Title a online game collection that’s extra synonymous with music than Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater. Wipeout? Possibly. Fifa? Possibly. Grand Theft Auto? Possibly.
However ask anybody who’s performed the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater video games to share their favorite reminiscence they usually’ll possible recall one thing music-related, whether or not it’s discovering ska-punk kings Goldfinger as they dropped into The Warehouse, or singing ‘Tony Hawwwwwwk! Tony Hawwwwwk!’ as they misheard the lyrics to Amoeba by the Adolescents.
Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater is chargeable for shaping the music tastes of tens of millions of gamers. Bear in mind: there was no Spotify, YouTube, or Limewire in 1999. When you performed these video games throughout your most formative childhood years, the soundtracks have been most likely your introduction to punk, hardcore, and hip-hop. And should you’re something like me, you took the pocket cash your mother and father gave you, headed right down to your native document retailer, and began constructing your first CD assortment from bands within the recreation.
Whereas the primary recreation centered closely on punk and hardcore music, sequels reminiscent of THPS 3 and 4 launched extra rap, hip-hop, funk, and exhausting rock to mirror the various music tastes of skate tradition. Equally, Activision’s remakes of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2 and Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4 characteristic new bands and artists, reminiscent of Jeff Rosenstock and Finish It, alongside the franchise’s established music names, together with Motörhead and Bodyjar.
Followers of the unique video games is likely to be disenchanted by Activision’s resolution to solely embrace 10 unique songs from Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 and Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4 in remake, however this resolution was taken “to maintain the texture of the unique video games but additionally introduce new artists and songs,” in accordance with Christopher Wilson, VP of manufacturing at Activision Publishing.
However how does it really feel for these new arrivals to have their music featured in a Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater recreation? And for the bands reminiscent of CKY and The Toy Dolls who’re returning to the soundtrack, what kind of affect did that includes within the unique soundtracks for Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 and 4 have on their music careers?
To seek out out, VGC reached out to each single band and artist on the brand new soundtrack for Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4. Most of them got here again, and right here’s what they needed to say.
Motörhead
Track featured: Ace of Spades
A spokesperson for the band instructed VGC: “The crossover between skate tradition and Motörhead has all the time been seamless, particularly for OGs like Tony Hawk, who’ve actually fueled their ardour by super-charging off their favourite music. It was nice to understand how a lot Tony beloved Motörhead’s music when ‘Ace of Spades’ featured on Tony Hawk’s Professional-Skater 3 recreation again in 2001 (24 years in the past!), and it’s nice to know that the timeless power stays so vital to Tony, as evidenced by the return of ‘Ace of Spades’ in Tony Hawk’s Professional-Skater 3+4.
“The factor with Tony’s video games is that they aren’t simply leisure; they’re educators relating to music. Tony’s such a transparent, passionate, and no-bullshit fan of the music you hear on the Professional Skater video games that the soundtracks are nearly like one other main radio station, or an immortal mega playlist, that skaters and surfers flock to. And due to that, Motörhead continues to see a number of grommets and groms-in-training stepping into Motörhead. It’s additionally price noting that Tony’s son, Riley Hawk, can be an enormous Motörhead fan, and by way of Lakai, designed a particular Motörhead shoe and attire capsule again in 2018.”
CKY
Track featured: 96 Fairly Bitter Beings
Chad Ginsburg (vocalist) tells VGC: “Tony Hawk was one among my earliest skateboard heroes, most likely earlier than I had any rock ‘n’ roll heroes. I owned a number of Powell-Peralta Tony Hawk decks and watched The Seek for Animal Chin 100 instances. Tony has all the time been nice to us; hanging with him and Bam, inviting us out to play arenas on the Increase Increase Huck Jam Tour, and together with us in his video video games. That is our second time on a Tony Hawk soundtrack, and tons of our followers found us for the primary time by means of the video games. I needed to cease skating after breaking my arm on a fall in my early 20s, so because of Tony for giving us previous guys a solution to preserve doing it.”
Jess Margera (drummer) tells VGC: “The Tony Hawk soundtracks are iconic to a number of generations and served as a car to introduce folks to each new and traditional artists/bands. It’s an honor for CKY to be part of it once more; we’re without end grateful. How may I not love a recreation that lets me play as my brother and has my track on the soundtrack?”
Finish It
Track featured: New Wage Slavery
Chris Gonzales (drummer) tells VGC: “Finish It being part of the remake of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 & 4 has been a dream come true. I’ve performed each THPS recreation, and I can nearly bear in mind precisely the place I used to be in my life once I first performed every recreation. I’ve found a whole lot of hardcore, punk, and hip hop because of the THPS video games, and truthfully really feel it has formed my style in music.
“I found so many artists by means of these video games and skate movies normally, so simply considering that one among our songs may try this for the youthful technology simply warms my coronary heart, and it’s a whole full circle second. I’m so excited for this remake. These two video games have been my favourite of the collection and it actually is a dream come true to have our band featured on the soundtrack and I’m without end grateful for these alternatives and I thank Tony and his crew for having us and for shaping how I take a look at music and for influencing a lot to my life.”
Jeff Rosenstock
Track featured: HEAD
Jeff Rosenstock (multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter) tells VGC: “I’ve logged a Malcolm Gladwell quantity of hours with Tony Hawk Professional Skater. After I was in highschool, my buddies and I used to cram into my bed room and play the unique on N64 with its wonky controller. I believed it was fucking sick {that a} N64 recreation had Suicide Machines and Useless Kennedys songs.
“When my first band, The Boastful Sons of Bitches, began touring we bungee corded a TV to a small plastic aspect desk/dresser from Mattress Bathtub & Past, caught it between the driving force and passenger seat of the van that we slept in, and performed Tony Hawk 3 (and Def Jam Vendetta) as we waited in sizzling desert parking tons for venues to open up so we may use the toilet. For many of my twenties, sitting on the sofa with a controller in my hand enjoying Tony Hawk was a pure state of being and scratched the itch that has now been changed with doomscrolling.
“I all the time beloved that Tony Hawk video games have been soundtracked like skate movies, particularly ’trigger I may play video video games much better (nonetheless fairly dangerous) than I may skate (just about under no circumstances.) Having ‘HEAD’ within the remake of Tony Hawk 3 + 4 is sort of surreal contemplating how deeply ‘Hush’ and ‘If You Should’ (from the unique THPS 3) are seared into my mind, and likewise cool (?) that somebody shall be listening to me screaming about voter disenfranchisement, the police state, the unhappy reality that our alleged Constitutional freedoms should not actual and the burnout that comes from attempting to course of all this as they attempt to Rowley Darkslide their method by means of all the toughest gaps on the listing.”
T.C.M.F.
Track featured: Consequence
Calvin Goodman (author and drummer) tells VGC: “To have our track ‘Consequence’ included within the new THPS 3 + 4 is a good privilege. Being Tony’s stepson, I’m clearly grateful as a result of he instantly helps us sufficient to incorporate one among our songs within the recreation. Nonetheless, we nonetheless by no means made the track solely for it to be included. We simply made the track for ourselves and to play at exhibits.
“Niko and I grew up on post-punk and industrial music, most of which had been within the prior video video games. When listening to the soundtrack now, you may hear all of these unique influential tracks, and the newer technology, like us, who’re naturally cultivating their very own musical paths from that inspiration. We’re nonetheless grateful and fortunate above all as a result of we grew up with these tracks, and my stepdad needs to see that inspiration reside on.”
Nico Butler (author, guitar and vocals) tells VGC: “THPS has been a gateway for my technology to find unbelievable different music. Its affect on skaters’ music style can’t be overstated. Even when skating fades from their lives, the music sticks. That’s why it feels surreal to be a part of the most recent recreation. After I acquired the information, I jumped round my house, blasting soundtrack favorites and queuing ‘Consequence’ alongside them. It felt like profitable the lottery. I simply hope our track resonates with younger players the way in which that music [in the games] as soon as did for us—shaping who we’re lengthy after the console’s turned off.”
Starcrawler
Track featured: Roadkill
Seth Carolina (drummer) tells VGC: “I first found punk, ska, hip-hop, and just about something that wasn’t traditional rock or nation by means of the unique Tony Hawks Professional Skater. My mother noticed how massive of an affect the music from the primary two THPS video games was having on me again then, so when THPS 3 got here out, she purchased me the soundtrack on CD earlier than I even had an opportunity to play the sport.
“I might play these video games generally simply to take heed to the music, although they have been actually enjoyable video video games. It feels completely insane to be featured in Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4. To me, it appears like some type of music award that I by no means may have dreamed of receiving. It’s additionally so wild to me that we’re on the remake of the one and solely online game soundtrack that I ever truly owned on CD.”
Arrow de Wilde (lead singer) tells VGC: “I used to be such a dorky child; I didn’t play a whole lot of video video games. However Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater was all the time the sport that each one the cool youngsters in school would discuss. I bear in mind being at a buddy’s home in elementary college, and her older brother would all the time be enjoying it, and the music positively stood out to me.
“We’re all stoked to be included in Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4. I simply actually hope it turns youthful youngsters on to our music in addition to the opposite artists on the soundtrack, the identical method it did years in the past when it first got here out. I used to be fortunate sufficient to have mother and father that confirmed me cool shit rising up, however a whole lot of youngsters don’t have that, so video video games like these are actually vital.”
Fireworks
Track featured: God Authorised Insurance coverage Plan
Chris Mojan (guitarist) tells VGC: “When THPS dropped in 1999, I used to be 12 and in my honeymoon section with punk rock and skateboarding. It was thrilling and lonely on the identical time: hitting document on my cassette participant when 89x performed Rancid, driving my bike to the skate store, and so forth. Bands have been exhausting to search out, skate stuff was costly, and I had no buddies to do it with.
“That’s why sitting in my room listening to Useless Kennedys in Free Skate mode was one of many joys of my youth. 25 years later, a track I wrote within the new THPS means 12-year-old me could be very happy with 38-year-old me, which suggests every thing. I hope we pay it ahead and this cycle of subculture continues.”
Twenty One Youngsters
Track featured: Looney Bin
Thulasizwe Nkosi (guitarist) tells VGC: “I truthfully discovered punk by means of skateboarding as a child from the skate movies within the mid-2000s and Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater. Bands like Dangerous Brains, Black Flag, and Useless Kennedys have been within the recreation. This led me on a punk rock analysis, which led me to some extra superb music from the 80s. I’d then exit on my skateboard and take a look at as many methods as I probably can.
“We’re positively tremendous hyped to be included within the new soundtrack. It is a massive deal for us. Our music is written to create a soundtrack for skating quick within the hood and metropolis streets, so that is positively a dream come true. ZA punk to the world. Enjoyable truth: Tony Hawk opened this superior concrete skatepark at an all-girls college within the metropolis of Johannesburg. That very park began a ripple impact, and there are such a lot of woman skaters in Jozi now!”
Abdula Skink (vocalist) tells VGC: “I’ve all the time beloved the Tony Hawk video games. To me, they have been extra than simply video games. They have been moments. Rising up, the soundtracks have been my gateway to discovering music I most likely by no means would’ve discovered alone. It was extra than simply background music. It was an entire world opening up. Being featured within the recreation now appears like such a full-circle second.
“I grew up with this recreation, and to be a part of it’s truthfully an honour. Attending to symbolize South African punk on that type of world platform is big — not only for us as a band, however for the whole scene again dwelling. It exhibits that there’s area for all of us. That there’s hope.”
Memo PST
Track featured: I Was once a Fairly Boy
Chris Shaw (vocalist) tells VGC: “As somebody who grew up within the video game-obsessed 90s, enjoying Tony Hawk Professional Skater was an enormous a part of my adolescence. Mastering the sport (and studying the cheat codes) was very a lot a ceremony of passage. The Tony Hawk Professional Skater soundtrack launched me to classics from each the hip hop and punk genres, so it’s an honor to have one among Memo PST’s songs make the reduce for the video games’ re-release.”
Toy Dolls
Track featured: She Goes to Finos
Michael “Olga” Algar (guitarist and vocalist) tells VGC: “The Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater video games have introduced us an entire new youthful technology of Toy Dolls followers [when Dig that Groove Baby was featured in THPS 4], most of whom weren’t even born after we started in 1979! That mentioned, not one of the band has even performed the video games! I do know that’s loopy, however we positively intend on doing so when this subsequent one is launched! We will’t wait!”
Dwynell Roland and P.O.S.
Track featured: Duck Fats
Dwynell Roland (rapper) tells VGC: “I bear in mind being a child enjoying Tony Hawk Underground and bear in mind listening to songs on there that I nonetheless bear in mind and know due to the sport! So it’s fairly surreal to have a track of my very own within the recreation. I believe the world of the Tony Hawk franchise as an entire is tremendous iconic in my eyes! So the child in me is like, ‘rattling man you’re actually on that shit’. It’s been dope to see followers and buddies react to the information of being on it and simply cherishing it. I’m excited to really play the sport and listen to this within the background!”
Casey Gerald (verses) tells VGC: “Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1 got here out once I was 9 years previous. Being an avid skater myself, I used to be obsessive about the sport. I found all my music from Tony Hawk (in addition to skate vids) so being featured within the recreation means the world to me. All of the artists that collaborated on this observe have deep roots in skateboarding, and that affect comes by means of on this track. For me, range, type, vogue, and inventive expression are the driving forces shaping skate tradition at this time. And If just one participant of this recreation can join with the soundtrack like I did when i used to be a grom, I’d be stoked.”
Yata (producer) tells VGC: “Tony Hawks Professional Skater has been a staple in my life because the first recreation was launched. I religiously performed the second (all of them actually), however the first underground hits completely different. I grew to become obsessive about skating and music. I’ll always remember driving round Jersey listening to ‘The World Is Yours’ by Nas for the primary time. Skating utterly formed me into who I’m and launched me to so many individuals who launched me to the artwork and music I make and luxuriate in now.
“It’s very wild to see every thing come full circle. From a child enjoying Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater to leaping down stair units, listening to my favourite artist, to creating music with them, and having that music be included within the recreation. I’m honored to offer one thing to one thing that’s given a lot to me. It’s lovely to see the affect the sport has had – and nonetheless has – so a few years later. I actually hope the remaster of Underground is subsequent, and all walks of life will proceed to search out artwork, music, love, inspiration, and creativity from the sport and skating neighborhood. A lot like to Tony.”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Track featured: Gila Monster
Stu Mackenzie (vocalist) tells VGC: “Can we deliver again presents inside cereal packing containers? In about ‘01 (I reckon), I scored Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 2 inside a Nutrigrain field. What a recreation. I performed it continuous for like six weeks main as much as my eleventh birthday when my mother and father purchased me a skateboard and took me to the skatepark for the primary time. I assume I believed skating was simple as a result of I attempted to drop in on the half pipe and broke my arm. I listened to RATM on the way in which to the hospital. Sick”
Frequent Perry
Track featured: Higher Off
Dylan Dusablon (vocalist & guitarist) and Luke Pugliese (drummer) inform VGC: “To have Frequent Perry featured within the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater collection means greater than merely being a part of a online game. It’s a bit of our childhood, our identification, and a part of the explanation we first picked up devices. To listen to ‘Higher Off’ alongside so many bands that we grew up listening to and helped form our sound is deeply private. We’re past proud and endlessly grateful to our buddies, households, and everybody who’s believed in us and helped us get right here. We’re residing proof that these desires we chased as youngsters on skateboards and low-cost guitars weren’t to this point out of attain in spite of everything.”
Strawberry Fuzz
Track featured: East of the 405
Kris Miller (guitarist) tells VGC: “Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater had an enormous half in shaping our music style. Being a child & enjoying the video games turned us onto a lot music that we most likely wouldn’t have heard ‘til later in life. We nonetheless take heed to artists from the unique soundtracks on a regular basis. It’s an absolute honor to be part of the soundtrack amongst our friends and artists we proceed to look as much as. Skating was our life for many of us within the band for plenty of years, so massive ups to Tony Hawk and the affect he’s made on folks all over the world. Thanks for placing on small bands and persevering with to develop the tradition for the higher!”
The Saint Cecila
Track featured: Curler
Stewart Heigold (vocalist and guitarist) tells VGC: “We’re from a small and really lovely nation referred to as Costa Rica, the place there’s a robust skate and surf tradition. So after we heard the information, it wasn’t simply us and our households who have been excited and grateful — the whole native skate scene was hyped to know they’d be skating to our track. For us to be a part of the soundtrack on the brand new Tony Hawk’s online game is simply plain surreal. We grew up enjoying that recreation for hours, and songs like ‘Ace of Spades’ are imprinted in our brains due to it.
“While you’re a child who spends hours dreaming about having a band, being heard by tens of millions, and being featured in a giant recreation or film — that is that dream turning into a actuality. I imply, our track goes to play after a track like “Ace of Spades”… that’s ridiculous. We’ll be throwing a celebration on the day the online game is launched so we will all play it and listen to our music in it. And once more — it nonetheless feels, and can all the time really feel, surreal and loopy!”
Bodyjar
Track featured: Not the Similar
Cam Baines (vocalist) tells VGC: “I like the video games and purchased THPS 1 and THPS 2 earlier than we have been included on THPS 3! I believe the video games acquired a whole lot of youngsters into skateboarding and confirmed folks what was attainable with youngsters studying concerning the names of methods and the fundamentals of skating. The sport and the music have been so vital as a result of they set the temper; it was energetic and good to skate to. Due to the sport and [pro skaters] Tony Hawk and Stevie Caballero, folks know who we’re in different international locations now, I assume.
“Initially, we didn’t realise how a lot affect [featuring in the original THPS 3] had on the band. I do know Stevie Cabellero had used a few our songs for his components in [skate brand] Powell movies, however then, when this [soundtrack feature] occurred, it was subsequent degree. I assume he [Cabellero] was a hero of mine, so when he acquired us on the sport we have been all very grateful. Now we’re touring Europe along with his band Urethane in July and August and it’s come full circle!
“It feels nice [to be returning to the franchise]. Not each band on the primary model acquired on, so we have to be doing one thing proper. Hopefully folks take a look at our different albums and the opposite bands related to us.”
AFI
Track featured: The Boy Who Destroyed The World
Hunter Burgan (bassist) tells VGC: “I grew up immersed in skateboarding, punk rock, and video video games…three worlds that naturally intersect. Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater was the right extension of this holy trinity. As a fan of the sport, I used to be tremendous stoked to be on the THPS3 soundtrack. On the time, I didn’t notice how it could assist introduce AFI to a brand new technology of players, skaters and punks.
“Through the years, numerous followers have instructed me that THPS3 was their first time listening to us. I met Tony not too long ago and thanked him for together with us on the sport. He instructed me how vital the music was to him. It’s an honor to be part of one thing that formed the tradition for a technology and hopefully the brand new recreation will encourage the following technology!”
