Gamesylvania

It’s the end of Day 2 at PAX East. I’m walking towards the main theater to watch the Saturday night concert in the Hynes Convention Center when I hear music coming from the end of the hallway. As I get closer, I can see the source of the music: a cosplayer looking like a Mega Man boss, sitting with a laptop, a set of powered speakers and a digital effects box. The music is a mix of chiptune/video game music set to hip-hop, dance beats and vocals. The man introduces himself as DJ Cutman and hands me a card. “All my music’s free online!” he says.

There aren’t a lot of folks around at the moment, just a bunch of gamers lounging on Sumo chairs — one girl appears to be asleep. A small group of gamers are playing Settlers of Catan while most are on their DSs, PSPs and whatever else. Everyone is chilling out, listening to the music and having a good time. I decide this is the perfect time to do an interview as I sit down on the floor next to Cutman and start asking questions.

“So what do you?” I ask.

“I am a video game and chiptune DJ,” he says. “I play music made from video games or made out of video games.”

“What’s your favorite game to take samples from?” I ask.

“I’m a big fan of Mega Man — being DJ Cutman.” I admit I felt stupid asking a guy dressed like a boss from Mega Man what his favorite game was, but you never know — maybe he was more of a Pac-Man guy? He continues, “The compositions are great! The first 6 games? I could listen to that any time. I love it!”

“Which Mega Man is your favorite?”

“I think Mega Man 2 or 3.”

“Yeah?”

“3′s got a special place in my heart. You can charge now, your dog looks cool…”

I shake my head and laugh, “I can never remember which one is which.”

“It’s like a big, blue blur,” he says, and we both laugh.

“Yeah, like, from 1 straight on to, what, 10, now?”

“Yeah, yeah! I just got 10; I haven’t beat it yet. I was so stoked when 9 came out, I was like, just searching old school, and then sorta started playing this sort of music just for me because I wanted to hear like, you know, old stuff with like, high-end production and like, cool beats and stuff. And people just started lovin’ it, so I’m just out here right now, just playing on my little speakers. You know? Gettin’ the music out there!”

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Been doing this for only about three months.”

“How much money have you invested in it? Like, I can you see you’ve got the computer set up and a [Korg] Kaoss Pad and…”

“Well, I work in a recording studio, so some of this gear isn’t totally mine… but the studio’s letting me borrow it just to sorta get a feel around here. The Kaoss Pad is mine. But if someone wanted to get a situation like this set up, I’d say about five, six hundred dollars. I got a MBox 2 for recording and the Kaoss Pad for effects. Got my monitor speakers for mixing and playing out and the laptop computer.”

“Do you do this on stage?”

“I’ve played a few gigs up in New York — a few little DJ sets, short stuff. Some house parties and little openers and stuff like that, but I haven’t ever played to a big stage. I played something like this at Magfest. I was at the SickDamage.com Death Panel, which was a panel discussion that they changed into a big dance party. And that was one of the first places I performed as DJ Cutman, throwing down a little bit of stuff. And I got a good response — people were enjoying it; people were having a good time.
After I got back to New York I sorta gathered all my stuff and thought about what exactly do I need to bring with me to do this — play it out. I was waiting to get booked places, I was waiting to get booked here at PAX. I wasn’t hearing back; people would not call me back. They would say something and do something else, and I just wanted to get the music out, so I thought, what would be the best way to do that? Take some speakers and the computer I’m making it on and just go out. So, at PAX, the first thing I did was this thing right here.”

“How long have you been here, tonight?”

“About 2 1/2 hours.”

“Oh, yeah? No one’s given you any problems about it yet?”

He shakes his head and smiles, “No! All the of the Enforcers are about the coolest dang people in the world! They’re rockin’ out, like, YEAH!”

“That’s really cool; they’re great people.”

“I heard that I shouldn’t go down by the strategy games because those kids need their focus.”

“Yeah, it’s all that math and stuff…” we laugh. “So, where do you get your ideas?”

“THE GAMES, man!” he says, smiling.

“Well, I mean, who influences you?

“I always dug the old Mega Man music, but I heard a lot of remix stuff and OCRemix — the OverClock Remix — for like, years now. I’ve always loved video game music. I feel good when I’m playing games, I just listen to the music to feel good, too, and all the remixes are so sweet, people have recomposed and reworked and recreated all these classic themes and stuff, you know? I’ve always loved that. I’ve tried a few myself, but it takes a lot of time to get a really good composition and stuff that I’d actually be really happy with. But I just really wish that someone would just take the original, delicious chip music that I love from the game and just put a phat beat behind it, put a bassline, make it groove and make me something that I can listen to without feeling kinda guilty about it. Not that I don’t walk around listening to Mega Man 1 through 6 on my iPod.” I nod in agreement — I’ve got a few of the Mega Man soundtracks on my iPod, too.

“So, do you have a parting message or philosophy to live by?”

“If you like it, do it. That’s what I’m doing!”

And he does it well. On the laptop, you can see each track, each loop and sample running. The Kaoss Pad looks like a giant mouse pad with glowing red squares, and by placing his fingers on it and sliding them around, he can stop the music, suspend it, pull it back and let it go. He can adjust filters and manipulate the sound — slow it down, speed it up, dull it to a whisper or powerfully surge it out of the speakers. He makes it look so easy…

A steady stream of people approach him to check out his setup, take a look at his costume, grab a card and listen to the music. Our interview barely finishes when a crowd of people come walking down the hallway — the last of the live panels has let out. They begin to crowd around and, for a moment, it’s like a junior high school dance — everyone just standing around, not sure what to do. Suddenly, one brave soul — a girl in jeans and grey t-shirt — steps out of the crowd and starts dancing. Before long, she’s joined by another, then several more. As the music pumps, the dance party goes full tilt. An impromptu rave has broken out on the third floor of the convention center. Men, women, people in costumes, people taking pictures and shooting video — everyone is having a good time. It’s one of those moments that just happens, and it’s exactly why we love PAX.

Here’s a clip I shot on my camera. Enjoy! And be sure check out DJ Cutman’s website.