Many years ago, when I was still learning how to play the piano, I remember finding music sheets for an arrangement of “To Zanerkand”. I was around twenty years old and I was going through trying times. The music sheets felt like a piece of magic that had stumbled into my hands.
Playing games was about the only thing that kept me sane those days. Geek culture was not popular at all during those early 00’s years. Many of the people I interacted with were in their 30s, they had children and husbands. They thought I acted like a young boy (“why is she carrying that thing around? It’s called a Game BOY for a reason!”). I spent a lot of time studying the Dutch language, playing games and talking to my online friends (who I’ve never met in real life, but who are the biggest influence in my life). It was like living two different lives: the real world life and the geeky online life.
The music sheet was a bridge between the two worlds. It was the opening theme of my favorite game, written in a format that I could play. I was overjoyed. I took it to my piano teacher. She scoffed: “those game songs, they’re so simple,” she said “they have no nuance. You should be playing real music”.
That was the last piece of music I learned how to play.
Now we fast forward to the event I went to last Thursday. A full concert hall, full of people like me, who love video game music. I looked down to the orchestra playing “To Zanerkand” and I wondered if they also loved it. I wondered if they thought it was crass and simplistic. I wondered about what they thought about all of us: the people who came just to watch them play our favorite video game music. I hope that in their hearts they appreciate it.
Just hearing them sent shivers down my spine. I was on the brink of tears. I looked around and thought “good God, there’s so many of us”. I used to feel so alone and disconnected, but there we are. Awkward, shy and infinitely geeky. All together.
Distant Worlds has been going around the world playing Final Fantasy music for a decade now. Last Thursday was their first time in Amsterdam (and The Netherlands). Final Fantasy is now a 30 year old franchise. I’m so glad that now at last I’m discovering that I was not alone. That it’s OK to be a geek. That being open about what you love brings about the best in you. Hopefully.
To you, friends. Thank you for listening.