February 11, 2009

In a Band and Part of Rock Band – Bang Camaro’s Bryn Bennett Rocks with GameZone
By Louis Bedigian

“They're both kind of dreams of mine – making video games and playing in a rock band. With Harmonix, I found a really good mix of both.”

Many of us dream of becoming a game developer. Many more dream of becoming a rockstar. Imagine what would happen if, because of the first dream being realized, the second one came true as well? That's just what happened for Bryn Bennett, a programmer at Harmonix and co-founder of the band Bang Camaro, whose music has appeared in Guitar Hero II, the Rock Band series and the forthcoming Sims sequel.

"We've been around about three years," Bennett says of the band, whose second album was released on iTunes last month . "We're a bunch of indie rockers from Boston that decided to form this hard rock band, wanting to get that big vocal sound live like Def Leppard had. We were sort of an anomaly here in Boston, which is kind of a punk rock town. [I started the band with] Alex Necochea and we brought in all our lead singer friends from the area to try out for the band, and it turned out really well.

"At that time Harmonix was also based in Boston, working on Guitar Hero II. [Harmonix is comprised of] local musicians, and they wanted to know if they could include a song of ours, 'Push Push (Lady Lightning),' on Guitar Hero II. So it was the kind of thing where we were lucky to be here in Boston at the right time. We got our song into Guitar Hero II and went from there."

Bang Camaro's music will appear in The Sims 3. In the past bands have recorded Simlish versions of their songs – are you doing anything like that?

Bryn Bennett: Actually, we are not doing any Simlish, which as a geek I was kind of excited about doing. But we're not. The song is called Revolution, which we performed on Conan O'Brien a few weeks ago. I heard it is going to be one of four songs released with the game, so I'm very excited about that.

What other EA titles will Bang Camaro appear in?

BB: I'm not sure yet. We're with a publisher called Artwerk who works with EA. I know we'll be in more games but am not sure which ones yet.

How did Artwerk come into play as your publisher?

BB: A publisher in the game industry is kind of like a record label in the music industry. Publishers give developers a certain amount of money to make a game, then the publisher sells it and keeps most of the profit. That's what it's like with a record label. They take most of the risk, recording the music, promoting it and doing whatever else, and they take most of the money that's made.

A publisher in the music industry is basically someone that tries to get your music used in different areas. For example, our publisher is called Netwerk, and they have a division called Artwerk which works with EA. Artwerk, using their relationship with EA, tries to get our music into their games.

The Sims 3

You have a lot of different singers, and I've heard that when you're in different towns, if somebody contacts you and says, "Hey, can I try out?" they might get the chance to perform on stage with Bang Camaro, because you have rotating lineup of singers.

BB: That's not exactly how it works. We normally tour with four to six singers, but if you see us playing here in Boston or somewhere in the northeast, we'll have a lot more singers. We wanted to get that feel whenever we traveled the country. So in that way, if people are interested in performing in a show or actually joining the band, normally they e-mail me and have to show that they're good singers with a recording. Then we normally have them try out, and if they're good enough, sometimes we let them play shows or bring them with us on tour. We have a guy coming in from Philadelphia over the weekend to try out for us for our next tour.

How did you begin your game development career? You're trying to the rockstar thing and you're a game developer – what made you lean more toward one path or the other?

BB: I originally had gotten into the game industry because I had written a tech demo that showed off what I could do at the time. That was good enough to get me a bunch of offers from video game companies. I ended up in Boston at Irrational Games. And... I can't really say why I'd lean one way or the other. They're both kind of dreams of mine – making video games and playing in a rock band. With Harmonix, I found a really good mix of both.

How did you approach Harmonix about doing both?

BB: I have to tell them months in advance. They keep me working on systems where I might not be needed for a while. With the Rock Band games, I worked on the practice modes and the drum training. That way I could take some time off and it wouldn't break the game. They've found ways to make what I'm working on very compact.

Do you have a background in drums?

BB: I'm a pretty bad drummer. I can play drums but I'm not that great. I'm a programmer. All those beats, I didn't do any of them. They were done by an actual drummer. I just made sure everything worked correctly.

Rock Band 2

I thought it worked very well.

BB: It took a little while for us to figure out how things repeat, but it turned out okay.

Is that something you're going to continue with future Rock Band iterations?

BB: I really have no idea. I'm not sure. I hope so. I thought it worked out really well.

Throughout the year, do you spend more time with Harmonix or with the band?

BB: I would say it's about 50/50. I'm full time when I'm [at Harmonix], so I'd say it's about even.

Thank you for your time.

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