Akira Yamaoka

Akira Yamaoka is a Japanese composer, musician, sound designer, and producer. He is best known for scoring every installment of Konami's horror video game series Silent Hill, with the exception of Downpour and Book of Memories, though he still played guitar on the latter.
Yamaoka has also produced many of the games and composed the soundtracks of the Silent Hill film franchise. He has been the sound director at Grasshopper Manufacture since 2010, and has been a director and sound designer at Supertrick Games since 2018.

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Early life

Akira Yamaoka was born in Niigata on February 6, 1968. He sought to become a designer, but instead became a musician whilst studying product design and interior design at Tokyo Art College.

Career

Yamaoka joined Konami on September 21, 1993. He immediately began to work on the games Contra: Hard Corps, Sparkster, and Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2. Shortly thereafter, he worked on the music for the PC Engine and Sega CD versions of Snatcher.
When Konami began searching for a musician to compose the score for Silent Hill, Yamaoka volunteered because he thought he was the only one capable of making the soundtrack. Although initially hired as a composer, he soon became involved in the game's overall sound design. His later named Silent Hill 2 as his favorite of his own soundtracks.
On December 2, 2009, it was announced that Yamaoka was leaving Konami. On February 3, 2010, he joined Grasshopper Manufacture and began working with Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami on their action game Shadows of the Damned. He was first appointed to the role of chief sound officer at Grasshopper, but became involved in aspects of game production as well.
On August 10, 2012, Yamaoka announced he would be releasing a second solo album in late 2012 that would be "different from the usual Silent Hill music". On October 31, he announced that the new three-track Spanish-language EP Revolución would premiere at V-CON during a live performance. In 2014, he expressed interest in returning as a composer for Silent Hills, although the project was later cancelled.
From late October to early November 2015, Yamaoka and his band travelled to the United Kingdom for their Silent Hill Live tour, during which they performed songs from the Silent Hill series at venues in Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, London, Manchester, and Southampton. In July 2016, he performed live at the BitSummit 4th indie game festival in Kyoto.

Style and influences

Yamaoka has named Suda51 as his favorite game creator and No More Heroes as his favorite video game. He has also named Dario Argento's Suspiria as his favorite film.
In July 2010, Yamaoka was invited by the website Nintendo Life to curate a short playlist for a new series exploring "the musical tastes of notable video game creators and figures". His playlist consisted of "Moon Over Moscow" by Visage, "Der Mussolini" by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, "Amber" by Craig Armstrong, "Moments in Love" by Art of Noise, and "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone. He further cited "Moon Over Moscow" as the earliest song that made him want to pursue music, and revealed that he wanted "The Ecstasy of Gold" to be played at his funeral.
When asked in February 2014 which other artists influenced him, Yamaoka cited Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails as his "main inspiration, both performing and in music style". He later said that his work on Silent Hill was directly influenced by Reznor, composer Angelo Badalamenti's work with filmmaker David Lynch, and the more atmospheric songs by Depeche Mode and Metallica.
On the topic of whether his studies at Tokyo Art College helped him in his musical career, Yamaoka explained, "At that time, Mick Karn of Japan, Steve Strange of Visage, and a lot of other musicians combined the notions of art and music with their own new style. I got really influenced by that. Therefore, every time I write songs, I try to combine art and music." He has also stated that he derives much of his influence from baroque styles common throughout the 18th century.

Personal life

Yamaoka is married to fellow musician Ai "Tamu" Murata, best known as the drummer of the heavy metal band Nemophila. They have two daughters together.
In March 2011, Yamaoka auctioned off some of his musical instruments to raise funds for charity after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.