First Worldwide Videogame Concert Tour Coming

PLAY! will kick off in North America sometime in 2006 and will feature music from Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Battlefield: 1942, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and several other titles. Maestro Arnie Roth, music director and principle conductor of the Chicagoland Pops will serve as principle conductor and music director for the tour. And similar to Dear Friends, memorable moments from each game will be displayed on large screen monitors above the orchestra to accompany the scores.

1UP spoke with JMP's Jason Michael Paul and Thomas Boecker to find out what they have planned for the big concert tour.

1UP: First off, how does it feel to be producing the first ever worldwide videogame concert tour?

Jason: I am very grateful to be at the forefront of such a movement. I recently experienced a taste of the excitement with Dear Friends. That was a first for the U.S. so I guess I am somewhat used to it. PLAY! is allowing me the opportunity to do what I intended to do and that is to take the video game music genre and present it to the world. This has been a dream of mine for quite some time. I am not satisfied though. I still have a great deal of work to do.

Thomas: I have been a fan of video game music since about 20 years now. The last six years I spent almost all my time for being involved directly in the game industry, which means I worked as a producer, music director and consultant on various titles and of course on the Symphonic Game Music Concerts in Leipzig. Game music means a lot to me personally, so a world-tour is like the highest peak you can reach on that matter. I am very excited to be a part of PLAY!.

1UP: Speaking of the Symphonic Game Music concerts in Leipzig, Thomas, how did those go?

Thomas: We did the first ever Symphonic Game Music Concert outside of Japan. That was in 2003, and I believe it had a huge impact worldwide. It was held as the official opening ceremony of the GC (Games Convention), Europe's biggest event for video games. After the great success of the first concert we had more concerts in 2004 and 2005. We performed all the music you could imagine, ranging from Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros., and Metal Gear Solid to Hitman, EverQuest II, and Medal of Honor. Classics such as ActRaiser, Chrono Cross, and Turrican have also been a part of that annual concert series. All these concerts sold out, the last one in only three days. Famous composers such as Nobuo Uematsu, Yuzo Koshiro, Jason Hayes, Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard and others attended and joined an autograph session afterwards. So in short, the concerts went very well in my opinion.

I was introduced to Jason by Square-Enix. They thought it might be a good idea, and obviously they were right.

Thomas: I was especially impressed by the normality of such happenings. It does not mean that game music concerts are nothing special in Japan - the opposite is the case - but they are much better accepted as an art form and entertainment by the general public. Think about it: if you tell your mom today to go to a game music concert, how do you expect her to answer? In Japan, chances are higher she will say: Let's go together. This is something I admire, and I hope we can bring this kind of normality outside of Japan, too. This is nothing you can achieve within a short time, but I know it is doable in the long run.

1UP: So how did you two come to collaborate on this project?

Thomas: I was introduced to Jason by Square-Enix. They thought it might be a good idea, and obviously they were right. We met at their head office in Tokyo, and a few times later, too. At the beginning, we were talking about our experience in producing game music concerts, and at some point it was just crystal clear that we should work together on a project.

1UP: And how did you select Arnie Roth to conduct? It must be quite an honor to have him on board. Is he a fan of videogame music himself?

Jason: Arnie Roth as the Maestro is a no brainer. He gets it and he knows how to get it done! I trust him with anything! He is not the typical Maestro. I am lucky and honored to have him as a friend and colleague. Let's just say that Arnie has played video games and owns a PS2. He has kids so he has accepted video games as a great form of entertainment.

1UP: What about the performers - are you working with several orchestras in various cities?

Jason: We are working with distinguished orchestras that are concerned with providing quality programming for their fans all over the world. They all know about the success of Dear Friends and are extremely pleased with idea of presenting PLAY!. Most of the orchestras are presenting partners. We are not using regional orchestras as part of this tour currently.

1UP: Can you tell us a little about the show itself? We understand you're going to have video clips of each game playing in the background.

Jason: We will have around 20 titles for our concert program. We are following the tradition of Dear Friends. We want to highlight memorable moments of the games, which means that we will show the orchestra performing, soloist playing, etc. as well.

1UP: Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Actraiser, etc.) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, etc.) are doing special arrangements for the concert - can you tell us about those and how it was working with them?

Thomas: I have worked with Yuzo Koshiro on several projects already, and it always is a pleasure doing so. He is very open-minded, creative and a definitely big bonus for our tour. The same goes for Yasunori Mitsuda who I know since we started working on the Symphonic Game Music Concert 2005. They are both extremely supportive and very much into the idea of PLAY!.

1UP: We understand you're going to have a special opening fanfare for the concert tour...

Jason: We are currently developing the opening fanfare. The music will represent the idea of the tour: The celebration of video game music which never has been done on such a big scale before. The music will be composed by the icon of video game music par excellence, which makes us very proud. We feel very honored.

1UP: When do you plan to announce tour dates and schedules? Are there any cities that you're fairly certain you'll be coming to at this point? What can people do to help get the concert tour to come to their areas?

Jason: We are planning on announcing tour dates very soon! Please continue to check our official website. We will definitely be coming to cities that we brought Dear Friends to in 2005 and of course there are many international destinations planned. Wherever there are orchestras with the skill to perform the music to our liking will be a destination on the tour. Encouraging others to participate by contacting their local orchestras, support, and patience will ensure a visit to their area.

1UP: You're the only tour with the permission of Square Enix to use its music. Can you tell us about how you convinced them to let you include it in the concert? What sort of Square Enix music can we look forward to hearing?

Jason: Being friends with Uematsu-san and producing a successful concert series in cooperation with Square Enix has helped in receiving their cooperation. About the music? My personal favorites of course! No seriously, our complete program of songs will be announced shortly.

Thomas: I believe one reason why they gave permission to perform music from Final Fantasy is that they could see our deep appreciation for these compositions. In Germany, we got permission to perform music from Square-Enix in every concert that I organized, including the upcoming concert tour in 2006 in Germany, where we will have a well-known German orchestra performing game music in front of pupils, as a part of their music lesson. Pupils starting from the age of 9 will gather at local concert halls to learn and enjoy with game music.

1UP: Which music can World of Warcraft fans expect to hear from the game? Are you paying attention to what the fans would want to hear?

Jason: Absolutely. We are working close with the composer Jason Hayes and Blizzard Entertainment to make sure it will be a great experience for the fans. They know the best what their audience is expecting, they get tons of feedback every day, every hour. Together, we can share a lot of knowledge.

1UP: If any videogame music fans wanted to suggest any music for you to include in the concert tour, is there a way they can go about doing this? Do you take requests?

Jason: The program has been already determined as of now. This is not to say that it will not change. The fans are more than welcome to send us emails to feedback@play-symphony.com. We will evaluate the suggestions and try to accommodate their requests. We believe that our program as it is representative of the fans or so we hope!

Thomas: I got a lot of feedback for the concerts in Leipzig, Germany and it is understood that we used it to make our decisions on the PLAY! concert program, too. However, as Jason said, we are always happy to hear people's opinions.

1UP: Have any companies objected to the use of their music in the concert?

Thomas: We are in the privileged situation of having all the music we wanted to get the permission for. It is not always an easy task, though, and it took us a few months.

1UP: The producers of Video Games Live, a similar video game music concert tour, recently had to cancel the remainder of its shows due to poor ticket sales. Are you worried about running into similar circumstances?

Jason: We concentrate on the beauty of symphonic music - it will be our key to success. Symphonies will essentially be the promoters - not promoters who don't know the first thing about putting on a symphony show. IMG Artists, who will be handling the booking and routing for the concert series, have a roster that lends an amazing amount of credibility to such a new and exciting concept. We will take what worked with Dear Friends and continue in that tradition.

We concentrate on the beauty of symphonic music - it will be our key to success.

Jason: Many people still don't take gaming music serious! It has become my mission to change that. I see video game music as being an accepted art form by the mainstream and breaking away from a so called niche market. It will take time! There is a saying in English that you have to walk before you can run. We are doing that! Of course acceptance comes when orchestras such as the LA Phil, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony are playing gaming music.

Thomas: All in all, game music has changed a lot in terms of acceptance. With the game industry becoming more and more mainstream, there are good and bad changes for the music as well. Personally, I am not a big fan of licensed music, as long as it is just put in for promotion means and not intentionally to fit with the game's environments. Nevertheless, it is one direction I can see at the moment, together with orchestral recordings for game music. In my opinion many composers reached the point where they have a good deal of experience with the orchestra, now music directors and the like should take better care of the integration of the music into the games. The best orchestra recording does not work well if it gets easily boring in the game. Interactivity is a big word in terms of game music, and I hope we will see further improvements on that part in the future. I could imagine that actual programming of game music similar to the early age of game music could become more important again, just with different opportunities in terms of sound quality.

1UP: Finally, if you could give game music fans everywhere one final message about the upcoming concert, what would it be?

Jason: If you want to experience a modern interpretation of classical music or you just love video game music then this show is a must.

Thomas: For game music fans outside of Japan it has been a long time of waiting for a game music concert. Finally, the opportunity to attend is here. Do not miss the chance!

To find out more about the concert tour, stay tuned to 1UP and sign up for a newsletter on the official PLAY! site.