It seemed that the silent wish of many a Final Fantasy fan was granted in 2002, when music from the game franchise was brought to life by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Since that successful performance, other concert tours featuring exclusively Final Fantasy music have been held, including Dear Friends, More Friends, and Voices -- with Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy being the first international tour. Co-produced by AWR Music Productions and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, Distant Worlds delivers a unique concert experience that combines Uematsu's memorable compositions with the nostalgic power of video clips highlighting the games' most dramatic moments as well as some of their most amusingly mundane moments.
Nobuo Uematsu is best known for his musical contributions to the Final Fantasy series; he composed the entire soundtrack for ten games (I through IX and XIV) and contributed to music for Final Fantasy X, XI, and XII. Though he is a self-taught musician, his music has achieved a great degree of popularity for its ability to evoke emotions and enhance gameplay; as a result, he has garnered a sizeable international fanbase (which the Distant Worlds tour intends to tap into). Not only did "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII win Song of the Year at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards -- the first time that music from a video game was honored -- but it also sold 400,000 copies as a single. In addition, Time magazine has named him a music innovator in the Time 100: The Next Wave Music list.
Arnie Roth, the musical director and conductor for Distant Worlds, is a Grammy award-winning artist known for his work in film scores and his collaborations with performers such as Il Divo, Diana Ross, and Jewel, among others. He is also known for his contributions to the video game music scene. His first foray into video game music began with the first Halo game, for which he helped arrange, produce, and perform tracks. He would later serve as the music director and conductor for three Final Fantasy music tours: Dear Friends, More Friends, and Voices, as well as for PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, a concert featuring music from a number of video game titles. In addition to the worldwide music tour, Distant Worlds also features CDs that are noted by fans to have the best recording quality of any album containing Final Fantasy symphonic arrangements.
Despite Distant Worlds' tight summer tour schedule, Asia Pacific Arts was able to catch Nobuo Uematsu and Arnie Roth a few hours before the Los Angeles CD release party for Distant Worlds II: More Music from Final Fantasy.
July 19, 2010
Interviewed and transcribed by Jean Chen
Translated by Jordan Close and Ryoko Nakajima
Camera by Craig Stubing
Video edit by Lu Lu
APA: Did you come up with the title Distant Worlds, and if so, why did you choose this for the theme of your concert?
Nobuo Uematsu: あのDistant Worldsは僕が付けましたね。それは理由としては、あの、Distant Worldsというツアー事態が日本の国内でのコンサートじゃなくて海外、あちこちの海外でコンサート実現できるといいなという思いを込めてDistant Worldsという複数形のタイトルにしました。
I did name it Distant Worlds. My reason for that was because I wanted the Distant Worlds tour to have concerts not only in Japan, but I also thought it'd be nice to be able to have concerts around the world, so I also made the Distant Worlds title plural.
APA: Which Final Fantasy world do you think would be the most fun to go to?
NU: FFで行って見たい世界はFF4に出てくる月の世界かな。
The world I would like to go in Final Fantasy is the moon world which is in Final Fantasy IV.
APA: Back in the day when you first started working, the music technology was extremely limited. Had you ever imagined that one day the music would be performed by an orchestra?
NU: あー、無いです。それは無いなあ。ファミコンの頃はもう本当に電子音３つで作ってましたからねー、まさかオーケストラの音楽が将来ゲームに乗るなんてことは夢にも思わなかったなあ。
No, I didn't. Not really. During the Famicom age [original Nintendo system], there were really only three electronic sounds we could use. I never thought orchestra music would be featured in future games. Even in my dreams, I never thought that.
APA: What is your usual method for composing music? Many of your pieces have memorable melodies, but it's also quite common for a composer to begin working with chords first and building melodies from that. How do you do it?
NU: それは全部一緒だね。同時に来ますね。っていうのは先に和音だけを作ってその後でメロディーを乗せるっていうことはしないし、メロディーだけを作って後で和音をしないんで、左手で和音を探しながらこっち「右手」でメロディーを作っていくっていう感じですからね。だから同時に作ってますね。
It was everything together. They came at the same time. That is, I don't first make the chords, then later find the melody, and I also didn't make the melody and then do the chords. With the left hand, I find the chords while with this [his right hand] I make the melody -- that's how I do it. So I make them at the same time.
APA: In addition to composing music, how involved are you with the video game development process? It feels very fluid. Do you get to interact with the character designers and the set designers as things were being developed, and did you have visuals to compose your music to?
NU: どのタイミングで作曲は始まるかっていうと、やっぱりシナリオが出来上がったタイミングで始めますね。シナリオを読みながら曲を作っていきます。でー、キャラクターデザイナーとか、フィールドデザイナーの人達と、そーんなにしょっちゅうは話すことはないかな。でも、昔ね,スクエアにいた頃は、休憩室に入ってまあ、お茶でも飲みながら、そこにいるキャラクターデザインの人間なんかと、今どんなの書いてんのーとかいうのを見せてもらったりしながら、綿密な打ち合わせをしてましたんで、出来るのであればあのー綿密に逐一あった方がいいでしょうねー。ビジュアルも作る時にあればベストなんですけど、プロジェクトによってはビジュアルがすごく遅くなる場合もあるんで、そんなには期待はしてません。シナリオがあれば一番いいかな。
With what timing does the composition begin? Well, of course I begin with the scenario already completed. While reading the scenario, I make the song. As for [working with] the character designer or the field design people -- I wouldn't get to talk with them that frequently, but back when I was with Square [Enix], while we were drinking tea in the break room, I would ask the character designers or others who were in there: "Show me how I should write this." Then we would have a detailed meeting together. If we were able to, it was good to be that thorough, going over details one by one. It's best if I have visuals, but depending on the project, the visuals would sometimes be really delayed, so I wouldn't hope for that [the visuals first]. It's best if I have the scenario.
APA: Do you do anything special to get inspiration for your music?
NU: 何か他の音楽を聞いてinspirationをうける、というよりも、犬の散歩してる時とか、思いついたりすることがありますかね。だから音楽の作曲してない時のが何か「ああ、これかな」という閃きはあるかもしれないですね。
Rather than getting inspiration from listening to other music, I get inspiration while I'm walking my dog. When I'm not composing music, I might get an idea and think "Hmm, maybe this will work."
APA: Which Final Fantasy title was the trickiest to write for?
NU: FFの曲の中で一番作るのが大変だったのはＦＦＶＩＩの「Sephiroth's Last Battle」の曲は大変だったかもしれないですね。時間がかったかもしれない。で逆につくるのが一番簡単だったのは「Prelude」（のメロディーを歌う）。あれは本当に十分ぐらい出来ましたかね。
Out of all the Final Fantasy songs, the one that was the most difficult was probably Final Fantasy VII's "Sephiroth's Last Battle." That was because of time, I think. Then, conversely, the easiest one to make was: [sings melody to] "Prelude". That one I was actually able to do in only about ten minutes.
APA: What are the challenges of writing music for Chocobo when there's a different remix for every game so far?
NU: あのね、これ説明するのがちょっと難しいんですけど、チョコボをどういうタイプの音楽でアレンジするかってのは、名前から決めるんですよ。たとえば、日本のタイトルとアメリカのタイトルってちょっと違うかもしれないですけど、日本の場合でこれまで作ったやつって、マンボ（Mambo）でチョコボとか、（Samba）でチョコボとか、テクノ（Techno）でチョコボとか、タタタ、で、チョコボって、合う、ジャンルを探してたんですね。だから、日本語で言うとこの三文字の合うジャンル、分かるかなこれ、どういう風に説明すればいいか分かんないけど、これを探してます。
It's a little hard to explain, but which type of music I arrange chocobo to is determined by the name. For example, the Japanese title and the American title might be a little different, but in Japan's case, with the way I've made them up to now, there's "Mambo de Chocobo," "Samba de Chocobo," "Techno de Chocobo." With 'ta-ta-ta,' it matches 'Cho-co-bo' [the syllables], and so I search for the genre. So, if you say it in Japanese, these three characters match to make the name of the genre. I wonder if it makes sense? I'm not sure how to explain it, but this is how I search [for the genre].
APA: Many of the Final Fantasy games, starting from VIII onwards seem to feature at least one vocal theme song such as "Eyes on Me," "Melodies of Life," "Suteki Da Ne." Have you ever just considered being a songwriter at any point?
NU: 僕は元々そっちの方に行きたかったんですけどね。あの当時そういう二十五年前にそういう仕事に就けなかったんで、ゲーム音楽しかやらせてもらえなかったんで、基本的には僕はそっちのあの普通の音楽の作曲家には成りたかったですよ。
I was originally wanting to go that route. In those days, 25 years ago, I wasn't hired for that, and I was only able to do video game music. Basically, I had wanted to become a song writer for regular music.
APA: Do you ever have writer's block when you're composing?
NU: あるよ！それはいつも書けなくなる、なりますよ。
I do! I always have times where I can't write.
APA: What do you do when you're struggling to write music?
NU: その時は、どうするかっていうと、もう、出来ない時は諦めるしかないよね。でも諦めた時に意外と、あ、こういうアイデアがあったのか、って閃いたりするから、諦めてみるというのも重要かも。「間」 Always, everyday.
At those times, I wonder what I should do, and when I can't do it, there's nothing to do but give up. But those times when I've given up, surprisingly I suddenly hit on an idea. Maybe it's essential to try giving up. [pause] Always, everyday.
APA: Even though you're known for writing Final Fantasy music, do you still find time to compose your own personal music on the side?
NU: 趣味の音楽を作る時間ってのはなかなか無いですよ。あの結構締め切りの仕事に追われてるんで、なかなかないですけど、今年の初めに出した、「Ten Short Stories」っていうＣＤは、僕が歌詞・作詞して、メロディーも作っている歌本なんですけど、そういうのは非常にこう悩まず出来ますね。ゲームの音楽なんかよりも自由に出来るんで、すごく、何一つ悩むことなく楽しく出来ます。
僕が、「Ten Short Stories」っていうくらいだから、それぞれ１０個の音楽があるんですけれども、それが一つのちょっとしたお話になってる。一言で言うとね、童謡みたいな感じの音楽を思ってくれればいいです。で、そこに僕がメロディをつけて、POPな音楽になってると思いますね。アメリカでも発売できるといいんだけどねー。
There isn't really time to make my own music. I'm driven by job deadlines, so there's not really any [time], but my CD titled Ten Short Stories came out at the beginning of this year. I wrote the lyrics and music for that album, and I was able to do it without feeling rushed or worried [about deadlines]. I was able to do it with more freedom than I do with the game music; really without worrying even once, I was able to have fun doing it.
Since it's called Ten Short Stories, there's ten songs on there, and each song consists of a short story. To say it in one word, it's best to think of the music as being like nursery rhymes. Then, I added the melody and it became pop music. It'd be great if it could be released in America too.
APA: What are you currently working on?
NU: 最近はファンタジーライフというNintendo DS用のゲームを作ってますね。それは来年の春くらいには日本では発売されると思います。あのこれまでのロールプレイングゲームとはちょっと変わった。ほんわかした柔らかいムードのゲームなんで、暖かい感じのゲームなんでね。とっても僕もやってて楽しいゲームです。
で、ドッグイヤーとかの目指してる、これからやろうとしてることは基本的にあの音楽制作会社なんで、いろんな音楽を作っていくことになるんですけれども、音楽だけじゃなくって、ゲームとか他の、そういう音楽以外のものもプロデュースしていけるような会社になるといいなと思っています。
Lately, I'm working on a Nintendo DS game called Fantasy Life. That will be released in Japan around spring time, I think. Today, role playing games have changed a bit. They're warm and cozy, tender-mooded games, warm-feeling games. I'm doing a whole lot of really fun games.
So, while keeping an eye on rapidly changing technology, the things I do from here on are basically musical works. I'll be making a bunch of different music, but not only music, I think it would be great if the company became one that produced things other than game music.
APA: How did get involved with video game music?
Arnie Roth: The very first video game music concert I did was actually Dear Friends back in 2005, and that was the first time I met Nobuo Uematsu as well. I'd worked with a tremendous number of different artists with different styles, from opera to pop to rock groups to symphonic concerts all over the world, and this was one of these situations in which a colleague of mine involved with Square Enix was trying to bring the Dear Friends concert to the U.S. and nobody in the symphony world was willing to take a chance on this. They all thought that maybe you could sell enough tickets around a video game convention or something like that, but they didn't think there were enough fans to buy out a 2000 or 3000-seat concert hall. And you know, it's very costly to put on these concerts.
I was the first person to decide: I think this can work and I'm going to try this. So with my own orchestra in Chicago in February 2005 -- it was the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra -- we sold out 4000 seats. And there was no video game convention! [laughs] So that was my first concert, and then I continued on the Dear Friends tour and continued on the six or so cities that we did for those couple of months in 2005. After that, I became more and more involved with Square Enix, with Final Fantasy productions. They invited me to produce a record for them for the More Friends concert in Los Angeles, and that was released in Japan by Square Enix. Then they invited me to Japan to conduct the Voices concert. I was quite honored to do that because I was the only American invited there; it was all Japanese artists who had performed on Final Fantasy over the many years, so it was a fantastic experience. I've also been involved with other video game things such as Play, which I did for two or three years. And a little-known fact: I was actually involved with the very beginning of Halo. It was born in Chicago, and I actually helped arrange and produce and perform on some of the original Halo tracks.
APA: Have you ever played any of the Final Fantasy titles?
AR: Yeah, a little bit of Final Fantasy VII, just because we do so much music from VI, VII, and VIII. But truthfully, it would take so many hours for me to get to what I need to get to in terms of the musical themes. Not that I don't want to play the video games, but it's much more efficient for me to work directly with Nobuo Uematsu or Koji Kondo or Yoko Shimomura on audio tracks they send me of specific themes they want me to arrange or perform with orchestras, to get a feel for where the music was going, what it was originally written as, and the variations that it's taken.
Especially Uematsu-san -- what are there, 25 different Chocobo variations? So I listen to all that stuff, and I get to hear versions of this that most fans don't get a chance to hear, including some of his original sketches of things or audio fragments that he says, "First this started out like this and then moved over to this." That gives me more insight as to what I need to do with the orchestra to bring that out. So I find that a more efficient use of my time than playing the game for, you know, 20 hours and not even getting to some of the musical themes that I really need to get to.
APA: Is there a different way for conducting for film music versus video game music?
AR: When somebody asks me what a concert of video game music is going to be like, as in the case of Final Fantasy, I actually describe it to them as: imagine if you were listening to some of the most gorgeous cinematic moments from a John Williams or a Howard Shore -- you know, very evocative, big-scale symphonic music from films. That's about the closest thing that I can describe the experience of a Final Fantasy concert.
I think it's very similar to film music: part of the job for many video game composers is to score to the action, to what's going on. I've done 12 movies myself that I've written original scores to, and we're given pieces of videotape as they're creating it, little two-minute strips and excerpts, and we're looking at that, thinking which characters are involved, looking at the action, getting a sense of the pacing we want for the music. Or if there's a particular storyline struggle we're trying to bring out, [we look at] the conflict or the journey or the battle or whatever the task might be. All that goes into looking at these fragments, and it's very similar with video game music. The only difference is there may be more functional items with video game music than film music: not only is there a scene, but [the music] also has to loop, you know? It might have to loop in a logical musical way, a nice way, so we have to think a little differently in constructing music that way. And also, [we have to think about] how it is going to evolve, looking at the totality of the game. The character ends up there, right? And he's starting here, so you have to think of how you want that theme to evolve, looking at that big picture before you get started.
Uematsu-san is quite a different example than most video game composers. He writes leitmotifs. By that, I mean each of these characters have their own strong, endearing themes, and in some cases, like "Chocobo," for instance, for 25 years. The same "Chocobo" theme. It might be 25 different versions, but it's the same basic melody, you know, as the 8-bit audio from the very beginning. That type of writing style tends to endear the music more to the players, because the video game player has to encounter that theme over and over again in many different ways and different styles. It becomes a big emotional attachment when you're writing as leitmotifs.
A good way to describe it would be to compare Howard Shore with Lord of the Rings and John Williams with Star Wars. We all walk out singing all of those Star Wars themes; they're very much ingrained in us. And even when there's a battle theme, every time there's a lightsaber hit going on in a battle, you're catching that as the composer with various musical accents, whether it's percussion or whatever it might be; you're scoring to the action. But John Williams doesn't just score to the action, he has a very evocative theme of the character that's battling, or the Dark Side. Musically, thematically, even though it's a battle theme, there's a melody going on all the time. That's different, in my estimation, from what Howard Shore did in Lord of the Rings where there are one or two themes that we kind of know, but really, I challenge people coming out the theater to be singing a particular theme that they have stuck in their head. [Shore] really more wrote environmental and atmospheric [music] -- "Okay, I'm on this strange setting and I'm going to create that in my music" -- and that's how a lot of video game composers write. They're scoring the battle, they're scoring the environment, they're scoring the journey and the moves that are going on, but maybe not an evocative melody or theme that goes with the character.
There are those two schools of video game [music], and this is my theory about why Final Fantasy fans are SO into the music of that game. What other game is like that? We look for it all the time. People have said, "Maybe Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger." Maybe, but there's very few others. Think about it, World of Warcraft? I mean there's a beautiful theme -- these composers are very skilled -- but it's more about the battle and the action of the games that people are into, less so about the music. For Final Fantasy, we are in love with "Aerith's Theme," we're in love with "Chocobo," we're in love with "Terra's Theme," Sephiroth. Oh my god, "One-Winged Angel," of course. I had a sing-along in San Francisco last weekend where I had the entire crowd sing, "SE-PHI-ROTH!" and it was great, two thousand people singing.
APA: There were actually people singing Latin lyrics too. I was really surprised.
AR: Yeah, there was more singing on the Friday concert than Thursday's, but that was pretty impressive. We put the phonetic spelling of the Latin lyrics up on the stage, on the screen, so they could see it. It was great, you know, "estuans." It was great. [laughs]
APA: How much of the audience is usually able to sing to "One-Winged Angel?"
AR: You were there first-hand, so you have an idea. What would you say? I would say about 50 to 60% of the audience might've been singing "One-Winged Angel" with us. The most that I've tried that in Chicago last December, where I had them yell out "Sephiroth" where it happens, and that was fairly easy for everyone to do. But in San Francisco, we really were trying to have them sing the entire thing. Everyone knows the melody already. I mean, it's probably the single biggest or the single most popular piece of music in video game industry of any game.
APA: Since you've traveled to so many parts of the world, do you notice different reactions while you're playing in different cities?
AR: You know, it's funny. I would say the reactions are more similar than they are different, in terms of the Final Fantasy fans. There's this wonderful, hyper-mixture where the Final Fantasy fans love the titles and cheer when you announce them or at the end of the pieces -- they're more like pop or rock audiences that way -- but during the performances, they are completely quiet. Everyone is sitting on the edge of their chair, wanting to hear the music. So that is unusual. In pop and rock concerts you might have audiences talking or drinking or going out for a hot dog or singing along, and that happens at most of these concerts because it's much more casual. But in Final Fantasy concerts, you can hear a pin drop; they really want to hear every note being played live, which I really appreciate and orchestras appreciate that attentiveness.
What I also find quite unique about Final Fantasy fans is that they're married to these musical themes, and they know their music so well. I get input from the fans all the time, about "Wow, you really took 'One-Winged Angel' fast last night" or "'Aerith's Theme' was especially beautiful at the ritard at the 32nd bar." I get very specific musical reactions, so clearly, it's a very educated audience in terms of knowing their musical themes. Part of that is hearing the same theme in the same recording. That's why the live concert is so astounding to Final Fantasy fans, because the music is not simply a recording in your PlayStation that plays at exactly the same tempo at the same compression -- so everything is squashed, compression-wise, everything is mf [mezzo forte], as we like to say, everything's medium, because they don't want the player to have to be moving the volume control all the time. Whereas, now you come to a concert hall, and there's 150 performers when you play a spine-tingling triple piano with 100 people, the amount of air moving in the concert hall is unbelievable. That's an unbelievable effect. And the flip side of that is a huge crashing triple forte by 150 performers. And I believe that the music can live and breathe and move and be released from that compression, and there's a full dynamic range that makes it fascinating. That live performance is important.
APA: Which other cities will Distant Worlds be coming to in the future?
AR: Let me verify that we are continuing. The Distant Worlds tour will continue for multiple more years. We're having a lot of announcements coming up here, including shows in Sydney, London, Turkey, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg and Moscow, China, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Adelaide; all of these are under discussion right now, as well as a return to Seoul, Korea again. And that's beside all the North American dates which we will also be announcing.
Some of your fans might have seen the teaser that Square Enix put up where it's Distant Worlds and it says underneath, "Returning Home." We're going back to Japan, and it'll be the first Final Fantasy concert there since I did Voices in 2006. This is 2.5 years later, and we've announced two concerts -- on Saturday Nov 6th and Sunday, Nov. 7th -- that will feature, besides all the great classics, feature music of Final Fantasy XIII -- not the medleys that we're currently playing, but actually 5 or 6 pieces from XIII -- and 5 or 6 pieces from XIV.
The new record, Distant Worlds II, will be released in Japan starting this Fall.
For an APA review of the Distant Worlds concert in San Francisco, click here.
For more information, go to the Distant Worlds official website.