Published in Arcadia Issue 34 (March 1, 2003). Conversation with DDR series music director Naoki Maeda (NAOKI) around the release of DDR Extreme about his history with DDR. Follow-up to a previous DDR Extreme interview.
To close out our series of features on NAOKI and DDR Extreme, we’ve called on NAOKI for a new special interview! How does he approach composing music for DDR, and what difficulties did he face to bring us some of DDR’s iconic songs? DDR’s shocking history, brought to light for the first time… this is a must read!
ACT.1 Destiny numbers
NAOKI was given a mission as a composer: to create a kind of dance music that you can’t find in Dancemania. Surprising stories lie hidden in the creation of iconic Konami original songs.
From the beginning, my role in the DDR series was in sound direction… simply put, choosing songs from Dancemania that would be a good fit for DDR.
Eventually, we also wanted to include “game-y” songs that couldn’t be found in Dancemania, so I ended up making a portion of the songs myself.
To give a basic example, “PARANOiA” was created to fill the role of a “last boss”-type song, in game terms. Beyond just choosing catchy dance numbers from Dancemania, we thought it was important to create gameplay-centric songs that don’t exist in Dancemania.
Following that line of thinking, I also created “Make it better” and “TRIP MACHINE” for the original DDR’s Internet Ranking version.
Unlike Dancemania songs, we’re able to incorporate a variety of different types of song progression when making DDR original songs. Because of that, we were able to incorporate songs with a “gameplay-first” mentality to them. That would be the reason a lot of Konami original songs are high-difficulty in-game.
As a composer, my role is obviously just to make music, but for a long time, I’ve had this strong foundational desire to actually make games. That’s where my “cross-media” approach that I’ve aimed for in my work has come from. “How can I expand the audience of games as a medium”, “what kind of ideas and feelings can I convey to players through games”… these are the sort of things I find myself thinking about. Though maybe I’m making myself sound too cool here (laughs).
ACT.2 The turning point
As the DDR series became a breakout hit, NAOKI’s surroundings became more turbulent as well. He had to live up to his duties not only as sound director, but as the composer “NAOKI”, who needed to keep up with the times.
It was around the release of DDR 2ndMIX when I started to notice something odd. Players had become much bigger fans of Konami original songs than we had ever expected. For instance, “BRILLIANT 2U” pushed aside iconic Dancemania songs to take the #1 spot on the popularity rankings. Of course, when I was making the songs, I was dead-set on having them stand up to the best of Dancemania, but to have them reach this point… I was happy, but it was truly unexpected (laughs).
But the problems began with DDR 3rdMIX, immediately following that. Up until that point, I had no pressure when making songs, and was able to do so completely level-headed. Making songs was just my part of the division of the DDR team’s duties… But from DDR 3rdMIX on, the scale of the project grew, as did the possibilities. We were provided all these great chances to try all sorts of things out thanks to player support, but in actuality, what should’ve been a tailwind ended up becoming a heavy pressure for my songwriting.
All these worries started gushing forth, like “making a song that can stand with Dancemania is a huge task… I can’t even speak English and I’m working with these foreign vocalists” (laughs). The hardest part of all was working on the successor to “BRILLIANT 2U” — “DYNAMITE RAVE“. I was in a bit of a slump, I would hold my head in my hands and go “it’s just no good, I can’t think of anything”. The request I had gotten was “some kind of loud song with lots of energy”… when I hear “flashy and energetic”, the first image that comes to mind is Doutonbori in Osaka (laughs). So even though I had that as a starting point, I would worry about what kind of form that would take… then somehow I ended up coming up with a hook. I thought it sounded good, and all I had left was to give it a title. I had our producer at the time listen to it, and he muttered “this is… like dynamite!”, so the title was settled. Around then, I fully realized that having a work philosophy of putting in too much effort and putting up a bold front doesn’t necessarily lead to the best results.
ACT.3 Fighting back against the pressure
NAOKI’s journey with DDR was one of repeated trial-and-error. At the end of a road of countless ups and downs and numerous trials, he was able to find the answer he had been searching for in his life as a composer. The curtain opens on his true battle as a representative of not just DDR, but the Bemani series as a whole.
The songs “Let The Beat Hit Em!” and “HYSTERIA” I had written around the time of DDR Solo were actually recorded in Miami. Well, that’s just the recording location, I was actually too busy to be there myself.
By then, the scope of our production had grown large enough that we were finally able to do overseas recording. I was told “we’ll cover the budgeting side of things, you can feel free to try whatever you want”… but that just led to more pressure. Right around that time, I was also working with Tetsuya Komuro-san on Dancing Stage feat. True Kiss Destination. I had looked up to Komuro-san as a record producer for a long time, so the fact that I would get to work on something for him made for an extremely fun project. But even for that game, I got requested to write songs. Having my songs right up there next to Komuro-san’s songs… no way, it was unthinkable! Let’s get real here! But despite having those thoughts, I used every bit of talent I had and somehow was able to finish “CELEBRATE NITE” and “SEXY PLANET“. Luckily, they were received well by players, so I was finally able to breathe again. But seriously though (laughs).
From DDR 4thMIX on, my attitude towards songwriting had somewhat changed. Up until then, my mentality was that I had to write songs that were “fitting” of DDR; I had this sort of fighting spirit-like feeling in regards to DDR. But as I thought harder on the question of “well, what makes DDR songs different from normal songs”, I reached a conclusion.
The conclusion I reached there was “I must not limit myself, I should make the type of songs that only I can make”. From then on, I took on all sorts of different challenges, wanting to discover the potential of the world of arcade games. The through-lines with my work thus far are catchy melodies and pop style. Within that space, my ideal was to develop my songwriting in my own way.
By the way, depending on the song, I use one of various aliases. I don’t want to be viewed as just the “NAOKI” you see from one side — people are antithetical, and have many different sides to them (laughs).
ACT.4 Overlapping sounds
Release after release, NAOKI’s “sound” refines and matures. A gospel of new possibilities, born from the effort he continuously poured into DDR. The message entrusted to his music will surely resound in a new generation.
As I mentioned in the previous interview, I think of the DDR series, and the Bemani series as a whole, as “cross-media” that fuses the mediums of games and music together. It combines the best parts of the cultures of each into a brand new type of culture — isn’t that just the greatest? From here on, as NAOKI the composer, I also want to continue working on this type of cross-media. Whether it’s in the form of supporting artists by starting groups like BeForU or TËЯRA, or working on a completely different genre of game… like handling the music for a driving game, I feel like I can continue to involve myself in cross-media in all kinds of different forms.
Personally, I think we’ve done all that we can do with the DDR series. We put in 120% effort with DDR MAX2, and now with DDR Extreme I think we’ve put in 150% effort.
Of course, I plan to aggressively develop myself in other Bemani series. Working on other games will bring about new interactions, and through DDR I’ve gotten lots of useful feedback. By participating in various series, my creative breadth can expand. It’s like a kind of cultural exchange (laughs). So, making use of everything I’ve cultivated through DDR, I’ll continue to work hard on other series.
As far as song genres I want to write… I can’t help but feel like I’ve done them all, but from here on I want to explore a higher-dimension combination of digital and analog (something other than digi-rock or big beat). I also want to try making a brand new music game. Well, it’s easy for me to just say that (laughs). I want to keep challenging myself moving forward, whether that’s in a new DDR or some music game that’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
Music that can only exist thanks to games, games that can only exist thanks to music — we’ve still yet to see the full potential of cross-media. So as “NAOKI”, I want to continue to create works that everyone can love.