Nobuo Uematsu's Liner Notes for the Final Fantasy IV OST I have never before had a job go as smoothly as this one! Of course, I imagine that my workplace in Hawaii had much to do with that, where I could relax and concentrate on my job. The weather was great, and my office building overlooked Waikiki Beach. On the weekends, I went to concerts at Aloha Stadium; I just saw MC Hammer last week, in fact. But anyway, for me, the most delightful part of my stay was that, unlike Tokyo, there were hardly any cars or people. Waikiki's Main Street, Kalakaua Avenue, has no congestion at all. In such a blessed environment, one idea for a composition came to me after another; I was never at a loss for inspiration! When my job tired me out, I would take a stroll on the beach with a beer in hand. Watching the blazing red sun set at twilight, feeling the cool, refreshing breeze against my cheek...sob, sob, sob...(crying)... splash, splash...(one teardrop, two teardrops)...I'm sorry...That's not true...My job wasn't anything like that...I just escaped into my dream world for a little while by just telling all you FF fans about it, and that made it seem real to me, so... Well, anyhow, it's been about six years since I got this game music job, hasn't it... And I've had many things happen to me in that time, many hardships - I've had compositions that I fought long and hard to create end up scrapped, been stuck for ideas just before deadline, has game magazines disparage my music, and had my bike break down. And then there was the time I went to the vending machine to buy a cola and ended up pressing the button for oolong tea by mistake... Aaah, but it doesn't matter...anyhow, it's been horrible up to now, my friends! And this job was even tougher! Since I was working with new hardware in the Super Famicom, the music was from start to finish a series of trials and errors, and the staff practically lived at the company, staying over in sleeping bags and doing nothing but working - I myself haven't had a full day off since February of last year! Do you believe it? We worked every day, through regular days off, summer vacation - all of them, everyone. This was hardly _our_ job; this was more like what Japanese salarymen do. And my staff on this project was constantly whining - "I'm too busy!" "I already _did_ my best on the music!" "That guy's watching what I'm doing!" Now, they shouldn't say things like that - they should just enjoy themselves. Yeah, those people are soft. When the pressure mounts, they buckle. You have to take care of yourself - "By the way, boss, did you think my idea about working in Hawaii was good?" "Well, you going to Hawaii could mean the difference between you writing good compositions and bad ones." "Huh... What do you mean?" "The waves are violent in Hawaii." ...and we all lived happily ever after. -April 13, 1991, 1:30 a.m. (in the office, naturally) Nobuo Uematsu [Translator's Note: I have a question - why did Nobuo have himself going to see an MC Hammer concert in his fantasy world? Was it because he was an MC Hammer fan in the early 90's? (Would semi-explain Final Fantasy Mix... sorta.) Weird. Eerie.] Final Fantasy, the FF4 OST, and all assorted official paraphernalia are property of Squaresoft and Nobuo Uematsu; this document isn't affiliated with either. Translation by RACapowski@sceneryrecalled.com; please don't repost this document without permission.