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Interview with Jody Coglianese, Producer of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Interview with Jody Coglianese, Producer of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Interview

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Interview

Interview with Jody Coglianese,
Producer of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
by Adam Brown

June 6, 2007 – In a recent Activision event in San Francisco, Cheat Code Central got to play Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and chat with part of the team. Here’s our exclusive interview with Neversoft producer Jody Coglianese. Read on and find out all about it!


CCC: What led to the decision to make a band-specific Guitar Hero game?

JC: It just kind of happened. At the end of Guitar Hero III, we were trying to get an Aerosmith master track. We contacted Aerosmith for it, and Joe Perry’s son actually played a lot of Guitar Hero, so that kind of sparked some interest with Joe Perry and the band. They just knew this was an up and coming thing, and getting into Guitar Hero was a new way to hit the mass market and get your music out there to new audiences. So, when we got that master track, meetings happened, some phone calls happened, some talking happened, and the next thing we knew, we were doing an Aerosmith game. It just made sense, because Aerosmith has sold over 150,000,000 copies worldwide; they’ve spanned decades, and almost everyone has heard an Aerosmith song. That, and they have great guitarists like Joe Perry along with Brad Whitford. All together, with that huge combination of things, it was just kind of likewe need to do this.

CCC: In what ways has Aerosmith helped in the creation of this game?

JC: They helped a lot. They had input on the song choices, not only their songs but the opening acts as well. Not to mention, they saw Guitar Hero III, and they were like, “that game is great; let’s just make it better.” We wanted to show all the animations for the Aerosmith band; they all have specific signature moves. They challenged us to do that as well. Steven Tyler was coming in, and he motion captured (mocap) every single song that was Aerosmith. Not only did he do it for body movements; he was like, “I want to do facial mocap too.” They had input on the characters, songs, and animations. They were just very involved; it was amazing.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Interview

CCC: Besides Aerosmith, what other bands can we expect to see music from in this title?

JC: There are so many, I think there are thirteen bands other than Aerosmith. There’s Joan Jett, The Kinks, [The] Clash, a cover of Mott the Hoople, Run DMC, and a bunch more.

CCC: What is the ratio of Aerosmith songs to non-Aerosmith songs in the game?

JC: It’s a sixty/forty split. We wanted to get the Aerosmith in, but we didn’t want to exclude anyone either. Not a knock on Aerosmith at all, but after listening to any band for so long, you just like that variety. That’s what makes Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero. We just wanted to make sure we hit that.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Interview

CCC: How many of the included songs will be master tracks?

JC: The Aerosmith songs are all master tracks, except they couldn’t find four of the original recordings from their very first album. They actually went back into the studio and re-recorded those four songs for the game specifically. For non-Aerosmith bands, I believe there were only two bands that we had to do covers for. Again, it was because we either didn’t get the master track on time, in the right condition to be included in the game, or just not at all.

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