2017.07.06
Interview with CHIO (Vocals) and YOOKEY (Guitar)
By Arakane Ryousuke (荒金 良介)
Original Interview (Japanese)
After renaming UPLIFT SPICE to THE MUSMUS in September 2015, you released your 1st mini album, ‘PROLOGUE’, in December of the same year, and went on a tour with the record. Were there any more changes in your feelings after that?
CHIO: To us, it feels like we are a different band (from UPLIFT SPICE).
You felt like “I put together a new band”?
CHIO: That’s right. I thought it would be good to start the band anew, because when we ended UPLIFT SPICE, there was a part inside of me that came to a close. So, when we made this album, I thought “wow!”
What do you mean by “wow!”?
CHIO: I meant that we made something cool! (laughter)
How about you, Yookey?
YOOKEY: Even if our band name changes, the fundamentals of making music and performing live don’t change. Well, inevitably, because we replaced two members, it really feels like a different band. We released our first work, but there were things that didn’t go smoothly when touring. We hadn’t explicitly settled on whether we were going to be an extension of UPLIFT SPICE or not. So, we all discussed it, and decided start the band from scratch. For the time being, communication between members has increased a lot, hasn’t it?
CHIO: I wonder if it’s more that our acceleration has increased.
Did you discuss “What is THE MUSMUS?” during the tour of your previous release?
YOOKEY: Yes. If there are things that don’t work, that’s normally when you take things slowly, but we wanted to go faster. Rather than get to know each other slowly, we decided to get to know each other all at once. Besides, I think we needed some foundation to start things.
CHIO: Yeah, I wanted something that we could present as THE MUSMUS quickly. Because our previous release was a mini album, we had to use songs from our prior band, so our live shows weren’t properly established. In those circumstances, I wondered how to go about presenting ourselves. Our rhythm team had signed up to be members of THE MUSMUS, after all. However, YOOKEY and I were in UPLIFT SPICE for a long time, and even though we weren’t extending that, I wondered if it was affecting our performance unknowingly. So, I decided to let us establish things the right way as the four of us.
How would you put the foundations of the band into words?
YOOKEY: For the rhythm team, we asked “what kind of bassist would you like to be” and “what kind of drummer would you like to be”. After that, we gave our objective opinions.
What do you want to be, YOOKEY?
YOOKEY: For that, I have no comment (laughter). After all, when it comes to words, don’t people think “this guy, I want to be like this guy”? (referring to himself)
CHIO: Hehehe.
Is it unpleasant that people think “I want to be like this guy”?
YOOKEY: You’ll have to come and see me live to answer that.
CHIO: It was suggested that we consider how to consolidate the four of our mindsets, so we decided to make all of our feelings one.
YOOKEY: Ah, a super easy to understand metaphor has come up! When entering a company, you have a welcome party for new recruits, and then you get into a groove. After that, doesn’t everything go smoothly? I said we should do that kind of thing a lot.
CHIO: If we did that, it seems like we’d be drinking constantly, doesn’t it?
YOOKEY: No no, this is like, the music version.
That metaphor is also pretty vague.
YOOKEY: (laughter)
CHIO: UPLIFT SPICE was YOOKEY’s band, but THE MUSMUS is my band. There is a big difference there. I want to be able to sell the four of us, so now I am doing things selfishly. I wish I could drag all of the members.
What was your reason for taking the initiative, CHIO?
CHIO: When YOOKEY let me know that he wanted to do something together, I said, “Write me some songs you think I would want to use”. After that, when I listened to the songs he made, I decided I wanted to join in. After that, I said “I want to be Thouzer! (Character from the manga ‘Fist of the North Star’)”, and he replied “by all means!” (laughter). Because I said that, I now have a responsibility.
What did you think of the songs YOOKEY brought to you?
CHIO: They were completely different from anything he’d made before, and I thought they were so beautiful. My head was filled with the image of how they would look live. I thought, “ah, I want to write lyrics, I want to sing”. The first demo I listened to was a song from this album, ‘SHAH MAT’ (Track 5).
I see. YOOKEY, what changed about your songwriting?
YOOKEY: It was what I was feeling at the time. CHIO said “UPLIFT SPICE was ‘destruction’, and THE MUSMUS is ‘creation from a blank slate’”, and with those words I understood something intuitively. I think that the songs were written with that in mind.
Were you going in from a different angle than the so called ‘destructive impulse’ of punk?
YOOKEY: I think our approach is hardly ‘punk’ this time either.
CHIO, where did you get the inspiration to use the word “creation” from?
CHIO: When our previous band finished, my enthusiasm for music had been exhausted. So, I decided to go travel. I canceled my housing and my cell phone, and tried wandering aimlessly overseas. I reached the point where I was dying by the roadside, and said ‘that’s enough’. While I was traveling and wondering if I could find something interesting, I listened to the demo, and I wanted to be part of a band again!
Is that so?
CHIO: It felt like that sound showed me a new world. In that sense, I wonder if it means YOOKEY also changed.
YOOKEY: Our production style has changed from before, but I don’t want to do what’s currently in fashion. Besides, I want to try and keep the field I grew up on from blurring. More than the music, my consciousness has changed.
For example?
YOOKEY: For me, more than just putting out CDs, I have a stronger concept that ‘I am an artist who makes things’. I want to make new things, amazing things.
Is that the consciousness that came after you became THE MUSMUS?
YOOKEY: We had some time after we ended UPLIFT SPICE, so I thought about it then. When you constantly perform live, the focus of your world is the live house. When that became the case, I was very conscious of what songs will get people excited at a show. Because of that, I started thinking “you have to do this”, and my field of vision became super narrow.
The time you spent thinking during your break was a very important period, wasn’t it. In terms of music, you felt things had gotten flat?
YOOKEY: Ah, that’s it.
CHIO: Did that shape the unmixed song you came out with?
YOOKEY: Yeah, this time I only made songs with that feeling.
Moving on from your previous work, with this release you opened a ton of new doors once again. Did you have a blueprint for this album?
YOOKEY: Oh, there wasn’t one (laughter).
CHIO: It feels like something gushed forth and shaped it. We all agreed, if it’s not cool we’ll stop, but if it’s cool we’ll do it. I wanted to shape it using what seems cool to the four of us.
So, this work was influenced by what the four of you thought was good.
CHIO: I was aware of that last time, but YOOKEY said he was more wondering if he was able to write songs that were honest to himself.
YOOKEY: I don’t know if it’s good to say this kind of thing, but while I am living, there are certain things that I hate, so I don’t want to return to that kind of world. Whenever I reached my limit, a switch flipped in my head, or rather, I could see things from a bird’s-eye view. So, I constantly tried to keep my mind level. Just making whatever song people say that they want to hear is bullshit, so if it wasn’t a song that I wanted to make from my heart, I felt it was no good. Also, I wanted to have a songwriting approach one step ahead of everyone.
Could you give any specifics?
YOOKEY: When I listened to the CD, I wondered if people had already thought “He came with this? You can express things this way too!” It’s because I don’t like when people say “he’s similar to that other guy”.
In accordance with the name of this release, I got the impression that the first chapter of this band has begun. It feels like a decisive declaration, “We’re ‘THE MUSMUS TALE I’, a rock band that can play any kind of tune!”
YOOKEY: The ‘screamo’ genre is still around, but you get the impression “are you still doing that?” I think the bands that are keeping it up are cool, but I don’t want our band to become generic and not leave anything behind.
CHIO: You’re saying that ‘generic bands are boring, so I want to do things the way I want’?
YOOKEY: Yeah, that’s it. And, I made some songs where I don’t play guitar (laughter).
That’s Track 7, “Akashic Records”, right? Although that song is contained in this release, it’s a complete break away from what you’ve done before. Even though only that song has that variation, THE MUSMUS’s color and spin is on every single song. The melody of track 2, “SSFMe”, also has a new taste which some people might be surprised to hear. The lyrics have an impact, and it sounds like loud rock that you can dance to.
YOOKEY: I agree. I think we made that song sound completely different to any other band. Just as expected, when it comes to me (laughter).
Hahaha, singing your own praises.
YOOKEY: Or rather, I’m kind of insulting myself. The kind of song that increases the level of comedy is also fine!
“SHAH MAT” has two different beats, which makes it feel like a theatrical song when completed.
YOOKEY: I like things with a gothic element added to them. That’s not limited to music, but I wondered if I could set the kind of atmosphere of European townscapes that you see in movies.
CHIO: In terms of vocals, it was easy to sing.
Track 8, “WANDERLUST”, has a sense of scale, which you could say about all of you work, but there’s an increasing number of songs that you would want to hear played in a stadium rather than an underground live house.
YOOKEY: I’m aware of that. This time, more than just making songs, we worked to make our mental images into sound. I wondered if we could make those images gargantuan. We wanted to be able to capture huge things with just one phrase. For example, I think that even if we add a bang to the tone, when heard at the seaside or in a stadium, the same phrase reverberates differently. When we made songs, we were better able to imagine big images.
Why were you able to think in that way?
YOOKEY: Why is that? (laughter) Is that not the usual? As I said earlier, I think that for music, a lot of it can become flat. Even though imagination is limitless, for some reason there’s a part of us that creates limits and tries to shut out competition. I thought if I can just expand my field of vision a little, the scale of my songs will increase.
Also, is it increasing even more than from your previous release?
YOOKEY: No, compared to the previous release, it hasn’t changed that much. However, we’re using this as our intro, so it may leave that kind of impression. For ‘Akashic Records’, somehow along the way guitar and sampling were both added. I also think the work itself is pretty simple. I mean, it’s not good to do super complex stuff. I think precisely because we made it simple, we could make the scale so large.
I see. Now that I’ve heard this release, I’m excited for what you guys will do from here. I think there’s a potential for you to go somewhere before long.
CHIO: I agree. I also think all the melodies are good this time. Since it’s easy to picture the images when you listen to the song, the lyrics were easy to write. I hope you’re excited for what’s coming after this, too.
コメント