Masato Nakamura


Masato Nakamura is a Japanese musician, bass guitarist, and record producer. He is a member of the J-pop band Dreams Come True, which was formed in 1988 and went on to sell over 50million CDs. He is best known outside of Japan for composing the video game music soundtracks to Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Career

Nakamura was originally a session musician before forming the "Cha-Cha & Audrey's Project" with Miwa Yoshida. In 1988, they formed the band Dreams Come True. In July 2002, he founded the record company "DCT Records" with Yoshida. They now serve as executive producers. Nakamura composes much of the catalog for Dreams Come True and arranges almost all of it.
On 22 June 2008, he married Mākii, the 21-year-old former lead vocalist of the Japanese rock band, High and Mighty Color.

''Sonic the Hedgehog''

Nakamura was picked by Sega to compose the music for the original Sonic the Hedgehog early in 1990. Later that year on 7 November, the game was revealed for the first time by being painted on the side of Dream Come True's tour bus. He was also in the middle of recording the band's fourth album, Million Kisses during Sonic the Hedgehog, and their fifth album, The Swinging Star during Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
He was originally brought in to do the music again in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but financial disagreements led Sega to dropping him and using in-house musicians, along with Cube Corp and a team that worked with Michael Jackson. In 2006, he contributed a remixed version of the ending theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, "Sweet Sweet Sweet", for the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog.

Other musical activity

He has also composed music for various television commercials and movies.