Interviews

Jack Menhorn has worked on all aspects of game audio over the years: sound design, composing, voiceovers, and implementation. After years working on indie titles such as Nova-111 and Hack Slash Loot, he is presently working on new shooter LawBreakers. He is also editor-in-chief of DesigningSound.org, a top journalistic resource for sound ...

The last few years have been filled with change for Jack Wall. He left behind Video Games Live after eight years directing and conducting the successful show. Now focusing exclusively on composing projects, he has since created the scores for the smash hit Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the upcoming Lost Planet ...

British composer James Hannigan's video game scores span from sports titles to movie adaptations to war titles. He is best known for recently taking the leading roles on both the Harry Potter and Command & Conquer franchises on behalf of EA. His fantasy scores for the latest Harry Potter games ...

Jamie Christopherson is a Hollywood composer who has worked with developers across the world. He is perhaps best known for collaborating with Eastern developers on a range of projects, including Capcom on Lost Planet, KOEI on Bladestorm, and NCsoft on Lineage II. However, he has also engaged in a range of Western game ...

Jason Graves is a classically-trained composer of video games, films, and television. After gaining experience in the games industry with franchises such as Blazing Angels, Star Trek, and Rayman, he made his popular breakthrough in 2008 with the award-winning orchestral score to the horror game Dead Space. Since then, he has ...

The newly released Dead Space 2 portrays protagonist Isaac's horrifying experiences battling the necromorphs and overcoming his dementia on the Sprawl. Jason Graves returned to score the title, blending introspective avant-garde string quartets with high-octane orchestral tutti. In this interview, Jason Graves discusses the music for the Dead Space franchise in more ...

After a difficult year from PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, producer Jason Michael Paul asked to talk to us openly about his direction for the tour. He discusses issues such as concert cancellations, organiser departures, and the delayed and criticised CD release. However, he also provides hope for the future by ...

American McGee's Alice caused a sensation eleven years ago with its twisted incarnation of Lewis Carroll's fantasy protagonist. Alice: Madness Returns revisits the macabre character as she travels to Wonderland to escape her nightmares. Developed by American McGee's Spicy Horse Studio in Shanghai, the game is due to be released on June 14 ...

Jayson Napolitano is the founder of Scarlet Moon Productions, a videogame music PR firm, record label and artists group all wrapped up into one. Through Scarlet Moon, Napolitano has employed a number of game composers old and new, including Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana), Vince DiCola (Saturday Morning RPG, Transformers: The Movie), ...

Jeff Ball has made quite an impact on game music in a short time. The classically-trained violinist and violist has performed on soundtracks as diverse as Mass Effect 3 and Red Orchestra 2. As a composer and arranger, he has produced delightful scores to projects spanning Tiny Barbarian, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition, and Globulous. The Alaskan-born ...

Jeff Broadbent has risen to fame spectacularly quickly. Despite entering the video game industry just a few years ago, he has already scored high-profile projects such as PlanetSide 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and I Am Alive. His latest work is Electronic Arts' MOBA Dawngate. In this interview, Broadbent reflects on his background and influences, including how ...

Jeff Broadbent is one of the emerging composers in the Western games industry. The classically-trained composer has worked on numerous film, television, and game projects over the years. However, it's with the game adaptation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and the brand new downloadable title I Am Alive that he has received widespread recognition ...

Last time we spoke with composer Jeff Broadbent, he told us about his background as a composer, and his work on Dawngate in anticipation of its release. Since then, he has been busy working on the score to Champions of Anteria, Ubisoft's RTS game featuring a range of champions with elemental ...

Jeff van Dyck is a Canadian composer and sound director currently based in Brisbane, Australia. He is best known for his work on the Shogun, Medieval, and Rome titles of the Total War series by The Creative Assembly, as well instalments of the Need For Speed, NHL, and FIFA franchises by ...

Fans of video game music concerts will have undoubtedly run into Jeron Moore and Chad Seiter’s work. Both were responsible for conceptualizing and developing The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses and are now in charge of Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions. Both composers have also been extensively involved in other projects: ...

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses developed into a fully-fledged, multi-city orchestral concert tour over the past year. Building on the series' anniversary concerts, the four-movement symphony format has proven a particular success, giving attendees the opportunity to fully relive their experiences of each game. Jeron Moore is the ...

The Mafia series has had a rich musical tradition since Vladmir Simunek's score to the first game. Mafia III, the most recent installment in the franchise, has taken a different approach to the music; composers Jim Bonney and Jesse Harlin fused Hollywood-orchestral sounds with strong blues elements for a new spin on ...

Jessica Curry is a composer, sound artist and co-director of British game studio thechineseroom. With a background in scoring films and multi-media projects, Curry's first game score was written for award-winning independent game Dear Esther. Curry has also worked on thechineseroom's other games including Korsakovia and the upcoming titles A Machine for Pigs and Everybody's Gone to ...

The Mafia series has had a rich musical tradition since Vladmir Simunek’s score to the first game. Mafia III, the most recent installment in the franchise, has taken a different approach to the music; composers Jim Bonney and Jesse Harlin fused Hollywood-orchestral sounds with strong blues elements for a new spin on ...

John Graham recently composed the soundtrack to Kingsglaive, the film prologue to the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. While Graham isn't new to the Square Enix scene, this is his largest assignment with them to date. A major part of his role in composing for the film was to separate the storyline from that of ...

A classically trained composer previously known for his work on the Crackle show Sequestered, John Kaefer recently composed the music for the Quantum Break live-action series that accompanied the game of the same name. Although Kaefer often has minimalist vibes infusing his work, he incorporated a large variety of electronic and ...

John Kurlander is widely regarded as one of the finest recording engineers in the music industry. During his 40 year career, John has produced Grammy-winning recordings for popular artists,classical orchestras, and film and game soundtracks. Among his career highlights include debuting on The Beatles' Abbey Road, becoming Chief Engineer of EMI Classics and ...

Indie composer John Robert Matz has been writing for games since his score to Artemis in 2011. Favoring live instrumentation, his music comes across vibrantly, frequently featuring his own performances on soundtracks. His most recent soundtrack, Fossil Echo, has been praised as a gorgeous accompaniment to the game, an artistic 2D platformer. In ...

Jon Everist is the audio director and composer of Harebrained Schemes, a Seattle-based studio behind projects such as Shadowrun: Hong Kong, BattleTech, and Necropolis. His recently-released Shadowrun -Hong Kong- Original Soundrack won wide acclaim for its beautiful blends of cyberpunk and traditional sounds.  In this extensive interview, Everist talks about his musical background, journey, and influences, ...

Jonathan Geer is one of indie game music's rising stars. Starting out only some years ago as a professional game music composer, Geer has already accumulated a diverse and impressive portfolio, including Kablooey!, The Oil Blue, and Dragon Portal. This year, Geer released his most impressive and ambitious works to date, Azkend 2 and Neptune Gasoline ...

On September 23, Symphonic Legends celebrated the music of Nintendo with an orchestral concert in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. The climax of the event was The Legend of Zelda's Symphonic Poem, a 36 minute epic telling Link's journey from child to hero. In this interview, arranger Jonne Valtonen and producer Thomas Boecker ...

On September 12, 2009, the concert Symphonic Fantasies will occur at the Philharmonic Hall in Cologne, Germany. It will feature a selection of brand new arrangements from the Final Fantasy, Chrono, Kingdom Hearts, and Mana series by Jonne Valtonen, the acclaimed arranger of Symphonic Shades. Recently the fanfare for the title — actually ...

Finnish-born Jonne Valtonen became one of the most popular demoscene musicians during the Amiga years. He composed numerous electronic demos under the alias Purple Motion, including the acclaimed album Musicdisk. Since then, he has become a composer of professional game projects, ranging from Death Rally to Project S-11 to Stuntcar Extreme. More recently, Valtonen has received ...

Jordan Aguirre, better known as bLiNd, is one of the most successful artists to emerge from OverClocked ReMix's huge community. Inspired in equal measure by NES game composers and electronic dance music, the artist has established a signature style blending chiptune and trance influences. His style is on full display in his ...

Joris de Man is an Dutch composer and sound designer best known for his IVOR-winning symphonic scores for Sony Computer Entertainment's Killzone series. Beyond the series, he has had a diverse career working on earlier projects by Synergy, Philips Interactive, the Bitmap Brothers, and Lost Boys. He is currently working ...

Josh Barron has been arranging music since 2005 when he first came across and began interpreting the soundtrack of the Kingdom Hearts series on the piano. Since then, he's arranged several scores from Final Fantasy to Xenogears for various fan-arranged projects and has been hired by groups like Ronime Studios to produce scores ...

Josh Whelchel is one of the most talented composers in the indie scene. Through his work on titles such as The Spirit Engine 2, GunGirl 2, and Bonesaw, the composer has demonstrated his creativity and versatility. His other activities include producing the annual Songs for the Curealbums for cancer fundraising, remixes for games such as Super ...

Joshua Morse is a fan arranger known for his contributions to OverClocked ReMix and OneUp Studios. In this interview, Joshua discusses his latest album Castlevania: Sonata of the Damnedreleased at Halloween and other projects such as Chronotorious, Symphony of the Night Resurrection, and the upcoming Serious Monkey Business. Interview Credits Interview Subject: Joshua Morse Interviewer: Chris Greening Editor: Chris ...

SoulCalibur V features an unprecedented collaboration of composers, performers, and engineers across the world. On the latest instalment of the fighting game series, Namco Bandai Games teamed up with Creative Intelligence Arts to offer a diverse and high quality soundtrack. In this interview, we talk to Junichi Nakatsuru, the sound director ...

24 years after she left Capcom, Alexander Brandon tracks down the composer behind NES' Strider, Bionic Commando, Little Nemo, and Sweet Home ...

German composer Kai Rosenkranz won the hearts of many gamers with his rich orchestral soundtracks for the first three Gothic titles and Risen on behalf of Piranha Bytes. However, he has spent the last five years working away from composition, focusing on creating game development tools through his own company ...

Although he started off writing electronic dance music (EDM), Kamil Orman-Janowski has since made his name with his large-scale orchestral scores to the Path of Exile series. Recently, Orman-Janowski was appointed a position as in-house composer for the New Zealand-based Grinding Gear Games. In this email interview,  Kamil Orman-Janowski tells us about ...

One perspective from which game sound has so far rarely been looked at is through the lens of systematic, academic research. Academia has been slow to pick up the analysis of game sound as a topic worthy of consideration, but the last decade has seen significant progress. One of the ...

The Ace Combat series features some of the most rich and emotional scores in video game music. Each of the score's seven console instalments has reinvented the sound of the series, from the flamenco-infused anthems of Ace Combat Zero to the gritty electro-orchestral fusions of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. For over a decade, Keiki Kobayashi ...

Keishi Yonao is highly regarded in Japan for his technical mastery and musical creativity. His international exposure has been limited due to his focus primarily on the visual novel sector, though he has still worked on numerous other projects: from fighting games (Asuka120%) and shooters (e.g. Mad Stalker), to original ...

Since leaving Square in 2001, Kenji Ito's career has blossomed. He has scored everything from video games to visual novels to animes. In addition, he has produced two solo albums, collaborated with numerous vocalists, created various remixes, and, as a pianist, established three performance units. In this interview, Kenji Ito ...

At the age of 18, Australian prodigy Kevin Penkin was scouted to score his first commercial video game, an otome title by Idea Factory. In addition to giving him an opportunity to spread his music to international audiences, it provided him the opportunity to collaborate with a very high-profile name, theme song ...

Resistance: Burning Skies is one of the first games to showcase the musical capabilities of the PlayStation Vita. Scored by two of the industry's most creative forces, Jason Graves (Dead Space, Dungeon Siege III) and Kevin Riepl (Gears of War, Hunted: The Demon's Forge), the music is thematically driven and highly ...

Kevin Riepl is a highly trained and experienced composer for film, television, and video games that currently works with the Max Steiner Agency. His credits span from first-person shooters such as Unreal Tournament 2003 and Gears of War, to game adaptations such as Nancy Drew andShrek, toMicrosoft Game Studios' latest hit, the Xbox 360's Crackdown 2 ...

Kinuyo Yamashita is a long-term game composer known for composing hit classic titles such as Castlevania, Esper Dream, Power Blade, and Mega Man X3. She continues to be highly active as a composer, with works spanning from fighting franchises to lifestyle games, from arranged album contributions to J-Pop experiments. In the last few ...

Kohta Takahashi is best known for his cutting-edge contributions to several major Namco titles. In particular, Ace Combat 2's rock performances, Ridge Racer V's dark breakbeats, and Klonoa's enigmatic orchestrations. Beyond such scores, the freelance artist has worked on several high-profile dubs albums, emerged as a prominent game remixer, and taught at the ...

Koichi Namiki worked at Sega during the late 80s, writing music for arcade classics such as Galaxy Force, Thunder Blade, and Super Hang-On. The longest-standing member of Sega's in-house rock band, the S.S.T. Band, he brought game music to the masses with studio and live renditions of arcade favourites. Since leaving ...

Kota Suzuki has spent the last seven years creating the music of the Resident Evil franchise. The in-house Capcom composer has led the music production for Resident Evil 5, The Mercenaries 3D, and Revelations. Most recently, he served as the sound director of Resident Evil: Revelations 2, composing a large score for the title with Ichiro ...

k.h.d.n. are a duo of electronic composers, Kou Hayashi and Daisuke Nagata, that are currently leading employees at shooter developer Milestone. During their time at the company, they have come to recognition for their often experimental and progressive scores for titles such as Chaos Field, Radirgy, Karous, and Illmatic Envelope, all of which ...

Composer Kristofer Maddigan's colorful soundtrack to Cuphead has taken off since its recent release. Widely praised for its rich sounds and authentic vintage approach, the soundtrack has already charted on Bandcamp, seen a deluxe vinyl release, and gathered a following of people who have fallen in love with its unique sounds and approach.  In ...

In 2011, Gee Daigo established Ringmasters LLC, a collective of artists from across the world. The Ringmasters Certifyd Programme is a non-exclusive membership acquired by artists who meet strict criteria. These artists are authorised to participate in Ringmasters Productions that are presented in their respective fields. A founding member is Kumi ...

Lance Hayes first impressed the industry with his downbeat electronic score for Forza Motorsport 3. Two years later, he has created a more moody and cinematic score for its sequel. Also making contributions to projects such as Kinect Joy Ride, Microsoft Flight, and Gears of War 3, the relative industry newcomer has already risen to ...

Laura Karpman's musical achievements extend from video games to considerably beyond. She has brought symphonic music to scores including EverQuest II, Untold Legends, and Halo 3 in recent years. Her other work includes feature films, concert commissions, drama productions, and the 20 hour score for Steven Spielberg's Taken. In this interview, Laura Karpman discusses the ...

Lena Raine has made a splash with her soundtrack to Celeste, a 2D platformer that packs a surprising emotional punch. While the game has been receiving all kinds of enthusiastic responses, the soundtrack has also been met with an incredibly warm welcome from fans and critics alike for its powerful effect on ...

Lennie Moore is a versatile composer known for working on television, films, commercials, and video games. His soundtrack for 1996's Outcast was one of the very first full orchestral scores featured in a video game. Continuing to be an influential orchestral writer, he recently scored Star Wars: The Old Republic, Halo: Combat Evolved ...

Lorne Balfe has risen in the ranks to become one of the most successful composers at Hans Zimmer's music production company, Remote Control Productions. In recent years, he has composed music for films such as Inception, The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes, and Iron Man, between scoring numerous independent films and television shows. He ...

Luc St. Pierre is a Canadian film and television composer who recently scored Thief. Reflecting St. Pierre's inescapable penchant for melancholy and aggressive music, the electro-orchestral score was filled with ambient soundscapes and intense sequences. In our review of the game's soundtrack, we praised the music in-context, but criticised the stand-alone soundtrack ...

Today, Capcom released the action game Street Fighter X Mega Man as a free download. The Blue Bomber serves as the protagonist of this 8-bit action game and will face mainstays of the Street Fighter series as bosses. Luke Esquivel (aka A_Rival) created the 8-bit soundtrack for the game, blending Mega Man and Street Fighter ...

Maki Kirioka is a veteran composer from Konami that now works at Yasunori Mitsuda's Procyon Studio. During her 13 years at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Kirioka was involved in many major projects, including the Metal Gear Solid, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Tokimeki Memorial, and Elebits franchises. However, she is probably best known for ...

Basiscape's Manabu Namiki has helped to redefine the sound of Japan's arcades with his electrifying scores to shooters by NMK, Jaleco, Raizing, and Cave. His soundtracks for titles such as Zed Blade, Battle Garegga, Ketsui,and Mushihimesama have received best-selling soundtrack releases and inspired multi-artist arranged albums. Outside these works, Namiki is known for ...

The NES' Mega Man and Mega Man 2 might have been released over 20 years ago, but their scores — created by Manami Matsumae, Takashi Tateishi, and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi — continue to fondly remembered to this day. Following our group interview, the three musicians agreed to talk on a one-to-one basis about their works ...

Meeting with one of the original legendary Japanese game composers, Manami Matsumae, was memorable. When she first walked out for her Q&A, she greeted the guests at her panel with enthusiastic waves and a big smile, but answered questions thoughtfully, and often humorously. When asked about a specific piece she ...

Marc Canham is a British composer and producer that has worked on numerous video game and film scores over the last decade. As a composer, he has pioneered novel approaches to video game music with scores for the Driver series, Far Cry 2, Split/Second, and The Secret World. As a producer at Nimrod Productions, ...

Mariam Abounnasr, a newcomer in the game music world, has had a very busy couple of years. In these past year, she has orchestrated portions of Valkyria: Azure Revolution, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Final Fantasy XV: EPISODE IGNIS, as well as debuted as a composer with her work on Another Eden.  In ...

Mark Knight is an enduring British pioneer in game music and audio. The self-taught composer brought musical innovations to top series such as Duke Nukem, Warhammer, and Dungeon Keeper throughout the 90s. He subsequently transitioned into the role of audio director at Codemasters, where he brought technical mastery to titles ...

Dynamedion is the leading studio for soundtrack composition and sound design in the European video game industry. The company has pioneered orchestral recordings in game music with major scores to the SpellForce and Anno series. Having featured on nearly 200 projects to date, the company has branched out to encompass sound ...

Marty O'Donnell is one of the most iconic names in game music, with a musical tradition established in the Halo series that has spanned over ten years, and a unique career highlight working with Paul McCartney on the epic score to Destiny. After his departure from Bungie, O'Donnell went on ...

Masafumi Takada is  president of his game music production studio, SOUND PRESTIGE. His works range from Grasshopper Manufacture classics, such as killer7  and God  Hand, to a variety of high profile games, such as Vanquish and The Evil Within. However, he is probably most famous for his work on the Danganronpa series. In this interview, ...

The talented young musician and record producer discusses his arrangements and guitar-focused original albums ...

The Capcom-turned-freelance composer recalls his work on Sengoku Basara and Mega Man, including forming the ROCK-MEN band ...

The witch is back! On October 24, Bayonetta 2 will be internationally released for the Wii U. Masami Ueda, a veteran music director at PlatinumGames, served as the lead composer of the game and will offer his most adaptive and expansive soundtrack yet.  In addition to working on the original Bayonetta, Ueda has served ...

Masanori Adachi and Hirofumi Taniguchi have collaborated for 25 years. The composers first worked together at Konami on Madara 2 and then went on to create diverse experimental scores for numerous titles as the Thelonious Monkees: Moon, U.F.O., and Endnesia among them. While the artists have focused primarily on numerous own projects in recent years, ...

Masashi Kageyama is an incredible example of what the digital era has done for game sound creators. The composer created many revered soundtracks of the 8-bit era, including Gimmick!, Benkei Gaiden, and OUT LIVE, before switching careers at the turn of the millennium. Now many years later, he is marking his return to the scene ...

Masayoshi Soken has been with Square Enix for quite some time, but had only worked on small to mid-sized titles until Final Fantasy XIV. With Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Soken was thrust into the spotlight with his first large scale project and captured the spirit of the series with his sprawling ...

Masayoshi Soken has been the subject of many accolades for his soundtrack for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. In Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Soken continued his role as main composer, crafting an equally impressive soundtrack to tell the story of the Dragonsong War.  In our second interview with Masayoshi ...

Masayoshi Soken has been the subject of many accolades for his soundtracks for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and its expansions Heavensward and Stormblood. In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Soken continued his role as main composer and sound director, crafting an equally impressive soundtrack to accompany the tale of a world engulfed ...

Masayoshi Soken has been the subject of many accolades for his soundtracks for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and its expansion Heavensward. In Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, Soken continued his role as main composer and sound director, crafting an equally impressive soundtrack to tell of the struggles of the Domans ...

A native Californian, Matt Fuss grew up in a musical family and eventually embraced the field himself, eventually taking on guitar and later piano as instruments of choice. Fuss' ability did not stop with performing, however; more recently, Fuss began composing and arranging music inspired by film and video game ...

Composer and sound designer Matt Uelmen can lay claim to having created some of game music's most iconic sounds in his soundtracks for the Diablo franchise. After having worked for Blizzard Entertainment on the Diablo games, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Uelmen joined newly-formed developer Runic Games. In his role, Uelmen ...

The NES' Mega Man and Mega Man 2 might have been released over 20 years ago, but the games are still very popular in the fan community to this day. Despite massive technological limitations, their scores are regarded as definitive examples of chiptune music and have endeared listeners with their memorable melodies, infectious rhythms, ...

Megan McDuffee is no stranger to the world of synthwave and synthpop. Having worked on multiple original albums, singles, and covers in these genres, she lent her musical style to the world of River City Girls, headlining as the main composer.   In this interview with Megan McDuffee, she reflects on her recent ...

In the nine years since its inception, SoundTrack_Cologne has become one of the leading professional forums for film and TV music in the German-speaking world. Since 2008, SoundTrack_Cologne has also incorporated talks and events focusing on game music. Rising in profile, SoundTrack_Cologne 2012's game music-related guests include artists like Masashi Hamauzu, Chris ...

Last month, 2K Games released Sid Meier's Civilization V for the PC. A major aspect of the game experience was its critically praised soundtrack by extensively trained musicians Michael Curran and Geoff Knorr. For the first time in the series, the original score was recorded with a full orchestra — the FILMharmonic ...

Piano arranger Michael Gluck, aka Piano Squall, released his debut album GAME at the end of June. The album is dedicated to his performance of original arrangements of themes from video games and anime. The focus is music from Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Chrono series. Michael and the video game publisher ...

Michael Huang is a multitalented musician. He is best known for his works on Fantasy Reborn, a Final Fantasy piano arrangement project. The project was recently revived after a two year hiatus and will be this source of an album release later this year. In addition to this work, he's ...

Michiru Yamane is a much-loved composer known for her work on the Castlevania series. She has composed for ten of the series' titles to date, ranging from the classic Bloodlines to the much-loved Symphony of the Night to the more recent Order of Ecclesia, introducing new gothic and rock elements ...

Since joining the industry nine years ago, Australian composer Mick Gordon has worked on video games for top franchises such as Need For Speed, Marvel, and The Last Airbender. In the last six months, he has gained widespread mainstream recognition thanks to his stylish yet retro score for the Xbox One's Killer ...

Mike Raznick is an exceptionally prolific musician, who has worked on close to 500 games, not to mentioned movies, trailers, and television shows. While he has primarily working on casual game titles at SomaTone Interactive, he has recently been involved in larger-scale projects such as Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus and ...

Mike Reagan has been working in the Hollywood music industry for 16 years. He initially worked as a sound designer and composer for Soundelux on a range of Hollywood scores. Subsequently he became recognised as a lead composer on titles such as the God of War trilogy, Darksiders: Wrath of War, ...

Joining Konami straight out of college in 1984, Miki Higashino was one of the first musicians to make an impact on the games industry. She initially created the pleasant melodies of the classic space shooter Gradius and went on to work on a string of other hits: Salamander, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Contra ...

Mikko Tarmia is a composer from Finland. He is best known for composing the Penumbra series of horror games, though has also worked on projects such as DeepTrouble and Rally Shift as well. Furthermore, he recently lead the innovative album project AIKA: A Unique Soundtrack for a Unique Story, which accompanies a short science-fiction story ...

In just two years, Mikolai Stroinski has gone from ghost composer to award winner. Through works such as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and The Witcher 3, he has rejected Hollywood conventions in favour of artistically-driven approaches to scoring. Stroinski is type of innovator the often-derivative game music sector desperately needs. In this ...

Classically-trained in Japan's most prestigious music school, Minako Seki went on to work for Sony during the seminal years of the PlayStation. Now a freelance composer, she has contributed to franchises such as TearRing Saga, Tales, and Yakuza.  In this interview, conducted with the kind help of her English-speaking sister Mayuko, Minako ...

MintJam is one of the most successful doujin groups to have emerged from Japan. The rock band features vocalist TERRA (real name unknown), guitarist a2c (Atsushi Yokoyama), and supporting multi-instrumentalist setzer (Jun Kadoma). They are one of the most impressive examples of fans going pro. In this interview, TERRA on behalf ...

The Basiscape artists talk about rising from junior composers to sound directors through diverse projects ...

MONACA, the studio helmed by Keiichi Okabe, is responsible for the critically acclaimed music for Yoko Taro's games, including the original NieR Gestalt/Replicant, NieR: Automata, and Drakengard 3. In this interview with Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Hoashi, they discuss their work on the recent re-release of NieR Replicant, titled ver.1.22474487139…, ...

Motoaki Takenouchi's game music career lasted just seven years, but during this time he made a major impact. He penned musically and technologically innovative scores for the Shining series, Land Stalker, and Gungriffon. He also pushed the recognition of game music in concert and on album by producing the revered Shining Force Symphonic ...

Despite a career spanning decades, Motoi Sakuraba continues to be important as ever in the Japanese games industry. His latest works have spanned the dark symphonic score for Dark Souls, the progressive rock solo album After all..., ongoing music for the Tales series, and an energetic live performance at the Fantasy Rock ...

Founded by Mustin in 2002, OneUp Studios is a fan community that has produced officially licensed arrangement albums such as Xenogears Light, Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda, and The Very Best of Sega. The OneUps are a video game arrangement band produced by Mustin. They have achieved massive popularity ...

Salamander Factory is a prolific sound production studio established in 1999. It is comprised of company director Naofumi Tsuruyama, experienced composer Takuya Hanaoka, and versatile sound creator Kayoko Matsushima. The studio is best known for creating various scores in the Super Robot Taisen (aka Super Robot Wars) game series, blending action-packed original ...