intervju med Brendan Becker aka Inverse phase

Brendan Becker aka Inverse Phase in action.

Innan jag överlämnar era ögon till själva intervjun med Brendan Becker så tänkte jag bara ge lite bakgrunds story hur det hela gick vägen. För det första så hörde jag talas om Inverse Phase via en bekant och för det andra så har jag alltid velat intervjua personer som jag ser upp till.

Så sagt och gjort, jag tog kontakt med Brendan och ordnade denna intervjun. Jag har nu beställt ett bättre headset och cam, så jag hoppas på att kunna köra på muntliga intervjuer framöver också. Men nu överlämnar jag scenen till Inverse Phase så enjoy!

TGG Robin – First of all, thank you very much Brendan for taking your time to participitate in this interview with us. Would you be so kind to introduce yourself for our readers.

Inverse Phase - Happy to be here, Robin! I’m an oldschool video game nerd that writes chiptunes. I’m best at writing NES music, but I delve into the C64 here and there, and I’m getting more into writing music on the MSX, Atari 800, and other systems.

TGG Robin – When did you start to get interested in making your own music approxly?

Inverse Phase – Let’s see... when I was super-young I took organ lessons, but at my age it was more like “piano for dummies”. I wasn’t very good, but at least I got comfortable with the piano. When the NES became king, I tapped out tunes from Tetris and other games on the piano like so many other game music heads. Then at the same time I got my first soundcard for my PC, I fell in love with the Amiga, MOD files, and trackers. My fate was sealed! Shortly after that, my music was played at a band concert and I did three game soundtracks for friends in grade school.

TGG  Robin – I have listened through both your albums “The Midnight Chiptunes” and “Retrocovered”. I guess that It´s safe to say that you’re a big video game fan and that you love cartoon series? I would also guess that your something of a hardcore fan of Transformers?

Inverse Phase – I’m an 80s kid for sure. Games, cartoons, you name it. I was into Transformers, but I wouldn’t say I’m hardcore; I did NESformers because I am a huge nerd but also because I’m into rock/metal and wanted to practice chiptuning guitar solos. Lion’s cover of the Transformers theme is also pretty epic.

TGG Robin – What musical artists and bands would you say that have inspired you the most while you were growing up? and do you have like a favorite band or artist?

Inverse Phase – That’s a tough question... In the 90’s I was a huge Prodigy head. I listen to the artists featured on my Retrocovered album. I also have a lot of prog metal and synthy spacy listening under my belt. There’s also tons of VGM influence. Quitting my list while I’m ahead!

TGG Robin – How would you describe your music with your own words? It seems to be a mix of various things really.

Inverse Phase – You’re right... I guess it’s just a bunch of influences with my own personal spin!

TGG Robin – I noticed that you had a Half-Life T-shirt on one of your photos from a live gig. So I just have to ask... What do you think of the whole “Valve Half-Life 2 EP3” and their eternal cliffhanger thing from HL2 EP2? And what´s your thoughts on Portal 2?

Inverse Phase – Actually, that’s not a Valve shirt! =] In the picture you’re talking about, notice the lambda making an M? I’m performing at a yearly video game and music festival called MAGFest (http://magfest.org/), and they often parody logos from games to pay homage to titles they love.

Your question still deserves an answer... I’m a PC gamer at heart. I prefer keyboard/mouse for FPS titles, but I run Linux these days and I don’t really like running stuff under Wine. I haven’t actually played through all of Portal 1 or 2, or HL2. Shameful, I know. I think they’re fantastic and hope to get to them someday. I am aware of the stories, though, and I hate cliffhangers.

 

The Midnight Chiptunes was released in 2009, and it´s like one big honour wave to the Guilty Gear series. An awesome album indeed!

TGG Robin – Is it a bit of a hobby for you to make music, or is it something that you do full time? If no, then what do you do for a living?

Inverse Phase – I’ve worked IT, databases, delivery and logistics, and other jobs. Music was always my hobby on the side, but recently the company I was working for had to lay off a bunch of people... and I was one of them. I decided to go full time with the music thing and I am now working on game soundtracks for upcoming indie games. Hopefully I can pay the bills with it! =]

TGG Robin – What do you think of today´s music, music industry and MTV?

Inverse Phase – I’m a little depressed by the state of the music industry and MTV. “Today’s music” is a bit general a term, though.... there’s a lot of music I like and a lot of music I’m not really into. That will probably always be the same.

TGG Robin – Have you played a lot of live gigs and what do you think about playing live? Do you get the audience to stagedive to your sick beats? =)

Inverse Phase – I’ve played maybe a dozen gigs by now. It’s fun, but it’s also challenging as a chiptuner because all of the music is written in advance. You have to do more to keep the crowd interested. I have a lot of fans but my crowds aren’t big enough to support stage-divers.... yet! =]

TGG Robin – Could you tell us a bit about your nine-inch-nintendos project? Cus I think the whole idea is brilliant, really.

Inverse Phase – Thanks! I’m a big Nine Inch Nails fan and so are many of my friends. I often considered doing NIN tracks but I wanted to do something more “special”, so I decided to do an entire tribute album, from start to finish, of Pretty Hate Machine. It will be called “Pretty Eight Machine” (you can chuckle now) and I will do the entire album from start to finish on eight different configurations. Expectations are high but I’m over halfway done with the project and I think I can safely say it’s some of my best work to date.

TGG Robin – What kind of music do you like to listen to, in general?

Inverse Phase – I listen to a lot of different types of music. I try to stay as open-minded as possible, but I find I can’t tolerate country/western music and some “pop40” for very long.

A very good album that was released back in 2010. It could be yours for just 5 bucks (If you don´t feel like paying more for it, that is).

TGG Robin – Do you have any plans on doing a follow up album to “Retrocovered” in the near future? Inverse Phase – Maybe! I do plan to do more in the future, but after I finish the NIN album, I think I’ll be releasing more originals... probably some game soundtrack material...

TGG Robin – Now over to some gamer questions. What´s your favorite console or computer system?

Inverse Phase – That’s a tough one, too. For consoles in the “8-bit wars”, I’m really fond of the NES sound, but actually I was originally a Sega Master System kid. Before that, I had an Atari 2600 (and a 7800). Also, during all of that time, I had a PC and I was doing quite a bit of gaming on that. If I had to choose, I would pick a PC with VGA and a soundcard over all of my consoles.

TGG Robin – Anyone should be able to realize that you like the NES and NES games a lot. But do you have any favorites from that era? In my case, Zelda 1, Life Force, Metroid and Super Mario Bros 3 has always meant a lot to me.

Inverse Phase – I enjoyed a great deal of titles and it’s hard to pick a winner, but I think many Konami games hold a special place in my heart. In fact, you mention Life Force, and one of the games I helped with while in school was inspired by it. The others were inspired by Dr. Mario and then we did a platformers (so that might as well be Super Mario Bros). As far as NES music goes, there really are too many to name again, but I’m a big fan of Mr. Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka. I’d also like to meet the Follin brothers (Tim and Geoff, who appear to be pretty hard to contact) and Neil Baldwin (who I do chat with occasionally).

TGG Robin – I got an off-topic question for ya. What do you think of Nintendos Wii-U unite?

Inverse Phase – In a few words? I’m really poor, but I think Nintendo is very good at innovating and tries a lot of interesting ideas. I’m very curious to see where the Wii U goes. I just won’t be able to pick one up any time soon.

TGG Robin – Have you ever played for Video Game Live?, If no, would you like to? Inverse Phase – I’ve never performed for VGL. I have been to several VGL shows as an audience member, backstage, and also as pre-event entertainment in hallways of the venues. I know Tommy, Jack, and the rest of the gang, and they sell my Guilty Gear album in their merch area, which is very nice of them. I have a few ideas of how my stuff might fit into their show, so if they ever ask me to become more involved, I’m definitely interested!

TGG  Robin – The last question, what do you play at the moment?

Inverse Phase – Gamewise? I have ongoing games I need to finish of Phantasy Star 2 Genesis/MD, Mother NES/Famicom, and Cave Story. Unfortunately they are all on hold until I have time. Also, for parties we “invented” a game called MAME Roulette which we often use to discover new/obscure arcade games.

Oh! Before we close, I’d like to slip in a good word for Dan Fornace (http://danfornace.com/) and also Embraceware (http://embraceware.com/). I’m currently doing game soundtrack work for both of them, so please pay them a visit!

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The interview with Inverse Phase is over for now, but we hope to interview him again sometime in the future. We wish him the best of luck with everything, and buy his albums. Cus they are really, really good