Hello everyone, I’m Hirota, a composer. The truth is, I just moved the other day, so my room’s still a chaotic mess. But I thought this might be a good opportunity to show off my instruments, since they’re all out in the open.

The bass on the left is a 1969 Gibson EB-2D. It sounds deep and powerful. I’ve been using it as my main bass for several years now. Its body is hollow on the inside, so it has a relaxing acoustic sound. I always wanted to play a jet black EB-2D, so I painted over the original cherry red color.

The stringed instrument behind that is an E. 8 String Biwa. It’s an 8-string electric acoustic instrument designed to look like a biwa. The percussion instrument in front of that is an Arabian Darabuka. It’s used for things like belly dancing. I think the Darabuka has the most beautiful form of any instrument.

The dragon head you see in the back is the “Son,” a 3-string instrument from Thailand. It’s interesting in that the frets aren’t chromatic. In front of that is a Yamaha Classical Guitar. I don’t know the details on it, but it’s old and sounds good. Next to it is a Fender USA 1962 Jazz Bass. The instrument behind that with the swirly head that you can just barely see is an E. 6-string Syami. It’s a fretless electric acoustic instrument with three ‘strings’ each composed of multiple strings, for a total of six. There’s a thin snare head-esque thing pulled across the body. It makes interesting sounds whether you’re slapping it like a shamisen or using a pick.

The cello is something I received from the composer Nobuo Uematsu. I started practicing the cello after I became an adult, and it’s a very fun, deep instrument. You can’t see these, but there are also 4-string and 6-string fretless basses behind it.

Hmm… I can’t list everything. But they’re all important partners to me who’ve played a part in my previous works and Penny Blood.