BY CHRISTOPHER LEON, WITH TRANSLATION BY ALEXANDER ANIEL OF BRAVE WAVE PRODUCTIONS
Takahiro Izutani has experienced it all in the world of composition.
From his beginnings as a remixer for Japanese pop music, and a rock guitarist with a keen interest in electronic music production, Izutani has forged his way in the world of video game composition. And he’s here to talk about it.
Having worked on classic franchises such as Bayonetta, Yakuza 2, and the Metal Gear Solid series, Izutani continues to use his experience to craft new compositions for upcoming games, and to assist fellow composers on other game projects.
Izutani, you’ve worked on several popular titles over the span of your career. What are the differences between composing for a new game in today’s era, and composing back in the mid-2000s?
The biggest difference would be the development and progression of digital audio, sample libraries, and other things.
During the mid-2000s, the production environment of a composer was considerably poorer than what we have today. That was the case for my production environment as well, but I think I was able to create original sound in spite of having to deal with such an environment. In those days, composers often researched how [to] create high-quality audio like that of a Hollywood composer; I was one of them. Also, YouTube wasn’t around yet in those days, so it was difficult to obtain information on the equipment and software plugins that top-level composers and recording engineers were using.
Everyone had to go through trial and error, but I think on the flip side, that became part of what made Japanese game music interesting.
Nowadays, we can share information through YouTube and social media, and the decrease in prices for PC software and sample libraries has allowed for tools to be unified, even if you’re an amateur or a pro, which may lead to fewer differences between composers. As a result, primarily Hollywood’s top-level composers have developed gradually physical larger and grander production systems, which have created differences compared to other composers.
In other words, because anyone has become able to create music of a certain quality, such top-tier composers try to stay ahead of others by keeping many options open and investing production systems and high-level equipment.
Everyone had to go through trial and error, but I think on the flip side, that became part of what made Japanese game music interesting.
I became an active game composer beginning in 2006, but I think the trend of game music production style going after the Hollywood movie music process was already underway.
On the other hand, these past seven to eight years, I’ve gotten the impression that there is a movement that evaluates video game music within the genesis of video games. I think this is because gamers who were influenced by this music as children have come of age and are joining the game industry themselves. Also, I think this serves as the antithesis to the increasing size of Hollywood music production that I described above.
Moreover, in Japan’s music production within its genesis of video games, there is a strict limit to the number of sounds that can be produced, as well as bitrate. In the context of such a situation, such fancy contraptions have gone away, resulting in the creation of a lot of pure and core music, which I feel has allowed the value of such products to be re-evaluated.
Brave Wave Productions, the label I work with, is releasing the work of such legendary game composers, as well as supporting their activities, and I think reactions from the audience are getting bigger day by day.
I don’t think my position as a game composer falls into either of the categories, but I aim to find new markets by releasing my own work. Brave Wave released my solo project, Lingua Franca by Dugo, in 2017. This gave me the opportunity to form new collaborations with European media and publishing firms.
You often collaborate with several other Japanese video game composers on your projects — such as Yakuza 2. What is it like composing music as a collective? How do you all agree on what approach to take towards scoring a particular game?
I was originally a guitarist for an avant-garde rock band. I am also an electronic music creator, so when it comes to work requests, people want me to be someone else other than a typical game music composer. This also is often the case for collaboration work. For example, I might take a composer’s orthodox orchestral sound and add my electronic sound and/or intricate rhythms onto it, as well as employing innovative mixes.
I’m originally the type of person who doesn’t actively do collaborations, but when another composer or producer feels that a song might not have enough going for it, that’s when they’ll call me. I feel very happy about that and feel a sense of fulfillment and responsibility.
With regard to finding an approach we can agree with, I always pursue the direction and sound that the creators feel is needed, so there are no issues there if everyone is in agreement. This is very rare, but there are times when I’m asked to create music or sound without any specific direction or imagery; such work is just a matter of putting time into it. In such situations, it takes a lot of time before we can come to a final agreement.
The soundtrack of the Bayonetta series, in particular, involved an enormous number of composers — close to 10 on the team! How did this scoring project come about and why were so many composers involved?
For most games, I participate as a co-composer, so I’m not privy to what goes on in the core section of the project. But with Bayonetta, there was an urgent need for a large number of tracks, which led to the use of many composers.
I also heard that PlatinumGames at the time did not have an in-house composer on the team who had adequate knowledge and experience in film scoring needed for cut-scenes. I supervised many cut-scenes for both Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2, but I was assigned a comparatively high number of scenes that the team believed to be especially difficult in terms of deciding what kind of music should go in.
For me personally, this was less about being able to manage a large quantity of work, and more about wanting me to pour resources into the most important or particularly difficult sections.
PlatinumGames sent me materials that wrote out scenes cut by cut, along with their length in minutes and seconds, as well as what they wanted to the music in the scene to portray. There were also designations regarding instrumentation, and electric guitars were basically not allowed […] This was tough for me, because the electric guitar is my own signature sound.
How would you describe your experience composing for the Metal Gear Solid series?
Norihiko Hibino was an in-house composer at Konami before leaving them to form his own production company [GEM Impact]. Through Hibino’s company, there were plans to form a team of composers who would work on music for the Metal Gear series. Several thousand people applied to become part of the team, and three were selected, one of them being me. This was also the opportunity that led to my involvement in the video game industry.
Konami’s talented in-house composers, along with [English composer-producer] Harry Gregson-Williams, were also working on the project. So while it was only bits and pieces, I got to learn about their production process; while working under Mr Hibino’s precise direction allowed me to acquire fundamental skills needed to be a game composer.
For the first game I worked on, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, I was suddenly asked to supervise several tracks for boss stages, which I think would not have been possible for me to do without Mr Hibino’s precise direction.
Also, this was the time when the Metal Gear production team was filled with a desire for new challenges, bringing newcomers into the project in order to inject life into it.
As a composer, were you working directly with game producer Hideo Kojima throughout the creation of Metal Gear Solid?
Unfortunately, I never interacted directly with Director Kojima. There were various sections within the Metal Gear production team, and it seems the sound director at Konami who managed the sound team communicated with Director Kojima on a daily basis.
During the production of Metal Gear Solid 4, I heard that Mr Kojima really liked the music for the Mexican film Crónicas. It just so happens that I had also seen that movie and had become a big fan of its composer, Antonio Pinto. […] Being an outside composer would mean being separated from the project to a certain extent, but the Konami sound team’s goal was to bring external composers into the fold and giving them a position to produce content freely without becoming entangled in messy internal politics.
What is your personal creative process when writing music for games — outside your collaborative work? Where do you begin, and what technology do you make use of?
I was originally primarily involved with the remixing of pop music for the Japanese music industry, so initially, my process involved taking rhythm loops or synthesized chord loops and repeating them for prolonged periods of time while adding ideas that would come to mind.
Nowadays, whenever an idea for a melody or chords or whatever comes to mind, I record a sound memo for reference; I do this on a daily basis.
I have a private studio in my home, which has been retrofitted to absorb sound echoing, and it is there where I take those ideas and develop the melodies and chords, transforming those sound notes into a simple piano piece and completing the core element of the song. After that, I take the tracks and convert them into the sound of various instruments.
Like other composers, I have a large collection of computer applications, plugins and sample libraries, but I don’t have any particularly special production processes or technologies. All I have are the ideas that come from my brain, and it’s a daily exercise trying to figure out how to bring those to life. Therefore, I pay attention to what I eat, the exercise I do, and the sleep I get. I research information on the newest medical science out there and do some trial and error to see what will allow me to output my maximum mental potential.
If I had to mention what kinds of instruments and hardware that I place a high amount of importance in, I would say it’s my monitor speaker, the Barefoot Sound MicroMain27 and my acoustic guitar, the Gibson J-50. These two pieces of hardware are the core of my inspiration and perform important duties for me.
At the time of our chat together, Bayonetta 3 has been announced. Can we expect your involvement as a composer with this new release in the series?
That’s all under NDA, so, unfortunately, I’m not able to comment on it [laughs]. However, I’m hoping that Bayonetta 3 turns out to be a wonderful product!
Takahiro Izutani was selected to take part in the APRA AMCOS High Score: Composition for Sound Art and Gaming event (October 5-6, 2019) as a keynote speaker, presenting his work material from Metal Gear Solid 4. It marks his first visit to Australia.
You can listen to Izutani’s Lingua Franca on Spotify.
Level and Gain would like to give a special ‘thank you!’ to Alexander for generously translating this interview from Japanese to English.
Image supplied. High Score illustration by Jennifer Reuter.
