Interview: Rock Band, Ton-Essa La’Rocque, MTV West Coast

by Michael Geslani on November 5, 2007 at 12:51 am

The Battle of the Bands is heating up, with challenger Rock Band offering more instruments and more downloadable songs. Why does Rock Band belong in the Hall of Game with Guitar Hero 3 performing extremely well, considering our review? We went to MTV spokesperson Ton-Essa La’Rocque to explain what makes RB special.

Q: I thought the release date was official for the 23rd?

A: I’ve heard the 20th, I’ve heard the 23rd. It’s unofficial.

Q: What are the changes from GH to Rock Band?

A: What they tried to do with Rock Band was go for authenticity. For instance, Fender really designed the guitars. Rollins and Boss did the drums and the pedals. It’s more of a love for music and also gaming so what they wanted to do was merge.

You have the microphone where you can do karaoke, which rates you on tone and diction. You have the bass, guitar, and drums so you can form a whole band. You can also do this online. You can be at home and form a whole band and online from other households. You can have battle of the bands. You can battle another band in probably another country online.

What they’re going to do is every week or every two weeks they’re going to make available new downloads. It’s going to be sort of like iTunes, where you can download entire albums and songs. Right now they have a deal with The Who and Metallica.

Also what they’re going to do is you can customize your band so all the members can look just like you. You can create your whole hometown. It’s going to be very detailed as you make more money. It’s going to be a whole storyboard. So as you make more money you get better venues, clothing and equipment.

Q: Is Rock Band only coming in a bundle on release date?

A: That is also unofficial. They are thinking about a bundle which has a microphone, the drum set and one guitar. However, if you do have Guitar Hero guitars or other peripherals they are compatible with Rock Band.

Q: Why are there ten buttons on Rock Band guitar compared to five on the GH guitar?

They are actually the same. You can play higher up on the board or lower down. If you play lower down on the smaller buttons you acquire style points. Yea if you really want to get low and rock out you can use that. Also, we have sound effects, so when you release your star power, for anybody who is familiar with GH it’s the same with RB where you can release your star power and you can use your sound effects.

Q: What sets Rock Band apart from GH?

What sets it apart is authenticity. If you look at the guitars they are more realistic. The p’s are actually flush on the neck and they have a longer neck. Because of the authenticity and the whole band being able to play live or on set, there’s really no comparison.

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