Video Game News - Conducting the Future: Jade Empire Composer Jack Wall Makes “Video Games Live” a Reality

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Conducting the Future: Jade Empire Composer Jack Wall Makes “Video Games Live” a Reality

“We want people to walk away saying, ‘Wow, I never knew games had this kind of excitement and fun and variety.’”

It has been said that of all the video game genres RPGs have the best music. You can try and dispute it, saying that only Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda have been gifted with memorable soundtracks. Then a guy like Jack Wall comes around and blows us away with Jade Empire.

As we battle through the organic environments, taking on monsters twice our size, our ears become fixated with the sweet sound that plays through our television’s speakers. From loud, pounding beats to softer sounds with a touch of emotion, Jade Empire proved that Jack can compete with the top RPG composers.

We hope a Jade Empire sequel is not too far away, but Jack is too busy to think about it. He’s on an important mission that will take gamers to a place they’ve never been before. This place is designed to electrify the senses and exemplify the possibilities of interactive entertainment. This place is not stationary, enabling it to move from location to location. This place is Video Games Live.

Launching July 6th at the Hollywood Bowl, Video Games Live is a culmination of sight (on stage performances; game footage projected on large screens) and sound (live music from your favorite video games).

"The interesting thing is that in our database there are thousands of people who registered on our Web site,” said Jack Wall, conductor and co-founder of Video Games Live. “They all put in the songs that they wanted. We look at our database, and the funny thing is we had already picked most of the games before we put the Web site up. It was really gratifying when we first downloaded all the data that we had hit a homerun. Most of the people want the games that are in our show.”

I put in my requests for Resident Evil and Silent Hill, both of which are high on the list for future shows. If gamers make this tour a success (it's up to us to come to the shows and make it a success), annual events will follow. Assuming that happens, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and countless others will appear on the music performance roster.

Overjoyed with excitement for the show, Jack took a few moments to share his feelings with GameZone Online.

Start by telling us everything that you're doing for the show.

Jack Wall: “I'm the co-creator with Tommy Tallarico. We partnered up about three years ago with this gem of an idea: to bring video games out into the public. We felt like it was time to marry video games with live entertainment because as the game industry evolves and we play more online games it becomes more of a community.

“Tommy and I are composers. Some of our friends, developers and publishers kind of freaked out – when we do our scores for games we bring the developers out of their cubicles and out of their crutches. We bring them down to the studio, and they hear the main theme from the game and people start crying [laughs]. It's a very intense experience. People are very happy suddenly, excited, and that feeling.

“You know I've been producing music for 15 years. I've been in the game industry for 10. I feel like I have the expertise to do this. Tommy felt that he had the drive and obviously the energy and the contacts to make it happen. It was all about getting the rights from all the different publishers, which was no small feat I assure you. It really took this much time.

“And also describing what the show is going to be – a live concert event with an orchestra; choir; video (footage from the games and trailers); lasers and lights synchronized to the music; video game characters which everyone fears will be bad. We have to explain to them that it's not bad, it's actually going to be very cool. It's going to be like Cirque Du Soleil, it's going to be very entertaining to see.

“The reason we know that is because our partner, Clear Channel, is a great partner for many reasons. They have access to the top people in the business, and they have already had some incredible, absolutely incredible meetings with our production manager, head designer, etc. The stuff they're coming up with is so exciting I'm almost jumping out of my skin. It's one of the most exciting things I have ever seen.

That says a lot coming from the composer of this game.

Jack Wall: “I've always been one of these composers [with the attitude] write the music you want to hear. That's what's going to translate the best, and it's always worked for me. [That's what I'm doing here], I want to create the show I want to see.

“About me conducting, I feel like one of the things we wanted to do is be legitimate to the gamers. We don't want to appear to be too far removed from what the gamers understand and know. One of the things that we want to do is make sure that Tommy and I are the creative people behind it. Show the games we feel are intensely popular with people who really play games.

“We're kind of like game fans making a show for game fans. That's first and foremost what we're trying to do. The show is going to introduce the video game industry in a whole new light. We really want to make certain that people who don't even play games will come to this show and two things will happen: first they'll be really entertained. Secondly, they'll be really shocked and have a completely different opinion of what the game industry represents.

“That's our two goals – to shock and surprise people in a nice, entertaining way.

“We want people to walk away saying, "Wow, I never knew games had this kind of excitement and fun and variety!" I think the only way that could possibly be done is in a live entertainment show. That's the vision me and Tommy have had for a few years.

“To that end, that's why I'm conducting. I'm a conductor – I always conduct my scores 'cause I feel a connection to the players when I do that, and I feel a connection to my music. So I felt really strongly about conducting the show. At first I thought I was going to be so busy producing the concert that I wouldn't have time to do that. But the truth of the matter is that I'm spending all my time preparing all the music. I'm really the music director, so I'm gonna know it [the music] better than anyone else.

“However, because I will be so busy with the Hollywood Bowl concert we're talking to a guy, Mark Waters, he's a good friend of ours. He's a great conductor. I think he will do most of that show because leading up to that I am going to be really busy. I'll do a lot of the show direction with Tommy. That's the plan for the Bowl show, but for the rest of the tour I'll be conducting myself.”

Who’s on board? What songs will we hear during the show?

JW: “We're putting Warcraft in the show. I show people the video with the music and they freak. They're like, "This is going to be the most incredible show ever!" The artwork is gorgeous, it's beautiful, and you can't stop looking at it. And the music is just amazing. The music to me in this industry is some of the best music I've ever heard in my life. That includes film music and everything. I'm a huge fan of film music, but the interactive entertainment lends itself to be very cinematic and very musical.

“Whereas film, a lot of the time they stay out of the way of the dialogue. You can't go over the top, but with games you can go over the top constantly until it comes to the cinematics, and then it's more like film music. The games we've chosen: Medal of Honor, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Warcraft, EverQuest, MYST, Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Halo – really strong musical themes. There's not a weak one in the bunch.

Snake had better hurry up or he’s going to miss the show.

Exactly. A lot of people, even those who love video games, do not realize how great the music is until they hear it again. They sometimes forget how many great songs there have been.

JW: “You make a great point Louis. I'll tell you what, when you leave this concert you're going to [feel] like that. Even when you play these games, even people who play games constantly and play through one game a week... Then you put it all in one place and it's going to freak people out, even people who play games all the time. It's going to freak me out and I'm going to be there making it. It's freaking me out everyday. I've never had this much fun! I swear to God this has been the most fun I have ever had in my entire life. It's like everyday I'm putting together new music, I'm seeing new video clips. We're putting all the assets together; the team is motivated, everyone's like, ‘We're doing something that could change the world here.’”

The interactive elements: Tommy said he couldn't go into too much detail, but he did say that he didn't want it to be a guy in a Zelda costume running around the stage. But I still can't entirely vision what it will be. Are there anymore hints that you can give us?

JW: “I really don't want to say at this moment. I want it to be somewhat of a surprise. We're to figure out what to say that'll get some information out without giving away the surprise. I will tell you this: the orchestra will change on-the-fly. With some of the other segments, we do have live elements going on, the same thing will happen. The audience won't know what's going to happen, nobody will. That's the definition of interactivity. How we do it – I gotta keep that a secret.”

For advertising, Tommy said that one of the important things is conveying the message to people like me who will then convey it to our readers. But what about the average Joe? You want everyone to come, how are you going to tell the mainstream market about this?

JW: “We have a full-blown marketing and PR campaign that hit hard at E3 and will continue through July 6th [the date of the first show]. We have hired a PR firm called MPRM Public Relations. There's a girl there named Julie Henderson who basically invented online PR. She was one of the first. She did Yahoo and AOL when they first went online in the late 90s. Her and her team are awesome. They totally get the game space. One of their account executives came right from G4. We're really happy with their level excitement. Everyone on our team is really jazzed. It's just starting to hover and take off.”

Keep your browser pointed to GameZone Online for part 2 of our interview with game composer Jack Wall.

More Info:

Video Games Live Dares to Redefine Interactive Entertainment (Part 1)

Video Games Live Dares to Redefine Interactive Entertainment (Part 2)

Video Games Live – Tour Dates (ADDITIONAL SHOWS ON SALE NOW!)

Wednesday, July 6 – Los Angeles , CA – Hollywood Bowl – 8:00 PM

Thursday, August 11 – Atlanta , GA – Chastain Park – 8:00 PM

Saturday, August 13 – Holmel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center – 8:00 PM

Sunday, August 14 – Camden , NJ – Tweeter Center – 8:00 PM

Wednesday, August 17 – Toronto , Ontario – Molson Amphitheatre – 8:00 PM

Friday, August 19 – Bristow , VA – Nissan Pavilion – 8:00 PM

Monday, August 22 – Boston , MA – B of A Pavilion – 8:00 PM