Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) Radio is launching a new radio series called Diggin’ In The Carts, which explores the history of video game music. Similar to the digital video documentary series with the same title RBMA released in 2014, the series discusses the impact and influence of video game soundtracks. The first season of the new radio show will focus on classic Japanese video game soundtracks from the 8-bit, 16-bit and arcade eras. Music and composers from well-known publishers such as Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, Konami, Namco, Sunsoft and others will be featured in the series.

To promote the new Diggin’ In The Carts series, RBMA will be hosting a live AMA on Twitch on November 10, where they will discuss the show, classic video game music and more. Nick Dwyer, host and producer of the series, recently talked with [a]listdaily to discuss celebrating the music that made classic video games so memorable.

Nick Dwyer, host and producer for Diggin' In The Carts
Nick Dwyer, host and producer for Diggin’ In The Carts

What inspired Red Bull Music Academy Radio to create a video series in 2014 that explores video game music?

Like most young kids around the world who grew up in that era, video game music was a massive part of what soundtracked my youth. That music played more in our households than any other music when you think about it, and those melodies stayed with me through to later life. I had a background in making documentaries, and I had also been involved with the Red Bull Music Academy for more than a decade. So, when it was time for the Academy to be hosted in Tokyo in 2014, I suggested we produce a series shining the light on the composers of that era. I’m thankful they agreed! The world needed to know who those legends are!

How critical was the music to making classic games memorable?

Maybe I’m a little biased, but I think it really was the most important element [laughs]. Okay yes, the gameplay has to be good, but you think about the classics like Mario and Sonic—the soundtracks were incredible, and you didn’t mind being stuck on levels with those tracks playing on loop because Koji Kondo and Masato Nakamura had nailed the art of making looped music so damn good. But if a soundtrack was poor, you’d give up on those games pretty quickly, right?

When you think about it, if you’re listing off the most memorable games of that era, chances are that—first and foremost—those games had a killer soundtrack.

What kind of audience are you reaching out to with the radio series?

What’s been super important for me with the radio series—and what was super important to Tu (my co-director on the video series) and I when we made the documentary—is we wanted to present the music of that era not as just “music made for a video game,” but as this unique period of pioneering Japanese electronic music.

We specifically shot sequences that were detached from game graphics so that the audience would just listen and be like “damn, in its own right it’s incredible music.” So, with the radio series, I’ve expanded on that. The series isn’t necessarily about the most famous tracks from the biggest titles. I’ve been digging deep through the history and selecting tracks that I feel stand on their own as unique electronic music, irrespective of the fact that they were created initially to serve a purpose in the context of a video game.

So, this is very much aimed at not just fans of that era of music, but also electronic music fans the world over who can appreciate this music without having played the games or even being fans of classic video games. We’ve been lucky as well, in that we’ve got some of the world’s most respected contemporary artists who have been involved in the project—artists like Just Blaze, Flying Lotus, Mumdance, Thundercat, Ryan Hemsworth and a whole lot more just to show how much the music itself has influenced the world and its appeal is more than just nostalgia for video game fans.

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How did you get publishers and composers on board?

I’m based in Tokyo now and have relationships with the game companies. It was a lot of work, a lot of meetings, and a lot of meishi (Japanese business etiquette) when we made the video series, but it was worth it. Also, a lot of the composers have now become friends of mine, and I catch up with them regularly. We’re currently working on a couple of other projects that I can’t talk about just yet, but they’re pretty exciting, and we’re working super close with the publishers and composers on those projects.

What convinced you to host an AMA on Twitch?

I jumped at the chance! It’s the biggest and best platform for video game culture in the world, right? So, it’s an honor to be able to get the opportunity to tell the Twitch audience what we’re doing with the series. One thing for sure is that gaming audiences know their stuff and their history, but I’m hoping there will be a few things that even the deepest fans of that era didn’t know about. Also, if anyone missed it the first time around, hopefully it will lead an all new audience back to the video series which Tu and I are still super proud of.

I’ll be in New York Thursday, November 10 to do the AMA, which I’m pretty damned excited about!

What would you say are some of the most influential game soundtracks around?

In terms of global influence, then definitely the work that Yuzo Koshiro did for the Streets of Rage series; Yoko Shimomura’s work for Street Fighter II; and I also have to give Square a mention for what Nobuo Uematsu did for the Final Fantasy series. Also, Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack for Chrono Trigger still stands as one of the greatest soundtracks in the history of video game music.

What is your favorite classic video game soundtrack?

Oh man, it’s hard, and it’s changing all the time. When I was researching for the video series, I’d gone pretty deep, but for the radio series, I pretty much listened through the entire history of Japanese video game music including all of the Japanese-only platforms like PC8801 and MSX (although the MSX was big in places like Brazil and available in Russia).

At the moment, I’ve got to make mention of a Japanese company called Masaya—all of their soundtracks for the PC Engine are incredible. Also pretty much everything that was produced by Konami with the SCC sound expansion chip for MSX titles. But if I were to pick one soundtrack above all that everyone should check out, it would this super obscure mahjong game called The Mahjong Touhaiden; it’s this minimalist masterpiece and features in an upcoming episode of the series.