Expensive Brian, thanks for taking the time to hitch me on this interview to teach our neighborhood on SolRockers. To start with, are you able to give us a quick introduction to you? What’s your story, relationship again so far as you would like?
I’m the Head of Product at SolRockers NFT and in my free time additionally the drummer for the multi platinum band Everclear. Some may assume I dwell the lifetime of a Rockstar however I’m only a standard type 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. Actually I’m simply a pc nerd who performs drums in a rock band.
I attended Berklee Faculty of music in Boston Massachusetts again in 1989–1994. Whereas dwelling in Boston I spent a superb 8 years enjoying 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 kind American Hello-Fi with my greatest pal Stacy Jones in 1998. We recorded our document 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 enjoying drums with the band Everclear. In some way I handle to make a dwelling doing what I like — enjoying 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 enjoying PC video games ever since — Battlefield 1942, Name of Obligation, Elder Scrolls video games, WOW, the record goes on and on. Mainly I got here from the identical technology as James Vacation, him and I’d have been good pals. Now it’s time to develop the Oasis, or at the very least a really small a part of it.
Why did you get entangled within the cryptocurrency business, and the place do you assume the business will probably be in 5–10 years?
I heard about this factor referred to as Bitcoin again in 2011. So you should utilize your video card to earn money? Actually? Seems like enjoyable. I took one in every 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 lately. 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 yr 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, possibly… I painfully adopted Bitcoin on the sidelines for years, dabbled in Ethereum mining and eventually began significantly investing in crypto once more in 2017.
Bear in mind the dot com increase 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 business phenomena recognized to man. The web occurred and all I did was use it to play Quake. I may have gotten concerned however I didn’t. I needed to go and deal with being a musician. A possibility like that can by no means occur once more in my lifetime.
Then comes Blockchain know-how. Thanks Satoshi! Blockchain tech is the following increase, 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 know-how of the long run. And I imply the know-how of all the things. Sensible contracts apply to so many various industries, together with finance, knowledge evaluation, and the Web of Issues, let’s not neglect about gaming. Who new good contracts might 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 folks on the native Walmart right here in Madison, I’m all in.
That’s wonderful. Now are you able to give us an introduction to SolRockers and the way it received 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 growth however I’m not a coder by any means. These recreation engines gave me a approach to translate my concepts right into a practical recreation with out being John Carmack. I’ve since developed third particular person shooters, twin stick shooters, first particular person shooters on a hobbyist stage. I’d convey my video games to pals’ LAN events and play a spherical or two. It’s at all times enjoyable to see pals get pleasure from your creation, bug free after all.

The emergence of the Play-to-Earn financial system actually grabbed my consideration. I began enjoying video games like Misplaced Relics, Alien Worlds, R-planet to call a number of. I had conversations with my brother Mike, additionally a crypto investor, about all of the P2E alternatives and he mentioned “Why don’t you create your personal recreation? You understand how to develop video games”. In order that received me considering and researching. I made a decision to mix the two issues I’m most keen about: gaming and music. I made a decision to mix the Rhythm recreation style and the life-style 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 everywhere in 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 big void, it’s an open slate. That’s one of many the explanation why I’m so enthusiastic about this venture and blockchain video games normally. Identical to each new know-how, it will get
adopted by hobbyists and independents. That is the interval in blockchain gaming when impartial developer concepts can shine and make an impression on the business. I consider we at SolRockers are doing simply that.
When deciding on the course of the paintings, we didn’t need to create a by-product of an ape and a pixel artwork SolRocker was out of the query. We needed it to be authentic and life-like that includes detailed devices and clothes, however with a light-weight hearted cartoonish really feel. The good rock bands of the 80’s and 90’s have been excessive of their artistic 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 mixture of the Solana blockchain and Rockstar life-style with a slight play on phrases. I feel you get the concept.
A key level about our venture that’s necessary to relay is that SolRockers Battle of the Bands is a recreation that options participant owned NFTs, not an NFT venture that guarantees a utility recreation. The sport itself is our principal focus and the combination of the NFT is a key function. The paintings will seize their consideration however the recreation is the final word repay. Actually.
We additionally seen that you’ve your personal token referred to as $IROC, that will probably be used to your distinctive rhythm recreation. Might you inform us extra about how this works?
$IROC tokens are the lifeblood of the SolRockers ecosystem and conserving the token financial system balanced is our principal precedence. $IROC tokens are awarded to gamers/stakers and are used to buy objects in our NFT minting and merchandise market. We have now various methods our token is utilized in our recreation. Additionally, we really feel it’s necessary to “burn” tokens as customers create property in our recreation ecosystem. We by no means need to dilute the general worth so a deflationary ingredient will probably be included into the $IROC token utilization.
What have been the largest challenges for you and SolRockers because you began the venture?
It’s uncharted territory so it’s all challenges. I spent quite a lot of time researching all of the points and transferring elements that make up an NFT venture, to not point out the sport. The artwork work, NFT technology, 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 received extra. Who knew a blockchain recreation venture might be so time consuming? So discovering the time to do regular household exercise has been a problem.
I feel the largest problem for the venture is breaking by way of and getting seen. The NFT market is rising at breakneck speeds and has develop into a bit saturated. Ethereum primarily based NFTs are a major instance. The Opensea NFT market positive lives as much as its title. Though the majority of the NFT market is on that blockchain we felt it wasn’t a superb match for our venture, or blockchain gaming normally. 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, buyers and recreation builders. However with new know-how comes critical hurdles. Solana NFTs and recreation growth remains to be in its starting levels so there are a number of unanswered questions with artistic growth wanted to finish a venture like SolRockers. Fortunately we’ve got blockchain backend engineers that may innovate and pull it off, I see them because the Rockstars.
Who do you assume can be the perfect audience for SolRockers?
At first look it’s NFT collectors and avid gamers however it’s additionally music lovers, instrument collectors and artists. People who get pleasure from being a part of a music and gaming neighborhood, who love to specific themselves by way of music and NFT creation. We would like this open to everybody.
I feel there are a number of kinds of “avid gamers” within the P2E surroundings. I like enjoying video games, I can sit there and grind all day lengthy if wanted. Then you may have somebody like my brother who’s extra within the defi ingredient. I feel he doesn’t spend greater than 20 minutes in anyone recreation, however he “performs” a number of. It’s necessary to create a recreation that’s interesting to everybody.

Understood. Now what has been your biggest achievement to date, and what has been the largest failure or setback personally or within the historical past of the corporate?
My biggest achievements to date can be the truth that I’m nonetheless capable of assist my household doing what I like — enjoying, and expressing myself by way of 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. Speak to me two years from now and I’ll have a listing. We have now little setbacks each week however it’s nothing we are able to’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 life-style, create a band, observe in a studio, go on tour and play at totally different venues — with backstage debauchery included after all.
A difficult Rhythm recreation is just not full and not using a nice collection of songs. Artist collaborations will play a giant half on this. Fortunately I do know a number of. However outdoors of the mainstream music business are quite a lot of wonderful bands and artists that deserve consideration. We have now plans to provide everybody a approach to take part and get entangled. Our plans embody giving the participant and artist a approach to create and improve our recreation. SolRockers Battle of the Bands will function the flexibility so as to add new songs and create new tune patterns. And we wish our neighborhood to be rewarded for his or her artistic efforts. It being a blockchain recreation provides us the means to take action. The neighborhood will at all times come first.
The place can folks assist your small business? Apart from that, thanks to your time, Brian — any last phrases?
Assist our enterprise by visiting our socials like twitter, fb , becoming a member of our discord neighborhood, and naturally try 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.