"To hear good music, not to watch visuals onstage - that’s the right reason to be at the game music concert".
Interview with Arnie Roth
Added by: Kamil Rojek, 2009-09-20 15:50:55
GameMusic.net: Do you feel that your work bridges the classical and contemporary orchestral styles?
Arnie Roth: I actually feel that I do that more than most. Forgive me, but I’ve worked with a lot of pop artists like Diana Ross, and with rock groups like the Smashing Pumpkins, you know, with a full symphony orchestra around the full rock band. I’ve also written 12 movie scores for Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. among others. So I’ve been involved with the media in many ways, while many classical artists like the Irish Tenors or Andrea Boticelli ask me to write arrangements for them, as well. So having done all of those things, I do think that I can bring something different to video game arrangements, and create scores with the vision of combining the concert hall stage and rock’n’roll! For instance, Nobuo Uematsu asked me to write an arrangement of the “Chocobo Theme” – this is on the Distant Worlds CD, titled “Swing de Chocobo.” Uematsu had a demo version of this that he sent to me, and we talked about how he wanted to do it. Arranging the track was something I took great delight in - I don’t normally write a lot of big band stuff, but this was a lot of fun. We’re talking about doing a mambo version, down the road, so that the audience never knows what to expect during a Final Fantasy concert – whether it’s swing, mambo, or whatever else we choose to do!
Chris Huelsbeck, Yoko Shimomura and Arnie Roth after Sinfonia Drammatica concert
GameMusic.net: Do you prefer working with renowned professionals like The Three Tenors, or such fames of the game music world as Uematsu or Yamaoka?
Arnie Roth: Frankly, there are differences with all artists and composers, and it would be difficult if not impossible to try to weigh this between working with top singers of the world versus top videogame composers of the world – they are quite different of course. Suffice to say that it would be easier to compare the excitement, audience reaction, and depth of musical experience, than comparing working conditions. My goal accompanying wonderful singers or instrumental soloists in virtuoso solo works for them, is to provide an extremely sympathetic accompaniment so that the soloist’s musical vision can be presented clearly and easily without anything conflicting from the orchestra. Working with the composers, my main goal is to create what I believe is the main musical statement they had in mind when they composed each score as clearly as possible, keeping in mind the maximum emotional and musical impact for the audience. So the art of accompaniment is primary in the case of one type of solo performer with orchestra, and we don’t have to concentrate on accompaniment issues at all when performing full orchestra scores of various composers. It’s really all about the music in all cases.
GameMusic.net: Your official website reports that “Arnie is currently working with renowned video game soundtrack composer Nobuo Uematsu on new orchestrations of Nobuo’s FINAL FANTASY Series compositions”. What new variations of Uematsu’s works can we expect in the near future?
Arnie Roth: We’re in the process of finishing the arrangements for two new Final Fantasy songs: “J-E-N-O-V-A” and “Dancing Mad.” We’re premiering them on December 12th, in Chicago. These two pieces have never been orchestrated before - we had fans vote on which tracks to rearrange, and these were the top two votes. Nobuo Uematsu is pushing me to do a third one, though. He wants “Clash on a Big Bridge” too, but we will see *laugh*.