The Official Harmonix Podcast

As a follow up to our last podcast, we pulled our audio engineer, Nick, in on the action to go in depth on the ins and outs of home brewing beer. If you think you know about beer, I bet there’s still something here to be learned. We also discuss Rock Band hitting 3,000 songs, and share some more stats that we’ve snatched from the data mines.

Fresh from the Boston leg of the Vans Warped Tour, in this week’s podcast the team gives a spirited recounting of the sun-soaked day’s events. We met a ton of Rock Band Network artists and escaped a downpour with the guys from Less Than Jake, who are the best. The crew also runs down their favorite live show memories, and we hope you’ll share yours with us as well.

In honor of our podcast now being rebroadcast on Fusion Rock Radio in Canada, we spend a hearty amount of time discussing The Great White North in this episode. We also talk to Mr. Fish McGill, an unsung hero of our web/community presence, but also an accomplished artist who grew up in Whitey Bulger’s Winter Hill Hideout. Also, amidst anecdotes about Andy Kaufman, we talk about RockBand.com’s web content philosophies and chat about upcoming DLC!!

E3 is over and we’re back in the office, still completely wiped out. We thought we’d give a rundown of all the events of last week’s show so you can get an inside glimpse at everything Harmonix had going on at the industry’s biggest trade show. Lots of fun stories in here, enjoy!

Hey ho friends! We’ve got an extra special podcast this week for you. With the gang in full on crunch mode to blow out the doors at this year’s E3 expo (June 7th-9th) we had to streamline our show this time around, but SHORTER most definitely does not mean LESSER, as we’ve got a really cool surprise for you. Timely to today’s announced DLC, we’ve got an exclusive interview with Tim McIlrath from Rise Against! We hope you enjoy, let us know what you think!

Hey all! This week we thought it would be a fun treat to loop you into the ins and outs of our playtesting process. So we decided to bring in our two Playtest Coordinators, Jyllian and Matty, to chat it up. These two basically study the Science of Fun. Enjoy the conversation, as it’s a fun one, and you might even learn a thing or two.

Do you like podcast-exclusive news? This episode’s got it! Harmonix VP of Strategy and Business Development, Chris Rigopulos, sits down with us to chat about the ongoing strategy for the Rock Band franchise going forward through 2011. Big topics are covered, such as May’s specific DLC releases (including an EXCLUSIVE announcement) and if we’ll be seeing a Rock Band 4 coming soon. We also touch on the famous rivalry between the Rigopulos Brothers.

Welcome friends and newcomers! This week on the show we’re joined by some podcast regulars to chat about Harmonix’s involvement in the world of downloadable content. With around 2700 songs currently available for Rock Band, and some incredible new music on its way, we figured it was a good time to chat about just how that DLC gets made. It’s a huge process with numerous moving parts, and our hope is that it will illuminate some things for our rabid fans. Also in this episode, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, we reveal our Top Ten Selling Rock Band Artists. You may be surprised by what’s made the list, and what hasn’t.

This week’s podcast is a one-on-one chat with special guest and Harmonix Hero Jason "King" Kendall. As the front man for the Amazing Crowns and Megasus, Jason lived the rock and roll lifestyle for over a decade before landing at Harmonix. He’s got a story for every occasion and I coax some of his better ones for this interview. Enjoy the conversation!

In this episode, we discuss the year in review for the no-longer-fledgling Rock Band Network. Joining the show this week are some of the key players in making RBN happen, and keeping its gears greased going forward. Did you know that in only one year, RBN Creators have authored over 1000 songs??? Now hear the full story of how the Harmonix Dr Frankenstein engineered this beast of a system, without terrorizing the pitchfork-wielding villagers. The villagers in this analogy are, I suppose, YOU, the Rock Band Community! It’s a fun discussion with some EXCITING new Rock Band DLC announcements as well! Strap your headphones on, friends!

The Harmonix Community Team spends a good part of their day answering questions about Rock Band and Dance Central on forums, in emails and on camera... but what happens when the tables are turned and they're given free reign to question a captive audience in a PAX panel? Part focus group and part interrogation, this panel turns the traditional notion of a Q&A on its head, giving community members the opportunity to answer questions submitted by developers.

We have a special show for you this week with the all stars of the hardware department at Harmonix. Daniel Sussman, Todd Baker, Jim Toepel and Nate Stoddard walk us through the complete history of creating guitars, drums, mics and more for Harmonix games. Enjoy a trip down hardware history hall hearing the stories behind the wired Rock Band guitar, the wireless Rock Band 2 guitars, all the way up to real guitars in Rock Band 3.

Our most enjoyable events of the year are those where we get to interact with our fans directly. Nowhere is this interaction most immediate and enjoyable than at Penny Arcade Expo, which has now become a bicoastal happening! PAX East 2011 kicks off this year from March 11-13 in our home town of Boston, Massachusetts.

Keeping up with our ongoing podcast series focused on specific music genres and their roots, this week we've got the granddaddy of them all - The Blues. Almost every popular rock song in the past 60 years owes a huge debt to the thing known as The Blues, and along with Harmonix's human encyclopedia of music, Kurt Davis, we get to the bottom of why the blues is so important. It also lends a tad of relevance to this podcast, as it comes during Black History Month, and this music is a huge part of that legacy.

If there is one podcast that most illustrates me abusing my powers as the podcast guy, it is this one. We talk about one of my favorite genres of music, the much misunderstood and oft-maligned style called Ska. Joined by genuine Ska veteran, Emeen Zarookian, and John Drake who did horn arrangements for his 7th grade swing band, we run down the history of the genre, its connections to Reggae, and its ongoing legacy in the world of music today. We also talk at length about the newly announced DLC this week from my favorite band, The Clash! Hope you enjoy it, and if you want to discuss, join me in the History of Rock forum to talk about your favorite Ska bands.