INTERVIEW: ‘Video Games Live’ brings in big guns for NJPAC show
Video Games Live brings together the sophistication of symphonic music with the energy and artistry of video games for an unforgettable and highly charged evening of entertainment. At the helm of this mashup is Tommy Tallarico, CEO, executive producer and host of the show.
Tallarico is one of the most recognizable video game composers in the industry. He’s responsible for some of the most famous theme music ever created. Among his credits are Earthworm, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Disney’ Aladdin, in addition to his work on Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Madden Football and Mortal Kombat, among many, many others.
Tallarico promises musical excellence for Video Games Live’s Dec. 29 concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. The spectacle will feature many of the video game compositions that fans of the show have come to know and love, but Tallarico has a few tricks up his sleeve as well.
“It’s all the greatest video game music of all time played by a full symphony and choir, but what makes it really special and unique is that everything is synchronized to massive video screens and rock ‘n’ roll lighting and a stage show production,” Tallarico said in a recent phone interview. “We change the set list not every year, but every show, so we’ve never played the same set list twice. And so NJPAC, I think it’s our fourth time back. They said, ‘Hey, we want to do something really special this time. Can you put together a whole bunch of famous video game artists and musicians and composers and people that folks in the audience would know?’”
That’s exactly what Tallarico did for the Dec. 29 concert. His connections run deep in the video game world. He’s been involved in the industry for almost 30 years, and he knows all of the movers and shakers among the composers.
“I started at the top, and the first three people I thought of who would be perfect for the show and keep the set list interesting and fresh, the first three people said yes,” he said. “I didn’t even have to go down a checklist, and so one of the top composers in the United States for video games is Marty O’Donnell, who is the guy who is the composer of Halo. And he also composed the music to Destiny with Sir Paul McCartney. A lot of people don’t realize Sir Paul McCartney worked on a video game and with Marty O’Donnell. That’s pretty cool, so he’s going to be there. We’re going to perform music from Halo and some of the stuff that he wrote with Paul.”
The next call that Tallarico made was to Russell Brower, another legend in the business. He was the audio director and lead composer for Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind such games as World of Warcraft and Starcraft.
“So we’re going to do some special stuff that he worked on from Warcraft, and the big game right now is called Overwatch,” Tallarico said. “It’s a huge Blizzard franchise right now.”
The third name on Tallarico’s list was a throwback to the 1980s, back to the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and 8-bit graphics. Fans will undoubtedly know of Castlevania, and Tallarico was able to employ the help of the famous game’s composer.
“The composer of Castlevania, the original composer, is a woman, which is not so rare in Japan,” he said of Kinuyo Yamashita’s contributions. “It’s getting better here in the U.S. A lot of women now are becoming video game composers and sound designers, which is amazing, which is great, but she kind of was the trailblazer back in the ‘80s.”
Yamashita will perform selections from Castlevania, and Tallarico seems beyond excited to hear the audience’s reaction.
“Really unique that these three individuals are all on the same stage together, and then we have a bunch of folks who are kind of YouTube Internet sensation kind of folks,” he said. “You might be familiar with Lindsey Stirling, for example. She used to play with Video Games Live. She doesn’t anymore, and she’s not going to be in New Jersey. But … she used to play on stage with us, so we have a bunch of people who are kind of the next Lindsey Stirling.”
These YouTube sensations started out recording video game music as fans, and the companies were so impressed and interested in their work that many of them now compose for the actual franchises.
“So all these people who started out as fans from YouTube and putting out fan-made stuff are now actually recording on some of the biggest games in the world like Minecraft and Tekken and Civilization,” he said. “So I have six of those people who are also going to be there at the show. It’s going to be a very different Video Games Live. We do about 40-50 shows a year all over the world, and what I’ve been saying to people is we saved the best for last this year for 2017. This is going to be our biggest and best show because of the dynamics of all the different folks on stage.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Video Games Live will play Dec. 29 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
