I read that after music college your family and tutors were worried about you moving into the games industry.
You’ve obviously had huge success since then, do you believe you made the right choice?
Are your family accepting of your success?
It wasn’t super high levels of worry, they weren’t really afraid about it.
I suppose, in that sense, they were maybe slightly afraid.
But I think they have definitely come around to that now.
So I think they’ve come to accept it and understand what it is now.
Do you think the reputation of working in games has changed and is more positive now?
I think the awareness of the games industry is just so much higher than it used to be.
My family, they see that, and they’re always saying, ‘Yeah, go on!
Keep trying harder!’.
And they’re supporting me now in what I’m doing, because they know what it is.
How do you think composing for video games has changed and evolved over the course of your career?
What’s been the impact of new technology being developed?
What kind of challenges do you face now that you didn’t before?
I think that has definitely become harder.
What does that commitment look like for you?
There is a lot of work, definitely, to create the whole soundtrack for a single game.
And I think what’s become important there is perhaps the art of delegation.
Or to organise the orchestra, I’ll leave someone to manage that.
What drew you to composing music for RPGs?
What did that allow you to achieve that you couldn’t with other genres?
They just didn’t really fit the way action games were in those days.
So I think that was perhaps one thing that moving to RPGs did allow me to do.
The other thing, of course, is music that really triggers emotions.
Feelings of sadness and melancholy, and expressing that through music.
I think that’s probably the biggest change.
How would you describe your musical style?
I know that’s difficult to answer!
As you say, that is a very, very difficult question to answer.
I think when I first started out making music for games, I really wanted to write melodies.
I think that was what I really got into.
They always say that the three core elements are melody, harmony, and rhythm.
But I soon realised that none of them are more important than the others.
You have to balance them out.
What does your composition process look like?
Where do you look for inspiration?
So I start out with the briefing, and really look into that.
I really dig deep into the documentation.
Sometimes there’s a text explanation they give me, saying we’re looking for this kind of music.
But it really does vary.
Do you have any specific musical influences?
So I stay away from having specific people I’m looking at or am aware of for influences.
What was it like taking inspiration from such famous scores, but also balancing with your own style?
And again, I do the same with Final Fantasy music as well.
I listen to modern music as well.
In that sense, I’m not afraid.
I don’t try and avoid putting my own taste, my own spin on things in there.
But there is that balance to be had.
