Paste: I lived in Boston for a while and I really miss the city, so I love the environment and how they rebuilt so much of what I recognize from the city in the game.
RF: I’ve only been to Boston a couple times but I already think it’s very familiar. Cool, I’m glad you like it so much.
Paste: So why did you want to name your album after The Last of Us?
RF: I had a couple of different titles that I was kicking around. Some of them were kind of cheesy. The artist who did the work, Barry Blankenship, who mostly came up with the concept because we worked together a few times and every time we did it’s always been something videogame-centric or Muppet Babies type of thing. He was like “hey I have a great idea for a poster but I don’t know if you need it for anything.” He told me the idea, and Naughty Dog is my favorite developer, like I love Uncharted, I love The Last of Us, I love Crash Bandicoot—me and my son still play that. So when he told me idea I was like “well yep that’s it and that’s the name of my album and we’re going to go with that.” I love it because it’s a beautiful piece of art that I think makes people interested in the album and it tells people what I’m about without really revealing too much.
Paste: And I’m guessing that’s your son with you on the album cover?
RF: Yeah. That’s him. That’s Malcolm. And I love that.
Paste: Did you two play Last of Us together?
RF: Oh no, he’s not into anything scary. He was not into that. But I loved it. It’s one of my favorite games. I missed it on the PS3, actually, so I picked up the remaster. I love it. It’s beautiful, a great game.
Paste: So I’m not a parent. Do you think Last of Us speaks to you more because you are a parent?
RF: [laughs] Yeah, definitely, like the first ten, maybe fifteen minutes I was like “I don’t know if I want to play this!” When he loses his daughter, oh my God! I was like “no thank you!” But yeah I definitely wanted to protect and care for someone. It’s like the Telltale Walking Dead first season, with Lee. Those are things that definitely speak to me.
Paste: I thought it was amazing that the Walking Dead’s lead was a college professor from the University of Georgia.
RF: That’s one of the thing about having the online distribution. Not every lead character has to be a buff marine.
Paste: Do you mostly play on PS4?
RF: We have a little bit of everything. We don’t go too far back. But I have every current system and my son has the PS3 and 360 in his room from when we upgraded. We play everything. We’re not biased here.
Paste: What do you think about Nintendo? Do you have a Wii U?
RF: Yeah! We definitely have a Wii U. It gets pulled out whenever there’s a new great game coming out. We played a little bit of Yoshi’s Woolly World but that was a little too… he liked it, we did a little bit of co-op, but it faded out real quickly on it. He’s really into racing games so he’s playing the new Need for Speed mostly. But I like the Wii U. I’m exciting for Nintendo’s new system. If they’re actually going to mix the handheld and the console market, I’m exciting to see what they can do. I love Nintendo, I’ll never not love Nintendo. I want to play new Zeldas, basically.
Paste: Something I’ve noticed with my nieces and nephews and my friends’ children: the kids often aren’t as into Nintendo as their parents are. Do you find that with Malcolm?
RF: He’s not into the controller, I’ll tell you that. He’s definitely more into the standard Xbox or PlayStation controller. He likes a lot of the characters—he loves Amiibos, that’s for sure. He has a bunch of Amiibos. That’s one thing I love about my son—he’s just a gamer at heart, he loves everything. He’ll still play Pole Position, or just old things at an arcade. He just loves games. He’s not a graphics snob at all. I love him.
Paste: You mentioned Need for Speed—so Malcolm’s playing the new one right now?
RF: He’s playing the new Need for Speed and he’s playing the old Need for Speed. He’s playing Need for Speed: Pro Street on the 360. He mixes it up.
Paste: There are enough Need for Speeds that he’d never need to play another game his entire life.
RF: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I wish they’d bring out another Burnout. Or do they even make that series anymore? I miss Burnout.
Paste: I think the people that made Burnout now make Need for Speed, Criterion or something like that.
RF: Yeah, that is it. But it’s not the same. I miss crash mode and doing stuff like that.
Paste: So you’ve taken Malcolm to arcades before?
RF: We love going to arcades. That’s pretty much what we do on weekends. He loves anything racing. Anything that has a big car cabinet he can sit in. He loves Daytona USA. He’s all about just racing cars.
Paste: So he probably loves Dave & Buster’s.
RF: No! Because he’s a little bit of a snob! He doesn’t like the cellphone games. We’re both in agreement over that.
Paste: The arcades I’ve been to in Los Angeles are like those hip bar arcade style places, with DJs and you’re drinking a cocktail while you’re playing Galaxian or whatever. Do they have good old-fashioned all-ages arcades out there still?
RF: Yeah! There’s one, Neon Retro Arcade, that I go to, and you just pay for your time and go in and game it up. They don’t have drinking at all, just sodas and stuff. I hate it when—there’s a place where I used to live in Salem, Oregon where they have an arcade and at no point are kids even allowed. They serve alcohol the whole time. To me that’s ridiculous. I would be so mad if I was a ten-year-old kid. “I love videogames more than any adult and you’re going to tell me I can’t come in because you’re serving alcohol? You can go fuck yourself!” I’m sorry I said that. But I don’t care for that!
One of the best experiences I had lately was I got to take Malcolm to E3. I just love seeing all the signs that are like “no one under 18 allowed” and I’m just bringing a little kid over. That’s who E3 should be for, not some 30-year-old dudes like myself. I’m putting myself down. But that’s who it’s for, the kids.
Paste: Who was your E3 hook-up? Who got you in?
RF: Xbox. Kumail Nanjiani is big in the Xbox world and he introduced me to a couple of people and now they’ll send me random games. They sent me Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I still haven’t gotten to. They sent me Halo. And they sent me the Xbox, or I wouldn’t have had one yet. But don’t tell them that!
Garrett Martin edits Paste’s games and comedy sections. He’s on Twitter @grmartin.
