This is a recent interview I performed with Deirdre Ann Fischer, vocalist for East Coast group pIENESS: THE HARD CORPS. You can check out p:THC at their official site, www.myspace.com/pieness. What is the name of your band? pIENESS: The Hard Corps.
Where did you get the idea for your band name? pIENESS is my nick name by default and The Hard Corps is an excellent Contra game for the Sega Genesis.
So how many people are in the group? What are all your names? Three people total. Deirdre Fischer (me) - Vocals, Joshua Reisig - drums, and Tony Mallory - guitar.
How old are you folks? Deirdre= 18, Joshua = 25, Tony = 28
How long have you been performing music under this name? 3 months
Is this your first band? It's my first VGM band. but otherwise, no.
What music did your former band(s) play? Regular rock.
What made you take the transition from that to VGM? All-girl bands suck and i love video game music. I've been plotting this for years now.
(laughs) I see. so what did you do in your last band? vocals? Drums, actually... but I can't play an instrument to save my life.
So how long have you wanted to play VGM? 3 years. I actually started out by doing a solo act where I would just sing over the VGM, then i added my guitarist and drummer this year.
Yeah. I think that's when i came across you when you were solo. Oh, cool.
Any plans to add more members? Nope, I think we have enough noise. (laughs) We still use the backing tracks to play over to keep true to the video game song.
Well now we are going to get into some video game questions. What was the first video game console you ever owned? What memories do you have with it? I was born in the late 80's and I have two older brothers... so we had a lot of consoles and still do have them in our possession... everything from Sega Master System to Turbo Grafx-16, Nintendo, Super Nintendo. I remember my brothers playing the Wheel of Fortune game for NES just to scare me because the title screen was so eerie and so freaking 8-bit and since I was little it scared the shit out of me!
(laughs) Can you recall what the first game you played was? Mega Man 2, which I still suck at. But hey, it was a great game.
So what games have you been playing lately? Anything you are really into? Any systems you have been into a lot lately? Lately I've been playing Kingdom Hearts II (PS2), Tetris DS! I love this game! My friends and I will all go to the club and play Tetris DS multiplayer style. No lie! We might be starting a new trend. Also, a couple of Xbox 360 games like Call of Duty 2. Killing people online is fun. I mainly like the DS nowadays though because you can touch it.
The composer for the KH series is actually my favorite composer for video games. Sweet deal!
Speaking of composers and such, do you have a favorite artist or band? VGM or not? You know... I found the Minibosses by accident, about 4 years ago when I was looking for Castlevania music. And then I had a slight crush on Ben, the bassist (i believe). They count for a band. :D
Did discovering them have any influence on you wanting to make VGM? About two ounces. My band is more metal/industrial though. It's like we're two different VGM genres. Fuck keyboards! (laughs)
So what instruments and/or equipment do you use for your music? A seven string guitar, a decent drumset, one beat-up ass microphone, and a minidisc player for the VGM.
So any big events or new things coming up for you guys? We're working on it. We're trying to get this gig where the radio plays your music on sunday and then you play a show on the following monday. Also, we're trying to play a show with The Advantage band and Year 200X.
Well good luck with all that. Keep me updated with those things and I'll of course mention them on my site. Sweet. Will do, Fox. “SLIPPY GET BACK HERE!” (laughs)
Way to reference one of the best games ever, I have most of that thing memorized. (laughs) Cool. I'm sorry, you just remind me of Fox McCloud.
Well he is my favorite Smash Bros. character so I'll take that as a compliment. Oh fuck yeah! I'll take your ass in that game with Princess Peach. Shit, man!
I love that game. i can hold my own. Nice. Are you looking forward to the Wii?
Of course. I was just going to ask you what you're take is on the coming Next-Gen console wars. Oh, alright. PS3 sounds great but expensive. 360 is amazing but they need to hurry up with Halo 3. Wii is going to fucking pWN! I mean, if i can feel like i am actually Link for one day chopping some shit with a sword, then Nintendo is doing something right! and the price seems fair too.
So the Wii is what you are looking forwards to most huh? Yes, for sure.
So what about the DS vs PSP. have any thoughts about that? The PSP just doesn't seem worth it. Who wants to buy movies for that small ass thing and there's only a few games that I'd like to play on there. Like the Mega Man ones. It seems lame. I mean the DS automatically wins with all of the WiFi stuff, and touch screen, more and better games that are actually fun. DS ALL THE WAY!
So any upcoming games you are looking forward to? Next-gen games? I heard that the Nintendo was making another Trauma Center-like game that will be for the Wii. I think that would be pretty sick to cut people open some more and do some operations. So yeah, games like that.
Yeah, Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Yeah, really.
Looking forward to any DS games? Starfox DS!
Good choice! It's supposed to come out the day after my birthday! (laughs)
Starfox DS is the first game I am looking forward to after the summer drought of titles. Hell yeah! They can't fuck up a Starfox game. I've enjoyed them all so far... except I never got into that one with the dinos.
Any advice to other people trying to make it in this genre of music? Yeah, and here's some honest advice... don't cover Castlevania - Bloody Tears or Vampire Killer. Those songs are too common.
(laughs) Good advice. well those are all the questions I've got for now. Thanks so much for your time. Everyone at the site really appreciates it. Aw, thank you, Fox. I hope I didn't scare you too much.
Not at all. Plus I've gained a nickname. Good times. Yay! -------
GM4A Would like to thank Deirdre again for taking the time to conduct this interview. Remember to check out pIENESS: THE HARD CORPS at www.myspace.com/pieness.