Espher

Across the frozen wilds of southeastern Canada, a bitter wind blows. The barren countryside reflects the decaying remains of a once glorious civilization, where only faint whispers of past songs can be heard lingering across the chill winter air. Yet from amongst the bleak remnants of a rhythmic past, a champion rises to lead his army to victory. They raise their plastic axes to the sky, and let out a harmonious cry, filling the air with the sound of wailing strings and pounding drums. Sweeping across the once barren fields, they leave a path of gleaming rectangles in their wake, spreading the gift of the third Rock Band unto the ruins of their ancient civilization, remaking what was once beautiful — if flawed — into a pure, perfect whole.

Who are you?

My name is Espher, a seasoned gamer of all types who breaks up forays into MMOs, shooters, and tabletop games with the occasional marathon session of Rock Band. Though I play all instruments at a reasonable level, my instrument of choice is vocals,  something you can often see reflected in my contributions to the custom community and my devotion to the project for which I may be most e-famous, the Rock Band: Harmonies Project.

What brought you to the Collective?

I’ve dabbled in the custom waters in the past as both a consumer and a contributor, including a handful of customs and some collaborative work with other members of the Collective. I got into that end of the spectrum not for a lack of content — Harmonix’s track record, all of which currently sits on my hard drive, establishes otherwise — but because my wishlist contain an assortment of artists who were likely too small for a mainstream release and yet too large to be interested in being courted by the Rock Band Network community.

Though I mostly stepped away from the contribution side, my work with the Harmonies Project kept me involved in the community itself, and I figured that the Harmonies Project, which in and of itself receives numerous contributions from guest contributors, was a perfect fit for this collaborative effort. Not to mention that I’ve got pretty high quality standards, so even if my contribution with respect to content is narrower in scope given my commitments elsewhere, I can contribute in some capacity on a testing and quality assurance level.

What types of releases can we expect to see from you?

I represent a bit of a minority in the custom charting community, as my tastes in music also frequently dip into the spheres of dance/electronic and pop music. I also have a soft spot for Canadiana and glam rock. While my releases in the custom area will be few and far between, you can expect to see them dip into one of these spheres. For the most part, though, you can look forward to seeing me contribute upgrades to add vocal harmonies and pro drums to pre-Rock Band 3 content, as well as distributing contributions received by other active and devoted members of our community.