A piano trio based out of San Francisco, the Sixth Station Trio has made – and continues to make! – a tremendous impact with sold out performances around Studio Ghibli, Pokémon, Zelda, and more.
Between their many shows and performances (catch their Pokémon in Concert show August 28!), we recently spoke with Sixth Station Trio’s Anju Goto, Federico Strand Ramirez, and Katelyn Tan – learn more with our interview.
Sixth Station Trio Interview – Acclaimed Trio Talks Zelda, Community & More
Gamers Heroes
Coming in live!
First off, I want to thank you and congratulate you all on a great Zelda concert.
While I couldn’t make it, I did catch you at GDC when going through the park between meetings, listening to your Breath of the Wild performance.
It’s one of my all-time favorite games! It got me through COVID, and just hearing that song provided me my motivation for the day.
How do you choose which songs to perform from all the different Zelda games and spin-offs?
Federico Strand Ramirez
Our decision process comes from a combination of what we know people will really enjoy, along with nostalgic tunes that people have grown up playing and listening to – and also our personal favorites!
If we are performing that we really enjoy and love, then it’s going to come across in the performance.
Gamers Heroes
I totally understand! Is there a particular Zelda you really enjoy?
Ocarina is Time is often considered the gold standard, but everybody’s got their own favorite – mine is Link’s Awakening!
Federico Strand Ramirez
I personally love Wind Waker – I grew up playing the GameCube Wind Waker.
I remember when I was about 10 years old; I was at a thrift store with my mom, and she found a GameCube with Wind Waker attached to the game console.
That was just one of the nostalgic and exciting moments for me as a kid, just because I hadn’t been playing a lot of video games up to that point.
It was not only one of my first Zelda games, but also one of my first consoles and games in general.
For me, that was really kind of monumental – and is still definitely is one of my favorites!
Gamers Heroes
It’s a good summer game too!
How about you Katelyn – what’s your favorite Zelda game?
Katelyn Tan
I admittedly haven’t really played many Zelda games!
I grew up listening to a lot of music because I’m a big Nintendo fan, growing up with a lot of the games.
For me, I’ve only really played Breath of the Wild – but I really enjoyed it and especially enjoyed the music.
It’s very nostalgic to hear that, and it very much reminds me of the pandemic. Just being locked inside, but going outside and being able to explore the world on your Switch.
Gamers Heroes
I was the same – I found so many Shrines during COVID!
Katelyn Tan
Yeah!
I actually got my dad into Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, because he’s a big gamer.
He played the whole thing, finishing it in a scary amount of time.
He was telling me about a lot of the music from Breath of the Wild, showing me different tracks from it.
Another aspect to point out is that when we’re picking music, it’s not only the nostalgia factor – what we think fans will like in our own favorites – but also what works best for our instruments.
Some things will translate a little better to violin, cello, and piano than others.
That is also a key factor in how we pick our music!
Gamers Heroes
That makes perfect sense – and different Zelda games have different styles.
Like you mentioned, Wind Waker has Dragon Roost Island, while Link’s Awakening has The Ballad of the Wind Fish.
I understand where you’re coming from!
Katelyn Tan
Link’s Awakening also has a lot of nice chamber music in it, so a lot of those tracks translated really well!
It really also depends on how we go about arranging the track too – there’s always that aspect too.
It’s a combination of those three things!
Gamers Heroes
And for the trifecta: Anju, what’s your favorite Zelda game?
Anju Goto
I grew up playing Ocarina of Time a bit, and then I really got into Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild.
That really blew my mind when it came out – I played it for a whole month!
For Link’s Awakening, I knew about the game but didn’t play it until the remake came out.
That soundtrack blew me away as well!
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely!
So I know you’ve worked with GameChops and koomuhz on multiple releases, like the Zelda Classics vinyl.
That’s got that heart, that genuine nature to it!
What was it like working with them all on these releases?
Katelyn Tan
GameChops has been really great to us!
I think all three of us really appreciate his work ethic. Not only is he a really nice person, but he’s also extremely efficient.
He has multiple releases coming out every month, and it’s insane how much he has to get done.
But he still manages to keep us notified in a timely manner with deadlines and all that – that’s really nice!
I also make lo-fi – I knew about him back in his early days when he was strictly lo-fi.
Then, when he started doing live stuff, I asked:
“Maybe he’d be interested in chamber music?”
It was really great to see him supporting us doing a whole chamber music album, despite being one of the first live groups he’s worked with.
It’s nice to see that he acknowledges this genre of music!
It’s pretty common to do chamber music in the classical world, but the video game world doesn’t seem to be the same. There are not a lot of chamber groups out there doing what we do.
To have such a big record label nurture and take care of our vision for the way that we play and how we want to grow…we’re really grateful for that!
Gamers Heroes
I’m sure!
On that same note, I checked out your NME interview where you were talking about approaches.
You say you carefully crafted each arrangement to stay true to the original pieces, also including aspects influenced by your classical backgrounds and training.
What is the one thing you hope people would notice when it comes to that classical training backing?
Katelyn Tan
We’re able to express ourselves very well, musicality-wise!
The most important thing about having these arrangements is that it’s very different to listen to an orchestral or live version of a Zelda track, versus one composed via 8-bit.
Live music can enhance and shape the way you hear and feel the music in such a different way, while also capturing the original integrity of the piece when it was first conceived in-game.
Federico Strand Ramirez
As musicians who have grown up playing chamber music together and playing in a wide variety of different environments and going through conservatory training, playing these arrangements has been fundamental to our musicality and our chops, our virtuosity.
I think the arrangements are catered to our skill levels pretty well. After having played a variety of music, it’s exciting to play a different variety of levels.
Playing together, we are able to meld different instruments that would normally be within an orchestral setting into three different instruments.
It does kind of test our technique and keeps us on our toes a little bit!
It has been exciting to kind of use our classical background in a way that is also exciting to our audiences.
Anju Goto
Sometimes I notice that orchestral writing or timbre music writing can limit instruments to roles – violin is always on the melody, cello is always the bass line, and piano is always accompaniment.
I want to vary those roles, as a classical timbre musician would do.
I want to highlight that a piano trio is a very standard chamber group in the classical music world – but not as known in the video game world!
Gamers Heroes
That makes perfect sense.
On that same note – talking DELTARUNE – Toby released his newsletter yesterday.
For his song Flower Man – he said it’s inspired by his blurred memory of the Full House theme.
Tying it back to you all…
Where do you find inspiration?
Katelyn Tan
For me, when I’m arranging – it’s always so random!
As you were saying, Toby Fox’s influence was from his random memory of how he thinks Full House sounds.
I think that’s something musicians often do – we just have random bursts of inspiration from anything that could happen – even the day of.
Inspiration-wise, we generally draw from some of our favorite classical composers – I try to arrange like them. I don’t consider myself to be anywhere like them, but I at least try to draw from things.
It’s really important that when you’re arranging to study how classical piano trios are usually written.
Sometimes we’ll reference those things and have these influences, but they don’t always go the way you think they’ll go – and then you end up doing your own thing.
That’s the beauty of it – you can take these influences that become your own thing.
Some of our favorite wonderful classical composers include Ravel, Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.
We also take influence just from listening. I think a common stereotype for classical musicians is we don’t listen to things outside classical music – which is completely untrue.
The three of us – and many musicians we know – listen to all kinds of music! We definitely take influence from jazz, pop, and really anything.
At the end of the day, we just enjoy good music!
Gamers Heroes
As it should be!
I’ve heard a similar thing from other musicians too – Grant Kirkhope is a metal fan!
I also saw you’re working with the Asian Art Museum, bringing different film and game scores to life!
What’s been your favorite part working with them, and what’s the one thing you want to include as part of this performance?
Federico Strand Ramirez
It’s been really exciting, because this is possibly our fourth or fifth performance at the Asian Art Museum.
It’s always really exciting to play in such a gorgeous and resonant space as the Samsung Hall at the Asian Art Museum.
It is such an exciting way for us to test out our group sound, figuring out kind of what kinds of blends we want our group to emulate.
It really does feel we are including ourselves within the community, because we had all grown up attending and going to the Asian Art Museum – a full circle moment!
Gamers Heroes
That’s great!
Talking about community, you mentioned you’ll be at MAGWest.
Going to these events, I always say there’s strength in community – the fans are there for you!
You have different fans from different backgrounds as well – there are those into gaming like me, but also those into classical music.
What are your some of your favorite community stories?
Anju Goto
Even though we’re mainly playing video game music, we’ve also had our fair share of playing to classical audiences.
The older generation doesn’t know much about video game music, but they come up to talk and say:
“What’s that from? I really enjoy it – I want to hear more!”
It’s really nice being able to bridge the gap between classical music and video game music.
It’s not that they don’t appreciate either video game music or pop music, but rather that they don’t really know it.
Federico Strand Ramirez
I think with that, we also combine different types of music in a program.
For a classical audience, we’ll take one or two pieces that they would definitely know, and then add a few pieces video game music we think would really work well with that program.
To kind of describe it, we’ll take four different kinds of video game music. Then, we’ll kind of think of it as:
“Oh, this is a four-movement work that just sounds similar to the rest of the program.”
It’s exciting to see everybody’s face light up once we’ve played this music they’re not very familiar with.
But then the first thing that they always tell us is that they’re going to go home right away and look up these different pieces on YouTube. They really had no idea this world that we haven’t really been exposed to.
It’s always very heartwarming to see!
Katelyn Tan
Piggybacking off of that, we’ve had a lot of people come up and say that they’re really inspired to pick up an instrument again, or pick up one for the first time.
That shows the importance and value of live music!
I know a lot of the times these days – in this AI world that we live in and the current state of the government – there’s a lack of appreciation for the arts in general.
But I think having these live performances really does show that art is important and that it means something to people.
Hearing people come to our concerts and say:
“I’m reminded of when I was in middle school orchestra, and I want to pick up my violin again!”
or
“I want to pick up whatever instrument that they happen to play!”
Again, it’s really inspiring for us!
I think that is definitely something that makes me really happy, and makes me want to perform again.
Gamers Heroes
I’ll co-sign that one!
My in-laws and mom don’t know much about anime, but Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki immediately resonates with them – and that’s incredible. Things like Howl’s Moving Castle are just timeless, bridging that gap and bringing people together.
Talking Pokémon, I saw you’re going to have a Pokémon in Concert performance at the Grace Cathedral on August 28!
What are you looking to include as part of this performance? There are a lot of Generations to choose from!
Katelyn Tan
We always want to include as large of a variety as possible!
We try to include at least one song from each mainline game, though that doesn’t always happen.
I think we generally really enjoy the Diamond and Pearl soundtrack. I think that’s a not only our favorite, but a fan-favorite as well.
I think Gold and Silver is also another favorite, so there’s going to be a lot of Gold and Silver and Diamond and Pearl music.
However, we really do try to also include a variety. It’s important for us to see the show from the audience’s perspective, so that we play things they also enjoy.
It’s not just about what we want to play, but it’s also about what fans want to hear.
We’ll definitely play stuff we didn’t think of playing on our own. We’ll go online and see that it’s really popular, and say:
“Maybe we should play this Battle Theme, because a lot of people are listening to it!”
Gamers Heroes
That makes perfect sense. I’ll get to Heart Gold – I’ll get to all the other games too!
Keeping it short and sweet, what advice would you give the next generation looking to follow in your footsteps and get into what you’re doing?
You’re killing it right now – people are inspired by your work and looking up to you!
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to them?
Anju Goto
I would say just start doing it before you think too much about it.
I was like that before, where I was just worried I wasn’t good enough – I didn’t want to embarrass myself out there. As a result, I didn’t make any recordings or videos – even though I really wanted to!
Then Katelyn asked us to play with her – that forced me to get myself out there.
I really am glad that I did that, and I hope that other people can do that as well.
Gamers Heroes
That’s definitely respectful!
Federico Strand Ramirez
When finding our niche as a trio, it was pretty accidental for us to form the way that we did.
We just had our first performance where we did Studio Ghibli music.
We didn’t expect to become a trio; we just did something that we were passionate about, and I think that’s kind of where everything should start.
If it’s something like video game music or film music or any kind of interest that you might have – just like Anju said – go for it!
Any kind of niche you are really interested in could really be so fulfilling for you!
Katelyn Tan
Yeah!
I was also going to say just go for it, but to build on that, I think it’s important to know you can grow from everything.
It’s really important – even if it’s something that you don’t like, you can try giving it multiple chances. You don’t have to like or dislike everything.
You can have your dislikes and have your likes, but it’s important to know there’s something to learn from every experience that you have, especially for artists and musicians.
Everything we do is a learning experience, and you continue to grow for the rest of your life. I think if you stop growing, there’s probably a problem – because I think I’m still growing.
I think it’s really important to know that you can learn even from things that you might not like – that everything somehow turns out to be an unexpected lesson.
Take everything as a lesson – live and learn!
Gamers Heroes
“Live and learn – hanging on the edge of tomorrow!”
That’s great advice – I follow that same mantra. “Just do it,” Shia LeBeouf-style.
I always love ending with this one too, and it’s come up before…
I love SubwayTakes – there’s a great one with Austin Butler, where he says:
“Embarrassment is an underexplored emotion. Go out there and make a fool of yourself – everything you want is on the other side of that.”
I follow that advice on the daily. I’ve made a fool of myself plenty times – but not today, hopefully!
I respect those that go out and follow their dreams – and always grow.
Thank you for the time!
For those feeling social, be sure to follow Sixth Station Trio on their Twitter/X, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube social media channels!
Be sure to also listen in to the Sixth Station Trio on Spotify!
For those based in the San Francisco Bay Area, be sure to hear the Sixth Station Trio as part of the Undertale Symphony at the San Jose Civic on August 23, along with their Pokémon in Concert performance at Grace Cathedral on August 28!
Thank you to Sixth Station Trio’s Anju Goto, Federico Strand Ramirez, and Katelyn Tan for their time!
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