J-Pop Exchange
Exclusive Interview with
Chumei Watanabe
(a.k.a. Michiaki Watanabe)

Chumei WatanabeJ-Pop Exchange Radio Show Exclusive Interview

Transcript

SeanBird (J-Pop Exchange): Hi Mr. Watanabe, thank you for taking the time to speak with us…

Chumei Watanabe: You are welcome. Thank you very much. I am delighted to be invited by an American radio program, not to mention one from New York.

SeanBird: If you do not mind, please tell us something about where you were born and where you grew up. Was it in a large city or a smaller town?

Chumei Watanabe: I was born in Nagoya, one of the three major cities in Japan, and spent most of my youth there. The City of Nagoya is in Aichi prefecture, and so is Toyota City, and that’s where the famous TOYOTA’s head office and manufacturing plants are.

SeanBird: Did your interest in music begin in your childhood? How did you become interested in music?

Chumei Watanabe: When I was small, my interest towards music was next to nothing. In elementary school, we had a singing class where we sang songs approved by Ministry of Education, but I didn’t really concern myself with that kind of class. When I was in the 5th or 6th grade, my father bought a phonograph, and played songs that were popular at the time. He told me to listen with him, so I listened to those songs just as an obligation to my father. We also listened to Naniwabushi, which is a type of traditional popular Japanese performance, which, in essence, is narrative singing accompanied by a shamisen. There is a genre in the current Japanese popular music called Enka, and it’s thought that the singing style for Enka descended from Japanese traditional music, including Naniwabushi. The music scale of Naniwabushi is pentatonic. It’s missing 4th and 7th scales, and has both major and minor scales. The major scale of pentatonic is present in Britain and in the US, but the minor scale pentatonic is different from that of America’s. So, this is my musical experience in my early days. On a side note, what first got me into western music was, as I recall, film music. Schubert’s biographical movie Gently My Songs Entreat and One Hundred Men and a Girl featuring Deanna Durbin and Leopold Stokowski… I still remember the scenes vividly from these two movies.

SeanBird: Please tell us about your musical studies and training.

Chumei Watanabe: The first instrument I ever touched was a harmonica. That was in the beginning of junior high school. My classmate was playing a harmonica, and I was very inspired by that so I bought myself a harmonica and an instruction book at a department store, and I practiced avidly. The score for harmonica was written in the numbered musical notation at the time: C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, and so on. As I continued with my practice, I became able to sing songs by just looking at the score. Eventually, I became interested in other types of music, and from watching American cinema, I began to foster this rather impudent dream of becoming a composer, a film composer, no less. We had music classes at school until the sophomore year in junior high school, and we were taught musical grammar as well. I thought to myself: if I am to become a composer, I ought to be able to read the staff notation. So, I bought myself a song collection, and started learning it from the C major, until I was able to sing in all different keys. I had already developed a sense of tone interval with the numbered notation, so the transition was not a problem. Yes, I used the method of solmization, or so called the “movable do” for this. In retrospect, it strikes me as uncharacteristic of my father, but he said if I wanted to become a composer, the harmonica was not good enough and that I should perhaps take up piano lessons. So, I started going to a piano class in the neighborhood. I am not sure why he pushed me in that direction at that time. In any case, we had a piano at home as my younger sister was already taking piano lessons by then. I started with the Beyer piano book, and practiced sonatinas and other easy classical songs. I believe I made good advancements in piano in a fairly short period of time. I learned singing as well, from a school music teacher. I was able to sing every page of Chorübungen on our first day, so I was exempted from solfège lessons. I mainly learned classical vocalization, singing Italian songs and lieder by composers such as Schubert. This music teacher also taught me piano, and we played Mozart and Chopin, and so on... then, the Pacific War broke out. Secondary school students were all mobilized for production labor, and we had to work at an iron foundry. At any rate, the nadir of music learning persisted. It was an awful time when all American music - playing or listening - was forbidden.

SeanBird: How and when did you decide to pursue a career in music? Was it always your intention to pursue a career in music?

Chumei Watanabe: As I said earlier, I had a dream of becoming a film composer but I had no confidence, so with regards to thinking about the future, I had an anguished adolescence. It was right after the war, and a career in music didn’t seem all that promising, so my father recommended me to go to a regular university. And I did. I majored in psychology at Tokyo University. I thought that field of study had some relevance to music. In Tokyo, an acquaintance referred me to a classical composer, Ikuma Dan, and I studied singing under him. During my time at university, I still wasn’t confident that I would make it as a composer. I was quite apprehensive at times. And I went and saw many Japanese movies whenever I had the time. I’d listen to the music in the movie, but even to my standards back then, rarely had I encountered music I considered high level, and oftentimes felt that I could do better. So, that encouraged me to pursue a career in film score composition. I still had some doubts until I graduated from the university, but by the time I graduated, I was determined. After I graduated, I enrolled in graduate school, but I studied under a classical music professor, learning the opposite method, orchestration, and so on. There was a flat where they allowed pianos, so I had the piano shipped from my house in Nagoya. I mostly studied classical, but I had a strong interest in pop music as well, and I often went to concerts including jazz. After spending one year at the graduate school, my father suddenly fell ill and passed away. I moved back into the house in Nagoya to live with my mother, and visited Tokyo time to time for the lessons. I did feel a little frustrated, but when I was confident enough, I went and met with the music director at CBC Radio, which is a radio station in Nagoya area. I told him that I wanted to make music for radio dramas. When I look back on the time, it feels very strange to me as it seems rather daring, go knocking on the door like that without a reference of any sort, and perhaps that was owing to my mere passion at the time or my plain youth, but I am glad I did it. The music director was very kind, and after some visits from me, he gave me a job to make music for a drama. After this work, I started receiving job requests back to back for different dramas and other shows, and I began to earn enough to make a living. I got married at around this time, and we were blessed with a child. CBC had its exclusive orchestra, and I was working mainly as its song writer, arranger, and a conductor. During that period, I was able to learn a great deal about the instruments in an orchestra. Eventually, a choir was formed at CBC, and I was asked to teach them as well. My experience at the radio station was extremely valuable, but what I always wanted to pursue was a career in film music. My classmate from the university was an employee at a movie studio, Shintoho, so I visited him for some advice. He thought it was important that I come out to Tokyo, so I followed his advice. I had the person in charge at Shintoho to listen to my background music recordings from the CBC radio drama series. He said: “Sounds good. We’ll give you a call soon, so please stay put.” We moved to Tokyo right away, and waited. After about half a year later, I received a phone call requesting me to write songs. I was delirious. This was my very first job scoring a film. The first song was for a samurai drama, and the director instructed me to use just a guitar. I struggled, but I wrote the song, and people liked it. Since that point, I started receiving music requests one after another from the company. Then, after some time, I started working for other film companies and TV stations through the film conductor Hiroshi Yoshizawa. This gave me the opportunity to work on a wide variety of films including documentaries.

SeanBird: Can you give us some insight into your writing process? When you compose music, how do you progress from inspiration to creation?

Chumei Watanabe: It is extremely difficult to explain the writing process in words. Let’s just focus on the special effects and animation films. I mentioned the minor scale that skips 2 and 6 notes when I was talking about minor scales. I had become acquainted with an ethnic music musicologist named Fumio Koizumi, and he had an influence on me. Japanese folk songs resemble the American minor pentatonic scale. The American pentatonic is rooted in the African music scale. I’m fascinated by this scale, and I’ve always felt an attraction to the scales. I thought it was perfect for conveying the wildness of action movies. But it doesn’t mean I was fixated just on this particular scale; I’ve used many other scales and melodies. However, my music fans have captured my music and call it “Chumei Sounds” or “Chumei Bushi,” and I believe what characterizes that is this minor scale without 2nd and 6th notes.

Now, let's talk about the composition of a theme song, ending song, insert song and so on. For most of the works, I've utilized the following process of writing the lyrics first and adding a melody to it. It can be said that the form of the lyrics almost determines the composition of the outline of the song. The composition of the melody often takes the form of A-B, A-B-C, A-B-C-D. When composing, I will start with the first phrase of A, but I will make the melody while thinking that A's melody is attractive, has an impact, has a punch, etc. It is important whether good phrases flash. While repeating trial and error, I think until I understand. There is a limitation of the lyrics, but on the contrary, the melody may be triggered by the lyrics and a good result may be produced. Next is B. It is often a song that gives an impression that contrasts with A. In this way, we will make the melody to the end. When the melody is finished, I will rest for a while and re-examine. If there is time, it will often be the next day, but I think that taking a break might produce good results. You can then view things objectively and calmly study the songs. If there is a part that you do not like, remake that part. I think the natural flow of melody and harmony is important. When the melody is complete, we will start with the arrangement. In the case of action songs, the prelude part emphasizes in particular punching power, being impressive and unique. Even with the backing arrangement of the song, I try to create a comfortable and powerful rhythm pattern.

SeanBird: Who are your musical influences?

Chumei Watanabe: Here, I’d like to briefly go back to my composition training. As I was composing music for films and TV drama, I continued my studies. Do you know the brilliant alto saxophone player named Sadao Watanabe? He had just returned from studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston back then, and he was teaching jazz theory at his house, so I went to his lessons once a week. He would give me assignments to work on. I was astonished by Berklee’s very systematic approach to jazz harmony, and I learned immensely from these lessons. In addition, for my scoring training, a great deal of it was self-study – and I think that’s important. I listened to much outstanding music, and if I found a phrase that was appealing or left me with an impression, I repeated it in my mind. I exercised this routinely. I didn’t limit myself to listening to only certain composers, but rather, I listened to and studied a broad spectrum of music genre, mainly with LPs and CDs. I also listened to many movie soundtracks. Looking back, I think my focus was mainly on songs that were to my taste and what I thought would match, musicality, with the Japanese audience. My list would be endless if I had to name them, but if I must choose, the music from spaghetti western films by composers like Ennio Moricone, the music from Mission: Impossible by Lalo Schifrin, and 13 Jours en France by Francis Lai. I think I was influenced by Quincy Jones as well. Then later on, Jerry Hey’s technique gave me big hints on brass arrangements. I captured the most engaging part of each song, and consciously or subconsciously, I developed them further. That was my intention, anyway.

SeanBird: What music do you listen to?

Chumei Watanabe: Aside from my composition training, I listen to a wide variety of music. People might have the impression I’m specialized in action music, but I’ve always liked lyrical music. There are too many great songs to name so I will omit that, but what I can tell you is that there seems to be less beautiful melodies in today’s pop songs, and I am quite disappointed by that. American standards from the early 20th century was filled with wonderful songs. The best song I like is the theme song from Disney’s Pinocchio, “When You Wish Upon a Star.” I remember it time to time and sing it in my head. There are many other great composers who wrote masterpieces, including Jerome Kern. I listen to classical music as well, but less frequently so these days.

SeanBird: How did you become involved with composing music for television?

Chumei Watanabe: As I mentioned earlier, I became involved with composing music for television through a film conductor, Hiroshi Yoshizawa, who referred me to it. It also happened that an assistant film director started working at a television station instead, and he gave me scoring jobs for the station. Toei Company, which is a film corporation, happened to be producing a TV drama series at that television station, so I was able to make a connection with the TV production section of Toei. I made about 100 film scores, and I have worked on numerous serious drama series. The major turning point in my composing life, however, was the tokusatsu action drama called Android Kikaider. This was produced by the TV drama section of Toei Company. Mazinger Z was produced by the animation section of Toei. The songs I made for these became quite popular and that led me to do more film scoring. Back then, the norm was that the same composer would make both the songs and the background music. It was not my intension, but since these series came out, people labeled me as a composer specialized in tokusatsu superhero series, Sentai series, and robot animation series.

SeanBird: Please tell us about the scoring process behind the production Mazinger Z. Where in the process do you, as a composer, become involved? What were your experiences?

Chumei Watanabe: Let me share with you the general process for this type of job, and not limited to Mazinger Z. First, I would receive a phone call from a production company, and be asked to compose music. Then, I’d go to the production company for a meeting, where I am given 2 to 3 books for the script and a copy of the business plan. In the business plan, you would find information such as the objectives, the plot, and images of the characters. The producer tells me about the plan, and we look at the proposal together. With Mazinger Z, I remember the producer made it very clear it would be the biggest and the strongest robot ever in animation. In any case, the first parts we worked on were the opening and the ending theme songs. At that point, we have already ordered the lyrics for the songs, but they are not completed yet. As soon as the lyrics are finalized, I am to start working on composing the songs. Back then, for animations and tokusatsu series, I made the background music in addition to the theme song, so they told me the key points about the background music as well. So, I received the finalized lyrics for Mazinger Z, which is now known as “Theme of Z.” I put everything into composing the song, and I thought the result was quite satisfying. Back then, the common practice was I play and sing the song on the piano to present my work. So, I had the staff members for the animation, people from the record label, and others related to the production hear the song this way. And they liked it. Then the arrangement was done, and we recorded the orchestra and the singing. One of the staff was so pleased of the song, he took home a copy of the recording. That was Saturday. Then, I got a call from a staff on Monday. Apparently, when the song was played for the manager, he said “it lacked punch” and “needed to be remade.” I was asked if I could make a song over the night. In order to have it ready for its air, we had to record the song by Thursday. I received the lyrics for the first verse over the phone that evening. I completed the melody by the morning, and had the staff from the record label listen to it during the day, and I got an ok. From that evening to Wednesday evening, I worked on the arrangement, and recorded the song on Thursday. This is how the theme song for Mazinger Z, as we know it now, was created. I think it was good we remade the song. I will omit talking about the ending theme song here.

Let me talk about the background music now. For this type of TV drama series, for economic reasons, it was typical to compose and record a full-year worth of music. At the main meeting, an arranger would bring a list of background music to be composed, and I would start my work based on that. This was a list of songs that they anticipated to be necessary for the program in the coming year. In most cases, however, I prepared for every episode for the year. The number of songs assigned to a composer is tremendously demanding, but I remember being quite excited about making songs that would match with this enormous robot on the screen, and I was very eager to write them.

SeanBird: Please tell us about the scoring process behind the live-action Spider Man series. Where in the process do you, as a composer, become involved? What were your experiences?

Chumei Watanabe: The original work for Spiderman is an American comic, isn’t it. In the US, I believe it was already adopted to a TV drama or a minor movie at the time. In Japan, Spiderman was produced by the film corporation Toei Company, and the process for making the music is similar to that of Mazinger Z. In the theme song, you can hear a French man shout out “Leopardon!” and “Spiderman!” I assume a production staff requested a foreign actor from an acting agency, but instead of an American, we had a French gentleman. He insisted Leopardon was a French word, and shouted Leopardon in a French accent – I remember that took me and staff by surprise. In terms of the background music, this film was an exception, where we had a director from the record label came up with the plan. He directed me to make the music like a suite, and requested a heavy use of percussions. Because it was an order from the record company, I went to a percussionist’s house, and I remember learning some atypical instruments and unique playing methods. Because of that, I think the background music for Spiderman turned out to be quite unique. In any case, as I said earlier, I tend to be considered a live action music person, but I love composing lyrical and melodious ballads. It may sound presumptuous, but, and this applies to my other films as well, there are soundtracks and background music with beautiful melodies, so I’d be happy if you could listen to those as well.

SeanBird: Please tell us about the scoring process behind the Sentai series. Where in the process do you, as a composer, become involved? What were your experiences?

Chumei Watanabe: “Himitsu Sentai Gorenger” was the first show in the “Super Sentai Series.” The music production process for it was about the same as for the other series. First, the melody for the opening and ending had to be composed. Here, I should explain the ending a little bit, as the melody has some interesting characteristics to it. The beginning of the tune is “Who gave it to us”(Dare ga tsuketaka Oretachi wa). In order to make the sound crisper, there is a pause between the “dare ga” and the “tsuketaka” parts, so I added a vocal chorus, so that the end sound resembles “Dare ga, Aaaah, Tsu-ketaka-, Oretachi wa-.”As usual, those responsible for the tunes listened to me sing in the company’s audio recording room while I played the piano. They all liked it. Shortly after I came back home, I got a call from the head of the record company. “The melody for the ending is fine like it is, but could you think of a more interesting phrase for the beginning of the song?” he told me. I hung up the phone, and a little while after I got an idea. I called back, and sang the phrase to the head of the record company. It was “Bam-bara Bam-bam-bam.” “Yes, that, do that,” he told me, and so that was the phrase we used.

Although “Gorenger” was a hit as a show, the record for it was also a surprising hit. I worked on a total of 6 shows for the Sentai series, and I think that I was able to put impactful and distinctive elements in each of the main opening themes. Among those, I would like to talk about the opening to “Taiyō Sentai San Barukan.” When I was trying to write this song, I couldn’t decide on the melody, and continued going through a process of trial and error. Eventually, I decided upon the melody we have today. I think it was a success, as the melody of the second half sounds considerably brighter than the first half, since it is modulated in a major key. It seems like this song is popular. At super Sentai concerts, it always gets an encore, with both the singer and the audience singing it together.

SeanBird: Are there particular instruments that you prefer to use in your compositions or orchestrations?

Chumei Watanabe: Yes, there are. I love brass. Especially the trumpet. It does not have to be action music. I like making the trumpet do a solo playing a ballad-like melody. For action scenes, I frequently used for doing rhythmical phrases in the back, and made them unique. This was not as frequent, but I like the harmonica and whistling, so depending on the program I used them.

SeanBird: Do you have any current or upcoming projects that you would like to talk about?

Chumei Watanabe: As for upcoming projects, we worked on some projects since the end of last year to the beginning of this year, which are: All of Mazinger Live, Metal Hero Live, and Special Feature on Chumei Watanabe Volume 3. Nothing is decided for any other new projects. We may organize something in terms of concerts. Also, there is a writer writing my biography, but by the looks of it, it will take some time before completion.

SeanBird: In conclusion, is there anything you would like to talk about that we have not discussed thus far?

Chumei Watanabe: The fact I entered this profession of film scoring, in retrospect, was really a risky undertaking considering the situation back then. I had relatives who strongly objected to my decision. But fortunately, I had a steady flow of incoming jobs for writing film music, for a long time. Then, perhaps owing to my age, from a certain point I was receiving less work. There were times when I was a little nervous about that, but then, things changed again. The world has entered the era of information technology. This meant there are more media that use music. My experience of having the tokusatu animation as my main work paid off in an unexpected way. My music started being played by astonishing things: TV programs, movie VHS’s and DVD’s, computer games with a theme like super robot battles, karaoke on demand, game machines, cellphone ringtones, downloads off the internet, and more. The Japanese tokusatu anime is already spreading around the world. I’m very moved to find out that the people around the world also like my music. At Tokyo International Anime Fair last year, I was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award, by the governor of Tokyo. I didn’t expect any of this when I started my career. This was all possible because of everyone’s support. I’d like to express my deepest gratitude.

SeanBird: Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us.

Chumei Watanabe: Thank you to you too, for giving me such an opportunity. I’m very glad. Mr. Sean Robbins, thank you so much. To all the people listening now, thank you very much.

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