For the Love of Music and Games by Jenay Ross

Two words describe Kamari Carter’s first two days at the 2008 GRAMMY Camp®, “Awesome Possum” as he would call it. This is the first year at GRAMMY Camp for the very passionate 15-year-old gamer and score writer, who learned of the camp through his music teacher and My Space. There are many different reasons for why each of the 63 campers chose to apply to camp; for Kamari, the musical experience and the chance to meet people from all over the country drew him in. “I’m enjoying it. I am very grateful for this experience,” Kamari says of his first few days here. “I have nothing to complain about.”

Kamari, who’s working hard in his Music Production track, has fallen in love with all the amazing equipment where he can throw down some beats. “The equipment is beautiful and everyone’s really chill,” he says. “It’s cool.”

Talking about where his love of gaming originated, he recounts a story of receiving his first video game system. When he graduated from kindergarten, his grandmother snuck him a Game Boy. He played it everyday and fell in love with video games. With a confirming nod he states, “I love my grandma.” He has many favorite video games, one for each of the many systems that he owns. On his XBOX 360 he loves Ninja Gaiden 2, Super Smash Brothers Brawl on his WII, and Little Big Planet on his PS3.

Now he’s working on creating his own game though. One day, Kamari had been reading the Bible when he decided he wanted to make “Revelations” into a game. “It’s my favorite and it sounds like a movie to me,” he says. When he shared his ideas with a tech geek friend, his friend, who already had the tools for creating a game, loved it. So they started with creating a main character. As they put more work into their project, it became into an apocalyptic game with angels and demons. Nightmarish dreams become reality and the players choose their own path. They can either be good or bad by fighting angels or demons. Whichever path they take determines how they will play the game. Not only did Kamari create the idea for the game, he also scored the music for it. He describes it as “raw and intense” with a lot of horns and violins in each piece.

Maybe one day we will have the chance to see the finished product on the shelves at Game Stop. Going back to the topic of GRAMMY Camp, Katari talks about what he hopes to get from his two weeks here, namely friendship, connections, experience, and most importantly, fun. “If you’re not laughing, you’re not living," he says.