Starting with the three Note Interviews in the Booklet by Yuki Kajiura (interviewed by Oasamu Kobayashi) then I will write the notes for each individual track. These notes all come for the first SIGN OST booklet. I have no further information after this.
Yuki Kajiura Interview
Note: 01 Reality and Fiction and a bit of Surrealism
The first thing I received was a rough draft of the description of The World and the story up to Episode 3. He [Tsukasa] was a dark main character (in a good way of course). I had high expectations for Director Mashimo to bring out a lot in this work. It sounds difficult to create music in the game world, but come to thinko of it, there are so many ways to make it creative and exciting. The basis for making music for ".hack//SIGN" is about focusing on the "Unnatural and unusual" and constantly remembering that the story is set in a game world. Once important point is that the stage is set in a unrealistic world, so it is important to think about how to create a matching music. Usually when I create music for animation, I tend to visualize the animation as close as possible to the real world, and imagine a real world room and create sound and music for it. But this time I was to leave the real world as far away as possible and create music. ".hack//SIGN" is no different from other animation in the way that its an unrealistic world, but behind the animation exists a realistic society. More specifically, the section portrayed in the animation has a both the real world and game world elements to it, then one side of the world should have music that is totally different from the other world. But ".hack//SIGN" is a complete game world without the world comparison, so if I put everything into the one theme of the "unusual and unreal", then the effects of the "unreal" won't be strong as I want it to be. But for the characters in the game, they believe "The World" is the real world to them so it gets a little complicated (laughs). That's why I didn't want to put too many surreal elements into the music. I wanted to keep the "beauty" of the music without destroying the mood and include just a little bit surrealism to maintain the feel of the story flow. The key word for this animation is, "a lot of surrealism."
Note 02: "Humorous Requests, Work Freedom and Music Used Beyond my Imagination"
When I worked with Director Mashimo before, I was really shocked about the fact that a very long song was used from beginning to end in his work ".hack//SIGN" also shocked me when he used almost the whole song. My honest reaction was "Is this really OK?" (laugh). Do they really not have to switch songs? At the beginning of the first episode, I was wondering when it was going to end. But they used the whole song with out editing a single thing. I was so suprised that nothing else really mattered (laugh). If the song writer is the one who is asking if it's okay with that, then its quite a shocking thing.
If I remembered correctly, he said in the very first meeting that "this animation is in a game world and each scene should be short, so the music shouldn't be that long." But I guess I misheard him or misunderstood him.
Most animation series arrange a song and make a different version of it, but Director Mashimo always says he likes to use "completely different songs instead of versions of a song" so he never uses just many versions of one song. That's why the main character has many different songs and I feel like asking "Are you sure you want to torture the song writer?" But once you get into creating new music it gets exciting and really gets fun, so it's not that bad. Usually, the song writer receives a menu of different requests of music, and of course the details of each song are different but it’s usually written like “Mysterious 1, 2, 3” or “Scary Song A, B, C,” or something similar. But Director Mashimo’s style of coming up with titles is very unique, for examples if there’s an aggressive feel to the song his titles are “That’s Dangerous” or “What’s that?” and even the title “Sit Beside Me” used to be “Oolong tea”, believe it or not! Of course there are times when he provides me with detailed explanations, but I have a lot of freedom when creating music for him because he doesn’t pick a band and say, “I want that sound.” It’s not about strictly answering his request; It’s about me creating whatever style of music I want and getting it as close as possible to what he has in mind. I feel like he’s giving me the freedom and opportunity to enjoy creating music for his work. His style is not about saying what’s good and what’s bad, but letting the artists enjoy something in creating and remembering it forever.
One other thing. His tentative title for “Where the Sky is High” was “Bungee jump from a very high place” and that was really funny when I heard it. But really “Bungee Jump” title fits well with the image of the song instead of “the song that is open and free”. If “Bungee Jump” is possible to be used as a title, then any other crazy title is possible. We can use Japanese drums, African rhythms, or piano. When I asked, “Does it Jump?” he answered “No.” Jumping and not jumping in a bungee jump makes a big difference. He really makes the key points clear, so it makes it easier for me to come up with the right image.
That’s why when I’m having a meeting with Director Mashimo, I sometimes can come up with a melody in my head. For this project, I came up with three new melodies in my head during the meeting with him and I put those into actual recordings. But those songs are not necessarily used frequently in the story, I still don’t think I understand Director Mashimo’s preferences. He is an excellent director to observe to see how he uses these songs in his works.
Note: 03 “Vocal Music in Character Themes”
When making music for the scenes I usually plan everything so that it comes out right, but when creating a theme for the characters, I always go with the first impression. It’s better for me to make the song right away before I start thinking too much. That’s why I sometimes even make it by just looking at the picture without reading the notes on the character’s personality, and other times I just read the synopsis and description without looking at the picture. This way I am able to create better music when it’s about characters. But it is true that it’s difficult to recreate the song piece after it’s already made. (laugh).
I really liked making vocals from the beginning. The director didn’t tell me that it was mandatory to make vocal music but I thought it would be nice to make vocal music for the theme songs. Luckily the director really liked them as I started to make more music, I really got into it and sometimes I ended up making too much (laugh).
There are three songs in this CD that were made based on the three main characters; Tsukasa, Subaru, and Aura, and to tell you the truth, the vocal songs for the sound-track were made to emphasize the character’s personalities more than the lyrics in the main theme song. If you listen to some of the songs the very first time in the actual animation, you might not understand what the lyrics are saying, but by looking into the CD booklet and reading the lyrics, you will get another perspective on the songs. From the creator’s point of view, I really recommend it. The song “The World” was not made to emphasize a character’s personality, but it was made through the process of talking to the Director and other people involved in the project and also looking at different drafts and pictures which gave me several impressions about the project. The lyrics to “The World” reveal how I feel how I felt when I worked on .hack//SIGN. And lastly, for the song “Obsession,” I think it would be a lot of fun if everyone sings the song in Karaoke style without looking at the lyrics and singing together in their own style (laugh).
