Golden week was approaching. And as my annual habit dictates, I wished that I was in Japan again to see the cherry blossoms. But little did I know that this April would pack a pleasant scent from that country; for to me, if cherry blossoms made sound, what I experienced at the annual Kuwait games con. in the year 2018 would be it. The masters of music in games that shaped generations seemed eager to meet and talk to all sort of fans. And at the heart of it all was one dream, and one man. And since then I have been wanting to ask this man all sorts of questions about his vision and dream. Below are answers that I hope most of you will find enlightening.
First off, can you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?
My name is Mohammed Abu Al-Hassan Taher. Most people online know me as Mohammed Taher while people here in Kuwait call me Mohammed Abu Al-Hassan. I have a diploma in oil and gas engineering from the Australian University in Kuwait. I Worked in the KOC since I was 20 years old, which was very fortunate, but being a 20 years old who suddenly was suddenly exposed to the working world made me quickly feel discontent with my position at the time, and to be honest I have though a lot about leaving my job and doing something else. But I started appreciating my job when I started my company; because I was able then to put a lot of my income into producing high-quality albums and soundtracks.
How did the idea of establishing a music label that supports famous musicians from the Japanese gaming industry come to be?
To answer this I have to go back 20 years… Back in the day I was the kid who most liked listening to musician my family. I used to buy a lot of cassettes, and even track their release dates in the newspapers. So while my brother would flip the pages to the sports section, I would flip over to the albums release section. Back in the day I also liked making mix tapes, I would use the good old 2 slot cassette player at my cousin’s house. And since then I moved on the CDs and other media forms as that migration took place. Now, back in the day I also used to write in the Saudi website: True-Gaming.net, and from true gaming we made a podcast called free-talk weekly. And so I thought about making unique intro music for the podcast, and at the time I had just finished the video-game VVVVVV, which had an amazing soundtrack. So I simply contacted the musician for the game and asked him to make us an intro theme, and he did! That was way back in 2010-2011, and at the same time I had my own blog which was called “World 1-2” which I used to write about many topics that interested me at the time. For the blog’s 1 year anniversary, and given what I had done so far, I though it would nice to make a small album (3 or 4 tracks), and that of course would go on to be the beginning of our album “World 1-2”, and because I was a spelunky fan, I contacted one of the game’s musicians (Eirik Suhrke) and we agreed on 5 tracks. Then I talked to Essam Alghamdi (a.ka. Agent Wiskers).
And so the idea grew and I started talking to many other artists, until I reached Akira Yamaoka (Composer of the Silent Hill games) which I had met a year prior at a gaming event in Saudi Arabia I even went on a the trip to the desert the organizers made for the guests. I sent him some photos I took from that time and asked him if he would compose a track for the album I was working on. And after a couple of days I was surprised that he said yes! And that was huge because now a big name like Akira Yamaoka should draw in more musicians and artists, and sure enough it did; Stemage from Metroid Metal, module the composer of chatter, and video-game orchestra which composed the music for FINAL FANTASY 13 were some of the names that joined the project.
One of the names that I really was happy to meet during my quest on the album was Moriama-san, the composer for the Captin Tsubasa 2 Ninja Gaiden games. I wanted to do an interview with him, but since he didn’t speak English I contacted a person I met on twitter called Alex (which is currently my partner in the company) to help me conduct the interview, and it was then that I asked Moriama-san to join the album and at the same time worked with my future partner for the company. Having these names in the project made me realize the I can basically reach any person I want, and so the search took a broader approach; I opened iTunes and started looking for artists that I liked and so names like Manami Matsumae, the composer of the original Mega-Man.
That project took a lot more than what was originally planned. And during that time I even got in touch with yacht club games and helped them by connecting them with Manami Matsumae for composing tracks for their game: Shovel Knight. And as a form of appreciation, the added a pixelated photo of myself in a room in the game.
After all that Alex, who was working on translating and managing the work in Japan suggested that I come to Japan to meet the artists. And it was during that visit that Alex suggested that we form an official company, if we want to reach bigger companies and make bigger deals.
So until then you did not form the company. What your name then? And what made you choose the name “BraveWave” now?
The name until then was “Koopa Sandbox”. But due to the legal constraints that associate the usage of this name, me and Marco, the third vital pillar in the company and audio engineer came up with the name “BraveWave” during a brainstorm session, and so on January 14th 2014 the company BraveWave was officially registered as a Japanese company, 2 years after working on our first album “World 1-2”.
That was a very interesting story on how the company was established. Now as a Buisness, are there still more artists you wish to work with? And are you only focusing on Japanese musicians?
Well, in terms of game development, we are looking for any game developer who wants to work with us, no matter the region. We do have a specific standard for the quality of the games we are willing to participate in, but we would be happy to work with any game developer, Arabic or otherwise.
In terms of adding new artists, it is more difficult to get a new artist to compose for a game developer if the artist did not establish themselves as a capable composer. The game developers that contact us seek established names in the industry to compose for their games (Such as the case with yacht club games and Manami Matsumae). There might be a chance for such first timers to better establish themselves by participating in a compilation album featuring other big names, but even then the quality of the work has to be carefully examined to ensure the overall quality of the project doesn’t suffer. So adding an Arabic composer to a project for example has to therefore undergo careful evaluation if that composer is still in their start-up phase.
I see. So now allow me to shift gears a bit and talk about the company itself. What were the hurdles you faced when you first started registering the company officially in Japan?
So when we first set out to establish a record company, me an Alex soon realized that the type of business model we have been working with did not the organizational structure of most companies in Kuwait at the time. So we opted to instead form a company in Japan, since we had most of our artists in Japan, and Alex was living in Japan already. So we moved forward with the legal procedure there, which was smooth and had no serious hurdles to think of.
Between releasing remixes of famous musical pieces and releasing original works, what is BraveWave focusing on nowadays?
We are focusing on both actually. In terms of original works we already released Keiji Yamagishi, the composer for Captin Tsubasa and Ninja Geiden’s first solo album “Retroactive Part 1” back in 2015. And Part 2 was released in 2016. This year we are planning on announcing the official BraveWave band which includes Keiji-san and the Mega-Man composer Manami-san, as well as the guitarist from Metroid Metal Stemage, the keyboard player Dino Lionetti from cheap dinosaurs, the drummer Kev from cheap dinosaurs, and the chip-tuner and basest Steave. We will announce more about this band soon. But for now I can say that the band is called “Super Strikers”. The band is actually working on remixes Keiji-san’s albums and their work will be released next month, we are calling it “The Retroactive Experience”.
Other than we are working on the band’s album, as well as expansion pieces for traditional soundtracks in Mega-Man and Captin Tsubasa. These expansions will be done by the original artists who composed the original tracks back in the NES and SNES days.
We are also working on “World 1-3”, which will include a host of excellent returning artists as well as artists joining in for the first time such as the wonderful David Wise as well as Lena Raine, the composer for the hit game Celeste, as well as Dale North and other musicians that form a super star list for th album. We are aiming for a January release next year, so hopefully by then we can share more news about it.
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