Beautiful Music, Beautiful Lady: Kinuyo Yamashita Interview!

OSV: Thank you so much for your time today, Miss Yamashita. First of all I would like to ask you about the days before you actually worked in game music. Tell us a bit about your dreams and goals when you were younger.

Yamashita: Thank you for this opportunity! I started taking classical piano lessons at age 4 on at my parents’ insistence. When I got pretty good, I performed at recitals with some cute clothes. My teacher picked the pieces even though I sometimes did not like them. I was also doing quite well in a Volley Ball club in my elementary school, but my piano teacher did not like that because I could have injured my fingers.

However, I kept playing volley ball throughout elementary school, and of course I kept taking piano lessons, too. I continued taking lessons until I graduated from a 2 year college.  Through middle school and high school, my favorite subject was math. When I was in a high school, I wanted to be a math teacher and medical technician. But I made a terrible mistake while I was in my senior year in high school. My school had two different majors which were science and literature, and I wrongly chose the latter. It was a fatal mistake because the literature majors do not take one of the required courses, Math III, to apply for a science college. However, miraculously this 2 year science college accepted me! It was very hard in the beginning because I was the only one who had not taken Math III, which I had to study on my own to catch up. I studied electrical engineering, electronic engineering, and some others there.

OSV: What were some of your favorite music and inspirations back then?

Yamashita: To be honest, I did not listen to music as much back then. The only kind of music I was listening to was some J-Pop from TV. My house had a TV right by the piano, and I would practice with the TV on. When something played on the TV, I would play along with it. I think naturally I developed perfect pitch. Inspirations, I of course had certain things I liked or disliked. But I was never really inspired to write something, and I had never composed anything back then. There was this choir competition when I was in high school. I picked the song, arranged it to a four movement piece, directed the class, and I played the piano along with them. That song basically won the competition. I also made a medley of a few songs for a school athletic festival. In my high school, people always asked me to do anything related to music.

OSV: What was your first exposure to video games, and how did it impact you?

Yamashita: Actually I had never played video games until I started working at Konami. I encountered them in Konami for the first time basically.

OSV: How were you discovered by Konami? And how was it working for them? I believe you were employed by Konami for 2 years, correct?

Yamashita: So, I was about to graduate from my college and was looking for a job. There was a consultation office of employment opportunities, so I went there. I initially was looking to do hardware designing for musical instruments, but they could not find any of those for females. Then the officer recommended Konami saying “Their music department is looking for someone to work.” I must admit that I did not really know what Konami was, but I gave a shot because it was a music job after all. Konami’s entrance exam was really difficult. If I remember correctly, I think there was like up to the 4th exam. I finally got the job after passing all those tough exams. I was placed into the acoustic effect research lab, and that was when I met the Famicom for the first time. I tried a number of games there. The first project I was assigned to was Akumajou Dracula on Famicom Disk System, or Castlevania in the west. That was also the first composing experience for me.

The composer Kinuyo Yamashita was born together with Castlevania. Back then, there was only a handful of people who could compose music in Konami. I wrote music for a lot of games, doing the data conversion, sound effects, and even creating sound programs. I stayed at Konami for about 2 1/2 years total. I had to leave the company because I became pretty sick from overworking. All the experience from Konami – sound programming, sound designing, composing – they all became my very precious knowledge and skills

OSV: Tell us a bit about the process of working on Castlevania. Did you think the music would be seen as iconic like it is today?

Yamashita: I never expected it to be such a famous game, and I am glad that the music has become like a video game music classic in the world. I would basically play some melodies in my head on a keyboard to my boss, then I would program it if my boss said okay. I always thought that the game had a really good system program and is a great game. The music became this popular probably because of the rest of the game – program, characters, and design – being as good. People wouldn’t be interested in the game unless it was good anyway.

OSV: In the beginning of your career, you worked with both Famicom and MSX. Did you find it hard as a musician to create the music on the video game consoles as you imagined them on piano and synthesizers?

Yamashita: It was pretty difficult in the beginning. The music data was in hexadecimal. I have always liked math, so I tried a number of ways to produce better sounds. I did not really mind doing this programming process because I was always happier when I got better sounds. You can get better quality sounds by tweaking the data. I guess that part is more like technical work than composing work. I always composed music on the keyboard first. The way you program is not the same on Famicom and PC, but the whole process has always been the same.

OSV: Some notable MSX titles you worked on were Treasure of Usas, Gariusu no Meikyu: KNIGHTMARE II, Nemesis III and King’s Valley II. Do you have any specific memories of working on any of these games?

Yamashita: MSX is a bit more difficult to deal with than Famicom. It takes some skills to make music sound good with fewer notes. I had experience making music for a bunch of Famicom games when I started working on MSX stuff, so I used all the skills I had to write the music. It was tough in that sense, but the joy I got from completing games made me forget the struggles. It is always nice to hear fans telling me that they like the music from those MSX games.

OSV: After working with Konami, You went freelance and moved onto working with TAITO, how did you start working for them and why did you decide to work freelance?

Yamashita: I got an offer for a project when I was leaving Konami. The project was sponsored by this normal company that decided to assemble a team to create just one game. I started working there and stayed for about 2 1/2 years. I got another job offer from Taito when the team finished its job, but I declined the offer and became a freelancer. I have no clue when I started freelancing, but luckily I got some gigs from friends and friends of friends. Those included projects from Taito, and that is how I started working for their stuff.

OSV: In 1990, you composed the music for TAITO’s Power Blazer on Famicom, which I think is arguably one of the finest game soundtracks on that console. Please tell us what you remember of working on Power Blazer and the process of coming up with the music.

Yamashita: Really!? I had no idea until now that Power Blazer music had such reputation. I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for letting me know! Not just for Power Blazer, but I always try coming up with the musical ideas that fit in the right image of the game and the pace of a player (walking speed in an RPG, running in an action game). I expand the ideas even further if I get the actual picture of the game. I remember we were developing the program, characters, and music simultaneously for Power Blazer. Those eventually started merging all together, and that is how we completed the game. I tested it many times myself, too.

OSV: Were you aware of the changes TAITO made to Power Blazer in the West, making it into Power Blade and changing the character and setting of the game?

Yamashita: Yes, they notified me that in advance. I remade the sound effects because the appearance of the characters have changed. I made the sounds more realistic compare to the original Power Blazer sounds, since the sounds have to match the characters and world image.

OSV: You also did the music for Hana Taka Daka on PC Engine, correct? Was the PC Engine different to work with? This title is a very strange shooter with a flying duck set to very diverse music, from classical Japanese style to happy pop style.

Yamashita: Programming the musical data varies from console to console. I took a different approach for the music for Hana Taka Daka. Rather than composing for the image of the game like I said in the previous question, I basically composed whatever the genre I felt like composing. I thought that approach was appropriate for this particular game. I am very surprised that you know of Hana Taka Daka!

OSV: During the Super Famicom era, you were credited on some games without fully explaining what you were responsible for. Do you remember what you did on the titles Rockman X3 and Kiki KaiKai in particular?

Yamashita: I worked for Rockman X3 and Kiki KaiKai when I was a freelancer working for different clients… for Rockman X3, I composed and programmed all the music. I asked the client to let me take the dev kit home to do the programming. I did most of the music for Kiki KaiKai. But I am not sure if the company decided to use only my music or someone else’s.

OSV: Were you ever employed by Natsume full time?

Yamashita: I have never been employed by Natsume. I only worked on a lot of projects with them as a freelancer.

OSV: You seemed to fade away from the game music industry during the mid 90s before eventually returning to work on Medarot. What were you working with during this time period when not doing game music? I remember reading you formed a band called Honey Honey with a friend?

Yamashita: I was composing for some games before Medarot, but those games did not really get as much recognition…. yet yes, there was a period when I was not working on games. There are different reasons as to why I was gone.

How I work is that I compose for games when I get offers, and I don’t really promote myself much. Also, in early 1995, there was the “The Great Hanshin earthquake” that hit Japan. The region I lived in was struck very hard by the earthquake, so I was unable to work during that time.

Additionally, I collapsed while playing tennis in August 15th 1998. I was taken to the hospital as I was in a coma, and the doctor said that I was diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage. I went through an operation, but then a second subarachnoid hemorrhage occurred after a week. The chance of me surviving was much lower. However, the second operation was a miraculous success, and I survived. I suffered from some memory loss and slight paralysis on the right side of my body. Gradually I recovered from those, and I was released from the hospital. I was not working on anything for about 6 months after that. I think the Medarot series were my comeback titles.

Indeed, I had a duo called Honey Honey probably in the early 90s. We were gigging with some R&B and jazz cover tunes. I played piano, sax occasionally, and did the background vocal as well. I also did sequencing because having only a piano is musically lonely.

[Yamashita’s complete collection of her own works.]

OSV: I’m glad that you are today fully recovered! Medarot is another series your name is attached to today, as you worked on nearly every game in that series, if not all of them. How were you approached to work on this series and how do you enjoy working on it?

Yamashita: So I got an offer from Natsume for composing all the music for Medarot. As you know, I took the gig. Following the success of the first Medarot, they decided to make one after another. I composed all the music for Medarot 1 through 5. There weren’t that many pieces of music for the 1st one, but after that one I was composing like 50 pieces per game. I heard the battle music has a good reputation. Every time I composed for the sequels, I tried my best to write better music to meet the fans’ expectation. I also wrote almost all the music for any games that have Medarot in their names.

I am actually not certain if Natsume used other composers, though. For those games, I also participated in QA mainly for the audio. I gave feedbacks like “there is a sound effect missing,” “this piece should fade in,” and etc. The Medarot series is definitely one of my biggest works.

OSV: Natsume also put you in charge of composing music for Puroresu games on Super Famicom and Game Boy, such as WWF Road To Wrestlemania. Were you intimidated doing music for such a male focused sport?

Yamashita: No, I was not particularly intimidated by it!  [Laughs]

OSV: Today you work almost exclusively with the Nintendo DS system. Do you wish to also work on home consoles again in the future or do you enjoy working with handheld games more?

Yamashita: I would write for any games on any consoles if I get an offer. Recently I wrote the music for Walk It Out! on Wii from Konami, and I have just finished composing for this game on Windows that has not been released yet, so I have some work outside of the DS.

OSV: Recently you were responsible for arranging songs on DonDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. Can you tell us how you were approached to work on this project? How was the experience?

Yamashita: One day I received an email from Asada-san, the producer of DonDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. I asked him “why me?,” and he said “I am a big fan of Esper Dream that you wrote the music for.” Then he said “For the arrangement CD of DonDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou, I want to have the composers whom I like to work on the music. So I really want you to do this.” Of course I took the gig. It was actually the first time for me to arrange someone else’s music. The original “Stage 4” music that I worked on had a very particular feel, too. I thought what Asada-san wants is “my sound,” so I added some new materials and phrasing of the whole piece. Some sections sounded cute, but then some sections sounded like Castlevania. It was a great learning experience to arrange someone’s work. I would like to do it again if I have the opportunity.

OSV: You used some different names, such as James Banana and Charming Yamako. Did you come up with your nicknames, and why James Banana? Very strange name for a woman, is it not?

Yamashita: I did not come up with those names – “James Banana”? I am surprised they used that name. I would like to know what it means and who named it. When I was working in Konami, I wasn’t allowed to show my real name at the time. The programmers made up the names to put on the game.

OSV: Konami gave you that name when working on Castlevania, and I believe Taito used it on the American release of Power Blazer. Today you are active on websites such as MySpace and Facebook, and talk to your fans worldwide. Were you surprised to suddenly find out you have such big fanbase all over the world?

Yamashita: Yes, I was surprised! I have had my personal website, so sometimes I would get emails from overseas once in a while. Yet it has been a year and a half since I started MySpace. I feel like I am a lot closer to the outside of Japan, and I am communicating with a lot more people. That is how I found out there are many fans for Castlevania, Rockman X3, and Power Blade.

OSV: You have also recently been invited to Video Games Live where they honored your work in game music. How was it meeting Tommy Tallarico, and are you excited to see your music being performed by an orchestra all over the world?

Yamashita: I met Tommy once in June in Tokyo. I got to know that Tommy is such a nice gentleman who cares about others. He is very passionate about VGL, and he loves animals. After that he asked me to come to the VGL show in Tokyo. I was very happy to hear that. I actually had heard about the VGL show in Tokyo, and I wanted to be a part of it. I really like the rock version of Castlevania music that they perform. I am very happy and excited that they are performing it all over the world. I watch some clips of their performances on YouTube, and I would raise my arm saying “Oh, Oh, Oh” with Tommy in the videos.

OSV: You also recently had the opportunity to meet other female composers such as Michiru Yamane, Yoko Shimomura and Ayako Saso. Did you feel you had an instant connection with them, as there aren’t many females working in game music?

Yamashita: Rather, I thought every one of them is really mature and strong. I am very proud of Japanese female composers for being famous in the world.

[The ladies of VGM: Yamashita, Michiru Yamane, Yoko Shimomura and Ayako Saso]

OSV: What are some of your future projects we can look forward to with game music and also outside of games?

Yamashita: Like I said, I just finished working for a Windows game. I am not working on anything now because I am moving to the US. For my personal plan, I am thinking about uploading a video of me playing Castlevania music on piano on YouTube and MySpace. I cannot do it right away, though. Also I am dreaming about playing the piano in VGL. I promised it with Martin Leung, too. Other than those, I would like to write music for other musicians.

OSV: Do you have a personal favorite when it comes to your own work? Any game you composed for that is special to you?

Yamashita: All of them! If I must mention some: Castlevania, Esper Dream, Arumana’s Miracle, Parodius, Power Blazer, Rockman X3, the Medarot series, Monsters Inc and others.

OSV: I must ask, with your beauty, were any of your co-workers shocked to suddenly see a pretty girl coming in to do music for video games? I even heard rumors you have done some modeling?

Yamashita: Thank you for such kind words! I don’t really have a chance to go to the companies to deliver my works because now I communicate via emails. When I go, occasionally I would meet some employees who happened to be fans of my works. I feel very shy when that happens.

OSV: Thank you so much for your time! Is there anything you would like to say to all your fans out there?

Yamashita: It is all because of the fans that I can keep composing video game music since my debut work, Castlevania. Sometimes I feel down when I cannot come up with anything. Then I would read emails and comments from the fans which always encourage me. You fans are the ones who support me the most. I would like to thank you all, and I deeply appreciate you always. As of next year, I am going to start composing again at the new place in the US and I will do my best! Thank you so much for interviewing me!

If you wanna check out more on this lovely lady, check out her website Ciao and her MySpace

[Translation provided by Shota Nakama]