How Remix Fans Convinced Japanese Publishers To Let Them Sell Music
Retro Remix Review, a remix compilation of old-school tunes spanning Nintendo, Sega and others, shouldn’t really exist. Traditionally, it’s very difficult for individuals to negotiate the rights to sell remixes with companies whose roots are in Japan. The American branches don’t usually know who to contact on the Japanese side, and discussions quickly fall apart as a result. But Davis Jones and Blaine McGurty, co-founders of Retro Remix Revue, found a way because of a friend on the inside.
Feel free to listen to samples from both compilation volumes on the official website, while clicking through to learn how Jones and McGurty managed to make their compilations a reality.
[image credit: flickr / NES--still-the-best]
G4: Explain to me how the project got started — before Nintendo became involved.
McGurty: Davis and I, engineer and musician respectively, work on numerous projects together in his private studio, and since we have always had a passion for games, it felt natural to fall into doing some video game remixes. At first it was just a project for fun, but when we started putting some time and resources into our tracks, we realized that we have a product that many people will love. So now we put as much of our time and money into the project as possible. We’ve been hiring top-call studio musicians to come in and play on our tunes, so the project will always and increasingly have a very professional sound to it. Combining great musicianship with great production and engineering is hard to come across, especially in the retro game music genre, but it’s really what Retro Remix Revue is all about.
G4: Most of the music on this album is Nintendo-based. What is it about Nintendo music that grabs you?
McGurty: Nintendo happened to be very prolific in the retro video game scene, so I don’t think it’s too surprising to find a lot of great tunes from Nintendo franchises on our project. Although the first album mostly hits Nintendo soundtracks, our future projects will continue to do music from other prolific game companies like Capcom and Sega, as well as Square Enix, Konami, and others. There’s plenty of great music from old-school games that aren’t Nintendo, and I think you will see that increasingly in future releases. But to get back to the main question, Nintendo has some really catchy tunes, so it’s hard to resist exploring all that great music.
G4: Now, tell me the really exciting part — how did Nintendo become involved? Who talked to who?
McGurty: Currently, we have a Japanese friend of ours, translating and writing directly to not only Nintendo, but also Capcom and Sega in Japan. The problem we ran into in the past was all of the US branches of these Japanese based companies don’t have any power to set up licensing for these old game soundtracks. So we were forced to start negotiating with the companies directly in Japan. Although this communication process is very slow, Nintendo heard our remixes and were impressed. At the moment we are trying to set up a possible physical CD release over in Japan, under a Japanese record label that is approved by Nintendo.
G4: How has the relationship with Nintendo evolved since the first album?
McGurty: Well, since we’ve only had one album out for only 6 months, and e-mail/translating correspondence is EXTREMELY slow, we are still building up that relationship. But like I said, Nintendo heard our stuff and were very pleased with what they heard, and were asking if we would be able to setup a physical release of the first album over in Japan.
"Nintendo heard our stuff…and were asking if we would be able to setup a release of the first album over in Japan."
G4: What’s your relationship with other companies, like Sega and Capcom?
McGurty: Unfortunately, correspondence with companies other than Nintendo is even slower, so [while] we are reaching out to all of these companies equally, Nintendo has been the most responsive so far.
G4: Are you guys still playing games today? Have you guys, like some other gamers, become disenchanted with Nintendo because of the Wii’s increased focus on casual gamers?
McGurty: Yes, Davis and I still definitely play games. And I think we agree that the Wii proves that Nintendo is just going after a different market these days. But our project is all about the old-school games, and the fact is, Nintendo was one of the kings back then. I don’t think anybody can debate that. But ya, we’re not playing Wii Fit.
G4: You guys have a second album coming up [Editor's Note: Since this interview was conducted, it's seen been released]. Tell me a little more about it.
McGurty: After getting a good response from the listeners of Vol. 1, we figured we had to continue with the project and see how it evolves. The one thing about doing game music arrangements, is there will always be a lot of great tunes to choose from, and the different styles this allows us to explore, [it] really help the project to stay fresh. Vol. 2 has 12 tracks, going back to some of the franchises that we already visited, plus some brand new ones that I think will go over really well with the listeners.
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Both compilations are available through Amazon for $8.99 each, while $9.99 on iTunes.
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