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Linkin Park's Phoenix Farrell

On Medal of Honor, Man United and more.

Ellie Gibson avatar
Interview by Ellie Gibson Contributor
Updated on
29 comments

Imagine being an international rock star. The girls! The parties! The drugs! The endless interviews with videogames reviewers who demand you justify your latest adventure in corporate schilling and obvious choice of football team!

That's what life is like for Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, bassist for popular contemporary beat combo The Linkin Parks. He was recently forced to talk to us about Medal of Honor, which features a single by the band titled Catalyst.

Why not listen to it over on the Medal of Honor website as you read this interview? Then you can imagine Dave is playing the bass guitar while discussing whether he thinks the game is any good. (Spoiler: Yes.)

P.S. Just so you know, we did try to ask Dave for his views on Talibangate, but the PR po-po shut us down, down.

Eurogamer What is your involvement with Medal of Honor?
Dave Farrell

We were talking with EA a while back about doing some sort of partnership and we had gotten to know them pretty well. I had played Medal of Honor for quite a long time and I think the first version of it I played was maybe 10 years ago.

We started kicking around the idea of doing some music with some different titles and Medal of Honor came up, and for us it was a really easy fit.

We kind of grew up playing games, starting with the NES and moving through different consoles. We're well aware a lot of our fans are gamers. It's just a really natural and easy way for us to continue to keep in contact with our fans and for them to keep in contact with us.

Eurogamer Do you still play games these days or are you too busy rocking out?
Dave Farrell

It's not that I'm too busy rocking out, for sure, but I definitely don't have as much free time as I used to. When I do get the chance I still love to play games, yeah.

Eurogamer Is it like in Spinal Tap when they're on the tour bus and they're playing the videogame? Is your life basically like that?
Dave Farrell

Sadly it is, at times. I mean, way back, when we used to be in buses a lot more, we would have a console in the front lounge, a console in the back lounge and we'd have them linked. This was even before Xbox Live or anything like that.

Oh for goodness' sake man, you're wearing a wedding ring. You probably went to Ikea on Sunday. Dave's on the left by the way.
Eurogamer That's rock and roll, right there.
Dave Farrell

Yeah. We were old-school battling and that was a lot of fun. These days it's all online anyway, so...

Eurogamer These days you're all playing Farmville...
Dave Farrell

I've actually never played Farmville.

Eurogamer You're missing out! It's very rock and roll.
Dave Farrell

Is it? If I think anything when I hear Farmville, I think rock and roll. That's the image that immediately pops into my mind.

Eurogamer Exactly. Rock, roll and cows. Anyway, what's the most popular game on the Linkin Park tour bus?
Dave Farrell

It just depends. Each guy is into games in different ways. Some guys more than others.

Personally, I love sports games, I love first-person shooters, and even the occasional role-playing game. So I don't know, I go through phases. Could be anything.

But I do always love FIFA, I think I've bought every single version of it for some different console.

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