In Part Eight of this exclusive interview originally published for Suite101.com, Brad Stanton and Dave Marshall of the Nintendo® cover band THWOMP chat about fun and food.
Inspired by the music of video game composers Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros) and more, Nintendo® cover band THWOMP share their music with gaming enthusiasts young and old at various geeky events.
Brad and Dave from THWOMP took a break from their Animethon 17 and CD release preparations to chat with me when I was a Contributing Writer for Suite 101.com. In this final installment, they discuss cosplay, food and shout-outs.
When you guys to gigs, do you dress up as characters?
Dave: "We want to. It’s a lot of work."
Brad: "There’s so many other things we have to do to get a gig going. Especially during a convention show…We really, really want to have some wicked cosplay stuff, but we don’t ever seem to have the time to pull it together. We have done some stuff. We did the “mad scientist” thing at one show and wore lab coats and crazy glasses. That was pretty fun. We should resurrect that one day, maybe."
The group dreams of having a show big enough to warrant costume changes between sets. "It would be awesome, but you’d need a whole production crew to do that," said Brad. "Then you’d need a budget that’s three times as big as ours."
Asking THWOMP About Favorite Snack Food
Dave: "Sushi. It could be breakfast. It could be lunch. It could be dinner. It could be a midnight snack."
Brad: "Well then, how would you not pick sushi every time? There’s no other answer, now that sushi is available."
Brad admits to favoring salty foods. "Brad has this thing called the “salt lust”," explained Dave. "Where there’s a bag of chips open and they’re not long for the world."
Anything else that you want fans to know? Future fans?
Dave: "Just our website."
Brad: "Oh, I see you have THWOMP in all caps, all the time on the page. That’s good. That’s important...A lot of people write it in lower case and put an exclamation mark after it and that drives me completely insane."
Any shout outs? Anyone you want to say thank you to? Acknowledge?
Dave: "Jenny Chan of Otafest and Adam [Scheopp] from Animethon. And Shawn [Hansen] from Otafest too."
Brad: "Yeah. Those guys have been good to us...and all of our parents for buying us Nintendo®’s."
More About THWOMP
THWOMP is a Nintendo® band comprised of Calgarians Brad Stanton (lead guitar), Colin Mitchel (lead guitar), Scott Munro (bass), Scott Moffat (drums), David Marshall (keyboards/percussion) and Kirk McVean (keyboards).
In the fall of 2010, THWOMP will host its debut CD release party in Calgary, Alberta. Many of these classic NES video game tunes will appear on the band's CD.
Nintendo® cover band THWOMP share their music with gaming enthusiasts young and old at a variety of gigs. Their primary focus is to perform for enthusiastic fans at anime conventions and comic-cons; and they dream of performing at the Penny Arcade Expo. For more information about THWOMP, the band or to listen to audio clips, visit their website and Myspace page.
Full interview series: Part 1 – THWOMP’s Origins | Part 2 – Band Names & Niches | Part 3 – Songwriting | Part 4 - Hey! Listen! CD Release | Part 5 - On Gigs | Part 6 - Convention Gigs | Part 7 - Video Games | Part 8 - Fun & Food