahead and shout ‘blasphemy’ now, if you like. But take a moment to consider the amazing nature of this project and the manner in which it came about; a method which very well may be just as revolutionary as the artistry it pays tribute to.

I had the pleasure of chatting with both project organizer Andy Baio and chip musician Rich Vreeland about the ambitious plan to create the ultimate chiptune jazz tribute album. Hit the jump to discover the story behind Kind of Bloop and a new breed of fan-funded projects that are changing the way people make independent games and music forever.

The setting of the story is Kickstarter, a collaborative fundraising website brainstormed by internet entrepreneur Perry Chen. The site launched earlier this year, featuring a smattering of start-up projects. Just 4 short months later, it now hosts hundreds of prospective projects, allowing users to get funding in order to create albums, games, books, magazines, iPhone applications and pretty much any other form of media you can think of. When Andy Baio was paired up with Chen through a mutual acquaintance, he began to realize Kickstarter as the perfect platform to launch a project of his own. Shortly after, Andy was made CTO of the site.

First off, where did the idea for Kind of Bloop come from initially, and what made you decide to raise money for it on Kickstarter?

Andy Baio: It started a couple years ago, a silly idea wondering what jazz standards would sound like in a chiptune style. I went searching for more information online, but amazingly, couldn’t find anything. After Kickstarter launched, I wanted to come up with a project to try it out and the idea came back to me. So I went digging deep, looking for chiptune jazz, and found a total of three covers. So I tracked down two of the musicians that did those covers, ast0r and sergeeo, and asked if they’d be interested in covering Kind of Blue. They both agreed immediately.

What was the criteria for the artists who contributed?

Andy: I was looking for musicians that were both capable videogame musicians and jazz lovers, which was surprisingly hard. I approached Virt, whose music I’d admired for years. He came on board, and introduced me to Disasterpeace and Shnabubula, both extremely talented chiptune artists and Miles Davis fans. Once the lineup was rounded out, I started the project on Kickstarter.

How did the fundraising go once everything was in place?

Andy: I was hoping to raise $2,000 in three months, to pay the artists and legally license the songs from the original publisher. I hit that goal in four hours.

—-

With $2,000 raised in a mere fraction of a day, the artists involved were rightly enthusiastic about the project. One of the artists, Rich Vreeland, known also by his creative handle, Disasterpeace is a Staten Island-born musician who composes 8-bit style music for videogames and films. Rich joined us to discuss his experiences tackling the monumental task of making a Miles Davis tribute using only electronic instruments.

—-

Kind of Blue is considered a Jazz bible of sorts, and proponents of Jazz will usually contend that music like that can’t be replicated by machines. Do you feel that the albums music does justice to the source material? Or were you going for a looser interpretation where the new instrumentation doesn’t try to be something it isn’t?

Andy Baio: Many jazz purists will hate the album, arguing that it’s too rigid and mechanical. But that’s what drew me to the project in the first place: making art within constraints is a good thing, and what’s more constrained than making music for a 25-year-old videogame console?

Rich Vreeland: I think all five of us approached the source material in different ways, which will hopefully at the very least provide something for everyone. Kind of Blue is such a human piece of work that it’d be silly to try and transcribe the whole thing and think that it would work, so many of us decided to play to what makes Jazz so successful and incorporate original solos and reharmonizations. In trying to incorporate some of who we are into the pieces I think we also took some liberty with the form at times, and the style, but in the end I think those were necessary to keep things fresh.

Andy: If the guys had made faithful note-for-note translations of the original album, it would’ve been deadly boring and borderline offensive. But they’ve made music that is true to the fundamental tenets of jazz: highly improvisational, interpretive, emotional, and personal.

What are your thoughts regarding the funding efforts on Kickstarter and how did that affect the finished product? Did you expect to get so much support?

Andy: I was stunned by the response and happy that I could pay the artists. Getting funded that quickly meant the artists had much more time to work on their projects, which was a very good thing. The additional time really shows on the album.

Rich: I think we were all surprised at how much support we’ve gotten and obviously, we’re very grateful. Knowing that so many people were looking forward to what we were doing was definitely some additional encouragement to make this project as good as it could be.

What about the future? Do you think we’ll be seeing more chipmusic projects like this on the site?

Andy: I’d love to see more genre experimentation in the chiptune scene in general, whether on Kickstarter or not. Currently, Kickstarter is invite-only for new projects, but we’re opening to the public very soon.

Rich: I imagine that there will be more projects down the line similar to this, both in terms of concept and as far as using sites like Kickstarter which seems to have been a success. At the moment, I’m lucky enough to be a part of another Kickstarter project for an indie game that has just ended and we were able to reach our funding goal, so I can’t say enough good things about the site and its service.

—-

Kind of Bloop is available for download now on the project’s official website. Backers of the project received an advance copy of the album earlier this week, among other goodies depending on how much they contributed. Thanks again to Rich and Andy for answering all our questions! For more fan-funded goodness, check out Steve Jenkins’ 12-bit adventure game, High Strangeness.

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Thanks again to Zen Albatross for contributing the article to our site. Be sure to download the album from kindofbloop.com right away! You will not be disappointed!

Did you expect it to become well known?
Yes, I think there are a lot of people that would be fans of us if they knew about us.

How many do you have currently playing?
We currently have about 83 musicians, including our chorus. Some members were in both the orchestra and the chorus, but we’re asking everyone to pick one sub-group to be a part of now in order to be able to focus better.

How difficult was it to gather so many musicians who wanted to play VGM?
Not really so difficult. Once word got out, there were a lot of musicians who wanted to play with the GSO. One semester, we almost doubled in size. However, we are still lacking a bit in strings, at least proportionally. We still haven’t found a contrabassist. I guess some instruments just don’t lend themselves well to being played by gamers’ delicate fingers.

What are your personal favorite pieces?
Given that I arranged it, a big one for me is Kirby Super Star. Having something you created performed in front of a 1000-person audience is an awesome experience. I’d say it was the proudest moment of my life. Other than that, I love our Chrono Trigger song (even though we stole it), One Winged Angel was awesome, and Still Alive is very emotional for me. Halo’s pretty awesome too.

What seems to be the crowds favorite?
On the 9th, from the feedback sheets, people seemed to like Metal Gear Solid a lot. I like that piece too. Actually, I really like a lot of our pieces. There are only very few I don’t; I suspect our audiences may feel the same.

How do you decide which game music to play?
Each arranger is free to decide what they arrange, and if the Music Committee decides the arrangement is good enough and we have time that semester, we’ll do it. We have a lot of arrangers, probably about 10 so far. We have a listserv where we post our arrangements-in-progress and they get commented upon. It’s a collaborative sort of process sort of thingy.

Any troubles when setting up UMD Gamer Symphony that had to be overcome and if so what?
Rehearsal and concert spaces were always our biggest concern. Originally, we had to rehearse in a moldy old lecture hall with no space for stands and bad acoustics. We still have to do that occasionally today, although we normally use the Chapel, which has its own problems, like not having enough chairs. So we bought some. We have to make do with what we have. Convincing the Student Government Association to give us money for these things is sometimes a pain. We also have to rent a tuba, because nobody owns one.

Any future pieces you have in mind playing/performing?
There are always a lot of ideas swimming around any given arranger’s head. Personally, I’d like to arrange music from Goemon’s Great Adventure, the DKC series, Metroid Prime, and a bunch of others. We may be doing SMW2: Yoshi’s Island next semester, but then again, we may not.
I know arrangements are sometimes spur of the moment. Kirby Super Star happened out of the blue one day while I was trying to arrange Mega Man X music, and I just completely changed gears immediately. Greg’s told me a similar story: he had been working on a Starcraft piece for a while, then just decided to do Katamari.

How did more and more people join, through advertisement or personal connections?
Most of the freshmen we get are from advertising during orientation. In the beginning, though, it was mostly friends of people already in the orchestra joining.

When’s your next concert?
We have concerts at the end of every semester. Our next one is slated for some time around Dec. 12.

Lastly, do you have any suggestions/advice for those who are thinking about starting a video game music orchestra at their own college?
Err, don’t wa-ri, do yah best?

We actually are very interested in helping out other orchestras who want to play video game music – we’ve helped support a GSO at a local high school, Magruder HS. They just had their first concert, and it went really well. We have a separate nonprofit organization dedicated to this kind of thing, so I guess my advice would be to contact us. If you’re really serious, I mean. First you’ll have to get some people together; we’re not gonna come to your college and recruit. But we started out as a 5-person group, so that’d be enough. Anything other than that, though, we would love to help. Arrangements, planning, SGA support, that sort of thing. We love the idea of other people doing this. It’ll help if we have to move in the future.

I want to thank UMD GSO again for answering these questions and playing music that fills gamers (and hopefully anyone!) with joy and passion. Definitely visit their website http://www.umd.gamersymphony.org/. One thing is for sure, I’m a hardcore advocate for campuses having their own VGM orchestra. It would bring variety to the college experience

-Ma

So read on and find out what these two hard working folks had to say about their site.

What made you decide to create your own chiptune netlabel?

Rich: Eirik and I felt like we were part of a niche of artists that didn’t really have an outlet at the time to express ourselves, so we sought to address that problem by starting a label.

Eirik: Yeah – we had both been part of several different netlabels/ communities, and wanted more of a permanent home for the lot of us – so we made one.

What do you think sets you apart most from other chiptune labels?

R: I think our label seeks to associate itself with a particular type of sound, probably more so than some of the other prominent chip labels. 8bitpeoples for instance tends to have a more all-encompassing catalog with a much broader variety of artists and styles, and I think that’s probably their strong suit. They’re a much more active label with a larger reach and fanbase, so it’s the perfect introduction to 8-bit music. We’re definitely less hands-on, leaving things up to the artists a bit more.

E: I see Pause as a band / demoscene group or whatever you’d like to call it, as much as I see it as a label. I’m not sure about other labels, but we’re just a small group of musicians/friends who decided to create one collective outlet for our creativity. I guess there’s no point in pinpointing exactly what it is.

When you started your label, what were your initial goals and ideas for what you wanted out of your site?

R: We initially wanted Pause to be a team of musicians who exclusively released all of their music on Pause, essentially to use the site as a homepage on the web. It was going to be the place for this small group of artists to have all their music either available or linked to, blogs, and all sorts of information that people might care about. Ultimately we decided to go for a broader variety of releases and pass on the team idea, at least for the time being.

E: The idea was that we’d get more exposure if we made one website instead of as individuals. As Pause grows we get new ideas and set new goals. I guess now one of the main goals would be to find ways to generate some income, so we can treat our fans to more merchandise, gigs and what not. But for the time being, Pause is still just on the hobby level.

Have you met any of those goals? Also, is there anything that has come as a surprise in running your site, such as press, reception to certain albums, etc?

R: The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, which has been great. I suppose the biggest surprise has been the amount of work required to be serious about running a label. Our style has traditionally been pretty casual, despite being serious about the music we release. If we dedicated more time to Pause we probably would be in better shape than we are now!

E: Yeah, note that Pause is still just on the hobby level, so there’s only so much time to devote to it. One thing I came up with back with the initial idea for Pause was Plus, and getting that one up there was certainly accomplishing a goal.

Has their been any runaway hit albums on your site? Any album or artist that has done surprisingly well?

R: Actually one of our PLUS releases, the music from “Immortal Defense”, is far and away the most downloaded album on the site. We count over 7,000. The Pause compilation “Heartcode” is second at almost 3,000. Among regular artist releases, Animal Style’s Gameboy Madrigals and iqtu’s Embarrassing Triangle seem to be the two most popular releases. Naturally over time our viewership has increased to somewhere between 100 to 300 unique visitors a day, so the more recent releases are getting more downloads than the earlier stuff.

E: I was very suprised with how much attention Heartcode got. We didn’t promote it anymore than our other releases, but for some reason I saw it popping up all over the place. I guess it shows that if we put together a tight release, people will check it.

It seems this site came to fruition around the time of the demise of former chiptune netlabels Megatwerp and Betamod. Did those sites have any impact on the artists on II or the forming of the label, or was it just coincidental timing?

R: I think Betamod went under after we had already started, but Megatwerp definitely had something to do with us starting Pause. Eirik and I had both released material on Megatwerp, but I think we just had different ideas about what we wanted to do and release than what they were doing.

E: Like Rich said, we had both been through a few rounds with Megatwerp, and then there was ChipCache whiich died pre-birth. I remember having alot of ideas that I contributed to both those labels, so in the wake of them it seemed like a good idea to just make my own label instead. Seems Rich had the same idea. I honestly don’t remember Betamod – but the name sounds familiar now that you mention it.

How did the Plus portion of II come about?

R: PLUS was actually Eirik’s idea, and I totally agreed that’d be great to have a section dedicated to releasing Game Soundtracks.

E: Having been involved in the indie gaming scene for a number of years, and having enjoyed quite a few soundtracks from indie games, I just couldn’t see why there wasn’t a central site for that stuff. So when we made Pause I immediately throught that I wanted a section for that as well. Obviously I wanted to do it so there could be a home for my game soundtracks, as well.

How did you come up with and decide on the name “II”? Does it have any particular meaning to you or the site in general?

R: We wanted something iconic, laconic, easy to remember, but also musically relevant. Ultimately we’ve decided to go with Pause though, mainly because people don’t seem to be smart enough to figure out that the two II’s mean Pause. It’s not really their fault though, people spread the domain out as being iimusic.net (which it is) and people as a result lose the intended meaning.

E: We also had some fun ideas for plus, like having it be Play, and write it >, so it would go next to the II like on a VCR. I think we also toyed with the idea of calling it Equal, written =. Tilted II, get it? But yeah, ultimately all of this stuff is too gimmicky, and people don’t get it anyhow.

For musicians wondering how to become part of your label, what is the criteria you look for in an artist and their music?

R: Our criteria is simple. Do whatever it is that you do, and do it well. And if we like it, we’ll release it! Eirik and I have different litmus tests for quality and so on, so we don’t always see eye to eye. But generally one of us will succumb to the other if they’re absolutely in love with an album. If we both like it but aren’t crazy about it though, we probably won’t release it. We try to keep a high standard so that the things that we do release are really great. At least, in our biased opinions. And we ask that people send us finished or close to finished releases so that we know exactly what we’re working with.

E: I always try to be as strict as possible when deciding upon what to release or not. There’s so many netlabels out there, so in order to stand out I think you need to set the bar pretty high. But please do send us demos – we do get ones we really like from time to time! Our compilations are also a good way to get a foot inside. Just recently with the Sea of Ice comp we came into contact with ZZZV, which now has one EP out on Pause.

What are both of your duties in maintaining II music?

R: Traditionally I’ve been in charge of most of the web maintenance type stuff. I built the website, and usually post the album releases and finalize the album artwork. At some point though Eirik learned how to do that stuff too so now we both post to the blog and add releases. I’ve also generally prepared the releases, and come up with the track orders for the compilations. Beyond that we do pretty much everything 50/50. PLUS is Eirik’s baby though, so he handles that more than I.

E: Like Rich said, he definitely used to be the boss. I was coming up with alot of ideas, and maintaining contact with artists, but Rich was doing all of that hard work. This was because he built the website, which I wouldn’t know how to do anyhow, and once the site went online
I was without internet for a few months, so we got off a little unbalanced. At some point Rich decided to focus on school and his own music for a while, so I ran Pause solo for a couple of months. I guess it was then I realized how much work he was putting into it, and I think we’ve been equals ever since he decided to come back and do it with me again.

What do you tend to look for in artists who release albums or hope to release albums on your label?

R: We try to look for people who have their own unique voice, who would contribute something new to the catalog, at the same time, adhering to a certain level of quality.

E: Honestly, it just boils to “do I like this or not?”. Sometimes we get demos that I can tell are really well made, but are not in a style that get’s me excited, so we might not put it out – unless Rich digs it.

What future releases do you have in store?

R: We always have something coming up! I’ll be releasing my next album “Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar” by the end of the year. We also have Nonfinite’s next album coming out soon, and Eirik also has something in the works which maybe he can talk about.

E: Yeah there’s some Phlogiston coming up, too. I haven’t been to active when it comes to releases, because I’ve been trying to focus on my soundtrack work, but there should be something soon.

What advice do you have for anyone interested in starting their own netlabel or looking to get their music on one?

R: I would definitely say that make sure your label is addressing needs, whoever’s or whatever needs those may be. Secondly, have fun! As far as getting music on a netlabel, promote yourself as best you can, get on myspace, twitter, all those good things. And it never hurts to send demos to netlabels of course, and/or make friends with people who run labels.

E: Like all big stars say; Just believe in yourself and keep working and you’ll get there. No, what do I know.

Anything else you would like to add?

R: Keep checking in for new releases! We have a few good ones coming up and are currently working on improving the site with new/revised features.

E: A big thanks to everyone who’s supported us with Pause and before that, so far!

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Once again I would like to thank Eirik and Rich for their time. I once again urge everyone to check out the site at iimusic.net! As I have been doing lately as well I would like to end the interview with a music video. This is not exactly related to II but includes music by Rich Vreeland. The video is a trailer for an upcoming game called High Strangeness, and I think the interesting artwork alongside the DisasterPEACE tune seems to fit the idea of II. so enjoy the video!

At first glance I Fight Dragons may seem like just another mild-mannered NESRock band plodding along the usual course of having fun making music. But if you look closely, behind those charming mild mannered alter egos lays a group of NESRock super heroes waiting to strike. A band wholly dedicated to not only making amazing music but grabbing the world by the hand and taking them on a trip to places they haven’t yet dared to dream of.

From their exceptionally well written lyrics to the pop-sensible blend of chiptune and what alternative rock should be, all the way down to their stage antics I Fight Dragons put on simply one hell of a show. IFD takes time to charm the crowd with something that everyone regardless of age, gender, or personal habits can relate to but all the while exposing them to a new and exciting method of making music. This is accomplished with the use of both retro and new age game controllers coupled with everything that you would expect to see from an alternative rock band.

It is very seldom that I can say with honesty that an event I have been to has been so overwhelming that it has left me struggling for proper adjectives to describe it. Despite that the most common method of describing anything these days is to refer to it as “epic” it truly seems to be the only word that fits. However seeing as the word “epic” is indeed overused these days I shall take this little bit of time to try and expand upon that for you.

Imagine yourself standing in a venue, lights down and a band on stage. The lead singer stands, back to the crowd in what appears to be nothing more than your average white shirt, tie, and the standard issue journalist glasses. A digital voice introduces the band slowly at first and then simply states “This is I Fight Dragons” at which point the band turns around and, as though a light switch was flipped, the energy pulsates from them. Then during the break down of the first song our mild mannered band lead transforms into super hero mode as the bassist runs insanely around the stage. All at once the all questions as to why they are wearing super hero logos are completely gone. Dancing around the stage, in the crowd, and when things get hairy and a mistake is made (like an un-cooperating computer) they compensate by simply singing a Zelda medley while Wonder Woman holds up speech bubbles asking for help, freedom, and of course beer. As if that wasn’t enough, a few moments later you are treated to the entire band taking a few moments to dance on a very well altered Track and Field pad and then finally achieving a crescendo with a power glove inspired orchestration of pure unabashed chiptune goodness.

All of this and more is what a concert with I Fight Dragons is like. It’s hard to encapsulate in mere words the energy from both the band and crowd. To make matters even more difficult for this actual mild mannered journalist the very sound of IFD is hard to describe. Seeing them perform live is a veritable monument to their actual level of professionalism. While performing songs like Heads up, Hearts Down there were moments I wasn’t sure if I was still in a bar on the north side of Chicago or in my car cruising with friends. The quality of the music only changed in the aspect that it was more enjoyable and, if possible, more energetic. So it’s with this in mind that I state: Should you get a chance to see I Fight Dragons perform live that you run, not walk, to the venue and take part in a show that you are not likely to soon, if ever, to forget. To find out when their upcoming shows are and where they’re being held make sure to check out either their website: ifightdragons.com or their MySpace: myspace.com/ifightdragons Go now! Join the fight against the Hidarites!

Thanks a ton to Brian from 8 Bit Revenge for doing a great write up and interview. Also thanks to I Fight Dragons for their time. Be sure to check them out at ifightdragons.com! The photos in the article are all taken from their Flickr page.

When did you first start writing music?

I’ve been writing electronic music for something like 5 years, but I’ve only been doing Superpowerless since the start of 2006. Before this I’d been in a few pop punk bands with high school/college friends but they never really went anywhere. Mostly because I couldn’t find people that were as committed to music as I was.

What was the first instrument you learned to play?

First instrument I learnt to play was drums. Since then I’ve learnt guitar, bass, piano and synth.

When did you first start performing your music live?

First Superpowerless gig was on May 4th 2008. I’ve been keeping a list on my website of every gig I’ve played, It’s a pretty cool thing to look back at! Since the first gig the people I’ve played live with have changed around a lot. It’s been hard to find people that are dedicated to being in a backing band as it’s meant they don’t get chance to write the material. It’s working really well at the moment!

When did you decide to start mixing guitar with chiptunes? What gave you that inspiration?

When I started writing chiptune, I wrote the songs with the intention of playing live. Guitar was my main instrument at the time and I’m not a massive fan of instrumental music, so it just seemed logical to mix in vocals and guitar. I also didn’t really want to gig on my own so I wrote parts that I could get friends to play by forming a live backing band. I don’t like being limited in what music I can create, so this way I could leave my options open to try different things.

Who are some of your musical influences? Both in chiptunes and in mainstream music?

Some bands that have had a massive impact on me are: Modest Mouse (favourite band), Mew, Million Dead, Jimmy Eat World, Postal Service, Placebo, blink 182, metric… etc! In chiptunes, I tend to prefer the artists that cross chiptune with vocals/guitar/other instruments. My favourite chiptune artists are Cat Cocinelle, I Fight Dragons and Combat Dave. I have quite a lot of chiptuning friends as well, you know who you are *high five*

What made you choose the song “Wasting My Time” to be your first big single?

I didn’t think I’d win the competition when I entered, so I just picked one of my songs randomly, there are quite a few that I think would have made good singles, I really like how wasting my time has turned out though.

Any American tour planned if you make it big?

Oh definitely, we’ll do the biggest tour everrrrr!

How was it remaking the song professionally? What parts of the song changed and which parts stayed the same?

It was really awesome, i usually don’t spend very long on a track, so getting the chance to sit down with someone that knows as much as Andy about producing was amazing. I learnt so many little techniques and ways to get things sounding as good as possible. We kept the track sounding lofi and 8bit but just really tidied it up and gave everything it’s own space. We added lots of little drum fills and drops to keep the track interesting and split the different sections up more. We also put in a bit using a vocoder to break up the melody of the choruses. Really happy with it!

How did you react when you learned that your song won the MTV Contest?

I was really surprised! It’s such an awesome prize, the amount of exposure it offers is insane! If you’d of told me a few years ago when I started writing these songs that I’d be at the stage where I’m filming a music video with a professional director, I’d of not believed you in the slightest. All my friends and family were really excited about it all as well, they’ve all seen how hard I’ve worked to get this far and been behind me all the way.

How did the idea for the “Wasting My Time” music video come about? How did he director contribute to that idea?

The idea for Wasting My Time was the director Luc Jannin’s. He talked me through his initial ideas and I loved the sound of it and so he developed it into what it ended up being. I had no idea how much was involved in shooting a music video, and how many people were needed on day of the shoot. It was crazy that they were all their for my music!

Who came up with the idea for the Robots Need Love Too” music video and how did that video come to be?

I had a brain storm with my friend Colin Odd Greenall about what would look cool and he agreed to direct a video for us. We wanted something that would be really fun to film and also a feel-good video. The lyrics and song go with the ideas we had perfectly. We’re all really happy with how it turned out!

How much money and time was necessary to create the “Robots Need Love Too” music video ?

We stole a load of cardboard from ASDA/subway took it all back to my friend colins house. Made the costumes (took a few hours!) then the day after we all met up and spent the day filming. We managed to get all the footage we needed done in 1 day, Colin spent a few weeks editing it all together. The only money we spent on the video was paying a busker to let us play the track through his amp so we could dance to it.

Are you already working on a new album? If so can you let us know how it’s shaping up and what your plans are for it?

I’ve written and recorded about 30/40 songs, I have a habit of getting them recorded as fast as possible and then leaving them. At the moment I’m going through finding the best tracks and then spending a really long time getting them sounding as good as possible. I’m not setting myself a deadline with it, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I want to make sure it’s absolutely perfect before I release it.

Any plans for future videos or any songs you would like to make a video for?

We’re involved in a local project that’s pairing film makers up with bands and over the next few months we’ll be filming another music video, to a totally re-recorded/reworked version of an old song I did called “zombie survival plan”. At the moment, we’re thinking of trying to get as many people dressed as zombies as possible into Leeds train station (which is pretty big/busy) or re-enacting Ghostbusters (Be Kind Rewind style). We’ll see what happens!

Are you going to forget about all of us small guys when you are big and famous?

Haha I’d quite like to get big and famous but there’s no telling what’s going to happen. If anything like that does happen, I’ll still be contactable through myspace/msn/hotmail/facebook all of that. I’ll do my best to reply to as many people as I can. I’ve always liked it when bands I like, reply to my messages.

Any shout outs, thanks, plugs, or mentions you would like to add now?

Massive thanks to everyone at Vodafone and MTV for the competition, it’s really given me some motivation when I really needed it! Thanks everyone that listens to my music and has got in touch with me about it over the last 3 years! Also massive thanks to anyone that’s bought my CDs, showed my music to their friends, wrote about it, you’re all awesome! Thanks to everyone that’s been part of the Superpowerless Live band, you’ve all been really cool to work with! I could go on thanking people for ages, haha.

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I would like to send out a big thanks to Oliver for being nice enough to answer the questions and getting them back to me so quickly. Be sure to check out his official site superpowerless.co.uk. Also I want to say Congratulations to him for winning the MTV video contest. Glad someone with such an enthusiasm for good music and video game inspired art got such a chance! You can check out his MTV music video for Wasting My Time in our older article, and enjoy his Robots Need Love Too video below!