Tomoya Ohtani on Sonic World Adventure Original Soundtrack:
The time when I participated in the project was August of 2007. The request that came out from Director Hashimoto in the first meeting was that he wanted me to create the orchestra theme music like the one of the good old Hollywood epic movies. I did not know well about the project content yet, so I was a little surprised, but I started the production after deciding that I would direct all by focusing on the instrumental orchestra theme music with impressive melodies. The performance was by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The result screen’s music that was poorly performed on purpose, and so on are a recording in one shot.
Of course, I do not forget about the theme song, either. After filling the rhythm with scamper feeling, the pop melody, the positive lyrics, the fresh, uplifting feeling, it’s the Endless Possibility in which my thought of wanting to create such theme song that we could seem to perform even now and in which everyone could seem to imagine Sonic if listening to it, turned into the form as it was. For the trailer release that matched E3’s timing, we boosted the recording steadily. The time when I met Jaret Reddick of the pop punk band Bowling for Soup from Texas for the first time was when they visited Japan for their band performance in the event called Punkspring 08, which was held in Makuhari. When Jaret listened to the composition demo on the iBook that I brought, his first reaction was “Too fast!” and the words that he said after he finished listening were “Good job!” It turned out that the bassist in the same band Erik Chandler would also participate in the backing chorus and I think the vocal recording carried out in L.A. was a very high tension from start to end and it was completed as a song filled with even energy in such recording scene.
In order to express the rich regional colors for the music inside the game, I aimed at something full of feeling of the variety after doing things like deciding the instruments used in each country. I will introduce the composers who handled those. Focusing on the music of night stages like Werehog Battle Theme, Kenichi Tokoi splendidly digested the directed concept of night stages while switching the two pieces with aggressive and yet jazzy sound. The one who contributed to the approachable, worldview compositions by focusing on the music of the peaceful villages is Fumie Kumatani, who’s well-known for Sonic Adventure series; the one who was in charge of the music of the thrilling boss stages is Hideaki Kobayashi, who’s well-known for Phantasy Star series. Takahito Eguchi livened up the drama with delicate piano arrangement, dynamic orchestration, and others. Last but not least, I myself was centrally in charge of the music of day stages and so forth starting from Endless Possibility and The World Adventure.
The ending theme Dear My Friend is a 3-beat ballad that described the unchanged friendship towards friends that ended up leaving us far away. The composition was by Mariko Nanba who participated in this one song only. I appointed the singer of her suggestion Brent Cash, who lives in Athens, Georgia, where he’s carefully playing an active part in the feeling of 60’s pop and the like even now. From sounding him out all the way to the recording in L.A., what a mere one week…. We are the people living at faraway places on earth together, but the Internet and the music join for us. It’s a collaboration that seems to symbolize such modern times. It was exactly an episode of world adventure.
In completing all the music, I had had encounters with many people. What I always feel is that if I go towards a goal and directly incorporate it with genuine feeling, I will certainly have good encounters, and those encounters will certainly bring me good results. They’re the members of Sonic Unleashed development team, the related staff, the participated musicians, the recording staff, and last but not least, the Sonic fans around the world, and the people who purchased this CD. Thank you to all the encounters.