He is best known for his work on the Silent Hill series for which he composed all the music and sound effects in all seven current games (excluding Silent Hill Play Novel for Game Boy Advance). Some of the music from the first four games was also remixed and used in the Silent Hill movie. He also played a doubly important role as producer of the third and fourth Silent Hill games (which were available for PlayStation 2/PC and PlayStation 2/Xbox/PC). His music from Silent Hill 2 was performed live in 2005 at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany and at the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony Live! on May 27, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, where Yamaoka himself accompanied the orchestra with an electric guitar. As well, Yamaoka actively composes music for Konami's Bemani line of games, particularly, the Beatmania IIDX series.
His first original, non-soundtrack album, iFUTURELIST, was released in January 2006.
Career
He joined Konami on September 21, 1993 after previously being a freelance music composer. He is most well known for his work for the Silent Hill series of video games, for which he composed all the music and sound effects in the whole series (excluding Silent Hill Play Novel for the Game Boy Advance and Esperándote in Silent Hill, composed by 村中りか (Rika Muranaka)). Since Silent Hill 3, he is playing a more important role as the series' producer, also continuing with his music composition working.
Yamaoka's sound commonly contains strong melancholy undertones and generally identifies with the dark ambient, industrial, trip-hop and rock genres. Since Silent Hill 3, he also started working in collaboration with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Joe Romersa for vocal compositions.
Much of his work from previous titles has been compiled for the 2006 Silent Hill movie adaptation, directed by Christophe Gans.
His music from Silent Hill 2 was performed live in 2005 at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany. Yamaoka also performed music from Silent Hill at the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony Live! on May 27, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, and accompanied the orchestra with an electric seven-string guitar. He also composed songs for Konami's Bemani series, which has also featured tracks from Silent Hill.
His first original album, iFUTURELIST, was released in January 2006. He also wrote the theme of 101%, the main show of the French TV channel Nolife.
On December 2, 2009, it was announced that Yamaoka was leaving his long term employer Konami.
Personal Life
Before working as a video game composer, Yamaoka initially sought a career as a designer, but instead became a musician after studying product design at Tokyo Art College.
In 1993 he joined Konami to work on the game Rocket Knight Adventures 2. When Konami began searching for a musician to compose Silent Hill's score, Yamaoka volunteered because he thought he was the only one capable of making the soundtrack.
Yamaoka stated in a 2009 interview that his favorite game creator is Suda 51 and his favorite video game is No More Heroes.
Hometown
Akira Yamaoka Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
So outrageous the toll
You can lose all you have
He refused to give in to the town that takes all
Survive, you must have the will
This movie doesn't end the way we want all the time
Then he shouts at the moon
She's gone, and fear has overcome
So outrageous the toll
You can lose all you have
He refused to give in to the town that takes all
Survive, you must have the will
This movie doesn't end the way we want all the time
Then he shouts at the moon
She's gone, and fear has overcome
He was walking the mile, he was walking alone
Four and twenty deadbirds, they bleed upon the nest
There was no time for reason, they had no sign of a threat
Now it's too late, too late for me
This town will eventually take me
Too late, too late for me
This town will win
(spoken)
Through this fog they come along
Dark creatures singing a terrible song
The rest of the bar laughed at him
Only I felt my hope grow dim
They found him dead the very next day
"No more stories from him," I heard them say
We blamed bad luck for his fate
Only I felt terror so great
She and he will know
that someday all things will end
That misty night
That dismal moon
The dead search for their kin
While angels sing, in endless dark
The dead seek out sin
The lyrics to Akira Yamaoka's song Hometown seem to describe a doomed individual's struggle to survive in a town that takes everything from its inhabitants. The song starts by referring to someone who speaks of tortured souls, and the toll that the town takes on them. The singer refuses to give in to this town that takes all and urges out the need to have a strong will to survive.
The song takes a darker turn with the line "She's gone, and fear has overcome." This line could be interpreted as referring to the loss of a loved one or the loss of hope. The singer seems to be walking alone on a path that is leading him to his eventual doom.
The song ends with a spoken section that describes the singer's fate, as the rest of the town dismisses his stories and blames his death on bad luck. The song also references dead birds bleeding upon their nest, further emphasizing the idea of loss and death. The final lines suggest the idea that even after death, the dead seek out sin, highlighting the themes of darkness and despair present throughout the song.
Line by Line Meaning
He spoke of tortured souls
He talked about people who are suffering deeply
So outrageous the toll
The price to pay is extremely high
You can lose all you have
You can end up with nothing, losing everything you own
He refused to give in to the town that takes all
He was determined not to be beaten by the place that takes everything from people
Survive, you must have the will
To survive, you have to be strong and determined
This movie doesn't end the way we want all the time
Things don't always turn out the way we hope
Then he shouts at the moon
He yells in frustration
She's gone, and fear has overcome
She is gone, and now he is overwhelmed by fear
He was walking the mile, he was walking alone
He was on his own, traveling a difficult path
Four and twenty deadbirds, they bleed upon the nest
24 dead birds are bleeding on top of their nest
There was no time for reason, they had no sign of a threat
There wasn't enough time for them to figure out why the birds died
Now it's too late, too late for me
It's now too late for me
This town will eventually take me
This place will eventually consume me
Through this fog they come along
They approach through the fog
Dark creatures singing a terrible song
Evil or scary beings are singing a disturbing song
The rest of the bar laughed at him
Everyone else at the bar made fun of him
Only I felt my hope grow dim
I began to lose my hope
They found him dead the very next day
The next day he was found dead
"No more stories from him," I heard them say
I heard them say that he would no longer tell any more stories
We blamed bad luck for his fate
We said that his fate was just bad luck
Only I felt terror so great
I was the only one who felt so scared
She and he will know that someday all things will end
Both she and he are aware that eventually everything comes to an end
That misty night
On that foggy evening
That dismal moon
That sad or depressing moon
The dead search for their kin
The deceased are searching for their relatives
While angels sing, in endless dark
While angels sing in the eternal darkness
The dead seek out sin
The departed seek to find or commit sins
Contributed by Alexandra T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.