[Left to right: Dennis Rubinshteyn, Patrick Gann, Noriyuki Iwadare, Damian Thomas, Hiroko Miyaji]
The four guest composers at the VGO show in Boston on October 7, 2012, each managed to squeeze into their busy schedules some time with myself and some of my old friends from RPGFan. Above you’ll find a photo we took with Noriyuki Iwadare and his own guest, Ms. Hiroko Miyaji (wife of the late Takeshi Miyaji, creator of Grandia).
Before you read the interview, try taking this pop quiz. For one of these composers, we ask about all the action one of their earliest work has seen in the “SQ” arrangement series. For another, they are surprised to learn we know what the game Esper Dream is. For yet another, we find out a peer composer they really admire and respect of late is Michiko Naruke. And finally, one of these composers talks about his partnership with a particular game designer who used to work for Square Enix and is now with Level-5. Can you match up these four composers properly *before* reading the interview?
After the jump, check out our short but informative interviews with each of the four guest composers. And be sure to check out RPGFan for their questions and respective answers from each of these VGM luminaries! (more…)
Today, we talk to Jacob Diaz, the video game remixer who goes by the name Jakesnke17 and DjjD. He has been active on the Overclocked Remix scene for a little while now, creating catchy dance remixes of your favorite video game themes, and participated on some of the many projects the community continues to spew out.
These days, Diaz has been busy working on his very first film soundtrack, shifting his focus from arranging to movie compositions with his score for the upcoming movie, 10. Diaz discusses the differences from arranging to composing, the amount of work that goes into an original score, and his video game music influences put to use in 10.
Click the jump to read our talk with Diaz! (more…)
I’ve been intentionally holding on to this one for awhile now. For those who don’t remember, “A Blast From The Past” is an interview series that revisits interviews I conducted while at Music4Games. We’re republishing them here on a somewhat monthly basis as they’re not longer available online. This time I thought it would be fun to celebrate the upcoming release of Metroid: Other M next week by posting the interview I conducted with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption composer Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios sound supervisor Scott Petersen.
In the interview we discuss the series’s transition from 2D into the 3D realm, the audio technology behind the Wii and the Prime series in particular, the interactions between the Japan-based Kenji Yamamoto and the Texas-based Retro Studios, and Nintendo’s lack of official soundtrack releases. This is the interview that I’m probably the most proud of, and I want to thank Nintendo once again for coordinating it and allowing us to republish it along with both Kenji Yamamoto and Scott Petersen for providing such thorough responses.
Re-reading this, I’m curious to hear how Yamamoto’s collaboration with Retro Studios is going for Donkey Kong Country Returns!
Check out the interview after the jump and let us know your thoughts. (more…)
It’s not very often that we get to highlight a vocalist on OSV. We’ve already gushed a lot about the NieR RepliCant & Gestalt Soundtrack that was released in Japan last month, and a big part of what made that soundtrack so great was emotional vocal stylings of Emi Evans. I’ve been obsessing over the made-up languages she created for NieR over the past few weeks, and we’ve finally been given the opportunity to discuss with her at length her work on NieR.
From her interactions with MoNACA composer Keiichi Okabe, last-minute deadlines, in-depth details on most of the game’s vocal tracks, her favorite tracks on the album, her relationship to Sekaiju no MeiQ 2 Super Arrange Album vocalist Rebecca Evans, and her work with Hiroyuki Muneta as a part of a duo called freescape, Emi Evans tells all. If her touching music hadn’t made a huge fan of me, this interview certainly would have.
Check out our all-encompassing interview with vocalist and lyricist Emi Evans after the jump! (more…)
I thought I told you that we won’t stop! We still have a couple interviews to churn out from GDC last month, and they’re actually somewhat related. This time we have Taku “TaQ” Sakakibara, who is known mostly for his extensive work on the Beatmania series. His work was ported over to Dance Dance Revolution, and his name should look very familiar to series fans with hits like “Electro Tuned,” “Era,” and my personal favorite, “Holic.”
It’s actually been a while since TaQ worked on a Bemani project, and we take this opportunity to talk about his time with the company, the retooling of his music for Dance Dance Revolution, how he came to work on a track for Granado Espada, and a 20-minute long symphony he wrote that debuted in the prestigious Carnegie Hall. While we realize TaQ isn’t a household name, we hope we can introduce you to him and his work!
Hit the jump for our talk with TaQ! (more…)
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