Sanger’s efforts to elevate and inspire the game music community include the recently launched GamePlayMusic™ project and his Annual Interactive Music Conference known more tastily as Project Bar-B-Q, an interactive music "think tank" held every year on a ranch outside of Austin, Texas. More than just a flashy guy with an ironic moniker (he’s actually very slim) in a Nudie suit (his trademark dress attire), Sanger is a true game music emissary.

FM: I was very eager to get into games because I liked very few things as much as games. I liked sex, music, and games, I think in that order. I might have had equal chances at making a living at any of the three at the time. Not at the same time.

The great trailblazers The Beatles seemed to be the best role models I could see—everything about them seemed to make me feel very good. Hoping to be able to do the same for others, I groomed myself as a rockstar. But everything in Rock and Roll seemed to have been done already, and I saw no frontiers there—no way to blaze trails. Games like Asteroids and Missle Command seemed to represent something fresh and new, and, unlike music, alien to parents. It was attractive to me that there were no ads in magazines or TV enticing us to play electronic games. That would have been like seeing ads for playing pool or darts. It was something we just did and liked. I swore I’d take any chance to get into the business, even if it meant emptying trash cans for free.

The lucky moment came when I offered to empty those trash cans for my brother’s roommate, Dave Warhol, who was later to found Realtime Associates. Instead of the cans, he offered me a chance to write a piece of music for an Intellivision game he was working on. I very willingly took the opportunity. The next chance to work on a game came from my ex-girlfriend’s brother-in-law, Paul Edelstein. The next came from some high school kids working on a demo cart for the Atari 800. Hmmm. Where are they now?

As Dave became successful with Realtime Associates, he subcontracted out most of his music to me, and that eventually included the wonderful opportunity to work with Brian Moriarty and transcribe ("port?") Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake to MIDI for the game Loom.

At the time, it should be remembered, there was almost no competition at all. Writing music for games was considered to be at the artistic level of, say, writing the tones that tell the McDonalds’ workers that the french fries are ready. Dave Warhol eventually gained the rep as being pretty much America’s "game music guy." This might have been partly because he was one of the few people able to develop audio for Gameboy and NES, and partly because of his excellent musical sensibilities. It was because of that that the folks at Origin called him to see if he would do music for their new game, Wing Commander. Dave said he wasn’t doing music much anymore, and suggested they call his ol’ subcontractor, The Fat Man.

FM: Obscure, yes. And the rest might be true, too. I guess it would depend on your definitions of the words "a," "top," "candidate," "for," "the," and the rest of the dictionary. I write a lot of music, and a lot of people listen to it. And I try to do right by those people, seeing as often they don’t have much of a choice!

FM: "Sometimes, your Walk is your Way." I think maybe there is one system per person trying to get into the field. If you take responsibility for creating a system that works for you, and that might work for others, and pass your knowledge along, that would be good.

Remember, although there are hundreds, maybe thousands in it, we are in a young field. NOBODY IN THE FIELD OF AUDIO FOR GAMES HAS EVER DIED. So, while it does do some good to seek wisdom from our elders and sages, they often turn out to be not quite so much wiser than we.

Those who are at a loss might do well to contact the founding members of the new "GANG" organization that was proposed at Project Bar-B-Q this year.  (Editor’s note: more about Project Bar-B-Q, below).

I also suggest to composers that they submit music to my GamePlayMusic project. A lot of people have approached me over the years looking for help. After giving a lot of thought to how I can help them, I devised this system, and I think it’s the best thing I can offer.

There’s also a nice book out called The Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks, which might help folks get started.

FM: Here’s a vastly oversimplified way to look at it: GamePlayMusic is a huge music library whose contents is carefully sorted by factors that are important to games. But there’s so much to tell…perhaps I can tell you more in a separate interview? For now, curious readers can go to www.fatman.com/gameplay.htm.

FM: It’s pretty remarkable. In just a couple of days, the attendees make amazing progress towards fixing what’s terribly broken about game audio. Their work has a gigantic positive influence on the individuals, their companies, and the industry. I’m real happy to have my name associated with it!

For an illustration, readers can check out the report from this last year's event  at www.projectbarbq.com/bbq01/bbq01r1.htm

FM: Yes. But there is a certain built-in automatic filter that keeps most of the less-than-dedicated people away. Somehow, every person who has made it to BBQ has had to fight some kind of battle to get there. Even if they’ve been sponsored, their plane ends up landing in the wrong airport, or their wife gets suddenly pregnant or something.

I think that anyone with the guts to even try to get something called "Project Bar-B-Q" past the "keeper of the budget" deserves to go. Some of these bean counters can be brutal.

FM: I can’t say why, but things that seem to be coming my way are generally seeming to be of a very positive nature.

I just did some audio for Zform.com who is making games for blind people to play head-to-head with sighted people.

I’ve been doing a lot of slot machines for Indian territory. They tell me that my game Meltdown is the hottest money-maker in that market, and it’s because of the sound!!! I’m real pleased to be involved in that. My mother, who teaches sometimes on reservations, tells me that these casinos are vastly improving the lives of the people there.

I am starting a philosophy book for New Riders called "Mastering Game Audio: A Little Red Book, If You Please." It’s title is more a request than a description.

I will soon (tomorrow?) be finishing a CD of the music for Wing Commander I.

I will jam this coming Wednesday night with my friends, as I have for nearly 20 years. But it’s usually Tuesday nights.

I am whistling a pretty song to myself right now, but telling you about it is hardly reason to kill. I try not to kill anybody unless I have a good reason these days.

FM: Let me think of the characteristics that would make a dream project for all people involved:

--A reasonable balance exists between making a "safe," good-selling game, and risking everything on something amazingly wonderful and new. Differences from other games are found to be equally exciting as similarities.

--All efforts are bent towards making a good game, not "blowing away investors." If there are investors, they are there for this ideal, and have the spirit and the wherewithall to keep their money behind such a thing, regardless of reasonable fluctuations in fashion and economy. To my experience, this rules out most investors. Certainly it eliminates the large corporate investors I have dealt with. Certain creative, brave individuals might yet qualify.

--All individuals involved have a deep drive to understand business and personal relationships. Each would do his job to the best of his ability, and trust the others to do their best. At times when he felt he was right, each member of the team would consider the possibility that he is wrong. At times when he felt he was of no use to the other aspects of the game, he would give his attention to them and offer support and a fresh viewpoint.

I guess another way of saying it is this: Team members like to be treated like Scotty on the old Star Trek. Feel free to ask anything of them, suggest things, discuss things. The good ones will do what can be done, maybe a little more. But you do well to trust them, and not work on the engines yourself.

--Audio. Ah yes, Audio. It would not be totally neglected or overmanaged to death. It would get, on the average, something like two percent of everything. Attention. Processor time. Budget. Disk space. Bandwidth. Marketing.

--There would be no fear at the possibility of making a soundtrack that would risk being unexpected, like in Kubrik films.

Perhaps only a few people are left in the business who are willing to take the chance to make a project like this.

FM: Yeah, Dave’s got six Grammies, and I’m real proud of him.

No Grammy dreams for me.

I was the first to campaign for Grammies for Interactive, and I was proud to be on Chance Thomas’ committee in the meetings with NARAS that actually got the category opened up to us. But I’ve not got that much desire to get a Grammy for myself. If I want to point to something on the wall and say "I earned that," I certainly can already. I have enough things like that in my life to not really crave more.

Although I think a posthumous "Lifetime Achievement" award would be nice. That way I don’t have to go to those awful awards show parties. I went to DreamWorks party at the Country Music Awards a couple years ago—Jesus it was terrible. I ended up inadvertently insulting Gary Chapman. (Editor's note: Gary Chapman is a Christian/Gospel singer/comedian/tv-host).

The fun thing for me is this: getting a chance to work my ass off for enough money to keep my wife off my back about debts. That’s more fun than a statue for me right now. It’s what I’d like more of.

FM: I expect that somebody from our industry will die, maybe not this year but eventually, and somebody will be nominated for a Grammy.

FM: Thanks for asking, Mel-o-dy! You know the answer to that -- just whistle!