In the mid-1990s, a music magazine ran a notice. Sega wanted game creators and sound creators. Kenichi Tokoi read it and, by his own account, made five songs in a week. He asked a friend, an exchange student, to sing on some of them. That was the application.
He was born on July 13, 1969, in Tochigi Prefecture, and nobody in his family was a musician. He asked for piano lessons himself, in kindergarten. Later he played in a wind band and sang in a church choir on Sundays. In junior high and high school he fell for Yellow Magic Orchestra, and his parents bought him a Yamaha DX-7.
At university in Tokyo he played synthesizer and bass in several bands and sometimes onstage at live houses. He made sampling collages at home. By his telling, he took out a loan of about two million yen for equipment. After graduating he took an ordinary job, kept playing, and tried to make a living from music. It did not work out.
He passed the interview and joined Sega in 1996. One of his first pieces was a track for Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition. He has said he was glad to be writing for a racing game, because he liked Sega Rally. He has also said what the first weeks were like. In the English translation of a 2007 interview he says: "I was just filled with anxiety—could I really keep up with such amazing people?"
He kept up. His themes for Knuckles in the Sonic Adventure series are his, and Knuckles is his favorite character. He wrote boss music for Space Channel 5. For Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution he directed the sound for the first time, with an orchestra recorded overseas. The soprano who sang the theme was re-recorded in Poland.
In 2007 he was sound director for Sonic and the Secret Rings. The job covered the sound plan, the budget, the schedule, the artists, the recording, and the mastering. He said the game was very dark, with many tense stages. If he had relied only on his own roots, he said, the music would have come out funky, R&B, gospel-like, soulful and bright. So he set that aside, and he used punk and Arabic music instead.
In the same interview he is asked about Sonic himself. He calls him a kind of younger brother, someone who dives into the world without a second thought. Then he says: "As someone who worries a lot, that's something I really want to learn from."
That is a man who has written the music for a hedgehog who never stops to think. He says he is the one who stops to think. He sent five songs in a week anyway, and he was hired.
If you had one week, and a friend willing to sing, what would you send?