![]() “I used to be hesitant about having a specific genre, but now I’m more open to any opportunity that rises,” he says. Featuring fast and upbeat tracks of all genres and styles – including gabba! – that music was a world away from the eerie soundtrack we’re more familiar with. While creating music for Silent Hill, the composer also contributed to Konami’s popular rhythm games, such as Beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution, projects that are often overlooked in Yamaoka’s colourful career. “I wanted that to be my career so I decided to send my demo tapes to video game companies – I was very lucky when Konami offered me a job.” “Deep inside, it’s always been video games and music that have been my passion,” says Yamaoka. He first joined the industry in the early ’90s, composed audio with chiptune for Konami. I was able to diversify my influences to create my own sound in Silent Hill.”īut as much as he is celebrated for his work on Silent Hill – with plenty of fans, including the composer himself, regarding Silent Hill 2 as his masterpiece – Yamaoka also has a widely diverse career in game music. Even in video game music, I’ve always found it strange that when huge monsters appear there’s the orchestra sound and there’s subtle music when in hotels or bedrooms. “I always tried to identify what makes my influences unique, then I figured the best ways to build your own sound was to ignore the status quo. “Great artists know how to balance their influences and originality,” Yamaoka tells NME. The atmospheric dread conjured by Yamaoka’s score was vital in channeling the games’ unique brand of psychological horror, while introducing industrial rock and haunting melodies unheard of before in video games. While the original in-house Team Silent behind the first four games had changed members, Yamaoka was a constant figure so synonymous with the series he was even a producer for the third and fourth entries. ![]() But it’s also hard to imagine the Silent Hill franchise without composer Akira Yamaoka. There’s all kinds of reasons why the beloved series has yet to make its comeback, no less down to Konami reducing its involvement in game development. READ MORE: I know I shouldn’t, but I hope that the new ‘Silent Hill’ rumours are true.That said, I had to include his interview here for fans to watch as well because it is worth the time to get a small insight into these two men’s backstories and thought processes.While there have always been rumours of a revival, apart from a surprise Dead By Daylight DLC earlier this year, the Silent Hillfranchise has remained dormant – save for PT, the critically acclaimed demo for Silent Hills, which was subsequently cancelled after Hideo Kojima’s highly publicised departure from Konami. It’s a bit of a shame because they have been providing some of these self-interview style videos so far and the one featuring the creative director legend himself is interesting as well. In the end, it’s the spice that makes the meal taste good and memorable.”įor many, the reveal of Slitterhead is also the reveal of Toyama’s own game development studio. His final quote really says it all too, “It’s not a meal that looks hard to eat at first sight, it looks easy to eat, then you get a bite of this very spicy seed. Of course, he explains it better, but I was just expecting a more direct approach given his music touch to games always comes out so fitting and memorable. It is really interesting that his process is so unconstructed and seems to be based on guessing until he finds what he likes. There he talks about his past work with Toyama on Silent Hill and divulges into his process for creating music for the games he works on. The above video is a self-interview from Bokeh Game Studio featuring their returning composer Yamaoka. From my personal point-of-view, as a long-time fan of the franchise, it felt like the horror fan’s dream team was back together again! And then, at the end of the trailer, the second name is revealed to show that the music is being designed by none other than Akira Yamaoka. There’s no dancing around the fact that horror fans everywhere felt a twinge of excitement when the Slitterhead world premiere trailer started and the first thing we see is “Creative Director Keiichiro Toyama.” This immediate reveal that we are about to witness the next title from the creator of the Silent Hill series was enough to build up its own hype.
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