Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Composer Wataru Hokoyama On Winning Awards, Writing Video Game Music, And More

gameinformer.com:

Wataru Hokoyama has been composing and orchestrating scores for TV shows, films, and video games for decades. Thanks to the music he created for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, alongside his mentor of six years, Mark Mothersbaugh, he’s now an official American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards winner. 

That’s because Hokoyama has received the Video Game Score of the Year award for Rift Apart by way of the 2022 ASCAP Screen Music Awards. Of course, Mothersbaugh helped create the score as well, but he’s not with ASCAP, so the award, on paper, goes to Hokoyama alone. In a new interview with Game Informer, though, the composer, who also has credits on Thor: Ragnarok, Resident Evil 5, Knack, Halo Wars 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary, and more, said winning this award wouldn’t have been possible without Mothersbaugh. That’s because Mothersbaugh is the reason Hokoyama got the opportunity to score Rift Apart in the first place. 

“We worked on it for about a year and a half, but I want to mention something that’s super important before I talk about anything else [and that] is that this project, actually, originally came to me by my mentor, Mark Mothersbaugh,” says Hokoyama. “I have been working with Mark for the last several years – at least six – and he’s been my mentor so when Sony offered [Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart] to Mark, he brought me on board as a co-writer, which is extremely big and kind of him because it is such a huge title. He brought me on board as a co-writer to share credit with me and to work with me on this, which was an extreme honor. I just want to show my appreciation for Mark.”

Hokoyama and Mothersbaugh worked together on 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, but obviously, they had the score finished before