Our manager gave us “Five songs each” for a quota!

– You’ve created a wonderful product. It was truly moving. ‘SMILE’ honestly pales in comparison.
[But ‘SMILE’ has a good reputation. I’ve had people tell me it’s the best album yet.]

– Of course, all listeners have their own opinions. But aren’t you happy about that?
[I’m not so much happy as surprised. But some people do feel that way. It goes to show that there are all sorts of people in the world. It’s like that with clothes, too, right? There are people who buy clothes that I look at and think “Who would buy something this weird?” (laughs)]

– Is ‘AWAKE’ your response to them?
[I wouldn’t call it a response. Our manager said “Five songs each” was our quota this time. So, except for yukkie, we submitted five songs each. I actually had about seven, so in all we had nearly twenty songs, right? At the time, I thought they were all good songs.]

– Wasn’t it hard to choose from so many?
[No, it wasn’t a problem having so many songs. We had a lot of really great songs, and that was when we realized that.]

– Was the tour for the previous album, ‘SMILE’, a major factor in writing them?
[Hmm, well, with some analysis, you might find a lot of the songs were influenced by that tour. But I don’t think that was all.]

I think we got the band engine warmed up.

– In the past, there was a time when the band accelerated furiously, correct? It had a tangible force, but I wonder if you wanted to step away from it. How far could you let it take you? I wondered.
[Wanted… I think all we needed to do was get the engine warmed up again. ‘SMILE’ felt like a warm-up, and now that the engine’s ready, we can get up to speed again. I thought so even back when we were making ‘SMILE’, that we wouldn’t be back up to full speed until the next album. It all worked out the way I’d hypothesized.]

– Now, you mentioned that you had submitted seven songs, and actually ‘Jiyuu e no Shoutai’ was made back in the days of ‘SMILE’ so you only had one new song made. Why weren’t more of your songs chosen?
[Just because they weren’t chosen doesn’t mean they’re dead.]

– That sounds rather suspicious.
[I’m unwilling to say more. We already have twelve great songs on the album, so… (laughs). That makes over 120 already, soon we’ll break 150. Maybe they’ll get used on another album.]

– It wasn’t the right time for them?
[That could be it, too.]

– Are you thinking of the next single?
[That, too.]

These songs are like a digest of the past year.

– What is your position with regard to songwriting? Have there been any changes compared to what you did before, or have some elements stayed the same?
[Over the past year, I think I’ve finally perfected my methods. I took a good look at what exactly I was doing, and I’ve matured, too.]

– When you were working on ‘AWAKE’, was there anything you thought you would finally get a chance to express?
[No, there wasn’t.]

– You were just glad to get it done?
[No, when the recording was finished, I wasn’t thinking “Hurray! We’re done!”… it just slipped away from me.]

– I realise that recording isn’t a simple task, but was there anything particularly troublesome? Something that got on your nerves, trouble with the location, or perhaps a restriction on how many days you could spend in the studio?
[I don’t think there was anything like that. I did a lot of net surfing in the studio, actually (laughs).]

– You had that luxury, but you were still thorough with your work.
[Were we? Well, it took a long time to finish.]

– How long did it take, really?
[About half a year. We started around September.]

– Recording became a part of your daily life?
[Actually, I’ve kind of forgotten about the recording period. I guess it must have been.]

– So, what do you remember about the recording, now?
[Is there anything? I can’t remember anything but the view from the studio. I can remember which studios we went to.]

– Right (laughs). Were you being particular about anything in terms of the sound of your bass playing during the recording?
[Nothing in particular. I’ve always taken it one step at a time, letting the sound vary from song to song. There’s no advantage in carving out one sound and using it for each of the twelve songs. That’s why I change the sound between songs, changing which bass I use too. With the bass as the root, the sound of the other instruments changes, too.]

– This time around, which songs were especially fun to play? And which ones were tricky to play?
[Fun ones… On ‘Ophelia’ and ‘AS ONE’ we used pre-programmed takes.]

– Eh?
[The main line of ‘Ophelia’, I kept getting the distortion wrong.]

– It doesn’t sound that way intentionally?
[It got distorted. I meant to make the amp sound distorted, but I ended up distorting the line (the direct output from the bass). Normally, I record straight from the line, but the sound kept getting distorted! Distorted by the amp, distorted by the line. But that’s how the end result turned out. If we hadn’t done that (made use of a pre-programmed take) it wouldn’t have sounded the same. Still, even though we had the pre-programmed version, I still played it two or three times. Just to see if I could record it right, I played it once or twice between other songs. But still, I’ve only played the full song three times, at most.]

I think listening to music is a question of love or hate.

– Ahh~. Hearing about that might change the way people respond to the song. But, changing the subject, I get the impression there was a lot of meaning placed in this album. Was it meant to be included? Or did you try not to do that?
[I think it might be a little bit of both.]

– It just happened?
[Yeah (laughs).]

– Did you consult each other?
[Nope.]

– What’s your secret for keeping yourself going? I think self-confidence must be necessary, or else you wouldn’t get very far.
[I do have confidence. I don’t let other people’s opinions affect me much. I don’t think the people giving me their opinions know better than I do (laughs) at least not musically. Would you claim to be in a position to tell a pro athlete how to play their sport? It’s the same thing, isn’t it? I don’t really listen, so it doesn’t influence me, and I don’t get affected.]

– Then, you can get inspiration on your own? For example, by watching movies or listening to music, or by going somewhere.
[…Not really. I never go anywhere (laughs).]

– You should! Or don’t you have the time?
[No, it’s just that I’m the stay at home type (laughs).]

– I remember you mentioned once that you don’t travel.
[It’s such a pain (laughs).]

– You said you do net surfing? But not real surfing.
[I don’t surf.]

– So what have you taken up for stimulation?
[Nothing at all.]

– Don’t you get bored?
[I’m a boring kind of guy.]

– That can’t be true, can it?
[Even at home, I just space out. …I’m really not that interesting.]

– …That’s enough (laughs). As I’d imagined, you’re at the age where men are past the phase of constantly obsessing with sex? Though, this album sounds so young it’s hard to think of you that way.
[Well, I guess that might be true.]

– Is there anything in particular you’d like your listeners to keep in mind, or to pay special attention to?
[I think listening to music is a matter of love or hate. If you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, then you don’t. I think we’re confident that we’ve put out a good product.]

Translated by Natalie Arnold