Nerd Music Meltdown

Orlando's newest video game band is GG CAT . and they will be performing live on Ongaku Overdrive: The Whims of Fate . We have GG CAT's founder, guitarist, and controllerist Luis Guerrero on to talk about the band and how it came to be. Plus, Luis talks about performing at the recent Orlando Fringe, the evolution of jazz in video game soundtracks, Castlevania , Overwatch , Persona , cat sounds, an...

The dust has settled on E3 and we got some games to talk about! Orlando hip hop artist O_Super is back on Nerd Music Meltdown to talk favorite games and presentations from E3, but that's not all! This weekend is Bytes and Beats Juneteenth Festival, which O_Super will be performing on with over 40 POC artists. We talk about that, the passing of Berserk creator Kentaro Miura, the music of CEO Gaming...

It's a fully vaxxed edition of the Nerd Music Meltdown! The turning point we have been waiting so long for appears to be finally upon us! Kent talks about going out among the people with Mega Ran and raising over $2K for the Asian Pacific Fund with Virtua Ongaku 9. After that, he interviews video game vocalist and audio engineer Tiggs .  We discuss the return to live shows as Tiggs will be perform...

Nick Marinelli worked for many years at MAGFest in different roles, including executive director of the whole event! Since then, he has co-founded Video Games in Concert , a booking service designed to get the best video game music acts booked all over from conventions to corporate functions and festivals. We talk about Nick's time with MAGFest, the immense growth of that event, and the recent con...

TWO interviews on this edition of Nerd Music Meltdown. VGM CONline is this weekend (April 22nd to 25th) on their Twitch . It will feature a bunch of music, panels, gaming, speedruns, and even an awards show! In part 1, we have VGM CON operations director Vaughn Rowles (@vaughnyboy8) to talk about the event and how VGM CON came to be in 2018, how things went last year right before the pandemic, and...

The Nerdcore VPC is a vocalist/producer challenge in which teams of two compete over five unique rounds for a major cash prize, but the real winners are the fans as there are over 40 teams competing in Nerdcore VPC 7, witch some heavy-hitters in the mix. We have the Czarina of the competition, Whitney Harper, and one of this year's judges, Navi to talk about what the Nerdcore VPC is, how it's evol...

Classic rock about video games?! Crazier things have happened, but The Arkadian shreds and sings some amazing tunes about retro games and arcade culture. We talk to The Arkadian about his rock influences, how meeting Ronnie James Dio changed his life, playing at the last live VGM festival before the pandemic shut everything down, what VGM CON is, and much more! The Arcadian will be performing on V...

This weekend is vgmtogether , a notable VGM virtual convention featuring live music, panels, and community gaming. Kent has vgmtogether event co-director Doug Perry , known in the community as DumUltimA , on to talk about the event and how it came together.  We also talk about OverClocked Remix, MAGFest, video game musicians in high school band, favorite game soundtracks, Marimba vs Merengue, and...

Today is the 35th anniversary of the original Legend of Zelda . The series is a favorite to many and Kent shares memories with the  founder of Zelda metal band Master Sword , Matt Farkas. We talk about our favorite Zelda games, what the series means to us, what inspired Matt to start a Legend of Zelda metal band, the struggles to get it going, the turning point when singer when Lily Taylor joined,...

We got Ohm-I on episode 69. Nice. Ohm-I drops BARS about hacking, technology, identity, and other topics related to nerd culture, with mixes of storytelling and humor. We talk about all that, racism in nerdcore and conventions, that savage diss rap on None Like Joshua , YouTube Nerdcore, and what Ohm-I wants to do when this pandemic is finally over. You can get more Ohm-I at mcohmi.com . Want to g...

Diwa de Leon loves video game music so much that he became String Player Gamer , made tons of viral VGM videos, and emigrated from the Philippines to the United States. String Player Gamer has accomplished a lot and now he will be playing this Saturday on Virtua Ongaku VII . We talk about all that, love for Nintendo, the legal tightrope of creating VGM covers, and more! Find more of String Player...

The OneUps are one of the first video games bands to ever exist, and Mustin has been the face of the band for quite some time. They've played at the first-ever MAGFest, they've played on stage with legendary composers such as Yoko Shimomura, and have released tons of great video game music. We talk about all that, favorite video game acts of today, and what The OneUps plan to do to keep up with th...

We're ending this, uh, memorable year with an incredible success story from one of the O.G.s of YouTube nerdcore... None Like Joshua ! Anime raps have exploded on YouTube over the past year, with over a dozen emcees dropping new rap videos each week to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, sometimes MILLIONS of views. It's crazy, but NLJ was there before it all happened and we talk about it al...

It's been long overdue, but we finally have Rob Carballo on Nerd Music Meltdown to talk about everything he does, including running geekbeatradio , how it started and it's evolution, co-founding the MAGFest chipspace, and eventually becoming the head of booking for Super MAGFest's music department. And WIZARD ROCK?! Oh yeah, it's gonna be wild. Check out geekbeatradio at geekbeatradio.com and foll...

Alyssa Kalugdan is a major part in the operation of Ongaku Overdrive events, whether they be live or virtual. She also performed in Orlando nerdy a capella group Geekapella and is now part of a brand-new group called Royalty ! Kent and Alyssa talk about what Ongaku Overdrive's 2020 was supposed to be and what it ended up being, how the whole VGM/nerdcore community adapted to the situation, how the...

It's Election Day, and we have Danny Flam - the founder of NYC-based video game big band ConSoul . We talk about how the band came to be, performing with Cuphead composer Kris Maddigan, playing in The Game Brass , getting Covid-19 way back in March, aspirations to perform in VR concerts, and more! ConSoul and Kris Maddigan will be releasing their live Cuphead album on November 13th. Find out more...

LadyJ and Cam3 of Wreck the System just released a new Kingdom Hearts -inspired album called Vessels of Light . We talk about the album, the obstacles they faced producing it during the pandemic, what Kingdom Hearts means to LadyJ and Cam3, what's new with Wreck the System,  running a studio , ideas for future concept albums, and more. Check out LadyJ at createladyj.com . and Cam3 at cam3mix.com ....

GameGrooves not only brings fans news, interviews, and editorials in the world of video game music, but they are also a VGM publishing label as well! We have GameGrooves founder and manager Allen B. to talk about what GameGrooves is, the Materia Collective vs Game Chops fallout, favorite VGM albums of the year so far, Fall Guys , YouTube VGM performers, the shift to covers of contemporary VGM, and...

VGM metal man Ro Panuganti is on to discuss many topics, like the fifth anniversary of Undertale and his Fallen Hero album that was released to celebrate that. How does a 24-track metal album get produced in less than 9 months on top of weekly music video releases on YouTube? That's a wild story Ro tells. We also talk about a year without MAGFest , Ro's British and metal musical influences, Legend...

Cleveland -based pianist and video game composer 88bit has been one of the more prominent acts in the era on virtual concerts. On this episode we talk classic games and their soundtracks, composers like David Wise, Tim Follin, and Nobuo Uematsu, piano technique and practice, the Cleveland gaming scene, the importance of virtual concerts for musicians, his part in the Forever Famicom remaster, what...

Press Start to Continue is an amazing radio show that plays video game music and nerdcore, and we have the host and founder of the show Morlock as our guest! We talk about how the show came to be, the state of nerd music in 2013, OverClocked Remix, mc chris, the evolution of nerdcore, current acts we love, PAX East, and more! It's basically two nerds nerding out about nerd music. You can find out...

One of the emerging stars of the virtual concert era is Lacey Johnson . She can play nearly every instrument and has been thriving on YouTube and Twitch . We talk about that, Lacey's crazy content creation schedule, her desire to compose for video games, thoughts and theories on Final Fantasy VII Remake , her band Super MadNES , and more! Check out Lacey Johnson on youtube.com/laceyjohnsonmusic an...

Video game music, whether it be OSTs, remixes, or covers, are an industry now, and one of the labels at the forefront of this is Materia Collective, headed by our guest Sebastian Wolff. We talk to Sebastian on founding Materia Collective, his role in the game industry before that, significant albums Materia Collective has released, and the legal process of licensing rights from major game publishe...

Tokyo Elvis is may be one of the greatest performer names ever, and he also makes cute and catchy vocaloid tracks and video game remixes. We talk to the Orlando-based producer about his origins, linking up with DJ Cutman and Gamechops , Animal Crossing , Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , how vocaloid software works, and our various run-ins over the years. Get more Tokyo Elvis at tokyoelvis.ban...

Skyblew is an underdog in the world of nerdcore hiphop, but with his latest album Destined: The Realization and many other strong releases, his talent can no longer be denied. Kent talks to Skyblew about evolving as an artist, Skyblew's dedication to create, 90s cartoons, Avatar , thoughts on virtual concerts, the current situation with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter, and much more. Get more...