Interview with Yasunori Mitsuda ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Profile Yasunori Mitsuda: Born in 1972. A representative of Procyon Studio, Ltd.(*) In charge of totally producing the musical compositions, as well as anything related to sound. Founded the company in the middle of development. While fully realizing the difficulty of managing people's work, he was also blessed with members and able to be absorb himself in composing. At the end of these trials, he completed a composition for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Able to enjoy the sounds of various lands in a studio full of many folk instruments and guitars, ranging from the kantele from Finland, to the angklung from Indonesia. Currently in the middle of producing a solo album. "Sleigh Bells" is the name of his label as well as his sales agency. (*) http://www.procyon-studio.com -------: How was your first full orchestra? Mitsuda: At first, I recorded an orchestra in Japan that I had planned to put in after the ending song, but it was a total failure. I felt so faint-hearted, like I couldn't do it anymore. But I can't just give up, so I studied everything about the orchestra from the beginning. Once I started doing that, it became more fascinating and I felt, "I don't care if I fail, I'm going to try one more time to do it myself." So, I requested the help of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and flew over there. When we did it, it went better than I had imagined. Somehow, that's when I gained confidence. In the end, I was able to do it all myself. Even so, I've never been as driven to a corner emotionally as I was with this work. It was truly terrifying. I hate it. I don't want to do it. (Laughs) -------: How did the first recording failure go, actually? Mistuda: For instance, say there's a flute and oboe part. In that case, there's a theory that the oboe is not supposed to go over the flute. I just calmly ignored that. I realized painfully, that you have to know the orchestra's minimum standards. The score wasn't that great, but it's not something I'd want to show. -------: How did you study? Mistuda: Books. That and actually listening to the music while looking at the score. I also tried to hear how each instrument sounded, and what kind of sounds you would get if you combined them in a certain way. With no teacher, that was the only way. I'm sure there's a proper way to study, but I don't know it. -------: Did you ask someone else to be the conductor? Mistuda: Yes. Say that I conducted. I would then have to follow the song while looking at the score and it would be hard to find the good takes. I think that I had good results from just listening to the performance and concentrating on finding the good takes. I have an interest in conducting, but controlling 80 people is impossible for me. I have to study from the beginning. Ten years down the road, I'd like to try it myself. -------: Why did you compose the character theme songs? Mistuda: The scale of the story was so big that I had no idea what kind of music to make. But then I realized that each person's connection was intimately portrayed, so I wanted to focus on that and on each character, and I thought about expressing those concepts. That's why with Shion, KOS-MOS, and Nephilim's theme songs, you can destroy their motifs and connect their phrases. If you listen to them normally, they sound like completely seperate songs, but for me, I created them as if they were intimately connected. I myself wrote a correlation map between the characters. I had about a year to do the music, but most of the stuff I finished in the final month. It took a long time for me to digest the world of this story. It's the most important thing. -------: What are the characteristics of the music? Mitsuda: For this game, there were a lot of so-called one-shot songs for the event scenes, and I had to keep in mind how much to add to each scene. Actually, there were a lot of cases where I had to give songs when there wasn't any video yet. So I had to picture the video in my head, and make a composition based on that. That's the reason I got a lot of very detailed design material. I tackled with the theme of trying to make music that didn't stray too far from the images this time. -------: Was there anything from your daily life that became a hint, and helped you come up with phrases? Mitsuda: It happens sometimes. Some sort of rhythm will just pop up. It's hard to come up with something when you're having fun or in the middle of an interesting conversation. On the other hand, when you're withered and tired... I guess I'm melancholic. (Laughs) -------: If that's true, then this music was... Mitsuda: It was easy to create! Especially the prologue and when the Gnosis first appear. There was no video yet, but I read the scenario and imagined how I thought it would look in my head, and I started getting many ideas. But actually, I thought that Gnosis was the name of a human organization. I had the image of a friendly spaceship, and then suddenly this organization's space fleet would suddenly appear. I never thought they would be so monstrous. (Laughs) I was surprised when I found out later. Then when Mr. Takashi told me that "KOS-MOS is like an autistic girl," I also mistakenly thought she was human. Later I heard she was a robot, and even though she's inorganic matter, I thought it would be good to portray something like a secret sadness within her. That type of image song is my hobby. By the way, when I was halfway through composing and listening to it, I found it painful, and had to take a rest and put aside some time so I could finish it. -------: ++++++Were there any images that came to mind, or any heartfelt things?+++++ Mitsuda: Scenes where something is coming to attack or something's coming back to life, those are images. But the character theme is emotion. Relationships between people are also about emotion. They're completely different things, so the process of creating them is completely different. These two things are seperated precisely in my mind. -------: Composing while thinking about images. Did you study art? Mistuda: There was a time when I wanted to be an artist. I think I was influenced because my father drew art, +++++but for some reason I didn't want to do the same thing as my father.++++++ So I switched to music. When I'm composing, images appear in my head first, so sometimes I wonder if maybe I should have gone with art instead. (Laughs) -------: Making music seems so difficult. Mitsuda: I think anyone can do it. If you use an instrument to make a sound, that's already music. It's all the same, because it's a form of expression and probably anyone can do it. Because it has an image that it's difficult to do, people shrink back from it. When you're riding your bike, or sitting in your bath, you feel good and sing sometimes. Those are also great songs. -------: Even if one can't write notes? Mitsuda: Most musicians overseas can't read notes. Especially among folk musicians, I have yet to see one who can read notes. The female vocalist who helped with this project, Joanne Hoag, also couldn't read the notes. With those types of people, you play the song two or three times for them and they'll have remembered everything by ear. -------: What kind of song emotions do you like? Mitsuda: Without regard for genre, I like things that clearly show they're trying to express something. With songs there's the lyrics and melody line. With instrumentals, it's about whether you can see a clear image. Songs without these things, even if you listen to them, they tell you nothing and aren't interesting. I also like songs with a rural atmosphere. Like there in some elementary school gym, say there's someone practicing the piano and it's like the faint sound of the piano is coming through to you from far way. I like an atmopshere that invites that kind of nostalgia. -------: How about the computer as a source of sound? Mitsuda: It's a tool for sketching to a certain extent. Like pens and brushes when you're writing a score. That's why I think machines should be as simple as possible. I'm always asked, "How did you study computers?" But for me, I use them all the time, so it's natural. My job is making music, not remembering how to use machines. -------: You have a lot of guitars and folk instruments. Mitsuda: When I've inputted a program into the computer, it's for comparing with the real sound. Anyways, hearing the real sound is important. You can get the music's idea from the folk instruments. Actually, for this project, I used a lot of percussion. Also being reminded of the history behind each instrument's birth was fun. That sort of drama, there's one for every people. There's no end. -------: Have you always been interested in history since you were a student? Mitsuda: No, from elementary on to middle school, I always hated class. Remembering dates. I can't do that. I couldn't read a world map at all. But recently I've been studying things related to music. Like, how the blues came about, or how Irish music was born, or how the orchestra was developed. Investigating those kinds of things is fun. --------: That's what studying is. Mitsuda: I think that the way of teaching like, "It's going to be on the test, so remember it," is wrong. If you're not interested in it, you're not going to remember. If your interest is peaked, it doesn't matter if you say, "Don't do it," you're going to study. That's why I feel it's important to prepare an atmostphere that creates that kind of interest. -------: What do you think of Episode I? Mitsuda: The theme of the compositions was easy. My world view and the director, Mr. Takashi's world view were the same so it was very easy to produce the music. This game has a deep theme, so I'm very satisfied that I was able to produce a high quality score to accompany it. --------: What do you think of Mr. Takashi? Mitsuda: It's hard to put into words, but I really feel that there's a hidden anger inside him. Like, "Why the hell don't they realize this?!" That anger has been poured into this game, and people who resonate with it will be sucked in. My impression was that I sensed he was very similar to me. He's probably a dark person too, Mr. Takashi (Laughs) But he's diligent. =============================================================================== Translated by quartet4. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. These translations, however, are owned by the individual translators. Please ask permission from the author before copying these translations for any purpose, other than your own private use.