Pre – Video Games Live 2016

We had gotten lucky. Real lucky. Imagine securing a quick session with the two stars of VGL to talk about anything we’d like to talk about. Featuring Tommy Tallarico, founder of Video Games Live, and Eimear Noone, a talented conductor whose portfolio includes conducting every single Blizzard entertainment games music and also the one that Nintendo had requested to conduct the Legend of Zelda 2015 anniversary as well as the 25th anniversary concert.

It was fun having this little chat with these two incredibly talented, friendly and down-to-earth people. Watch these two videos on our casual chit-chat with both Tommy and Eimear and you’ll see what I mean about their bigger-than-life personality 🙂

Videos are unedited by the way!

Meet & Greet : Tommy Tallarico

How do you obtain the rights to perform certain pieces of music from different games?

When i first started VGL back in 2002, people thought I was crazy. They told me that people who go to a symphony don’t play video games, and vice versa. So i say OK, give me full rights to the music then and you won’t have to wory about it.

What drives you even further to perform every year?

It’s passion. My two greatest loves growing up has always been videos games and music. Growing up in 70s, I never thought of putting these two together until I was about 10-11 years old. I’d head over to the store and record all my fave sounds in music using my dad’s tape recorder. Then I’d invite my neighborhood friends over and put on mock video game shows using a guitar, the tape recorder and TV.

Meet & Greet : Eimear Noone

How do I pronounce your name?

It’s “Ee-mur” like lemur, like femur…it’s not that hard if you don’t think about the way it’s spelled.

(As we spoke about fantasy games and swords…)

Speaking of swords, guess who have to work with swords every day? *laughs* Of all of my batons, I was contacted by a baton maker (PaGu baton) who wanted to make a signature baton for the signature artist (me). But just putting a signature on it (baton) is kinda boring…I don’t even want my own name on my own baton. For me, the famous baton of all time is the Wind Waker from The Legend of Zelda. When I used to conduct music for the Legend of Zelda I’d tell the audience, “Come on every body, let’s wake the winds!” So now on my signature baton, it says “Wake the Winds”.