By Florian Eckhardt.

That adorable, auburn-haired sprite with the exposed milky calves, hugging her violin? That's Hanah Stuart... teenage girl, classical violinist, and the pixy who casually pranced upon a high school auditorium stage and rocked the Halo 2 theme song so hard that Steve Vai started spitting up bloody chunks of lung.

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on this YouTube video of an unknown band, fronted by a blurry, undefined violinist. Everyone loved it. Marty O'Donnell, the audio director of Bungie himself, cooed in appreciation. But no one really knew who they were.

Well, wonder no longer. In this exclusive interview, Hanah sets the record straight on the origins of the Halo 2 performance, talks all about the band she's with, Corporeal, and the various gangly teenage geniuses behind it. She also totally smacks down Steve Vai and Yo Yo Ma.

By the end of the interview? I don't want to ruin it for you, but she agrees to go steady with me. Hit the jump for our passionate tale of love.

---

Florian: Okay, we're going to start. Are you ready?

Hanah: Eek. Okay!

Florian: I'm a little nervous. I'm a gamer. I'm not used to talking to girls. Alright, so why don't you start off by telling us who you are, besides a 20 pixel tall, beige-and-black colored blur in a popular YouTube video?

Hanah: My name is Hanah. I'm a freshman at The Juilliard School for violin performance. I've been playing since I was five. And this is my first AIM interview.

Florian: As such, it will be scathing, penetrating and utterly journalistic, to the highest standards of my Pulitzer winning field. Let's find out a bit more about you.

Because you have captured the gamer zeitgeist, many individuals have fallen madly in love with you, even though — as far as we can tell from the low resolution YouTube video — you might not even have a face. As you know, I myself wrote a particularly maudlin poem about how your performance of the Halo theme song made me feel. Can you give any of us poor suckers any leads on how to capture your heart? Second best thing would just be to tell us where your Amazon.com gift list is, so we can start buying you presents.

Hanah: Ha ha ha! Wow. I should go do that right now :-). Well honestly I'm pretty high maintenance. Not in a bad way (at least I know it!) but I like to spend a lot of money, Not necessarily on makeup or clothes but on food. I love food. Especially sushi and coffee. Not necessarily together, of course.

On a little more serious note (yeah, okay, that was cheesy... but I'm like that!) I obviously love music. I love all the arts. I'm really into theater and dance. I love going to shows and performances and concerts. Anything that can expand my artistry. I loved rocking out with Corporeal with the Halo theme. It was a great way to escape from the classical world.

But let's get back to buying me presents. I have no idea... no, wait! There's something I'd like. But I have no idea what it's technical name is. It's what Dave Ver Lee (guitarist of Corporeal) hooked me up to for the concert, it's a souped up "wawa" pedal. I'm such a... how do you say... "noob" in that area of rock.

Other than that, send me cash. I'm a musician!

Hanah's Self-Proclaimed 'Slutty' Picture, Andy Warhol Style. Like Ashcraft, Eliza and Florian, Hanah is a big Mac fan.

Florian: Okay, fellas. Write that down. Hanah loves cold fish, classical music, and money. A sensualist, in other words. But she also likes wa-wa pedals, which are god's gift to rock.

Hanah: Do they need an address?

Florian: You don't want to give them your address. Instead, give it to me. Unlike this undersexed rabble, I can be trusted not to perch naked in a tree outside your window. I will send on any presents.

Hanah: I was just kidding.

Florian: Me too. That's me outside your window right now. Let's talk about this performance. We've all seen it on YouTube. We all agree it rocks. But honestly, no one has any idea what's going on, except a bunch of high school students take the scene and knock the Halo theme song out of the park. Can you give
us a brief rundown on where it was held, when, and how it came about?

Hanah: Okay. I attended Libertyville High School, Illinois In May, there was a variety show at our school called "Collage". One day, Dave Ver Lee of Corporeal came up to me and said, "Hey, I need a violinist for an act. Are you interested?"

I immediately said yes, of course: I've known Dave since 5th grade. We went to the same church [editor's note: the Church of ROCK!] and high school. I know how awesome he is at guitar and percussion, so I knew if I said yes to anything that genius did, it would be awesome. So that's how I got into it.

Rehearsals were held in Dave's basement. First rehearsal was with just me Dave, and Dave (Bedell). Second rehearsal we added Rob Leu (bass) Third rehearsal was at the high school in the bad room and we added Pat, Artie, and Corey (percussionists). We did that a second time. Then we auditioned. Then we rehearsed for the dress, and then rehearsed again. And then we performed it. Hooray!

Florian: So Dave is the lead of Corporeal?

Hanah: Yes. Dave Ver Lee.

Florian: So you're not a member of Corporeal normally? What would Nelly say? You 'feated' with them?

Hanah: Beats me. I don't follow Nelly. So I'll have to take your word for it. But yeah. They were my window to playing rock, or at least some form of "rock". It was so much fun.

Florian: You've never heard of Nelly? That is another reason why we love you, Hanah. Her squealing voice sounds like a sow in mid -slaughter. But we're not interviewing you about Nelly Furtado and her hip-grinding music: we're talking about Halo 2 and your hip grinding music.

Hanah: Oh, THAT Nelly. Anyway, yeah. Halo 2.

Florian: So you are not a member of Corporal? Are they out of their minds? What sort of band turns down a cute violinist?

Hanah: Actually, I was officially added after Collage...

Florian: Damn right.

Hanah: ...Dave is writing parts for me on all of their songs now so they're re-recording everything. We're definitely recording our versions of Halo and Mario around Thanksgiving and hopefully... well, I don't know details yet but Thanksgiving we're working on some stuff that ought to be very fun and exciting.

Florian: Sanity prevails. So let's ask the big questions: had you ever played Halo before, or heard the music? Do you play games? Are you a gaming girl?

Hanah: Yes these are the big ones. Actually, I had not played Halo before our performance. But I had heard the soundtrack numerous times since my Dad actually plays it in our basement. But never fear, I started playing it this summer! Rob made me. And I am absolutely horrible at it.

But it is addicting. I can see why so many people get into it. But I'm horrible: I've never learnt how to use the joystick...thingy. I was looking at the sky while running around aimlessly and getting shot way too many times before I got the hang of it. But once I did it got fun. Just starting was kind of frustrating. Especially when you're playing with two addicted serious players.

[editor's note: Hear that? Her bandmates introduced her to Halo by using her for deathmatch target practice. Nice one, guys.]

I've also played Mario. But I have to say I don't really play video games. But I do like the music! But honestly, I just prefer watching people play. I'm better at that. Ha!

Corporeal Member Robb Leu rocks out Mjolnir in a paintball mask.

Florian: Yes, I can understand it. It's like how my girlfriend is better at driving when she's sitting in the backseat, incessantly nagging me about my technique. But it's okay not to be a gamer: you're obviously the daughter of one, and you did a powerful job interpreting Halo 2 for us.

Speaking of which, you guys performed the Mjolnir Mix of the Halo 2 Theme Song, which is different from the Halo version of the theme in that it has Steve Vai wanking off on the guitar. How do you think it made Steve feel when an 18 year old girl managed to outrock him? Do you think he started crying like one?

Hanah: Ha ha. I don't know. Hmmmm. I don't think I outrocked him. I evenly rocked him. We're all on the same playing field. He has a totally different quality to his sound than I do. I could learn from him, I'm sure. I don't think it's possible to be "the best" at something. People have their own personal qualities and it's fun to listen to someone, then incorporate that into your playing in your own personal way.

Anyway, Steve Vai should call me. We should get together and jam.

Florian: Look, this isn't the time for you to be asking Steve Vai out on a date. You're better than him. He was thoroughly outclassed, by a girl whom - by her own admission - has never played a lick of rock music in her life, and spends most of her time having rickety walking stick classical music professors instruct her upon the orthodoxy of her vibrato. Right now, he is sitting alone in his multi-million dollar mansion, filling his nine Grammies with tears as he watches your Halo 2 video over and over again.

Hanah: HA HA HA HA HA HA! Well, I wouldn't ask him out on a date. He's kind of... old. And gross. And he looks like he's done way too much pot.

Florian: OOOOOH! BURN! OH NO YOU DIDN'T!

Hanah: (long silence) I'm more into 20-something guys.

Florian (internal monologue): ... I'm a twenty-something guy! And I start puking when I smoke a magic jay bone. Do I have a chance? Dare I hope?

Florian (out loud): I already know the headline of this Kotaku interview. FEATURE: Hanah Stuart - "I Out-Haloed A Gross, Freaky Druggie."

Hanah: Ha ha ha! Oh gamers.... Now getting schooled by gamers as well as a violinist. Poor fellow.

Florian: Okay, I think we both agree that Steve Vai is disgusting. I find him musically repulsive; you find him sexually so. High five. We're in concurrment. So let me ask a follow up question.

If there's one thing that's clear now to gamers like Eliza and me (who speak for ALL gamers), it's that your group has made any other version of the Halo theme song completely irrelevant. Don't you think Bungie should fire Steve Vai and ask you guys to record Halo 3's theme song? The only correct answer to this question is "Yes, I jolly well do."

Hanah: Well. Okay. "Yes, I jolly well do!" Actually, that would be awesome. I wouldn't mind at all. A recording contract? Heck yes. Please sign me up. I mean, it was pretty awesome when Marty O'Donnell, the Audio Director of Bungie complimented us, I have to say. That's what a musician likes to hear.

And that I have fans... holy cow, when people appreciate what you do, and that they love what you're doing. That's just what it's all about.

Florian: Well, you were great. But you need to keep in mind the fact that gamers would applaud a man with a butt for a face if he managed to squirt out the works of Hip Tanaka on a kazoo. I say this only because we don't want fame to go to your head: that's what happened to Steve Vai, and look what happened to him.

Hanah: Oh, don't worry about that! There are plenty of people over here to keep me in check. But thank you for your concern. Hot headed musicians are no fun to deal with.

Florian: Nor hot headed gaming journalists.

Hanah: No kidding.

Florian: Whatever. Anyway, I think Steve Vai has probably hung himself from a doorknob by now, thus practically guaranteeing you his job. Who else are they gonna get? Yo Yo Ma?

Hanah: Actually, Yo Yo Ma was just here a couple of days ago. And they would let him in because he didn't have a Juilliard ID.

Florian: Wait a second here. Are you telling me that you have bested both Yo Yo Ma and Steve Vai? Steve Vai's a given, and granted Yo Yo Ma has been on a downward spiral ever since he did that duet with Condoleeza Rice. But still!

Hanah: No, no. I love his stuff - I actually heard his performance at Grant Park for the Silk Road Tour. Just awesome. What I'm saying is that he was at the school and they wouldn't let him in until another student vouched for him.

Florian: But he graduated from there. Class of Ving Rhames, right? And, I mean, Juilliard lets you in. And you play game music. Consequently, you are a greater musician than Yo Yo Ma.

Hanah: Fine. There's no arguing with you. Have it your way!

Florian: New Kotaku headline! FEATURE: Hanah Stuart: Yo Yo Is Ma Bitch!

Hanah: Oh my gosh... my poor classical reputation.

Florian: Juilliard to Hanah: You're FIRED!

Hanah: LOL!

Florian: What are you, Ashcraft? Anyway, here's your chance to redeem yourself. Can you tell us how the Halo theme makes you feel? How do you interpret it, emotionally? I realize that asking someone to actually qualify his or her emotional reaction to something as ephemerally moving as music is difficult, but I think many of us would like to hear you talk about it.

Hanah: It's a rush to perform. I'm on stage with lights and electric instruments and screaming people. It's a totally different kind of feeling then when you're playing Beethoven or Mozart.

Halo was just tons of fun for me. I could play with its intensity and energy. Halo is one of those pieces that if you're really into it, you can't mess it up no matter what you do. For me it wasn't about the notes, but energy. The excitement. The fun. You could improvise the movement and what exactly you wanted to bring out.

A lot of it was just following the line, building up to the climax, and then totally switching gears at the Mario part and then back to Halo. That was a little tricky. I was in four inch high heals for that performance... and I had to make sure I could press the different pedals within 1/2 a second so that the sound quality changed at the right point...

The difference between when I rehearse music and when I perform it is huge. I'm more of an analyst when I rehearse. But the performance? I just let out whatever I want. A lot of improvisation went on that night.

At the last minute we added some glow sticks to our instruments and a lot of choreography was improvised at the concert. Except the coming out at the end was planned which was so awesome. The whole thing was just a rush!

But those back bends... wow, I felt those in my thighs the next morning. Music like this...just...I don't know...takes you to another realm. I call it "performance high." It's like nothing else. You're all shaky afterwards and full of life and energy.

Florian: What was your favorite part to play? We're not plebs. Please reply in musical annotation. If AIM doesn't support that, words will be an inferior second.

Hanah: I really loved it when Dave and I were in unison and then we branch off into thirds. That was great. Also at the big head banging parts. Those were fun. I know, I know... that's really descriptive!

The whole thing was just fun. You can't compartmentalize it.

Another thing that really stands out to me is when we walked out and the confetti was flying everywhere. That moment when the streamers shot off and the audience went nuts. That was probably my favorite part, It was like: "Yes, I'm on stage. I'm totally rocking out. This is just awesome!"

Florian: That really must beat the polite, ascetic clep-clepping of those classical music snobs. It's not like they ever stand up in the concert hall, rip their panties off and start just hooting.

Hanah: That would not be a pretty sight, lemme tell you.

Florian: Yeah. Old Mrs. Rockefeller, patron of the symphony, probably couldn't keep her genitals above her buckling knees if she took 'em off. I think we can count our blessings.

Hanah: Absolutely.

Florian: Let me ask you some specifics about the concert. In the back, prancing mysteriously about, there are some teenage homuncular Blue Men. What's that about? Who are they? Do they serve any purpose besides aquamarine eye candy?

Hanah: Ha ha ha! They were Pat, Corey, and Artie (the percussionists) and they thought it'd be fun to be blue men and incorporate the Blue Men Group act that into our little shindig. It was just a fun thing we decided to do, along with spray painting my face with green and sparkles, along with Dave and Rob's hair.

I went to a movie afterwards with my friends....got the weirdest looks. I was still green at that point

Florian: It's not easy being green.

Kotaku Readers: YOU SUCK, FLORIAN!

Florian: SHUT THE HELL UP!

Hanah: Who are you talking to?

Florian: No one. Ignore them. Back to the Blue Men. A few minutes before the Mario interlude, the Blue Men wandered out and appeared to touch toilet plungers. What was that about?

Hanah: Um. What?

Florian: Did they just not have anything to do at that point?

Hanah: Do you mean the paintball guns?

Florian: Is that what they were?

Hanah: Ha ha ha ha! Yes. They had paintball guns during Mario and we had two boards on either side. They shot at them. It was cheesy, but they had to do something. Before, they were going to do a little dance... but that was just bad.

Florian: Blue Men Can't Dance.

Kotaku Readers: BLOW ME, FLORIAN!

Florian: ShuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupshuttupSHUTTUP! ASSHOLES!

Hanah: ...

Florian: ...

Hanah: ....

Florian: ... Wait a second. Your high school let you bring guns into the building?

Hanah: We had an awesome performing arts director. He let us bring them in. We explained what we were going to do.

Florian: Do you know who Jack Thompson is?

Hanah: Nope.

Florian: Oh. Okay. Well, to briefly explain, he's an idiot.

Hanah: OH! One of those.

Florian: Exactly. But he'd be very upset that a high school allowed you remorseless killers-in-training to bring loaded guns onto school premises while brainwashing the audience audiophonically with a video game tune.

Hanah: I... see.

Florian: We won't tell him.

Hanah: Let's not.

Florian: Okay, now I'm going to delve into some harsh criticism.

Hanah: Sweet.

Florian: Are you prepared?

Hanah: Always.

Florian: Most of us interpreted the discordant Mario interlude as an appeal to the proles. It was like a sexy female Paganini suddenly stopping La Campanella to toss off the Looney Tunes theme song on her Cannone Guarnerius. Predictably, it seems like you got your greatest applause when you did the Mario tune. What's wrong with those people? This wasn't performed at a vocational school, was it?

Hanah: HA HA HA HA HA HA! Man, I love La Campanella. It's ridiculously hard.

Ummmm... jeez. Ha ha! That's the perfect analogy.

Alright, look, we're at a public high school and the audience obviously didn't have many Halo players. We can see why people online weren't to thrilled about it. But people like what they know and they obviously knew Mario.

When we record in Thanksgiving (we had some fans and we had some people that didn't like it so we're doing it a couple ways) we'll have the version that we did onstage and we'll have a version that's just simply Mario and then simply Halo. To appease all.

Florian: But overall, people seemed to love it.

Hanah: Yeah, they did.

Florian: You know, when I was in high school, I actually entered the talent show. All through rehearsals, I dramatically recited The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, only to change my act on show day to an obscenity-laced, hip-hop style roll call of all the teachers who had ever shown me disrespect (all of them, as it happened).

The entire audience of gangly teenagers actually rose as one to start chanting my name in unison; never the less, the winner that year was a kid from the football team who walked on stage and did a 'Pumping Iron' style muscle man show. The school was torn apart by riots for the next three days.

Hanah: Okay.

Florian: ?

Hanah: ...

Florian: ????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hanah: ?

Florian: ... Okay. My question is: did you guys win your show? If not, were there riots? There damn well should have been.

Hanah: Actually it wasn't really a contest. We closed the show though. So we were the 'finale' act I guess implying that we were the best of the night. Or at least the most interesting of the night.

Florian: You know how sometimes, you're at a concert or a play or a ballet, and some dreamy, somewhat hazy vision under the spotlights captures your heart, and all you want to do is get to know them? Did you get any dates out of your Halo performance?

Hanah: Ha ha! No. I get some people that are "requesting friends" on Facebook, but I have no idea who these people are. Other than that, most of the guys who message me are like, "Please don't think I'm a creep, I just loved the Halo 2 performance."

Florian: You're better off. One of our writers at Kotaku is a girl. She's grotesquely disfigured, but she shares the same name as a dollsome Seattle model. Consequently, she gets skeevy love letters every week, that are distributed to hilarious effect amongst her fellow Kotaku writers. One reader messaged her the other day. His AIM pic was a picture of a stick figure holding a screw, under which was the caption "Wanna screw?

Hanah: Yes, I'm better off.

Florian: However, an alternative presents itself. Since I know you like sushi, and I know you like twenty something guys, I want to give you adequate forewarning that I may one day send you a dead fish through international post and ask you on a date, because you've captured my heart... all 20 pixels of you. I've never asked out a girl before, because I'm a gamer, but my understanding is that this will mean we're going steady. So your Halo performance won't be a complete loss, romantically.

Hanah: Oh, awesome! And I'm single! So you're in luck!

Florian: Me too! You know how I mentioned a girlfriend earlier?

Hanah: Yes.

Florian: That was just a lie to get you jealous. And I can see you fell into my trap.

Hanah: You had me at Canone Guarerius.

Florian: If we agree we're now engaged to go steady, we can finish up this interview.

Hanah: Only if you fly me out to Ireland! I've always wanted to go there.

Florian: Because I write for a games blog, I'm a millionaire. Naturally, I'll fly you out. But our readers aren't interested in our mutual passion, no matter how lustful and throbbing.

So tell me, Hanah. You've started off a promising musical career by making Steve Vai look foolish and hopefully getting him fired. You've captured the heart of millions of gamers and helped me get paid for creepily flirting with you. You've also dissed and dismissed Yo Yo Ma. What's next?

Hanah: I'm trying to figure that out here. I want to do a couple of international competitions in the next few years, My dream would be to travel internationally with a quartet. I'd also love to get into the movie recording business. I think that would be tons of fun. Who knows? Maybe teach, maybe get into an orchestra, maybe rock out. The sky's the limit!

Florian: Okay. Anyone you want to suck up to?

Hanah: Much much much thanks and love to Dave Verlee who arranged everything. You're my hero.

Thanks and love to the rest of my Halo boys, ROB (you have perfect pitch in my book :P), Dave Bedell (ridiculously amazing drummer with the best smile), Artie, Corey, and Pat (Oh, you blue men!)

Extreme thanks and gratitude to bungie.com (especially Marty for his support and recognition, and the fact that he composed the music so it was possible for us to do this).

Thanks to the support from Kotaku, Digg, and Youtube, and everywhere else.

My parents for always encouraging me to follow my dreams. To my best friend Sean who couldn't watch the whole thing because he couldn't see me as a rocker and thought it was all just awesomely hilarious. But he's always been there for me!

I also want to thank all my buddies back home and all my friends here at Juilliard, as well as my new teacher Mr. Smirnoff who thought it was just awesome that I was part of a rock band.

And last but not least, thanks to all my fans out there! Yay!

Oh... and to Florian, who conducted this interview and has totally made my day.

Florian: Damn right. Final question: has any classical strings player ever performed in high heels and a bikini?

Hanah: No. And I don't think they'll be starting any time soon.

Florian: Maybe that's another way you can stick it to Yo Yo Ma!

Thanks again to Hanah for the interview! Go check out Corporeal's web site and give 'em your support.