In anticipation of the OCARINA concerts coming to Sydney and Melbourne in November and December, inspired by the Legend of Zelda games, Gamers Classified spoke to video game cover band, The Consouls. In this interview, The Consouls discuss video game soundtracks, fan interaction and live versus recorded performances. Click here to watch the interview. To receive a 13% discount on tickets to the OCARINA concerts, visit zeldalive.com and use the code GCOCAR.
Yoshi: Hello my name is Yoshi I'm reporting for Gamers Classified. Today, I'm at Messiah Studios in Sydney with the band The Consouls. Hi guys, would you like to introduce yourselves?
Mark: I'm Mark and I play drums for The Consouls.
Julian: Hello my name is Julian I play keys for The Consouls.
Tim: And my name's Tim and I play sax for The Consouls.
Yoshi: Thank you. So tell us what brings you to Messiah Studios?
Mark: Every week we do a Twitch show called Super Monday Jam but it's on a Thursday. So yes we're arranging songs that viewers get to vote on. They tell us what songs they want us to arrange, and we arrange them live on stream. We interact with the viewers to see how they would like to arrange, and yeah, that's what we're doing it Messiah.
Yoshi: Sure thing. So can you tell us a little bit about the types of songs that you've got requested or the kind of genre that you play?
Julian: So essentially we play music from video games but we get quite a range of diverse games from our fans. There’s a few that like a lot of the Nintendo things, from Japanese RPGs, from Square Enix and so forth, and every now and then we get requests for a lot of indie games like Shovel Knight. Next week we're gonna be covering Transistor so there’s quite a diverse range which is good for us because everyone in the band plays different types of games and that kind of influences our sound as well.
Yoshi: So speaking of video games, is there one particular video game soundtrack that really speaks to you and that's really stood the test of time?
Tim: I'm the worst person to answer this! I mean, my personal favourite soundtracks have been from SEGA. The Sonic games have awesome soundtracks: Mushroom Hill, great tune. And also Streets of Rage but I know you guys have your own favourite soundtracks.
Julian: I think for us, normally, let's say the popular game like Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Zelda are the ones that perform the best but we all have our personal games that were quite attuned to. I love Chrono Trigger. Mark?
Mark: Oh yeah, Chrono Trigger is fantastic as well. I'm quite partial to the Mario series and where they're going with, you know, all the orchestration nowadays, and the arrangements are getting really good.
Yoshi: You mentioned Zelda. On that topic, I hear that there's the OCARINA Zelda Concert coming up. Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement with that?
Juian: Alrighty! So on November 2nd, we're performing a concert called OCARINA at Chatswood Concourse which is basically a concert celebrating the music of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. We did a show last year with Nicholas Young who's heading the event under Scintillations Music for doing the music of Final Fantasy VII last year and we decided to give Zelda a crack this year. But this year will be bigger and better. We got more acts, more music and a lot more exciting arrangements on our end.
Yoshi: So when it comes to comparing listening to the soundtrack in a game or maybe streaming some audio how do you think that compares to a live event where you can listen to the music?
Tim: Yeah you can watch things online these days and it's pretty cool but there's a huge difference between actually being in the room and being at your home. There's a lot of nuances and just the atmosphere is completely different. When you see everyone else is kind of enjoying the music and you know it kind of makes you either want to get up and dance or just nod your head along. And sure, you can do that at home, but you might be in your PJs and watching it in your bed and you just kind of like not really paying attention necessarily. It might be on in the background while you're doing some other things. I think when you're live there's the whole live atmosphere element to it. You're just fully engaged when you're there whereas at home it’s not necessarily the case.
Yoshi: Well, The Consouls, thank you very much for your time. And if people wanted more information about you how can they keep in touch?
Mark: Yeah you can check us out on our website TheConsouls.com and we're all over social media. Facebook, our YouTube channel, Instagram, Twitter. Have I missed anything? Twitch. Yes, we're on Twitch a lot nowadays so come check us out and support us.
Yoshi: The Consouls Band, thank you very much for chatting to Gamers Classified.
Don't forget: to receive a 13% discount on OCARINA concert tickets, visit Zeldalive.com and use the code GCOCAR.
