After some very busy last two months on both our sides, I have a new interview for you with another great guest, in time for the ECL finals.
Welcome, Turkman. Although you have disappeared from the public several times, you have also come back again and again and with that you are one of two AoE casters who still is relatively active who already was uploading AoE content on Youtube 7-8 years ago. A lot has changed since then. Also, with Robo now being in England and Helene (Nonsensical) not doing any streaming, admin work etc. since 2 years, you are the only big public AoE figure left in Australia.
Would you share a photo of yourself and/or your gaming/casting setup?
[Myself at E3, where I was lucky enough to be reppin’ the amazing game that is Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition]
How old are you now, when did you start playing Age of Empires? Did you play AoE I and/or III? What do you expect and wish for AoE IV?
I actually turned 25 back in February during my flight home from Nili_Aoe’s Apartment Cup, nothing like celebrating a birthday halfway through a 26 hour journey home. That said, I do believe attending NAC2 was one of the best birthday presents I could ever receive.
My first experience with Age of Empires was when I was 10 years old at a friends house. He had found a demo for the original Age of Empires in a cereal box, which would go on to steal every minute of our days. We were either playing the game, coming up with ‘new’ strategies or just talking about it!
Although I didn’t fully commit to the multiplayer aspect of Age of Empires III, I still believe it has one of the best campaigns in an RTS, and Age of Mythology! I still play the campaign for fun whenever I need a moment to sit back and smile. For the trident!
When you started on Youtube in 2011, did you expect anything about how AoE 2 is now? I would say, it has grown massively since then, in many aspects, but especially in terms of public coverage: online videos and streams. Now there are big streamers like Memb, T90, Nili, Escape Gaming and TheViper as well as streamers who are considered small now, even with 500 viewers watching their stream. If you had known this in 2011/12, do you think you had tried to become someone like those or did you at any point in time later think about becoming a streamer with a regular income from that?
The reason I started on Youtube was due to Zak (ZeroEmpires) taking a break and I had nothing to watch. This was back in 2011, we were nowhere near as spoiled for choice as the community is today, when he took a break there was nothing! Living in regional Australia it was a task and a half. I’m still surprised looking back at the commitment I showed being so young at the time. The average video took about nine hours to upload.
We were lucky to have Zak return a few months later and I think the entire community is still happy about that! Looking back, starting on Youtube was something I wanted to do for the community. We didn’t have a bunch of streamers or content creators and as my free time started slipping away, I focused entirely on the casting and content creation rather than playing. I think it was my way of giving back to the community I love so much.
I won’t lie and say I haven’t thought of a ‘grand return’. But I think the time constraints I have would make it too hard to compete with the amazingly talented content creators we have today. Currently I’m happy doing my behind the scenes work with Forgotten Empires and the Age of Empires team at Microsoft, I believe that’s where I can make the most difference at the moment.
On a side note, I would like to say to everyone out there streaming, creating youtube content or writing tutorials; it means a lot to see you dedicating your time to improve the already amazing community we have and love.
You had several breaks, where nobody on Youtube, Twitch or AoEZone knew what you were doing. What were the reasons? And why did you still come back? You in Nili’s Apartment Cup 2 was a big surprise and success. You probably have talked about this during the event already, but I missed almost everything about it because of the birth of my son some days before it. And I think reading a text of a few 100 words is easier for people to read than to search in videos. So this is also for people new to AoE and for people who will be new to it in the future.
First of all, congratulations on the birth of your son.
Thank you.
I’m always lurking somewhere. Age of Empires is a habit I couldn’t give up if I tried, it may not always look like it, but I’m here. Generally the major disappearances are time constraints on my end, which just comes with life sadly. I always wish I could be even more involved in the Age scene than I am currently, but sadly I have those pesky adult responsibilities now.
As addition to this: Do you still have some unshared stories from NAC 2 that you want to share (and are allowed to share)?
My personal favorite experience was the communities hospitality I experienced during the live viewing. I made an appearance along with the rest of the NAC2 crew and I can’t even begin to explain the smile on my face throughout the entire experience. The amount of people I was able to share my passion with and talk about something I love was an entirely surreal experience. I would like to give a special shout out to Ornlu for walking me home after the event, turns out the Age of Empires community says it’s thanks over a drink! If there was ever a visual representation of the communities passion and spirit it was me staggering back to my hotel through Germany.
For anyone who does not know it yet, why did you choose the name “Turkman” and what is behind your “BBQ” tag?
The tag comes from my birth and nickname; Turk. In Australia, during the early 00’s ‘man’ was thrown around often when referring to someone. Sentences like ‘Turk, man, how ya doing?’ were quite common and eventually those two merged! The BBQ element was just a dumb Australia joke that stuck. Now here I am!
What are your Youtube channel and stream links? Do you have a favourite video you did or a favourite game you cast?
https://www.youtube.com/user/BBQTurkman
My favourite game I ever cast would have to be the ‘Amazing 3v3’ that goes 2 hours and is a rollercoaster of emotions.
Sadly, I do very little streaming on my own channel, as I mentioned above my time restraints are hard to work with, I’ve always wished I could just create an extra two hours a day. Personally I prefer co-casting these days, I always like to think I’m just a message away to anyone that wants to work together. Before Clash of the Hippo, Nili messaged me asking if I could find some time to cast a set or two with him. One week later I’m up at 3am doing exactly what I love!
If anyone ever wants to do some casting together feel free to reach out and just send me a message! That said, if you are looking for a place to follow me all the solo streaming I do is over on the Forgotten Empires channel you can find here - https://www.twitch.tv/forgottenempires
So can you give a short summary or introduction to what you are doing there and why on this channel? I know that it was created to promote Forgotten Empires, back before it came to Steam. Cysion and developers used to stream there, but now as it’s an official expansion, during the last years the HD Edition streams were usually on the official Age of Empires channel.
About two years ago now I took on the position of Community Manager at Forgotten Empires, when I was talking about working behind the scenes earlier this is what I was referring too. I essentially run all the social channels for Forgotten Empires, spend a lot of time monitoring the feedback we’re receiving from the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Beta, but most importantly I’m lurking everywhere working directly with the Age of Empires team to ensure they have the information they need to ensure we deliver the best Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition possible.
Sadly it’s a part time gig for now, on top of my day job it means I haven't got as much time as I would like to work on my personal content in terms of streaming or Youtube casting. Maybe one day I’ll get the balance right. Hopefully, should time provide we’ll be a lot more active on the stream. I’ve always said that Forgotten Empires is just another part of the community, what better way to be involved than a live stream?
Some years back, you were studying audio engineering [I hope I remember correctly, sure did!] and was part of a pop-rock band. How did those things develop?
I shot through my Bachelor of Creative Technologies 2013-2014. I was lucky enough to pick up work in a studio and worked as a professional vocal and comping technician for a few years. I eventually needed a break, sitting down for 8 hours a day autotuning people’s singing eventually takes its toll. Chances are no matter how talented the singer is, there’s probably some tuning behind it. It just began to feel like I was working against my own musical beliefs and destroyed a lot of my passion.
The band was actually going amazingly. We had some high level interest, a second EP release from a well known studio and engineer. Things were even looking like we could have been picked up by a management label. I did some serious spinal damage in 2017 that’s going to require quite a bit of surgery. A bunch of screws to hold my discs in place, some serious fracture repairs and hopefully no permanent nerve damage I’ll have to deal with.
Sadly I had to resign my position and the whole group fell apart a few months later after they couldn’t settle on a replacement.
If anyone is interested in seeing where the project was headed here’s a couple of links. Shame we only uploaded everything to Youtube once the project died, I’ll always have the memories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYQv1iBwSQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1wZhrshI8
How long ago was that? Is it something you can recover from well enough or not? I don’t know what you want to share, but right now I can’t really understand why the injury meant a permanent end to the band.
At this stage it’s still very up in there air as to how much it’ll fix once I have the surgery. My ability to bend over will never be the same and I’ll get some serious scar tissue build up that will limit my mobility. However, it isn’t something that should affect my daily life too much, minus the bending and things once it’s dealt with. I’m hoping I’ll have the chance soon, but a lot of steps need to be taken before then.
When it came to writing the music I was a large part of the driving force. Even if I wasn’t the initial spawn of the song, I could figure out a direction to take it or help add a lot of personality to it. The guys carried on for another couple months but couldn’t find a replacement the gelled correctly on stage or in the writing room. Since then they’ve all gone on to work on different projects.
About the autotuning, I actually do know. I have not worked with music professionally, but before my children I was quite involved with music too and I know how bad it sounds when you record voices, and that it often does so for real singers too. I don’t know how much work it exactly is, but I know that it’s not easy. I only worked with laptops, a not that expensive microphone, connectable keyboard and FL Studio. I could do a lot, but to make it sound good through speakers then is another big step. A school friend of mine now has his own label and recording studio since 2 years or so, I haven’t been there yet, but if I at some point find the time, which I don’t have now with doing my PhD, work and 2 small children, we want to make music together again.
As a music lover and someone who has experienced it, I’m sure you understand what I’m on about. The principals I believe make music special and unique have been on the chopping block for a while now. I got to a stage where I was seeing myself as part of the problem and decided it was time for a break.
In your band, were you also involved in writing songs? Because if so, I have another question.
Sure was. Go for it!
I have written a lot of songs, but I never have recorded any in a quality that I think is good enough to release. So I have songs from the last 15 years. Obviously a lot of things have changed during that period. Some of the songs are still very good in my opinion, but they are not describing my current feelings anymore, so I would not be able to perform them with the passion I had for them when I wrote them. What do you think about that situation? About performing (old) songs that you can’t relate well too. It must happen to musicians all the time.
I think a big part of what comes with being a musician is you’re an entertainer, an actor even. Being able to control your timbre is part of the role, some people find it extremely easy and others have a lot of trouble with it. Luckily I was only ever a backing singer so I didn’t have to worry about this too much.
The way we arranged our set while playing live came down to how our singer was able to transition between these emotions, as he would say ‘I just need to be in the zone’.
If you’re having trouble with these songs you’ve written, it may be worth revisiting them and seeing if there is a way you can rework them to reflect your current mindset. Sometimes this will spawn your best work. Otherwise it comes down to practicing your ability to control your timbre which there are a lot of techniques for.
Which city do you come from/live in? What do you like/dislike about it and where would you like to move to?
Originally I grew up in Wangaratta, Australia. I wouldn’t call a small country town but it had limitations. The day I finished my high school education I was lucky enough to be offered a position at the university I planned to attend and was off to Melbourne, the true capital of Australia. I’ve been here ever since. If I was going to change anything it would probably be the housing prices, I’ve built my life here and it’s a hard realisation to come up against that it may be becoming borderline unachievable. All in all, I think we’re extremely lucky and wanting to change anything might be a little too greedy.
Do you want to tell something about Australia that most people don’t know, but you think they should know?
Now a section about your favourite things:
What is your favourite food and drink?
I am a burger guy through and through. If there’s a rumour the best burger ever made two hours away is I’ll be heading there pretty quickly. As for drinks, I’ve become super into red wine over the years.
Which foods from your home country/region and family background would you recommend?
Australia isn’t exactly a culinary hotspot for our specialty cuisine. You will find some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world here, but all we’re really rocking is Lamingtons and Vegemite.
I looked it up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite), but I guess I’d need to try it to really know what it tastes like.
I have treated many of my overseas friend to the delight that is Vegemite. My favourite reaction I have received so far is ‘This may be the only thing saltier than salt.’
What can you cook well yourself and how often do you do it?
I cook just about every meal I eat during the week and try to prepare as many of my work lunches as I can in advance. I love a good set of roast vegetables and pasta, but personally cooking a good steak is what makes me feel like I know what I’m doing!
What would you put on top of a pizza?
Hot salami, capsicum, dice tomatoes, chopped red onion, jalapeno and a 50/50 split of tasty and mozzarella cheese. The Mexican style pizza dream.
What is your favourite colour? (Does not need to be one of the 8 AoE II colours)
Orange, I hate it on just about everything however. I do have an orange set of towels that are close to my heart though.
I like orange, but here people often associate orange either with warning signs and clothes (for builders, garbage collectors, or Dutch things (especially football). Since I follow AoE, I also must think of BacT, because he is the only top expert player I know who likes to play in orange.
Must explain why BacT is one of my favourite players!
What is your favourite animal? Why?
The Platypus, find me another animal that people believed was an artificial construction on non-native discovery
More than 1,650 species of geckos occur worldwide, which one is your favourite species?
The Tokay Gecko, look at those happy faces!
What/where is your favourite place on Earth?
Wherever I can kick back in front of an open fire with a glass of wine and nothing on my mind.
What is your favourite song at the moment, of all time (can be top 5)?
You don’t ask the easy questions! I consider this regularly and the one that always sticks out is The Patient by Tool.
What is your favourite movie at the moment, of all time (can be top 5)? Who is your favourite actor?
My favourite movie of all time has been Se7en for probably the last decade of my life. Actually a perfect thriller movie in my opinion.
Do you have a favourite sports team? (football, basketball etc.)
I follow most sports quite loosely these days. If anything at all I would have to say the Essendon Football Club, and that’s crazy Australia Football. I do generally follow FaZe for eSports.
What are your favourite traits on a woman?
Wit. 100% wit. I’m all about anyone that’s got a little bit of edge to their personality!
What time do you usually go to sleep? What do you like doing before sleeping?
Usually a bit after midnight, which is a horrible habit I've been trying to kick for about a year and a half. Usually I’ll kinda just lounge around and watch an episode of The Simpsons, my Simpsons trivia skills are amazing.
Which countries have you visited?
At this stage, New Zealand, USA and Germany. I’m looking to expand that list a lot in the future!
And where would you like to go to? Why?
I’ve always wanted to go to Greece and Rome, I feel like this is potentially the best place to admit that it’s due to Age of Empires!
Then you should go to Arabia, the Black Forest, Baltic Sea, Yucatán etc. too. It would be funny to ‘collect’ all the maps. Well, it’s a long and expensive flight to Europe, so if you have enough time, you should probably visit several countries after each other, in case you don’t have any children travelling with you yet.
I think you’re onto something, I’ll take the Pokemon approach and Catch ‘em All!
Then you have to think about where you want to stop. The original standard maps, like the first 151, or as there are over 800 Pokémon now and 100s of maps. There’s new maps (including custom) that are realistic to visit, like Cenotes, Alps, Ontario, Amazon River, but then there’s also Caldera or Tsunami, which would not be the best.
I believe we just added something to my bucket list!
What are your hobbies beside AoE?
I'm massively into music, but also a freak when it comes to socialising. I just enjoy spending time with my friends and the nerd in me has burned to the core. I’m super into tabletop board games and actually madly in love with Dungeons and Dragons.
Who would you like to meet once, who you have not met? One AoE player and one other person.
Had you asked me this a year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to pick. I have so many favourite players and people in the Age of Empires community. Slam has always had one of my favourite play styles and I missed meeting him at NAC.
For slam, if you attend the ECL finals, you’d have a good chance.
You have no idea how much this idea excites me, as the release video was just dropped yesterday. I guess we can talk about the fact that I'll be there. Slam, if you’re reading this I would like to request a super big hug!
More AoE-related things:
What is your favourite civilisation, map and unit? In the new expansions, what is your favourite new civilisation and unit?
Franks, Arabia and Teutonic Knight, I wish they were useful… As for the new civilisations, I would have to say I really enjoy the play style of the Malay, but Organ Guns are my favourite unit from the newer expansions.
What is your favourite in-game sound?
When you click a Relic.
Not my favourite, but it is a beautiful one. I would definitely add it to a song,
Which 8 players would you invite for Nili’s Apartment Cup 3?
MBL
TheViper
Tatoh
Lierreyy
Hera
Slam
TheMax
BacT
Mr_Yo
Which 4 players would you like to see forming a team? (can include inactive players)
Let's go with current players to try and create a new supergroup!
Hera
Tatoh
Dogao
TheMax
When you visit AoEZone and Voobly, is there something you like especially or would like to have improved?
Voobly, I would like it to be easier to see my messages on the landing page. I find they’re not highlighted enough and I do constantly miss them. AoEZone is perfect, but I’ve been here a long time and could just be a little biased.
We know of problems of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or South Americans. Australia is also pretty far away from many countries with big AoE communities. What is the biggest problem Australian AoE players have to face?
It has to be the connection issues due to our subpar internet infrastructure. Always being FP to people makes it annoying to get games and extremely hard to stay motivated.
What’s been you favourite tournament you’ve participated in, either as a player or a viewer.
My personal favorite experience will predate a lot of the community, I was trying to remember what year it was and actually dug up the original AoEZone post. Damn it makes me feel old. It was the BO21 between Tim and TheViper, this is right after the first use of the phrase ‘grass’ in the Age of Empires scene. It was hosted/cast by DreaIVIs, a very well known community member at the time. Hopefully he is doing well.
https://www.aoezone.net/threads/best-of-21-tyrant-theviper-vs-cfk-tim.78028/
This was the first time I ever saw the community come together the way it did for a tournament series. This is back before there was a live scene. Before we had the amazing tournament hosts we do now. Before the fantastic casting teams. Before the live presence we now have on Twitch. Most importantly, before we had a live platform to share our passion with each other.
It was the moment I realised how many people still loved this amazing game and how much potential it still had. I can’t believe how much of an impact this series had. I can still remember perfectly clear in my mind sitting in my bedroom in the dark at two in the morning being able to talk in real time with so many community members and people I only knew over the forums while watching this ridiculous series unfold and reacting together. It blew my mind.
If you had the chance and time to (co-)host a tournament again soon, what would it look like? If there were no money or time constraints. Which maps, player amount, settings etc.?
My favourite idea I’ve been wrestling with recently is a bit odd and not exactly a fair tournament. I do think it would be an interesting and entertaining experiment at least the viewers would enjoy it.
I would have the top 31 players rank all the civilisations from best to worst. Each player would then be allocated a civilisation to play for the entire tournament based on their tournament seed and where the civilisation was ranked. For instance, the highest seed player would have to play with the worst ranked civilisation. The lowest seed would play with the highest ranked civilisation.
I think it would be a great way to even the playing field for a lot of up and coming players and at the same time, force the creation for new build orders and strategies for lesser used civilisations.
What would you do to make the world a better place?
I’ve always said the world would be a better place tomorrow if everyone looked after each other a little better. I still believe that.
Choose without having any background information or what it should be about:
Chris or DauT? Daut
Tim or TheViper? TheViper
RiuT or dogao? Dogao
FeAge or Lavie_Head? FeAge
Nili or T90? Nili <3
Lumberjack or Gold miner? 4
Knight or Cavalry Archer? Cavalry Archer
1v1 or 4v4? 1v1
Feudal Age or Imperial Age? FeAge, again.
Camel or horse? Horse
Boar or elephant? Elephantan
Black Forest or Islands? Black Forest
Thank you for the interview and good luck with your future plans.
Welcome, Turkman. Although you have disappeared from the public several times, you have also come back again and again and with that you are one of two AoE casters who still is relatively active who already was uploading AoE content on Youtube 7-8 years ago. A lot has changed since then. Also, with Robo now being in England and Helene (Nonsensical) not doing any streaming, admin work etc. since 2 years, you are the only big public AoE figure left in Australia.
Would you share a photo of yourself and/or your gaming/casting setup?
[Myself at E3, where I was lucky enough to be reppin’ the amazing game that is Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition]
How old are you now, when did you start playing Age of Empires? Did you play AoE I and/or III? What do you expect and wish for AoE IV?
I actually turned 25 back in February during my flight home from Nili_Aoe’s Apartment Cup, nothing like celebrating a birthday halfway through a 26 hour journey home. That said, I do believe attending NAC2 was one of the best birthday presents I could ever receive.
My first experience with Age of Empires was when I was 10 years old at a friends house. He had found a demo for the original Age of Empires in a cereal box, which would go on to steal every minute of our days. We were either playing the game, coming up with ‘new’ strategies or just talking about it!
Although I didn’t fully commit to the multiplayer aspect of Age of Empires III, I still believe it has one of the best campaigns in an RTS, and Age of Mythology! I still play the campaign for fun whenever I need a moment to sit back and smile. For the trident!
When you started on Youtube in 2011, did you expect anything about how AoE 2 is now? I would say, it has grown massively since then, in many aspects, but especially in terms of public coverage: online videos and streams. Now there are big streamers like Memb, T90, Nili, Escape Gaming and TheViper as well as streamers who are considered small now, even with 500 viewers watching their stream. If you had known this in 2011/12, do you think you had tried to become someone like those or did you at any point in time later think about becoming a streamer with a regular income from that?
The reason I started on Youtube was due to Zak (ZeroEmpires) taking a break and I had nothing to watch. This was back in 2011, we were nowhere near as spoiled for choice as the community is today, when he took a break there was nothing! Living in regional Australia it was a task and a half. I’m still surprised looking back at the commitment I showed being so young at the time. The average video took about nine hours to upload.
We were lucky to have Zak return a few months later and I think the entire community is still happy about that! Looking back, starting on Youtube was something I wanted to do for the community. We didn’t have a bunch of streamers or content creators and as my free time started slipping away, I focused entirely on the casting and content creation rather than playing. I think it was my way of giving back to the community I love so much.
I won’t lie and say I haven’t thought of a ‘grand return’. But I think the time constraints I have would make it too hard to compete with the amazingly talented content creators we have today. Currently I’m happy doing my behind the scenes work with Forgotten Empires and the Age of Empires team at Microsoft, I believe that’s where I can make the most difference at the moment.
On a side note, I would like to say to everyone out there streaming, creating youtube content or writing tutorials; it means a lot to see you dedicating your time to improve the already amazing community we have and love.
You had several breaks, where nobody on Youtube, Twitch or AoEZone knew what you were doing. What were the reasons? And why did you still come back? You in Nili’s Apartment Cup 2 was a big surprise and success. You probably have talked about this during the event already, but I missed almost everything about it because of the birth of my son some days before it. And I think reading a text of a few 100 words is easier for people to read than to search in videos. So this is also for people new to AoE and for people who will be new to it in the future.
First of all, congratulations on the birth of your son.
Thank you.
I’m always lurking somewhere. Age of Empires is a habit I couldn’t give up if I tried, it may not always look like it, but I’m here. Generally the major disappearances are time constraints on my end, which just comes with life sadly. I always wish I could be even more involved in the Age scene than I am currently, but sadly I have those pesky adult responsibilities now.
As addition to this: Do you still have some unshared stories from NAC 2 that you want to share (and are allowed to share)?
My personal favorite experience was the communities hospitality I experienced during the live viewing. I made an appearance along with the rest of the NAC2 crew and I can’t even begin to explain the smile on my face throughout the entire experience. The amount of people I was able to share my passion with and talk about something I love was an entirely surreal experience. I would like to give a special shout out to Ornlu for walking me home after the event, turns out the Age of Empires community says it’s thanks over a drink! If there was ever a visual representation of the communities passion and spirit it was me staggering back to my hotel through Germany.
For anyone who does not know it yet, why did you choose the name “Turkman” and what is behind your “BBQ” tag?
The tag comes from my birth and nickname; Turk. In Australia, during the early 00’s ‘man’ was thrown around often when referring to someone. Sentences like ‘Turk, man, how ya doing?’ were quite common and eventually those two merged! The BBQ element was just a dumb Australia joke that stuck. Now here I am!
What are your Youtube channel and stream links? Do you have a favourite video you did or a favourite game you cast?
https://www.youtube.com/user/BBQTurkman
My favourite game I ever cast would have to be the ‘Amazing 3v3’ that goes 2 hours and is a rollercoaster of emotions.
Sadly, I do very little streaming on my own channel, as I mentioned above my time restraints are hard to work with, I’ve always wished I could just create an extra two hours a day. Personally I prefer co-casting these days, I always like to think I’m just a message away to anyone that wants to work together. Before Clash of the Hippo, Nili messaged me asking if I could find some time to cast a set or two with him. One week later I’m up at 3am doing exactly what I love!
If anyone ever wants to do some casting together feel free to reach out and just send me a message! That said, if you are looking for a place to follow me all the solo streaming I do is over on the Forgotten Empires channel you can find here - https://www.twitch.tv/forgottenempires
So can you give a short summary or introduction to what you are doing there and why on this channel? I know that it was created to promote Forgotten Empires, back before it came to Steam. Cysion and developers used to stream there, but now as it’s an official expansion, during the last years the HD Edition streams were usually on the official Age of Empires channel.
About two years ago now I took on the position of Community Manager at Forgotten Empires, when I was talking about working behind the scenes earlier this is what I was referring too. I essentially run all the social channels for Forgotten Empires, spend a lot of time monitoring the feedback we’re receiving from the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Beta, but most importantly I’m lurking everywhere working directly with the Age of Empires team to ensure they have the information they need to ensure we deliver the best Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition possible.
Sadly it’s a part time gig for now, on top of my day job it means I haven't got as much time as I would like to work on my personal content in terms of streaming or Youtube casting. Maybe one day I’ll get the balance right. Hopefully, should time provide we’ll be a lot more active on the stream. I’ve always said that Forgotten Empires is just another part of the community, what better way to be involved than a live stream?
Some years back, you were studying audio engineering [I hope I remember correctly, sure did!] and was part of a pop-rock band. How did those things develop?
I shot through my Bachelor of Creative Technologies 2013-2014. I was lucky enough to pick up work in a studio and worked as a professional vocal and comping technician for a few years. I eventually needed a break, sitting down for 8 hours a day autotuning people’s singing eventually takes its toll. Chances are no matter how talented the singer is, there’s probably some tuning behind it. It just began to feel like I was working against my own musical beliefs and destroyed a lot of my passion.
The band was actually going amazingly. We had some high level interest, a second EP release from a well known studio and engineer. Things were even looking like we could have been picked up by a management label. I did some serious spinal damage in 2017 that’s going to require quite a bit of surgery. A bunch of screws to hold my discs in place, some serious fracture repairs and hopefully no permanent nerve damage I’ll have to deal with.
Sadly I had to resign my position and the whole group fell apart a few months later after they couldn’t settle on a replacement.
If anyone is interested in seeing where the project was headed here’s a couple of links. Shame we only uploaded everything to Youtube once the project died, I’ll always have the memories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYQv1iBwSQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1wZhrshI8
How long ago was that? Is it something you can recover from well enough or not? I don’t know what you want to share, but right now I can’t really understand why the injury meant a permanent end to the band.
At this stage it’s still very up in there air as to how much it’ll fix once I have the surgery. My ability to bend over will never be the same and I’ll get some serious scar tissue build up that will limit my mobility. However, it isn’t something that should affect my daily life too much, minus the bending and things once it’s dealt with. I’m hoping I’ll have the chance soon, but a lot of steps need to be taken before then.
When it came to writing the music I was a large part of the driving force. Even if I wasn’t the initial spawn of the song, I could figure out a direction to take it or help add a lot of personality to it. The guys carried on for another couple months but couldn’t find a replacement the gelled correctly on stage or in the writing room. Since then they’ve all gone on to work on different projects.
About the autotuning, I actually do know. I have not worked with music professionally, but before my children I was quite involved with music too and I know how bad it sounds when you record voices, and that it often does so for real singers too. I don’t know how much work it exactly is, but I know that it’s not easy. I only worked with laptops, a not that expensive microphone, connectable keyboard and FL Studio. I could do a lot, but to make it sound good through speakers then is another big step. A school friend of mine now has his own label and recording studio since 2 years or so, I haven’t been there yet, but if I at some point find the time, which I don’t have now with doing my PhD, work and 2 small children, we want to make music together again.
As a music lover and someone who has experienced it, I’m sure you understand what I’m on about. The principals I believe make music special and unique have been on the chopping block for a while now. I got to a stage where I was seeing myself as part of the problem and decided it was time for a break.
In your band, were you also involved in writing songs? Because if so, I have another question.
Sure was. Go for it!
I have written a lot of songs, but I never have recorded any in a quality that I think is good enough to release. So I have songs from the last 15 years. Obviously a lot of things have changed during that period. Some of the songs are still very good in my opinion, but they are not describing my current feelings anymore, so I would not be able to perform them with the passion I had for them when I wrote them. What do you think about that situation? About performing (old) songs that you can’t relate well too. It must happen to musicians all the time.
I think a big part of what comes with being a musician is you’re an entertainer, an actor even. Being able to control your timbre is part of the role, some people find it extremely easy and others have a lot of trouble with it. Luckily I was only ever a backing singer so I didn’t have to worry about this too much.
The way we arranged our set while playing live came down to how our singer was able to transition between these emotions, as he would say ‘I just need to be in the zone’.
If you’re having trouble with these songs you’ve written, it may be worth revisiting them and seeing if there is a way you can rework them to reflect your current mindset. Sometimes this will spawn your best work. Otherwise it comes down to practicing your ability to control your timbre which there are a lot of techniques for.
Which city do you come from/live in? What do you like/dislike about it and where would you like to move to?
Originally I grew up in Wangaratta, Australia. I wouldn’t call a small country town but it had limitations. The day I finished my high school education I was lucky enough to be offered a position at the university I planned to attend and was off to Melbourne, the true capital of Australia. I’ve been here ever since. If I was going to change anything it would probably be the housing prices, I’ve built my life here and it’s a hard realisation to come up against that it may be becoming borderline unachievable. All in all, I think we’re extremely lucky and wanting to change anything might be a little too greedy.
Do you want to tell something about Australia that most people don’t know, but you think they should know?
- Vegemite is amazing, don’t believe the naysayers.
- Snakes can indeed be a serious problem. Last time I mowed the lawn, I ran over two brown snakes. I live in a major city in a built up area and they are still about.
- McDonalds is referred to as Maccas
Now a section about your favourite things:
What is your favourite food and drink?
I am a burger guy through and through. If there’s a rumour the best burger ever made two hours away is I’ll be heading there pretty quickly. As for drinks, I’ve become super into red wine over the years.
Which foods from your home country/region and family background would you recommend?
Australia isn’t exactly a culinary hotspot for our specialty cuisine. You will find some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world here, but all we’re really rocking is Lamingtons and Vegemite.
I looked it up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite), but I guess I’d need to try it to really know what it tastes like.
I have treated many of my overseas friend to the delight that is Vegemite. My favourite reaction I have received so far is ‘This may be the only thing saltier than salt.’
What can you cook well yourself and how often do you do it?
I cook just about every meal I eat during the week and try to prepare as many of my work lunches as I can in advance. I love a good set of roast vegetables and pasta, but personally cooking a good steak is what makes me feel like I know what I’m doing!
What would you put on top of a pizza?
Hot salami, capsicum, dice tomatoes, chopped red onion, jalapeno and a 50/50 split of tasty and mozzarella cheese. The Mexican style pizza dream.
What is your favourite colour? (Does not need to be one of the 8 AoE II colours)
Orange, I hate it on just about everything however. I do have an orange set of towels that are close to my heart though.
I like orange, but here people often associate orange either with warning signs and clothes (for builders, garbage collectors, or Dutch things (especially football). Since I follow AoE, I also must think of BacT, because he is the only top expert player I know who likes to play in orange.
Must explain why BacT is one of my favourite players!
What is your favourite animal? Why?
The Platypus, find me another animal that people believed was an artificial construction on non-native discovery
More than 1,650 species of geckos occur worldwide, which one is your favourite species?
The Tokay Gecko, look at those happy faces!
What/where is your favourite place on Earth?
Wherever I can kick back in front of an open fire with a glass of wine and nothing on my mind.
What is your favourite song at the moment, of all time (can be top 5)?
You don’t ask the easy questions! I consider this regularly and the one that always sticks out is The Patient by Tool.
What is your favourite movie at the moment, of all time (can be top 5)? Who is your favourite actor?
My favourite movie of all time has been Se7en for probably the last decade of my life. Actually a perfect thriller movie in my opinion.
Do you have a favourite sports team? (football, basketball etc.)
I follow most sports quite loosely these days. If anything at all I would have to say the Essendon Football Club, and that’s crazy Australia Football. I do generally follow FaZe for eSports.
What are your favourite traits on a woman?
Wit. 100% wit. I’m all about anyone that’s got a little bit of edge to their personality!
What time do you usually go to sleep? What do you like doing before sleeping?
Usually a bit after midnight, which is a horrible habit I've been trying to kick for about a year and a half. Usually I’ll kinda just lounge around and watch an episode of The Simpsons, my Simpsons trivia skills are amazing.
Which countries have you visited?
At this stage, New Zealand, USA and Germany. I’m looking to expand that list a lot in the future!
And where would you like to go to? Why?
I’ve always wanted to go to Greece and Rome, I feel like this is potentially the best place to admit that it’s due to Age of Empires!
Then you should go to Arabia, the Black Forest, Baltic Sea, Yucatán etc. too. It would be funny to ‘collect’ all the maps. Well, it’s a long and expensive flight to Europe, so if you have enough time, you should probably visit several countries after each other, in case you don’t have any children travelling with you yet.
I think you’re onto something, I’ll take the Pokemon approach and Catch ‘em All!
Then you have to think about where you want to stop. The original standard maps, like the first 151, or as there are over 800 Pokémon now and 100s of maps. There’s new maps (including custom) that are realistic to visit, like Cenotes, Alps, Ontario, Amazon River, but then there’s also Caldera or Tsunami, which would not be the best.
I believe we just added something to my bucket list!
What are your hobbies beside AoE?
I'm massively into music, but also a freak when it comes to socialising. I just enjoy spending time with my friends and the nerd in me has burned to the core. I’m super into tabletop board games and actually madly in love with Dungeons and Dragons.
Who would you like to meet once, who you have not met? One AoE player and one other person.
Had you asked me this a year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to pick. I have so many favourite players and people in the Age of Empires community. Slam has always had one of my favourite play styles and I missed meeting him at NAC.
For slam, if you attend the ECL finals, you’d have a good chance.
You have no idea how much this idea excites me, as the release video was just dropped yesterday. I guess we can talk about the fact that I'll be there. Slam, if you’re reading this I would like to request a super big hug!
More AoE-related things:
What is your favourite civilisation, map and unit? In the new expansions, what is your favourite new civilisation and unit?
Franks, Arabia and Teutonic Knight, I wish they were useful… As for the new civilisations, I would have to say I really enjoy the play style of the Malay, but Organ Guns are my favourite unit from the newer expansions.
What is your favourite in-game sound?
When you click a Relic.
Not my favourite, but it is a beautiful one. I would definitely add it to a song,
Which 8 players would you invite for Nili’s Apartment Cup 3?
MBL
TheViper
Tatoh
Lierreyy
Hera
Slam
TheMax
BacT
Mr_Yo
Which 4 players would you like to see forming a team? (can include inactive players)
Let's go with current players to try and create a new supergroup!
Hera
Tatoh
Dogao
TheMax
When you visit AoEZone and Voobly, is there something you like especially or would like to have improved?
Voobly, I would like it to be easier to see my messages on the landing page. I find they’re not highlighted enough and I do constantly miss them. AoEZone is perfect, but I’ve been here a long time and could just be a little biased.
We know of problems of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or South Americans. Australia is also pretty far away from many countries with big AoE communities. What is the biggest problem Australian AoE players have to face?
It has to be the connection issues due to our subpar internet infrastructure. Always being FP to people makes it annoying to get games and extremely hard to stay motivated.
What’s been you favourite tournament you’ve participated in, either as a player or a viewer.
My personal favorite experience will predate a lot of the community, I was trying to remember what year it was and actually dug up the original AoEZone post. Damn it makes me feel old. It was the BO21 between Tim and TheViper, this is right after the first use of the phrase ‘grass’ in the Age of Empires scene. It was hosted/cast by DreaIVIs, a very well known community member at the time. Hopefully he is doing well.
https://www.aoezone.net/threads/best-of-21-tyrant-theviper-vs-cfk-tim.78028/
This was the first time I ever saw the community come together the way it did for a tournament series. This is back before there was a live scene. Before we had the amazing tournament hosts we do now. Before the fantastic casting teams. Before the live presence we now have on Twitch. Most importantly, before we had a live platform to share our passion with each other.
It was the moment I realised how many people still loved this amazing game and how much potential it still had. I can’t believe how much of an impact this series had. I can still remember perfectly clear in my mind sitting in my bedroom in the dark at two in the morning being able to talk in real time with so many community members and people I only knew over the forums while watching this ridiculous series unfold and reacting together. It blew my mind.
If you had the chance and time to (co-)host a tournament again soon, what would it look like? If there were no money or time constraints. Which maps, player amount, settings etc.?
My favourite idea I’ve been wrestling with recently is a bit odd and not exactly a fair tournament. I do think it would be an interesting and entertaining experiment at least the viewers would enjoy it.
I would have the top 31 players rank all the civilisations from best to worst. Each player would then be allocated a civilisation to play for the entire tournament based on their tournament seed and where the civilisation was ranked. For instance, the highest seed player would have to play with the worst ranked civilisation. The lowest seed would play with the highest ranked civilisation.
I think it would be a great way to even the playing field for a lot of up and coming players and at the same time, force the creation for new build orders and strategies for lesser used civilisations.
What would you do to make the world a better place?
I’ve always said the world would be a better place tomorrow if everyone looked after each other a little better. I still believe that.
Choose without having any background information or what it should be about:
Chris or DauT? Daut
Tim or TheViper? TheViper
RiuT or dogao? Dogao
FeAge or Lavie_Head? FeAge
Nili or T90? Nili <3
Lumberjack or Gold miner? 4
Knight or Cavalry Archer? Cavalry Archer
1v1 or 4v4? 1v1
Feudal Age or Imperial Age? FeAge, again.
Camel or horse? Horse
Boar or elephant? Elephantan
Black Forest or Islands? Black Forest
Thank you for the interview and good luck with your future plans.