100 Malaysians, 100 Milestones – LSA100 this year spotlights singer-songwriter and music composer Ryota Katayama, who garnered international recognition for his work on the 2023 film Abang Adik, including at Taiwan’s prestigious 35th Golden Melody Awards.
If you had asked Ryota Katayama two years ago where he would be today, you might’ve gotten a different answer. As it happens, he’s spent the past few months travelling across Asia, celebrating the success of Jin Ong’s breakout film, Abang Adik. Before Ryota landed the gig, the singer-songwriter had never composed music for a film before. Suddenly, he was garnering multiple award nominations for the soundtrack, which he arranged and produced.
Abang Adik was a smash hit as soon as it opened in Malaysia (as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong), and within a month of its release it had already more than tripled its budget at the box office. The film became the first-ever Malaysian movie to top the charts in Taiwan and then went on to be nominated for seven Golden Horse Awards, including for the song “A Walk to Remember” from the film’s soundtrack. Ryota eventually won the Golden Melody Award (the Grammys of the Chinese-speaking world) for the song. Abang Adik has also been submitted for consideration for the Best International Feature Film award at the 2025 Oscars.
“All these awards and recognition definitely give me a confidence boost,” Ryota says when I bring them up, clearly reticent about his achievements. “It’s like, you know, I’m on the right path. I can keep going and writing something that I truly believe in.”
I rewatched Abang Adik only a few days ago — this time paying extra attention to the score. The use of music in the film feels both intentional yet natural, amplifying the scenes where the dialogue is more dramatic yet never overpowering it. If I hadn’t known it, I would think Ryota had been composing film scores forever.
But even before Abang Adik, Ryota had already established himself as a singer-songwriter. He first debuted his music in 2012, and has since performed at various music festivals across the region. Having listened to the bulk of his oeuvre, I note that there is no one genre that Ryota’s music can be classified as — it’s a pleasant blend of dream pop, soft ballads and electronic; the kind of tunes that have you bopping when they’re performed live. His style changes a lot, “it really depends on where I’m at, what kind of influence I’m getting, so I don’t really have to stick with any type of genre or musical genre”. But ultimately, “it definitely goes back to The Beatles”.
While Ryota — born in Japan before moving back to Malaysia when he was four — is currently based here (with occasional back-and-forths to Taiwan), he first spent many years making music in Australia. He was truly living the life of an indie musician, coasting by and taking multiple odd-jobs while dabbling in music in his free time. “I think I started off as a baggage handler,” he shares. “I worked at the airport under the sun, it was, like, 40º every day and I worked from 7am to 7pm. I was in hospitality, I was a dishwasher. But, I mean, I just did different jobs to earn money so I could record music in the studio. I wanted to study, but the cost of the course that I wanted to do was quite expensive, so I decided to just work.”
Music wasn’t something he thought he would get to do beyond a ‘passion project’ or a hobby, but when he was 26 years old, his first opportunity came knocking. “The labels were really interested in what I’d done in the past, when I was in Australia. Somehow a Chinese label listened to my song and they were like, ‘Why not turn this English song into a Chinese [song], with [Chinese] lyrics? So I tried it out to see what the response and the market was like.”
Now that he has reaped the rewards of Abang Adik, Ryota is eager to get back to working on his upcoming album. His debut album was released in 2020 at the height of the pandemic — so he hadn’t been able to play it to the public as much as he’d liked — and thus with this album, he has the chance to really put himself out there.
Let’s talk a bit about Abang Adik. Congratulations on your multi-award-winning song, “A Walk to Remember” for the film. In fact, you’ve won quite a few awards for it already. How would you say this has impacted you creatively, especially in your career in music?
Creatively, I think Abang Adik sort of helped me restructure the way I think of music. I used to be really ‘greedy’ when it comes to arrangements. I try to stack everything in, so it doesn’t feel ‘nice’. But these days, because of Abang Adik, and learning how to write a music score, it sort of let me understand the lesser, the better. So people can really focus on what they’re seeing, and what you are trying to deliver. All these awards and recognition definitely give me a confidence boost. It’s like, you know, I’m on the right path. I can keep going and writing something that I truly believe in.
How was the process of making and recording the film’s soundtrack?
It was tough. It was very tough. Film scoring is — I think for anyone doing it for the first time, it’s tough.
When you took it on, was it like a kind of challenge for you, or did you feel like it was the right thing to do at the time?
It’s just the sort of opportunity that you can’t, you know, reject. When the director first approached me, I was like, “I really don’t know how to do it.” And somehow I just said yes. I wanted to do it. And I didn’t know what was coming. And yeah, it was a really tough journey, you know, getting it right and getting it to be what the director wanted. I think the hardest part is — like, being your own songwriter is that first, you can sing. You can write your own lyrics. There are so many things you can use your vocals to depend on. But film scoring is all based on the music [instrumentals]. And you need to be careful about not taking away the feelings of the dialogue.
The concentration, the focus. There are so many things to consider. So, learning it, learning to ‘be less’ and trying to fill up that emotion, it was quite a journey to get there. And besides doing film scoring, before I started doing the score, I actually joined the production as a third AD [Assistant Director]. That’s where I truly learned how production works. Like how they started prep the film, and then going into shooting, and then going to post-production.
So I got to witness the whole thing, the whole process. So when I worked on the score, I also didn’t want to disappoint the crew. Because I saw the crew has been putting a lot of effort and dedication to the project. So, during the post-production, it was left to me for the scoring and also sound design. So it’s sort of having that burden of, you know, ‘I want to push the hardest so I wouldn’t disappoint the people that worked on it.’
I recently rewatched the movie and it’s just very interesting to notice the music a second time. Was it up to you also to make the decision of where the music would come in, and where certain scenes would be completely silent? There were some scenes where it’s a bit more heavy-handed and then the music kind of comes to accompany that. What was the creative decision in that sense?
I think first, the director pretty much had his own idea of when the music should come in, and when the music should be out of it. But I mean, the director was also quite open. For me, there were certain scenes where I also told him, “Actually, there’s no music needed.” You know, the dialogue — I mean, the scene itself was better if the music was silent. And then some parts I also told him, “It shouldn’t be silent at that part.” So, I want to thank our editor as well. The editor actually, he sort of put music in certain scenes that made me see, like, “Oh, actually I can use this.” I mean, in Abang Adik, there are many types of genres of music actually. So it sort of helped me see through that.
And you arranged all of it! Even the scene in Miss Money’s house and everything, right? When they were dancing and everything, that was kind of different.
That was quite specific. The director wanted a Malay song. So I had to write a Malay song, and the project was in such a rushed — such a short timeline, so I had to sing on it. That was the first time I sang a Malay song and wrote Malay lyrics. That was quite challenging. I didn’t get to process a lot, you know. They just gave me a reference, a Sheila Majid song. So I just listened to it a few times, and just right away worked on it because the thing is, the timeline was quite short. So the whole process was just not thinking through a lot. I just worked on it and tried to make it feel right.
Stylistically, with your own music — you kind of jump genres. Like you said, you kind of depend on what influences you at the time. I know your music genre leans toward dream-pop and indie rock, and different genres. Was it a big shift for you to adapt to what the film soundtrack required? What was your biggest takeaway from learning how to adapt to writing music for the film?
I mean, every film is different, you know. Different films have their own, I mean, their own approach and style. So, many times I’ll follow what is required — like, it’s basically ‘serving’ as well. So, serving the vision of the director. Like, what you’re hearing, what you’re seeing, and you imagine what type of music you wanted. But while serving that vision, I will always think of like, what — I mean just now we were talking about authenticity. What the thing is — what is the originality that I can put in, that can make it different, which is not just getting the director’s vision right. I also have to challenge the idea. Getting my own personal preference and kind of moulding it to the vision that the director wanted. So, adapting to it. I mean, this whole process has been more like trial and error. Yeah, I did make mistakes at the beginning, but by doing those mistakes, it’s sort of like letting me know — and helped me to understand myself better. I definitely grew a lot as an artist, I grew so much.
To wrap up, what’s next for you? Any upcoming projects that you can tell us about? Would you be open to work on another film?
There’s so many things I wanna try. But currently, I’m fully focused, like, solely focused on my album, which has to release in December. I’m pretty much still halfway through. Yeah, it’s quite rough.
How has it been working on that after the whole experience of Abang Adik?
I always think that working on any type of project, it’s all about timing. Timing, and the rhythm. It’s not just like, ‘Oh, you wanna put out an album? Then put out an album.’ So it’s sort of the right time. ‘Cause Abang Adik brought me to places that I’ve never been to. It really feels like the right time for me to introduce my music to the people. And the process… basically, the songs I’ve already written all of them in four years. Four years, back and forth. And I feel like it’s the right time to put it out. And you were saying, would I be open to work on different films? I definitely want to, yeah. Because every time when I watch Abang Adik again, I always think, ‘Eh, it could be better.’ Or you know, ‘What was I doing?’ So I sort of want the challenge of another film. Hopefully next year there is a chance that I’ll be working on it. But it’s the same instinct lah. Like, when they approach and if you have the time and story feels right and you know what you are doing, then yeah.
So, right now, you’re based in Malaysia? And the album will be released here? Tell us more about the album if you can.
Right now, I’m mostly in Malaysia. But these days I fly a lot to Taipei, too. So, this album, it’ll be digital everywhere. We focus on Malaysia, and also the Taiwan market. And yeah, this is the album that I think I want to take on a challenge and play it at a festival. Because my last one was, you know, during the MCO period. So I didn’t get a taste of, like, a tour and also playing it live. In terms of production, I think this album is suitable for festivals. So, I’m looking forward to next year. I’m going to many different places, seeing how people react to the music that I’ve been working on for the past four years. The album is called “What Am I to You?” and it’s a question that I will always be asking myself now.