The OneUps: Exclusive Interview

You’ve been around now for 13 years since your inception, was there ever a time in the first few years before your first album (Volume 1) in 2005, that you thought you wouldn’t make it?

William Reyes: To be perfectly honest, we’ve never thought of making it at all. We merely perform and record for fun while trying to receive a very modest financial gain. We always saw this as not only a fun musical outlet, but a great way to work with other musicians with the possibility of meeting new people everywhere we go!

WR: We have toyed with the idea of touring many times. We’ve only done one tour, and it was alongside Danimal Cannon, brentalfloss and Random Encounter. If we were to do it again, we would either do it along the east coast or a smaller tour around the midwest. We would love to do a European tour.

WR: We are always working on a new album it seems. haha. 

WR: Toe Jam and Earl games, if they make more..

WR The list of influences contains over 100 names, but a few are: Jamiroquai, Daft Punk, Parliament, Tom Jobim, James Brown, Hall and Oats, Player, Primus, Jerry Goldsmith, Bjork, Nine Inch Nails, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, The Bee Gees, Kool and the Gang…

I see through the feature that Escapist Magazine’s did about yourselves that the band started when yourself and Nathan McLeod (Saxophonist) talked about playing Super Mario Kart music in a band. Yet you’re Super Mario Kart album only came to fruition ten years after the bands inception. Did you want the first album to be worked on with every band member having creative input on it?

 

WR: Well, it was Mustin, William and Nathan who all talked about the possibility of playing the song: “Koopa Beach.” Every album has been a collaboration of the minds of all the members. 

 

Where do you see yourselves in the future?

WR: In the future we hope to have been more places, met more people and have more recordings available to the public!

 

What would you attribute your success to? What is it do you feel that separates you from other Video-Game based bands?

 

WR: Any success we’ve had has come from hard work. When the band started, Mustin worked very hard to make sure the band was noticed and he succeeded. As old members left and new members joined, we’ve continuously worked towards becoming better musicians and pushing the envelope of arranging video game music.