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 December 18, 2008.

Born on April 3, 1963 in Osaka, Tsuyoshi Sekito is a composer, arranger, and guitarist at Square Enix and a leading member of The Black Mages. Utterly obsessed with guitars, Sekito's favourite artists are those that use the instrument principally. Though inclined towards uptempo West coast American rock, the use of guitars prominently is Sekito's primary source of appeal regardless of style. 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 to join the Osaka branch of Square.

During his first two years at Square, Sekito single-handedly scored the action RPG 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. He created 137 tracks, but many of the compositions were variations of other tracks 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 pieces. 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, they firmly represented the company's efforts to musically diversify in the Sony era and led directly to The Black Mages' formation.

During his early years at Square, Sekito also participated in several projects as an arranger and guitarist. For Chrono Trigger's PlayStation remake, he created quasi-orchestral arrangements of popular themes and several new compositions for the FMV sequences. He enhanced the grungy feel of Parasite Eve II's opening theme "Forbidden Power" with an overdriven electric guitar performance and duetted with Satoshi Akamatsu on steel-stringed guitar on Final Fantasy X's "Jecht's 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 series when he composed two new battle themes and conventionally rearranged Nobuo Uematsu's entire score of Final Fantasy II for the WonderSwan Color and PlayStation; 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. As Sekito was an Osaka employee while Uematsu resided in Tokyo, it was not until the formation of The Black Mages at the end of 2003 that the pair 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!

In 2002, Tsuyoshi Sekito created the album The Black Mages with Kenichiro Fukui. Early that year, guitarist Sekito and keyboardist Fukui messed around with several Final Fantasy battle themes during a jam session. 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 FFVII's "J-E-N-O-V-A" and FFVI's "Dancing Mad". The success of this album resulted in the formation of a six-piece band to perform the arrangements live. Comprising of Tsuyoshi Sekito (Guitar), Michio Okamiya (Guitar), Kenichiro Fukui (Keyboards), 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. For their eagerly anticipated second album, Sekito arranged four classic themes — FFI's "Matoya's Cave," FFIII's "The Rocking Grounds," FFIX's "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" and "Hunter's Chance," and FFIV's "Battle with the Four Fiends". Soon after, Sekito and the band featured in a second Japanese concert and made their overseas debut at the More Friends - Music from Final Fantasy concert in Los Angeles. 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. Alongside Kenji Ito, Sekito arranged various themes from the Super Nintendo's Romancing SaGa for its PlayStation 2 remake. 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. He was also responsible for numerous short themes placed on the album's fourth disc, the various 'From a Window' themes, and the original composition "Isthmus Castle Raid". For 2005's highly anticipated film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Sekito created several of the most intense rock and electronic 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". Following this project, he was assigned to produce two trumpet-led battle themes and a Morricone-influenced Final Fantasy arrangement on Hanjuku Hero 4 ~The 7 Heroes~. He also offered three electro-acoustic arrangements on Front Mission Online and the edgy rock-orchestral fusion "Ice Field" on Square Enix Music Official Bootleg Vol. 1.

In 2006, Sekito worked with Keiji Kawamori and Yasuhiro Yamanaka to arrange Nobuo Uematsu's compositions from Final Fantasy III for its DS remake. Sekito helped to modernise and refine the original compositions, but the arrangements were mostly conservative and were heavily downgraded for the DS. Sekito also took a major role on Dawn of Mana (aka Seiken Densetsu 4). The project reunited the Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song team, but this time Sekito worked principally as a composer with the exception of his normal battle theme arrangement. He provided the game with a sense of darkness, drama, and action with cinematic cues often directly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith and several percussive rock-based action and battle themes. Sekito has also been consistently involved in the Final Fantasy XI arrangement band The Star Onions exclusively as a guitarist. Having performed for their debut album 'The Other Side of Vana'diel', he has also appeared with pianist Kumi Tanioka and bassist Naoshi Mizuta in concert at 2004's Chains of Promathia Special Night, Japan's Final Fantasy XI Summer Carnivals, California's Final Fantasy XI Fan Festivals, and 2007's Tokyo Game Show. The band generally focus on creating acoustic and jazz pieces rather than rock ones and reflect a mellow side to Sekito's guitar performance. He has also offered guitar performances on a range of recent game projects.

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 and even performed the stunning solo during the climax of "Distant Worlds". In his largest composing role to date, Sekito scored the Xbox 360 RPG The Last Remnant. During the long development time, Sekito explored and refined his musicality in order to produce stylistically diverse and melodically memorable themes. He composed a large variety of themes, from imposing brass-based overtures to multifaceted sprawling setting themes to interactive hard-edged battle tracks to even his first vocal theme. His music complemented the enormous yet personal feel of the game and the score was unanimously praised by gamers for the way it added character to the settings, energy to the battles, and drama to the events. Also in 2008, Sekito arranged Final Fantasy battle themes for the PSP brawler Dissidia: Final Fantasy alongside Takeharu Ishimoto and Mitsuto Suzuki. He was able to integrate a hard rock feel into his arrangements, but was limited in his exuberance due to the limitations of the console. Following the success on The Last Remnant, Sekito is expected to be assigned to a major new game project. He will also reunite with The Star Onions to perform their second album early in 2009.