Interview] Hiroyuki Sawano releases solo piano album "scene. He talks about his masterpieces that have been reborn as piano pieces!

An album of piano solo arrangements of selected songs from the soundtracks of anime and drama series that Hiroyuki Sawano has worked on, entitled "scene," will be released on December 22, 2021. Originally, this was a project born on the fan club site [-30k], in which Hiroyuki performed his own compositions on the piano. Since the album will be released at the end of December, it will include one of Hiroyuki Sawano's favorite Christmas songs.
In this interview, we asked him to talk about his encounters with the piano, his memories of the original compositions, and his impressions when they became piano solos, from a variety of perspectives. This interview is a must-see for Sawano fans, offering an overview of his journey as a composer.

This is a piano album that we hope you will relax and listen to!

─ This is your first attempt at a solo piano album performed by you, isn't it? How did you come up with the idea for this album?

Sawano: About two years ago, I launched a fan club site called "-30k," and within the site, I created content to publish piano performances at a pace of about once a month. I thought it would be good if I could play existing songs and improvise, and the songs started to accumulate, so I decided I wanted to compile them into a CD. At first, we were talking about releasing it as a CD only for live venues, but the conversation expanded and we decided to release it as a CD for general distribution.

─ ─ Does that mean that the album is a compilation of the sound sources performed at "-30k"?

Sawano: Yes, there is one song that was re-arranged for this album, but the other 18 songs are from the [-30k] event. So most of the songs are available on the Internet for fan club members. Besides, I decided to play these songs on the spot each time, so I was a bit embarrassed to have them available on a CD (laughs). (Laughs.) I hope that everyone will relax and listen to them. You can listen to it while studying or working, or even before going to bed.

─ ─ It is definitely a relaxing piece. Did you make a new score for the piano?

Sawano: No, I did not write out a two-step score for piano. I used the score with the melody and chords that I used when creating the soundtrack, and played freely. It was easier for me to play that way. I have not always played the classical piano very well, so if I had to write a two-step score and play according to the score, I would have had to spend a lot of time practicing.

───To begin with, how did you get involved with the piano?

Sawano: I started playing the piano later than the other children, in the sixth grade of elementary school. I was always envious of kids who took piano lessons, but I felt that my classmates would make fun of a male taking piano lessons in our generation, so I couldn't tell my parents about it. One day, my mother looked at my hands and casually remarked that they were thin and long and might be suited to the piano, and I said, "If you say so, I can learn. She said, "If you say so, then I can learn piano." I really wanted to play the piano, but I half blamed my parents and started playing the piano (laughs).

(laughs) ─ That is a very boyish episode (laughs).

Sawano: I continued to play the piano until my first year of high school, but perhaps because I started too late, I was never able to play classical pieces, and I thought I would stop taking lessons. I wanted to learn to play one last song, so I practiced "Yesterday" by the Beatles, which I found in a music textbook. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to be exposed to music, so I moved to a composer's class and began studying composition while practicing the piano.

─ So that was your starting point as a composer.

Sawano: I was interested in film soundtracks from that time, and at the same time, I wanted to write pop music as well. Then, my teacher advised me to learn to play the piano with melody and chord notation, and that's how I got to where I am today.

─ ─ So the piano performance of "-30k" shows a glimpse of your roots, is that right?

Sawano: Not only in [-30k], but also in live performances, I only look at the chords, so sometimes I play completely differently in the first and second rehearsals. Of course, there are phrases that must be played without fail, but other than that, I often play according to the mood of the moment. From a personality point of view, it is more fun to play freely than to repeat the same way of playing according to the score.

─ ─ Does that mean that the songs on this album are also played in a way that is unique to the moment?

Sawano: That's right. Even the same song will come out differently when I play it again. In [-30k], there were times when I completely improvised, such as in the first song, "scene. I liked the phrasing so much that I made it the title track of the album. Another song, "PIANO[-30k]-001," the 16th song, was also ad-libbed, and as the title suggests, it was the first song I played for [-30k].

─ ─ So these two songs did not even have a score. They are truly unique.

Sawano: "scene" is a melodious piece, and I had a vague idea of what I wanted to play before I played it, so I can reproduce it today, but "PIANO[-30k]-001" was really played by inspiration on the spot, so I can never do it again (laughs). I think I could play it if I could write it down, but I would have to practice a lot.

─ ─ Even though you yourself have played this piece at least once?

Sawano: It's a strange thing, but when I play a piece without a score, I can do the same detailed fingerings that I could do when I was playing freely, but when I write the score and play the piece exactly as written, I find myself saying, "Oh, how did I do that? I wonder how I did it.