Inspiration on the Prowl: Greeting Cats Targets Pac-Man for Creative Expression

by Louis Bedigian

“The potential is huge. You never know, these songs might become something like ‘Pac-Man Fever.’”

Can games inspire more than the creation of other games?  Ask the average gamer and you might get an answer, though it likely won’t include any specific ideas.  Ask Greeting Cats that question and you’ll get an entire story.

Greeting Cats is a company of talented artists dedicated to producing new content.  They haven’t begun work on a video game (yet); however, they are working on various projects that were inspired by one of the most successful arcade games of all time, Pac-Man.

They are also working on projects inspired by their own unique Greeting Cats characters, projects that could lead right into the creation of new games.

Manabu Nagaoka, President of Greeting Cats, can explain this much better than I can.  Let us continue by asking him a few questions about this exciting new venture.

Start by telling us: What is Greeting Cats and how did it begin?  Is the project dedicated solely to video games?  And if not – how did Pac-Man become the game that you're targeting for creative innovation?

Manabu Nagaoka: Greeting Cats is a company formed by a group of film/TV/animation/music producers, agents, writers and educators who contribute in providing and producing contents for audio/visual works. As a company, we create our own contents as well as provide services to other companies and individuals to produce their contents and manage intellectual properties to help maximize their potentials.

Games are naturally an extension or a beginning of where an intellectual property is given life or evolve into. The Pac-Man Project is very special because it allows us to extend its potential into the music world and beyond, in collaboration with various artists who normally would not work together in their own fields of expertise. And, of course, we grew up with it and younger generations are again enjoying the Pac-Man games even after 25 years. The Pac-Man Project is really our way of paying respect to its existence.

We were sitting around in a cafe in Tokyo when we were in Japan to shoot Japanese version of Sesame Street. We thought what Sesame Street is doing in Japan was great localizing the  American contents for Japanese children. It is a pure marriage of education and entertainment, in an international setting. Since we had our own area of expertise, we figured we could help each other and make something that we could not otherwise. A few months later, Greeting Cats were born.

You're planning new recordings of music, video/film, performance, exhibits, etc., that relate to Pac-Man.  We'd love to hear some examples of how what a Pac-Man related film would be like, or how you'd go about creating a Pac-Man exhibit, etc.

MN: One thing led to another. I produced a music video for a Japanese pop sensation called Judy and Mary with a filmmaker Todd Lincoln ("Honey Pot," "Leave Luck to Heaven" / http://toddlincoln.com/) several years ago, in which the original Pac-Man game was used as a prop along with other Namco games. Namco was kind enough to give us the permission to use them.

Then, out of blue, Namco called me last year, and a representative was coming to New York. We met in a Korean restaurant and were just chatting about the music video and other stuff, and he mentioned that Pac-Man was going to be 25 years old in 2005. We began brainstorming and the idea of producing Pac-Man songs exited us.

So, I began researches and looked for bands to collaborate with. My good friend and music producer, Stuart Argabright told me about this small movement in New York among young audio visual artists who hacked old video game cartridges and created whole new video presentations with music, all from old abandoned game chips.

We went to check them out and it turned out there are many others who do the similar things. Cory Arcangel (http://www.beigerecords.com/cory) and Paper Rad (www.paperrad.org), an artist collective had a few shows in New York, including a piece called Super Mario Movie – a 15 minutes short film made from game chips. We brought the representative from Namco to one of the shows which was actually a concert by these artists working with the same medium. Using computer keyboards as keyboards to play music, with tweaked game imageries in the background, it was an amazing scene, a true integration of art and game. And, the rest is history.

We have a video version of Pac-Man Jam which we have not shown publicly, made by Ben Jones of Paper Rad. Ben also did the cats and mouse design of our web site.

We have an amazing line up of musicians and artists who are interested in collaborating from hot club DJs to Japanese Pop group, to London based punk rockers. All proceeds from the sales of Pac-Man Jam will be put into creating something new about Pac-Man ... so we are crossing our fingers.

Personally, I am hopeful that we can produce animated Pac-Man stories for television or DVD if we get enough response from fans. And, we really want to make Pac-Man themed Christmas song album. An artist like Ben Jones can incorporate Pac-Man or anything in his art and turn it into paintings, videos, music, etc. Greeting Cats' role is to provide the artists with the environment, funding and guidance from commercial point of view (i.e., legal matters), and give them maximum creative freedom. 

I've heard that Greeting Cats is recording a song about Pac-Man and that Namco is thrilled with the idea...

MN: I believe that Namco is excited about this project. They are not in the music or video business per se. The potential is huge. You never know, these songs might become something like "Pac-Man Fever," a hit song back in 80's.

Who is involved with this and other Pac-Man related projects?  How many people are a part of Greeting Cats?

MN: Pac-Man Jam, the song and video, was created by Ben Jones of Paper Rad, and

Stuart Argabright (http://demedo.blogspot.com/2005_05_08_demedo_archive.html) produced the song. Manabu Nagaoka (me) is responsible for producing the Pac-Man Project as a whole.

Greeting Cats was founded by three key members including myself.  We have many individuals and companies that we work with and we consider them our family members. We manage day-to-day operation and make decisions but any individual or company can become a member if he/she/it has an interesting project or ideas. We evaluate them and if it makes sense from artistic and business point of view, we go out and find money, or make matches with existing members and supporters of our network. Some members bring in money and ideas and we help them produce. We have a network of professionals in every possible fields in entertainment, arts, and education.

How would you describe the song?  What genre does it belong to?  Does it have lyrics?

MN: TAXI, one of the world's leading Independent A&R companies wrote in their review:

"Pac-Man Jam is an electronica with retro synths a la the Postal Service meets Devo. The merge of old school synth sounds, the Pac-Man game samples and the Devo sounding vocals is a bizarre yet winning combination."

I think it is a good compliment. It is definitely one of the quirkiest birthday songs I ever heard. There are two versions of lyrics that we recorded. The one we put out for the release at E3 Game Expo was a limited edition which mentions Pac-Man's 25th anniversary. Again, if we get enough money raised through the sales of this limited edition, we will release an EP which will have the original Pac-Man Jam with lyrics, Karaoke instrumental version which can be sang along for every birthday occasions/parties, and perhaps a bonus track for night club scenes.

When and where can we get a hold of this song?  I'm sure there are thousands of die-hard Pac-Man fans who can't wait to hear it.

MN: Pac-Man Jam 25th Anniversary Limited Edition can be heard on our website at www.greetingcats.com/PAC-MAN, which has the link to (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/benjones) where you can buy the CD. Also available at www.towerrecords.com.

We are looking for retail/distribution partners. We are not by any means a typical music label so any creative idea is welcome in marketing this song. The thing is we made only limited copies originally to give away at E3 and to media as well as radio stations.

Since we began sending the CDs to radio stations nationwide since this month, whatever left after that is what's left. HURRY! My guess is that there will be less than 50 or so copies left after sending them to radio stations. Even if we sold all 50 copies, that will not cover the cost of making this CD or future release, but we are hoping radios will pick it up and create enough media attention.

How does Namco plan to use the song?  Will it be a part of their marketing campaign for Pac-Man World 3, Namco Museum Battle Collection, etc.?

MN: Namco was saying it had a plan to incorporate the song in their new titles, as a BGM or something. But, we do not control that portion and hope they will find the way to utilize the song(s). 

Going back to the start of the song, how did this particular part of the project begin?  What was it about Pac-Man that inspired Greeting Cats musically?

MN: We wanted to make music that integrated lots of Pac-Man elements. The main theme was the celebration of his 25th birthday. We left the rest to Ben and Stuart.

When everything is complete, what do you hope to have accomplished?  Does Greeting Cats have a goal, or is it all just for fun?

MN: Greeting Cats got the plan. There is no "complete" per se. Things evolve, and we want to keep growing adding more interesting portfolio of projects. The Pac-Man project is one of the first things we began with. We have a line-up of anime projects with very well-known Japanese anime directors, and animation houses, which we will announce any day now.

Greeting Cats' own cats and mouse characters will turn into an animated series, and naturally evolve into video games and beyond. We will announce this also soon enough with a pilot on our website.

We are going to work with schools that teach computer arts and game developments, in creating original contents and helping them produce their work. This will be announced shortly as well. This is actually going to be a very big international collaboration, working with students in Japan who will become key game developers after graduating from the school. We want to give them an opportunity to work with their counterparts in [the] US, and provide the real working experiences in international co-productions.

Also, I personally have great passion for independent films so I am always looking for interesting projects. Cinque Lee's (Spike Lee's brother) feature that I produced last year has gone to screen numerous film festivals. We have very strong network with Japanese animation studios so an animated feature with a game character like Pac-Man is not a remote dream.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!  Tell Namco I love your ideas and can’t wait to see more.   We’ll be watching Greeting Cats closely for more announcements.

Thanks for your time Manabu.