Interview with the Dancing Violinist: How Great Classical Game Music Got Lindsey Stirling into Cosplay

GamerHub.TV caught up with dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling to talk about her portrayal of game characters and performance of game music. Lindsey has released a number of videos covering pop culture music, original songs, and even video game soundtracks – and in the process has amassed an impressive 18 million plus views. In this interview, Lindsey discusses her inspirations, how she got into game music, and what it’s like shooting her videos.

Getting into Game Music

“I think there’s a certain nostalgia that comes along with video game music because it’s something that takes people back to their childhood.”

Fair enough… Just try to listen to her Zelda duet without being transported back to whatever your first Zelda title was.

Getting into Costumes and Cosplay

“I kept hearing that I looked kind of like a little, you know, elf, or even people even told me ‘you look like you could be a, you know, like a Link’ and so I thought to myself ‘well, I love dress up, I love this music.'”

So what was the last straw?

“…and Utah’s beautiful, so I decided to jump around the woods…”

Lindsey has become very well known for her cosplay-meets-music renditions of games, like this Skyrim video:

Getting in Front of the Camera

Being famous for dancing and playing awesome music isn’t always glamorous. Talking about what it’s like to shoot outside in sometimes extreme weather, Lindsey says:

“Not gonna lie, it’s kind of miserable in the moment, I always have to like smile and look happy. Um, I did the same for Zelda and I don’t think I’ve ever been more cold on a shoot. The snow was so deep, and it was in my boots, and I literally started crying when I got back into the car just because my hands hurt so bad.”

Bravo – we can’t tell! This video looks like I felt the first time I rolled out onto Hyrule field in Ocarina of Time.

Getting Gamers into Classical Music

Lindsey highlights the music from Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed and Journey as inspirations for her. But one of the things she loves is serving as an inspiration for other people to get into classical music.

“A t my concerts a lot of time I’ll meet people… and often they will say “Oh, I picked up the violin because of you!” and that’s just the biggest compliment I could ever get as a musician.” – Lindsey

Thanks to GamerHub.TV for an in-depth look at one of YouTube’s most multi-talented stars!