Load-In

We're back after a brief (long?!) hiatus for a special in-person recording. Please excuse Ombler's poor audio quality as he can't face a mic properly when he's speaking.  After a reasonable early-morning 5K, we catch up on the challenges of balancing an ever-growing gaming backlog amidst a flurry of new releases, how Dead Space compares to Calisto Protocol, tour memories and how West feels to be hitting the road with Yungblud. 

It's been a long time! But we're back.  No guest for this episode, but West talks us through how it's been getting to (finally) tour again, and Ombler expresses his frustrations with the slow launch of Halo Infinite.  We also chat about our struggles with Elden Ring, how Fortnite's improved with the launch of its no-build mode, and how we feel about Breath of the Wild 2 getting delayed (again). 

There's no guest on this week's episode, but after a long break over the Christmas period we've taken the chance to catch up and share our thoughts on the game releases we're most excited for in 2022.  Outside of that, if you've ever wanted to learn about the implications of COVID on touring bands and what can happen when things go wrong, West talks us through the moment the band found out they'd tested positive for COVID towards the end of the UK tour run, resulting in the cancellation of three shows and a very long wait to get home. 

This was such a cool episode to record! This week, we're joined by Ada Juarez, Edith Johnson and Téa Campbell from the pop-punk powerhouse, Meet Me @ The Altar. They literally joined us from the back of their van as they're currently on tour with All Time Low, so what a bunch of legends for finding the time to chat with us.  We talk about how games such as The Sims 4 and Skate introduced them to a load of different bands when they were younger (that's how they discovered All Time Low!), why their music would be a great fit for video games, their favourite games, what they're currently playing on their Nintendo Switch consoles right now and loads more.  If you've not checked them out before, make sure you remedy that immediately by listening to them on Spotify or however else you consume music!  We'd like to thank MM@TA's team for setting this up and, of course, Ada, Edith and Téa for joining us while they're on tour. 

Ever wanted to get your band onto a video game soundtrack? For James, who plays guitar in the metal band Mastiff, it was a dream come true when they were approached out of the blue by Cyberpunk 2077's developers, CDPROJEKTRED. In this episode, James talks us through the process of how Mastiff's music was incorporated into Night City, what the band has been up to since signing to eOne, and all things Remedy/Alan Wake.  Mastiff's new album, Leave Me The Ashes of The Earth, is out now and available to stream through Spotify and purchase through all of the usual platforms. A massive thank you to James for coming on and chatting with us.  https://www.facebook.com/mastiffhchc

As well as singing in the US metal band Dead Eyes, Zach is a successful producer/songwriter. He splits his time between writing and producing his own material, working alongside producer Kile Odell (Motionless in White, Cane Hill) and making musical mash-ups over on Tik-Tok at @Zerosentme (as well as playing LOADS of video games, of course). This, quite frankly, was a f*cking hilarious episode and one of our favourites so far. We chat about Zach's love for competitive multiplayer games, West and Zach bond over obscure Mega Man games, and we all talk through favourite games and video game soundtracks.  Zach also promised a metal remix of the Wii Sports melody, so feel free to bombard him with messages every day on behalf of us until it's done. Hope you enjoy! Thanks again to Zach for taking the time to chat with us. 

If you've ever played on a Nintendo 64, you've probably heard Grant Kirkhope's music. Grant is one of the most prolific video game composers of all time and the mastermind behind the music in some of Nintendo's biggest and best-selling titles: Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark – you name it. He's also the only Western composer to have his music featured in Super Smash Bros and was trusted by Nintendo and Ubisoft to handle the music in Mario Rabbids. But Grant never intended to end up as a composer working for Rare. Before he was making music for video games, Grant played guitar in a variety of rock and metal bands, touring with the likes of Bon Jovi and Van Halen.  In this very special episode, Grant tells us about his early days as a rock star, what it was like to tour with one of the biggest rock stars in the world, some of the secrets behind his infectious N64 melodies and how he ended up having a very strange encounter with Mr Miyamoto in the toilers. We'd like to say thank you to Grant for sharing these amazing stories with us. In addition to scoring for video games, Grant is also creating music for a variety of films, and recently scored the soundtrack for Bringing Back Goldeneye – a full-length comedy film telling the story of Glenn, a Goldeneye fan who sets out on a mission to learn more about the Goldeneye World Championships. Go and check it out!

An Aussie pop-punk special!  On this week's episode we're joined by the lead singers of Aussie pop-punk bands Yours Truly (Mikaila Delgado) and Between You and Me (Jake Wilson).  We had a great chat about live concerts in video games, Mikaila shares her love for click-and-point adventure games like Detriot and Life is Strange, Jake talks about digging back into Skyrim and why he's so excited for Hogwarts Legacy, and both give us a rundown of their favourite video games of all time.  If you haven't checked their bands out already, go and listen to Between You and Me and Yours Truly as soon as you've finished listening to this! 

In this very special bonus episode, we're joined by the world-famous pro skater, Steve Caballero.  Named Skater of the Century by Thrasher magazine in 1999, not only is Cab one of the most influential skateboarders of all time, but he's also a huge music fan, playing bass and electric guitar in bands such as The Faction, Odd Man Out, Soda, Shovelhead.  We talk about his skateboarding legacy and how he helped build the soundtracks for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games with additions such as Bodyjar and Milencollin after he was added as a character to the series in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.  He also tells us about how he's jammed with the likes of Blink 182 and Goldfinger on stage at festivals, and what to expect when his latest band Urethane drop their latest album on September 24th. Give them a follow on Instagram to keep up to date with what they're doing. A massive thank you to Cab for sparing his time and also being one of the nicest guys we've ever had the pleasure of speaking with! 

Love 'em or hate 'em, the punishing Souls series comprises some of the most critically acclaimed games ever released. In this week's episode we're joined by Dan Olds, drummer in Palm Reader, who tells us how lockdown provided the perfect opportunity to dive into the games for the first time. As well as sharing our favourite memories from the Souls series, we also share our thoughts on the latest Nintendo Switch OLED model, our funniest tour stories, and West and Olds discuss some of the best hidden spots to visit in Japan. Please forgive the audio quality on this one: Ombler's DAW decided to stop working so we've had to use our raw audio! Despite that, you're in for one hell of a treat.