‘It’s such a celebration:’ Orchestra prepares for massive Seattle video game weekend

Arguably the biggest weekend of the year for video game lovers in the Pacific Northwest is here. PAX West returned Friday and downtown Seattle will be filled with fans looking to get their hands on the latest and greatest in the world of video games.

For those who love the music of video games, you’ll want to plan ahead for Saturday night. The 8-Bit Big Band is making its West Coast debut with big band takes on video game classics.

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“This concert is such a joyous explosion of celebrating video game music for all that it is,” Charlie Rosen, the band leader and arranger of the 8-Bit Big Band told KIRO Newsradio.

Rosen explained the band is between a 26 to 45-piece, big band, jazz orchestra that is dedicated to reimagining video game music — something Rosen has been doing for around six years. He said that while live video game music isn’t anything new, no one was doing it like them.

“We as jazz musicians can start to reimagine and reinvent these themes and take them out of the context of their games and just make them purely joyous musical listening experiences with solos and intros and outros and interludes and singing and special guests,” he said. “Apart from doing a strictly classical orchestra, this is more like a pops orchestra with banter with the audiences. It’s a good time. It’s rowdy. We cross all sorts of genres. It’s such a celebration. It’s my favorite thing I do. I can’t recommend it any higher than that, really.”

The 8-Bit Big band covers music across generations, from your favorite Super Nintendo and N64 games to modern-day classics. In order to create the 8-Bit Big Band’s jazzy take on video game favorites, Rosen said he taps into his inner artist.

“I think of myself as sort of like a painter,” Rosen said. “The composers are like the sketch artists.

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Rosen explained how he uses music in the context of video games.

“I’m kind of like an illustrator and I can use the modern palette of instruments to color in those line drawings any way that I want and add context, add a background, a foreground and details,” he said. “I’m like Bob Ross.”

Rosen used the Tetris theme as an example, saying the band orchestrated the song and added in other folk songs from Eastern Europe and Tchaikovsky quotes. Rosen added sometimes the band will take modern music — like the song “Still Alive” from the video game Portal — and transform it to make it sound more like Frank Sinatra.

Rosen speaks on the uniqueness of video game music: ‘An interactive art form:’

This isn’t the first time I have talked about my love of video game music, and when I get the chance to learn more about the tunes, I always ask, what makes video game music so special?

“It is an interactive art form, a nonlinear art form in which the player of the game is both the film editor, the scriptwriter, the orchestrator,” Rosen said. “They decide the path and so the music has to respond in collaboration with the player and I think because it’s an interactive art form, it even further deepens the appreciation, whether it be conscious or subconscious, to the soundtrack of the game we’re listening to.”

Rosen believes the most successful video game scores are the ones that most adeptly deepen whatever the experience is of the game designer.

“It’s really impactful and that’s why the music can still work outside of the context of the game,” he said. “If the composing is good, if the game is good, man, you get such a great product.”

Rosen said video games can also open the door to a love of music, especially Jazz.

“I think there’s a way to present jazz intelligently and authentically and with a lot of depth and musical integrity, while still being accessible and being exciting to listen to by somebody who knows nothing about the genre and that is one thing that video game music accomplishes so well because it gives people a way in,” he shared.

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And Jazz music is certainly having a moment in video games. Rosen pointed to some of the more recent Mario soundtracks.

But as for the choice people will have to make between PAX panels and the show?

“It’s a very tough decision to leave the convention that you all paid so dearly for and I understand that as a fellow convention goer, but I can guarantee you that it will be so worth it,” Rosen said. “I can’t even tell you how much it’ll be worth it.”

The 8-Bit Big Band will be bringing the house down at Benaroya Hall on Saturday, August 31. Tickets are still available on Seattle Symphony’s website .

Editors’ note: This story originally was published on Thursday, Aug. 29. It has been updated and republished since then.

Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest

Paul Holden produces the Seattle weekend events calendar for KIRO Newsradio and a weekly story for MyNorthwest. He also appears on KIRO Newsradio’s “Seattle Morning News.” If you know of even more cool things going on in the area, let him know at PaulH@kiroradio.com .