If you could ask any VGM composer a question about their works, who and what would it be?

Mine?

Composer: Akemi Kimura

Question: What tracks did you compose on the Rockman X7 Soundtrack?

Why: I'm pretty much convinced if it was revealed who penned what it would be the tracks I think that are Akemi's that keep the damn album on my shelf dispite my indifference towards 95% of the album.

If I knew I would get the complete and honest and total truth, I'd ask Hiroki Kikuta what exactly happened with him - hoping to get the answer on why he left Square Enix to form his own (doomed) company, why he never returned to S-E (bad blood?), and why he's composing for porn games now.

(maybe this is all in an interview somewhere? I don't know)

If I wasn't assured the truth, hmm.....I'd probably waste it on asking Tsukasa Masuko if there was any chance he could compose for/collaborate on a future SMT universe game. (last game I know he did is Magical Vacation 2)

http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/conce … index.html

You're like, 2 years late on the Kikuta thing. There is also an interview with him somewhere. But here he is composing for a Square Enix-produced MMO. He stopped doing porn games like two years ago, started up *another* company (Nostrilia) for producing music. He released some solo/original work, and now is working with SE again.

The Magical Vacation/Starsign guy would be a great person to interview. And he OUGHT to do SMT stuff again, cuz as much as I like Meguro, I REALLY like the other dude more.

To respond to original poster...

I'd ask Michiko Naruke to give us full details as to what happened with her and Wild Arms. Maybe we'll get the chance, now that she's returning to the scene for RIZ-ZOAWD.

Ramza

IS THIS TRUE!?  If so, I'll be REALLY happy and definitely much more interested in that game.

Yasunori Shiono

Why did you leave Neverland and join in a seemingly non-game company?

It's true. She is working on the game with Hitoshi Sakimoto.

To be honest, I would have wanted to ask this question as well but I've come to realize since since I'm not fond of Naruke's WA work beyond WA 2nd Ignition (well, ACF is nice too) I honestly don't care if she's there composing for the series or not - I don't mean that to have a jerky tone but her style evolved to a different form when the PS2 came around and it turned me off. That said, I am interested in seeing what does become of her work on RIZ-ZOAWD.

Didn't Naruke fall ill during the work on WA4? I've never heard an explanation on what kind of illness it was and her rather extended withdrawl leads me to believe it was something rather serious that she probably wouldn't want to talk about.

"Masafumi Takada, would you like to start a band?"

I'd ask no plead for "H." to team up with Jun Senoue to do a Sonic 1~3 & Knuckles arrangement album.

Can I ask another question? Kozo Nakamura, was it really you behind the TMNT on NES music? If so, why haven't you done arrangements!?

"Tappi Iwase, how much inspiration, if any, did you draw from Sviridov's The Winter Road for the Metal Gear Solid Main Theme?"

Yama-san..

Were you going through any type of personal crisis in your own life when you wrote the first SILENT HILL soundtrack?
What was the main contributing factor that helped you make it sound so disturbing?

To:  Junko Tamiya

"Where'd you go, and have you composed any music since the NES days?"

Dear Joe Hisaishi,

Why can't you have a US concert just once.

Dear Mr. Koshiro; Are you doing anything tonight?

"Sakuraba, is to due to poor private economy that you work on so many tracks every year -- or perhaps you have a better excuse never to focus extensively on several tracks instead of running half-way through 300?"

Something like that. I tend to think the same as (I think that) zane does about any VGM-musician I really like Please try an independent solo-career, or band career or whatever, just for a little time. If it doesn't bring in enough money, go back to VGM. I imagine Koshiro as a Tiësto-like DJ, Yamaoka as an intellectual art-icon like Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sakuraba as a neo-prog act, Kikuta in a hippie-band, and so on.

I wish to know more about Akahiro Mori (R.i.P), and ask Shinji Tamura what pieces he composed in all the years without getting any credit for it. And to Masaharu Iwata: please do something like Baroque again.

I thought there were plenty interviews where he was quite upfront about this (don't feel like digging it all up, so just paraphrasing): he was aspiring to do more than just composing (he always praised Angel's Fear for which he got heavy input to the final look of the title screen as well), was not allowed to do directing withing Square so he left and cooperated with SNK which then started to get into financial difficulties subsequently. Extensively worked on some Chinese/Taiwanese Square-Enix MMO Bukyo with heavy input not only music wise, only to have it completely cancelled later. Now he seems to restrict himself to just doing music and personal projects.

Didn't even know that. What company is he at now?
As to why I'd guess it's due to him not getting to do any music/sound outside the few Lufia games (a series which was taken away from Neverland since). I consider his first work (Gaudi: Barcelona no Kaze) his best, I find it telling that he seemed to do less and less after that. I wonder if that was his own or his employer's decision.

Not sure he would be capable of buying a Bösendorfer Model 225 piano if that were the case.

What he stated before is that he likes to finish tracks in one go, and it sounds like he's a composing addict. ("Thinking about it, I could say that many works came out from a natural inspiration that I managed to record very quickly." "For composing it is not [hard work]. On the contrary, having nothing to do is more stressful." both quotes from MS Motion) With an obsession like this don't think we need to be afraid Sakuraba would ever leave the music scene (for directing, supervising or doing some completely different work, like it's happening with plenty other VGM composers regularly).

Yasunori Mitsuda
How do you think about Hideki Sakamoto criticizing you (and a couple other composers, probably Nobuo Uematsu included) in his blog? ;p

Don't know. You could know he appears to no longer work in the gaming industry anymore if you sneaked into mixi (this is now pretty hard for those who're not Japanese cell phone users, but I think it's worth struggling, given there are plenty industry participants and cell phones carriers don't charge much ¥¥¥ for additional mail address, or even shared accounts are sometimes founded here and there).

Hey Motoi, wanna jam? We could kick out some Crimson tunes.

Yoko Shimomura

What tracks did you compose in the Street Fighter II soundtrack beside fighters themes (except Sagat)?

Akihito Ohkawa, you're still making music of some sort, right?

I would ask Koichi Sugiyama (of Dragon Quest fame) if he would ever consider an international tour of Dragon Quest music.  Well that and what's the hold up on the Dragon Quest IX symphonic album.

I would also ask him to sign my copy of Dragon Quest III symphonic album as it is my favourite.

David

I would ask Yasunori Mitsuda if he could release all of his unused tracks from his video games and prototypes -- basically anything unheard.

~Andy

.

.

It's not a matter of if, in my case. I used to post at Yuzo Koshiro's website, years ago and I asked him what J.D.K. stands for, from the J.D.K. Sound Team. He actually responded to my question and it was not an encouraging response. He typed, "Maybe I should ask you what it means." I later surmised that he had quit working for Falcom by the time J.D.K. was formed. He did tell me that the music from Gradius was an early influence and it was cool to read about the recording of the Actraiser Symphonic Suite.

Today, I'd probably ask Hisayoshi Ogura if he hums his own battle themes every time he sees a fish.

I wholeheartedly believe you.

i can hear KEN somewhere on the LIVE-A-LIVE ost

To John Pee:

Who are you?  And what's up with that name?

- Justin Pfeiffer

.

He is Mitsuhito Tanaka.

Fine, then just, "What's up with that name?"

- Justin

If you had a question in mind for Norihiko Hibino, now's your chance to ask him.  He's teamed up with OSV to respond to one fan mail each month on OSV:

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=224

What Arc just posted deserves to be its own thread. What an opportunity!

Get into it, ppl! Norihiko Hibino ftw!

i would ask uematsu why his recent tracks still have the sound quality of something from 1997

Because he's been using Roland SC 88pro.