Video game music is an underappreciated class of music. Music in a video game is key for many reasons. It sets the tone for what is happening; it emphasizes plot points and decisions; it heightens the player’s immersion in the game; and last but definitely not least, the music in a video game is something you will listen to for hours upon end, so it needs to be good.
Excellent video games often have excellent musical scores, and the Internet has given people who love both video game music and making their own music a way to connect. OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix or OCR, is a website where fans can submit songs they have created that were inspired by their favorite video game music. Submissions must pass the review of a panel of judges before they are hosted on the site. Approved songs are then posted for anyone and everyone to download for free. Yes, free! All the music on the OC ReMix website is free to download, share, and enjoy, though the site does specify that any and all use of downloaded music must be not-for-profit, and must credit both the song’s original creator and OC ReMix.
I contacted Larry “Liontamer” Oji, a submissions judge with OC ReMix for more than eight years and the community manager of the site for six years. He graciously agreed to answer some of my questions about OC ReMix. Part one of the interview follows. There was so much awesomeness that I couldn’t fit it all into one post, so part two will be in the next post – check back on Friday!
Please tell us a little bit about yourself! What do you like to do, how did you get involved with OC ReMix, and what is your favorite style of music?
I love spreading the word about the greatness of video game music, but I keep up on pro wrestling, comic books, and U.S. presidential history in what little spare time I have.
I found out about OC ReMix in early 2002 after starting a college radio show and being told about the site by a friend and fellow DJ. I told my best friend from high school about the site, and he downloaded all of OCR’s collection. That gave me the chance to check out all of the ReMixes and realized just how diverse and amazing the community’s music was. At that point, I absolutely never skipped a ReMix when it was added to the OCR front page.
Discovering the OCR community’s music made me stop doing a hybrid radio show of mainstream and video game music and focus exclusively on VGM. Because of the popularity of my radio show VG Frequency within the VGM fan arrangement community, I started receiving a lot of artists’ requests for feedback on their in-progress material. That dedication to reviewing led me to be vetted to join OC ReMix’s judges panel in 2004, where we help select what’s posted on the website. I’ve just been adding more to my plate since, like helping to prep digital album releases, retagging thousands of MP3s so they’re optimized for iTunes, and talking with the fans as the community manager.
As far as what my favorite music style is? Good music! I’ve been pretty open to everything growing up; my mother listened to all sorts of music. I’m gonna call “Tim Follin” a genre and say that’s my favorite music. Whether it’s Solstice, Silver Surfer, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, or Lemmings on the PSP, I love his sound and his never-ending creativity. He’s retired from game music, but I’m still waiting for someone to ask him to score a mega-hit fantasy game with a full orchestra. I’m sure that would draw him out of retirement, plus he deserves it.
How much time do you spend on OC ReMix?
At least fifteen hours a week, since I just work on what I can in my spare time. That’s part of what weekends are for. djpretzel [the founder of the site] spends the most time on the site by far, as it’s his creation and he’s worked on it since day one.
Were you surprised by the huge growth that OC ReMix experienced?
I’m sure it surprised djpretzel, because it literally started with him doing a pretty basic HTML site from nothing; but for me, no. I came along after djpretzel had set up a great foundation for the site, including his vision for the concept, the database, and the music standards. He created this place for a great community, ensured that the music is free, and works so that the site has practically no downtime. With those important things in place, it didn’t surprise me that OCR took off, and we’re working to keep that growth going.
As the quality bar for a song to be accepted was raised by the judges panel, that’s greatly helped raise the site’s overall quality and consistency, which solidifies our reputation for good music with listeners. Because artists have had to step up their arrangement and production skills to get their music accepted compared to the early days of the site, we’ve now become a good proving ground for those hoping to move onto scoring games, whether indie or mobile games or even AAA titles.
The reach of the music has grown mainly through word of mouth from our community’s fans on message boards and social media. It’s been very organic, and we have to thank our fellow VGM fans for that.
When you’ve been around as long as OCR has – the site is now approaching its thirteenth anniversary – you have an established impact on the field. People who were kids in high school and college in the site’s early years are now some of the game industry professionals that plug us. It’s a good feeling knowing there are fans who recognized the importance of game music back then, and are now carrying that fandom into the industry.
What inspired you to keep going with OC ReMix when it started to expand?
I’ll try to answer that for myself, but also for djpretzel to some extent, since I think the reasons are similar. In short, the site’s mission is for video game music to gain recognition as an art form. This hasn’t been realized yet, so we keep working at it.
I thought I would do music judging for maybe five years, tops, and then move on to other things. Eight and a half years later, I’m still here. Part of the reason is that it’s still fun for me and for djpretzel. The community hasn’t stopped being creative and innovative with the arrangements. Just when you think you’ve heard every possible take on Chrono Trigger‘s Zeal theme or “Dr. Wily Stage 1” from Mega Man 2, someone else comes up with another unique perspective on it. Sometimes a cool ReMix submission makes us aware of a great game soundtrack we’ve never heard before.
Until the thrill is gone or there’s no need for proclaiming VGM an art form, we aim to keep working on the site!
Do you see any significant changes in OC ReMix’s future?
Nothing that we can tell you about, but we’re working on some site improvements that will help our efforts to further popularize game music. We usually take our time with large projects, so everyone will just have to wait and see. I wish I could go into more detail, but I’m looking forward to djpretzel unveiling it!
Have you ever had to deal with litigation connected to any of the songs?
Not yet, and we hope not ever. The music and database are hosted free for the fans to educate them about game music and its creators, and we feel that falls under the umbrella of Fair Use. So far, we’ve only had praise from companies and composers about what we’re doing.
Recently, we attempted a Kickstarter to fund some better production and the physical printing of our upcoming Final Fantasy VI tribute album, and that initially got shut down. But once we talked directly with Square Enix, and they fully understood what we were doing and that there was no profit motive, we were able to relaunch our OC ReMix Kickstarter to great success.
We’ve never had a negative experience with anyone so far, and we hope not to. Visual fan art in gaming magazines and on DeviantArt is merely meant to express fandom and be a tribute to games; we’re doing the same thing on a musical level.
From which genres do you wish you received more song submissions?
You’d be surprised how little that question comes up, haha! That’s a great question! Dubstep used to have no representation, but that’s changed pretty quickly in the last year. It’s joined the pantheon of styles that are guaranteed to get a knee-jerk negative reaction from our audience, along with metal and mixes with lyrics! No matter who likes those mixes, there’s always a vocal minority who hate those three specific approaches with a passion. But we’d rather be open-minded and accept a variety of styles.
We’d love to get a Broadway-style musical piece, and we definitely would love country and reggae pieces. My wife points out we have no bluegrass either. We have so many genres and subgenres on the site now that’s truly difficult to think of where we have gaps beyond very specific ethnic genres.
Come back on Friday for the second and final part of this interview!