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Kenichi Maeyamada

Japanese musician (born 1980)

Summary

Japanese musician (born 1980)

FieldValue
nameKenichi Maeyamada
native_name前山田 健一
native_name_langja
imageMTV VMAJ 2014 Kenichi Maeyamada Hyadain.jpg
captionMaeyamada at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Japan
birth_date
birth_placeSumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Japan
nationalityJapanese
other_namesHyadain
occupationcomposer, lyricist, musician
years_active2007—present

Kenichi Maeyamada, also known as Hyadain, is a Japanese composer, lyricist, and musician. His primary work is composing anime theme songs and for J-pop musicians. He contracts through Supalove, a Japanese record label. He has released a number of anime and video game music remixes, as well as original songs. These remixes have received over 20 million hits on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga.

Musical style

Maeyamada began playing the piano at age four and first composed with a synthesizer in middle school. After graduating from Kyoto University, he apprenticed under lyricist Gorō Matsui. He got his first big break in 2007 for writing the lyrics to "Don't Go Baby", a song featured in Initial D Fourth Stage. In December 2007, he posted his first work under the name "Hyadain" on Nico Nico Douga, a remix of Crash Man's theme from Mega Man 2 with added lyrics. He initially struggled with criticism and accusations regarding these remixes' faithfulness to the source material. However, his videos gradually gained in popularity, particularly "Battle With the Four Fiends" from Final Fantasy IV and "Western Show" from Super Mario World. In May 2010, Maeyamada revealed that Hyadain was his pseudonym. In 2014, Maeyamada collaborated with Gummybear International and Avex Trax to translate Japanese version of "I Am A Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)", originally sung in English by Maci Schneider, a.k.a. Tonekind. In 2023, Maeyamada was invited to arrange a version of "Battle With the Four Fiends" for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, with lyrics by Takashi Tokita. The track, "Forged in Crimson", plays during the boss fight with Rubicante, the Fiend of Flame.

Maeyamada cites Yasuharu Konishi of the Pizzicato Five as a major musical influence, as well as Shoichiro Hirata and Yusuke Itagaki. Influence on his video game music stems from Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest), and Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa). Lyrically, both his original works and fanworks are reputed for utilizing strong elements of humor and nostalgia. For his own songs, he provides all the voices, male and female, with the help of a digital voice modifier. These voices, Hyadain and Hyadaruko, appear as characters on his blog and in the music videos for "Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C" and "Hyadain no Joujou Yuujou", with Hyadaruko being portrayed by various actresses including Natsuko Aso.

Discography

Main article: Hyadain discography, Kenichi Maeyamada production discography

References

References

  1. North, Dale. (2006-03-16). "Remixer Hyadain is actually a seasoned Japanese composer". Destructoid.
  2. (2010-03-22). "Mai Oshima goes solo". Tokyograph.
  3. "Supalove Creators » About Us". Supa Creators.
  4. North, Dale. (2006-03-16). "The Sound Card Remixer Profile: Hyadain". Destructoid.
  5. Maeyamada, Kenichi. (2010-05-05). "ヒャダイン うさゅうのなぞ｜ヒャダイン オフィシャルブログ 「ヒャダインのチョベリグ★エブリディ」". Ameblo.jp.
  6. MacKenzie, Austin. (2010-05-06). "Game Music Remixer Reveals Himself as Pro Composer". Escapist Magazine.
  7. (2010-12-22). "AKB48、ももクロ ヒャダイン／前山田健一が語るニコ動＆アイドル曲方法論（前編） - 日刊サイゾー". Cyzo.com.
  8. (2010-12-23). "AKB48、ももクロ ヒャダイン／前山田健一が語るニコ動＆アイドル曲方法論（後編） - 日刊サイゾー". Cyzo.com.
  9. Napolitano, Jayson. (2009-12-31). "Meet Hyadain Part 1: Final Fantasy IV – The Dreadful Fight". Original Sound Version.
  10. Napolitano, Jayson. (2010-06-01). "Meet Hyadain Part 3: Western Show on Super Mario World". Original Sound Version.
  11. "グミベア と ガチャピン • ムック – おやつ いいやつ すごいやつ – CD (Single) + DVD (), 2014 [r16278016]". Discogs.
  12. 杉浦, 諒. (2023-01-26). "「FFXIV」，パッチ 6.3"天の祝祭，地の鳴動"特設サイトを更新。ルビカンテ討滅戦のアレンジBGMは前山田健一さん，時田貴司氏が担当".
  13. King, Masa. (2010-09-22). "Interview with Kenichi Maeyamada! « CAVE WORLD Official Blog". Caveworlden.wordpress.com.
  14. (2011-04-19). "【PV】 ヒャダインのカカカタ☆カタオモイ-C 【ヒャダイン】". YouTube.
  15. (19 July 2011). "ヒャダインのじょーじょーゆーじょーで、PVを作ってみた".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1980-births anime-musicians japanese-composers japanese-male-composers japanese-male-musicians kyoto-university-alumni living-people musicians-from-osaka people-from-sumiyoshi,-osaka stardust-promotion-artists japanese-video-game-composers
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