Anime Trending had the great opportunity to chat with Undead Murder Farce composer Yuma Yamaguchi via email when the TV anime aired last July 2023.
Image source: Milan Records
Can you talk about how you were approached to do the soundtrack for Undead Murder Farce?
Yuma Yamaguchi: I was contacted by a music producer from FUJIPACIFIC MUSIC. I worked with FUJIPACIFIC MUSIC, FUJI TV, and Lapin Track for “I’m Kodama Kawashiri” in 2022. So, because of that experience, I was invited by them.
As a pianist, how have you combined your expertise to suit your style and subject matter? of Undead Murder Farce through its soundtrack?
Several works were written from strong pianistic inspiration. The chord structure of the main theme is what jazz pianists or post-classical pianists use. I extended the idea to a contemporary orchestral work. The track “MAKURA” has piano improvisation, and “United Front” has a unique piano riff/arpeggio that I might never have written if I weren’t a pianist.
What happen? What is your impression of the anime’s story and character, and how that influenced the your layout?
From the very beginning of our meeting, director Mamoru Hatakeyama and sound director, Kazuhiro Wakabayashi told me that most of the scenes in this Anime take place at night and they mainly wanted serious/dark scenes. After reading the plot, I completely agreed with them so I wrote a lot of serious, dark and heavy parts which are not very common in anime soundtracks. I really enjoyed it.
Can you tell us about the writing process of the song that plays near the end of episode one, during the scene culminates in Aya and Tsugaru’s kiss?
The work “Immaturity” is written according to the theme of Aya Rindo. She had to face her fate, which was that she couldn’t die. Through her long past life, she witnessed so much life and death. I wanted to express her isolation, her secrecy and a little bit of her sadness. Musically, I try to write very simple melodies. The main melody played by strings represents her majesty, and the middle section features twin flutes inspired by her mysterious life.
What is your favorite song to compose?
That’s really a difficult question. I had a lot of freedom composing this soundtrack, but if I had to choose one, I would choose “Act of God.” Initially, I was asked to write a more operatic or classical chorus for the scene where the Party appears. However, after I started writing the work, I felt that writing an opera for a battle scene was too stereotypical. So I took the idea for the song from the Bulgarian voice and created an original language to keep the song stateless. I also spent a lot of time creating the sound of the synth bass, another important part of this piece.
Music is important in creating tension. Is there any difference in composing music to creating How does the tension in mystery stories like Undead Murder Farce compare to other genres and how does it differ?
As for the soundtrack of Undead Murder Farce, I felt like all the songs had specific meanings for each scene. When I write music for other genres, I’m often asked to write additional background music so that it can play in different scenes. For me, it was difficult to deeply understand the meaning of each song and how they would be used in the anime.
The zombie killing farce moved from Japan to Germany to England. You have combinations Are there elements from different countries in the music?
I’ve written a few works inspired by anime locations. For example, the director of audiology asked that he wanted to feel the industrialization of “England”. However, Undead Murder Farce has a lot of unique characters, which inspired me so I ended up composing music to fit those characters rather than the locations in the anime.
When composing music, do you know what the scene will be like? If not, you will how to compose. If so, what do you focus on first when composing around a scene? ?
I just look at the rough storyboard before I start composing. However, the directors and I discussed the 30 pieces a lot before starting to write them, so I had a really clear view of where I wanted to go with my work. As I mentioned before, this anime has a lot of unique characters so I wrote music to suit them.
For example, “Immortal” was written as Aya Rindo’s theme, “ONIGOROSHI” for Tsugaru Shinuchi, and “TACHIKAGE”, the name comes from Shizuku Hasei’s weapon. In addition, I also composed special music for the “MAKURA” and “KOKKEIBANASHI” scenes inspired by Aya and Tsugaru’s humorous conversation.
What makes Undead Murder Farce’s music different from other music you’ve heard? composed?
This anime needs a lot of serious, heavy, and dark music compared to the usual soundtracks. I had to write in this genre, but also be sensitive to other shadows than any of my previous soundtrack work.
What do you want viewers to pay attention to in the soundtrack when watching Undead? Murder Farce?
Because of this soundtrack, all the songs have specific meanings and purposes for the scenes and characters, so I will be happy if you can find scenes made more impressive thanks to the music. To be honest, Mr. Hatakeyama and Mr. Wakabayashi only asked for a few minor edits, so I had a lot of musical freedom. So I ended up writing a lot of musically dense scores in various genres like classical, jazz, IDM, contemporary and minimalist. Hope everyone enjoys the variety!
The soundtrack is currently streaming on various platforms, including Spotify. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime series.
