Pedro Eustache has played a lot of instruments. He has amassed a collection of unique instruments made by nature and his own hand, including flutes made from flowers and eggs. He has a lot of flutes, either cobbled together from different instruments or modified to create wholly original sounds that only he can produce after decades of study. Flute Guy's viral moment at The Game Awards is not his breakthrough moment but is a blessing in what he describes as a divine calling for a career that almost didn't happen.
One of the first things Eustache said to me in a recent interview was a gentle correction and an apology. He was surrounded in his home studio by his many flutes, including the bass flute that brought him his viral moment.
Eustache played several flutes, including one he modified for ease of use, and for the specific sound that modification makes, and apologized for his actions. The arrangement he played, a melody of all the themes of the games up for Game of the Year, included music from a game that features a Japanese flute.
He told me that it was specific for him to play the flute in one part of the arrangement. I don't know that the original instrument from the game is a shinobue and I have two of them. I will play this Japanese game next time. I am sorry for all the people who play the Xenoblade game. They will be honored next time.
There will be another time. Eustache will be back for Keighley's next event in June, apparently the annual Summer Game Fest.
Eustache has been performing on the video game soundtrack for a long time. He has a history of playing games.
This is awful. I can't but say the truth. He hoped they wouldn't mind him. My video games are where I play my instruments and play music. I may be the only dinosaur that doesn't play video games.
I reassured him that he was not.
I came from a generation in which I played video games.
If he applied the same joyfulness he has with his music to gaming, he would descend into a "rabbit hole". I don't think I would have a life if I started playing games that were as good as the ones I heard.
There are games that stand out over time. I think the horizon is amazing. He said that Xenoblade is great. Music on that.
He was the main soloist in the concert. Eustache played the flute at the beginning of K'sante's film.
Eustache has contributed to a lot of other media. He worked with Ramin Djawadi. He played a 21-foot-long horn and a huge duduk for the Dune soundtrack.
I asked if there was a difference between music for video games and music for other media, and he said that he was at the center of one of the most wholesome video game moments of the last year. He said that music is a thing. It is very cliché but true.
He talked about his love of Duke Ellington, who he called America's Mozart, and said there were only two types of music.
He said that if there is good music, he plays and responds the way he did at The Game Awards.
He wasn't told to do that He wasn't taught. He was placed there by the conductor because he knew what Eustache was like. Peter said that he wanted people to seePedro's energy.
I respond to good music the same way I did at the Game Awards.
When Eustache played the passage from that special moment full of that wonderful, infectious energy, it was within the interview itself.
I heard the arrangement of the song. He felt like a fish in the water. I was going to ride it from here to the moon.
Even though he is talking about it, you can still feel his enthusiasm for the music. He said that playing music like that isn't something that he does but rather he feels like a conduit for something greater.
There is a passenger in a vehicle.
Faith is an important part of Eustache's life. I went to India to study acoustics, I went to China to study acoustics, and I studied in Armenia. I do everything I can to get out of the way so that the Creator can do his thing through me.
He shared with me how that came to be during the most vulnerable part of the interview. Pedro Eustache was a big fan of music. The deep musical richness of Black and Latinx cultures was passed on to him from his parents. He was told by his brother that he didn't have to play the violin but he had to play something.
There is a passenger in a vehicle.
He was told by his brother that he would choose something to play. You know how to do this. I will not let you get away with it.
Eustache was the solo principal flute player for the Simn Bolvar Orchestra. He was able to study music in Paris.
I discovered Indian music when I went to Paris. Music from West Africa was discovered by me. I found Arabic and Japanese music that kept me sane, because practicing in the rigid system of Western classical music almost drove me insane.
He earned a scholarship to attend the California Institute of the Arts after starting to study jazz. Eustache and his family moved to Los Angeles. He arrived with the hope that a life in the States would bring peace, prosperity and health to his critically ill daughter. He said he almost lost his mind when he heard of his death. We were very close to taking our own lives.
There was a time when he changed. The hand of God brought us back from that place.
He approached every performance of his career, from performing with Sir Paul McCartney to playing video game music, with an indefatigable zeal.
It's important to be able to thrive after that. It's important to be alive. We will spend the rest of our lives together. He said softly, reflectively, before his energy came back with the force of a supernova. I kill when they play music like this in front of me. I'm familiar with where I came from. I'm aware of where I've been saved.
He wanted to tell that story. It was from a place that was born of immense tragedy that his performance came.
I don't know what to ask. He said that is not exclusive to him.
Pedro Eustache would like you to be blessed.
I think there is an author and a source for that. I would encourage you to search, find, develop, and exercise it for your own benefit and for a profound impact on society.
We are because of that performance and his openness.
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