Origins: Tommy Tallarico Provides Comic-Con’s Gloriously Geeky Game Soundtrack

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So, we talked a little bit about the long tradition of soundtrack albums for video games. Why do you think that hasn’t happened here, for American produced games?

Well, you know, I think it has, I really do. You just need to know where to go. There is a myth that video game albums sell in the millions over in Japan. It’s just that they make a lot more of their stuff available, like they do that with everything in pop culture. Whether it’s anime, manga, toys, characters, statuettes or whatever, they make more of it available. The Japanese have definitely welcomed it earlier and more often. I think that video games have — they are about maybe five to ten years ahead of us in regards to it evolving into the culture. But I think it’s all changing. I think we are in the midst of a change right now. I just read an article about Hideo Kojima talking about how Western developers are kicking Japanese developers’ asses?

Right, yeah. He has been talking about that for a little while now, for like the last couple of months.

Yeah, he was saying that he finds that people in the West are more motivated to succeed and do well, and that people in Japan aren’t as much. And he said he would rather work with Americans or work with the Westerners as opposed to Japanese. So I do think we are catching up. We are evolving to where Japan has. They have just done it quicker than us, but I think we are quickly catching up.

In terms of the set list and the way its evolved since you guys have been doing the tour, what is the process from the video game company end? Let’s say a Ubisoft or Microsoft or something. How do you work with them to get the music into concert?

Yeah, it’s a great question. First and foremost, the music has to be great. I don’t care if the game is a big seller or not. From there, once I figure out what the song is, I know pretty much most of the composers out there, so I will contact them. Then, we will kind of approach the publisher together. A lot of times, the publishers get a hold of us now.

When I’m creating a set list, I want it to be dynamic. I want a good representation of old-school plus the new stuff. High-energy impact stuff, with a massive choir and throwing in the kitchen sink, but also slow stuff and emotional and touching stuff. The show’s got some interactive fun segments in there, too, like bringing somebody up on stage to play Guitar Hero along with the symphony.

We also have other folks as well who play characters. We have a great talent called Flute Link, who dresses up as Link and plays the whole orchestral arrangement and flute arrangement of the music from Zelda. So, it’s always different. You know, I’ve created over 60 segments for Video Games Live. But we can only play about 18-20 of them a night. So, every single set list and every show is different. The show coming up at San Diego Comic-Con, for example, is 90% different than the set list we played a year before in San Diego, which was 80% different from the one we played the year before in San Diego.

And the great thing is games keep coming out and giving you fresh material.

There was a show at the Hollywood Bowl about five years ago that was the first time the Kingdom Hearts music had ever been played live.

Even with how popular those games have been in Japan?

Yeah, crazy, right? But again, it was 2005; it was somewhat of a newer game back then. And obviously things like Halo and Warcraft had never been performed live. Sonic the Hedgehog, never been performed live until we did it at the Hollywood Bowl. Everyone thought I was insane.  But, now, the publishers contact us and say, “Hey, we got this new game we are working on, and the soundtrack is really great. Can you put it in the show?”

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