The interview with Mr. Vincent Diamante- the composer of Sky Children of the Light

2024年3月17日 15:39

Hi!
My name is Ray, and I love the music of the video game "Sky Children of the Light", and its instruments, ensembles, and beards(one of the dress-up items).
I made this post on X the other day.

おはようございます。
未だ興奮冷めやらぬ爺です。

Sky COTLの作曲者であるヴィンセントさんに直接お会いして、非公式突撃❤️インタビュー（？）的な何かをさせていただきました。
今、その内容をまとめているところです。

サインもお願いしました。一生の宝物です！！！… pic.twitter.com/W7ReLUpkWe
— れい(Ray,Ikejiji)@Sky (@Skyaccoray) March 3, 2024

This article will be a memorandum, recording the excitement and emotion of this dreamlike day as it was.

March, 2024. On a warm, sunny afternoon

He visited Japan for the Indie Games Show, held in Tokyo in March 2024.

I was lucky enough to meet him at the event! What luck!

Before the day, I decided to ask him to give us an interview without any prior notice. I am really sorry..!

I would like to thank Mr. Vincent from the bottom of my heart for agreeing to this interview.

This interview was done in English and has been written down into Japanese with the friendly atmosphere and nuances intact, then translated into English again.
The content has been edited and reorganized with the permission of Mr. Vincent.

Welcome to Tokyo!

Ray (R) Hello!

Mr. Diamante (V) Hello!

R: Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule today..! Oh, by the way! This is a gift from us, The Them Sky Music Festival.

(Handing out the original printed Tenugui-Japanese traditional hand towel designed by @mafusky, two kinds of can badges and stickers illustrated by @pos_enoki, and several printed illustrations by @nunu8631, an artist of my team)

V: Wow! Thank you! Can I open it?

R: Of course! By all means!

V: (opens the gift and looks at the contents one by one) Um, really, thank you..! (He looks thrilled.)

R: I'm glad you liked it! (I'm thrilled, too.)

Gits for him. From the left, postcards, badges, Tenugui, and package.
All are our fan art goods from fan events "Sky music fest".
Postcards Drawing- Daboda @nunu8631
Badges and stickers- POS @enoki_pos, Tenugui- mafu @mfmfsky

And now the interview begins

Do you have any plans to return?

R: You are currently taking a break from composing for Sky, do you have any plans to return?

V: Yes, I hope to come back soon.

R: Wow! It's very good news for us! Also, I thought that song really had your sound, but actually, that is the itself!

By the way, you once tweeted on Twitter (now X) a picture of baby things? It looked like a small doll for a baby… I wonder if your absence this time has something to do with the content of that tweet.

We are expecting a new addition to the family later this year! Time to level up! https://t.co/k0y8qzA44w pic.twitter.com/GWGZ9mwygt
— Vincent Diamante 🔜 Game Developers Conference (@vincentdiamante) May 18, 2023

V: Yes. We have a 4-month-old boy now!

R: Wow! Congratulations! (I was so chicken-hearted because can't ask his son's name here!)

V: Living with him can be tough at times, but I'm so thankful for my wife's family, siblings, and the many people who are helping us. I can come to Japan like this because of their backup.

R: That's wonderful...! That's the best!

What are your favorite composers and genres?

V: I like both classical and modern. I like Holst (the classical composer who wrote The Planets, Jupiter, etc.), Debussy (the classical composer who wrote Clair de lune, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair), and so on.

More recently, I also like John Adams and Michael Neumann.

I also like jazz (big band and all), orchestral, and fusion music, like T-Square, who isn't that famous in the U.S.

R: Oh, maybe I know what you mean. "Stage Present" (the third quest song of the season of expressionists) has a T-Square flavor!

Also, the office song (the music that plays when you tap the icon at Vincent's desk location in the office)?

There is a quest to play Stage Present in a corner of the Village Theater, backstage(Seasons of Performance)

At a desk in one of the offices (his desk?), tap the music note icon to play a song

V: (chuckles at Ray's words "T-Square flavor") Yes, Stage Present! Office's is a bit like Casiopea than T-Square.

What kind of games do you like?

V: I guess puzzle games. I'm a very strong player of Puyopuyo because I used to win a tournament! I can quickly do 8-rensa and 9-rensa.

R: Wow, that's great!　I'm so bad at Puyopuyo, I get game over so easily!
That's great!

What is your favorite Sky song?

V: I think it's the song after the Forest Temple (titled "Faded Glories," from Sky OST vol. 1). I think this song is really my style. It's somewhere between classical and jazz.

The place after the Forest Temple. Faded Glories is the soundtrack here

I don't think many people in the U.S. make game music in this kind of position. I think game music in the U.S. is more classical, like Austin Wintory (composer of "Journey"). It is close to the feeling of film music. So, it's very different from the genre of Japanese game music.

I also like the music in Season of The Little Prince.

Also, the music in Season of Flight, I like them too! The guitar sound is typical in those songs, I'm still learning about the guitar, but I was able to make it sound the way I like it.

Ah, the Trail songs from Season of Prophecy are good too. It's a unique style. Not only the music, but the ordeal itself is unique in Sky and I don't think there is anything else like it. The Trail of Fire is the best of them for me.

I learned wind instruments for the first time in composing Sky, clarinet, soprano saxophone, and electronic wind instruments… it's very interesting!

How many songs do you compose in a season?

V: Well, it depends on the season (pause), so it's hard to say... I made a lot of music for Season of The Little Prince and Season of Flight, come to think of it.

And then the conversation goes to sheet music and ensembles

V: I am sure that all fan's Sky ensembles and performances make me very happy and cheered up every time I see it! ( Ray's note: maybe talking about videos uploaded to social media)

R Wow...! That's very touching. I am sure all those ensemble lovers will be happy too!
By the way, have you heard of Sky Music Festival? It's a fan project we are doing.

V: Of course!

R: Hee! Ohhhh, thank you...!

Do you have any favorite sheet music?

V: The music Sheet of Season of The Star Prince (sheet 22) and Season of Flight (sheet 25) are impressive.

The season was a collaboration with The Little Prince

In Season of Flight, a new stage called Wind Path was introduced

R: I think it's not too much to say that those two are almost the same, twins, but sheet 25 is the original, and sheet 22 is derived from it.

V: I originally wrote sheet 25, and sheet 22 is the one that slowed down the tempo and got more relaxed. I couldn't decide which one to take up during Season of The Little Prince, but I am very happy that sheet 25, which we did not take up at that time, made its appearance in Season of Flight!

Regarding the lag that occurs during score ensemble

R: I think it is difficult to eliminate the lag in the Sky sheet ensemble as long as the ensemble is playing through an internet line, but volunteers who like to play ensemble are devising various methods to eliminate the lag by controlling timings from the player's side. Their passion is truly amazing...How about you, Mr. Vincent, how do you feel about this area?

V: Yes, I am aware of the rugs. We have been working on it for a long time to try to solve it somehow, but it's not easy...

R: The feel of the sheet playing in Sky changes from time to time, and I am sure you are doing a lot of things under the hood, right?

V: Yes, when we were developing Sky, when we tested it with everyone in the same room, we had a perfectly fitting ensemble and we were like, "Yes!
Then we tried it again same thing through an internet line, and the lag was so bad that I was shocked.

R: I felt everyone was trying so hard to eliminate the lag. I appreciate it! (Ray's note: When Mr. Jenova says that sheet 4 is "the only one I can play," is it because he practiced it during these tests by any chance...?)

A few words about future sheets

V: I think I will probably have a big challenge in future sheet music.

R: Eh! Is that by any chance a more difficult one than sheet 19?

V: I think it might be (smiles)

R: Oh, wow! There are a certain number of ensemble lovers who prefer difficult sheets, and I am sure they will be very pleased! They enjoy difficult scores like sheets 19, 29, etc. very much!
And, of course, it's very exciting news for me too!

V: (smiles)

(Ray's Note: Don’t worry, Mr. Vincent seems to be aware that people love difficult sheet music.)

Did you have a meeting with Adam about making the sheets?

R: Looking at the recent changes in music sheets, I wonder if you had any meetings or anything like that with Adam.

V: I have had a conversation with him about how to think to make sheet music and use the tools when composing it. But he does all the composing himself. 　
Yes, I would like to hear more of Adam's compositions, I think.

(Ray's note: I have a feeling that the sounds on the parts have been organized, but I am sure that is because some communication must have happened between them about how to think (and perhaps it means how to arrange the music into a sheet music parts composition?) It's just my thought.)

He also makes sound effects!

V: Actually, I also make sound effects.

R: Eh! Not only Ritsu-san, but Vincent-san too!

V: Yes, I do. For example, when you are flying in Sky and you pass by a cliff or a building, you hear a "boom" sound, right? That is the sound I made.

R: Yes! I didn't realize that! I'm so surprised!

Creating the sound of the Fortune Drum

R: The sound of the Fortune Drum is very nice!

V: That was almost entirely created by Ritsu-san... Ritsu-san is amazing... When you start up Sky, there is a sound (sound logo) that goes with the logo. That was created by Ritsu-san. It is very nice and pleasant to listen to, isn't it? Not only the sound creation, but many other things are also great.

The sound logo plays on the logo screen, which appears first when Sky is started up.
This image is a screenshot

R: Yes! I am aware of it! I heard him say that about 50 sound logos were rejected in the official live broadcast! It's really amazing.

V: (smiles)

Is sheet 13's percussion part conscious of the Handpan?

R: I think that the percussion part of sheet 13 sounds like it was made with Handpan. At that time, the Handpan wasn’t implemented but must have been developed. Were you conscious of the Handpan’s scale (in music, it means a series of a set of notes like CDEF...) when you composed this piece?

Sheet 13 is the music sheet in Season of Enchantment.
Handpan was implemented since Season of Sanctuary, just after Season of Enchantment

V: I was lucky that it happened to sound beautiful. (smile) The Handpan's scale really encourages me to use a Lydian scale (a kind of scale, but has a different flavor). Therefore, I use it a lot in sheets from around sheet 13 and onward. The early sheets didn't use that much.

R: I see! But I am surprised that the percussion part of sheet 13 was fit by chance! It's so beautiful…

On to a deeper sound story

A little bit of sound mechanics here.

V: Sky has two themes, sheet 2 and 3's main melody, and sheet 2, I've started using the Lydian Scale a lot when I sneak the theme into a piece because it fits so well.
For the theme of sheet 3, I often use the Dorian Scale (which is also a scale, but with a different taste from Lydian) because it fits well!

R: I agree.

(Ray's Note: What was interesting was that he described the sheet 2 themes as "up" and the sheet 3 themes as "down". That makes sense really. The sheets sound (YouTube video) link is below, end of the article)

About the composition of the Sky music

V: My wife sometimes watches your YouTube channel to hear the sound of a completed sheet.
I like programming, and I submit the asked music sheets to the system guys, it is only as the code, so they are completed and submitted without me actually hearing the sound. The system guys hear the sound of the completed sheet earlier than me.

(Ray's Note: She also didn't have a chance to hear the completed sound, and she was watching YouTube channels.)

R: That is really too awesome, though! I can't imagine!

V: This feeling is similar to the feeling of completing a composition on a sheet (paper) of music without playing any notes. I guess the difference is that I don't write notes on paper but in chords on the computer.

R: Ah, I see. Nowadays, people can write music with an orchestra playing on the computer, but that was not possible in the past. In a sense, it was common practice to write music by echoing the sounds in one's head and putting them on a score, or echoing the sounds on a score in one's head, so you are putting them on a code rather than a score! That's amazing.

Now that you mention it, I was wondering, should composers in the game music world be able to code as well?

V: Not necessarily. Some people specialize only in composing, and there are people like me who like coding and making sound effects (SE) and do that in addition to composing. I think it depends on each person.

Vincent's history of music

V: I am completely self-taught in DTM (which means music composition and sound data creation on a computer), but I learned composition and piano from my teacher.

R: Self-taught! That's really amazing...! Yes, I read in an old interview that you studied piano.

V: Yes, I did. I went to college as a music scholarship student, but then I got into composing and decided to change my path, which made everyone around me very angry. Performing was a lot of fun, but it was a tough world.

R. Yes, it is…agree. But because of those steps, you are here today. For all of that, I can only be thankful.

Please give a message to the ensemble members.

R: I am so sorry that I have been completely spoiled by your kindness to have a quite long conversation.
Finally, could you give a message to everyone who loves Sky's scores and ensembles?

V: I am very grateful to everyone who plays Sky's instruments and music sheets ensembles. Thank you for enjoying them.
It makes me so happy to see everyone enjoying themselves.
I love playing so much, but I switched from performer to composer because it had become a terrifying thing to do, plus I thought I was better suited to composing. So, I am very thankful for the Sky instruments and sheets that allowed me to experience the "joy of playing" again.
If you are struggling with a difficult sheet, say a 19, please don't worry. You are not alone, because there are others in the community!