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.
Your Rain
Akira Yamaoka Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Only the scent of you remains to dance with me
Nobody showed me how to return the Love you give to me
Mom never holds me, Dad loves a stranger more than me
I never wanted to ever bring you down
All that I need are some simple loving words
Never forgets, never again will be, I cry
Out of my head and I don't know what I found
Over and over I feel it break me down
On the sidewalk of the city are my screams just a whisper
Busy people going nowhere see me soak in the rain
No compassion, nothing matters, my resistence is waiting
Like a flower in the basement waiting for a lonely death
Out of my head and I don't know what I found
Over and over I feel it break me down
On the sidewalk of the city are my screams just a whisper
Busy people going nowhere see me soak in the rain
No compassion, nothing matters, my resistence is waiting
Like a flower in the basement waiting for a lonely death
The lyrics of Akira Yamaoka's song Your Rain portray the feeling of loneliness and isolation. The singer of the song is depicted as dancing alone in the rain, reminiscing about a past love. The scent of the love interest still lingers, and the singer is left with nothing but memories. The song has a melancholic tone that expresses their inability to express the love that was given to them.
The singer talks about their mother not being affectionate, and their father preferring someone else over them. They've never been shown how to return the love given to them, making them feel lost and unable to express their emotions. The song portrays how the lack of parental affection affects individuals and shapes their behavior towards future relationships.
As the song progresses, the singer talks about how they were touched once by their love interest, and it still burns them softly. The memory is still fresh, and they cry, unable to forget. The song talks about how the singer is completely helpless and unable to express their feelings. They're left to feel the pain and sorrow of the lost love alone in a crowded city, where nobody seems to care.
In conclusion, Akira Yamaoka's song Your Rain is a sad and melancholic portrayal of a lost love and loneliness. The lyrics speak of unrequited love and the feeling of being lost and alone, unable to express emotions. The song leaves a deep sense of sadness with its listeners, reminding them of the pain and sorrow that comes with unreturned love.
Line by Line Meaning
Dancing alone again, again the rain falling
I am alone and dancing in the rain once more
Only the scent of you remains to dance with me
I am dancing with the memory of you, your scent is all I have left
Nobody showed me how to return the Love you give to me
I don't know how to love you the way you deserve
Mom never holds me, Dad loves a stranger more than me
My parents don't give me the affection I need, they prefer someone else
I never wanted to ever bring you down
I never intended to hurt you
All that I need are some simple loving words
All I need is to hear that you love me
You touched my body once, it burns me still softly
Your touch still lingers and haunts me
Never forgets, never again will be, I cry
I will never forget you and cry at the thought of never having you again
Out of my head and I don't know what I found
My thoughts are scattered and I don't know what I discovered
Over and over I feel it break me down
I am constantly being torn apart by my emotions
On the sidewalk of the city are my screams just a whisper
My cries for help go unnoticed in the busy city
Busy people going nowhere see me soak in the rain
I am alone in my misery while others rush by
No compassion, nothing matters, my resistence is waiting
I feel helpless and see no hope for a better future
Like a flower in the basement waiting for a lonely death
I feel trapped and helpless, like a flower in a dark basement waiting to wither away
Contributed by Caden K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.