Keiichi Suzuki
鈴木慶一
About
Keiichi Suzuki is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands.
He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games Mother (1989) and EarthBound (1994), both of which have been released on several soundtracks. He has also composed scores for films such as The Blind Swordsman: Zatōichi (2003), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Uzumaki (2000), Chicken Heart (2009), as well as Takeshi Kitano's Outrage trilogy.
He is the son of actor Akio Suzuki, and has a younger brother, Hirobumi Suzuki. In the early '70s, Suzuki became involved with the Japanese band Hachimitsu Pie, who released one album in 1973. Later in the '70s, Suzuki functioned as the occasional leader and regular singer of the Moonriders — the group's first album was in fact credited to "Keiichi Suzuki and the Moonriders". The band included his brother Hirobumi on bass. Afterward, he collaborated with Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder Yukihiro Takahashi as the duo The Beatniks. He was also a member of the trio Three Blind Moses.
In 1989, Suzuki cowrote the soundtrack to the video game Mother. In 1994, he would write more music for the game's sequel, EarthBound. A few years after EarthBound, Suzuki provided the music for the audio game Real Sound: Kaze no Regret.
His song "Satellite Serenade" was remixed by The Orb and was later featured on Sasha & Digweed's Northern Exposure and The Orb's Auntie Aubrey's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty compilation.
In February 2008, Suzuki released a new solo album Captain Hate & First Mate Love in collaboration with Keiichi Sokabe, touring together in late spring 2008. The follow-up Pirate Radio Seasick appeared in 2009, and the third part In Retrospect in January 2011.
Suzuki has cited John Lennon of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, Andy Partridge of XTC, Godley & Creme, Miklos Rozsa, and Harry Nilsson as influences, particularly on the tracks he composed for the Mother series.
