Video Games Live is one of the pioneers of classic video game concerts. For over 13 years, founder Tommy Tallarico has been traveling the world with his show, playing for enthusiastic audiences.
We at Mein-MMO.de had the opportunity to talk to Tommy about his work in the gaming industry.
For almost 30 years, he has worked as a composer, showmaster, and more recently also as CEO of a development company. The list of video games for which he has written music includes titles such as Earthworm Jim, Spiderman, and Metroid Prime.
Mein-MMO.de: How did you come up with the idea to start Video Games Live?
Tommy Tallarico: I have been composing music for video games for almost 30 years, and the reason I started this show is because I wanted to show the world how artistically valuable and important video games have become. But it’s also a great way to introduce a new generation of young people to art and orchestral music.
To be completely honest, when I was about 10 years old, back in the late 70s, I took my dad’s huge cassette player and went to the arcades nearby. I recorded the music from my favorite games on cassettes.
At home, I invited my friends over and let the games run in the background on the TV. Then I played the recorded music and pretended to play it on a guitar. For that, I charged them 50 cents each.
That was the very first “Video Games Live” concerts. It’s basically the realization of a 10-year-old boy’s big dream.
MeinMMO.de: Was it hard to start?
Tommy Tallarico: Yes, it was really crazy. When you go to sponsors, orchestras, venues, agencies, even game developers and say: “Hey, I want to do Video Games Live! It will be a symphony concert featuring music from video games! There will be a show and videos, and the audience will love it!”.
Then everyone replies “…What? What are you talking about? People who play don’t go to concerts. And people who go to concerts don’t play video games. You are completely out of your mind. No one will show up to your stupid show.”
But I never accepted no as an answer. That’s why I wanted to do the very first show at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
So it wasn’t just fundamentally hard to start Video Games Live. Getting the biggest and most famous venue in the USA for the first show was ten times harder. But I wanted to prove it to everyone.
Everyone told me never to do my first show in Los Angeles. The entire entertainment industry is there. You start small, improve, fix the little mistakes, and then you bring it to Los Angeles. But I just said “No, screw that! I want the first show at the Hollywood Bowl!”
All the media were there, CNN, Fox, all the newspapers. That’s why I wanted the concert to take place there. It was important. They told me: “You’ll be lucky if 500 people show up.” At the first concert, there were 11,000, and suddenly I wasn’t so crazy anymore.
Mein-MMO.de: What was that one moment or situation during a concert that stands out to you or that you cherish the most?
Tommy Tallarico: There were several. The first show was, of course, incredible. I struggled with tears the whole night. I had worked for years to experience it. To truly grasp it for the first time was immense.
But another moment that stood out was during the Olympic Games in 2008 in China. The country of Taiwan is politically under strong Chinese influence, and we performed there during the Olympic Games. The Chinese government had banned Taiwan from showing its flag at the games.
The whole country was upset about it. That’s why at the end of the show, during the encore, I brought a huge flag from Taiwan onto the stage. I had never experienced such applause before. About 6,000 or 7,000 people started shouting and whistling, and they cried.
They were so grateful for it, I have photos of it, it was incredible. The “Meet and Greet” line after the show, I tell you, every single person from the concert was there. It was the longest “Meet and Greet” we ever had. It lasted almost six hours. That was really important.
There were a few others. We played in China, even in the same stadium where the Olympic Games were held. That was a few years ago. That was incredible too. We set the Guinness World Record then. There were 752,000 people watching a symphony concert live. You can’t imagine how many people that is.
What was the most interesting or funniest reaction from musicians or visitors? You work with many different orchestras, and I imagine most of them are rather conservative in their musical views.
It’s quite funny. When we play with really snobby musicians, you can see how they come on stage and look at the sheet music like: “Sonic the Hedgehog? World of Warcraft? That’s not Stravinsky, what is that?”
The last time they saw video games was in the 70s. They think it will be chiptunes. They don’t understand how much power is behind it because they aren’t gamers.
And they are a bit worried accordingly. And why shouldn’t they be? These are people who have spent their entire lives playing the music of the greatest composers in the world. Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, that’s what they’re used to. Then they play it during rehearsals and you can see them thawing: “Hey, this is pretty good!”.
And then the show comes. And thousands of young people start clapping and shouting and cheering. As if the Beatles or Michael Jackson were on stage. Right then the musicians look around and wonder “What the hell is going on here?”. Because even though they always play Mozart and Beethoven, they are only used to very conservative applause. And that’s it.
But now the kids are jumping up and screaming and having fun. And while it often starts cautiously with the musicians, after the show, they often come to me and say: “Oh my God, when are you coming back to us?! I have played oboe for 30 years, and that was the best night of my life!”.
Especially since they are young people. Because let’s be honest: People who go to classical concerts are old. It’s a slowly dying art. Young people aren’t interested in this kind of music. It’s only old people who attend these kinds of shows. It’s very sad, but unfortunately, it’s the reality of the 21st century.
And we are getting young people to attend symphony concerts. And the musicians love it.
Even people who don’t think video games are an art form. When they see our show, they change their opinions. I have never experienced anyone leaving the show and saying: “That was crap, the performance was bad, the videos were ugly, etc.”
Gamers are picky. Sometimes we get comments after a show like “Why didn’t you play the music from this and that level of Zelda?!” It’s impossible to make everyone happy. But I think, overall, Video Games Live offers a way for people to understand how important video games are.
We receive the biggest letters and emails after the shows from non-gamers. From parents who say: “You know, I was at your show yesterday and brought my kids. I didn’t really know what to expect, but oh my God! The music and the characters, and the stories, and the graphics! I get it now! I didn’t know the music in games could be so beautiful. I understand now why my kids play video games, thank you.”
Or another example from a letter: “Hey, I was at your show with my kids. And we were having breakfast the next day, and my 8-year-old daughter told me she wants to learn how to play the violin. So she can play the music from Kingdom Hearts or Zelda.”
That’s really cool. Here’s a short story about how it influences non-gamers as well. There was someone from the orchestra. We played with the Pittsburgh orchestra, which is one of the best orchestras in the USA. It has been around since 1800-something and has been conducted by Richard Strauss. The musicians there are among the best in the nation.
Shortly before the show, a woman came to me with tears in her eyes. And she said: “Hey Tommy, I just wanted to thank you. Thank you for doing this and organizing this show.” And I said: “No, no, thank you. You are from the Pittsburgh Symphony.”
And she said: “No, you don’t understand. I have been playing in this orchestra for over 20 years. I am a single mother, and I have a 17-year-old son. And all I ever wanted was for him to come to one of my concerts. But he has never done it. Until today.
Today is the first time he will watch me play. And not only that, he also invited all his friends. And in the last few weeks, he has been bragging about how his mom will play the music from Halo.”
When you put on a show like this, you don’t expect it to have such an effect on people. That was the most important night of their lives.
Mein-MMO.de: Your cooperation with Blizzard has grown significantly in recent years. You can see it at the concerts of the last Gamescoms. Can fans look forward to something really big in the future? Something akin to the tour in China in 2016?
Tommy Tallarico: Yes, we have been doing these tours in China for Blizzard for four years. We are there for sometimes a whole month, playing in 14 to 17 different cities in China. We have a separate Blizzard show and a Warcraft show.
For example, when we play in Beijing, a very large city, we perform for two nights. The first concert is a Blizzard show and the second one is only a Warcraft show.
We have also performed in other countries, in the USA, Korea, and France. And the special show at Gamescom is for the German fans. What’s special about this Blizzard show at Gamescom is that they often reveal something brand new for the first time.
It is the largest gaming convention in the world. And when they make their announcements there, they show the trailers, and we play the music along with it. This year, we already celebrated six premieres. For example, the trailer for Warbringer with Jaina. It was the first time people saw it live. Also Overwatch and StarCraft, pretty much everything.
When StarCraft 2 was presented for the first time, we were there in Korea playing live. That was in 2007, about 10 years ago.
I am good friends with Mike Morhaime, and Blizzard were the very first people to join us at Video Games Live. What I love most about Blizzard is that I have never experienced a company that cares so much for their fans. Have you ever been to Blizzcon? It’s incredible.
They lose a lot of money through the BlizzCon, and they don’t care. It’s for the fans. Companies like Square Enix, to be honest, they have gone after people who do cosplay and made them take down videos. Blizzard wants that, they want community content, they want people to develop as much passion as possible.
And they have their dance and cosplay competitions, art contests, and even Machinima at BlizzCon. They encourage that creativity. They are simply on another level, even in terms of quality. When I started my career, Blizzard didn’t even exist yet. They were called Silicon and Synapse. I had already worked with them back then.
It’s just great to see such a company grow. Even when Activision acquired them, they said: “We control our marketing, you are just the publisher. That’s it. You won’t tell us how to run our company.”
It was part of the agreement. They have their own marketing, their own PR, their own development teams, their own producers, everything. And Activision even had to change its name to Activision Blizzard. And they let it be. Other companies would try to change something, like EA or Microsoft.
But Activision is smart, they say: “Do what you have been doing until now, guys. You are the best at it.” And I think Blizzard is the best developer in the world. Really my favorite company.
Mein-MMO.de: If you had the chance to do a show with Blizzard, regardless of money and technology, could you imagine anything cool?
Tommy Tallarico: Yes! It would be a video game concert with holograms. And all the characters would come on stage and interact with the audience.
Maybe it would also be a 3D thing with glasses or VR headsets, something in that direction. That’s the next level. And I’m actually looking into that more. That’s where we want to go next.
It won’t just be a big screen anymore, but the characters on stage. Imagine: A battle between Jaina and Sylvanas on stage with music. You will see it in 3D in front of you, and it will be interactive. I think that will be the next level.
But in order to do that, Blizzard has to create all these assets first, and that’s where it gets tricky. They are a developer and have so many things they are working on and developing. But you said, regardless of everything, so that’s it!
However, there are rumors that Blizzard is not as completely independent from Activision:
