[1:15]

Andrew Aversa: Alright, we are here live at the Doubletree Hotel, across from the Miriam Theater right after Video Games Live, very cool! So anyway, we’re here with Markus Henderson and you may not recognize the name at first, he’s not a video game composer exactly, but if you’ve played Guitar Hero you know this guy. This is the guy behind it, and actually we want to ask what was the extent of your involvement with this game?

Markus Henderson: Guitar Hero I or Guitar Hero II?

Aversa: Both of them.

Henderson: We’re kinda in the middle of a cycle now. We’re about to put out GH2. GH1 I was merely a player. I was brought in to record the songs; I did twenty out of the thirty licensed tracks in the game including ‘Decontrol’, which is my band’s original song. For Guitar Hero II somehow I got bumped up to the adult table – no longer sitting at the kids table – and I am actually on the music selection committee, so I choose the music that goes in Guitar Hero II as well as going and playing it and then coming out to talk to [pause] rad kick-ass dudes like yourselves.

Aversa: [laughs] Awesome. So…

Henderson: [Shouting to Dave] What’s up pretzel? Yo!

[2:23]

Aversa: We’ve got djpretzel here also. So whats your favorite guitar player, modern times, do you have any influences right now?

Henderson: Yeah, you know what, there’s some metal guys that I’m really into. I really like John Donais from Shadows Fall, I think he’s a great player. Steve (Smyth) and Jeff (Loomis) from Nevermore are great players. You’re going like ‘who the hell are you talking about?’ And that’s the thing ‘cause like, there’s a lot of good players that chances are your listening audience hasn’t even heard of so if I mention their names maybe they’ll go out and discover them.

Jillian Golin: Definitely.

Aversa: Sure.

Henderson: So yeah, Nevermore has some great guitar playing, Shadows Fall is amazing guitar playing. Unearth has some really good guitar playing. You know what? Even Killswitch (Engage) has some great guitar playing.

Aversa: Oh sure, I’ve heard of them.

Henderson: So yeah, Adam Dutkiewicz, he’s a good player. So as far as like, the modern guys, those are the guys that I admire. I don’t know if this is name dropping but I’m buddies with a guy named Buckethead, and he’s one of my favorite guitar players in the world. I’ve got a rich history of music appreciation so it goes all the way back to like, diggin’ on guys like Jeff Beck, I really love Jeff Beck. Jimi Hendrix, I mean no brainer, do I even have to say it?

Averas: ‘Course.

Henderson: If I was in any band – God - what could I say I mean there’s so many great bands; Kings X, Voivod, Iron Maiden, you know what I mean? So take me back to the days and give me a spot in Iron Maiden and I think I’d be pretty stoked.

[3:47]

Goldin: What do you think about The Black Mages?

Henderon: [In Canadian accent] Yah, they’re good, eh? [everyone laughs] Alright, that’s a made up band! Come on, you just came up with that one. No no, they’re awesome actually. We’re in the process of reviewing a lot of bands that have a lot of GH potential so the good thing is I’m getting a lot of submissions from a lot of labels that are so down with what we do, they want to give us a chance to get their artists in the game. Conversely, some of the artists that we’re receiving have no chance in hell of ever making it into the game. And it’s not because they’re not good players, it’s because they just don’t come from the same, sort of like rock/metal ethos that we have and that just keeps the game at the highest level, consistently, at all time. I mean, one bad song could screw our entire franchise up and we’re not gonna do that. So Guitar Hero one I was merely a player. ‘Merely’ I say, uh…

Goldin: You were pretty awesome!

Aversa: Yeah, that is pretty good.

Henderson: I did twenty to thirty songs on Guitar Hero one and Guitar Hero II, I’m on the selection committee and then I go play ‘em, and then we ship it out to Harmonix, they encode it. You know, every so often Tommy Tallerico calls and says ‘Dude, can you fly out to Philly?’ And when Tommy calls, you drop your beer, you drop your joystick, your girlfriend. Whatever it is, it gets dropped, it hits the ground and you move. So when Tommy calls; I deliver. Tommy called, and here I am.

Goldin: Booty call.

Henderson: Booty call. Guitar call.

[5:14]

Aversa: Actually, I got one last question. Now that we’re talking about video games music at Video Games Live, is there a soundtrack that you think could do with like a nice heavy metal re-arrangement, like go through and remix all those in that style?

Henderson: Well what you guys do, I mean OC ReMix is so sick but its like, what you can do with GH is just pretty much infinite ‘cause we’re constantly gonna be updating new artists and playable songs. So basically, I would say that there’s a lot of heavy metal songs that lend themselves to a future remix. So are you alluding to something perhaps maybe that you’re going to think about doing?

Aversa: I don’t know…

Henderson: Get pretzel over here! [shouts] Yeah Pretzel! Alright.

Aversa: [laughs] Awesome.

Henderson: No, we’re rockin’.

Goldin: Booth buddies.

Henderson: Yeah, pretzel and I signed together, we were together at the signing booth together. We became fast friends, we can smell our own I think.

Goldin: Word. Well thanks you so much for being on the show

Henderson: Thanks for having me. Yeah. OCR. Rock on!

Goldin: He was doing the little horn sign there. Just to let you guys know.

Henderson: Yeah, you can’t see this but I literally have my index finger and my pinky out right here giving the rock signal to trixie, so rock it back trixie. No wait, even better.

Goldin: Look at my pathetic pinky.

Henderson: Check this out, Tony Hawk taught me this. Ready? Okay. Rock lock.

Aversa: Wow, I haven’t seen that one before.

Goldin: You almost broke my pinky there.

Henderson: Of course! That’s what heavy metal does. It breaks hearts and it breaks pinkies.

Goldin: [giggles]

Aversa: Alright, thanks.

Henderson: Thanks, man.

[6:50]