We were lucky to catch up with Asuka Ito recently and have shared our conversation below.

Asuka, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was always a music lover, but I never thought I would pursue music as a career. I started the piano at the age of 5, but I never liked practicing. I kept changing instruments. I tried the violin, clarinet, saxophone, and viola, which none of them I was ever good at. The only thing I was good at was, I could just listen to a song and play it by ear. I found out I wanted to be a composer when I was 20 years-old. My friend in college was making a short movie with a CG character blended in a live action film. She knew I could somewhat play the piano, and suggested me to compose music for it. It was challenging, since it wasn’t just making music. It was about making music to a moving picture. That was my first scoring experience. Finding the right tempo, mood, instrumentation… and learning DAWs from scratch. As I started, I realized how the music can influence a scene, or even the entire story. The character became alive. When he (the character) was sad, he was SO sad with the music. It was like, giving life to the characters and telling the story with music.
Since that experience, I became addicted in making music for moving pictures. The way I watch movies changed dramatically. I was more focused on the background score. My journey as a nerdy composer began.

Asuka, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a music composer and arranger for films, TV, and video games. My clients are film directors, producers at music houses, or anyone who needs custom music for their projects.

I’m definitely a melody writer, which is a bit old-school. But I believe the trend will come back. Also, my music is up-lifting, happy/comedic/romantic rather than depressing/scary. I think it’s because I started my career as an in-house composer in Nintendo, famous for happy & catchy melodies that would stick to your brain forever.

After 8 years in Nintendo, I quit that full-time job and moved to LA, and became a freelance. Today, in addition to my own projects, I also work for other composers as an arranger / additional writer. It’s common for busy composers to have a team. Although I don’t get to write my own music, I really enjoy the process because I learn so much from them : their high work ethic, their approach to the storytelling, and their feedback to my assigned cues (pieces of music to specific scenes) literally brings the quality of music to the next level.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It’s always rewarding to see something I worked on in a big theater screen, or, since I work on the music, I should say… in big theater speakers. It would be a plus when the films / TV shows get released internationally, since I can let my family and friends in Japan know that I’m somehow surviving in Hollywood. Musicians like us are not like saving people’s lives, as doctors do, but I just imagine they would come back from work and watch some Netflix shows to relax and relieve stress. Playing a small part of that show makes me feel like I’ve done something good for the society.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

“You’ll know when you’re ready” I thought there will be a time when I feel ready to become a freelance, or to get a huge opportunity. I believe it’s also a common concern for us creatives : when is the good time for my next step in career? How much preparation do I need? Am I ready? But, the thing is, you’ll never be ready, but you just have to do it because that’s how it works. There were times I was too intimidated to take orchestration works because I knew I still had a lot to learn. But I learnt it by doing that job, and my clients were happy, so I guess, depending on the nature of the job, we don’t have to aim perfection. If they want perfection, they would have hired John Williams on the first place. Even the A-list composers are all studying scores, learning new plugins, and are doing anything to better themselves everyday. You’ll never be ready, and it’s ok. You just have to start somewhere and keep moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.asukaito.com
• Instagram: asuka_ito_music
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/asuka-ito-26349187

Image Credits
Asuka3 : (from left) Asuka Ito, David Stal, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Ray Kim