Indieview #14 — Mosh Mosh, FFXIV Performers

Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Indieview! Indieview is an interview series where I speak with a special guest who works on personal or business projects related to games, whether they’re an artist, a composer, a streamer, a writer, or otherwise. And this time, it’s a very unique otherwise! A musical band performing in the world of Eorzea?!

This week I am joined by the lovely leader of Mosh Mosh, who leads a band who performs across different worlds found in MMO Final Fantasy XIV (did you know that there’s a free trial up to level 60 and also includes the critically acclaimed expansion Heavensward?) I became a fan after coming across one of their performances in Old Gridania, and since then I’ve tried to catch them when they’re on my server!

Mitch: Let’s get to the very real point of this interview. Can I join? Please? Pretty please? I don’t play Bard but I can dance?

Mosh Mosh: Of course you can join us. But first you have to pat each kitto before being allowed to dance with us. Maybe you can even take Pinky’s position. 😉

Mitch: I do like pink! I hope I’ve introduced you okay, but can you please introduce yourself and the group in your own words? I know your names are all decided on your outfit colours, so who am I joined by today?

Mosh Mosh:None Li here. 😉 Okay, the short version: I joined FFXIV to just have fun with the community. Soon I realized that there is the option to play music in-game. So I decided to start my own band and to learn how I can convert music into this game. In real life I’m also a musician on a hobby base. I do love to create music and to transcribe my favourite songs to midi’s. I’m still learning and improving myself every day. And, fun fact for the mosh mosh followers out there, the colour names are actually resulting from my love for Pokémon which made me decide to name my characters to the different generations of Pokémon games.

Mitch: Ahh, so my favourite member can correlate to my favourite Pokémon game? I see! I’m very excited for this Indieview because this is just so fascinating to me! How did Mosh Mosh come to be? I’ve seen many solo Bards, but I hadn’t seen a fully-fledged group, different instruments and roles, until now.

Mosh Mosh: I’m very excited for this Indieview as well, since it’s the first interview ever for me. I started playing solo just for fun like everyone else, and was playing anime OST’s for the fellow people of Limsa Lominsa. The people loved it so much, that I decided to start my own band which grew quickly. At the beginning we were just 3 bards which then quickly expanded into a octet band. That allowed me to add way more tracks to make each song a lot better. Each character has a specific role like drummer/solo/back track/melody/lead and so on! There are some tricks to it to make it sound cleaner and in sync, but that’s what adds the extra spice to it — to make it sound as clean, smooth and detailed as possible.

Mitch: How do you pick the songs for your set list? And how do you compose them? I always seem to show up when you’re playing the Neon Genesis Evangelion OP! I’m a big fan of anime, so it’s nice being able to recognise so many of your songs.

Mosh Mosh: Ohh, good question! I’m very very picky about the songs on my songlist. I do get tons of requests and simply pick the ones I personally like the most. The composing does take a lot of work. I mostly compose “Falcom”-Music/Anime/Videogames/Battle-Background music which is very complicated to make. One song takes 7 to 10 days for the transcribtion only. After that comes the editing which needs 10 to 24 hours, depending on the song, to make it playable in-game.

About 60% of my music are handmade midi files. Currently I have 210 songs ready to play, and those took me about 7 months to make. Evangelion OP is a fan favorite! Whenever I perform in public, the community request this OP over and over again. So I decided to make one with my style and I do love this OP as well!

Mitch: Goodness, that’s a lot of work! I’m glad that you’re having such a good time with it — I know the Mosh Mosh community is! Is there much training for the performances? I imagine it’s second nature now, but I also imagine it can be quite tense when actually performing!

Mosh Mosh: Ohh yeah, I do spend 7–10 hours each day training and transcribing new music for the community. Whenever I finish transcribing and composing a new song, I share it on my discord each week.

The in-game music has many mechanics and needs some tricks to do, which makes it not just copy and paste notes to be able to play. The game only allocated 16 active voices to bard sounds, so sometimes you need to edit, change and test a song massively to make the song very detailed in-game. Also I can’t let 2 bards play the same track, with the 3 octaves limitations, so it’s very challenging to make the song very clean and detailed in-game. That’s why I spend so much time on the editing, because I want the audience to hear my music loud and clear without any noise.

Mitch: Is there an audition process, or is Mosh Mosh composed of people who’ve always been friends?

Mosh Mosh: Haha, we are 9 players who stay in their house’s basements and play music. Nah I’m kidding. It’s only 1 person who does handle everything. I transcribe, compose and perform by myself. But I do get a looooooot of help from my community, which I’m really thankful for. They do help me whenever I need something. For example moderation, help, in-game things and many other things. But behind the band in the end, I do control everything which requires a lot of multi-tasking. I have 3 PC’s for this with maaaaany monitors. 🤭

Mitch: I had no idea you were one person, although looking back at your tweets maybe I should have realised, haha! What has been your favourite performance memory so far?

Mosh Mosh: Ohh, that’s a really hard question since there are many sweet memories, but I think it was 3rd June 2021! I currently play in all EU data centers (Light and Chaos) and I was doing my absolute first guitar concert. The Mosh Mosh Community from Light and Chaos gathered together cheering and having fun like a family! That was very amazing! We do sometimes tease and do Light Vs Chaos jokes, but this day was so special! Everyone was having fun and it made me smile for hours! I won’t forget this day.

Mitch: That’s very sweet — it makes me smile just hearing about it. How many shows would you say you play each month? It feels almost like every other day watching your Twitter!

Mosh Mosh: To be honest with you — I’m not sure how many there are per month, haha. There are a lot of requests for me to play in public. I do mostly play 3 to 4 times a week, but there is no real number set to how much I plan to play per week! Each concert goes 2 to 5 hours maximum.

We do chat a lot on my discord during the performance and people are joking, taking pictures and having fun together. Sometimes I do ask my community if they get bored of my pop-ups weekly, but honestly they are not, since we do enjoy gathering together a lot! It also gives me the chance to present my newest songs, since I add 1–3 songs to my list every day!

Mitch: Where’s the Mosh Mosh merch, huh? A debut EP, perhaps?!

Mosh Mosh: Hehe, the community is still asking for Mosh Mosh merch! It will be happening soon for sure, and I have a good plan for merch! Currently I’m focusing on bringing the best quality music instead of merch or socials stuff. But right now I think I’m ready to release Mosh Mosh merch pretty soon! And debut EP… owwh! This is very next level, but I thought about it, hehe. Maybe maybe in the future, who knows! Maybe as a surprise? 🥳

Mitch: I’ll keep an eye out! When can we expect the Mosh Mosh/Soken cross-over? I haven’t seen an Omatone in the group yet…

Mosh Mosh: Ohh lol, I love Soken. It was a well played La-Hee with Otamatone! To be honest, if they release Otamatone, I will do La-Hee and add Soken’s voice to it. 😉

Mitch: I can only hope this becomes a reality, haha. I can assume the answer to this, but does it ever get old seeing the crowds you pull each time you perform?

Mosh Mosh: As I already answered in question 8, the people do not get bored of it at all, and so neither do I. Each performance is unique in itself. I appreciate every person who attends my concerts. The more people we can gather, the more fun we can have as a group, and that’s what it’s about in the end.

Mitch: I know you’ve teased it already but… how will you be incorporating the new guitar into Mosh Mosh? Can’t wait to hear it!

Mosh Mosh: I’ve been waiting for this moment! I never thought they were going to add the guitar this quickly. I adore the guitar and most of my songs are guitar tracks! I do only compose and transcribe metal/guitar/heavy music — so with the new guitar, it adds a whole new dimension to my music! I’m very happy with this update and that’s why I love FFXIV, they do care about the music and all those creative community desires a lot.

Mitch: Agreed. Naoki Yoshida and his team take very good care of us. If people want to keep up to date with yourself and Mosh Mosh, where are the best places for you to be found?

Mosh Mosh: The best way to catch the kittoz from here:
Discord: https://discord.gg/MoshMosh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoshMosh_FFXIV
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/moshmosh_ffxiv

Mitch: Anyone or anything that you’d like to plug today, meowster?!

Mosh Mosh: I would like to thank everyone who supported me from the start and to all those who are attending my concerts and enjoying their time — this means a lot to me.

I never thought I would get this massive support from the community, and that we actually would build up this big community of people who love chatting every single day, and simply have become a family. They are the #1 reason why I spent so much time to bring the best quality music and I am always improving to make them happy. They are the reason why Mosh Mosh is still performing. 💕

At this point — thank you a lot, Mitch, for the interview and the interest in Mosh Mosh.

Mitch: Oh, thank you too! I was so excited to get you on Indieview, and I’ve genuinely learnt so much today! Okay, one last question… what’s your personal favourite song to play?

Mosh Mosh: This is very hard to answer! There is a lot, but I will share a few since they are my fav!

1- Pokemon Sword and Shield — Marnie Battle
2- Sword of Justice, Ys VI and Ys I — Ernst + Final Battle
3- Ys VIII Super Ultimate — Gens d’Armes
4- Ys I and II Chronicles — To Make the End of Battle — Long Version

But if I really had to pick one . . I would go with #2, because this is the most complicated song I’ve ever worked on!

Mitch: Very cool! I can’t wait to see what you get up to next, but know I’ll be there supporting you!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed Indieview #14 with Mosh Mosh. I’ll be back with another Indieview in the near future, so thanks for reading, thank you to my guest, and I hope to see you all again soon!