Rika Muranaka
| Rika Muranaka | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 村中りか |
| Genres | Jazz, R'n'B, hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, producer |
| Instruments | Piano, keyboard |
| Website | http://www.rikamuranaka.net/ |
Rika Muranaka is a Japanese composer and music producer renown for her songs in Konami’s world-famous video game series, Metal Gear Solid.
Some of her most notable works include "The Best Is Yet to Come" (Metal Gear Solid), "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), and "Don't Be Afraid" (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater). She also composed the song "I Am the Wind" for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the song "Esperándote" for the original Silent Hill.
During her teens, Rika Muranaka left her native Tokyo to study jazz piano with Alan Swain, a jazz pianist and author, in Chicago. She started to write music at the age of 16, but at first was doing it only for herself.
After graduating from Chicago’s Northeastern Illinois University, Rika Muranaka returned to Japan and was offered a deal with Columbia Records, a major record company in Japan, in 1992, which resulted in the release of 4 albums. Her debut CD Slice of Life, released in 1992, featured vocalists Dwight Dukes, Cynthia Harrell and Stephanie B and was result of collaboration with Michael Caruso, a Grammy-nominated songwriter. She continued writing music and composed music for commercials, advertising, the Japanese government and demos for multimedia companies in Japan; she “was on TV, doing everything from jingles to writing music for artists.” Rika Muranaka had even worked developing pre-programmed beats and sounds for Casio electronic keyboards and produced music for educational textbooks and materials.
Fascinated by the game industry, Rika Muranaka started to work for Konami in the 1990s, though at the time it was a rare occurrence for game companies to hire professional music composers. Her motivation to write music for the game industry was “to change the standard for music in the industry” because “everyone thought that video game music was simple and not so good”. Her first projects at Konami involved songs for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the classic horror game Silent Hill, where she collaborated with Akira Yamaoka, a Japanese video game composer.
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