Legends

By Walter G. Meyer / Photographs by Joseph Escamilla

Ode to Joystick

It’s the rare composer who can turn video game music into a fully orchestrated stage concert.

The concept of “Video Games Live” is so bizarre, so original, that it almost had to come from the mind of Orange County’s Tommy Tallarico.

Imagine playing Pacman to Puccini onstage, in front of people dressed as the Super Mario Brothers and other favorite video game characters. A recent New York Times review called it a “captivating, proudly bombastic show,” and described a staged “spectacle of several dozen classical musicians, the Temple University Concert Choir, two guitarists, and a female flutist dressed as an elf, all playing music from video games while three large video screens suspended above the stage displayed scenes from the games in sync with the music.”

With more than 50 performances scheduled nationwide this year, “Video Games Live” has been incorporating local musicians at each venue and selling out shows. With the San Diego Symphony in July, for example, “Video Games Live” rocked the Embarcadero during the world’s largest comic book and sci-fi gathering, Comic-Con. At Broadway’s Beacon Theater in New York in October, the show triggered what the Times reviewer called “as much applause, hooting, and hollering as I have ever heard at the Beacon.”

Tallarico, the man-boy behind it all, lives in his fantasy house in San Juan Capistrano. The path to his pool is lined with a miniversion of “Pirates of the Caribbean”—life-size figures in scenes from the movie. Step inside and you’ll find a shrine to Beethoven, and, on the shelves along the stairway, boxed copies of every video game that includes his music. He has devoted an entire room upstairs to Spiderman, complete with Spidey pinball machine and inch-high to life-size action figures.

“I turned 41 in February,” Tallarico says. “I look like I’m 30, and I act like I’m 12. It all averages out.”

David Perry, a 24-year veteran of game development and member of the Game Developers Conference Advisory Board, describes Tallarico as “a legend in the games business. ... He has brought real culture to the industry, showing that hundreds of thousands of gamers around the world will flock to listen to live symphony, some for the first time ever, to hear incredible orchestrations of video game music. He’s at the cutting edge of so many things, and they all benefit the industry.”

To fully understand the “Video Game Live” phenomenon, though, you really need to know the story of how Tallarico became the ultimate multimedia cross-pollinator.

Tallarico has scored music for more video games than anyone else, starting with the 1994 classic Earthworm Jim. He has gone on to write music for nearly 300 titles, including some of the hottest: Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Aladdin, NFL Blitz 2001, NHL Faceoff ’98, and NCAA Madness in 2000 and ’01. He’s most proud of the score he composed for Advent Rising, which won several industry awards, including the Game Audio Network Guild accolade for best original vocal. It also holds a rare distinction: It’s one of the few games outsold by its soundtrack.

Tallarico has come a long way since leaving his Springfield, Mass., home at age 21 to seek his fortune in California. He grew up wanting to write movie scores after seeing “Star Wars” and “Rocky,” because that was cutting edge in the 1970s. After quitting college to play in a band, he set off for California with two destinations in mind: Hollywood and Disneyland.

He went to Hollywood first, thinking that’s where every musician goes to become famous; he had rock dreams as a child, inspired by cousin Steven Tyler (nee Tallarico) of Aerosmith. Tallarico recalls standing at Hollywood and Vine, looking up at the Capitol Records Building and thinking, “Wow, this place doesn’t look as glamorous as it did on TV or in my mind.” 

His next stop was Disneyland. Arriving in Orange County, he was struck by palm trees, fancy cars, beautiful girls, and wonderful beaches. “And I was like, ‘OK, this is what I envisioned California to be like.’ ”

He got a job selling keyboards at the Guitar Center in Santa Ana. His first customer noticed his video game T-shirt—back in 1990, video games and T-shirts celebrating them were rare—and offered him a job testing games at the newly formed Virgin Games in Irvine. Homeless until his first paycheck, Tallarico still thought he was in heaven: the climate, the beaches—and getting paid to play games.

“They didn’t have a big music division so I would bug the vice president of the company every day: ‘Look, whenever you need music, let me know. I’ll do it for free. You don’t have to use it if you don’t like it, but at least give me a shot.’ ”

He imagined game soundtracks that went beyond the bleeps and bloops that were standard at the time. “I wanted there to be rock and symphonic type of things. Some of the earlier games that I worked on had a unique sound. I was just taking real music and trying to put it in video games.”

Orange County was a proving ground for the fledgling gaming business, and he was working for several local companies including Shining Entertainment in Laguna Beach and Playmates in Costa Mesa.

His homelessness didn’t last long. By age 25, Tallarico says, he was the youngest homeowner in his gated San Juan Capistrano development. He now drives a Ferrari with the license plate VIDGMES. 

Tallarico and business partner Jack Wall, who also conducts, had the idea for “Video Games Live” in 2002, but it took three years to launch their first real show at the Hollywood Bowl. Inspired in part by John Williams’ performances of his “Star Wars” scores with live orchestras accompanying clips of the movies, Tallarico and his collaborators took the idea a step further—the music and the games, but with audience interaction. Tallarico emcees the show and at times jams on his guitar. The musicians wear headsets so Wall can give them verbal instructions that cue musicians ahead of his baton.

“Video Games Live” now takes up so much of Tallarico’s schedule he barely has time to compose. The show has played with many international ensembles, from the Philharmonia Orchestra of London to the Houston Symphony. A single show in Taiwan attracted 100,000 fans, while one of the biggest U.S. shows was part of the 2008 BlizzCon at the Anaheim Convention Center. And in June, “Video Games Live” played the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles at the annual electronics show E3. This year’s schedule included more than 50 shows in 12 states and 13 countries, and more than 30 cities are booked for 2010.

Edward B. Gill, executive director of the San Diego Symphony, was glad to have the show back after last year’s festive performance, which included a costume contest. “The music is so appealing just on its own, but when you add the videos, the light show, and Tommy’s enthusiasm—you’ve got all the elements for a fun and entertaining concert. … [It’s] an excellent way to expose a younger audience to symphonic music.”

Tallarico says Beethoven and Mozart wrote in the most innovative art form of their time. He enjoys hearing from parents whose children want to study classical violin after watching one of his shows. And he takes great satisfaction in hearing kids today say they want to be video-game composers.


Walter G. Meyer  is an Orange Coast contributing writer.