Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Taisuke Watanuki. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Taisuke, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Salutation, Voyage LA! This is TURBO here.

I believe that everyone should invest their time and effort in education, but it’s crucial to direct that effort wisely.

Looking back, one of my biggest regrets is not starting with a broad foundation, like liberal arts, before diving into subjects I’m passionate about. I’ve learned that simply reading something doesn’t guarantee understanding. This became clear when I was learning Wwise, a middleware for creating sound in video games. Despite the instructional materials appearing simple, truly grasping the concepts was a real challenge.

I turned to a friend of mine, an MIT grad, for advice. What he said really struck me: “The instructions tell you what a program does, but not necessarily how it works or behaves the way you want it to. What you see on the screen is a result of scripted commands. The key is understanding what you’re trying to achieve, not just what the program does.”

It was a tough lesson, but he was right. The key to learning isn’t imagining what we think it should do—it’s about fully accepting and understanding the material as it’s presented, even when it’s difficult. I’ve encountered this same principle in music: we don’t use a musical scale just because it exists—we use it with intention, to create something meaningful.

Too often, we look for shortcuts because they seem faster, but shortcuts only work for the short term. True education requires patience and a deeper dive to understand why something works the way it does.

I wanted to share this because it’s okay to struggle with understanding at first. What matters is staying persistent and being open to learning in a meaningful, intentional way. This approach applies not only to music and game development, but to all areas of study.

Taisuke, 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?

Salutation, fellows! This is TURBO here.

For some people, it might be redundant but there might be newcomers so let me briefly introduce myself.

I graduated from a Japanese music school, MESAR HAUS, and was studying composition, arranging, mixing, and mastering through DAW, and guitar mastery.
While attending school and after graduation, I was working as a studio musician, composer, arranger, and mixing engineer.

After several years, to broaden my musical knowledge and skill, I entered Berklee College of Music and majored in CWP (Contemporary Writing and Production). While being in America, I joined the Broadway, film, anime, production, engineering, and so on. Until last May, I was working as a guitar instructor at Berklee College of Music.

Now, I am working at a music streaming division of a listing company, COVER Inc., which provides VTuber production, management, Media Release, Metaverse, and so on.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

When it comes to something that influenced me, that is my grandmother whose age is 92 and has Rheumatism (since 30’s), cancer, and Aplastic anemia. Although she has tons of uncurable diseases, however, she is fine in that she gets up early, gets rid of grass in her garden, and cooks every day. This is because she has been doing that for 50 years so this has become her routine and it is weird if she doesn’t do it. Likewise, many entrepreneurs have several daily routines that make them enhanced in the way of they want to achieve. So I do the stretches and something that makes my work productive every day haha. What she does represents what people make stronger I believe.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My English journey began at an audition for the Berklee College of Music. During the interview, I realized that I couldn’t speak English at all even though I understood what the interviewer saying. So I failed haha. This is the weakest thing for Japanese since we don’t have a good English curriculum. So I studied English for 10 hours to be ready for the English test. Then, I failed 3 times as far as I remember, then, my roommate whose score is a maximum of 120 points on the TOEFL IBT, and was from Tokyo University which is the smartest university in Japan, told me that I lacked liberal arts in the first place. This experience made me realize that I avoided anything I did not want so I re-started studying from the material at the 1st grade. I thought I could get 100 points for every subject but the reality is cruel. Finally, because of tons of support, I passed the English test and Got into Berklee. I strongly believe that “When you struggle with something, change the perspective to solve the concern even if it is cruel like in my case”, then be modest and kind to yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://circomusicinfo.wixsite.com/website-1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guitar_gorilla_musicschool/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Guitar_GorillaG
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GUITAR-GORILLA