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In the past few days, there’s been no shortage of coverage on Lowyat.net for the upcoming musical spectacular that is Video Games Live (VGL). For those of you who have been living under a rock, Video Games Live is an immersive concert event, featuring music from the greatest video games of all time. Tomorrow, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre will be the host of the VGL’s first Malaysian show ever!

This morning, at a press conference held by organizers ZI Productions and the VGL crew, we caught up with Tommy Tallarico, co-creator and executive producer of Video Games Live.

Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon, holding a Guinness World Record for working on the most commercially released video games, two hundred and seventy five to be exact! If you have played a console game, chances are, you’ve heard some of his work.

Lowyat.Net: Hi Tommy, thanks for giving up some of your time to speak to us.

Tommy Tallarico: Sure thing, pleasure is all mine!

LYN: Firstly, how would you describe VGL to someone who has no idea to expect? Like for someone living under a rock.

TT: *laughs* Sure! I would describe as the greatest video game music of all time, but what makes it really special and unique is that it is completely synchronized. The massive video screens, rock and roll lighting, special effects, stage show production, interactivity with the audience. I kinda like to describe it as having all the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra but combined with the energy and excitement of a rock concert mixed together with all the technology and cutting edge visuals and fun that video games provide. It really is a show for everyone, you don’t have to know anything about video games to come to the show.

The interview continues after the jump!

LYN: Awesome. So what inspired you to create Video Games Live?

TT: Well, I wanted to prove to the world how culturally significant and artistic video games have become. I didn’t want to create a show just for gamers, but for everybody around the world whether you play games or not, that was the goal. Just bringing this music around to everyone has been quite a challenging journey, but here we are doing it and doing it in a place like Malaysia. As I said in the press conference, it’s special.

LYN: Were there any shows or any shortfalls where you thought to yourself “You know what, this wasn’t such a good idea after all”

TT: Well, no because every show that we have ever done has been very successful! It was getting to that first show that was the difficult part, because everybody, including the video game publishers thought we were crazy! They were the ones who thought we were the MOST insane! They were like, “Why would you do this? Who’s going to come and just listen to our music with the orchestra?”

LYN: If you said that to them in 2002, they would definitely think you’re mad! I mean my first real moment with video games had to be the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack. That was epic.

TT: YES! My favourite of all time has to be Final Fantasy 8 soundtrack, but Final Fantasy 7 to me is right up there, in fact if you like Final Fantasy 7 you’ll be very pleased when you come to the show tomorrow! 

LYN: I’ll be looking forward to that! You are saying earlier on that the KL show would be much bigger than the show you played in Singapore last year, what can we expect without giving too much away.

TT: Well I was kinda just saying that. *laughs* No, every show we do is special and unique actually to be serious. We’ve never played the same show twice! So what we did when we went to Singapore is we got together with local press and the fans and I asked everyone “What are the most popular games?”. So we kind of make our set list to whatever the country we go to likes! So some of the songs we are playing tomorrow, we didn’t play in Singapore. Also having the special guests like Noriko-san and Laura were also not in Singapore, so having them is well... We do this great thing where… *hesitates* Ah! I don’t want to give too much away! But we have this thing we do at the end of the show where we all come out on stage and all of us are performing, we didn’t do that in Singapore…

LYN: So kind of like a 1-UP, 1-UP… (pun intended)

TT: EXACTLY! We always have to do better!

LYN: So will the epitome in the future feature your cousin Steven (Tyler, from Aerosmith) in one of your shows? I mean he used some of your music for his shows, will he return the favor?

TT: You know, you never know when Steven may pop up! We’ve talked about it before. In fact we do different Guitar Hero songs in the show and one of them is an Aerosmith one. Tomorrow I think we’re doing Van Halen. But yeah, maybe one of these days he’ll pop up and start singing!

LYN: I was also very impressed by your flautist Laura. How did you find her?

The funny thing is, we were watching Youtube one day and there she was dressed as Link playing her arrangements of the theme music from Zelda! We knew we had to have her on board. 

LYN: Wow! The wonders of technology and viral videos! I ask this now on behalf of all the Youtube stars out there, would you consider getting more people for Youtube to join Video Games Live?

TT: Oh yeah! In fact one of our most popular folk is Martin Leung, the blindfolded video game pianist. He’s been with us for 5 years, since the very beginning! See every time we come back, we change the show, so when we come back next year to Malaysia maybe we’ll bring him instead!

LYN: I would love to see him live! Are you at all surprised with the reaction VGL has gotten in this part of the world?

TT: I mean, I always dreamed that it would be like this, so I’m not surprised. I didn’t realize what hard work it would be, but my dream was always to do this. I never thought anything less I guess, it’s probably a naive thing to say that but that’s how I always felt. I always felt that “We can do this all over the world and everyone will love it!”.

LYN: You’ll be glad to know that’s the case now! Right, now, onto you. Do you have a favorite song you perform?

TT: I really love the Warcraft music as a whole in regards to a segment of the show, because the music, the choir and the video is so beautiful. Not to mention the way I programmed the lights and the way it all comes together is probably my favorite one overall. But from a performing standpoint, I love performing Castlevania because we do a rock and roll version of it, that’s a fun one. Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger are great as well, where me and Jack (Wall) are playing acoustic guitar together. You also might see some other special guests come out on that one too! You never know.

LYN: How about all the games you worked on, an impressive number of them as well, which is your favorite and which do you hold dearest to your heart?

TT: I think for me the favorite one I had the most fun working on is a game called Earthworm Jim.

LYN: Wow. That’s my childhood right there.

TT: Cool! We had about 10 guys working on that and we had worked together for other games as well for example, Disney’s Aladdin, which was a huge success. So Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 were the last games we did together and they were the culmination of this team working together for 5-6 years.

LYN: Awesome. Well, I write for a tech publication so I need to ask, Mac or PC?

TT: I’m a PC guy, always have been and it’s funny because Jack (Wall) is a Mac guy so there are always little squabbles and trading of insults. *Laughs* Well I do a lot of the video and music for the show on my PC. The only Mac product I own is an iPod Touch and I love it! Unfortunately I’m on Verizon in the United States so I can’t get an iPhone, If I was on AT&T I would definitely have one, although I hear that’s changing soon.

LYN: How about console games? What are you playing?

TT: My favorite console of all time is probably the Playstation 2 because of the amount of amazing games that came out; like Metal Gear and Shadow of the Colossus and God of War. I love 3rd person action-adventure style the most. As for what I’m playing now, I’ve been trying to finish God of War 3 and Uncharted 2, on the Xbox, I’ve been playing Rock Band: Beatles and Guitar Hero: Van Halen and um... I don’t really play the Wii too much, *smiles wryly* but I do play my DS constantly because I’m on the road all the time, that and my PSP keep me going.

LYN: Well it’s been a pleasure talking to you Tommy, best of luck for the show tomorrow, although I’m sure you won’t need it! Break a leg!