music

“Everyone has had that experience with a book, movie, or music and the like, where we secretly say to ourselves afterward: "I'm glad to have been alive and experienced this." [...] With Snatcher, I wanted to prove to myself that the new medium of games could do this too.”

“From the beginning, I've always been very influenced by foreign films, books, and music. Having consumed all that media, and believing I've grown as a person myself, to see Metal Gear Solid praised by people overseas, it felt like I'd repaid that debt.”

“It instantly made me a fan of Diane Lane. There was a time when I would watch its ending every morning.”

At 43, Kojima ranked his three vital cultural nutrients as movies, music, and novels. His father loved movies, so Kojima was made to absorb films from the time he began forming memories, and music came along with those viewings; by contrast, although the family home was filled with books and his parents placed children's classics on his desk to tempt him, he still did not read even by the end of elementary school.

Since 2005 Kojima presented his own program on the official Kojima Productions blog, "HIDECHAN! ラジオ", which was published in numbered installments; on July 3, 2007 it was at episode 148, and the blog’s archived version in July 2011 shows episode 296 and a monthly archive beginning in September 2005. Kojima is credited as responsible for the program’s script and structure alongside Takaaki Kitamura.

Kojima said he continued to pursue dreams and roman —aspirations for heroism, adventure and lofty ideals— even though they are not attainable objects, because the goal keeps a person alive. When he was about to lose them or give up, he would sing the verse about the scarlet scarf from Yamato’s ending song; then he imagined the ship sailing into the black sea of space and regained courage.

Kojima always answered Joy Division when asked his favorite band and Closer when asked which album was most important. He listened to the band when life or work got him down, but also on sunny days—not to cheer up or relieve stress, but to enter their melancholy, reaffirm his place in the face of loneliness and death, and return to an inner, tranquil space he considered his bedrock.

Kojima encountered Joy Division after Ian Curtis’s death, probably around 1983, prompted by a line in the Japanese liner notes to the first Tears for Fears album. This timing coincided with the Japanese success of New Order’s “Blue Monday,” and he bought Japanese editions of Joy Division LPs and twelve-inch singles; paradoxically, he did not become genuinely interested in New Order until their album Low-Life in 1985.

Kojima described his college years as a dark period in which he could not let go of his dream of making films nor find his break, and had no one to turn to for advice or to talk to. He chose to converse through his work with two young people who had died by suicide, Ian Curtis and the writer Etsuko Takano, rather than with living people who did not understand him; he called Joy Division his silent confidant and said they helped him hang on to life and saved his life.

The premiere of Control turned the city, for Kojima, into a Joy Division festival. He bought the soundtrack and Paul Smith T-shirts, several photobooks, remastered reissues, compilations and rarities; thanks to contacts at Konami’s London branch he also secured two UK-exclusive editions. Seeing posters, shops and cinemas full of the lost band felt like a day he had never imagined, and he expressed the desire to visit Ian Curtis’s grave someday.

Kojima first discovered 2001 in 1978, in his third year of junior high, when he bought a mook—purchased for its Star Wars coverage—that also included full-color images, diagrams and interviews about Kubrick’s film. As a reader of hard SF who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, he felt more drawn to 2001 than to space-opera. While waiting for a rerelease he read Arthur C. Clarke’s novel and listened to a radio-play adaptation, and he was fortunate to see the film for the first time in Cinerama in Osaka. From then on he attended every subsequent rerelease on the big screen.

When asked where the sun rises, Kojima would sing the theme song of The Genius Bakabon, which incorrectly says the sun rises in the west, and he would give the opposite answer. He was attracted to the song for more than its mnemonic value: after asserting a blatant falsehood the chorus offers reassurance that everything will be all right, a rebellious spirit that sounded to him like upbeat rock music.

When the first Walkman appeared, Kojima was in the first year of high school, lived in a household headed by his mother, and could not afford one. Two years later a classmate lent him a Walkman in class; on hearing "Habana Express" by Akira Terao he felt the voice inside his body, a three‑dimensional sound that enveloped him and seemed to filter into his sight, leaving him speechless, though he could only aspire to buy one someday.

Kojima even used the Walkman at home because he needed private music for any activity. He pushed each player so hard that, on average, he wore one out every two to three years and replaced it; along the way he also cheated on Sony with Aiwa and Panasonic.

Kojima wrote that the various incarnations of the Walkman had supported him through half of his life: during heartbreak, despair, mistakes, sickness, low spirits, loss, fear of dying, pressure, stress, feelings of failure, and creative drought. He summarized that companionship as two people walking together with three legs between them.

Although he remained attached to MiniDisc after the iPod’s release, Kojima bought a 6 GB iPod mini in 2005. For Christmas 2007 he gave his son his first iPod, a nano, and impulsively bought himself an iPod classic 120 GB, his third iPod after an iPod 5.5.

Kojima interpreted the convergence of phone, player, console and computer as a shift from the liberation of music to carrying a “walking house” that holds entertainment, data and identity. He warned that this movable shell makes it possible to isolate oneself from society anywhere and removes the pleasure of choosing a single object to take. Despite that concern, he acknowledged that he still puts in his earbuds and walks inside his own shell.

Kojima lived near the sea in Tsujido until he was three, and after returning to the nearby Tokyo area in 1996 he took his eldest son many times to the coastal towns of his memories. On one route in Enoshima they saw fish, ate rice with seafood and manju buns, rode the ESCAR toll escalator—which Kojima called a rip-off—returned by ferry and ended the day in a café: Kojima drank coffee, the boy had juice, and Southern All-Stars songs played in the background.

“We had so much more budget so we were able to go to Hollywood and hire a composer.”

“In Death Stranding, 'strand' stands for strings and connections, and I felt a mysterious connection to that song that I found in that CD shop in Reykjavík two years ago.”

“Ryan's songs are sensual and the sounds he creates are unique.”

Kojima admitted that analyzing past successes can produce a sellable, low-risk product, but he rejected that method because tomorrow always arrives and what was accepted yesterday does not remain the same. He held that past experiences are necessary not to imitate but to connect differently; therefore he reads, watches movies, listens to music, visits museums, and meets people as a practice to learn from history and create the future.

Kojima said he wants to make music because, deep down, he wants to do everything himself, but he cannot get anything to come out. He sometimes thinks he has composed a melody when singing to himself and later discovers, to his disappointment, that it was a song he had already heard.

Kojima designed the online relationships in Death Stranding so players do not meet directly but leave objects and “likes.” He gave the example of finding on a path a musical device abandoned by someone else: it only lets you infer that they liked that song, yet it turns a solitary walk into one that reveals another presence. In contrast to the frontal dialogue of social media, he wanted a cushioned connection that forces the player to imagine who was there and what they were thinking.

“Shocked to know Ennio Morricone has passed away.. RIP. I just bought the OST of "The Legend of 1900". I used his music "Here's To You" sing by Joan Baez for MGS V: Ground Zeroes, the song used in the film "Sacco e Vanzetti".”

“Mr. Oshii remixed it very precisely and I do that with my games too. It's that sort of thing that makes Mr. Oshii really special. He just builds up all the tiny details.”

“The whole place was crazy. I saw it and thought, great things can be made here. The lunches and everything were crazy too.”

“Way back in 2005, I did my own podcast, Hidechan! Radio, for a long time. I grew up in the generation of radio and after I became a creator, I wanted to give something back to the medium that was there for me when I was a lonely kid.”

“I'll be in the middle of doing an air check, and my mom would turn on a light switch in the other room, and the tape would pick up that buzzing sound.”

“It was like your fingerprint. The pattern of the little crackling noises could help you identify whose record it was.”

“And whenever you visit a record shop or rental store, you knew that the staff there were all music lovers. […] Everyone was like Tarantino.”

“Subscribe? But I like buying CDs.”

“If I didn't do that, I would end up buying music from the artists I already know and like.”

“It was my dream to work on a project with him one day. I tried buying the synthesizers that he used to make some music, but the sound is different.”

“By the way, I first learned the word albedo from his album, Albedo 0.39. It's a term often used in the CG industry actually.”

“I went to see Blade Runner because I had already read and was a fan of Philip K. Dick's original work, and I was a fan of Ridley Scott from Alien, and then I found out that Vangelis was doing the music.”

“The music has a delicate, sparkly tone like glass breaking, and when you add John Anderson's clear, bright vocals to it, his angelic voice, it's such an incredible match.”

“At that time, if you did electronic music, people assumed you were a weirdo.”

“What I really wanted to do is something like what they did with Tom and Jerry, with the orchestra watching the performances and timing their music to the actions with symbols and stuff. I want to do that with games so that the music changes in time with what the player is doing.”

“Without Ryan, without you and your music, Death Stranding would not have been born. Your music will live forever in this world and in me.”

“Then, I'll play a soundtrack that matches that, and the writing just happens naturally. It's like I'm not myself almost.”

“Since the pandemic has gotten somewhat better, I was planning to ask him to do some more music for us. And then this news came in.”

“It almost seemed like a waste to add my voice over it, but since he created it with this purpose in mind, I'll take advantage of it.”

“So I can't read it, but I'm happy just to own it.”

“It's a song that has been used in movies and I actually thought about using it for the ending of Death Stranding. The lyrics and the vibe would have fit really well, so I had that song in mind when I made the ending.”

“But then, the distribution company contacted me saying that the movie was going to be released in Japan, and sent me a CD. Even though I already owned the CD.”

“I built up the world of Death Stranding in parallel with Ryan's music, and I talked to him about how I wanted to use his music in the game too, not just the teaser.”

“People may not use them, but I want them to feel cared for when they're here.”

“So Morricone, who changed the film music industry, influenced Hans Zimmer, who, in turn, changed the industry himself.”

“So my heroes were actors like Clint Eastwood, Franco Nero, and Lee Van Cleef, and I fell in love with Morricone's music which was used in those films.”

“Personally, I think this is the best one out of all spaghetti western films. People who aren't familiar with any spaghetti westerns should start by watching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”

“Movies and music existed separately, but he made them into one entity. That's why I want to emulate him and combine film and video games into one.”

“So I feel like my life is following a similar path to Morricone's, especially after having watched the documentary. It made me cry.”

“So I looked for the CD, bought it, and realised I wanted to put it into the game. It was fate that we reunited.”

“Also, the scariest movie in the whole world for me is The Exorcist. I've only ever watched it once.”

“The movie wasn't great but the music sure was. I've collected all his soundtracks.”

“There really won't be another person like him, epitomizing loneliness in his compositions. I think that's what it comes down to.”

“So in a game, I want there to be music that can stand alone and away from the game and be passed down to the next generation. That's the ideal.”

“I wouldn't say I'm collecting them, but if there's some sort of bonus item, I think my generation is just materialistic. I want my albums to come with something.”

“The album is called Wish and it was released in 1992 […] This is my favourite album of theirs. […] And actually, the song that I picked out isn't my favourite song. It's my second favourite.”

“It inspired Death Stranding 2's Who Am I, Where Am I, How Come and Why Me campaign.”

“But in my original concept, there was no singing involved. I knew that Troy could sing, and he even sang to his fans around the world during the pandemic. I listened to that many times.”

“I originally discovered CHVRCHES in 2015. I had a lot going on in my life at that time. I decided to go to a CD shop and I listened to a sample of CHVRCHES' second album. That's when I became a fan.”

“Since I was a fan of theirs, I didn't want to kill their sound. I wanted to make the most out of what makes CHVRCHES special and create something that'll match Death Stranding.”

“Yeah, it made me happier than receiving the actual trophy. […] Don't say that to Jeff.”

“In 2021, my staff was still working from home because of the pandemic, so I was the only one coming to the office. I would listen to that album while working.”

“Having one song in the game is expected, right? So what if we had you make like 100 songs or something? I don't know, but just something no one else is doing.”

“Maybe if you're with someone, but you want them to leave the room, the words get out will keep playing over and over again. And it never gets to the chorus of the song.”

“I didn't know his work at the time but we met up and did introductions and right away he let me listen to a sample of his latest album. One listened to that, and I was captivated.”

“Since you're the creator of the song, you're probably the number one listener of Goliath. But the person who listened to it the second most is me. I listen to it 50 or 60 times a day.”

“I thought you were my doppelganger or something, though we are 20 years apart in age. […] I'm convinced we're originally the same person.”

“Music, sound effects, audio in general makes up about 70% of a piece of work, including silence. […] Yes, silence is a sound.”

“I can't say what project it is, although I'm sure you all can guess. But there was a song that fit perfectly in this one scene. So I asked him, hey, can I use this?”

“But when I was alone, I would hold my knees and listen to music and cry.”

Kojima describes the family house in Kawanishi (Hyogo) where he lived from fifth grade: his room and his brother’s were symmetrical, separated by a sliding door, with identical beds facing each other, and when they slept they could hear each other’s breathing and even what they said in their dreams. After dinner, the bath and the living-room TV were finished, the children would shut themselves in their room and turn on the radiocassette; as a result he developed the habit of lying on his bed and listening to the radio.

“Music accounts for 80% of what moves people emotionally. I hope that the songs, whether they are songs that play in moments of solitude or ones that evoke cinematic spectacle, I hope that they will touch your hearts.”

“Every day, if I tweet something that I like, a director or an actor or a musician contacts me. They say, 'I'm a creator because of your games.' But they didn't receive the baton of Hideo Kojima. They received my small fire.”

“We met before the pandemic, and he used some of my songs in the first episode [Death Stranding], but it was songs from my previous records. He used "Goliath" and "Pale Yellow" in the gameplay.”

“It was almost like planting seeds, and then he would grow the garden.”

“When we started working on the song with Hideo, he's like, "Should we have her sing it?" It was like, "Yes, I was dreaming for you to ask for it."”

“I was listening to Caroline Polachek last year and became a big fan of hers. After I put that on my Instagram, she contacted me, and then she DM'ed. We kept in touch and then eventually met up in Paris, and that's when she told me she wanted to write a new song for Death Stranding 2.”

“Hideo kept pushing me to make something even more deconstructed and crazy and industrial and radical and I went way further than I thought I would be able to do in my music and still recognize my music.”

“we've actually never spoken together. [I] don't speak Japanese and Hideo doesn't speak English. So, we communicate through music and images, through emotions rather than words”

“I keep my ears open for music for my games and then reach out to musicians. If we click, then we work together.”

“I bought the second generation Walkman in college. ... Looking at the views with music on was like having a soundtrack. ... iPod was released, and I moved to digital. Meanwhile, Sony released their digital Walkman.”

“I am subscribed to Apple Music, where I listen to new songs and then buy CDs and vinyl records. ... Liner notes are a must. ... I spend most of my income on releases like these. I used to spend hours at Tower Records and vinyl shops”

“I'm not especially partial to wireless Bluetooth earbuds. These are from a Chinese brand called NICEHCK. Their sound quality is just superb. It was always my ultimate go-to pair and the brand reached out to collaborate.”

“This is the score to "Death Stranding 2" by Woodkid on vinyl. The "Jaws" score by John Williams. ... A single by Koji Tamaki. The Japanese edition of the Last Dinner Party's new album. ... Spandau Ballet is a band from my youth. A CD box set.”

“This is the PC Launch Trailer for "DEATH STRANDING 2 ON THE BEACH." Once again, I did the structure, editing, sound design, and mix myself. It features a track by WOODKID.”