ReMixer Interview: McVaffe (Mike Vafeas)

Conducted April 9, 2008

• Real Name: Michael Vafeas
• ReMixer Name: McVaffe
• Date of Birth: 1978/04/21
• Birthplace: Flushing, New York, USA
• Website: mcvaffemusic.com (under construction)
• Family: 1 older brother, 2 dogs
• Education: Finished High School, 3 years completed at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan
• Hardware: Roland JV-2080 (x2), Roland Fantom X6, Yamaha MO6, Korg Triton+, Roland V-Synth, Access Virus C, Roland EX5-R, Novation SuperNovaII, Korg KP3, Roland JX-305
• Software: Sonar 7, Ableton Live, Stylus RMX, Trilogy

History

What was the first video game you remember playing?

My gosh, I’m sure it was for my brother’s Atari 2600 when I was about 4 or so. It might’ve been Super Breakout or E.T. … Yeah, what a way to get into gaming, right?

Did you have any formal musical training or education prior to becoming a video game music ReMixer?

I’ve had private teachers for piano lessons for years, but no training in the way of actually recording songs. I started by teaching myself Cakewalk on DOS – which was a struggle to learn before the age of teh internets. [sic]

How did you first get involved with ReMixing video game music? Did a particular game soundtrack or artist hook you?

Back when AOL was new, and before I was aware of VGMusic.com, they had sections of AOL dedicated to video games which featured user-submitted MIDI versions of video game songs. The sounds were limited to General MIDI – but at the time the source material in the games wasn’t much better. There wasn’t much in the way of actual remixes, but prior to MP3s and game audio rips, this was the way we could post and share game music online in small, manageable files. I posted a bunch of Final Fantasy VI covers there, and some people enjoyed my work. Eventually someone mentioned an interesting new site called OverClocked ReMix. I checked the site out and thought “hey, I could try this out.” And of course, what better song to start with than the SMB theme song?

Have you collaborated with other ReMixers on mixes, and if so, what was it like?

No collabs yet. =(

Do you prefer working alone? How does collaborating change your creative process?

It’s hard to say, considering so far it’s all I’m used to. For me it would be a little difficult to collaborate, because I try to do most of my remixes in one or two lengthy sessions, as opposed to going back to it over and over in small bits. Because of this, unless I was working directly with someone in the same physical space, it might be a bit difficult to ping pong files back and forth and keep the momentum going.

However, I’d love to collaborate with someone who could offer some performance aspect to my stuff – whether it be guitar, singing, or anything that’s much more convincingly played or performed than sequenced. That would be interesting for me…

What was the last musical project or track you worked on? Are you working on anything currently?

The last musical track I worked on is part of a larger personal project I’m currently putting together of original, game-inspired music. With luck (and a ton of work), this project will be fully available when all of the tracks are completed and the website I’m working on is up and running. Professionally, I’m working with a small game development company based in Manhattan. With them I have plans to provide audio and music for 2 or 3 XBLA games currently in various stages of production.

Based on your experience as an OverClocked ReMixer, what advice would you give those trying to get something they submit posted on the site?

KEEP TRYING! If anyone who likes my stuff heard some of the songs I started out with over 15 years ago, they’d piss themselves with laughter. By the time I found OCR, I had been doing music for a few years, so it wasn’t like some people who hear the songs, get the software, and then get frustrated because suddenly the song isn’t writing itself. Music isn’t that incredibly hard to understand and put together, but it does take a great deal of time and patience to get started. And no matter how good you get, there will always be things to learn and ways to improve. If you really want to take yourself somewhere, you’ll have to stick with it, despite the common frustrations that you’ll have starting out.

Personal

Who/what are your inspirations in terms of ReMixing video game music?

I’d have to say that Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo are probably my greatest inspirations in terms of source material, but the inspirations for the remixes I work on come from everywhere. Even though you can hardly hear it, part of the inspiration for my recent Okami ReMix came from a Fergie song called "Velvet." "Crystalline Caverns" was inspired by Linkin Park.

The inspiration is everywhere, you just have to try and meld the source material with an interesting take on it and put the song together using your own style and technique.

Of the ReMixes you've made, which is your favorite? Why?

Damn, that’s a tough one. I love the beginning of "The Darkness and the Light" but I’d have to say Makoto['s] "Jungle Jazz". I’m not particularly knowledgeable of jazz music – to me the amount of control and musical understanding that good jazz musicians have is completely mind-blowing.

And while I didn’t do anything in the song musically that any decent jazz musician would be particularly impressed with, I was proud of how I married the laid-back jazz feel over a contrastingly frantic drum pattern, and how the synergy of those two elements worked for me. It was also one of my few ReMixes that wasn’t a cheesy piano piece that actually seemed more performed as opposed to strictly sequenced.

How do you approach ReMixing video game music? Is there a particular sequence of events you find yourself following more often, or an initial process you always seem to use?

Hmm... I used to just sit in front of the PC with a song and start to fool around with it, but lately I’ve been conceptualizing the songs away from the PC. A lot of times, I’d start working on a song and would invariably get pulled on musical tangents which, while they might be great, might not be what I imagined at first.

These days, before I even sit in front of the PC, I take a pad and write down the feel I’m going for, the various sections I want to include, instruments and sounds, and start from that. That way I have a blueprint of sorts and a solid initial idea before I even play the first note.

Which game composers and soundtracks do you admire the most?

As I mentioned before, Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo are probably top of the list of game composers who have inspired me the most. Nobuo’s earlier Nintendo stuff probably up until Final Fantasy VI is among the most incredible game music ever produced. (FF7, I think, is where the series, and his take on it, went in a direction I didn’t particularly care for as much as the older stuff.)

I also have a great deal of respect for Mitsuda’s work, and Yuzo Koshiro did things with the Genesis and SNES sound chips that were pure genius. The Streets of Rage series has techno that blows most of the electronic stuff in games now clear out of the water. Though I don’t know the composers for them off hand – the original Mega Man and Castlevania soundtracks on NES are, for the most part, filled with brilliance.

I don’t particularly follow western game musicians that much, but some of the stuff that virt puts out is just insane. That guy’s got a ton of talent.

What's one of your best or most enjoyable memories from working on a ReMix? Worst?

You’re asking me to recall stuff that I worked on over half a decade ago?? [laughs]. Hmm, I remember having a great time working on The Castlevania Adventure "Tempest Mix." It was one of the first ones I did and I remember loving the whole storm sequence in the beginning as well as the overall energetic, gothic tone of the piece. Definitely one of my favorite early mixes.

I really don’t have any one piece that was a big problem, although probably the most frustrating one would’ve been the last one I worked on – "The Darkness and the Light." I love parts of it but I remember trying to do something very ambitious for the whole launch of the new OCR design, and decided to do a Zelda medley. Not only did the song take much longer than most of my previous mixes, but fitting all the songs together became a very time–consuming hassle. I’m fairly happy with the result, but that song more than any other, was a headache.

What's the most challenging aspect of ReMixing video game music?

I think achieving the balance between staying true to an original song while adding enough of your own flavor in the remix is probably my biggest challenge. You don’t want to be too literal in your arrangement, but if you’re too abstract with the idea then the whole idea of a remix or rearrangement becomes secondary to your own style, which is something I try to stay away from. Finding the balance between the source material and my take on it is usually the most challenging thing to me.