Uematsu composed the music for the majority of the Final Fantasy games and is regarded as the John Williams of the videogame world. He was inspired as a child by Elton John, and at the age of 12, he began to teach himself the piano.
Initially, Uematsu had no intention of becoming a professional musician or composer, but nevertheless enjoyed playing in amateur bands as a piano player. His passion for music would eventually prove too great, however, and he began to explore composition on a professional level.
In 1986, Uematsu was offered a job by a friend as part of a small videogame developing team. He was to compose the music for their upcoming game, Final Fantasy. This game was the developers' last hope of success after a series of failures in an industry which was already highly competative. Final Fantasy was to fulful that hope, and with astonishing success, propelling the name SquareSoft onto the A-list of videogame developers. Uematsu's future with SquareSoft was sealed and with it a reputation as one of the greatest videogame composers of all time.
Although he is best known for his work for Final Fantasy, Uematsu also composes non-videogame music, most notably for film Oh! My Goddess, as well as for vocalists Rikki and Emiko Shiratori. He still enjoys performance and in 2003 he formed rock group "The Black Mages", specifically to perform the battle music of the Final Fantasy games, with Uematsu on keyboard. Although he founded his own company, "Smile Please" Co. Ltd, in 2004, Uematsu continues to work with SquareSoft, now known as “SquareEnix” Co. Ltd.
Offical Website:
www.square-enix-usa.com/uematsu
