Thursday 6 September 2012

Interview: Catching up with さつき が てんこもり once again



Back in December 2010, we had the tremendous pleasure of running a short-but-sweet interview with Lord Tenkomori, a very popular composer and arranger in the world of denpa (but also known for his drum'n'bass skills, among other genres). Since then, he's been involved with about a half-million fantastic doujin projects, but just as importantly he released his first major album 「ニコ生モラルハザード」 in September 2011, which appeared on our top 3 underrated albums of 2011. It's a must-own and no denpa fan should be without it!

Well less than a year later, he's back at it with a second major album! 「人畜無害」 features 初音ミク on vocals and was released on June 27th 2012. It includes 15 tracks as well as a bonus DVD full of animated features! Even more exciting, one of these tracks is a MOSAIC.WAV remix of modern classic 「お断りします」... it just screams kayapi!




This is but one of the six videos included on the bonus DVD in glorious full HD. There is also one for the title song, but most fascinating for gaming nerds is 「アストロ トルーパー」 which we'll be discussing shortly... in our second さつき が てんこもり interview!

- First of all, congratulations for your explosive musical career so far.

I really couldn't have done all of this without all my fans, listener and collaborators. Of course, denpa no sekai has always supported me!


- What achievements are you proudest of so far?

Now, that's just impossible to choose! For sure, this latest release 「人畜無害」 is extremely important to me. As of late, my VOCALOID creations must be infallible.


- Let's talk about your 2011 album 「ニコ生モラルハザード」 on which you teamed up with three nico-vocalists. Despite the fact that you never worked with these girls before, you managed to match their different personalities to your songs. For instance Hamar is rougher and so 「魔法変身! 顔面ランドスケープ」 has many explosive parts, even gunshot sound effects. Although the end result sounds very natural, how hard was it to perform this combination of personality and composition?

Well, the buzz about this album has quieted on the Internet, but I really appreciate reading your deep interpretation! Since the girls have different personalities, it wasn't hard to write matching songs. It helps that I was already a fan before we even started working together, so it was not very difficult for me to compose individual theme songs.

The main concept of the album was Nico Douga and live broadcasting in general, but I always enjoy parodying the Akiba and Club cultures, this is often the backbone to many of my songs. Overall, meeting everyone and recording each song was a most pleasant experience!


- Do you think you will work with them again, particularly みかりん*? She was a very natural fit for your songs, although ゆづか姫 was also fantastic on 「UniUni SunSun」.

Careful what you wish for, you just might get it! There may or may not be a new project underway. I can't divulge anymore information at the moment, but everyone should follow my twitter account @tenkomori for the latest updates!




- When I asked you about 「人畜無害」 back in January 2012, you told me about a surprise PV for hardcore otakus and fans of retro shooting games. Now we can talk about 「アストロトルーパー」 which is chock-full of references to games such as Gradius, Zero Wing, Cho Aniki, Mega Man, Space Harrier, Xevious, Space Invaders and many more!

Actually, 「アストロトルーパー」 is playful criticism about featherweight otakus. Go hard or go home! Choosing the STG genre for a parody of retro games just felt like a natural fit for the topic.


- You once told us MOSAIC.WAV is one of your major source of inspiration, so how does it feel to have them remix one of your songs?

I'm always happy to work with other artists, but this is special. Let's just say I have been a MOSAIC.WAV fan for almost ten years! As for the collaboration... there's jealousy in the air and at this point, I fear for my life.



- After all these years, you finally produced your first eroge OP theme song 「占勇!魔界ブロードバンド」 with none other than 綾瀬理恵 on vocals (AKA 白沢理恵 from ave;new). To be honest I'm surprised it took you so long!

Needless to say, this was very exciting work for me. This song has received very good feedback from music fans and eroge critics overall. I really want more game studios to notice me, so let's just hope this opens the door to more!


- Thank you so much for your time and I think I can speak for your fans around the world when I say we wish you the best success with 「人畜無害」.

Well, in fact I should have answered this interview months ago, but I gotta tell you... it's all SEGA's fault! I've been power-levelling in their new MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 on a daily basis. 電波の世界 should sue SEGA for this delay!

I will never stop spitting out denpa songs. Thanks for your support and keep in touch!

Addendum: Congratulations to Lord Tenkomori for getting his song "Netgame Addict Sprechchor" included in SEGA's 「初音ミク -Project DIVA- f

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the interview! :D

I must say I discovered Tenkomori with his last album (Since you were so recommending it!). I must say you didn't lie, and it's pretty solid!