Interview with a ReMixer: Gecko Yamori

Daniel Bärlin, alias GeckoYamori, is well-known around the interwebs. Whether it’s some old video game remixes of his or switching music from Super Nintendo games to Genesis instruments, he’s all over the place. He took some time out of his day earlier for a brief interview. This is the result.

M: What started your interest in video game music?

GY: Nodding my head to NES music I guess, I’ve been into it for as long as I’ve been into games.

M: I take it you’ve been into games for quite a while then?

GY: For as long as I can remember.

M: Nice. Same here! I honestly can’t recall a time when I wasn’t playing games. Hehe… Okay, next question. What started your interest in remixing?

GY: It just came sort of naturally since I’ve always had an interest in creating music, I had been into tracker music and such before I started remixing.

M: Makes sense; pretty much the same reason I started to make music. That and JH bugging me. Are there any tracks you’ve done that you’re more proud of than the others? Or that you like more?

GY: I am honestly not that fond of my early work in general, though I guess that applies to most musicians. I think Mega Man 2003 (really made at the end of 2002) has aged decently compared to the others, even if it might be a rather uninspired mix from a creative standpoint.

M: As I said in another interview, think it was sixto’s, a true artist is never satisfied with their work.Are there any remixers you haven’t collaborated with in the past that you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

GY: Nekofrog keeps bugging me to collab and I’d like to, but neither of us have really pushed it enough to make it happen so far.

M: That would be a great remix; I’d love to hear it myself. Any tracks you’d like to remix in the future?

GY: I always try to give undermixed games some more attention, I have tried several times to remix tracks from Unreal and Red Alert, but I never show anything publicly unless I think it sounds awesome.

M: That’s a good reason to show it off. Hehe… Do you have a favorite track from a game?

GY: I suck at naming all-time favorites, there’s always something I will prefer over something else at different times. But from the above mentioned games, in Unreal I keep coming back to the Sunspire song and another called Surfacing, and in Red Alert I am more partial to the downtempo tracks like Snake or Vector, rather than the more popular metal stuff.

M: Well I never play favorites. I have like a list of 5 all-time, no wait 10, or 15… See, it just keeps getting longer! I can never decide which ones. Hehe… Do you have a favorite video-game composer?

GY: Same as with songs, I can never pick a single favorite. So I will settle for three favorites from Japan, Europe and Emerica. Naofumi Hataya, Tim Follin and Alexander Brandon.

M: I feel dumb for not knowing who Naofumi Hataya is…

GY: He composed for Sonic CD, parts of Sonic 3D, and Golden Axe 2-3.

M: Ah, well that’s some good music then. Lastly, what do you enjoy most about remixing video game music?

GY: Oh, I actually hate remixing video game music. I’m just in it for the fame.

M: Well I guess fame could be enjoyable… Thanks for your time; this was a fun interview!

GY: You’re welcome.

You can find Gecko’s page on OCR here: Artist: Gecko Yamori (Daniel Bärlin). If you haven’t done so before, stay tuned to ThaSauce here for more articles and such from myself and others!! Until next time, game on!

Free Mega Ran / K-Murdock Track in Exchange for a Tweet

Random has recently announced on his twitter that he and K-Murdock have released their newest song TYFL for free in exchange for a tweet.

All you have to do is visit the link, enter your e-mail, send the tweet, and receive a free song! Random has been doing a great job and finding new and different ways to utilize the internet and social networking to promote his music, and this is just another great example of it.

I highly recommend everyone do this. It takes no time at all and you should be willing to grab every free track Random puts out, and spread the word. He’s a great guy and an extremely talented artist.

Christmas Collections – Music from Square Enix

Square Enix has announced they will be releasing a Christmas Collections album on 11/24/2010.  The album contains holiday versions of songs from the Final Fantasy series, Legend of Mana, Live-a-Live and more.  The album can be pre-ordered from the Square Enix store, Sony Music Shop, or Amazon.com.  A preview of songs are available on a YouTube playlist provided by Square Enix.

Bugged Video Game Endings

An interesting conversation started recently on OverClocked ReMix. The thread is about bugs near the end of a game that made them otherwise unbeatable for whatever reason. A lot of people are sharing their individual experiences about bugged save files, but some people have chimed in with actual glitches that abruptly end game play all together. Sephfire, for example, describes a situation where the last boss of Far Cry: Instinct becomes completely invincible and can not be killed. I did some digging and apparently it IS a common problem with the game itself, not an isolated issue.

I know I’ve never run into anything like this, though I did have a similar experience with the beginning of Chrono Cross. Have you ever been trapped at the end of a game with no escape?

DoD Shirt

Dwelling of Duels Gets a Facebook Page, Shirts

Last week, Crimson announced that he had begun accepting pre-orders for DoD shirts. Now today, on their all new Facebook fan page DoD announced that the first wave of shirts had been paid for, and should begin printing soon.

The shirts are available in sizes small to XXXL and are $14 for US citizens, and $17 for international orders.

Will YOU be one of the first to rock an epic Alucard shreddage shirt? I know I will be.

VGMix Coming Back? A Nugget of Hope?

For anyone that doesn’t know, VGMix has been down for quite some time now. Not just VGMix 2, but even the new stand-in VGMix X had disapeared from the internet entirely. virt had mentioned there was issues with the hosting, and the content management system had problems anyway (new user registration had been down for a long time as it was.)

However recently it seems there has been some activity. A nugget of hope in the form of…well, virt’s puggle Nugget. Does this mean the gears are in motion once again? Could we see VGMix 3 finally sometime in the foreseeable future? Hopefully we’ll get more information about this sometime soon.

ThaSauce v4 is a GO!

ThaSauce v4 is a GO!

Finally. FINALLY. After months and months of seemingly not much, ThaSauce 4 is ready for launch. Let me be the first to warn everyone that the site may have some problems, but fixes will be rolling out quickly now that the new site is live.

Some new features include:

  • FINALLY ditching Php-Nuke entirely for WordPress
  • An all new look and feel that will hopefully provide readers with easier readability and navigation.
  • News comments now totally integrated with the forums
  • And many MANY features to come that will totally change how you interact with the site.

Right now the forums are still a work in progress. If you had an account on the old forums, you should be able to log into the new PhpBB3 forums, but they will be VERY ugly. I’m working on it. The PhpBB3 default theme is fighting me tooth and nail, but I shall prevail. Formatting from the forum comments on the site comments is a bit messed up too, but I assure you all this is but the tip of the iceberg!

I also don’t have a working version of Photoshop right now (GASP, right?) so that’s why the thumbnail images look like butt. I’M GETTIN’ THERE.

Thank you, enjoy, and STAY TUNED for more upcoming changes.