Game Music Live – TEKARU

As part of our series on Japanese game music bands, allow me to introduce TEKARU. You may have heard some of their tunes in Attack of the Friday Monsters! on 3DS or No Heroes Allowed! on PSP. Both games end in exclamation marks, just as TEKARU should. No game music band has anything on their sense of style and… athletic presence. If you’d like to see them perform in the West, let them know in the comments section below!

Without further ado, let’s see what Hideki Sakamoto has to say about his band…

Please introduce yourselves.

TEKARU is a band made up of several staff members from Noisy Croak music company:

坂本 英城 –  Hideki Sakamoto (Organ)

加藤 浩義 –  Hiroyoshi Kato (Synthesizer)

いとう けいすけ –  Keisuke Ito (Bass)

浅田 靖 – Yasushi Asada (Guitar)

川越 康弘 – Yasuhiro Kawagoe (Drums)

All of our members’ faces sparkle, and so we decided to call ourselves “TEKARU.”

How did you meet?

We were all co-workers creating music together. Miraculously, each of us were good at different instruments from one another, so we formed a band. Maybe we were all bound together by fate before we were born somehow.

What was your first project together?

It was an event called Fantasy Rock Fest in March, 2013 that we were referred for by Nobuo Uematsu. The venue was CLUB CITTA, and we were debuting live playing alongside 2Days. It was a lot bigger than we had imagined, so we all felt really nervous to the point of being ill.

Why is game music important to you?

For the kids of our generation, game consoles were ubiquitous in our homes. We’re a generation who grew up while the games industry itself was simultaneously maturing. Game music was something that we felt a closeness to from the beginning. Tracing the roots of my music, it’s impossible to leave out the games music. It’s like a member of the family.

What’s the difference between game music and other forms of music?

I think it’s probably the fact that you’re supporting the interaction between the player and the game. It’s not like you can compose the music, and then you’re finished. You have to think about what the player is doing or what kinds of other sounds or voices the player might be hearing while the tune is replayed. It can be difficult to do that, but it can also be a really interesting part of the process too.

What’s your favourite part of performing live?

I like to see the fans be happy. Seeing the fans move along with the music as we play and interacting with them before or after the performance is one of the elements of performing live that we look forward to. Composing is kind of like a manufacturing process, with the completed music being the result. Playing live is something beyond that. It’s a valuable opportunity to see the expressions on the faces of everyone experiencing the music, and also hear what they have to say.

Would you like to perform live overseas if you had the chance?

Playing live overseas is always something we’re trying to do. We really want to see with our own eyes how our outfits and dance moves are perceived by people overseas.

Where do your unique fashion sense and dance moves come from?

At first we said “Everyone show up in clothes that are easy to move in!,” and then everyone showed up in tracksuits. So we were like, “Okay, let’s get some exercise.” It was a very natural progression. In this profession it’s really easy to let yourself go, and then get out of shape. We think at some point we might even write a TEKARU diet book.

…just kidding. We’re not really considering that.

Japan Game Music Festival 2013 Setlist
Final Gathering (No Heroes Allowed!)
Aubergine (428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de)
Boku wa Kodomo (Time Travelers)
The Door into Summer – Hina’s Theme (Attack of the Friday Monsters!)
Touki Tsumono (Toukiden)

Follow TEKARU on Facebook and visit Hideki Sakamoto’s site and Twitter account!

Thanks to John Rozewicki for translating and Inagaki-san for photos and organising the interview.