MAGFest 8: Interview with Mustin from The OneUps

Gabe – I’m Gabriel Pendleton with BaltimoreGamer.com and I’m here with Mustin from The OneUps. They just rocked out last night. Without further ado we’ll talk to him a little bit, give you a chance to know what’s going on with The OneUps. So Mustin, the first question we actually had for you guys is tell us a little bit about the band. How were you formed and everything?

Mustin – Well, we’re from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and it’s called The OneUps, and we play video game music, and that’s pretty much the story.

Gabe – Well also talk about the different shows you’ve been to and also the popularity from when you first started to how it is now.

Mustin – Well it first started here, at MAGFest in 2002, that was our first live show. We’d done a recording as a group, but it was the first show at MAGFest 2002, here we are 2010 and this is our like sixty-something-ith show. We’ve done everything from playing at some people we don’t know’s wedding to playing at PAX for 7000 people, so it’s been pretty crazy. And even still, playing at PAX the first time for 5000 people, literally a week later back home in Fayetteville, Arkansas playing in a bar for my buddy who’s just sitting there and my sister who’s sick, and then like eight people playing pool in the back, you know? It’s so crazy. It’s so much fun to go somewhere where you know people are going to like what you do. And then it’s rough going back home to the bar scene where people just wanna hear hip-hop. It’s crazy.

Gabe – So what about the popularity? Like the fan feedback and stuff like that?

Mustin – Oh man, it’s great, you know? It’s good to have a lot of fans all over – all over the world, and people come from so far to see us and it’s great to just meet with people that like the same music that we do.

Gabe – Everybody know you guys play video game music and everything, but what about the traditional bands and other gaming bands that have inspired you guys.

Mustin – Well, I started The OneUps because there wasn’t like the funky jazz and all the different other styles being represented too much. Back when we started there was The Minibosses who rock, and the NESkimos who rock, you know, it was mostly just rockin’ bands so I got that going but then now there’s so many awesome bands. I remember getting a MySpace friend request from a band called Armcannon and then I was like “Great, another band” you know? “Just another band.” And I clicked on it. I looked, the first song that they do is the Super Mario World castle, which is the one that we usually start with like every show. It’s like “Great, let’s hear them screw this up.” And I clicked on it and I was blown away. From that minute I’ve been an Armcannon fan big time, helping them out every way I can. I love Select Start, The Megas are awesome, Rare Candy, Entertainment System, I mean there’s just so many bands, The Smash Brothers, and there’s just great video game music bands out there, Metroid Metal is just amazing, so I mean I love them all.

Gabe – So are you a gamer yourself?

Mustin – [laughs]

Gabe – If you are… I mean you should be, but what’s your favorite game?

Mustin – My favorite game? Probably Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI. Favorite game soundtrack is probably Streets of Rage 2. I love playing that one, sit down, just beat ‘em up, you know? Super Mario Kart is the only… Like, I’m terrible at video games, terrible. Whenever we play live we got a DVD that goes with it and it shows a little bit of the footage of the game because it helps you remember like “Oh, now I remember this music.” Because sometimes we mess up the music, you know? So it’s not exactly the same. And you see the video. But it’s always me playing those games in the video, and sometimes in the game I’ve never played before and the character dies in like the first twenty seconds and I’m terrible at games. Except Super Mario Kart. I will destroy somebody in Super Mario Kart, man. So, not too big on games, I mean as far as playing them, but I listen to the music all the time.

Gabe – The last question we had for you is, if there was one show and you could only play songs from one game at this show, what would it be?

Mustin – That’s a cool question. Um… I’d have to pick like… Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy VI. I guess probably VI because it has so much diversity to it. And I was just thinking about it today and there’s the tune from the opera house, before it gets going, and nobody’s ever covered it, you know? I started arranging it in my head on the way here on the airplane. I mean, there’s just so much stuff in that game that hasn’t been done so I would say that, because the soundtrack is like three hours anyway, so that would fill up a pretty good show.

Gabe – So tell the fans who might be watching this, how can they get a hold of The OneUps’ music?

Mustin – At theoneups.com, T-H-E O-N-E U-P-S dot com. Get the music at theoneups.bandcamp.com. That’s the best place to go. It’s better that iTunes and Amazon because you can listen to the whole album, you can listen to all the music, it’s not just the 30 second sample. And then when you guy it, you can download FLAC, OGG, pick your MP3 style, Apple Lossless, so you get whatever format you want. And it’s just a really cool place, it’s theoneups.bandcamp.com and then our website is theoneups.com where you can kinda spring off and find us on The Sixtyone, our Facebook group and stuff like that.

Gabe – Ok well Mustin, thank you for interviewing with BaltimoreGamer.com.

Mustin – Yeah man, I appreciate it.