Audio Mocha is the Surf Rock Fusion project led by electric guitarist Daniel Florez with the goal of making the best surf rock and surf-adjacent tunes to groove to. Taking inspiration from other contemporary surf rock bands like Daikaiju, Amphibian Man, King Ghidora, Man...Or Astro Man?, Andrew Moniz, Par Avion, as well as classic surf rock names like Dick Dale And His Del-Tones, The Ventures and The Trashmen, Audio Mocha is here to fuse various genres like 60s British Mod Rock to the sounds of the Caribbean and Latin America with a Fender spring reverb-drenched surf guitar twist. Mostly drawn to creating surf arrangement from Nintendo games, especially The Legend of Zelda, Audio Mocha also has a variety of covers from a variety of games like Final Fantasy, House of the Dead: Overkill, and Neo: The World Ends With You. Audio Mocha has also collaborated with many other artists and contributed to various video game remix albums on Pixel Mixers, OverClocked Remix, GameGrooves, and is an active participant in Dwelling of Duels.
Da Rap Nerd
Da Rap Nerd (formerly known as Darealwordsound) is a Bay Area Nerdcore/Hip Hop Artist, Producer, DJ, Audio Engineer, Hip Hop Educator and a driving force for community in the Bay Area. Starting off playing Bass for Del The Funky Homosapien to pursuing his own career as an artist, Da Rap Nerd has made a name for himself for building a growing Nerdcore/Hip Hop scene in the Bay Area and empowering young artist to find their own voice and create fearlessly. He is also the founder of Bayokyo and is working with MagWest. Da Rap Nerd is an artist who you will be amazed by both on stage and off the stage.
Ben Briggs
Ben Briggs is a full-time musician, entertainer, and DJ with over a decade of experience; widely known for remixing video game music. As the co-owner of Tiny Waves and a veteran contributor to the chiptune & video game music scene, he has quickly become a key influencer in the industry with countless successful events and music releases. He has performed at numerous conventions worldwide including Otakon, MAGFest, ConBravo in Canada and Minami Convention in Chile, South America. Beloved for his electronic dance music with strong chiptune influence, he delivers a high-energy performance full of positive energy and LOTS of dancing. Dedicated to "making the fun happen", Ben believes it is his purpose to remove people from the stress of their daily lives with music.
Wario Speedwagon
What happens when you bring together a supergroup from the bands performing at MAGWest? You get an eclectic mix of VGM that's sure to make you smile. Stay tuned for a one-of-a-kind MAGWest surprise in the Jamspace.
Members include:
Lacey Johnson
Ian Cowell
Nick Galvez
Jay Kim
Ben Visini
Josh Pendlebury
Joe Newman
Michelle Dreyband
Sam Schwartz
manadream
Agender, vegan, musician, artist and indie game dev. Heavily influenced by video game music of the 80's and early 90's, I make my own FM Synthesis samples using Korg Volca FM and add in Boss DR-670 Drums and Alesis QS6 samples to create modern, retro sounding compositions using Milky Tracker and Renoise.
Ronin Op F
Ian Cowell
Ian Cowell is a San Francisco Bay Area based musician, producer, and visual artist, an all-around Master of the Dorkly Arts.
Ian performs as one-third of the Oakland Synthwave trio B/I/R/T/H/D/A/Y with Delicious Nick and Ronin Op F, and has been shredding lick aplenty in various projects since the early aughts.
Ian has collaborated on releases with various artists including Street Cleaner, ErichWK, Myrone, Ian Martyn, Joe Newman, and many others. In December of 2021 Ian released the full-length album Exceptional Goblins to much fanfare.
You probably know him as the Dancing Link Guy.
Character Select
Character Select is a brand new, San Jose-based group of musicians with a passion for video games and jazz music. This five-piece band will get your hearts pumping with their swinging, energetic takes on your favorite video game tunes. Featuring Trevor Strohl on saxophone, Jonathan Franaszek on keys, Dylan Escudero on Guitar, Miguel Leyva on bass, and Nick Aganad on drums, their upbeat music will be sure to get your feet, and your controllers, moving!
Ryan McGaughey
Ryan McGaughey started piano lessons at age 12. Playing video games basically from the moment he could hold a controller, it came as no surprise that he began playing music from video games on the piano. In fact, it was playing video game music that hooked him on the instrument to begin with.
Through video game music, he realized he enjoyed classical music and he ultimately went on to study classical piano performance at Humboldt State University, where he studied piano under Dr. Daniela Mineva. He then continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he obtained a Master’s degree in piano performance studying under Prof. Alexander Kobrin.
His piano studies have led him to receiving many accolades, including winning the concerto competitions at the North State Symphony, the Eureka Symphony, and Humboldt Symphony. He has also been a participant and performer in music festivals such as the Round Top Music Festival in Texas and the Atlantic Music Festival in Maine. He has also performed at VGM CON in 2021 & 2022.
In addition to being a pianist, McGaughey is also a composer and often plays his own works for solo piano. Ryan currently teaches piano, accompanies, and performs classical and video game music concert.
In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, of course, and is enthusiastic about the outdoors, fishing, hiking, and backpacking.
Abstract the Origin
Extra Lives
The Extra Lives Live Experience is a fully narrated choose-your-own-adventure game where YOU are the main character! Get plunged into an exciting story with visuals, music, footage and sound effects from legendary console games. The audience votes at several key junctures, leading to special story branches, multiple endings, and over 30 different possible variations. With a live score provided by the lovable nerds of Extra Lives, this immersive feast for the imagination will transport you back to your childhood!
Petriform
Hailing from the South Bay, Petriform has brought energetic NES chiptunes and synth music to California's chipmusic scene (and beyond!) for years. Drawing emphatically and unapologetically from a grab-bag bursting at the seams with genre influences including happy hardcore, VGM, sunshine pop, third-wave ska, prog metal, and turn-of-the-millennium pop punk, no two Petriform releases (or live sets!) are ever the same -- except for that your rocking satisfaction is guaranteed!
7th Street Big Band
Super Soul Bros is teaming up with 7th Street Big Band to come through MAGWest in big band format! 7th Street Big Band led by drummer, Gabby Horlick reigns from East Side San Jose. The band is composed by many south bay young musicians and have carried through performances in venues such as Tabard Theatre, the Art Boutiki, Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Gen Fest and San Jose Jazz Festival. They have 4 albums including their latest project Post Hang.They're not your grandparents big band —they're bringing some of the hippest beats and rhythms to the table. Let's get funky!
Super Soul Bros
The Super Soul Bros are a collective of San Jose musicians, whose fusion of funk and jazz meets the nostalgic melodies of classic video games. Formed in 2012 by keyboardist Robbie Benson, the Super Soul Bros have gained notoriety for their dynamic musicianship, high energy shows, and infectious grooves--comparable to jamming a ‘70s James Brown record into a Nintendo Entertainment System. Whether they’re taking requests on the fly, or the crowd’s busting into a full-on soul train, it’s always a party with the Super Soul Bros.
The Tonberries
Ray Reck
rayreck plays a vital role in the bay area community as a DJ, producer, and educator. From schools to nightclubs, ray's knowledge along with their vibrant charisma is undeniably inspirational. From producing instrumental hip-hop beats to dance remixes, rayreck certainly checkmates the audio frequency at any angle.
bleeds
(mike)Bleeds from San Diego began making chiptune music in 2007 and has been playing numerous gigs from California to Melbourne Australia. With 2 gameboys running LSDJ, he produces tracks ranging from influences of drum and bass, hard trance, and happy hardcore. Bleeds’ style and composition has known to be dirty and raw combined with pent up energy of dance tracks that will get you moving.
Hyper Potions
Hyper Potions is an American electronic composer and DJ duo comprised of Ian Tsuchiura and Kevin Villecco. Formed in 2014, they developed a signature sound that fuses their love for anime and video games with EDM. The two are notable for their contribution to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, including that of Sonic Mania and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. In addition, they have also composed tracks for games like League of Legends and Rocket League, and their music featured on Cartoon Network and Disney Channel.
The Red Panda
Jordan aka The Red Panda is a New Mexico based EDM artist and producer, video game composer, and DJ. He started off at a young age of 9 playing the drums at his church, and progressively continued his musical career through creating melodic EDM tracks throughout his High school career, and in 2018, he created 'The Red Panda".
He has since gone on to perform at several New Mexico venues such as The Art Walk, Electric Playhouse, Sabaku Con, and even doing an online set for MAGwest last year with Tiny Waves!
He has also composed the soundtrack for indie game: Toree 2, for the German based developer, Siactro, with more projects in the works.
His musical stylings are inspired by Haywyre, Knower, Hideki Naganuma, and Tokyo Machine, and he can't wait to share it all with you this year at MAGWest!
Find the Rabbit
Find the Rabbit is a DJ + VJ from San Francisco, CA. Started off her DJ career in late 2020 gaining popularity on Twitch mixing her favorite sounds of Hard Dance to Trance while topping off the energy with K-POP remixes & J-Core. From bedroom DJ to Twitch Partner (top 0.2%) and now performing live with Magwest! Rabbit performed IRL (FanimeCon + Anime Expo) & VR (Rizumu + DDVR) while operating 1000+ visual events in the Music industry since 2014.