Exclusive interview with Dave from BOY IN A BAND

Well folks! I’m back again with another exclusive interview with another famous youtube personality. I’d like to take this brief opportunity to thank Dave for taking time out of his schedule to conduct this interview. He’s currently in Greece eating all the olives in sight and plotting world domination. You better read this before he invades.

So let’s get this started!

Okay.

Of course, I have to start this interview by asking, what is your favourite game?

I feel like one of those parents that has to decide which child should live when an oppressive regime forces their country through a severe war and they don’t have the resources to smuggle all of their offspring to safety.   You know that feeling?   I think in this case I’d be sending Final Fantasy VIII – It was the first game I really fell in love with.   Something about the weirdness of the world, the depth of the characters and the beauty of those FMV sequences.   Don’t get me wrong, I love plenty of games for gameplay’s sake, but this was just like an incredible interactive novel and I’d never played anything like it at the time.

And what can you remember about your first experience with gaming? 

I can remember being given a SEGA Master System for my 5th-ish birthday, and being told by my mom not to put the cartridge into the console until my dad got home to “help me”, you know, in case I messed it up somehow, and being stuck playing the horrifically difficult “Alex Kidd in Miracle World” until my father assisted with the complexities of moving Sonic 1 from its box into the console.   To be fair, I didn’t break the cartridge when I put it in – perhaps they helped me dodge a landmine there.

Which video game related memory would you say is your fondest then?

Playing 16 player Halo with 4 Xbox’s and a bunch of my coolest friends on my 18th birthday was a great one – I’m way happier I did that than getting paraplegic in a club and contracting some form of STI, which as I understand is the conventional method of celebration.

Another question you probably saw coming is, what video games series, if any do you hold close to your heat?

I’ve already mentioned FF so I’ll save a different child from the clutches of war this time – Shenmue was a massively underrated game that really captured my imagination, and it’s a crying shame that only 2 of the planned 3 games were released.   Another one where I got violently attached to the main character, despite his insistence on using the phrase “I see.” in response to practically everything.   “Your girlfriend has been kidnapped by the people that killed your father, and you’ll have to fight like 200 of them to get her back!” “I see.”

Sometimes finishing a game can be a hell of a challenge, like Fallout New Vegas on hardcore or Halo 1 on legendary. What would be your greatest achievement in your gaming life? 

I have a BSc in Computer Games Design and Computer Games Programming, how’s that?

In regards to your musical content, two personal favourites of mine are the collaborative tracks performed by you and “NoneLikeJoshua”. I’m of course talking about the Street Fighter & Sonic raps. Was that a good experience?

It was difficult working with Josh, he has a massive diva complex… he kept asking me to make my raps worse so he didn’t look so bad in comparison, but other than that it was great.   The Sonic dubstep rap was actually one of the first major collaborations I did on my YouTube channel and Josh and I have been skyping regularly ever since.   It was great to reminisce with someone on the other side of the world about something we both associated so strongly with positive childhood memories and it encouraged me to base the majority of my channel on doing collaborations with other talented YouTubers.

Josh also let this slip in his interview “We’re working on some new ones to come out this year as well.” does this mean we should expect more video game related content?

It does, and it also means Josh should hurry up and write his verses.

Now that we’re talking about it, your music is phenomenal. Who was it that influenced you to  create such amazing music?

I initially wanted to make crap music, but my friends suggested I make phenomenal music instead – something about people being more likely to enjoy it – so I gave it a try and it really worked.   I’ve been influenced by lots of great producers – generally ones that work with multiple genres of music. I’ll limit the list to three in case you want to do any listening: Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park), Klayton (Celldweller) and Misha Mansoor (Periphery).

I’ve also seen some of your footage from when you played at Download. Being a fan of nearly every aspect of the metal genre I was amazed at your performance, what was it like playing at such an massive event?

My band You And What Army have played Download Festival 3 years running now and each time it’s a huge rush.   I thoroughly enjoy making the metalhead crowd explore their appreciation for Electronic Dance Music, and each time they have really gone for it.   Nothing like seeing 2000 metal fans doing the “big fish little fish cardboard box” dance before jumping into them and causing a huge mosh pit with a guy in a banana costume.

Your YouTube channel, Boy in a Band has close to 70’000 subscribers and in excess of 15 million video views!Do you not feel pressured, knowing that so many people are building their own opinions of your musical prowess? 

It’s funny because I built it as a kind of side project to You And What Army, and I always thought I could do whatever I want with it.   Now it’s actually become more popular but fortunately I’ve maintained my “Why the hell not?” attitude with regards to types of content, so no pressure really.   Also, I tend to naturally balance it between releasing all the styles I’m interested in because I get bored of doing the same genre for too long.

I imagine that the more ignorant portion of YouTube tend to take issue with your music, and criticize you for “not playing real instruments”. Now I know you can play the guitar and the drums rather competently and I know for  myself that using pads and music making programs can be tough as old boots. Does it not get disheartening receiving all this negative feedback? 

No, it’s great – It gave me an excuse to make this and get a crapload of subscribers from like-minded people.

You post a decent amount of social commentary and comedic skits which are thick with humour, do you have an interest in performing comedy or is this just the laughs?

I’d love to try stand-up one day.   One of my favourite aspects of performing live is the between-song banter, though I imagine it’s a frickin’ stressful thing to do when you haven’t got music to break up the silliness.

Is there anything that you would like to say to your audience? 

I applaud your exquisite taste in online entertainment.

And there you have it folks. Some ….well lets just say words and skip the wise part shall we?

You can find and subscribe to Dave here on his YouTube channel alongside all his Boyinaband content.

In the meantime, kick up your feet and have an earful of this.

Enjoy!!

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