Uematsu interviewed at Distant Worlds; The Black Mages 3 promised for March 2008
Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY is a new concert tour celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Final Fantasy. The game was first released in Japan on December 18, 1987, and the concert premiered in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4, 2007. The inaugural event was attended by Nobuo Uematsu himself, who was interviewed before the concert started by Johan Köhn of Spelmusik.net.
How did you approach the challenge of composing an opera piece?
- It was very interesting, because I had never listened to opera music when I was asked. I didn’t have any knowledge on composing such a piece, so I did it in my own style. When Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama found out about the opera part in Final Fantasy VI he called and asked me why he hadn’t been told about this great idea earlier, so that we could have worked together on it (laughs)!
Ah, but who cares about that. Let’s get to the good stuff:
I know you’re always getting this question, but how is it going with the third Black Mages album?
- Yes, I get that question very often, but I would now like to promise to people that the album will be released in March 2008.
THE BLACK MAGES II The Skies Above, the last Final Fantasy series rock arrangement album by TBM, was released three years ago, so their third album has been a long time in the making. Hopefully it will be released on time.