Interview :: Jonathan Coulton

I caught up with the “internet famous ” Jonathan Coulton to talk about music and videogames. If you want to see what JoCo thinks about musical subjects, head on over to Moon & Back Music and check out part one. Here’s part two and it opens with a tough question for Mr. Coulton.

AB: PS3 or 360?

JoCo: 360.

AB: We can never be friends.

JoCo: *laughs* I’m sorry. There wern’t enough games for the PS3 at the time. They caught up, but at the time the Xbox seemed like the way to go. I was very impressed by the [PS3] hardware. I was at E3 the year that they were both just about to come out. I went to both press events and the PS3 was amazing. I was all excited to get the PS3 and then when it came time to buy it there just wen’t the games that I wanted to play.

AB: That seems fair enough. Do you own one now?

JoCo: I still just have the 360 now. I may get a PS3, because now there are a number of games only on the PS3 that I would very much like to play.

AB: Indeed there is. My actual transition question between music and games (which hasn’t really worked out, has it) was that there are a lot of artists, people like Jack White and Nickelback who have said they don’t like games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Why do you think that is?

JoCo: I don’t know what you could possibly have against these games. It’s better than watching television. The reason why I like the games is they’re very social first of all and they actually take a great deal of skill. If you ever see a kid who’se really good at Rock Band playing a super-hard song on a super-hard level, it’s like they’re shredding on the guitar. It’s really hard to get that good. i think anything, I don’t care what it is, that requires many hours to master has got to be a good thing. Weather it’s guitar playing or knitting or videogames or baking cakes or rolling cigarettes. I don’t care what it is. I have great respect for somebody who has mastered a craft. Whatever that craft is. I’m not gonna make any valued judgement about the craft. In addition, I think it gets people interested in music. In playing music. It gives you kind of the feeling of playing in a group with other musicians. It does kinds feel like that. Also, it gets you to listen to stuff that you might not otherwise listen to. I think there’s a lot of classic rock songs that are in front of a lot more young people now than they would be. Guess what? Radio is dying. I have news for you, radio and print are both going to go away and what we’ll have left is Rock Band.

AB: It’s pretty clear where your allegience lies, but Rock Band or Guitar Hero?

JoCo: You know, I just don’t have Guitar Hero. I don’t know that I’ve ever played Guitar Hero. Is one better than the other?

AB: What’re your thoughts on DJ Hero?

JoCo: DJ Hero, I haven’t played. Just knowing that it exists, it sounds a little bit like, really? Is that gonna work as well as Rock Band. I don’t know. I haven’t played it, so I can’t say.

AB: Fair enough. Videogames-wise you’ve gone on tour at a really bad time, because Modern Warfare 2 just came out.

JoCo: That’s true.

AB: Have you brought any sort of game thing with you?

JoCo: No, I had to pack very light.

AB: Not even a DS?

JoCo: No. You know why? I had to fly here from Dublin and all the Irish airlines are really strict about weight. It’s 9 Euros every kilo you’re over the 20 kilo limit. Total, for your total baggage. It’s crazy, I can’t afford to carry a DS.

AB: And why would you want to?

JoCo: *laughs*

AB: An obvious question now. How did you get involved with Valve?

JoCo: I was playing a show in Seattle and a couple of people came up to me afterward and said they were fans and they worked at Valve. They said ‘would you ever want to write music for videogames?’ I said well sure, let’s talk. I went to their offices and turns out they were the team working on Portal. I got to play an early version of that game, I talked to the writer and we decided that day to create a musical number for GLaDOS to sing. Still Alive.

AB: Do you think that song increased your fanbase even more?

JoCo: Absolutely. It’s been a huge contributor. It’s one of those things that expanded the niche in a great way. I think there’s a much broader appeal and reach that song has than my music does alone.

AB: And it’s in Rock Band too.

JoCo: It’s in Rock Band, yeah. Although, I have some other songs in Rock Band too.

AB: All of which are great songs.

JoCo: Oh thank you

AB: RE: Your Brains is in Left 4 Dead 2 as well.

JoCo: In the jukebox, yeah.

AB: That came as a surprise to me when I played it a few weeks back. I shouldn’t say that, I shouldn’t be playing Left 4 Dead 2.

JoCo: Yeah, wait a minute *laughs*

AB: There’s a question for ya, straight off the top of my head, do you ever think Valve will start putting stuff on PS3?

JoCo: I don’t know. I can’t really speak for them. I assume the reason they don’t do it is because of thethe architecture. It’s a lot harder to port over. If you write for Xbox, you sort of automatically get Windows. When you write for PS3 sort of just get PS3. I’m sure it comes down to the dfevelopment costs and the time. I would guess it comes down to them preffering to have more games on fewer platforms.

AB: Which is a shame because I want to play Left 4 Dead 2.

JoCo: Well, maybe you should buy an Xbox

AB: Never! *laughs*

JoCo: *laughs*

AB: Finally, some more questions from Facebook. What was the first videogame you ever played?

JoCo: First videogame I ever played? Pong. I’m trying to think if I played anything before that. There was a cowboy shooting game that was an arcade game that I played once before there was Pong, but I don’t remember what it was called. It was like the first arcade game ever. I’m old. I’ve played them all.

AB: So what’s your favourite game then?

JoCo: My favourite game? That’s very hard. I hate to say it, Portal is my favourite game. Not because I’m in it. I think it’s a great game. I don’t even care about the song. I think the writing of that character is brilliant, I think the mechanic of the gameplay and the portal itself is brilliant, it was so well constructed. It was the right length, the right complexity, everything about it was perfect. I really think it’s one of the greatest games ever. Even as a person who was involved with it, when I first played it I was not in it *laughs* and I still loved it.

AB: I just realised, i’m wearing a Portal t-shirt.

JoCo: Yeah, that’s pretty nerdy.

AB: But, then again, i’m going to your concert.

JoCo: *laughs* that’s true.

AB: Finally, what’s your game of 2009 so far?

JoCo: Of 2009? Oh god, I don’t know if I’ve played any games in 2009. Lately, I’ve really been doing all my gaming on the iPhone. I haven’t really had a lot of time to do any console gaming. The last new console game  that I was really into was World Of Goo on the Wii. That was a really great game. Prior to that, Braid. Which I played on the Xbox, that’s really fantastic as well.

AB: Braid came to PS3 today.

JoCo: Finally made it’s way to PS3

AB: Us Europeans have to wait, at least, a week though.

JoCo: *laughs*

AB: I think that about wraps things up. Thank you Mr. Coulton.

JoCo: You’re very welcome.

AB: I do believe you are the first American I have interviewed in person.

JoCo: Really? How was it?

AB: It was really good actually.

JoCo: Good. Not all Americans are as nice as me. They’re very violent, most of them are cowboys *laughs*

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Thanks again to Jonathan Coulton for taking time out of his schedule to talk to me for half an hour. You can get all of JoCo’s music on his website and on iTunes.

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