Expensive Brian, thanks for taking the time to hitch me on this interview to coach our neighborhood on SolRockers. Initially, are you able to give us a quick introduction to you? What’s your story, courting again so far as you want?
I’m the Head of Product at SolRockers NFT and in my free time additionally the drummer for the multi platinum band Everclear. Some would possibly assume I stay the lifetime of a Rockstar however I’m only a typical form of man. With a home within the suburbs, a white picket fence, a canine, 2.4 children and to spherical all of it out a spouse that drives a minivan. LOL. Truthfully I’m simply a pc nerd who performs drums in a rock band.
I attended Berklee School of music in Boston Massachusetts again in 1989–1994. Whereas residing in Boston I spent a great 8 years taking part in with bands within the Boston music scene — 1990’s Boston scene turned out some nice bands and I used to be fortunate to be part of it. I performed with Tracy Bonham, went off to Chicago to tour with Fig Dish, and ended again in Boston to type American Hello-Fi with my greatest pal Stacy Jones in 1998. We recorded our report with Bob Rock in Maui, had a success single on MTV, and toured extensively all around the globe within the early 2000’s. Now I’m taking part in drums with the band Everclear. By some means I handle to make a residing doing what I really like — taking part in drums.
The pc nerd half is the place crypto and gaming is available in. I used to be hooked when my step dad purchased me the Apple IIe again in 1983. A 1.023MHz processor, 64KB RAM, two 5 1/4″ floppies, bulletin boards have been no match for my 300 baud modem. It performed video games too, good video games like Citadel Wolfenstein, Boulder Sprint, King’s quest and Decathlon. It put my Atari 2600 to disgrace. Then I had a brief stint with consoles together with ColecoVision, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Tremendous Nintendo, however.. then Doom was born. John Carmack and John Romero messed me up good, so good that I constructed my first PC due to their creation — particularly to play Doom. That 4MB of ram was costly too. I’ve been taking part in PC video games ever since — Battlefield 1942, Name of Obligation, Elder Scrolls video games, WOW, the listing goes on and on. Principally I got here from the identical era as James Vacation, him and I’d have been good mates. Now it’s time to develop the Oasis, or at the least a really small a part of it.
Why did you become involved within the cryptocurrency trade, and the place do you assume the trade can be in 5–10 years?
I heard about this factor referred to as Bitcoin again in 2011. So you need to use your video card to earn cash? Actually? Feels like enjoyable. I took considered one of my pc rigs, outfitted it with an ATI 5970, overclocked the hell out of it, joined a pool and began mining. Then I had two rigs, then three, a number of followers, I’m speaking oscillating followers, not these fancy LED case followers everybody has nowadays. I mined 23 Bitcoin after which determined it wasn’t value pursuing, it was costing me extra in electrical energy to run the rigs in comparison with the going Bitcoin market worth. I held on to them for a 12 months and ended up promoting them on MT Gox for a whopping $27 a chunk (doh!). In hindsight I feel I ought to have held on to them, perhaps… I painfully adopted Bitcoin on the sidelines for years, dabbled in Ethereum mining and at last began critically investing in crypto once more in 2017.
Keep in mind the dot com growth within the late 1990’s early 2000’s? I simply sat there and watched all of it occur, I didn’t financially make the most of the quickest rising trade phenomena recognized to man. The web occurred and all I did was use it to play Quake. I might have gotten concerned however I didn’t. I needed to go and give attention to being a musician. A chance like that may by no means occur once more in my lifetime.
Then comes Blockchain expertise. Thanks Satoshi! Blockchain tech is the following growth, I’ve little question. It’s being adopted 2x sooner than the web, harvesting the brightest minds on the market and is giving us all the chance to develop the expertise of the longer term. And I imply the expertise of every part. Sensible contracts apply to so many alternative industries, together with finance, knowledge evaluation, and the Web of Issues, let’s not overlook about gaming. Who new sensible contracts could possibly be so helpful?
I’m not going to take a seat again and miss out on a twice in a lifetime alternative. So it both means I can redeem myself or go down in flames. I’ll both retire in Maui or greet individuals on the native Walmart right here in Madison, I’m all in.
That’s superb. Now are you able to give us an introduction to SolRockers and the way it bought began?
Again in 2012 I wasn’t simply mining Bitcoin, I used to be studying tips on how to develop video video games utilizing the Unreal Engine and Unity. I’ve at all times had a ardour for recreation improvement however I’m not a coder by any means. These recreation engines gave me a strategy to translate my concepts right into a useful recreation with out being John Carmack. I’ve since developed third particular person shooters, twin stick shooters, first particular person shooters on a hobbyist degree. I’d carry my video games to mates’ LAN events and play a spherical or two. It’s at all times enjoyable to see mates take pleasure in your creation, bug free after all.
The emergence of the Play-to-Earn financial system actually grabbed my consideration. I began taking part in video games like Misplaced Relics, Alien Worlds, R-planet to call a couple of. I had conversations with my brother Mike, additionally a crypto investor, about all of the P2E alternatives and he stated “Why don’t you create your individual recreation? You know the way to develop video games”. In order that bought me considering and researching. I made a decision to mix the two issues I’m most obsessed with: gaming and music. I made a decision to mix the Rhythm recreation style and the approach to life of a touring musician to create a singular gaming expertise. I’ve had some unbelievable occasions over the previous 25 years; being a part of nice bands and touring all around the world, I need to re-create that have for everybody who joins SolRockers. NFT gaming and being in a profitable band are all about making a neighborhood, all of it made sense to me.
Early on, did you see a chance to fill a void out there?
The market is one enormous void, it’s an open slate. That’s one of many the reason why I’m so enthusiastic about this challenge and blockchain video games basically. Similar to each new expertise, it will get
adopted by hobbyists and independents. That is the interval in blockchain gaming when impartial developer concepts can shine and make an affect on the trade. I consider we at SolRockers are doing simply that.
When deciding on the route of the art work, we didn’t need to create a spinoff of an ape and a pixel artwork SolRocker was out of the query. We wished it to be authentic and life-like that includes detailed devices and clothes, however with a light-weight hearted cartoonish really feel. The nice rock bands of the 80’s and 90’s have been excessive of their inventive expression. The hair, make-up, tattoos and clothes gave us so many choices and we spent months creating and revising. We had so many nice concepts. The SolRocker title is a mix of the Solana blockchain and Rockstar way of life with a slight play on phrases. I feel you get the thought.
A key level about our challenge that’s essential to relay is that SolRockers Battle of the Bands is a recreation that options participant owned NFTs, not an NFT challenge that guarantees a utility recreation. The sport itself is our major focus and the combination of the NFT is a key characteristic. The art work will seize their consideration however the recreation is the final word repay. Actually.
We additionally seen that you’ve your individual token referred to as $IROC, that can be used on your distinctive rhythm recreation. May you inform us extra about how this works?
$IROC tokens are the lifeblood of the SolRockers ecosystem and holding the token financial system balanced is our major precedence. $IROC tokens are awarded to gamers/stakers and are used to buy objects in our NFT minting and merchandise market. Now we have numerous methods our token is utilized in our recreation. Additionally, we really feel it’s essential to “burn” tokens as customers create belongings in our recreation ecosystem. We by no means need to dilute the general worth so a deflationary component can be included into the $IROC token utilization.
What have been the largest challenges for you and SolRockers because you began the challenge?
It’s uncharted territory so it’s all challenges. I spent quite a lot of time researching all of the facets and shifting elements that make up an NFT challenge, to not point out the sport. The artwork work, NFT era, rarity, minting course of, discord server, web site, token minting, entrance finish recreation dev, again finish recreation dev, media creation, NFT market itemizing… and that’s simply my job. My brother’s bought extra. Who knew a blockchain recreation challenge could possibly be so time consuming? So discovering the time to do regular household exercise has been a problem.
I feel the largest problem for the challenge is breaking via and getting seen. The NFT market is rising at breakneck speeds and has turn out to be a bit saturated. Ethereum based mostly NFTs are a first-rate instance. The Opensea NFT market certain lives as much as its title. Though the majority of the NFT market is on that blockchain we felt it wasn’t a great match for our challenge, or blockchain gaming basically. Solana was.
We selected Solana not simply due to its effectivity however we noticed it as the following blockchain to be adopted by NFT creators, traders and recreation builders. However with new expertise comes critical hurdles. Solana NFTs and recreation improvement remains to be in its starting phases so there are a couple of unanswered questions with inventive improvement wanted to finish a challenge like SolRockers. Fortunately we’ve blockchain backend engineers that may innovate and pull it off, I see them because the Rockstars.
Who do you assume could be the perfect target market for SolRockers?
At first look it’s NFT collectors and players nevertheless it’s additionally music lovers, instrument collectors and artists. People who take pleasure in being a part of a music and gaming neighborhood, who love to specific themselves via music and NFT creation. We would like this open to everybody.
I feel there are a number of varieties of “players” within the P2E setting. I really like taking part in video games, I can sit there and grind all day lengthy if wanted. Then you’ve got somebody like my brother who’s extra within the defi component. I feel he doesn’t spend greater than 20 minutes in anybody recreation, however he “performs” a number of. It’s essential to create a recreation that’s interesting to everybody.
Understood. Now what has been your best achievement to date, and what has been the largest failure or setback personally or within the historical past of the corporate?
My best achievements to date could be the truth that I’m nonetheless capable of assist my household doing what I really like — taking part in, and expressing myself via music. The best achievements associated to SolRockers are nonetheless forward of us. We simply began in November of 2021 so there’s not a lot historical past to speak of. Discuss to me two years from now and I’ll have an inventory. Now we have little setbacks each week nevertheless it’s nothing we will’t overcome.
What’s the subsequent step for SolRockers within the subsequent 1–2 years?
Develop and launch a enjoyable and fascinating gaming expertise the place customers get to roleplay that Rockstar way of life, create a band, apply in a studio, go on tour and play at completely different venues — with backstage debauchery included after all.
A difficult Rhythm recreation is just not full with out a nice collection of songs. Artist collaborations will play a giant half on this. Fortunately I do know a couple of. However outdoors of the mainstream music trade are quite a lot of superb bands and artists that deserve consideration. Now we have plans to provide everybody a strategy to take part and become involved. Our plans embody giving the participant and artist a strategy to create and improve our recreation. SolRockers Battle of the Bands will characteristic the power so as to add new songs and create new tune patterns. And we would like our neighborhood to be rewarded for his or her inventive efforts. It being a blockchain recreation offers us the means to take action. The neighborhood will at all times come first.
The place can individuals assist your small business? Apart from that, thanks on your time, Brian — any closing phrases?
Help our enterprise by visiting our socials like twitter, fb , becoming a member of our discord neighborhood, and naturally take a look at our web site.
Web site: https://www.solrockers.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SolRockersNFT
Discord: https://dsc.gg/SolRockers
Fb: https://www.fb.com/SolRockers-104379062257709
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcq8s8kElrxwKXJtYjkP7rw
Brian’s Twitter BrianNolan (@BamBamBNolan) / Twitter
And if you end up at an Everclear present within the close to future, cease by the merch ten and say whats up.
