Nobuo Uematsu

Early Life

Nobuo Uematsu was born in 1959 in Kōchi, Japan. A self-taught musician, he learned how to play the guitar by ear, before moving to the piano. He cited The Beatles and Elton John as major inspirations when growing up.

Squaresoft

Uematsu began his career at Squaresoft in 1986 and provided the music for numerous titles the company produced, including the early NES titles Rad Racer and King's Knight. Uematsu's work grew more recognized with the release of Final Fantasy in Japan in 1987. He would go on to compose the full soundtracks to each entry in the series until Final Fantasy X, when he collaborated with other composers and reduced his role to the contribution of a few select tracks.

Smile Please

Uematsu left Square Enix in 2004 when the company relocated its offices to the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo. Following his departure, he founded the company Smile Please, where he continues to work as a freelance composer. Since leaving Square Enix, he has continued to produce music for the company's games on a freelance basis. He has also worked on the soundtracks for a number of games produced by Mistwalker, a company founded by former Square Enix colleague Hironobu Sakaguchi, such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. He also composed the main theme for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The Black Mages

Uematsu is one of the founding members of The Black Mages, a rock band created as a collaboration between himself and fellow Square Enix employees in 2002. The band's catalogue of music is based on rock and metal interpretations of classic Uematsu Final Fantasy tracks. They disbanded in 2010. Together, the band released three commercially available albums.

Discography