Yoko Honda and Cody Matthews Johnson on preparing the score for ‘Trek to Yomi’

musician Yoko Honda And Cody Matthew Johnson Talk about how they scored for one of the most interesting games they released earlier this year, the side scrolling action adventure game Trek to Yomi,

Naturally, I began with how they became involved with the game, to which Yoko responded first.

“Cody and I went to Tokyo Game Show 2019 for the first time with our company Emperia Sound & Music, and met game director Leonard Menchiari. Leonard showed us a demo version of it that became Trek to Yomi which he himself made. We were immediately impressed by the concept of the game. I personally thought I would love to work on this game. I felt an invisible connection with it. Maybe I felt a connection because of my upbringing or I am an Akira Kurosawa movie fan. Cody and I had a solid 18 months before Leonard officially teamed up with Devolver Digital and Flying Wild Hog. We kept in touch with Leonard and created a suite of inspiration tracks for Leonard to play while he worked and discussed the concept with Devolver. And that’s how we started.

“When we met Leonard at the Tokyo Game Show, he already had a solid idea of ​​how to make the score authentic, traditional, and true to Japanese history. From there we also learned that he had a great time with the legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Movies and their music. So what were we supposed to do? Research. That’s a lot. I was feeling pressured in some good and bad ways, especially because I was the only member of Japan’s Emperia team. I learned Japanese Intensive research on anything and everything about music began, especially since the Edo period because Japanese instruments, scales, and harmony operate very differently from what we know through Western music theory and history. Each day was filled with a series of challenges to learn or re-learn the musicality of Japanese music in detail. On top of that, we had to figure out how to incorporate this traditional music into a game score format for which we Were lucky to have 18 months of preparation.”

Whereas Kodi had a slightly different approach based on a more holistic approach to making game music.

“A few years ago I fell in love with the creative possibilities of interactive audio beyond just music, but the holistic approach to elevate an immersive experience through sound, so I started a new company called Emperia Sound & Music that did just that. This is what it does: creative end-to-end audio solutions. Yoko and I went to the Tokyo Game Show in 2019 to meet past, present and future customers, and it was here that we met its producer and director. Trek to Yomi, Leonard Menchiari. After seeing a very preliminary demo of what will happen later Trek to Yomi, Yoko and I were obsessed with the project and we spent most of our travels and post-flight home talking about the creative possibilities of what a score for a game could look like. We kept in regular contact with Leonard for over a year while we continued to develop the idea and then eventually moved on with Devolver to make the game. We were there almost from the beginning and were thrilled to hear that Leonard wanted to bring us on to the full development of the game.

“An immeasurable amount of effort was put into the research and careful creation of the score in order to be respectful and respectful to Japanese music, especially the music of the Edo period. The play was very highly conceptualized from the start, this always meant the work of Akira Kurosawa.” K’s cinephile admired the caring and delicate fusion and a strong curiosity and interest in Edo period culture, so it was very clear that those two places were also immediate sources of inspiration for the music. Knowing the exact source was so creatively liberating, we didn’t spend that much time experimenting with different sounds, instruments, processing, etc. We knew the tools we could work with and study them Their abilities were widely used before the single note was written, the intention being to focus on these two elements and find a careful way to fuse them together to create a unique and appropriate sound for the game. Had been. ”

Having two musicians on the score of a game is somewhat rare and not without its logistical complications. So I was curious how it worked out between Cody and Yoko, to which Yoko responded.

“I think it was a great thing that our strengths lay in different areas. We were kind of destined. Cody made an organized asset list to divide up the work, but we both knew that. Who would be more suited to which track and it helped me a lot to work as a music director as well. I knew where to intervene and check things out because I was familiar with Japanese music. Sometimes I suggested collaborating with a specific method on a specific track and vice versa, but overall, the process took place quite organically.

“To be honest, I had a feeling from the start that this game soundtrack would be more cinematic than our drawings for a typical game soundtrack, especially because the game was an homage to the Kurosawa films. And because we got to play each of the main characters. So we decided to choose specific instruments that portrayed each theme more effectively. For example, we rated a lot of koto (string instrument) and shinobu (string instrument) for the Aiko heroine in the higher order. flute), a lot of aggressive taiko (percussion) for the final boss Kagerou, and so on. This method can be seen in one of Akira Kurosawa’s famous works seven samuraiAnd I would say it has also played an important role in our game scoring process.”

The cinematic aspect of this game is a big part of its identity and so I wondered if any other film or game score influenced the work of Yoko and Cody. Yoko responded with some interesting examples.

“Not so much an influence from other film or game scores, but I listened to and analyzed countless Japanese traditional music, including nagouta, gagaku, ohayashi and more so that they consciously and unconsciously inspired me from within my musicality. If you’re curious to learn more, please check out a Spotify playlist that Kodi and I created. It’s called “Trek to Yomi – Inspirations,

“Luckily, we had complete confidence in the developer from the pre-production stage of this game, and it was mostly game director Leonard who gave us detailed feedback. Not only did he have a significant amount of Japanese history and Kurosawa film knowledge, but also his excellent understanding of music in the media from his filmmaking experiences. I personally enjoyed his creative response and the deep historical cinema references that informed his decisions and views about music.”

In contrast, Kodi tried to keep its gaming impact to a minimum. Instead focusing more on the cinematic score.

“It’s easy to point at some recent games, especially a certain game with a certain “Kurosawa” mode, and say “That’s where the idea is.” Trek to YomiBut really all of our musical inspiration came long before these other games were released or announced. We didn’t explicitly look to other video games for musical inspiration. Naturally, we looked to Kurosawa movies. looked at the music, especially his collaborations with composer Fumio Hayasaka. We drew inspiration from many of Fumio Hayasaka’s musical and theatrical choices, these choices often felt in contrast to the theatrical instruments of Western film composers.”

For more technical aspects to composing the game’s score, Kodi explains how the FMOD integration works to help the player follow their actions.

,Trek to Yomi Plays as a film of about 6 hours and the viewer is in control of the protagonist. The music follows the gameplay much like the score of a film, we rarely repeat the same music (for example, repeating or remixing the same musical material in different regions rather than combat music plays), and often gameplay that music was only partially longer than the scoring music so the music did not loop as much as traditional video game music. We recorded the music with the intention of using it as an alternative in music. When the music loops back to the beginning of a piece, a secondary repertoire of koto, shamisen, taiko, etc. will play, so there isn’t a noticeable loop point. The music was implemented into FMOD in such a way that it always felt organic, as the player continues his interpretation of the melody, riff or rhythm as Hiroki fights forward and keeps the player deep in the action. ,

In the end I was surprised that Cody and Yoko were most proud of their scores for the game and their hopes for the future of their work. Yoko went first.

“It’s all about how we can fulfill our mission as a team to create something traditional, authentic and true to the history of Japanese music in line with this wonderful sport, Trek to Yomi, Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that we were collaborators around the world, we produced the soundtrack with live instruments and artisan engineers, recorded in unprecedented studios. I think it’s quite an achievement and I’m proud of the entire team including people I’ve never had a chance to meet in person (as of now).

“A part of me thinks I’d like to make the most of Trek to Yomi Experience on Japanese music and instruments more or less to include in future projects, and a part of me feels like I’ll want to stay away from it for the time being to challenge myself to a completely different one. Knowing my curiosity more than anyone else, I think I’m probably doing both at the same time, as it’s not uncommon in this industry to work on multiple projects.

Cody then shared his thoughts, and his work fueled his desire to try out new gaming genres.

,Trek to Yomi Presented a unique opportunity to design and create an extremely unique and high concept musical identity. Rarely do musical creatives have the opportunity to be involved in development at conception and have as much influence and creative agency as we had Trek to Yomi, There was an unparalleled amount of respect and trust between the music and development teams, which allowed us to explore and experiment far beyond what is considered normal in game development. Music is rarely adapted as a tool to support and expand the game’s creative identity. It was a treat to be seen as an integral and highly valued contribution to the creative direction and overall cinematic immersion of the game.

“It’s always a surprise and special moment when the universe offers another project to work on. I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some wildly creative projects that play to my strengths in recent years, but hardly Sometimes it feels like I have control over what happens next, so it’s a difficult question. I used to write a lot of music for orchestras; who knew? I started my career as a songwriter and music producer I’ve found my way into and out of games, both of them. I also love unheard-of electronic music and IDM unnecessary and borderline. A little off limits here, but my way back to some of my roots Exploring or going creatively far beyond the water I’m swimming in, I think would be so satisfying to me! I’ve never made a super high-octane first person shooter or a really annoying horror game, Both are high on the list.”

Trek to Yomi Currently available to play on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.

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