this music by ear for years just for fun before I started posting to YouTube. I actually introduced my high school and college quartet members to Final Fantasy music and we would play some of it at weddings and other gigs, people had no idea it was from a video game but they loved it! GS: How do you pick what music you are going to cover? TD: Most of what I cover is from my personal favorite games or movies. I’ll also take requests and poll my audience for what they’d like to hear. I think it’s really important to listen to my audience because they’re the whole reason I’m able to do this! I don’t usually plan a lot in advance, usually when it’s time for me to make another video I’ll just think about what I’d really like to play that week and then go cover that. GS: Have you ever thought about trying to get professionally involved with scoring your own piece music for a new game, upcoming film or another medium? TD: I actually tried to get into that after graduating college and planned to move to LA to get into it, but something happened where I wasn’t able to go, and I was very disappointed. It was actually because of that though that I started my YouTube channel, so since then I have actually been pursuing a career as a violinist instead of a composer. I have my own original songs that I plan to release later this year, but it’s just my own work, not for a game or film. It’s certainly something that I would like to try at some point if I ever find
I want to change careers, but for now I’m loving what I’m doing.
Geek Syndicate
part of it was very humbling. I would love to do more performances like that in the future. GS: You’re clearly a big gamer so what are you playing at the moment? What are a few of your all time fave games? TD: Right now I play Skyrim on and off, and League of Legends is the main game I play because I’m able to play with my brother who lives in a different state. My all time favorites: Final Fantasy VII, IX and X. Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts I and II and Halo. GS: What are a few of your favourite film and game soundtracks that you have not tackled yet? TD: Indiana Jones is my favourite theme, and I plan to do that at some point. Gamingwise I think I’ve already at least covered one song from my favorite games, but there are plenty more out there! GS: What would you say has been the one piece of music that as challenged you most to do? TD: The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto GS: From a legal point of view have you ever had any problems from the composers or companies of the music you have covered? TD: No, I made sure I had that well figured out before I embarked on selling things. I pay copyright royalties for everything I sell. GS: You are also working on a CD of original material. How is that project coming along? TD: I have the violin parts for
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GS: In May you released you first album ‘Gaming Fantasy’ How long did it take you to put together the album? TD: I started in mid January and finished in May, so about 4 months. GS: How did you go about selected what pieces you wanted in the album? TD: They’re all personal favorites of mine, and it kind of reflects me as a gamer. I also wanted to make sure I included songs from older games as well as modern day games to make sure it had wider appeal. GS: You performed live at E3 what was that like for you and would you like to do more performances at other conventions? TD: It was an amazing experience. It was so great to meet Kyle Landry and Lara because I had been friends with them online, and we had made videos together before but had never met or played together in person. It was really neat getting together with those two because they’re phenomenal musicians and I don’t often have the chance to play with people like that in person. It was also a great place to connect with industry professionals and we met a lot of really nice people and made some good connections. It was also the first time for any of us to have fans come up to us in real life, expressing their enjoyment of our music and asking for autographs. That