Art & Creativity Quote by Nobuo Uematsu

Uematsu isn’t pitching a side hustle here; he’s quietly staging an exit from the identity that made him famous. The repetition of “I’ve just initiated the project” reads like someone reassuring himself that the break is real, that this is a deliberate first step rather than a daydream between deadlines. For a composer synonymous with game music’s emotional coming-of-age, the line carries a familiar creative restlessness: the desire to stop being the whole band, the whole world, the whole brand.

The specific intent is practical and strategic. Writing music “for somebody else to write the lyrics” signals a shift from solitary authorship to collaboration, but not collaboration as compromise. It’s delegation as expansion: a way to push melody into the messier human terrain of language, voice, and interpretation. Bringing in “the orchestra to perform” isn’t just about bigger sound; it’s about moving from virtual space to physical space, from the loopable to the unrepeatable. Live players introduce risk, texture, and public stakes.

Then comes the real tell: “creating an independent label outside of game music.” That’s not an aesthetic note; it’s an ownership note. Uematsu’s subtext is about control over distribution, credibility, and category. He’s refusing the cultural box where game composers get praised like specialists, then kept like specialists. The context is a moment when game music is finally being taken seriously in concert halls, and he’s choosing not merely to be invited in, but to build a door that opens both ways.