Masaru Shiina (椎名 豪, Shiina Masaru, born May 16, 1974), known professionally as Go Shiina, is a Japanese music composer primarily known for his work in video games. He joined Namco in 1997 and was best known during his time with the company for writing music for a number of games in the Tales, Mr. Driller, and God Eater franchises, He gained widespread recognition with his score for Tales of Legendia in 2005. Since then, he has also contributed music for several titles in the Tekken, Ace Combat, and The Idolmaster franchises. In addition to video games, Shiina has also composed soundtracks for various anime series and films, starting with the 2011 film Sakura no Ondo and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, as well as composing and arranging songs for bands and other artists.
Shiina's works is known for having strong and heavy, orchestral sounds. He left Bandai Namco Entertainment in 2017, and is currently a freelance composer. Despite being freelance, he has continued to work with the company for various other projects, including the God Eater series, as well as other games such as Code Vein.
Biography
Born in Yokohama, Japan, Shiina was taught how to play the electronic organ from his parents when he was growing up.[1] Although he was not a dedicated musician before becoming a composer, he was at one time a member of a Megadeth cover band who also played J-pop music. Shiina enrolled at Dokkyo Junior High School. After being rejected by 46 companies, including a jewelry company, a finance company, and a fast food company, he was hired by Namco (now Bandai Namco Games); he had little prior experience with video games.[2]
Creating music for old arcade releases using Namco's sound trackers felt more like computer programming than composing for Shiina, but he has said that the experience helped him out when he would have to use MIDI sounds in future games. The songs he composed for the first Mr. Driller were deemed unfitting for a puzzle game by some of the staff and they almost didn't make it into the final product.[2]
Shiina's first solo project was Mr. Driller G. He was given extensive access to live instruments and an incredible amount of creative freedom, setting the stage for his later work. The scores for future games in the Mr. Driller series would also be composed exclusively by Shiina.
When he began writing songs for Tales of Legendia, he originally tried to follow in the footsteps of the lead Tales series composer Motoi Sakuraba, but was later inspired to develop his own style for it.[2]
Bandai Namco gave Shiina freedom to compose for anime projects during his later years with the company. In September 2017, Shiina announced that he had retired from Bandai Namco.[3] He is currently a freelance composer.[4]
Musical style and influences
Go Shiina's music is characterized by dramatic melodies and unusual arrangements. His soundtracks contain a wide range of musical styles, including jazz,[5] orchestral, fusion, and rock, and he often mixes different genres and instruments together for unique sounds. Many of Shiina's songs use live string sections, slap bass, audio filter effects and artificial languages.
He has said that he can write music in any genre, as long as he is motivated, and has also stated that "when I write a song, the time it takes me depends on whether I know the singer's natural voice. The genre doesn't matter..." Shiina feels that there are two types of compositions: "some tracks can stand alone as musical pieces, and some only work when you hear them in the game," and he often alters or leaves out certain songs when putting together albums. When composing vocal or instrumental tracks, he often sings the parts out loud.[2]
For the soundtrack to God Eater, Shiina explained that the creative nature of the story pushed him to be creative with the music as well. He looked around for a variety of instruments from many countries, and some of the styles and instruments featured in the score include Japanese traditional music, African rhythms, and the Indian sitar.[1] He has also done string arrangements for bands.[6]
