Living

<< Previous   of   Next >> Kevin Nortz / The Herald  (click to enlarge) From left, Gabe Hayward, Nick Walthew and Aaron Campion all make music using the Game Boy video game console.The name of the music, chiptunes, is a reference to the low-byte sound chip that provides the music in video games.   ADVERTISEMENT   Listen up Fighter X and others: 8 p.m. July 26, $7 donation requested, all ages, balcony lobby of the New Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave., tickets at the door, for info call 425-258-6766.   ADDITIONAL ITEMS Fighter X plays Finisher 3000 (MP3 file)   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, July 14, 2008 Everett pair's Web site draws chiptune fans from around the world For music with byte, look no further than chiptunes, an odd little way to write songs using reprogrammed Game Boys. While the music has far-flung creators stretched from England to Japan, two Everett 20-year-olds hope to put their hometown on the map with a new Web site, CrunchyCo.com. The site re-launched on July 1 to cover more terrain. It now sells T-shirts, promotes locals like Everett chiptune artist Nick "Fighter X" Walthew, and strives to become a one-stop shop for the cultish group that is chiptune fans. Gabe Hayward and Aaron Campion, the site's creators, seem programmed to make the site. Rows of video games and sci-fi movies decorate a wall of their home on Everett's north side. The two have been friends since grade school. Along with Walthew, the guys sound of one mind on chiptunes. For instance, they're quick to note the music is different from DJing. "DJing is when you have a couple turntables and you're just playing the song," said Walthew, aka Fighter X. "You're not really doing that much." "We don't really respect DJs," Hayward added. "DJs play other people's songs and they kind of suck," Campion said. Chiptunes itself isn't a genre, the guys said. Game Boys -- which use a four-byte sound system -- and other video game consoles can create folk or metal, for instance, just like a guitar. Still, most chiptune artists focus on dance music, filling their songs with hurried blips and beeps. The music's not for everyone. "People older are very confused," Campion said. Younger teenagers, who grew up with video games that use polished cinematic scores, also may miss the point. And while the music's nostalgic appeal to twenty-somethings is hard to miss, it almost undercuts the fact that the songs are often catchy. "We have some obsessed fans that go to every single show," said Hayward, who also plays in a chiptune group with Campion called Kids Get Hit by Buses. "They see us, the same bands, over and over again. It's like, we're it." With CrunchyCo.com, the duo hopes to expose more people to chiptunes. The site will gather material from far flung MySpace pages, offer free downloads and sell the work of other artists. "It's really like a hobby thing," said Hayward, who also works at Staples. "We spend our money out of our pockets to do this. Any money that we make off of it through our own music and T-shirts, we just kind of feed back into it." Andy Rathbun, Herald Writer, arathbun@heraldnet.com, 425-339-3455

1. Emory’s owner fears fire was arson 2. Monroe honking case makes it to state Supreme Court 3. Vatican ponders the souls in space 4. 81 veterans' names, 81 meaningful lives honored in Snohomish 5. Hope dims that Olympics will boost region 6. Student hit in crosswalk to return 7. Smokey Point to celebrate end of roadwork 8. Death on Edmonds waterfront ruled a suicide 9. Help for young moms may continue 10. Semifinal slate sealed on ‘Dancing With Stars’ 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Bazaar Fever • Hawks proud of historic season • Olson always put Edmonds first • Honoring student veterans • ‘Wheedle' author comes to Lynnwood bookshop • Mavs build early lead en route to easy win • Prep football games of the week (state playoffs) • Tears of laughter, tears of grief • Death on Edmonds beach likely a suicide • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million