Como forma de homenagear o nome do website, pensámos que seria interessante entrevistar algumas das personalidades da música pesada/alternativa e tentar saber um pouco mais sobre a sua relação com os videojogos.
Os nossos sétimos entrevistados são os Master Sword.
MoshBit Gaming – Hi! First of all I want to thank you for your availability to take part on our interview series. Could you start by telling us who are Master Sword and what genre of music do you play?
Matt Farkas (founder, guitarist, co-writer) – Thanks for having us, Moshbit! Master Sword is a 5 piece band from the USA that plays heavy metal music – we dabble in a lot of different sub-genres, but we’ve often been described as power metal, progressive metal, or just traditional heavy metal. Our music takes a lot of inspiration from the classic video game series The Legend of Zelda, both in the music and especially in the lyrics.
MBG – There are a lot of interesting games with phenomenal soundtracks and lore. Why did you choose TLOZ among all the other series?
Matt – Zelda is probably my all-time favorite game series, so if I was going to do this with a single franchise in mind, I figured I better pick one I really love. Another reason is that the fantasy tropes common in heavy metal music already makes Zelda stories easy to digest for your average metal head. They’re kind of a perfect match, I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before!
MBG – What I really like about your music is that you don’t limit yourselves to play basic covers, you go one step further and compose even more complex tracks. Can you tell us about the band’s composing process?
Matt – How it usually goes is one band member will come forward with a song idea: in Lily’s case a vocal melody and some basic lyrics, in the rest of our cases usually a semi-written to mostly written instrumental piece. If it’s one of Lily’s songs, I’ll try to write a guitar part under it that fits with what she’s doing, if it’s mine or Kojo’s or Shawn’s song then Lily will write vocals and lyrics to what we wrote. Along the way a lot of changes are made, a lot of arguments had, but at the end of the day we always end up with a pretty awesome piece of music.
Kojo Kamya (lead guitarist, co-writer) – In my case, once I have the itch to write something, riffs usually flow like water until I either run out of ideas or I get a demo done. I then share those ideas with the others and they give feedback and suggestions about what to change if necessary. In an interesting case, our song “Forgotten in Stone” off The Final Door album was written in one sitting by me, and we ended up not changing anything structurally about it for the final release.
MBG – How important do you think a soundtrack is to a game?
Matt – Oh, it’s the difference between a good game and a great game for sure. I can only speak for myself personally, but all the games I remember the most from my youth had some killer soundtracks. That can’t be a coincidence. Then again, if you’re going to spend your sweat and blood and money making a fantastic game, I suppose giving it a lackluster soundtrack doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. lol
Kojo – As a musician, music is very important to me in games. I always pay attention to the music in games I play, and I love a good soundtrack. And like Matt said, the music can elevate a game from a good one to a great one.
MBG – If you had a side-project based on another gaming series, what would it be and why?
Matt – Metroid. No doubt. You’ll get a different answer depending who you ask in the band, though. For me, Metroid is the pinacle of eerie sci-fi music that can still get your blood pumping. So many catchy melodies.
Kojo – I’m very fond of the Tales of series of RPGs, as well as the Persona RPGs, so probably one of those series. I do in fact cover other game music and anime music in my solo project, Karma Houdini.
MBG – What are some of your biggest musical influences?
Matt – Early Genesis, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Metallica, Dream Theater, and The Beatles for myself. A pretty wide spectrum of stuff, all changing depending on my mood. Lily’s into bands like Queen, Helloween, and other power metal groups from the 80’s to recent. Kojo and Andy are big into modern prog, and Shawn is our heavy guy – the heavier the better. Lots of different influences, but they seem to mesh well in the writing!
Kojo – I got into progressive metal and that type of music around the time I picked up guitar back in 2008, so I think a lot of the bands I started listening to in my high school years still have a formative impact on me today. Bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, etc. I also grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Boston, and Carlos Santana, as well as a lot of Latin American and African music, so those all influence me to a degree.
MBG – If you had to choose a TLOZ game as your all-time favorite, which one would it be and why?
Matt – I usually go with Majora’s Mask for this one, for its uniqueness, strangeness, and darker story points it brings to the table. Runners up are Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild, and Wind Waker.
Kojo – Probably Breath of the Wild or Link Between Worlds. BotW for its open-ended gameplay; you really feel like you can go anywhere and do stuff however and whenever you want. And since pretty much everything is optional, it is one of the most freeing experiences I’ve had in a game.
MBG – What are your expectations for TLOZ: Breath of the Wild 2?
Matt – I try not to have many. I really want a way to repair broken weapons and a better story. Everything else about Breath of the Wild was fantastic and I’d really just like more of that.
Kojo – I hope that they expand the world in an unexpected way. I hope that we go to space, underground, or both! The castle looked like it might fall, or might be taking off? Would also be cool to get to play as Zelda in an integral capacity.
MBG – What are Master Sword’s plans for the future? Any chance of coming to Portugal?
Matt – I’m glad you asked! We recently launched a Patreon, actually, to help better fund the band for new music and videos, as well as get things like guitar tab and highly requested custom merch items into the hands of fans. We’re currently planning to release a collection of singles throughout next year, several new music videos, a new album, and although it seems aways off, we do hope to tour again as soon as humanly (and safely) possible. We have a big target over Europe! It’s a dream of ours, and we definitely want to include Portugal in those plans when they’re ready to be drawn up. No promises, but we’re crossing our fingers!
If you’re interested in checking out our Patreon, you can find it here: http://www.patreon.com/mastersword
Kojo – We would all love to play overseas sometime in the future, Portugal included. Can’t say for sure when it will happen, but fans can support us on our new Patreon or by buying merchandise and music! The funds will help us be able to afford overseas shows and other things!
MBG – I want to thank you once again for accepting to give us this interview. Anything else you want to say? Any comments?
Matt – Just that we appreciate the chance to sit down and answer your questions, as well as your interest in the group! We wish you and your readers the best, and stay safe out there!
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