Jun Senoue on Sonic Adventure 2 Original Sound Track:
Start from 0…
Again, this much music ended up being produced. At the moment when the production of the previous game Sonic Adventure (referred to as SA1 below) ended, I was so completely exhausted that I did not want to continue making music…. I think the staff other than me were certainly like that, too. Personally, I can make good things whether being almost forced is also more coupled with tension, so I am fine when doing my job (because I was enjoying myself actually), but now that it was over, I felt blaaank. After that, there was a production plan of the arcade version of NASCAR, and I decided on the band name and produced the work with the singer Johnny Gioeli, who performed together in the main theme Open Your Heart of the previous game SA1. It is a task in which I could freely handle this work that intensely supports the racing game, different from Sonic in which I must do things like making a diversity of music depending on the scenes. It did become strict in terms of time regarding the production of SA2, but my good musical self-validation has formed as a result. With such feeling, I think that the core part of my own musicality has turned into something solid while also having the position of continuing to absorb and digest various things within myself. And I turned out joining the music production of this game seriously, and in order to merge with the game production team, I turned over a new leaf and started the job, moving my living place to San Francisco in the West Coast of America. It was really a start from zero environmentally as well as operationally.
2 Sides 2 Stories…
I took it that there were clearly fewer number of people involved with the production than the previous game, and even if there was fact that the game’s scale would also shape up with good meanings, what I noticed immediately after going to America was that it was a mistake to imagine that it might not grow. When I understood that matter after merging with the production team which had gone over earlier, I felt quite dizzy. But when I understood that they emphasized the storyline more than the previous game and that it would become something in which one can see a story from a different side, the things requested in music became visible naturally. It was also very helpful that the staff at the game side brought me the images since the early stage. I wanna clearly work out the characteristics, storyline, and others with music more than ever before…. The green light appeared by the part of looking into it thoroughly with that direction, working out the musicality for each character, and playing the role of prolonging the development in the events. The former is for the purpose of being different from the previous work and of applying variety to the story development in which different characters are jumbled together, and for the latter, the music might not be enlivening the things called events at all in the previous work…. From those points of reflection, it became like that from considering to enhance the roles in the rendition aspect. And in this game with 2 stories, lots and lots of music turned out to be prepared in 2 discs again. Increasing the quality and making it a more matching thing definitely…. These were the things that I must clear.
4 Colors 4 Places…
The people who took charge of the production of the compositions in this work are actually the 4 staffs starting with me. The colors of the 4 people have made the expressions of the compositions rich thus far. But it does not mean that various music is included. It is something that we have completed, refusing to compromise under each published musicality. And all members have the confidence in that completion. Everyone held the ambitions and had adopted them to the music until now, so I think that it is a completion particularly because of creating something that will not lose to anyone…. I carried out the group work with the staff in SA1 and investigated myself thoroughly in NASCAR alone. And in this work, we 4 people emphasized the things we have nurtured so far and the point called meticulousness although the directions were different. It was a good experience to be able to apply myself closely to it with the music aspect.
This time, the places where we carried out the recording are the 4 cities—L.A., N.Y., S.F., and Tokyo. It does not mean that each of us did the jobs in all the cities, but I am fairly certain that the stimulants while working were not only the produced compositions but also the greatly exciting experiences respectively. In my case, the job in L.A. in which I loaded a car entirely with equipment was the most fun as well as fulfilling. It had troubles in its own way as well, but now that it is over, it is trivial, isn’t it? No matter which project it is, the tension would seem to continue increasing rapidly as it reaches the latter half, right? The fruit in which the 4 staffs have carried out the recording in the 4 cities that represent the world is here.
6 Characters 6 Kinds of Music…
There are 6 playable characters in this game. I think that we have produced the compositions, separating the musicality respectively and showed the tempo feeling in playing the game as well. The livelier and crisper rock than previous work for Sonic, the essence of club style focusing on techno in Shadow, the takeover of the programmed bass rock which was popular in the previous work for Tails, the minimal expansion with industrial style for Eggman, the hip hop grooviness for Knuckles, and last but not least, taking the tension into account while also showing a little glamor with jazz style for Rouge by the fact that she is a female spy…. Those were the impressions.
I think that each section is concluded with good impressions, but how do you think?
After 8 Years…
How time flies. 8 years have passed since I started to make game music. To date, when I am good at a new work, roughly the ones earlier than the works before the two become the unlistenables that I am ashamed of. Those are my own performance skills and the little points of composition and arrangement, but as long as I feel them, it is the proof of my growth, therefore I will always look upward and want to be a multi-dimensional musician so that I can feel them forever!!
Happy 10th Anniversary to Sonic!
And congratulations to Sonic who celebrated his 10th anniversary! I am really happy to be involved with such commemorable work.