Beatles: Rock Band Creators Bring in Paul and Ringo to Get the Details Right

On Sept. 9, The Beatles: Rock Band will hit shelves after more than two years in development. Josh Randall, the creative director and project leader at Rock Band developer Harmonix, has been at the heart of the game since its inception, and he recently spoke with Spinner about turning the concept into one of the most anticipated video games in recent memory. "It's a stressful thing, trying to re-create someone's loved one or an icon that's important to so many people," he says.

Read on to hear how Randall and his colleagues painstakingly researched details about the band, overcame the difficult task of choosing which songs to include and won the approval of Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Dhani Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

What was the process for selecting the songs used in the game?

We worked closely with [producer] Giles Martin, the son of [Beatles producer] Sir George Martin, and our main focus was trying to pick songs that would be fun to play in the game. That was our first criteria, and from there we wanted to get a balance of songs that would spread throughout their entire career. We wanted one of the modes in the game to have a linear campaign through the whole history of the Beatles starting at the Cavern Club [circa 1962] and going up to the Apple Corps rooftop [in 1969], so we wanted to evenly spread it out that way. Then we threw some of our favorite songs in there, as well.

Were there any songs that you had to cut for that reason?

I can't think of any specifics, but what we were trying to look for was stuff that had the criteria for a fun Rock Band level with each track and instrument having enough content for the entirety of the song. We tended to avoid songs that were heavily based in piano or strings, or didn't have drum parts. That holds true for Rock Band songs in general.

What role did George Harrison's son, Dhani, have in the making of the game?
Well, Dhani was a fan of our previous games, so he had met Van Toffler, the head of MTV, one day and it was right when MTV had acquired Harmonix. Dhani told him, "Hey, you should do a video game that's kind of like a full band." At the time, Rock Band was a secret, so Van said, "Well, you should meet with Alex Rigopulos, the head of Harmonix, because he's got something in the works." So, Dhani and Alex met and they talked about Rock Band and then the idea came up like, "We should do a Beatles Rock Band. That'd be hilarious." I think they laughed it off in the beginning and then realized, "That's an amazing idea. We should go for it." Two years later, here we are.

At what point did you get involved with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to get their input?

Really early on, actually. The way that it worked is that MTV games and Harmonix had been having discussions with [the Beatles' corporation] Apple Corps, and then when the time was right we went and sat with each of the shareholders, as they're referred to: Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia. The first thing we did was make a video of how the Beatles would look as 3-D avatars on the stage and we talked about our ideas and concepts. They all bought into the initial concept, and from there we would be talking with Apple Corps but then be back in front of the shareholders to show them progress and get their input maybe once a month.

What alterations did the Beatles make or insist on?

Luckily, a lot of it was approved early on. I think they were happy and comfortable with most of the general concepts. They really helped make things more accurate: One example is we had created a version of George early on that wasn't really up to snuff yet, so Olivia said, "Why don't you come to my house and look through some photos and I'll give you guys a bunch of references you can work with." With Paul and Ringo, they have all these great stories because they were actually there and they'd offer these cool tidbits we'd have no way of knowing. A lot of it was this helpful fact-checking, this insider's guide to how these guys looked and moved -- all the little things that, being an outsider, you just wouldn't pick up on.


There were conflicting reports about Yoko's involvement with the game: Someone from MTV said she gave the designers hell and then Alex from Harmonix said she wasn't that difficult. What was your personal experience of working with her?

I met Yoko many times over the course of the project. In the end, she came to see our progress and it was such a huge help because at the time our version of John was not really there. She's an artist and she's really with it, so she was able to figure it out really quickly. She told us, "He doesn't move the right way. His eyes aren't right. He needs to be more confident." She gave us a ton of awesome feedback and it was delivered in a way that she really wanted to make sure she got her point across. At the same time, every artist of mine that she sat with, she sort of patted them on the back afterward or gave them a hug and said, "You're doing an amazing job." So she's a strong-willed individual who has strong opinions, but thank God she had them because otherwise I really think the game would have suffered.

In terms of the research, what did you do? I'm assuming you had to go through tons of photos and video.

The first thing we did was watch 'The Beatles Anthology' [documentary] and then we were constantly gathering footage from everywhere. We would sketch out an idea of outfits or scenes and then we'd go to Apple Corps and say, "Do you have better reference material in your archives to send us?" and they'd be like, "Yeah, we've got a great picture of John's jacket from 'All You Need Is Love.'"

Did they play the game every time you guys brought it to them? How did that work?

I haven't seen them play it. I feel like they're going to play it when they're with their family around Christmas. Usually what happens is we'll go over and play the [demo version] in front of them and they'll make fun of us for not getting the high score. Those guys are really competitive. We played for Ringo once and then Paul came in and Ringo was still in the room. We started doing the same demo for Paul and as we were launching into it, Ringo said, "You played that already. Why don't you kick it up a notch?" So we all put it up on a harder difficulty and then at that point I got jet lagged and I kind of stink at these games anyway, so I made a ton of bum notes. Paul afterward was like, "You did well, and you did well" and then he looks at me and says, "You? Not so well."

Is it nerve-wracking in a way to be dealing with these musical legends and trying to re-create a version of them?

Yeah, trying to play Paul McCartney's bass line in front of Paul McCartney is intimidating [laughs].

What were your other impressions of them? What other kind of things did they bring to the table?

I found them to be really sweet and creative and really fun to work with. The big thing for me was meeting them and being able to see these guys as humans, seeing they were actually these four guys that got together and started a band. They basically took over the world but they're still these four guys in a band. That really made a huge impression on me. Seeing George Harrison's studio with all his guitars on the wall was really a very moving moment for me.

How much fan input did you have on this? I'm sure you must have been inundated with requests and suggestions.

We were fairly far along with the game before the world knew about it. A lot of it was the 300 fans who work here at Harmonix chiming in. For the fans, we wanted to get as much detail into the game as possible to make them happy but also, for people who don't know the Beatles, to tell their story in a way that's not a history lesson.

We also realized that a huge part of the early shows was watching all the teenage girls lose their minds. We were like, "We have to figure out how to do that," because in our other games you rarely see a high-resolution crowd. For this, we said, "All right, we actually have to go out of our way to make freaking-out 13-year-old girls." One of our artists here is actually a huge Ringo fan, so she did motion capture and pretended she was screaming for Ringo.

With this game being so anticipated and probably going to be huge, do you think other classic bands will be lining up to do their own version?

We don't have plans now to do any more stuff like this, but I would hope people would look at it and feel it was a lovingly crafted tribute. Part of our design goal was to make you feel like it was made by the Beatles more than it was made by Harmonix. I hope other bands will recognize that and say, "I want something like that for my band."

And there will probably be Beatles fans who wouldn't normally pick up Rock Band or even play video games. What other bands could you see having that sort of similar fan base and appreciation?

I don't know. Having a rabid fan base doesn't necessarily mean it would translate to a game or people would buy that game, so we'll wait and see. I want to make a Devo game.

Can you reveal anything about when we'll hear about the last song?

Oh, I think probably on 9/9/09.