Gamer Soundcheck 2: Interview with Mustin from The OneUps

Gamer Soundcheck is back, although not really with a vengeance. I like to think my posts are a bit more benevolent than that.

Anyway, this time around, GS is looking at a band that’s all about giving video game music a little soul (and a bit of Latin and funk, just for good measure): The OneUps.

I recently sat down with the band’s bassist and manager, Mustin, (or at least, I assume he was also sitting when I called him) and asked him a few questions.

Here’s what he had to say about Mario Paint, that one dude who always yells “play ‘Free Bird!’” and video game music’s nostalgic appeal:

GotGame: “First off, pretty basic question: You play bass with The OneUps?”

Mustin: “I do a lot of other stuff, but that’s primarily what I’m doing right now. I also play keys, percussion, and sax. And I manage the band. That’s kind of been my thing since the get-go.”

GotGame: “So, what does managing the band entail?”

Mustin: “I put together the music, and I transcribed it and I wrote it out. I also booked the shows and handled the customers — managing duties.”

GotGame: “How has the band evolved since you guys first started?”

Mustin: “When we first started, The OneUps were nothing but a rock band. There were other video game music experiences, but they were all rock bands. I wanted to do something besides rock.

Video game music is all encompassing.

There are orchestral movie scores in video games. You’ll find scary Latin music, too. It’s not just rocking.”

GotGame: “How long has the band been active?”

Mustin: “We probably started around 2002 and finally put out an album in 2005 (The OneUps Volume 1). We didn’t get around to putting out Volume 2 until 2008.

But I think things are going to go a lot faster now, because we actually have some capital. The goal from here on is to put something out once a year.”

GotGame: “2002? Has the line-up been the same the entire time?”

Mustin: “We’ve been going on for 7 years and we’ve had a lot of different players. The way (the line-up) is right now is pretty fresh, since we lost our violin player (Greg Kennedy) in September. But the last time we changed things up before that was 2005.”

GotGame: “As far as putting out something every year goes, what’s next for the band?”

Mustin: “We have Volume 1 and Volume 2 out, so you can logically deduct we’re working on Volume 3. It’s going to be a Super Mario Kart album. This is the first time we’ve done a game specific theme.”

GotGame: “Why SMK?”

Mustin: “Super Mario Kart has already dominated our library. We’ve pretty much played every track from that game.

Of course, every character has their own victory music and some of the little ditties and tunes are only a few seconds long. For the album, we’re focusing on the level and title screen music.”

GotGame: “You said before you didn’t want The OneUps to be ‘just a rock band.’ What does that mean for this new album?”

Mustin: “Just vary things up. Last time we had practice, we were trying to figure out what to do with this one piece, the ‘Vanilla Lake’ music. Someone would yell out a genre and we’d try to play that style.

And when we played the ‘Koopa Beach’ theme before, we did it as a samba. This time around, it’ll have a Daft-Punk-inspired electronic sound.

The more we play, the more a piece will evolve into something else.

It’s been 4 years with these guys and we’re starting to become a little friendly. You can start to anticipate what the other person is trying to do.”

GotGame: “How do you decide what genre you’ll end up making each song?”

Mustin: “Things are pretty democratic. We record the track a couple times in the garage, then listen to each take a few times before we figure out what we’re going to do with it. Sometimes it’s a group effort and sometimes someone calls the shots.”

GotGame: “Do you feel like your music is mostly for gamers?”

Mustin: “We definitely appeal to the gamers, the people who share this nostalgia. It’s definitely the core gamers and fans who appreciate it the most.

I think the nostalgia is mostly what fuels people’s interest, but something that was once a niche is now kind of a major thing. You have major orchestral and college bands — Notre Dame, Arizona — preforming video game songs.

It’s not just some kind of joke anymore. People are taking it seriously.”

GotGame: “You have a favorite piece of video game music?”

Mustin: “It’s got to be this Mario Paint piece called ‘Monkeys.’ When you played the game, you had three music options and one of them was a monkey. I always picked the monkey.

And if you play Mario Paint as a bossa nova, you’ll bring in people who appreciate jazz. They’re just
going to think it’s a new tune. They’re not going to know it’s video game music.”

GotGame: “Any song you don’t care for?”

Mustin: “I think we kind of share the stance that The Minibosses take: We don’t play the Super Mario Bros. theme.

When people request that, it’s kind of like yelling out ‘play Free Bird’ every time you go to a bar.

I’m not trying to say it’s a bad piece of music. We have it as a hidden track on one of our albums. Anthony (Lofton, keyboard and sax-player) and Will (Reyes, rhythm guitar) did this really awesome version of the Mario theme. The style of it is kind of a Latin soul thing.”

GotGame: “Classics like SMB aside, do you guys prefer newer or older music?”

Mustin: “With newer music, it’s kind of hard to take these giant orchestral scores and turn them into something for this little funk band. We did do one vocal song from Max Payne 2 and the main theme from God of War.”

GotGame: “Any music that you do want to cover, but just haven’t gotten around to?”

Mustin: “Tim (Yarbrough, lead guitar) is always yacking about doing Symphony of the Night and Command and Conquer. And Jared (Dunn, drums) played the weird obscure games, like the 3-D version of Frogger for PS1. Also, Anthony wants to cover music from Neo Turf Masters, a golf game for the Neo Geo.”

GotGame: “What about you?”

Mustin: “We’ve knocked out the rest of my favorites, like Mario Paint and the ‘Forest Theme’ from Chrono Trigger. We’re going to try and do some music from the Duck Tales game in the future, and I’ve always wanted to do Streets of Rage 2 and more from Final Fantasy IV.”

GotGame: “That’s about all I’ve got. One last thing. During your performance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year, you guys played the Tristram theme from Diablo as an encore. What was the fan reaction like?”

Mustin: “People are anticipating Diablo 3. People are excited about it. We played the opening guitar chord and people just started going nuts because they knew what it was.”

Here’s a firsthand look at The OneUps’ PAX encore:

Thanks again to Mustin for taking time out of his ridiculously packed schedule to talk to me!

Anybody who wants more information on The OneUps can check out their home page or grab some of their tracks off of iTunes.