This is an interview from 2013 ahead of Oni Con Hawaii that was on Nonstop Honolulu, but didn’t survive the transition to the Frolic Hawaii re-brand. A redditor asked me about the dead link recently, and I figured I should put the interview back out there. It’s also one of the top experiences in my life so far.

Nobuo Uematsu is a legendary composer, often called the John Williams of video games because of his work on the Final Fantasy series and other famous Square games. Last year, he and his band, the Earthbound Papas made an appearance at HEXXP. Now, with support from Babel Entertainment, the Earthbound Papas are coming back to Hawaii with Oni Con. Having gone to the amazing first show, I was excited to see the the band return, and requested an interview with the man who wrote the soundtrack to my childhood. He shared some anecdotes about how his career got started, some advice for creatives, and talked about why he loves Hawaii so much.

Ed White: So, one of the things I found interesting while doing research is that you originally thought you were not going to have a career in music, and had a job at a music rental shop when a Square employee asked you to make some music for them. You thought it was going to be a part-time gig that wouldn’t really lead anywhere but here you are, decades later, still making music. How do you feel about that start now that you’re here.

Nobuo Uematsu: I actually did think about doing music a little bit, but also a kid I wanted to be a pro wrestler, so there was that, too! (laughs)

I was creating demo CDs and putting them out at that time, but wasn’t getting any answers back. Obviously, if you’re making demos and not getting responses, you’re not really making music or money, and can’t really eat like that so I took a part-time job at the rental store. Square was down the road at that time, so was kind of close easy to get to. That said, there were a lot of different creative-type people coming over to my house, so there were people writing books, people doing music, all kinds of creative types would come and drink together and talk together. Out of all of those people, one of them came and said “hey, I do video games!” That person was one of the people at Square, and that person asked me “hey, do you want to start trying to make music like this.”

Ed: So, was this all at the shop? Or at your house?

Nobuo: It was at my house but, of course, you can’t just create music sitting around at home, so we were sitting on the street and Square guys basically walked by and were like “hey, what are you doing over there? So, like, you guys wanna do that in an office or something?”

We were sitting on the street and Square guys basically walked by and were like “hey, what are you doing over there?

Ed: Was that exciting to you? Did you think to yourself “oh man, this is a huge opportunity!”

Nobuo: Well, you gotta keep in mind, this is back 27 or 28 years ago. Square hadn’t had a game that was a really big hit. Now we say “video games are a big thing,” but back then it really wasn’t. The big thing for me was that I was thinking about getting married at the time, and to do that you gotta have some money coming in every month! Because of that I was like “yeah, that sounds really good. Let’s go ahead and start that!”

Ed: ….was that Reiko? (His wife)

Nobuo: (laughs) Yes!

Ed: Wow, that’s awesome! So you were more excited to have a job than you were excited to be in video games, is that right?

Nobuo: Yes.

Ed: I find that’s an interesting point. Square hadn’t had a big hit at the time, so you were going into something unknown, and Square almost didn’t make it. You met Sakaguchi-san there and worked with him what was going to be his last video game. I wonder, what was the environment at that time? Did everyone think Square was gonna go under? Was it kind of like a last hurrah? What was your life like at the time?

Nobuo: Like you were saying, it had come to the last hurrah. A lot of the employees were really young at the time, so their thinking was like “we’ll put in all of our effort, make this happen, do it ‘till the end.” But, of course, you have to start thinking about what’s next. Sakaguchi-san was really the only person who thought this was going to be a hit, everyone else was thinking “we’ll do this, give it as much as we can but, at the same time, we gotta be ready.”

Ed: So, really, your career as it is now almost didn’t happen! Having been part of the crew sticking it out on a sinking ship that serendipitously created a life-altering hit, what would you tell young creatives like musicians and designers…should they go for it? What did you learn from that experience? What advice would you give?

Nobuo: It was just fate. I credit fate for a lot of my success to it, and a lot of where I have ended up. Just because you have a lot of talent and know what you’re doing does not mean you will succeed. At the same time, fate is something where you don’t really know what’s going to happen. It might happen tomorrow, it might happen next month, it might happen next year. My advice to anyone who is in the same position as I was is “keep going at it.” If you like Korean music, if you like being in a band, it’s important to just stick with it because you never know what will happen. It’s something that you can’t see and nobody can tell. So, don’t give up.

I credit fate for a lot of my success […] Just because you have a lot of talent and know what you’re doing does not mean you will succeed. […] So, don’t give up.

Ed: Okay, now I want to take a step back and talk a little about what could have been. You said you knew you were going to do something in music…what did you think that would be? Did you think it would be something like what you’re doing now with the Earthbound Papas? Being in a band, doing rock music? I know Elton John is one of your big inspirations!

Nobuo: (long stretch in Japanese, Nobuo and translator laugh)

Ed: (To the translator) He wanted to play rock for professional wresting, didn’t he?

Everyone lol’s

Nobuo: I don’t sing, but I did like putting lyrics to song, so I would create the songs, create the lyrics, and create the CD’s that were in that [Earthbound Papas] style…but they didn’t sell at all! So, I ended up going somewhere different, and never thought I’d up in a rock band after that, let alone at this age!