Konnichiwa! I’m Satoko “Holly” Young. People call me Holly, which is my nickname for a long time.
I’m originally from downtown Tokyo, Japan, near Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo stadium) and Senso-Ji (Asakusa Temple).
I’ve started to play the piano at the age of 2. I love playing the piano, and also I love singing.
Since my father was(is) a computer geek, I got my very first computer Sord m5 when I was 10 years old! I did a first music programming using Basic on it. Also I played some games on m5. My favorite was Moon Patrol, and I was really good at it!
My brother introduced me to the Nintendo Famicom (NES) and I started to play games he owned. The very first Famicom game I purchased myself was Final Fantasy I. (it was EXPENSIVE!)
Then I started to play Dragon Quest series and Final Fantasy series. I especially liked the games’s music. I started to buy the games’ soundtrack CDs, and I even programmed Dragon Quest’s music in M5 using software called Music Editor. That was my first music programming experience.
I joined an orchestra club in my junior-high and high school, and I played the violin there.
Before joining the club, my favorite music was piano related, but I started to be interested in orchestral music around then.
As much as I love classical music, I also liked music like U.S. Top40, especially the ones which use synthesizers.
Eventually, when I was 15 years old, I got my first synthesizer Yamaha V2 (in the west it’s called DX11).
In high school, I started to be a big fan of heavy metal/ hard rock. I formed a band with a few of my girl friends and played the electric guitar, the bass guitar and did vocals. I also started to get some effectors, a drum machine (since I couldn’t play drum well), MTR (it was a TAPE recorder!) and a MIDI sound module.
Around then, I started to be so into movie soundtracks, and I became really serious about creating music.
I studied music theory, harmony, composition and orchestration in Kunitachi College of Music and received a bachelor of arts in music.
During my college life, I got my second synthesizer Korg’s 01/w ProX. I used this not only as a synthesizer but also as a digital piano for night-time piano practice in college.
In 2005, I moved to the U.S. and currently I’m living in Silicon Vallen, near Google, eBay, Apple… you name it!
I’ve been working in the IT industry for a while, but music and I have a long history. I just could not stay away from it, and I just ended up becoming a freelance composer (as a natural result!)
Thanks for reading this!
-Holly