264 - Video Game Concerts: A Musical Adventure - Part 1

In this episode of Gaming the System, join us as we dive into the enchanting world of live video game music performances. Our host recounts their recent experience at a world premiere concert of BAFTA-winning and nominated video game music at the South Bank Center in London, featuring compositions conducted by the renowned Austin Wintory. We also hear Matt's experience attending an Elden Ring concert at the Royal Albert Hall, discussing the immersive and transformative power of orchestral renditions of video game scores. We explore the magic of experiencing beloved game music in iconic venues, meeting composers, and the emotional impact of live orchestrations. Tune in for a detailed conversation about the significance of video game music in live events and its growing popularity.

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Transcript

Alex 0:14

Hello and welcome to another episode of Gaming the System. It's just Matt with me today. And we are going to be chatting all things video game music, especially during live events. And I want to talk about this largely because I have just been to a world premiere concept of BAFTA winning slash nominated video game music which was absolutely amazing. And it was in the South Bank Center in London. It featured lots of different schools from lots of different games, and it was in part composed and completely conducted by Austin Wintery, who is one of my favorite physio video game composers. It was there was also an offer, a VIP event, which I heartily seized the chance of. Getting to meet some of the composers after the event, and I can tell you more about that a little later on. But I guess I'll start by asking you, Matt, if you could, to recap your experiences of watching live renditions, of video game music yourself.

Matt 1:30

So I think the only one that I, even if it is, even if I have that other ones, this one blew everything out of everything else outta my mind and replaced it all with the more detail. With this one, I went to see Eldon Ring in concert in the Albert Hall. The Albert Hall. Have you ever been to the Albert Hall?

Alex 1:56

I have not, but one day I'd love to go. Definitely.

Matt 1:59

It's the absolute best venue ever. It's got all the. The acoustics of just the most phenomenal, just music venue is designed for big grand orchestral music. And I went there, I think it was two years ago now maybe, and got there. It's right on the edge of the massive park. Just awesome. Then you go in, I love sitting, every time I've gone there, I've, I sit in the, like the top rows, whereas like in most venues, those are like, they're just not very good seats and they're the really cheap ones. But you get this incredible, there, there are no, it's a big, it's a big s. Ring. So there are no bad seats really. And the, you just get to take in so much more of the spectacle from there and took some awesome photos of the pre it. And then there's a massive projector screen behind the orchestra playing. It's basically a movie of the game. Just eclipse from going through the entire thing and just off the chart, awesomeness of every, from every angle.'cause there's. Oh we'll have to, we'll have to go round in a circle as we talk about, like our favorite bits of it. Yeah, for sure. But one of my favorite bits is the having a massive orchestra. How big was the orchestra for?

Alex 3:59

It was quite large. Yeah. I'd say it was the BBC concert orchestra. So it was proper professional people obviously. But yeah, there was obviously all the sections of the orchestra, there was a voices section as well because a lot of the scores contained choral voice work which was incredible. And a large screen, just like you said, which showed clips of the games set to the music as well. Yeah.

Matt 4:27

That's awesome. And I think this, there must have been. Between 50 and a hundred people in this orchestra just filling the, that, that awesome stage. And the, it just I love when the best things are. It's so hard to even describe them because they hit that transcendent thing, but part of it is not every song or track or bit of music can be scaled up to an orchestra and have it add significantly more to it. So there are like plenty of game soundtracks that. That if you were to play with an orchestra, the orchestra would be a bit wasted on it.'cause when you've got a hundred people with a hundred different instruments, that's a hundred tiny flavors of every note that happens. And they're not all playing the same notes. They're playing these harmonies and different timings. And it is just a, the more people you have, the more instruments, the more rich and varied the sound that you're gonna be getting out of it can be. And to have Eldon ring. So you've gotta have, they've gotta have access to the orchestra for one thing. And then you need to have written music that is worthy of the orchestra, that it's awesome on its own because it is just listening to it. Through, through while you're playing the game, just trotting through going, oh, this is awesome. It feels like you've got an orchestra there. And then to take that and actually have an actual orchestra playing it, and it be as epic as it is in the game. But then they're turning it up to 11. It's not like it was a five in the game and they can turn it up to a seven with an orchestra. It's a nine, 10 out of 10 in game as part of the world. And then you come out of your room or your sitting room where the TV is, where you've been playing it all with your little speakers or your headphones and you go to London, you go to the Albert Hall, you go and sit up in the rafters. All these things are adding to the. To the experience and then the music starts, and then that just it feels like every part is a force multiplier is like you've got a, an amu of being up in the rafters, a belt buckle of it being in London and just going each pull after that and then it gets to the music and you go, I'm up there going,

Alex 7:41

yeah. Ah, it's amazing, isn't it? Fuck. I think when it, obviously you go there and you're like, okay, London is gonna be a special occasion. Let's dress nicely. And obviously it's in a very big posh venue. We've got a little bit lost trying to navigate the building. I dunno if you've ever been to Southbank Center.

Matt 8:00

I have, yeah. It's like the, it's like the theatrical center of London with lots of different stages.

Alex 8:06

Yes. It was made of many floors and contains a lift that sings which was part of the experience. Definitely it was glass and as it raised up the levels, we were going to level four and it was like level four. It would sing like all of the levels and then when you go down it would go down in the octaves as well. I hope that was a decent impression. Apologies to everyone's ears for that terrible thing. Yes, we eventually found our way to our seats and we had a sort of side box, not a box, but it was essentially level with the boxes on the side. But there was, we were below the boxes, so we had a slightly obscured view of one corner of the orchestra, but generally we had a really nice view of all the audience as well, so you could see people reacting. And importantly for us, for this particular concert, we could spot the composers in the audience as well. And as we sat down, we took a look over, directly in front to the rows of seats directly in front of us. So see we were on the side and the rose of seats go, I dunno if that makes any sense. But basically we were at a, an angle to the seats and I thought there was this man and woman who were slightly older and the man was relatively ec, eccentrically dressed, and quite I dunno how to describe him, but basically he looked like you, you wouldn't expect someone to look who was coming to a video game concert. And I thought that's odd, but it takes all sorts, people come from everywhere. And then a few minutes later, a security man came by and talked to him with something in his ear and I thought, I wonder if that's one of the composers. And then it dawned on me, it's in fact just the kid who was sat just across from us. And I twigged luckily just before his pieces were played partway through the concert and after each of the pieces were played, if the composer was in the house, the spotlight shined down on them in the audience. They got off and had a wave and then they sat back down again. And so yeah, when it was Yesper turn, he stood up right in front of us. But back to your point initially about, the feeling when you arrive and when you sit down and when it really hits you as being something that was far more impactful than just listening in game or on, on Spotify for example, is when you hear the orchestra tuning up and I dunno if you remember the PlayStation three startup noise. I was like, oh my God. It's just like the PlayStation three startup noise. It's the same in every orchestra everywhere. But it was really clear how loud the orchestra was just sitting, hearing them tune up like that. And I was like, oh, this is gonna be really loud, but also really good at the same time. And you know what, we kicked off with Matt. We kicked off with Boulder's Gate three and the company hosting the concert, or at least helping to facilitate the concert, had filmed. These backing videos to go with the music, which involved some of the singers and some of the instrumentalists. I dunno if that's the right term, playing some instruments for particular tracks. And for Boulder's Gate three, they had, I forget her name, I'm very sorry, but the lady that sings down by the river, she's like vocalist. I think it's down by the river. It could be different, but it's basically all the sounds, but not the deep ones, the high ones. You know the word, the bits? Don't you basically she sings the song that happens where when you battle Raphael, do you remember that one, Matt?

Matt 11:53

I don't think I fought rough. Oh

Alex 11:55

yeah, I did. I don't think we, I don't think we have in our play through, but that song was featured and so were the singer and. The actor who plays Raphael, who I was very excited to meet Andrew Cock because he's also a voice from the Arches, the BBC Radio four radio play. But he featured quite heavily in those videos. It was all very camp, it was all very they were in each other's faces. They looked like they were gonna kiss at one point, but they were just like giving each other evils. And it was all very dramatic and exciting. And it was all quite stylized as well. There was lots of lighting, loads of lighting around the hall as well. And then of course they stood up at the end and waved everybody. I think they'd filmed it obviously in advance. But that was very cool. But yeah, where do I start? The number of scores we listened to was quite fantastic. We had a whole range of different things, some of which I'd actually not heard. I think the one that I was least familiar with was the score to the Game Virginia, which is a small Indy game where you play as an FBI agent and you are solving a mystery. And it is animated in soil, but not like a paper animation, more of a 3D animation. And that composer was Lyndon Hol, who I'd never heard of before, but we did actually meet his wife in the VIP gathering afterwards. She casually dropped it in halfway through the conversation which was quite an interesting surprise'cause just assumed that she was a, another concert goer, which she probably was. She'd been to the concert, but yeah, but in terms of the impact, like how the music feels. When you are listening to it live, you can almost feel it like in your body. It's really hard to explain, but it just hits differently and it's really emotional. I cried quite a lot. As I said, I would I knew I would. And I was especially pleased when they played the score from Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It was a medley of different parts. And then I realized that Jess Curry, the composer was in the building and she was just back behind Jasper Kid. So we got to see her. We didn't get a chance to speak to her'cause she wasn't sticking around. But it was lovely to see her because her music is some of the most incredible video game music I think I've ever heard. You've played, everyone's gone to Rapture, haven't you? Yeah.

Matt 14:28

It was a long time ago though. Before my, I think I wasn't quite as. I hadn't, it's me. So I could be pejorative about myself too, my too slow. Not being able to appreciate slower things. When I wanted to go at really high speed through things and a, it's slow, then that means it's boring, which means it's bad when that absolutely isn't the case. It's much, much harder to make a really good, slow game.

Alex 15:02

Yeah. But yeah, so that was incredibly emotional hearing that they made the London voices at the back that I noted, there was one particular one who I could hear distinctly from the rest when they were singing in a group during Builders Gate three, the first set of music. And I thought, oh, I'll keep my eyes on that one. She's got something really good. And of course she sang the main parts for all. Everybody's gone to the rapture, which is incredibly, I dunno what the tone is it falsettos the heist? I don't know. Dunno

Matt 15:37

super

Alex 15:38

high music people tell us in the comments. But she was an incredible singer. She was hitting, obviously hitting all the notes and it just was immediate chills. It was incredible. And then he had the added bonus, of course, of seeing Austin Winter. He conduct the orchestra as well, which was very special. When he walked out, he had his hands cla like this in front of him, giving off very humble vibes. He he, I think he definitely gave off those vibes when we met him as well. And in between each piece he would turn and chat to the audience briefly'cause he does say he is one to talk, which is true.'cause we did overrun. We did overrun. But he would take the time to talk about the composer or the impact of the game as well, which was really cool because it's just putting video game music up on a pedestal for everybody and saying, this is worth listening to. Did you know this about this music or this about this composer? And I think it's really cool. Yeah, it was split into two halves, so we had a little bit of an interval as well. But yeah, we had some really good scores. We had hold I two, which was incredible by Willette Roger Ro second. We had Fallout four by Inza. We had Cuphead by Chris. I forget his surname, but I have his signature. I'm sorry Chris. We will say hard. Team raid a legend, which won up BAFTA back in the early days of the video game bafta. But Austin pointed out the composer for team raid legend t Charles Famine. Sorry if I pronounced that incorrectly. He spelled and I think he actually pioneered a library of orchestral sounds like digital library for lots of composers to make use of. And now it's become one of the most popular libraries in use today, really, which was really fascinating to learn about. Thank you Austin, for sharing. We also had obviously Assassins Creed, which was great. It was a medley. And it did show clips from two and three as well, even though it was one that had won the bafta. We had hitman contracts that won a BAFTA as well. That was really interesting, that one, it was basically footage of. Hitman supposedly being brought back to life. I presume I've not played the game. I don't know. I couldn't tell what we were watching if you've not played the game. A lot of the clips they played were probably very confused, very strange. Yes, definitely. We had uncharted and uncharted medley. That was brilliant. That was Greg. Greg Edmondson the composer for that. Obviously one of the most standout and most anticipated moments for me was when Jenny came on. And that was beautiful. I cried at that'cause I was like, this is peak. The moment I get to see Austin conducting his own music, singing journey on the screen. It was really great. And we, what else did we have? I'm trying to think now. I'm sorry. So were these game games that won BAFTAs or the music from the game? The category of video game music. So these were buffed, award-winning. All nominated schools. The one clear absent thing in my book, which it probably means they couldn't get the rights or some other legal thing or whatever, was obviously a god of war and God of war, ragner rock. I was hoping there would be a surprise. But I think the main surprise was that the composers were in, amongst the audience themselves. They were on the edge of the main seats, but they were there. Which I think was what the surprise hinted at by the organizers probably was. So I was slightly disappointed'cause I figured I'd built it up in my head. I was like, Ben McCreary is gonna come on stage. He's gonna play his hery gurdy. That did not happen. It did not happen. But the dream was there. The dream was there. Yeah. But yeah. How was, how does that compare to like your experience of Elden ring? Matt?

Matt 19:55

It's, it is interesting'cause this, that, that is part of the problem with concerts. When they are, When it's like, when it's a game like Eldon ring, when it's one game, one concert, you know that they're gonna play absolutely everything. Yes. And all the absolute bangers from it. They're not gonna, they're not gonna miss out any absolute bangers from it. But then if you go to say like a normal concert, I went to a concert just before Christmas for a band called Imminence, the Swedish Heavy Metal Band.

Alex 20:34

Yeah.

Matt 20:34

And they're just fucking off the charts. Utter transcendent, 11 out of 10. Ridiculous, unbelievable ness. And I'd been obsessed with them for the entire year. And then they announced that they were doing their final, so their latest album's called The Black, and it's their, they've been going for 10 years, but this is their breakthrough. One that has catapulted them puppeteer. And they've got a their vocalist is a, he does singing and screaming and plays violin. Oh, wow. At the same time. Yeah. I've never seen anything like it. That's incredible. And his voice, his singing is, I've watched video, live video after live video of them for the entire year. And he, his voice is just. Unbelievable every time. He has never had a weak performance. And so just building up and building up to me coming and seeing it. And then their entire concert, they, there was only one song they didn't play that I was disappointed by, but every song, every other song, just absolute 11 out of 10, 11 out of 10, 11 out of 10. And they start, so normally they're, there are five, five man band, but that when they do a couple of studio recordings. They've got a group of a string quartet that they, they bring in to do it as well. And this, for these final run of shows, they brought the string quartet with them. Oh, wow.

Alex 22:27

Yeah.

Matt 22:28

So they had, so now they've got. The five of them. They've got a pianist who does backing vocals. They've got a female backing vocalist. Yeah. They've got, and they've got these four string quartets and the league guitarist does the backup screams as well. So it's that exact same thing of, it's awesome when you're listening to it recorded with the five of them. Then you have it recorded, the five of them then performing it live in studio. Then you add the pianist and then the vocals, then the other vocals, then the string quartet and just each one it adds exponentially to it. Yes. And then on top of that, they can do these incredible acoustic versions of their songs as well. So taking these incredibly heavy. Screamy songs and being able to turn them into acoustic songs. And he did just, oh, it's unbelievable. He goes from doing the first two thirds of the show, maybe two quarters of the show, the hardest as heaviest stuff. Unbelievable. Just smashing at his vocals.'cause the vocals are the thing that that I pay attention to the most because they're the hardest thing to do. Yeah.'cause it's, you can't just, you can't just tune your voice or you snap a string and change the strings. Literally. It's a mind body, soul thing. Yeah. And him delivering that over and then they. Sat down and did five acoustic versions of their songs. Wow. So him going from being able to do that heaviest stuff. Yeah. The last show of a two year touring cycle, and then going from that heaviness to his, the most beautiful, clean singing, and then did that, and then did the last quarter of the show back into that heavy mode. And that's the, so that's when you, that's like the perfect concert going experience for me is when you want, you see something and you go, I want it to be this particular thing, this particular way. And those, so those are the two ways that the Elden Ring and Evidence did that, which is. Just perfection. But then the problem with ensemble shows, like a lot of certainly some gaming concerts are is you're going, it's going to be a celebration of game music and you go, but I'd rather have, I'd rather have a show that was just this game. Yeah. Or just that game. Yeah. And yeah, like that was part of the reason why I wasn't, I didn't so

Alex 25:31

keen. Yeah.

Matt 25:32

Fancy it. Interesting. And there was also a fair point,

Alex 25:35

but Yeah. Gone,

Matt 25:37

There was a concert, a tour planned, a gaming concert tour, and it got canceled. Oh. After, the first few shows it had booked out the, it was playing in the. Oh two arena, I think big arenas. And I was really, because I'd been spoiled by olden ring, I knew what was possible. This one, it said I was paying very close attention to the wording.'cause it didn't say a live orchestra concert experience of the PlayStation games. It was saying a, a cinematic music experience. Ah,

Alex 26:26

yes.

Matt 26:27

With live musicians.

Alex 26:29

Yes.

Matt 26:29

And that means that it's not a orchestra.

Alex 26:32

Yes.

Matt 26:32

And if it's not an orchestra, then what's the point? If it's not an orchestra, it needs to all come from the instruments. Yeah. I love, one thing I loved so much about Eldon Ring and it being in that acoustic venue. Is, you know that when nothing is, when no one is playing an instrument, it's complete silent. Yeah. There is when there's no backing music, there's no, there's a synth track underneath it. Or yeah. Just back the backing track. It's, if no one's playing an instrument, there's no sound.

Alex 27:14

Yeah.

Matt 27:14

And so when and when they're playing and it's all coming together, you're going, ah, and that's, yeah. Off the charts. And I hope that the gaming, like specific gaming game concerts are going to grow, continue to grow and hopefully become more and more popular. Is, I think going to be down a very large amount to Claire Obscure.

Alex 27:48

Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. That's, did they play

Matt 27:51

anything from that?

Alex 27:52

They didn't? No, because I don't think it's won anything yet. Not for the Baptists this coming year anyway, but I'm sure it'd be nominated. Funnily enough, I'll come back to Clara,