Video Games Live Dares to Redefine Interactive Entertainment

Interviews

“It's about putting on this amazing show. An amazing concert event.”

Millions know his name, but very few know the real Tommy Tallarico. Most gamers see him on G4’s Judgment Day. He rants and raves about games that suck, telling it like it is in the most brutal and amusing way. You’ve also seen him on The Electric Playground, a lighter, less judgmental show that focuses on game previews.

I first heard about Tommy Tallarico when Earthworm Jim came out. Over the years I learned that some of my all-time favorite games – Aladdin, Maximo, Metroid Prime, etc. – were influenced by Tommy’s creative touch. Whether sound design, music or both, Tommy’s magic can be heard in over 250 games.

This summer he’s journeying beyond game composing and sound creation, diving head first into the world of live music performances. His band: a live orchestra. His material: a collection of the best video game music ever composed, including Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. His audience: game players, gamers’ relatives, gamers’ friends and neighbors – everyone is welcome. Obviously it’s the hardcore crowd that will be the easiest sell, but there is no single target market. Tommy wants everyone to be satisfied.

It took more than three years but his dream is finally becoming a reality. Video Games Live, the first multi-game concert event, will be touring the country starting July 6th. Tickets for the first show, taking place at the Hollywood Bowl in California, are on sale now.

If Video Games Live achieves half of Tommy’s goals then it will redefine live entertainment and provide a new venue for players to enjoy their favorite games.

Don’t take my word for it. No one describes the event better than the man behind it: composer, sound designer and TV host Tommy Tallarico.

Your latest game is Advent Rising. How’d that turn out?

Tommy Tallarico: Good. I'm really, really happy with the music. It's some of my best work. I kind of wrote it like an Italian opera almost. It's crazy. There's lots of choir and all the live orchestra. The game itself is pretty fun actually at the end. I was kind of worried about it for a long time. I'm so biased to it that at this point I don't even know if it's good or not [laughs]. But I had fun with it. I'd give a 7 and a half or an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. It's not like the 10 I think everybody's expecting. But the visuals are incredible, the sound I'm really happy with and all the voice acting we did, the sound effects are really cool. The controls aren't bad. The storyline elements are great.

Last year I did the sound design on The Incredibles, Spongebob the Movie [game], we just did Unreal Championship 2 – all of the sound design for that. Musically I've just been working on Advent Rising. That's taken up so much of my time. We did Flight Club too, but we don't talk about that [laughs]. Not only because that's a funny line in the movie, but because the game sucked.

I've been doing a bunch of cool stuff. I just started Jaws as well.

In addition to a great soundtrack, Advent Rising features impressive graphics and a deep story.

Awesome, is there gonna be a new movie to tie in with that?

TT: No, they just got the Jaws license. The cool thing about that game is that you play [as] the shark.

Wow, that will be very cool. How are you writing the music for that? You play as the shark, do you the dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun?

TT: Constantly [laughs]. We got the rights to use John Williams's theme. We're putting that everywhere we can.

What kind of new sounds are you adding? Something similar? Something completely different?

TT: It's gotta be very traditional because that's what Universal, Steven Spielberg and John Williams want. It's gotta sound like Jaws. We can't really mess with it. So far we're doing some unique stuff though. There's gonna be a lot more action stuff, dun-dun DUD-DUD dun-dun DUD-DUD [does action rendition of Jaws theme]. I'm gonna utilize a lot of percussion and stuff to make it unique and interesting. It's gonna have that awesome Jaws feel and sound, but kinda bringing it into the 21st century having lots of heavy percussion and different things like that."

Which platform is that going to be on?

TT: PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2.

No Xbox 360 version?

TT: Not that I know of to be honest with you. I'd tell you if I knew even though I'm not supposed to [laughs]. I actually don't know, they haven't told me anything about that.

So this is being planned for this year?

TT: Yeah, it's coming out this fall.

So far, how does it control? I can envision swimming, but...

TT: The great thing is that it's being developed by Appaloosa over in Europe and those are the guys who did Ecco the Dolphin. Substitute Ecco with a shark and you have Jaws.

Replace this big fish with a shark, you say? Now you’re talkin’!

What about the combat? You're obviously attacking something, but how does that play out?

TT: To be honest I haven't played the game yet. I've just read the game design and all that stuff. We just finished Advent Rising last week. In two weeks I'd know a lot more. I'm just now starting the John Williams score. I'm starting the new demos of, 'here's Jaws fast, here's Jaws slow.'

Are you working on any games for the PSP?

TT: Advent Shadow. It's a separate game, but it [follows] the story [of Advent Rising]. It's coming out this Christmas.

Aren’t you supposed to run into the light? Oh wait, that’s when you die. Never mind.

Going back to the concert, you said you started that three years ago. What was it that made you say, "Now is the time to do it."

TT: Guys like me and you, we know all about video game music. We know how far it's come. We probably appreciate the classics like Castlevania and Mario and Zelda and Sonic. But we also know all of the amazing stuff over the last couple years, like Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft, Metal of Honor, Metal Gear Solid – games like that.

So what I wanted to do... I mean, you know I'm a total freakin' gamer. I live and breathe games. I have my entire life. I'm 37 years old now. And I'm certainly not stopping now. So what I really wanted to do was create something that was not only for... It's going to be incredible for gamers. Having something like a Castlevania for example, the average 20-year-old gamer may not know what Castlevania even is.

But for fans who are into this stuff, they know that Castlevania is some of the awesome, coolest game music. No one's ever heard of it played by a live orchestra before and a live choir. This is going to be a first for a lot of people. Not only do we have that classic, but the music of Warcraft, MYST, Halo and Final Fantasy and all that stuff has never been performed live before. Well, Final Fantasy has, but all of the other stuff has never really been performed.

For us it's not just about the music. It's about putting on this amazing show. An amazing concert event. We want to create the Barnum & Bailey circus of the 21st century, or the Woodstock of the 21st century.

So not only do we have this amazing music being played live with a choir and a big orchestra and some electronic elements as well, you know like maybe electronic drums and things like that for some of the pieces. But also we're going to incorporate all the amazing visuals and video from these games.

You look at the Warcraft cinematics or some of the Tom Clancy stuff, Splinter Cell and Advent Rising is going to be at the show as well. We're also gonna have exclusive footage as well, so example Tomb Raider. There's gonna be a new Tomb Raider coming out and we're going to try and supply as much exclusive footage as we can so it's a peak into the next Tomb Raider or the next Zelda game that no one's ever seen before.

And we have all the video and the set design that we're creating is completely unique to live entertainment. We're using a lot of cool new video techniques and screens and things like that that are going to enable us to make sure there's video everywhere. 'Cause it's really about the games. And the games are really the star of the show as opposed to the songs, it's the games and these licenses.

We're also gonna have some interactive elements as well. It's not gonna be like cheesy stuff with people dressed up as freakin' Zelda skipping across the stage [laughs]. It's not gonna be like that at all. We have a couple of segments where we're gonna use characters from some of the games to interact with the audience and with the video footage. And the orchestra is going to play the different sections of that game depending on what the video and the stage actor, the stunt person is doing on stage with the screen.

I know it sounds kind of crazy and weird, but... I can't give away exactly what we're doing, but think of Tron. Tron battling stuff and lasers everywhere and video everywhere and interacting with the live video screens – that's what we're creating. Something that no one has ever done before or ever seen before or ever heard of before.

Keep your browser pointed to GameZone Online for part 2 of our interview with game composer Tommy Tallarico.

Video Games Live – Tour Dates:

Wednesday, July 6 – Los Angeles , CA – Hollywood Bowl – 8:00 PM –ON SALE NOW

Thursday, August 11 – Atlanta , GA – Chastain Park – 8:00 PM

Saturday, August 13 – Holmel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center – 8:00 PM

Sunday, August 14 – Camden , NJ – Tweeter Center – 8:00 PM

Wednesday, August 17 – Toronto , Ontario – Molson Amphitheatre – 8:00 PM

Friday, August 19 – Bristow , VA – Nissan Pavilion – 8:00 PM

Monday, August 22 – Boston , MA – B of A Pavilion – 8:00 PM

Wednesday, August 24 – Cleveland, OH – Tower City Amphitheater – 8:00 PM

Thursday, August 25 – Columbus , OH – Polaris Amphitheater – 8:00 PM

Friday, August 26 – Cincinnati , OH – Riverbend – 8:00 PM