Tsuyoshi Sekito :: Biography

Note: This biography was written exclusively for Square Enix Music Online by Chris. The act of using it without advance written permission is regarded as a copyright infringement. It was last updated on March 2, 2008.

Born on April 3, 1963 in Osaka, Tsuyoshi Sekito is a composer, arranger, and guitarist for Square and a leading member of The Black Mages. Utterly obsessed with guitars, Sekito's favourite artists are those that use the instrument principally, such as Van Halen, Papa Roach, and Dream Theater. Though inclined towards uptempo West coast American rock, the use of guitars prominently is Sekito's primary source of appeal — whether it is within a straight rock, orchestral, fusion, or solo instrumental framework. Middle-aged, conscientious, and shy, Sekito regrettably feels he lacks the 'rock n' roll' spirit of his idols, though considers himself a good example of an instrumental rock performer. He became a video game composer at the end of the 1980's when he joined the Konami's sound team. Initially working on the MSX's Space Manbow, SD Snatcher, and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Sekito crafted a mixture of intense action themes and serious atmospheric pieces alongside several big name collaborators. He was subsequently assigned to score several sports titles (Double Dribble 5 on 5, Soccer Super Stars, Soccer Super Stars) and cartoon adaptations (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure) for a variety of consoles, often in leading roles. However, he nevertheless got one more opportunity to score a popular action score for the Arcade's Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters in 1994. After 1995's Soccer Super Stars, he left Konami and immediately joined the Osaka branch of Square with his friend Kenichiro Fukui.

During his first two years at Square, Sekito single-handedly scored Brave Fencer Musashi. He focused on creating simple orchestral music that fitted seamlessly with the gameplay without being especially memorable on a stand-alone basis. In total, 137 tracks were featured in the 1997 PlayStation action RPG — making it Square's largest soundtrack to date aside from Final Fantasy IX — though many of the compositions were variations of other tracks or used exclusively in dialogue sequences so the soundtrack release was compressed into two discs. The release was quite popular due to several stand-out tracks and some quirky stylistic features. The subsequent year, he assisted with the production of Chocobo's Dungeon 2 by creating 12 tracks. His contributions stylistically resembled his Brave Fencer Musashi compositions and introduced, often in a parodic way, mystery, darkness, and action to an otherwise light-hearted score. Afterwards, he focused on developing Square's first PlayStation 2 effort, 2000's Japan-only All Star Pro-Wrestling, with their fifth development team at Osaka. He, Fukui, and Tanioka produced a convincing attempt to introduce hard rock and voice samples to the company. Sekito went solo for the second's game score — also the only one to be released in an Original Soundtrack — and led the mysterious final score in the series. While the All Star Pro-Wrestling games were not the first examples of hard rock in a Square game, preceded by Ryuji Sasai's Bushido Blade 2 and Yoshihiro Sato's Cyber Org, it firmly represented the company's efforts to musically diversify in the Sony era and led directly to The Black Mages' formation. It also established Sekito as Square Enix's lead rocker.

During his early years at Square, Sekito also participated in several non-rock projects as an arranger and guitarist. He initially arranged Chrono Trigger's score to create the quasi-orchestral accompaniment to FMV sequences for its 1999 remake; these contributions appeared on the Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack and, interestingly enough, were used as source material for PLAY! A Video Game Symphony's Chrono Suite. His first role as a guitarist was for Parasite Eve II's opening theme 'Forbidden Power', where his overdriven performance added to its grungy feel. He also lent his hand to Final Fantasy X's "Jecht's Theme" in 2002, duetting with Satoshi Akamatsu on the steel-stringed guitar to interpret Uematsu's American country theme. For the same game's tribute album, he composed the adventurous rock ballad "Go dream" featuring Tidus' theme and Japanese voice actor. He took a third role on the Final Fantasy series later that year when he assisted Square's fifth development team once again to conventionally rearrange Nobuo Uematsu's entire score of Final Fantasy II for the PlayStation and WonderSwan Color; the PlayStation arrangements were released in the Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II Original Soundtrack, together with Nobuo Uematsu's arrangements of his own score for Final Fantasy, to commemorate the release of the Final Fantasy Origins compilation package. Interestingly, there was no direct collaboration with Nobuo Uematsu in any of these three works; as Sekito was an Osaka employee while Uematsu resided in Tokyo, it was not until the formulation of The Black Mages at the end of 2003 that they met. By 2002, however, all elements needed for Sekito to inspired The Black Mages were there: a love for rock, familiarity with Final Fantasy, experience as an arranger, talent as a guitarist, a collaboration with Kenichiro Fukui, and a tendency to experiment. Suddenly the self-confessed 'diligent salary man leading a lawful well-regulated life' would become an energetic swindling showman!

Tsuyoshi Sekito's creation of the album The Black Mages with Kenichiro Fukui not only changed the course of his career, but set up the most successful video game music band to date. One day in 2002, guitarist Sekito and keyboardist Fukui messed around with several Final Fantasy battle themes in the middle of a jam session. After adding a rock touch and improvised solos to the original themes, they showed Nobuo Uematsu and Michio Okamiya the results at Square Enix's Tokyo branch; they were so impressed that the album The Black Mages was commissioned. Arranged, performed, and implemented solely by Sekito and Fukui, it featured hard rock arrangements of various battle themes such as Final Fantasy VII's "J-E-N-O-V-A," Final Fantasy V's "Clash on the Big Bridge," and Final Fantasy VI's "Dancing Mad." The success of this album resulted in the formulation of a six-piece band to perform the arrangements live. Comprising of Tsuyoshi Sekito (Guitar), Michio Okamiya (Guitar), Kenichiro Fukui (Keyboards inc. Organ and Piano), Keiji Kawamori (Bass Guitar), Arata Hanyuda (Drums), and Nobuo Uematsu (Organ), The Black Mages were an international hit and went on to feature in the Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange and release a DVD of their first live concert. Their second album, released in December 2004, was eagerly anticipated and saw Sekito arrange four classic themes — creating Final Fantasy's "Matoya's Cave," Final Fantasy III's "The Rocking Grounds," Final Fantasy IX's "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" and "Hunter's Chance," and Final Fantasy IV's "Battle with the Four Fiends". Soon after, Fukui and the band featured in a second Japanese concert, which again received an exclusive DVD release, and made their overseas debut at the More Friends - Music from Final Fantasy concert in Los Angeles. Astonishingly, all this came from a fun experiment between two unlikely people.

The mainstream appeal of The Black Mages' style inspired Square Enix to utilise Tsuyoshi Sekito as a rock arranger and performer in numerous other projects. The two year project to remake Romancing SaGa for the PlayStation 2 resulted in Sekito joining Kenji Ito to arrange various themes from the Super Nintendo soundtrack. Largely responsible for the rock battle themes, Sekito provided a hard rock feel to them at request of Michio Okamiya; he was given incredible freedom to improvise with his electric guitar above repeating chord progressions, made possible thanks to the streamed sound employed. He was also responsible for numerous short themes placed on Disc Four of the soundtrack, the various 'From a Window' themes, and the original composition "Isthmus Castle Raid". For 2005's highly anticipated film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, he created several of the most intense rock arrangements for the film, namely "Violator", "Savior", "J-E-N-O-V-A", and, with Keiji Kawamori, new versions of "Those Who Fight" and "The Great Northern Cave". He also created the brief original composition "Materia" and the majority of the piano-led "For the Reunion". Another testament to his ability as a performer is given by his involvement in not just one band, but two. He has been a consistent contributor to the Final Fantasy XI arrangement band The Star Onions solely as a guitarist. Having performed for their debut album 'The Other Side of Vana'diel', he also appeared with pianist Kumi Tanioka and bassist Naoshi Mizuta in concert on September 2004's Chains of Promathia Special Night, Japan's Final Fantasy XI Summer Carnival 2005, and March 2006's Californian Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival. The band have generally focused on creating acoustic and jazz pieces rather than rock ones.

A significant non-rock project was the score of Final Fantasy III's DS remake, where he worked alongside Keiji Kawamori and the score's synthesizer operator Yasuhiro Yamanaka to arrange Nobuo Uematsu's compositions from the Final Fantasy III Original Sound Version. His arrangements mostly modernised and refined Uematsu's compositions rather than transformed them, but the result was a satisfying and melodic accompaniment to the game. Sekito's latest major work was Dawn of Mana (aka Seiken Densetsu 4). Here, he collaborated with Kenji Ito and synthesizer operator Hirosato Noda like he did with Romancing Saga Minstrel Song, but was principally a composer. He provided the game with a sense of darkness, drama, and action with cinematic cues often directly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith and several percussive and rock-based action and battle themes. Other recent projects include two trumpet-led battle themes and an Ennio Moricone-influenced arrangement for Hanjuku Hero 4 -The 7 Heroes-, three electro-acoustic arrangements for Front Mission Online, guitar performance in Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~ and Kingdom Hearts II, and the composition "Ice Field" for Square Enix Music Official Bootleg Vol. 1 in the style of a Dawn of Mana battle theme. In 2008, Sekito reunited with The Black Mages for their third album 'Darkness and Starlight'. His arrangement role was limited to the gritty bass-focused "Premonition" and the opening section of the Final Fantasy VI opera. He nevertheless shined throughout the album as a guitarist, performing a stunning guitar solo during the climax of "Distant Worlds". Sekito is currently scoring the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 RPG The Last Remnant; his biggest composing role to date, here he will combine orchestral event themes and interactive rock-based battle themes for a game intended to revolutionise RPGs.