Ro speaks with Vaughn Rowles about the online game music convention, VGMCon, and the events taking place in person and online. They discuss the variety of performers, many game-music bands formed for the con, and panels hosted at the convention. They also discuss the Game Music Remix Awards as well as the VGM Album Jam for charity happening April 4th-7th, including ways for people to get involved with the convention worldwide.

Participants: Ro Panuganti (He/Him), Vaughn Rowles (He/Him)

Plugs:

https://www.vgmcon.org

https://vgmcon.org/activities/album-jam/

Ro speaks with Epic Game Music AKA James Ronald about his experiences on Youtube and in the video game/nerdcore music scene across a decade, his brand new Snowboard Kids Lo-Fi album, and perspectives on making a career in VGM. The two discuss their enjoyment of Nintendo 64's Snowboard Kids, MAGFest and ConBravo, playing guitar as a lefty, as well as finding shifts in styles as well as James' band Rex Viper.

Participants: Ro Panuganti (He/Him), James Ronald (He/Him)

Plugs:

https://www.youtube.com/EpicGameMusic

www.jamesronaldmusic.com

Ro speaks with Patti Rudisill about her experience creating "Voices in the Dark" and "Dear to the Heart", a Final Fantasy VII Double cover album with arrangements built around violin. They discuss interesting guests inclusions, her experience self-producing a variety of tracks, and how Final Fantasy VII: Remake has influenced arranging classic songs. They also discuss her experience with creating interesting music videos for Youtube, and fan theories for the title Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. SPOILER WARNING for Final Fantasy VII (1997) as well as Final Fantasy VII: Remake (2020) from 30:19-45:00, also marked in the podcast!

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Patti Rudisill

Plugs:

https://www.youtube.com/PattiRudisill

https://pattirudisill.com/dark-and-heart

Ro speaks with Alyssa Menes AKA AC Menes about working in game music, sound design, and arranging music for both rock and gaming symphonic groups. They chat about 60s/70s rock, great music coming from the New Jersey Gamer Symphony Orchestra, and what it's like to work on deep cut game music for performances. Lastly the two discuss the upcoming MAGFest music festival in National Harbor MD, what Alyssa plans for her show at the Belvedere, and the great experiences to be had. The show will be at the Belvedere Lobby Bar on January 19th at 2PM ET

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Alyssa Menes

Plugs:

https://acmenesmusic.com/

https://www.njgso.org/

Ro speaks with Brooke Ferd and Becca Michaelson about their upcoming panel "VGM in Music Education" to be shared at MAGFest 2024 in National Harbor, MD. The three discuss how the panel has grown through its presentation at teacher's conferences and VGMCon 2023, as well as how they've experienced music education as teachers. The trio enjoy the benefits of improving the classroom, inclusive music forms, and how engaging K-12 students with music helps inspire a long-term appreciation. The panel will be hosted Thursday, January 18th at 5:30PM ET at Panels 6.

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Brooke Ferd (Medllix), Becca Michaelson (flootiful)

Plugs:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Flootiful

https://www.youtube.com/@Medllix

https://www.youtube.com/@BeccaMichaelson

Ro speaks with Jay Kim, aka Ronin Op F, about his slew of collaborations, live performances at MAGFest and VGMCon 2023, and his brand new instrumental hip-hop album "Link's Restless Awakening". The two discuss the benefits of joining communities, preparations for good live shows, thoughts on genre "boxes", and how making albums can be therapeutic.

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Jay Kim AKA Ronin Op F

Plugs:

https://ffm.to/restlessawakening

https://twitter.com/roninopf

In a new formatted interview called Spicy Gamers, Ro interviews video game cover musicians, remixers, composers and similar folks while enjoying all things spicy and hot in life. In this episode, brass instrumentalist and arranger Allison Martin discusses the Kingdom Hearts' franchise and adopting 14 tracks into various big band jazz arrangements across the year. The two chat while eating progressively spicier wings from "Hot Ones Season 22"'s collection of sauces, including the world-record holding "The Last Dab Xperience" featuring the Pepper X with over 2 Million Scoville Units.

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Allison Martin

Plugs: https://allisonmartin.bandcamp.com/album/heart-seeker-a-kingdom-hearts-collection

Ro speaks with surf punk/rock and latin rock specialist Audio Mocha/Daniel Florez about his album "Seas of Destiny: A Xenoblade Tropical Tribute" as well as the genre and subculture of surf rock. The two discuss its impact, branching from its 1950s roots, and the many ways it can be arranged for video game music. They also discuss live video game music events and how arranging interesting guitar mods and performances has been, and how the album's creation helped improve various aspects of production.

Participants: Ro Panuganti, Audio Mocha

Plugs:

https://audiomocha.bandcamp.com/album/seas-of-destiny-a-xenoblade-tropical-tribute

https://www.audiomocha.com/