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– Where are you guys from and how did you come together as a band?

We’re mostly from Fayetteville, Arkansas. I started the band in 2000 for a recording for a CD, and then decided to keep the band going because there wasn’t a lot of diversity in the sound of the other game music bands (they were all rock at the time). It’s taken a long time to get where we are now but the current line up has been consistent since 2005.

– How do you go about selecting the music you will perform?

I do a lot of the selections, but everyone in the band has picked music to play. 80% of the time music is picked by nostalgia – for the love of the music/game.

– How long does it usually take for you guys to learn a song?

If it’s something we’re all familiar with, an hour or so.

Last weekend we banged out an arrangement for ..King Arthur’s World.. – a game that none of us have played, in two hours. So it just depends.

– How many shows do you think you guys have done so far?

This will be our 43rd show this weekend at ..ColossalCon7…

PAX will be show 45!

– What is the bands primary video game and musicial influences?

Everyone likes different games and different music. That’s what makes things so diverse with us. I’m big into Hip-Hop, Latin and UK Garage. William’s into Classical, Funk and Metal. Tim’s into Gypsy Jazz and Rock. Anthony’s into Smooth Jazz and R&B. Greg’s into Chiptunes and Bluegrass. Jared’s into Piano Pop and Dance music. We’re weird.

– Was 2007 the first year The OneUps performed at PAX?

2007 was our first PAX performance.

We’re ..so.. thankful for an encore performance this year.

– Do you guys plan on doing anything unique for PAX 2008?

We’ll be celebrating our CD release party at PAX where you can get the album before its street date of 09.02.2008.

..Volume 2.. is finally coming – and with two discs! And unlike last year, this time, everything you hear us play will be on the CD. Because YOU ALL asked for it!

– Have you guys ever played shows for people who are totally unfamiliar with video game music? How is their reaction if so?

Oh, all the time. My favorite story is when we played a Gala for the Single Parents Scholorship Foundation. They fed us steak dinners while people talked about how the foundation helped them become doctors or whatever, and then when all the presentation stuff was over, we were shuffled into another room with an open bar to start playing.

So we go through our light Jazz routine of playing stuff from ..EarthBound, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG.. and the whatnot, and some wine-o lady comes up slurring, “Oh, I love how you young people are playing such sophisticated music! It’s so nice! You should play at my son’s wedding!” To which I replied in my head, “Yeah, you like that ..Super Mario Kart.., don’t cha…” It was good times.

– What is the long term goal for The OneUps?

Just keep showing people that It’s Okay to Listen to Game Music™ and keep taking familiar tunes and playing them in ways that people haven’t heard over and over.

– How important has online promotion been for the band? Do you find going out and doing live shows is the best way to get the word out ?

Live shows at cons are good but we’ve probably played less than 20 shows in our hometown. The music scene here isn’t as diverse as we’d like for it to be. Plus a lot of people hear we play game music and write it off. I remember one girl telling me her friend told her not to see us because we played game music, but she came anyway and really love dit. Then her friend ended up coming next time and found out she loved it too. So we’re starting to catch on. People are hearing about The OneUps on MSNBC. com and Fox News and reading about this local band playing for a crowd of 5,000 in Seattle and they’ve never even seen us – people are starting to notice.

The Internet is ..everything.. to us.

We wouldn’t be ..anywhere.. without all you awesome Internet nerds supporting us and buying our music and coming to the cons. We love you!

– Well thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to answer these questions. We will be looking forward to hearing you guys live this fall!

Thanks for this opportunity, Chris! Now I gotta pack and leave for ColossalCon.

Official Homepage: www.theoneups.com
– avid x ( http://www.mypaxblog.com )

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– Where are you guys from and how did you originally meet?

Well the band started with just me trying this whole chip music thing out in high school in the suburbs of New York. James went to high school with me and started playing bass when it eventually turned into a live show. We’ve had about 10 different people play with us over the years, but we settled on a stable lineup when we all got to the NYU Music Technology program.

– Explain to me the unique process in which you guys perform music?

I compose on a program that writes music in the language that the NES can understand – then we take that data and burn them onto chips. You put those chips into NES cartridges, put them in the console and the notes you told it to play come out – then we try to keep up with our guitars and drums haha.

– How big is the chip-music scene?

The chip music scene has a ton of loyal followers that are spread out over the world, with little hubs here and there. It seems to be growing every year as well – the Blip Festival in New York is kinda the apex of it. In 2006 I think there were about 300 people there at the biggest night, in 2007 that number doubled. It’s pretty awesome, mostly because there’s no pretension to it, everyone’s just out to have fun.

– How did you guys come up with the name Anamanaguchi?

Its a secret!

– What are your primary video game and musical influences?

As far as I’m concerned, the music comes first. I’m mostly influenced by stuff like Weezer, the Pixies, 70’s horror synth soundtracks like Goblin – but there’s always some room for Koji Kondo of course haha. As for games, my favorites are probably Shadow of the Colossus, the Metal Gear Solid series, and of course the classics like Mega Man 2 and such.

– What games do you guys play when you are on the road?

Most of us have DS’s and are usually playing Mario Kart (Ary destroys me in it every time). I played Hotel Dusk on a plane last time which was incredible.

– Are you guys excited to be playing at PAX 2008 the largest video game expo in North America?

So excited! So so so so so so so so so so excited – we’re ending our tour with it.

– Do you realize you will be absolutely worshiped at PAX?

Haha psssssh. I’ll probably be busy worshiping Jonathan Coulton.

– What has it been like touring around the globe?

We actually haven’t left yet! We’re starting in the beginning of August. We’re pretty psyched to get revenge on the UK for deporting us last year though, haha.

– Can you guys give a couple tips for new bands hitting the road on tour?

Sure! If you’re going to be a Game Boy musician don’t do what we did and play other instruments – then you can fit everything in one backpack.

– What is the bands ultimate goal?

Global domination, or at the very least good times. We have an album coming out that we’re incredibly excited about! It’s pretty shrouded in secret though, all that I can say (I think) is that it’s 7 songs, is called Dawn Metropolis, and will be released through a new thing called Normative. But yeah, that album has a lot to do with our goals and stuff.

– How important has online promotion been for the band? Do you find going out and doing live shows is the best way to get the word out ?

The internet has been awesome to us. It helps to unite a lot of similar minded people that otherwise might not know about other people across the world also taking apart their video games. We play shows mostly for the fun of it – we hate advertising and like to let honest word of mouth do the promotion instead.

Well gamers and geeks alike I hope you enjoyed this brief interview with Anamanaguchi make sure to check them out on their official myspace( http://www.myspace.com/…amanaguchi ).
Listen and buy their music on iTunes.

– avid x signing out ( http://www.mypaxblog.com/)

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