What is your work schedule like?

In a given week, since I do a lot of commercials, I have about 2 or 3 commercial songs that have to be created. I have meetings with the advertisers and I go and record the piece and then I make a demo tape out of it for the 2 or 3 commercials per week. Most of the time that I don't spend on the commercials, I spend on the one big other title, because I only select one anime piece or other piece, one per year, so I have the meetings and the recordings for that to fill my spare time.



Well, since you don't like anime, what kind of movies do you watch or like, besides David Lynch?

Well, I haven't seen enough of David Lynch's stuff to have a mass following. Most of the time, I don't go out to see movies and I don't watch TV shows. I would rather go out on walks or travel around.



Would you ever considered doing music for non-anime movies?

I have already made soundtracks for two movies in Japan. But nobody knows them. [laughs]



I've loved your music since I heard it in Macross Plus. But it took me by surprise cause after Macross Plus, you did Escaflowne. I was like "Oh, that sounds like Yoko Kanno." Brainpowrd. "That sounds like Yoko Kanno." Then Cowboy Bebop came along and it was... "THAT'S Yoko Kanno?!?" The change, the different side of your music, was that something that the creators expressed that they wanted you to go into or is that how you saw the story?

The Director of Cowboy Bebop is very keen on the music scene but he didn't give any direction on where I should go. He learned working with me on Macross Plus that I don't follow his orders even if he gave any.



The previous question alluded to your growth musically through Macross Plus to Cowboy Bebop. We can obviously hear the changes, but how would you describe your musical growth?

I'd be troubled if I didn't see any growth. But at the same time, I feel that I'm still not at the level that I can be.

What level do you hope to be at?

Now, it's very low for me. In my head, more and more beautiful and cool music is in my brain, but I can't express it.



When you have worked with the different groups that you have worked with over the years, like with Macross Plus you worked with the Israel Philharmonic, how involved do you get with the direction of those groups?

I start by asking the group that I want to play with. When they get the actual music, I will actually be in the orchestra or be playing with them or directing so that I actually gets my expressionism through to the music group. I feel that many of the male composers in Japan are too shy so that they can't just go into the orchestra to play with them or directing for them, so that they just usually just send the music and that's it.



You use a lot of 3/4 time in your composition work. It seems that everything else is in straight 4/4. Any particular reason why? Is it a dance reason?

When I started composing when I was 3 years old, the first song I did was in 3/4 time and I haven't changed since.



Have you ever considered doing a tour in Japan or do you consider yourself more a composer than a performer?

I feel that I'm more of a composer than a performer and I don't really like performing in front of a large audience. But I do like performing in background of another person.



Macross Plus was very well received, the music, the visuals, the story and everything like that. You've also had success in your other projects as they have definitely been above average, if not the best of those areas, especially with Cowboy Bebop now. How have you done such a great job in following great anime to put your music to?

I have a theory that if the anime is not too good, if you add a not too good soundtrack to it, then it would be mediocre at best. But if you put top notch music to mediocre anime that it might be better. So I try to make top notch music to any anime that I do. I have had cases where many a director was feeling more optimistic about the series because the music was so good.



What do you think of your music being so popular in countries far from Japan?

In Japan, the anime industry is not really looked upon, in fact it's rather looked down upon, so it feels good to know that what I've been doing in the anime industry is good by getting all the positive feedback from other countries.



You said several times that you've done a lot of commercial work. Could you tell us a little history on how you became a professional musician up to the point where you started doing anime soundtracks?

I was a literary major in college. I quit after one week. I did some extracurricular activities in part of a pop group in college. Then I started doing the background accompaniment for a couple singers in Japan. Then the director of the group said, "You want to write some music?" And that was for a game and was my first composition. Then someone from the commercial industry, who listened to the game said, "Hey! You want to do a commercial?" Then someone in the anime industry heard the commercial said "Hey! You want to write an anime soundtrack?" Connection, connection.



You've talked about commercials now a few times. How does your work on commercials influence your film scores?

Because commercials have to get the attention of all ages, from little kids to elderly people, I learn a lot from making the commercials so that I can grab the hearts of everyone in such a short time.



With some of your music, like in Macross Plus, there were a lot of multilingual songs. There was one song in English, one song in French, a few in Japanese. How involved do you get with the people that are writing the lyrics? For example, did you intend one of those songs to be in French?

I ask the lyricists. I also ask them to put this kind of stuff in the lyrics. I nitpick a lot. Because anime is fiction, I feel that something that you just don't hear normally be presented in the lyrics, so I have a lot of weird phrases that don't make sense in my lyrics.

Which do you prefer doing? Songs that have lyrics or songs that are more instrumental?

Both together. A mixture.