I'm just your ordinary California Bay Area-raised Asian-American... trying to do extraordinary things with my career as a composer in the Tokyo area of Japan. Videogames just happen to be part of it. And I love every moment.
Like most artistic fields, the life of someone making music for a living can be an awfully competitive one.... especially if it involves videogames. And rightfully so; there are utterly amazing musicians out there that can wipe the floor on the genre they specialize in! But what sets me apart is my versatility. I grew up absorbing a vast amount of different genres. Sometimes it was forcefully jammed down my ear canals, while other times it was due to my desires to fit in with my peers. And yet other times it was just there for me to satiate my musical curiosity. From the pizzicato plucks off a dainty light music session -- to the impending assault of a celtic metal showdown... or from the sugary-cute J-pop stabs meant for forty-eight idols -- to nodding heads with the sexual R&B trip meant for one panderer... if it's possible to sequence it, I can compose it.
What also sets me apart is my unrelenting love of sweating over little technical details and limitations. Often these details are dismissed (if not overlooked) by even most seasoned composers, and the restrictive limitations in both hardware & file sizes makes said seasoned composers go, "Pfft, I don't want to deal with this! Give me my majestic stream post haste!". I see it as an opportunity for surprise. Even if I have to squeeze an entire soothing symphony into 3 melodic channels using simplistic oscillators spat out of a single measly piezo speaker, you bet I'm up to the challenge of creating an unbalance between what people would normally expect -- and what what is truly possible.
These days, both versatility and dealing with technical details has become a lost art. What was formerly considered a treasure for the better game companies has recently become a mere expendable footnote. Fortunately, most of my musical work still involves both demands. I work in-house with a crew of awesome folks in a Japanese videogame company that just happens to make really awesome games (and also really awesome emulators for other games!). Often my versatility & technical knowledge are demanded for their highly specialized projects. Basically what became a lost art is now put into constant test for me. And I'm so glad that I can partake on this lost art as part of my career.
Some random notes about me:
- I'm mostly self-taught in both composing and keyboard preforming. I was eager to learn about music when I was 2, but after frustrating my piano teacher with my lack of discipline at the time, I started making my own original tunes via computer sequencing when I turned 5. See, most asian parents force their kids to sit down on front of a piano and magically transform them into little prodigies that reap in the kuarta that they're so itching to swipe so they can remit back to their poor ol' relatives in the homeland. My parents? Well... um, they tried to do that to me too. Sure, that gave me the ability to fully understand musical notation and pound the keys with something other than my knuckles! But my dad knew that I needed something better than bore myself to a melodic death. Being the technically-inclined audiovisual hardware designer he was, he supplied me with Amiga computers (yes, plural!), high-end consumer-level arranger synths, and gobs of waveform sampling / MIDI hardware & tracker software. I'm reluctant to admit to him that computer music was the reason why I slacked off in school and had no social life. But it was also the best distraction ever introduced during my childhood, and I can never thank him enough for that.
- Most of my roots come from the trackerscene, which itself had been spawned from the demoscene. Now you euros are probably thinking "What a bunch of lamer crock! No American cared about the demoscene! There is no Renaissance! You are not an atomic playboy!". Ahh, but again... thank my dad for that modem and visiting "swap meets". And putting up with the phone bill after dialing up long-distance BBSes.
- The other part of my roots come from... surprise surprise, the radio! While my sisters were indulging themselves on the latest teenage heartthrob and my dad woke up the whole household every morning with country pop as his radio alarm, I grew up trying hard to fit in with the AzN GaNgStA PeEpZ bumpin' their 'ish in the school parking lot... all while immersing myself in the jazz & eccentric programs that "underground" college radio provided. This musical hodgepodge had quite an influence on me, from giving me the obviously useful ability to recite verses of losing my poor ol' dog to a 187 drive-by from a couple of dreeeeeamy boy-band vikings armed with circuit-bent bootybass noisemakers... to the arguably more useful ability of knowing a vast array of music styles.
- Aside from videogame music, I occasionally collaborate with Japanese voice actresses and Akihabara idol singers from moesong groups. What was my previous line of work a few measly years before that? An Oakland hyphy hiphop music PR & studio drone. Yes, even with their own big stars. Further proof that my tastes & tolerances truly know no limits, you can't get more contrasted in career shifts than that.
- Outside of making a living with audio full-time (& enjoying it), I still maintain an insane amount of hobbies that I enjoy, ranging from sporting an old personal & home computer collection, to even dabbling around with cute fashion -- often intertwined with my obsessive observations of both technology and pop culture trends. Needless to say, Japan has been my new smorgasbord for my senses.
- I'm happily taken. :) After rejecting previous advances during my college years, I thought I would be forever immune to relationships. But I'm now helplessly in love with the most wonderful guy that is willing to put up with my eccentricities and be there whenever I need him the most (and also make freelance music with!).
- However, there is one girl that's always available, and that's my virtual idol singer friend named Tibiteku-chan! No one knows her true age (Hell, I don't even know!), but rumor says that she's a sweet pre-idol girl who, after being abducted by a gang of Japanese and Swedish engineers terrorizing Kyoto, had her vocal cords surgically replaced with an RP2A03. Treating this as a gift rather than a handicap, she still desires to become a great moesong idol singer! Unfortunately she recently got overwhelmed by the popularity of her rivals -- and had to turn to, um, less illustrious ways of pleasing her fans. My knowledge of her is still quite hazy, but I do know she hides a little secret...
hi! i'm chibi-tech. being an asian-american originally hailing from silicon valley, i currently live in japan working for the videogame industry.
