Pushing it forward…

The worlds of gaming and music are two that have been intertwined like few other creative worlds. Together, they’ve helped to soundtrack the upbringings of countless individuals throughout the world, acting as a form of escape into fantastical worlds where anything is possible and the sky’s the limit. However, to say that gaming in Australia is lacking would be a severe understatement. It’s only just starting to make waves, to truly blossom in the eyes of the mainstream as another avenue for expression. But, that journey to recognition might be on the verge of being fast-tracked, as Melbourne producer, R&B and neo-soul artist, Billy Davis is striving to bring it to the forefront and he’s teamed up with the ultimate organisation to do so. 

His latest venture sees him link up with gaming organisation ORDER as their first Creative Ambassador. His role and ORDER itself are about so much more than just gaming, they’re about culture, and Billy has his heart set on contributing to it like no one before.

We caught up with Billy to get the deets on his new role, how he linked up with ORDER and the importance of gaming to his artistry. Check it below.

You’ve just linked up with ORDER as their new Creative Ambassador. Can you give us a bit of backstory into what ORDER is, and how you guys linked up?

The story goes back to when I was on tour with Tones & I in Europe when the pandemic started. I was like, “Bruh, I’m a full-time producer and musician, what am I going to do?” All of my mates were like, “Play Call of Duty: Warzone, bro, it’s the only thing that will keep you going.” 

So in April last year, I just started jamming, because I couldn’t do live music. I thought “You know what, if this is an outlet that I can sweat out in the meantime, then let’s do it,” because we didn’t know how this COVID thing was going to go. I just did it, and I started playing with some pros. 

And then I ran a couple of games with some big Twitch streamers, and I think ORDER were watching, and then they were like, “What the hell? Isn’t that guy a music producer who did stuff with Brockhampton?​ This guy is putting up proper numbers on gaming.” And they were tripping out. So they hit me up and were like “We should do something.”

I’ve always known about esports, but in the US the only organisations I only knew of were Faze Clan, 100 Thieves, orgs who have got rap crews part of them, like Swae Lee and all of them. But there’s nothing like that in Australia. So when ORDER hit me up and they wanted to approach it that way, I was gassed and thought “Yeah, let’s go.” Because no one thinks like that in Australia. 

One of your roles as Creative Ambassador involves playing a key role in ORDER’s ‘activations and collaborations.’ What exactly does that entail? 

It means we can work on that crossover of gaming and real life, whether it’s a music event or a tournament inside a game, or a celebrity event where we get a bunch of artists to come through. We will also look at fashion collaborations – I’m full-blown into clothes. I loved how 100 Thieves did a collaboration with Gucci.

It’s about collaborations, and connecting gaming with music and fashion, it’s a natural fit. I’m sure there are guys out there that are good at playing games and creating content so now’s the time to speak up and let us know because we are taking this space to new places in Australia. I’m like the bridge for ORDER to be able to do that. Like Twitch streamer Mantis (50.5K followers) hit me up to play CoD (Call of Duty), and he produces for rap artists, Onefour, and all that stuff. 

I think it’s pretty fitting that you play a role in collaborations with ORDER, given a significant part of your career has been defined by collabs with artists in Australia and around the world. Do the worlds of gaming and music mirror each other at all, in terms of collaborative spirit?

Yeah, 100%, man. It’s just bringing different people’s energy together. Just like with music, it’s about getting people together, mixing our different skills, and just collaborating in that sense. The same goes for gaming. Even Joba from Brockhampton was jamming on CoD during Corona, man. It’s just the same thing, same energy.

It’s just another way to socialise. The social aspect of gaming too probably got me through COVID. 

One way in which music and gaming intersect is soundtracks. There have been so many great games with amazing soundtracks over the years, from Halo to Need For Speed and Skate 3. Do you have a favourite soundtrack from all of the games you’ve played over the years?

So I’m a piano player. I think for me, the iconic ones were The Sims piano music when you’re building houses and stuff like that. I freaking learned all those songs for when you’re building a house in The Sims. And then Halo was definitely a big thing too. And then all the music for Skyrim and all those games where you play as Vikings. All their soundtracks were super sick. 

If anyone ever finished it!

Oh, bro, it’s impossible to finish! I spent so many hours until like 5am trying to find some orc in some far away corner of the map. Fallout 2 was another one too. It had this ’50s diner vibe to it that I froth. And it had really cool, old school tunes in it. Those Back to the Future vibes. That was definitely a big influence on me too, because I just thought it was so sick. 

Those are all legendary games, and I know you’ve got special ties to another, given that your uncle was involved in the development of Quake. What was it like having that in the background of your childhood and how did it influence your relationship with gaming?

It 100% influenced my relationship with gaming, because from a young age, LANs (Local Area Network gaming) were normal for me. My uncle full-on had that connection with Quake. I was playing Quake, and Duke Nukem, all these games way before anyone even knew what they were. And so my first exposure to games were all first-person shooters – that had a massive influence on me. Every other kid in my school was jealous like, “What the hell, bro?”. And we were doing LANs before LANs were even a thing. My uncle and I had that connection.

So for me, gaming was always just a social thing, bro. Just to get the boys over. My uncle had heaps of freaking computers lying around because he just did so much in computers and gaming. So it was just easy. 

It’s clear both gaming and music are escapes for you, but when your tour in Europe got cancelled last year, gaming was definitely a crutch for you. How did gaming help you through that tumultuous period?

Massively, because to be honest, the first few weeks, I kept trying to keep going on Zoom writing sessions to start the new album, or to just work on stuff. But it just wasn’t the same as when we were all on tour, when I was with Jordan Dennis and my guys and we were doing shows and socialising. Nothing felt like that, not even hanging on Zoom felt like that. The closest thing that felt like that was me getting a headset and hopping on a game. 

I’m not even capping, if I didn’t have Warzone or Call of Duty, I probably would be in a super dark place. And the thing is, I know for a fact, a lot of musicians and people in music, had their lives saved by gaming. It saved their mental health, bro.

Like my boy Lex plays bass for Joey Badass, and we got tighter during COVID. He couldn’t tour anymore, he couldn’t do anything with Joey. He was losing his mind. And we just jammed Warzone. And you see all these big rappers and stuff, like freaking Joba from Brockhampton, were just jamming CoD. It was the closest thing to that energy. Because you weren’t allowed to leave your house. We’re still not allowed to leave our house. Gaming is the closest thing. 

In a time where we’ve all been so disconnected physically, it seems like gaming would be a really cool way to interact that isn’t social media, and that still fosters some sense of collaboration and agreement. How does it help to fill in that gap of interaction for you?

Oh, bro, it covers everything. I roast my mates on it, I tell jokes, I lose my bananas, I get raged, I lose my shit. Or I can just choose to zone out and play by myself, and just get some alone time. It just covers so many different aspects of social behaviour.

You clearly see gaming the way it’s meant to be seen, yet there still exist a bunch of negative stereotypes regarding gamers in the mainstream. What do you reckon is the thing people get most wrong about gaming culture?

To be honest bro, as someone who’s lived off music for the last five years, and who’s now living off music and gaming, gaming now is what music was when kids used to tell their parents, “I’m going to live off music.” 

I feel like when a kid goes, “I live off music” now, it’s half as bad as it was before. Your parents would be like, “Oh, what?” Maybe not as much during a pandemic, but now there’s a bit of like, “Okay, is my son or my daughter going to become a session musician?” Or “Is he a rapper?” But it isn’t completely taboo. Whereas it used to be before.

And it’s the same thing with gaming. But people don’t realise that you can legit make a living off gaming. I have mates that earn 12-20 grand a month off gaming. There’s probably an easier way to cash up in gaming than there is music, to be honest. And so I think that’s a big thing about it. Gaming at the moment is what music was when it first came in. And aside from that, anyone can game. There’s a girl called Natasha, legit top seven in the world for Warzone, who’s making 60 grand a month. And you can tell she’s not a nerd or anything. She’s just an ordinary girl that plays games, you know what I mean? 

So anyone can play games. It’s not about a bunch of sweaty nerds in a basement, never seeing the sunlight. It’s anyone. It’s a way of having fun and making a living. 

It’s pretty ironic that there are still those assumptions about gaming, especially since it’s become such a part of the culture now. When do you think that shift happened? 

Fortnite was a game-changer. Like there was a live event in Fortnite where you could see Travis Scott doing a live concert. My freaking cousins were like, “Come over to the house, I’ll kick off Fortnite, we’ll watch the Travis Scott concert.” That point where a game was legit letting pop culture happen inside of it, that’s when it was like, “Holy crap, bro.” That’s when games were crossing over. 

And obviously, Call of Duty: Warzone has been a massive thing, too, both culturally and socially in so many aspects. That game, as much as people get pissed off at it, dropped at the right time. It dropped during COVID. And legit, you’re bringing UFC fighters, basketballers, NFL footballers together and they’re playing with what people would normally say is a sweaty guy in a basement. You’re getting those worlds together, and it works, and it’s cool. 

So I would say Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone were the two biggest games where it shifted stuff, man. Like I said, it hasn’t fully shifted in Australia. But in the States they’re getting 150 grand tournaments weekly. Footballers, NBA players, people just playing and jamming. And it’s just sick, it’s freaking mad. 

It’s not just become a part of culture overall, but it’s got an especially important relationship with hip hop, with Wu-Tang Clan being a really cool part of that. Why do you think the two mesh together so well? 

Wu-tang had that game bro. Do you remember that? It was like Mortal Kombat, with Snoop Dogg and stuff. I think 50 Cent was in it too. It’s mad. But to answer your question, I think because gaming at its core is just fun. We’re just trying to find another way to have fun. Hip hop and groove, and all that stuff. The best raps have come out of people just jamming in the studio to a beat, and that’s just having fun, feeling that energy. 

And that’s the same with gaming, bro. Obviously there’s a competitive side to it. But at the roots of it is just having fun and chilling, bro. And that’s why hip hop resonates so much with gaming, you’ve got so many rappers on it, bro, because it’s just chilling, it’s just vibing with your crew.

You’ve talked about getting in with ORDER early before it takes off. How do you see the future of ORDER panning out?

ORDER is going to be like what Faze and 100 Thieves are to America, but to Australia and New Zealand. It’s going to be like how people in the States wear 100 Thieves or Faze hoodies. It’s because the brand itself stands bigger than the gaming. Like Ben Simmons is part of Faze, Lebron’s son is part of Faze. That’s what I see for ORDER.

I think I’m going to be the first of many. You’ll be seeing some other rappers getting a part of it, singers as well. With my platform, I’ve always been about bringing people on board. My boys are always like, “Freaking get Mantis on it. Spin a beat, and let’s throw you in a room with this person, and just make something on the spot.” That’s what I want to do. And I even want to start doing stuff like the Eric Andre Show or Between Two Ferns, just funny stuff like that. Even If I can bring some Kenny Beats The Cave vibes to ORDER, that would be freaking sick.

Also, there’s just too much underground talent, and there’s too much music where, with the way that Australia is set up at the moment, there aren’t enough platforms to push those people, those rappers or producers in the shadows forward. I feel like through ORDER, we’ll be able to give people a platform, and you’ll be able to see a lot more cooler people be given the stage that they deserve, That’s what I want to be able to do through ORDER. 

Finally, to broaden things out, how do you see the future of gaming in Australia panning out, as well as ORDER’s place in it? 

ORDER is going to lead the way, and everyone is just going to be playing catch up. It’s just gonna be about how gaming is fun and how it’s a part of the culture. Just like how music, sports, fashion, and gaming are all part of the culture, like it is in America. It’s just going to slide in as a part of everyday life. And ORDER will be, I’m going to say it now, it will be a pivotal part of why gaming will become part of everyday culture.