{"id":15820,"date":"2010-12-29T10:18:39","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T14:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=15820"},"modified":"2010-12-29T10:44:32","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T14:44:32","slug":"justins-japan-interview-with-video-games-live-icon-tommy-tallarico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2010\/12\/29\/justins-japan-interview-with-video-games-live-icon-tommy-tallarico\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin’s Japan: Interview with Video Games Live Icon Tommy Tallarico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a>

See Tommy Tallarico with Video Games Live at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark Dec. 29 and 30. (Videogameslive.com) <\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By <\/em><\/strong>JQ magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Justin Tedaldi<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his NY Japanese Culture\u00a0page <\/em><\/strong>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a> to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tommy Tallarico<\/a> is the co-founder and CEO of Video Games Live<\/a>, a touring showcase that for over five years has combined the excitement of a rock concert with the power of a symphonic orchestra featuring the music of the some of the most memorable video games in history. As the show\u2019s lead guitarist, Tallarico is also the producer of the Video Games Live: Level 2<\/em> Blu-ray and soundtrack album, which made history last October by landing on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Classical Crossover chart and earning a Grammy nomination for the Civilization IV song \u201cBaba Yetu,\u201d the first video game song ever to be nominated. I spoke with Tallarico prior to VGL\u2019s upcoming shows this week at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which will feature\u00a0special guest performances by legendary female Japanese composer Kinuyo Yamashita<\/a> (Castlevania).<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s VGL tour played around the world to new countries and fans. What were the biggest similarities and differences that you noticed among the crowds and the overall reception you received?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each country we go to is different. They love different games; they play their favorite different systems. For example, when you\u2019re paying in Japan, World of Warcraft isn\u2019t really popular over there, because there\u2019s not a lot of PC gaming. But when you play in China, World of Wacraft is like the biggest thing ever of all time. [laughs] So, crowds react to different things, and it\u2019s always my challenge to create a set list and find out what the local gamers love and are into. But when you go to places like China and Taiwan and, most specifically, Brazil, the folks down there go absolutely nuts. I mean, they lose their minds. They\u2019re so passionate and so appreciative that something like this exists and would come to their countries. It really shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Were there any things that really surprised you when visiting and performing in these new countries?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we played to over 100,000 people in Taipei in one show, and we showed up at the airport, there\u2019s literally hundreds of people there with signs greeting us at the airport and everything. That was pretty surprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tell us about VGL\u2019s Japan debut at Tokyo International Hall last fall. Which of your idols were you most excited about meeting and working with?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had worked with everybody before the show, but what was really special about that show was the Koji Kondo performance. Of course, Koji Kondo is the composer of Mario and Zelda. This was the very first time, believe it or not, that Koji Kondo actually performed live in Japan at a video game covert. I found that to be unbelievable, so that was very special. Having both of the women who composed the Castlevania music there on stage was also pretty special as well, but I\u2019d have to say that providing Koji Kondo with his first ever live performance in his home country of Japan was unbelievable. He played a solo piano piece of Mario, and he went into Mario Galaxy as well. It was really incredible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each VGL concert is performed by a local orchestra and professional musicians.\u00a0 Besides special guest appearances, are there any twists depending on where you play, or do the musicians understand what you\u2019re trying to express as easily in places like Portugal and Poland as they do in the U.S.?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s more age delineated as opposed to area. Any young person in the orchestra\u2014and when I say young, I\u2019m talking maybe 45 and under\u2014any young person in the orchestra for the most part knows a lot of the material, is really happy, and they understand it; they know what\u2019s going on. And then some of the older people in the orchestra\u2014not all, but there\u2019s a smaller percentage of people, no matter what country we go to\u2014they\u2019re a little apprehensive at first; they don\u2019t quite understand [it], playing this music that they\u2019ve never heard, yet thousands of young people are screaming and cheering and clapping like it\u2019s the second coming of Elvis Presley or the Beatles or something. And so, they\u2019re confused by the end of it: \u201cWhat\u2019s all this stuff? World of Warcraft? Sonic the Hedgehog? This isn\u2019t Stravinsky!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are classically trained musicians, but once they see the reaction of the crowd and hear the music and how it is, you know, legitimate music, they have a greater understanding and appreciation for video game music. So, what starts out maybe for some of the older, traditional people as apprehension at the beginning of the day, turns into adoration by the end of it. I\u2019ll get people coming up to me during the intermission, and they\u2019ll say, \u201cI\u2019ve been playing the oboe for over 40 years, and I\u2019ve never heard a crowd response like this. When are you guys coming back?\u201d [laughs] So, it\u2019s pretty cool to be able to give that to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As musical director, do you always do a full run-through with the orchestra prior to every night\u2019s performance?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

For sure. We also send the musicians the music months ahead of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the show was performed in Brazil, it was subsidized by the government for getting young people involved in the arts. How did you arrange that, and what was the public\u2019s reaction to that performance?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was something that the promoters down in Brazil and myself worked on with the ministry of culture down there, and this is our fifth year back\u2014it was our fifth year in a row down there. It\u2019s something that I wish more governments could see the benefit of this, because we\u2019re looking at tons of people and e-mails or people talking to us at the meet and greet, who all say things like, we brought our daughter to the show last night and we were all sitting around the breakfast table this morning and my daughter said, \u201cMom, I\u2019d like to start taking violin lessons so I can learn the music to Zelda\u201d or Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy or whatever, you know. So those are real stories, and, again, the Brazilian ministry of culture is fantastic to realize that and to say we want young people to be interested in the arts and culture, and what better way than to give them a presentation of something that they know and love and enjoy, and are passionate about. I wish other countries did that; I wish our <\/em>country did that! [laughs<\/em>]\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click here<\/em><\/strong><\/a> for\u00a0 the rest of the interview.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By JQ magazine\u2019s\u00a0Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his NY Japanese Culture\u00a0page here to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories.\u00a0 Tommy Tallarico is the co-founder and CEO of Video Games Live, a touring showcase that for over five years has combined the excitement of a rock concert with the power of a symphonic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,25,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-interviewprofile","category-justins-japan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-47a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15820"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15829,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15820\/revisions\/15829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}