OC ReMix has been a favorite free music resource for me since I first discovered it in 2002. I have too many favorites to count, but a few of the songs I love include Etude for Piano in F♯ Minor by Kevin Stephens and trickwaters; The Crossroads by Jovette Rivera; and Requiem for a Green Revolution by Scott Peeples. All songs on the site are free to download, so make sure you check them out at ocremix.org – you’ll probably find more favorites than you expect!
Today we continue our interview with Larry “Liontamer” Oji, a submissions judge and the site community manager.
How did you get the nickname “Liontamer”? Did you choose it, or was it given to you – by your fellow judges, perhaps?
How long does it take you to make your own compositions?
I don’t create music myself, but the simplest and best answer truly is “it depends.” Some ReMixes have taken years of trial and error, and some have been done in mere hours.
There are various community compos (informal competitions) in our scene for both game arrangements and original music composition where the deadlines can be anywhere from one to two months to two weeks to one hour. It all depends on your experience, your inspiration, and your workflow.
For someone getting started with music with absolutely zero prior music experience (like music theory, performance, or learning an instrument), as long as you have the aptitude for learning music, it’s possible to become a very solid musician in three to four years. We’ve had that happen in our community before.
The songs are organized by games, mixes, artists and albums. Have you ever thought of incorporating different ways to sort the songs, like “includes vocals”, “piano only”, “orchestra”, “made on a computer”, “recorded in a sound studio”, etc.?
We’re actually in the process of doing that. We’ve resisted it in the past, but that was because people wanted us to tag the actual MP3s themselves, and the MP3 files can only handle one genre classification, which just wouldn’t be accurate for many of the hybrid pieces on the site.
It’s another long-term project that will take a while to finish, and there are ways we could expand the tags, but we’re eventually tagging everything on the database level with descriptor tags. Right now, it’s just on the forum level and not fully integrated with the site.
Have you listened to all the songs on the site?
As far as the individual ReMixes, there are nearly 2,400 tracks and 160 hours’ worth; only djpretzel and a handful of fans have listened to every last one of them! If you factor in that we’ve released thirty-five albums as well, some of them more than five discs long, that adds more than fifty hours on top of that.
I don’t know of anyone that’s said they’ve been able to listen to every last track we’ve published. It IS a lot to consume, but it’s absolutely worthwhile. Even if you only liked one-third of what we had, you’d wind up with over fifty straight hours’ worth of music.
Sometimes, we’ve had people claim OC ReMix is nothing but a bunch of techno or house music, or that every ReMix sounds the same. If you see someone say that, then you know for sure they haven’t listened to all of the songs on the site, haha!
Has OC ReMix ever held any kind of conference or meetup? Is there interest in that?
We’ve had tons of meetups in various cities and at tons of events like gaming and anime conventions and game music concerts. Most of the community regulars have met in real life at those meetups and at awesome yearly events like MAGFest, the Music and Gaming Festival, which is the closer-knit community’s main event of the year.
Working at OC ReMix has been a no-income volunteer job for all of us since the site started, so we could never focus on running a convention. MAGFest is the gathering place for our community every year, so if you’re any type of video game music fan, you’ll have to come out to National Harbor, Maryland and party with fellow fans there!
What do you want people to take away from OC ReMix?
Well, one thing that’s important to realize is that video game music isn’t a genre; video games are a medium for all genres of music, so video game music comes in all different styles.
With that said, the ultimate takeaway we want listeners to have is that video game music is an art form with compositions that are just as flexible and inspiring as any other form of music, whether it be film scores, pop music, orchestral music, or anything else you can think of. Video game music — yes, even the old stuff — belongs in the same conversation.
If you’re someone who’s sheepish or embarrassed about sharing that you listen to video game music, don’t be. It’s great music, and there are a ton of us fellow fans out there.
What else would you like to tell people about OC ReMix?
The same thing that I like to tell every new person when they find the site. TRY EVERYTHING! It’s not possible to know every game soundtrack that every ReMix was inspired by. But if you’re willing to give ReMixes from games you don’t know a chance, you’ll GREATLY expand the amount of awesome music you’ll find, just like I did.
OC ReMix is an amazing and diverse community, so keep an open mind, keep downloading, and don’t be afraid to tell people you like listening to video game music!
There you have it! Sincere thanks to Larry Oji for taking a significant chunk of his time to share his answers with us. Be sure to check out ocremix.org to support the many great composers out there who are sharing their music for free, and leave a comment about your favorite songs from the site. Go get your music on!