It was October 2019 in Södertälje, Sweden and a completely unique concert at Estrad. Back then it was the 20th anniversary of the Silent Hill game series. Akira Yamaoka is one of the big names in the game music business and it was no surprise that he got an invite to join the celebration of Silent Hill and its soundtracks. However, that he packed his guitar, took a plane to Sweden and joined the party was kind of amazing for all of us who could join in on the fun.
That the producers Filip Fjellström and Marcus Nordin had done something extraordinary was clear already when the concert was announced. It was indeed a huge success and a somewhat surreal experience to be there that night.
Now two years later, it is time to revisit this celebration in the concert video production Silent Hill: The Music -The Movie- that is now available on YouTube.
Photo: Tobias Adriansson
Filip Fjellström tells us about the idea behind the production:
“We wanted to make an official concert video production. Usually there are video clips made available via recordings by the audience, which is always fun to see. However, for this evening we really wanted to capture everything, to present our full version of the 20th anniversary concert. We wanted to make this concert available to fans all over the world.”
Filip explains that they postponed the release due to the pandemic, and wanted to make it available now when it is yet again possible to make plans for future concerts.
“That this coincided with the 2-year anniversary of the concert was a good match too.”
The concert video production was not something the team had planned from the beginning, but the idea came to mind later on. It wasn’t an easy task though, says Filip:
“We were fully occupied with planning the concert and how to make it the best possible for the audience. Since video production requires a lot of additional work and completely separate planning, I think it is a great achievement that we managed to capture the full concert experience in an interesting way and with great sound. And this despite that we didn’t involve any external party to help us out. Sound mixing, camera angles and to realize visual concepts was part of the work.”
Photo: Tobias Adriansson
Are there any plans to release the concert in audio format with separate tracks?
No, but that’s a good idea! Of course we should do that.
Now with some distance to the concert production experience, do you understand what you have done here really?
I can barely believe that it was already two years ago. There are a lot of things that still feel unreal. However, when you were in the zone you just had to let go and follow the flow. There was no time for reflection then. At the Meet & Greet after the concert, I realized that people had come from several European countries just for this concert; Russia, Germany, Finland, Spain, among others. Questions like “Where is Södertälje” and “Are there any hotels there” were quite unreal to get. One couple apparently came all the way from Barcelona, Spain and landed on the wrong airport, in Skavsta. They had to take a taxi to Södertälje, but luckily managed to get there in time for the concert.
Photo: Tobias Adriansson
It must have felt kind of surreal when Akira Yamaoka came visiting. How was it to spend some days with him?
I was waiting for him at the airport, when I noticed that his plane was three hours late. The rest of the band had already been waiting several hours for a welcome dinner. There was some additional delay and then Akira finally arrived. Back there and then, there were lots of thoughts flying around in my head, but I quickly regained focus.
Akira was really easy to hang out with. We had lots of interesting discussions about music in general, about his other works, his influences, video games and some other things. The day after the concert, we had a very nice sightseeing in Stockholm and he showed a genuine interest in Sweden and Stockholm.
Photo: Tobias Adriansson
How was it to perform together on stage?
It felt natural on stage; no question marks at all. Our goal was to be well-prepared and to feel confident with all of the tracks, so you could actually say that it was Akira himself who had to jump in and join the fun. I got a feeling that he was really enjoying performing with us and despite only playing together once in preparation for the concert, we got a good feeling that everything was under control.
Do you have any especially fond memories of the concert night and rehearsal?
During det rehearsal, when we are playing together for the first time, Akira turns around right after we have finished the first track, looking surprised and proud. I counted down and then we performed all the tracks, and everything sounded superb. We possibly had an even better performance at the rehearsal than during the concert. Unfortunately we didn’t record it.
Photo: Tobias Adriansson
Do you have any plans for new productions in a similar manner, but for other video game series?
During the time we worked on this project, and since all of us in the band are gamers, it is kind of impossible to not talk about new ideas and potential other game music concerts. We have no real plans, although we will from now on focus on further developing the Silent Hill concert concept, to reach out to a bigger audience and book new gigs.
Is the current plan to do more concerts in Sweden, or do you already plan to bring the production to other countries?
Sweden short-term, yeah. Maybe two or three gigs, but we also have some ideas on how to bring this abroad.
