Game Informer ("GI"): You’ve done many, many interviews over the years. Is there any one particular question that you’re sick of being asked, or maybe one question that you wish had been asked?
Nobuo Uematsu ("NU"): One question that I’m tired of being asked is what my favorite song is out of all the songs from Final Fantasy. Another that I’m tired of is if I have a particular favorite video game composer. And the third I’m most tired of hearing is what my relationship with Sakaguchi-san is like now. The fourth is how many songs I’ve written for Final Fantasy XII. So, you guys don’t have to ask these questions anymore! The question that I would like to be asked more is about music itself. I’ve been asked so many questions about game music, but nobody has ever asked me about music itself.
GI: Essentially, it seems like you’re a freelance composer now. It seems that a lot of composers, when they do this, are a lot younger, say in their 20’s. What’s different about leaving your job when you’re a little older and more established in your field? What sort of perspective do you think you have that the other guys don’t have?
NU: Those who are young have physical strength and power, but those who are old have more money and less physical strength, but that’s only natural. So when you are young and have more strength, you have to take advantage of it. But when you’re old and have more money, you can also take advantage of that in what you want to do.
GI: This is your third city in the “Dear Friends” tour. Are you surprised by the response you’ve gotten in North America and would you like to continue this sort of event in the future?
NU: I was very surprised by the huge reaction and I never imagined it would get such a huge response from people in North America. I’d like to do several more “Dear Friends” in the United States, but at some point I’d like to take a break, at least in regards to the “Dear Friends” concerts. But after a year or two, I’d like to start a new tour with a different musical taste and tone. Most importantly, I don’t want to do too many “Dear Friends” concerts and have people get bored with my music.
GI: Which is more exciting for you, writing the music or performing the music for others?
NU: I enjoy both. I love writing music as well as performing music in front of other people because you get that energy from the people watching and listening to it. But, I really do enjoy both.
GI: What or who inspired you to create music in the first place? What is a person or song that really got you into music?
NU: The first inspiration I received from other music would have to be the Vienna Boy’s Choir. I was really impressed with it. The Vienna Boy’s Choir just evoked, within me, just a vague interest in music. But once I was in 7th grade, I started to listen to the radio at night and listened to such artists like Elton John and Simon & Garfunkel. I like the artists from the 70’s and that was really an inspiration for me.
GI: Between composing music for the older systems and the PlayStation, there was a change in the hardware you were working with. Suddenly you had a lot of space (on a CD) to work with and the style of music really changed. What do you think the difference is between composing for the older systems, and having a limit on what you could do, and the newer systems, where you have almost complete freedom to work with?
NU: Because of the improvement in the platform, it became easier to compose music. The improvement of the technology has really made the process of composing more abstract. I don’t have to look at the music simply in terms of being for a game. It used to be that I could only use three songs for a game, and that made a huge difference in the style of the music. It doesn’t mean that you can only use three songs makes the game music boring. In the past, just because we could only use three songs, we had to be very creative. A good metaphor is say you have one stick. You could look at it and wish that you had another one so you could at least use them as chopsticks. But, another person could look at it and say if I break that stick into two, you can use both pieces for chopsticks.
GI: With the next generation coming along, with much higher storage capabilities (Blu-Ray, etc), are you nervous that it may take away all limitations for you? And, what you do see musically that can be accomplished on these new systems?
NU: The bottom line is to create a good melody, that’s the most important thing for game music. Because of the huge improvement in technology, that would mean that you wouldn’t have any limitations in what you could do. That doesn’t give me much concern because that may affect how one can be creative in making music. Advancement in technology doesn’t necessarily mean a loss in creativity. The really important thing is to create a good melody and that’s my main goal.
GI: Which do you feel is a more powerful medium: video game music or music as a whole?
NU: Music, as it’s used in movies, has the most impact. I see situations where actors have his or her expressions are so harmoniously matched with the music, I am very impressed. And, that’s something that I’d really like to do in my work.
GI: What sort of factors went into you creating Smile Please? Was it something you had planned for some time, or was it more impulsive? Also, what are your thoughts on the pros and cons on with someone like Square Enix, as opposed to working with an independent company like Smile Please?
NU: One of the main reasons I created Smile Please is that I don’t have to go out early in the morning to go to the office. I’m just joking! The biggest reason behind Smile Please was that I started to feel some limitations in what I could do as an employee within a company. I didn’t quit from that company on bad terms whatsoever, but I started to feel too limited. I wanted to do what I wanted to do, without needing to get approval from someone else. That was the main reason I started my own studio. One of the pros of working as an employee of a company was that that there were so many excellent employees with great experience in doing music for games, as well as experts in creating projects. When I wanted to find out about something, I just had to ask someone in the company. That whole part was very easy. After I created my own company, I had to use money to get those kinds of resources, and that’s one of cons of running my own company.
GI: Now that you’re a freelancer, do you want to do more solo albums in the future that have no connection to video games?
NU: I hope to do that and create more solo albums in the future, but now I don’t really have time to do that kind of thing. But I do have a plan to maybe do that sort of thing this April.
GI: Do you own an iPod and what are you currently listening to right now? Do you have any favorite bands right now?
NU: I do own an iPod and I have a wide variety of music on it, such as rock ‘n roll, folk music, jazz, and classical. But, it’s really difficult for me to choose just one type of music or band as my favorite. My pattern tends to be that I’ll listen to one type of music for a certain period of time and then switch it up and listen to another type for a long time. Right now, at this very moment, I feel like listening to jazz. When I was in Chicago earlier I went to a place where they played blues, and I was very impressed. The fact that the Americans created that music, you should be very proud. I believe that the blues are the roots of popular music and without it, there is no popular music right now.
GI: How many projects can your new company sustain at once? Are you limited in how many games you can work on?
NU: It’s difficult to just concentrate on one game or project at a time, so most likely I’ll be working on multiple projects at a time. But, I’m used to working that way, especially given my past work with Square Enix.
GI: If you could travel back in time and speak to your younger self, what would you tell him now that you have the knowledge that you do?
NU: I’d say to my younger self not to worry, things will happen and you don’t need to struggle so much.
GI: In general, you can break game music into two distinct types: music meant for a particular area in the game and music tied to a specific character. When you write music for a specific character, what resources do you use? Do you use story summaries or character sketches? Are you looking at the actual game?
NU: I actually use all of the elements that you mentioned. But when I start to compose music for the game, I also already have the storyline to work with. I’ll start with that and then I’ll start getting the other elements to help influence my work.
GI: You’re very forthcoming with your fans in your online journal, so a lot of gamers out there know a lot about your personal life. Is there anything you could say that could really surprise them anymore?
NU: One thing that I can share is that I have a dog named Pao, and he has three places to live. One is my main house in Tokyo, the second is like a mountain cabin near Lake Yamanaka, and the third is where my parents live. I named all of the houses after my dog and the mountain cabin I named Yama-Pao. The house where my parents live, because it’s close to the ocean, I named Hama-Pao. The Tokyo house is in the same way.
GI: When will the Black Mages do a US tour?
NU: We’re actually going to do a US tour in May! I’d like to have more concerts in the US, but I have a few worries about that. When I do a concert, many companies and people will end up being involved. So, failure is not an option. I have to be very cautious about the whole process, but I’d like to have more concerts here in the US.
GI: You’ve been involved in the video game music process for such a long time. Where do you see the future of game music going, especially with the advent of new technology?
NU: If I could predict that, I’d be a millionaire! There are many different types of music, including for movies, TV, and live concerts. But, the one significant characteristic of game music lies in the fact that users can participate in first hand while playing. In that sense, game music is very unique and I’d like to create music, in the future, that takes advantage of that feature. I don’t have any concrete methods or ideas yet, but as an example, I think it would be neat to have two people playing a game side-by-side, and each one being able to listen to different music. I think that could be a possibility in the future.
GI: Any plans to release a live recording of any of the US “Dear Friends” concerts?
NU: We’ll record the concert today, but there currently isn’t a plan to sell CDs or anything to the public quite yet.
