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All Tvvins reveal their favourite game soundtracks
The Irish band's music has appeared on the FIFA and PES soundtracks, but what's their favourite game music? We caught up with the guys to find out...
Many FIFA fans will have become aware of Irish band All Tvvins when their single Darkest Ocean appeared on the FIFA 16 soundtrack. Not content with just appearing on one football game, the band’s tune Thank You – which appears on the band’s critically acclaimed debut album IIVV – was featured on PES 2017.
As big gamers, AllTvvins were delighted to featured on the soundtrack of these big sports games. We caught up with the band’s Conor Adams and Lar Kaye to chat about being heard on FIFA 16, what they enjoy playing in their free time, and which other games that they’d like to be involved in.
How did your you end up being on the FIFA soundtrack? Has it benefited the band?
Lar: The music was already done. They heard the song, and they were like, ‘we want that!’ We got a phone call one Monday morning saying ‘you’re going to be on FIFA’, and we were like, ‘Yes!’ It was good news during the middle of a long tour – it’s a great way of getting your music exposed to a lot of people.
Conor: Has it benefited us? Oh definitely. With FIFA in particular, even if you look at the YouTube comments, it’s loads of people just saying ‘FIFA’, which is amazing.
Do you play games yourselves? What are you playing at the moment?
Conor: I’m a big games fan. I’ve got a PS4, although through the years I’ve been a massive Nintendo-head. I love the Switch and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it’s unbelievable! I’ve lost so many hours to it. I’ve played a lot of games and I think I’m enjoying it more than any other game. The Last of Us was up there as one of the best ever — and it still is — but Zelda is just so enjoyable. I’m waiting until we go on tour to play much more, I want to have some of the map left unexplored.
The Last of Us
© Sony Computer Entertainment
Do you have any favourite game soundtracks?
Lar: The music for the remake of Doom was insane. Mick Gordon did the soundtrack for it. He just took the riff from the original, and thought, ‘I don’t want to change it’ because so many people identify with it, and the modern take on that riff smashes it…
Conor: …It’s nearly like an orchestra of guitars
Lar: …Yeah, and it’s insanely heavy, but it’s not ruining that soundtrack connection.
Conor: There was a game called Flower that had really ambient and cool music as well. Or else it was just wind sounds. I just remember really enjoying it.
Lar: The music in Fez was unbelievable. I haven’t played the game, but I’ve listened to the soundtrack.
Fez
© .
Do you remember any game music that you enjoyed when you were younger?
Lar: I definitely liked Mario and Street Fighter when I was a kid. Looking back now, the music had way more of an effect than I thought it did at the time.
Conor: Street Fighter is the business! I remember Road Rash had the coolest soundtrack, and even Skitchin’ was pretty cool. I made an album on a Game Boy actually. There’s a dude in Germany who sells a cartridge for the old, grey, original Game Boy called NanoLoop. It’s a sequencer for the GameBoy, so you’re using the chip, and it’s pure chiptune – it’s hard to listen to after a while, but it’s awesome. I remember a few years ago seeing DJs with Game Boys rocking out! I’d love to do that.
Lar: There’s a band I listen to called The Advantage, and they cover everything from ’90s video games – Bomberman and Batman, and everything off the Mega Drive. I think they were the first band that I know of [that were doing that] from before YouTube kicking off. They recorded two records and just put them out, I listened to them online a good bit.
What other gaming music would you like to create?
Conor: There’s a deadly game on the iPhone called Swords & Sorcery. The music for that, when you have your headphones in, is really cool. The music is really integral to that game. I used to live opposite the Blizzard offices in Dublin, and would look out and think: ’I’m gonna make music for those guys some days’. Still haven’t yet!
Lar: I think it’s something that we’d love to do. For me it’d have to be Crash Bandicoot!
Crash Bandicoot
© Naughty Dog
Conor: I’d love to be on a Naughty Dog game, like The Last of Us 2. But I’m sure the music for that is done.
What’s next for All Tvvins?
Lar: Hopefully more touring — we have a bunch of festivals coming up. We’ve been writing our second record non-stop since we released the first one. And get more games in hopefully!
Conor: Yeah, pretty much writing the second record at the moment. We have a nice studio in town. I’ll just be playing Zelda in the corner though, that’s pretty much the reality of it.
All Tvvins debut album IIVV and tour dates are available here.
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