Chocobo Band – the Italian tribute band to Black Mages and Nobuo Uematsu’s music and art.
Interview conducted on October 16, 2020
By Dan Locke
Chocobo Bandis a true must for every Final Fantasy addicted out there!
What is your upbringing?
Everyone of us studied music during adolescence and even now we continue to study and practice.
How did you discover music?
We all grew up listening to all kinds of music, and in no time, it became our passion!
How did you start to write music?
In the beginning, we were a simple The Black Mages cover band (The Black Mages: one of Nobuo Uematsu’s bands which played songs taken from Final Fantasy games but rearranged them in Rock / Metal). As time passed, we wanted to interpret in a more peculiar way the songs we played, to become something else than a carbon-copy of The Black Mages themselves.
Today we play the majority of the songs in our rearranged versions.
How did your band come together and how was Final Fantasy put of it?
We all are big fans of the Final Fantasy saga. After attending a Nobuo Uematsu live show in Italy in 2007, we decided to create a band that would become a tribute to The Black Mages.
Why did you pick Chocobo as the band’s name?
The Chocobo was chosen because it is one of the recurring elements in the video game series. We wanted to have in the name a well-known reference of the saga without it being specific to either entry.
Is your fan base bigger than people who are into video games?
It would be wonderful if it really was like that… However, we are steadily growing on social networks, so maybe, one day… who knows! =)
What is your game system of choice and why?
Even if in the past FF was an exclusive of Nintendo NES and SNES, then of Sony Playstation, we do not have a true preference. We only want to play! =)
What was your first performance like?
It was a long time ago, but it was a really exciting evening! We worked for years to create a show that could do justice to The Black Mages’ performances, so to be able to go on stage after all that work and to receive such heartwarming feedback from the audience was incredible.
What makes a good songwriter?
Lots of Johnnie Walker Red Label and beer =)
Mike, are you still playing Schecter guitar since you were endorsed by them in the past?
[Mike:] Certainly! The “Choco-Guitar” with the band logo I am playing during live shows is a Schecter and I have been using it since the first live show with the band.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
We do not really have original songs, as the main focus of the band remains to play FF soundtracks, but, as we said before, we started rearranging the songs in a fresh way to see if we could manage to add a personal touch to them, with the first one being “Cid’s Theme” from FFVII. We invested a lot of time doing it and it resulted in a very positive feedback from our fans: that is why we decided to create two very different albums (which will come out shortly), one with the “standard” versions of the most famous songs and one with the rearranged versions of the songs we “felt” the most, with completely new musical sections and even original lyrics added. We hope that both of them will be liked!
All the band members have other projects going on. How does everyone have time for their own project and also Chocobo?
It is true, we have a lot of side projects ongoing. Zap and Kikko play together in Soul S Chains, Bea sings in Constraint and Mike plays in Aseptic White Age, just to make some examples. We are able to manage everyone’s tasks with strict scheduling and by using shared real-time instruments.
How did you come up with the saying “Don’t Drive Cars Ride Chocobo”?
It is a funny pun on the fact you should be using a Chocobo as a “green” choice instead of a polluting car as a transportation method =)
It is not our doing however, but a well-known figure of speech used for a long time by a lot of FF saga fans.
What is your favorite track on the album?
We love each one of our songs!
How do you stay healthy while touring?
We always try to enjoy ourselves, but we tend to keep an eye not to go overboard to not compromise the live performance, which is the most important thing for us.
What are you feeling about streaming music?
Streaming services are the main medium through which music is experienced nowadays, so, as the majority of bands and artists, we had to adopt this distribution method too. That being said, we all listen to a lot of music from those services, but we still love to have the physical version of albums too: this is why during our live shows and on our online shops you will always find our albums for sale.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Digital music surely granted a much larger fanbase to a lot of smaller artists by providing also an incredible quality of the songs, something that with the old physical media would have been impossible. However, we grew up with physical copies and listened to them on good hi-fi systems, which made us appreciate a lot of details and nuances that are lacking of digital media. That is especially true because digital music often listens via earbuds or even smartphone speakers directly!
There’s also a bonus value with the physical copies: you can appreciate a complete artwork conceived to match and deepen the musical concepts.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
It is without doubt “Metropolis – Part I” of Dream Theater! It is kind of a recurring theme in the band’s talks, like “What should we practice today?” “Metropolis!”, or “What was that passage like?” “Like the first solo of Metropolis!”, or even “What time is it? “Metropolis!” =)
How was your July 5th show?
It was wonderful to go back to the stage with the band as a whole after a lot of months and see that the audience’s enthusiasm did not drop at all. Actually, it was even bigger, despite all the time that passed.
You also did the Otherworld Covid Edition. How was that?
Since the Lockdown did not allow us to see us in person to play together, we did as many other bands do: we played a home-made version of the songs Otherworld and Rose of May as a sign of kindness and support to all our fans.
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
We already are in the future, and the music business (and not only that) has to adapt in the best possible ways right now, waiting for the world situation to become better as soon as possible.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
We continued to work at home on the new albums which will be out soon.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
[Mike:] I rediscovered sweep picking and LEGOs =)
[Rick:] I got back to online gaming with friends… and now it is very difficult to go back to normal life =)
[Zap:] During lockdown my favourite hobbies were: suffering (for not being able to go out), doing yoga, listening to new bands and doing a lot of nerd stuff… which basically is the same stuff I do every day =)
95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and just using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?
We do not have a favourite one: there is not one of them in which you can find all the shows you like, so we use them all at once!
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October, that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses. The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only. How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
We think that live streams are and will be an important channel both for bands and for fans. If it will be no longer possible to stream on Facebook, the streams will simply move on some other platform.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merch to them at the show?
That is exactly why live streams are needed. Moreover, at the present day, fans of the bands can buy merchandise 24/7 on their online stores.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
We still prefer to play live and feel the cheers of a big crowd of real people.
If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Probably lay on the couch all day playing an old Final Fantasy game with a huge can of beer beside us =)
Anything you would like to say in closing.
We want to thank you all and all our fans! We cannot wait to show you the material from the new albums! =)
#StayChocobo
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