I recently sat down with our own music virtuoso, DSgamer21. DSgamer21 has been providing amazing musical pieces for the podcast week after week…and he is only 12 years old! I wanted to find out what made him tick and how he felt about having his tunes on the podcast. Come inside for the full interview and don’t forget to check out this weeks podcast for his latest masterpiece.

4cr: How old are you and how long have you been playing music? Also, what kind of instruments do you play?

DSgamer21: I am 12, and I have been playing violin and piano since I was 4 1/2, so for over 8 years now. Violin and piano are the two main instruments that I play and practice every day, but last year at school, I was in a jazz band. There were around 6 pianists, and only one keyboard, so I had to play xylophones most of the time. It was…interesting…to say the least. But it was quite a nice experience to get the feel for a new instrument like that. In elementary school, we all had to play recorder in music, and I played that at some of the Spring Sing concert things that we did. But violin and piano are really the only two instruments that I am proficient at.

What inspired you to start playing video game tunes?

Well, for some unknown reason, I was searching on Google for “mario piano”, and the first link was some Nintendo sheet music. I thought “cool!” and I printed out a few pages of it. It was actually the day in August when my family left for a two week vacation, so I just sort of played around with it and then put it in a pile with all my other music. After coming back and starting school, I was looking through my piano pile and I found the Nintendo music. Now, at first, my parents HATED it when I practiced the Mario theme with them in the house (maybe because I just was sight reading at first, hehe), so I played it when they went for ten minute walks every night. I got quite good at it, and used all of the methods that my piano teacher encouraged when practicing regular pieces. Then, I asked my dad to record it one day. I put it up on my website, and put the link on IRC. I think the main reason I really bothered to continue with this was because I believe that I received my first ever compliment from Kreven of IRC, who usually just acknowledges my irritating-ness. Seriously. But after this, my parents started appreciating that some videogame music is actually quite nice, and I recorded more and more. Then my music got put into the podcast, which encouraged me even further. I started playing requested pieces, like the Duck Tales Moon theme and Zelda tunes that I played.

And a little note: at an open house holiday party last Saturday, I played the Mario theme on the piano, and I swear, like every single other boy in the house came around the piano like “OMGWTFBBQ 1337 MAD SKILLZ D00d!” I sent the link to some friends on AIM and they all wanted me to play it at school, heh.

So, does your mom still get upset that you play game tunes instead of “serious” music? And does your dad encourage it, or just help you record it?

Well, mom’s a lot more tolerant than she used to be, but some things still bug her a bit. For example, the starman theme from Mario, and the underground theme. When I’m not practicing “serious” music, she will often tell me to “play quieter”.

Actually, I have a funny story about my dad. He often goes to work humming whatever he last heard me or my sister practicing, so one day he comes home and says that he was humming something at work, and one of his friends said “Is that Mario?!?”. I think he is more tolerant of it than mom, yesterday after we spent like an hour (which he happily obliged to do) recording and putting together Fountain of Dreams, he said “Wow, that’s quite catchy!” I think he just likes pretty much any musical involvement that I have.

What are your future plans regarding music?

I plan to continue playing videogame music as long as I can find feasible music to play, and it helps when I get suggestions *hint hint*!!! But yes, I may even do more violin VG stuff since Fountain of Dreams was pretty fun.

I’ve sometimes considered being an orchestra director, probably for a school, because I’ve always thought about how fun it would be to have control, like being able to influence music’s style and sound. If I was to continue as being something like a soloist, I would probably go with piano…but I sometime want to play the Tchaikovsky violin concerto’s first movement if I don’t get to before I’m out of high school (with my teacher).

And another career I’ve considered is trying out to be a LEGO master designer for the Legoland parks…if I could make it. Man it would be fun to make a Lego mosaic of the opening screen of Super Mario Bros.

So, I’m assuming video games are a big hobby of yours when your not playing music. What are some of your favorite games?

Well I didn’t play any games except PC games until last August. My favorite PC game, and one of my all time favs, is Simcity 4. I remember waking up on the release date and my mom coming in my room, holding the game. My parents knew just how much I loved the last one, and how much I was looking forward to this one. If they made Simcity for the DS, I think I would cry in happiness. I just like games like that (sim/tycoon). I also LOVED Runescape. Last September to November, I was ADDICTED…I played almost 15 hours a week. I was a member for a few months, but then I sorta got over the addiction…I was more looking forward to my DS for Christmas!

The reason that I finally convinced my parents to let me get a Game Boy Advance SP is that I played a second cousin’s GBA a few months before, and it was awesome. I just knew I needed one of those. So I bought one a little over a year ago, with five games. If I had known how attractive the DS was going to look a few months later I don’t even think I would’ve bothered…as it was, I knew I just had to have that online touch screen goodness ASAP as soon as all the games and features were revealed!

As for my favorite games ever, here are some: Mario Kart DS (Online karting, nuff said), SMB3 (I just loved that, haven’t even beat it after a whole YEAR), Meteos (Once I set the thing to give me 99 lives, played 53 minutes straight), and Kirby Canvas Curse (super fun touch screen platformer!).

What do you think about having your music on the podcast and having hundreds of people hear it every week?

Well, here are my stages of thinking when I see those download numbers from boon:

1. O_O

2. HOLY FUDGSICLE

3. Hmm, better up the quality of my playing a bit…

4. Wow, now I am sorta famous!

5. Does my piano really sound that bad, or is it just the compression method?

Only a good musician would think about the piano sound…I can’t even hear it. I think it sounds amazing.

I cringe when it gets to me, every time i hear a mistake

Any last words to say to your adoring fans?

1. LEGO is going down the drain. They were way better like, six years ago.

2. Give me lots of music requests.

3. See you in Animal Crossing!

Thanks for the interview and thanks for the music. The podcast certainly wouldn’t be the same without it, that’s for sure.

No problemo, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for the awesome Nintendo blogging.

Check out the past podcasts for all of DSgamer21’s tunes here: [ 4cr Podcast Archives]