Hiroyuki Sawano talks about his work on "Kabaneri of the Iron Castle

This is the third collaboration between director Tetsuro Araki and musician Hiroyuki Sawano, following "Guilty Crown" and "Shinkoku no Kyojin. Kabaneri of the Iron Castle," which has been captivating fans with its high level of perfection, is of course amazing in its music as well. The composer who is currently attracting the hottest attention talks about the production process of the "Kabaneri" soundtrack and the ending theme "ninelie"!

The soundtrack has a lot of vocal songs!

─ This is the third time you have composed music for a work directed by Tetsuro Araki, following "Guilty Crown" and "Shinkage no Kyojin".

Sawano: Having worked on several projects, I think Director Araki is somewhat familiar with the kind of person I am. I, too, have my own sense of why Director Araki is offering me the role.

─ How did you get the offer for "Kabaneri of the Iron Castle"?

Sawano: When I met Director Araki about two years ago, I vaguely heard that he was thinking of a new work that would be a period drama with zombies. After that, I received a formal request, and it was around last fall that we started working on the specifics of the project. First of all, I received materials on the work and read them.

─ What did Director Araki say when he asked you to make the film?

Sawano: He said, "The world is like old Japan, but there is no need to make the music particularly Japanese. So, I also made the music with the idea of what kind of music would be cool to go with the work "Kabaneri", with just a hint of Japanese essence every now and then.

─ What was your first impression of "Kabaneri"?

Sawano: When I saw the main visual, I thought it had the atmosphere of the anime works I used to love watching when I was young. When I learned that the original character design was by Haruhiko Mikimoto, who worked on "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" and "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Knowing that, I became more excited about creating the music. I created the music with the hope that the images would look even cooler when the music was played along with the pictures.

─ The combination of a setting that looks like Japan in the days of the samurai, Mikimoto-san's characters, and Director Araki's sense of visuals makes for an appealing work of art.

Sawano: As with "Guilty Crown" and "Shinkage no Kyojin," what Director Araki is aiming for is entertainment that attracts many people, and I wanted to create my own entertainment style in the music as well. I have used vocal music for the soundtracks of my previous works, and he said, "Please do so again this time.

─ - Listening to the soundtrack, I got the impression that you used a lot of vocal songs.

Sawano: I think there are more vocal songs than in any of my other works. This time, the request for the soundtrack came first, and it was later decided that I would also be in charge of the ending theme, so perhaps I had a strong desire to create vocal songs.

─ ─ Which vocalist did you use this time?

Sawano: Mika Kobayashi, mpi, Benjamin, Cyua, and Eliana. Eliana is the one we have recently started to ask for.

─ How do you decide who will be the vocalist for each song?

Sawano: In many cases, we know from the demo stage that we want Mr. Kobayashi and mpi to sing this song. I usually ask Mr. Kobayashi to sing the main theme of a piece, but this time, I thought it would be interesting to have Eliana sing a different approach. In particular, "icon" is a medium ballad, so I wanted to see what would happen if I left it to Eliana, who usually sings R&B and soul songs.

─ ─ "icon" has the same melody as the ending theme song "ninelie".

Sawano: I originally wrote this song for the soundtrack. I made a Japanese version of "icon" with English lyrics and had Aimer and chelly sing "ninelie".

─ ─ The third song, "Warcry," was sung by mpi. His vocals are manly as always.

Sawano: For both the soundtrack and the vocal project SawanoHiroyuki[nZk], the most important thing in a vocalist is the quality of his voice. mpi's voice is also very attractive, and many of the songs I have him sing have a Western approach, but he sings exactly what I was looking for. He sings exactly the way I want him to sing.

─ ─ The fifth song "Through My Blood" is sung by Miiku Kobayashi, but the "ninelie" single includes "Through My Blood<AM>" sung by Aimer as a coupling song, right?

Sawano: I thought it would be nice to have a song linked to "Kabaneri" in the coupling of the ending theme, so I made Aimer's version as well.

─ ─ With two female vocalists singing the same song, you can hear the different personalities of each of them. What do you find attractive about the two of them?

Sawano: I was so impressed with Ms. Kobayashi's vocals that I wondered if it would be okay to have someone else sing. But Ms. Aimer is an artist and sings from her own worldview. I had confidence in Aimer's ability to sing from her worldview, something I had done several times since the "Mobile Suit Gundam UC" days, and I knew she would be able to bring her own style to this project. Ms. Kobayashi is a powerful vocalist with a strong rock tone, so I asked her to sing with power and expressiveness, while Ms. Aimer sang in a husky voice with a hint of breath, as if telling a story. In my mind, they have opposite images. I hope you enjoy the difference between the soundtrack and the single.