Chiptography: How did you get into chiptune?
Shirobon: I was about 15 and at that time I was really into video game music. I was listening to lots of Final Fantasy soundtracks and Metal Gear Solid and stuff like that, trying to find remixes. A friend of mine, Alice, came up to me and said, "If you like all this video game music, you might enjoy this. It's an artist I found that makes music using Gameboys." I was like, "Alright, Gameboys. What's that all about?" She sent me their Myspace page. It was Henry Homesweet. I remember the first song I heard was Simple Pleasures which he made using Nanoloop. It sounded so different from everything else I heard before that, even like videogame music. If it's made on a Gameboy, it's still quite simplistic but when you're making purely music on it, you can do more advanced stuff. There's all these pitch sweeps that I didn't expect. Instantly I feel in love with it. On his page he said what he used to make his music and I was straight onto Google trying to find out how to make it. Back then there wasn't anywhere near the same amount of resources as there is now in terms of how to make it or softwares available. There was limited documentation. I think there was just the standard manual for Nanoloop. That was about it. There wasn't really many people talking about techniques and things like that but the first thing I did was buy a Nanoloop cart and I started making tunes with it. The first track I made was Golden Apples. A couple months after that, I got my first gig which was actually with Henry Homesweet. It was a one-off chiptune night called Pixel Party. It had me, Henry Homesweet, Nordloef, Falco Lombardi and a couple of others. This was back in 2007 or something like that so my memory of the full lineup's a little bit hazy.
Chiptography: How long were you making chiptune at that point?
Shirobon: Just a few months. By the time this gig came about, I just turned 16 I think. That was 12- 13 years ago. It's quite nice 'cause now it's 12 years later and on the last chiptune night we had here in London there was Henry Homesweet at the front row still rocking out to chiptune. That was nice to see.
Chiptography: Were you starstruck when you first met him?
Shirobon: When I first met him, yeah. I had never played any shows before and the whole experience was new to me so I was quite mind-blown by the fact that a couple of months prior, I instantly fell in love with an artist and the way they make music and before I knew it I had my first show with them in London to a room full of people all going crazy. It hit me quite strong. I was like "Yep, this is good. Keep doing this."
Chiptography: Did you go to study at university?
Shirobon: No, I skipped the whole university thing. I was studying music in college but actually I wasn't too interested in half of the stuff they were teaching me and the other half I was already teaching myself at home just on the internet. By the time I finished college I taught myself more at home than at school. I skipped going to uni because I thought I'm doing alright just teaching myself general production at home. At that point, uni stopped being free. Before that, you could go for free and that was all fine. Then all of a sudden they introduced the cost and it was really expensive. You had to get loans and everyone went into debt. For me, it was between not going to uni and figuring it out myself or going to uni, spend another couple of years there, end up in debt and probably still be in the same spot. That was what was going through my head so I skipped it. Actually, I find now, friends of mine that did go to uni are always coming up to me and asking me how to do this and that in music software. I think I made the right choice there.
Chiptography: You were able to really control what you were learning too.
Shirobon: Yeah, that's exactly it. Obviously, at uni they teach you a whole spectrum of things where for me, I was always focused on the one thing I wanted to know. Especially if you want to conquer a certain niche or you just want to do a certain thing, I think those couple of years are better focusing on that one thing. Obviously, everyone is different depending on what you want to do. If you want to do a much more broad thing with music then it's probably a good idea. I've always really been attracted to the more niche side of things. For me, I just really wanted to make quirky electronic music and play shows. That was my only interest at that point.
Chiptography: There wasn't much value in committing your time to learning things you’re not interested in. Do you play any instruments like keyboard or violin?
Shirobon: Actually, before I started doing the chiptune thing I already taught myself to play guitar and piano and stuff like. Even now I still play those instruments quite a lot and doodle around. I've always been a musician. The chiptune show with Henry Homesweet was my first gig but before that I've always been playing with friends and learning songs at home. While I was learning how to do the chiptune stuff I was still playing a lot of instruments. It's probably why my music is quite melodic. You can kind of hear how it's evolved over the years in that sense. Some of my more recent songs have better chording and little cheeky fills and interesting progressions. You can definitely hear my theory getting better as I've been writing songs.
Shirobon’s desk.
Chiptography: I have a lot of respect for people who are self taught. At this current point, what are you focused on professionally?
Shirobon: My Shirobon project is definitely the main chunk of it but the stuff I do especially now is very hybrid. There's a lot of chiptune flavors in there but I also mix it with other synthesizers and other production styles. I also do some freelance work with sound design, mixing, mastering, production projects and things like that on the side. Recently I've noticed more video games wanting to commission songs. Luckily the main thing that I can focus on is still the Shirobon stuff. Commission work can get a little bit draining whereas the Shirobon stuff, that's just me making music. That's always going to be fun. Obviously you need to do a few things together to get it rocking. I say, more and more, I've been able to focus on my own music in the past couple of years.
Chiptography: So you do your own music and you have your freelance production business. For most people that I talk to, chiptune is a passion project or side hustle. Even for me, I do event photography professionally and in the past 15 years I’ve had many types of jobs outside of photography but shooting chip shows is my passion. So that's a big difference in that you've been able to figure out how to make this work so you can focus on your own music. I'd like to say it's a dream. I think it's a dream for a lot of people.
Shirobon: Oh absolutely. I do get up to a lot behind the scenes. I am writing the tunes and writing albums so I am working quite hard. I'm a workaholic kind of person I think. I get really restless if I'm not doing anything. Even if I just sat at the computer for a half-hour I get almost itchy. I need to do something whether it's writing music or coming up with an idea of how to do something collaboratively with someone else or maybe bringing on a new project or getting in touch with people and saying "Hey, let's make another sample pack." I always need something happening. In fact, I'm actually prone to taking on too many projects at once and I disappear into my cave for a while. When I emerge I'm like, alright I need a little break. That's probably when I book a trip to Japan and take a few weeks off but even then, I'm still really itchy. This is why the Gameboy is nice because while you are on a plane you can come up with little ideas. It's very portable but you can do quite a lot straight out of the Gameboy. That's a beautiful thing as well.
Chiptography: Tell me the story behind your name. How did you come up with Shirobon?
Shirobon: That's a funny one because it was a really quick off the whim thing. When I made my first song I wanted to put it online. I had never put music online before so I made a Myspace page because this was when Myspace was the thing. Obviously I needed a name for the page. I was quite impatient. I just wanted something and I didn't think it would turn into anything serious. I just wanted a little something just for the meantime. At the time I was playing a lot of Bomberman on my Sega Mega Drive. That was the game I was playing on repeat with my friends all the time. I went onto Wikipedia to search Bomberman and the name of the main character, the white Bomberman, was Shirobon. I was like, "That sounds cool. I'll just pop that in there. It's all good." That was it and it kind of just stuck. So nothing too crazy. It's interesting because Shirobon translates to "white bomber "but also my side project is called Silent Bomber so they kind of link together in a weird way in that sense.
Chiptography: What is Silent Bomber?
Shirobon: I guess that's my darker side. That was something I started two years ago. After writing Shirobon music for ten years I was hitting a wall where I was struggling to come up with new ideas and creatively I needed something new so I started this project, Silent Bomber. Whereas Shirobon is usually quite upbeat, positive, kind of dancy songs, Silent Bomber is darker, atmospheric, techno music. I worked on that for two years. Actually that was really good because working on that for a while, where it's a lot more abstract, I was immediately full of ideas when I came back to the Shirobon stuff. Depending on my mood, if I'm feeling a bit darker I can work on stuff for Silent Bomber or if I'm feeling something a bit more pumpy I work on Shirobon. It's nice to have those two sides to keep my creative mind active and not get too stale doing the same thing for too long.
Chiptography: That ties into your need to always be busy and working. You have a variety of sounds and styles to keep things interesting and your mind engaged. Is Silent Bomber also chiptune?
Shirobon: No, that's more analog synthesizers and drum machines. It’s a lot more experimental recordings and Foley sound design kind of stuff. It's very much an experimental project where it's quite nice not to have any rules. A lot of the songs have weird structures where it's not first chorus, build-up, drop. It's very much like every 30 seconds it will completely change into a different thing so it's almost got a slight flavor of prog to it but in an underground matrix-y techno way.
Chiptography: I love that. Have you always lived in London?
Shirobon: I was born in London. The first few years of my life I was growing up in squats. When I was 4 we got our first actual house. Since then, I've always been in London and I very much consider London home. Recently I have enjoyed getting away from London quite a lot but I don't think I could live anywhere else. The thing I really love about London is how diverse the music scene is here. Whatever you're into, even if it's like the most niche genre that you don't think anyone's ever heard of, there will be a night in London that puts it on. A lot of interesting genres emerge out of London as well. It's definitely a great place if you're into music and the party scene. There's a really good energy and vibe from the people. It's on par with Berlin now. Obviously there's pros and cons but anywhere you are has it's pros and cons. For me it matches my mood and it's a nice blend of experiences that I think as a creative, keeps me inspired as well.
Chiptography: I have a similar feeling about New York City. I travel a lot and I still would not want to live anywhere else. New York is very similar to London too.
Shirobon performing at LWLVL 2014 in New York City with visuals by Vaporstack.
Shirobon: I thought so. I've only been there the one time. I went to the chiptune event LWLVL and from hanging out with everyone there I got a very similar vibe as with the people that I hang out with in London.
Chiptography: It has different foods, different cultures, different music, a robust transportation system. Yours is much better than ours actually. London seems so connected and easy to get around. I feel very comfortable here.
Shirobon: Absolutely and it's only improving. Recently we started getting 24-hour travel on the weekends. Hopefully, we can get that during the week as well. Before if you wanted to go out, you always struggled to find a way home especially if there's an event on the other side of London and everything shuts at 12. Everyone's lost and you're spending lots of money on taxis or getting 4 busses to get home. Now it's 24-hours on the weekends and you can just enjoy yourself. When you're ready to go you can just go. In fact, we opened our first 24-hour licensed club a year ago. On the weekends they're open non-stop so you can show up when you want. There's a lot of people who may have been to another party and that closes at 6 am and they just go there to keep it going. There are other people who wake up in the morning, have breakfast and then go straight there. There's a scene of people that actually go there for a few hours before they start their office shift. They're not drinking or doing anything, just a little dance before work to up the mood. There's stuff like that which I really like about London. You get people who are a bit quirky like that.
Chiptography: Tell me about your family. Are you close to your parents? Do you have siblings?
Shirobon: No siblings. My parents live around the corner from here and we're really close and the rest of my family all live in Italy in Sardinia.
Chiptography: Are you Italian?
Shirobon: I'm half Italian and half English. I can't really speak any Italian. Maybe if I grew up in Italy it would be a different thing but I've always been in London and just visited every year or two. I never really picked it up. I only know the basics, like: hi, how are you, I need a beer, where's the toilet. It's nice 'cause I can always go down and visit and I've got a home and family there. In Sardinia, the food is particularly good as well.
Chiptography: That's what I've heard.
Shirobon: Italian people love techno. Whenever you go to a techno party the room's just full of Italians. I feel like it's somewhat in my blood to make stuff like that. Actually, it’s interesting ‘cause I would say 80-90% of the euro-beat music which you get in the Japanese racing games are composted by Italians. I think that the whole vibe kind of sums up my music quite well. I've noticed recently a lot of those high paced music games and racing games have been wanting to license my tracks. I think they can hear that same influence there. It's a good bloodline to have.
Chiptography: It makes so much sense now. I had no idea that you were half Italian. Is it from your mom or your dad?
Shirobon: It's mom's side.
Chiptography: So you grew up with a lot of good Italian cooking then?
Shirobon: Yeah, absolutely. Really, really good. My nan, like most Italian grandmother says it's "the best in the village." I grew up in the city but I would always disappear to Italy for a few weeks. It's a proper tiny village with maybe 300 people living there in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills. All of the produce is grown locally so the quality of the food is spot on. It was nice to have that dynamic. My dad's family is based in North England and Wales so we'll disappear to the countryside in the UK as well. I've got a bit of both but I think for me, I'm more of a city person 'cause whenever I am in the countryside, I like it for maybe up to 5 days and then after that I get really restless. I'm quite used to the busy environment and I need that energy around me.
Chiptography: Does your Italian blood also influence your culinary life?
Shirobon: Yeah, I say it influences the music and the cooking for sure. I cook a lot of Italian food but recently I’m cooking a lot of Asian food. My mum's always saying that she's really confused and like "Where did you get this Asian side? It doesn't make sense!" She still can't get her mind around what ramen is. She's tried it and didn't really relate to it. She just likes Italian food, and a few others as well but Asian's a little off her palate I think. She just enjoys more classic, simple cooking. When there's a lot of flavors or different things thrown in there at once, it's a bit of a sensory overload for her. That's what I like in cooking. I like stuff that tastes a little bit too much and you're like, "Whoa, what is this?"
Chiptography: What's your favorite dish to cook?
Shirobon: I'd say it bounces between cannelloni or katsu curry. Recently I've enjoyed doing a katsu curry with fried chicken from scratch. I brought some sansho pepper back from Japan which is amazing. It gives your mouth pins and needles. That in a curry environment and on the fried chicken tastes incredible. I like saucy dishes.
Chiptography: Like curries?
Shirobon: Curries, lasagna, cannelloni, ramen. It seems like most things I eat, I don't like it too dry. I need a bit of moisture in there.
Chiptography: Tell me about Hyperwave Records.
Shirobon: I never necessarily thought about starting up a label or event. Over time as I started to become fans of record labels and especially ones that captured a certain niche, I found it more and more interesting. In the chiptune scene, I noticed there were quite a few record labels releasing stuff. They're all really, really great but all the stuff they release, it's very chiptune chiptune. A lot of it is very pure, straight from the consoles. I noticed that there wasn't really anyone doing that for the more hybrid stuff. For my music, I use the sound chips with the consoles but I mix it with quite a lot of other things. I've always quite liked the sound of chiptune being more like an instrument in a bigger production. That's my thing. So I started Hyperwave Records as a home for artists that do the more hybrid side of things. On the label we've got Jamatar who does more progressive prog rocky stuff with guitars but there's Gameboys mixed in there. We did one of the YMCK albums and they use Famicoms but they also sing over the top. We've got meganeko who's very similar to me. RoBKTA who makes vaperwavy disco. Bossfight as well who's a bit more EDM but everyone has a chiptune sound which they blend into their productions so I think it's been really nice having a little family there and a place for artists. With setting up the label, we wanted to do a label launch party or something just to put on a little party and see how it goes. I've never organized my own event before then. We did the first one and loads of people showed up and had a lot of fun. Afterwards, everyone was like, "When's the next one? When are you going to do another one?" I was like, "Oh, alright. It looks like we should do some Hyperwave parties as well." We kept doing them and they've all been really good. Everyone's always had an amazing time. There's been a lot of love in the room at every party that we've done. The last one we did was our 6th party with artists from Japan, Australia, France and Norway all flown into England to squeeze into this little basement and have a really nice time together. I want to keep that up. I'm not sure how we're going to top the last line up but I feel like I say this every event that we've done and somehow managed to do it. I think this helps as well that over the years the chip scene is quite tight and I've made a lot of friends. I think that's what's quite nice about the chip scene and events 'cause yeah you're playing a gig but it's also like a reunion for everyone.
Chiptography: What do you think chiptune will be like in 20 years?
Shirobon: It will be really interesting to see, especially with the chip scene, 'cause obviously a big part of it is using the sound chips in these older consoles and stuff like that. They'll still be fine in 20 years but eventually, all these old Gameboys will fry out. It will be interesting to see where to go from there. Oliver who designs nanoloop has been releasing his own synthesizers based off the Gameboy sound chip and I guess reinventing it so it will be interesting to see how that evolves. Now there's people making music on calculators. I think that's what I like about this scene because just as you think we've got it all mapped out, someone comes up with a new way to do stuff. I think in general, chiptune is very much about taking things that you wouldn't think to make music with and making it into a very musical thing. As music changes, people find new ways to make interesting songs. For example when dubstep came about all of a sudden people used the consoles in a different way to make more growly sounds. I'm looking forward to seeing where everyone's at in 20 years. At this last event, I think the majority of the people there have all been in the scene for the same amount of time that you and I have but there was a good third of the people that this was their first chiptune show.
Chiptography: in my experience, anytime there's a new person at a chip show, they've been welcomed with open arms. Something that I've found that's different from a lot of other niche scenes is that we are welcoming to others who want to come in and have a good time or learn, especially if they want to learn.
Shirobon: That's such a good point because I find there's a lot of communities out there that are tight knit but when someone new shows up they almost have a closed door. Like, "We've established our corner. You just watch from a distance." Chiptune is very much the opposite. It's more like we're grabbing them, pulling them in and showing them. It's like, "Hey- look at this! Join us!" That's what I really like about it, just how friendly and welcoming everyone is. I think it's because of that people are still coming to shows 13 years later. They always have a big warm hug when they show up and it's hard to leave. You don't just walk away from your family. They're always going to be there for you. That's very much what the chiptune scene feels like.
Chiptography: It's another level in that it's international. We have friends from across the globe which is mind-boggling sometimes. cTrix is from Australia and I saw him two weeks ago in Tokyo and here we are together again in London. Who else has that type of relationship with their friends? It's incredibly special. I hope that we can keep that element going forward and that in 20 years we can still high five each other at different shows across the world.
Shirobon: There's been a few cases where someone kind of trinkles away but I found they do come back at some point. Everyone's got their own kind of stuff going on and not everyone's on the same journey but a majority of the cases it's been a constant love. Like I said, even if you do come and trinkle off you have this moment of reality maybe a couple years later and you go to a show for the sake of it and get reminded of the reasons why you loved it before.
Chiptography: We're going to photograph you in and around your home here in London. What's the neighborhood called?
Shirobon: The neighborhood is called Harringay. It's quite nice around here. The housing for now, it's still quite cheap and there's a lot of nice bars and venues around here. Actually, you’ll find there's quite a good music scene around here. Just around the corner, you've got New River Studios which I've seen a few chiptune shows there. Artist-wise we've got quite a lot of people living around here. Just across the road from here is the road that Squarepusher lives on and then just to the left of that you've got a store that's owned by one of the members of Pendulum. There's loads of cool influential people around here so it's quite a nice little spot. I think a lot of people don't know about the area until they move here. There's a thing which I noticed with a lot of people that once you move into this area they don't leave. For me, my past four houses have been a five minute walk from here. There's a bit of community here which is difficult to find in London. This place that I'm in now in particular is really nice because it's a nice size and everyone I'm living with is a chiptune fan. We don't have any neighbors so we can make music and not get into any trouble.
Chiptography: Do you have a favorite chiptune story?
Shirobon: I find it very difficult to come up with favorites. One really nice one for me personally was one of the years of Square Sounds Tokyo. Someone got in touch with the organizers and very politely offered to cover the costs of getting me there in order to get me to perform. They wanted to remain anonymous as well, I have no idea who it was, but that whole gesture, I found to be really incredible and humbling.
Chiptography: Wow! That is amazing!
Shirobon: And that's a lot for just an attendant of a show. It's not cheap getting me from here to Japan and it was somewhat short notice.
Chiptography: Was that the first time you played?
Shirobon: That was the third time. The first time I played was the main event and I went back the next year and played the after party. I was planning on taking a year off but then this happened. I came back as the secret act for the main event. That was a really special time. It was quite funny being there because everyone was like, "Why are you here? You're not playing." I was just like, "Oh yeah, you know, I just really love it here." Which I do. I would definitely go even if I wasn't playing but it was kind of fun hiding backstage and then coming out like, "Yeah- I'm actually playing!"
Chiptography: There’s always a buzz around the festival with everyone trying to figure out who the secret act is.
Shirobon: And there's always a lot of people there who are headliners that aren't playing. They're just there for the hell of it.
Chiptography: When the show is over and it’s time for the secret act I get the same feeling when I was a kid on Christmas morning.
Shirobon: Yeah, I get that feeling. I think another memory which is more of a general highlight that I've had in a lot of places is the first time I visit a country after talking to people from that place for a long time. For example, the first time I went to New York, that was the first time I went to The States. I got to meet a lot of the American chip crowd. Of course, Japan. The first time I went to Melbourne and I could properly hang out with those guys. They're all great. That first time showing up, everyone's there and you're just meeting them for the first time. Those are always really special moments. I think chiptune is just one big special moment.
Listen to Shirobon’s music on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
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Photos by Chiptography © 2020.