Kenji KAWAI

Kenji Kawai, born on April 23rd, 1957 in Shinagawa, Japan is a music composer spanning anime, movies and video games. He originally went to Tokai University for nuclear engineering but dropped out after finding it too difficult. He pursued music in his free time and opted to go to Shobi Music Academy instead which he also dropped out of only six months in due to teenage folly. With a group of friends, Kawai formed the band MUSE and performed in a music competition; they won the competition and received job offers for commercials shortly after. The sound director Naoko Asari urged Kenji Kawai into the realm of animation from his current home production of commercials. She also introduced him to Shigeharu Shiba who was the sound director for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and has given him musical advice over the course of his career which has since been a large influence on his work. 

In 1987, Kawai was approached for his first theatrical offer by Mamoru Oshii to be the composer for his live-action film The Red Spectacles, since then Oshii and Kawai have worked closely. For Ghost in the Shell, Oshii wanted Kawai to use taiko drums as the main component. Feeling as though the drums were missing depth, Kawai took influence from Bulgarian folk singing and blended it with Minyou–a specific type of Japanese folk singing–to create the distinctive Ghost in the Shell soundtrack. To satisfy Oshii’s specific instrumental requests throughout the production like “wanting a Chinese qinqin tone”, Kawai crafted imaginative solutions like stringing a ukulele with shamisen strings to create the distinct string sound in Ghost In The Shell’s “Nightstalker”. 

Kawai states that he cannot make music without any imagery alongside it, so when composing for anime he bases his music around the storyboards. For video game soundtracks, he creates the music in parallel with the cutscenes. For a long while, he would bring his cat Ryo into the studio everyday with him. Kawai prefers to create evocative music. In his free time, he prefers to listen to what he calls “warm” music, listing French artists Raymond Lefèvre and Francis Lai.