Adventure

From today’s b, the paper

Several years ago, Benny Boeldt started making music as Adventure. The music itself sounded eerily familiar to the soundtracks of early Nintendo games. He signed to Carpark Records and released a self-titled debut earlier this year.

Is it true you don’t even play video games? Did you play them growing up?
I like video games, but I don’t really ever play them. When I was growing up I did. I mean, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation and Nintendo 64.

So you don’t think of yourself as a gamer, but somehow they had to kind of seep into your head.
Yeah, but I think it started off as I was going to do a Nintendo-style cover for my friends Future Islands.

What was the cover?
I don’t remember. It was a long time ago. Actually, I’d have to look.

And that’s how this all started?
Yeah, that’s how it started with making this particular style of music and then I just continued with these really minimalistic sounds. That’s kind of what I was thinking when I started — they were all minimalistic sounds — but the songs ended up sounding like Nintendo songs — or something 8-bit.

Have you ever gone back and replayed any of those games?
Yes, definitely. I got an emulator on my computer recently so I can play some Nintendo. Within the past year I’ve been doing that every once and a while.

When you’re playing the games, does it sound weird to you at all — the similarities between the two?
Between my songs and the other? No, because my stuff is actually a lot different than real Nintendo game music or chip-tune music. Especially after playing with a lot of the chip-tune people in the past year, I realize there definitely is a difference. My stuff is all digital and it’s all MIDI control. I’m a MIDI composer more so than a Gameboy composer. I don’t use any of the chip-tune paraphernalia or programs.

Listen in for live music and the full interview with Adventure on Baltimore Unsigned tonight at 8 on 89.7 WTMD, listener-supported radio from Towson University.

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