2013.11.08
Interview with Chiori (Vocals), YOOKEY (Guitar), tovita (Drums), and Kenji (Bass)
By Arakane Ryousuke (荒金 良介)
Original Interview (Japanese)
There’s been a gap of 2 years and 4 months since your previous release, “Paradigm Shift”. What has the state of affairs been for the band?
YOOKEY: Things haven’t changed that much for the band, but beyond just making a new album, we wanted to make something good. Well, it has been a while, though.
tovita: We completely changed our way of making music, didn’t we? It’s become more modern.
What do you mean by that?
YOOKEY: Should we be talking at a faster pace?
This is an interview, so by all means (laughter).
YOOKEY: The reason so much time has passed is that we felt like we wanted to make things new. I’ve continuously made new songs, and in making them I’ve repeated my destructive nature. The songs I’ve made until now were supposed to be made freely, but before I realized it I created some limitations within myself. "I have to do things this way" or "we’re seen this way so I should do what’s expected"–those were the kind of restrictions I had. For example, because we have four members, I felt we had to make things that we can present them as the four of us. This time we’ve added synthesizers, but until now we didn’t have that kind of system, so I didn’t think to try something so impossible. However, the reason I decided to add that element this time is that I was wondering if we had been trying too seriously to capture music. So, first I thought I need to destroy my own values system once. It’s good to be serious, but I think that stoic part starts to look better when there’s a playful part. That’s why I decided for once, I need to become less serious (laughter). I mean, rockstars freely drink alcohol. So, I decided to try drinking before a live show, for example.
You decided for once to get rid of things you had settled on?
YOOKEY: That’s right. Until now we couldn’t add synthesizers, and the sound couldn’t be too heavy or too light. We had those kinds of rules, so we tried to get rid of them all.
Where do you think your previously established restrictions came from?
YOOKEY: It’s not that we were restricted, but in being active for so many years, before we realized it, we started to curb things. Even if I made a great riff, we would have had to change our instruments and tuning for live shows, so we wouldn’t use it. But when it comes to making music, that shouldn’t matter. I may have been too conscious of live shows until now. That became a restriction in relation to our production.
Was that consciousness of your ability to repeat things in a live performance while making music there from your debut?
YOOKEY: In the beginning I hadn’t thought that far ahead. It was really ingrained in us before we knew it. So, as tovita said earlier, our way of making music changed. Until now we made the song, the melody, and the orchestra using MTR, and then thought of how we wanted to arrange everything. This time we exchanged things back and forth using our computers, I properly rearranged the phrases we had thought of, and then was able to add some new stimuli in myself.
I see. How was that for you, Chiori?
Chiori: Until now YOOKEY was the one who thought of all the melodies, but this time, he would often reach a certain point, ask me “Could you try singing this a little?”, and then we would all think it over together. That’s why, of all our work so far, this feels the most like something the four of us made together. Some songs changed completely from their original versions.
YOOKEY: That’s right. I guess you could say we had more fun, and our way of thinking became more flexible.
Was there an impetus for your way of thinking to change so much?
Chiori: Even if it was small, I started thinking that I wanted to show some evolution within the work we were putting out. If I was to compare it to a bento box, while we had rice, some boiled potatoes, and rolled eggs, we wanted to add twice cooked pork, hamburg steak, and omu-rice to create an amazing album (laughter). With good intentions, we wanted to double-cross our customers, so we decided to cram in some things we thought were cool.
What would you say determines how cool you think the songs are amongst yourselves?
YOOKEY: I wouldn’t say I was super aware of the coolness of the songs, but scenes like screamo are really booming. However, I don’t want to do the same things as others, so I thought it would be good to present things in a form that had been altered once again.
Your current work can’t be put in a genre or a category, but shows how interesting it can be to cross all genres. It feels like you adopted metalcore, pop-punk, emo, J-pop, and more without limits.
YOOKEY: That’s the result of clearing away restrictions. Until now, if any degree of J-pop was present, I had decided to stop, but this time I felt I would rather make the best J-pop there is while I was making songs. My reasons for not doing so were self-imposed, so when I tried doing them in reality, I had a new awareness that no matter what I did it would still seem like me.
What you noticed there was pretty big. You were able to release new things while shaking off elements you had held onto from the beginning. Why do you think you were able to do that?
YOOKEY: Well, for a period of time there was something wrong with me.
Huh, there was something wrong with you?
YOOKEY: Yeah, I was burned out. I had been told that my progress was similar to songs I had made in the past, so I wanted to break through that somehow. Also, I started wanting to convey the good points of Japanese. I wondered if we could make something more interesting with our word choice in Japanese. This time we had a lot interesting lyrics. For an intense song, if the words convey things directly, doesn’t it dampen things a little? If you add some words that you aren’t used to hearing there it becomes thrilling, so we incorporated a lot of those words.
This work is devoted to arrangements and evolution, and the lyrics might be more chaotic.
YOOKEY: We were after a certain kind of chaos.
Chiori: I also thought about lyrics that would work with the melody.
There was a sense that the melody and lyrics were more linked. This album tried various new things with an intro and interlude, but on the other hand, Chiori’s vocal part was relatively blunt, which worked well with the melody.
YOOKEY: That’s right. We haven’t stopped capitalizing on the vocals. Precisely because we can do that part so clearly, we wondered if we couldn’t try various other things. The initial vocal part and performance are so disorderly that we felt like we were jamming. We wondered if the song would be better if we put things in order through subtraction.
Ah, that’s why things turned out that way. Did it make singing more difficult?
Chiori: It was absurdly difficult.
YOOKEY: Because the energy changes really quickly, right?
However, even though you struggled with so many songs, your verses still shine through, and the band’s color hasn’t faded in the slightest.
YOOKEY: That’s right. Isn’t that voice our primary characteristic? We’re confident in that identity. No matter what, you hear the vocals, and because Chiori exists, no matter what we do we can do it without deviating from ourselves. We still want to make the most of that voice, and we’re able to see that more clearly now.
In particular, the lyrics of 'F.U.B.A.R' that go “WACHACHACHA MUCHADAHACHA/WACHACHACHA HACHAMECHA” have a big impact.
YOOKEY: That's us playing around. Until now that would be out of the question, but I wanted to prioritize that thrilling feeling.
When I first heard that I burst out laughing.
Chiori: Right?? (laughter) We also laughed while we were recording it.
YOOKEY: We like making things that we find cool, but I think you can also enjoy music that makes you want to retort “wait a minute!” Also, once you get used to it, it starts getting exciting.
You’re right, every time I listen to it, my ears get more accustomed, and I start thinking that it can only be this way.
YOOKEY: Right (laughter), I think you start to feel like if it wasn’t this way it wouldn’t be any good. After all, I think this is what it is to make new things. I think we have to express the things that thrill us.
Regardless of which way you swing the listener’s feelings, will it still thrill them? I think the exact choice of your words and the unexpectedness of your melodies shows.
YOOKEY: I’m glad that you recognized that. I think more than making things itself, I’ve come to see that challenging new things over and over is important even if people say they don’t like it. No matter where it’s thrown, you can still hit a strike, can’t you?
Did you also feel like you want to make new music?
YOOKEY: I did. I think it’s good to be aware of what’s in fashion, but if you don’t allow music itself to evolve, I think the scene will come to an end. While prioritizing our impulses, I want to arrive at each work as if it’s our last. Rather than something that’s really beautiful, I think something that’s slightly off is more interesting because it’s more charming. I prefer music that’s idiosyncratic. That might mean that my personality is showing.
In terms of the lyrics, I feel it shows a certain oppressiveness and a sense of franticness.
Chiori: We aren’t the type to think we have to do a certain genre, so we allowed ourselves to do things freely this time. That’s why this time this feeling of “damn it!” might have come out (laughter).
Yeah, with songs like 'F*** Darlin’'.
YOOKEY: The song is super poppy, but in the hook we say “F***”. Even so, if that word is true-to-life, we thought we should use it.
Chiori: On the contrary, that’s not very well understood in Japanese writing, so you could also approach it from that angle. It’s because I’m a pretty strange person. Recently, I’m really into reading case files. For example, when I read unfinished cases I think, “What happened there?” and I enjoy imagining things (laughter). I write things with that kind of puzzling feeling in Japanese.
I want to go back to taking about the source of your sound. The first half of this release starts with a chaotic feeling, and when you get to the second half, there are more simple melodies.
YOOKEY: I wasn’t conscious of that, but when we were finished it came out like that. That might be the two-sided nature of the band naturally showing itself.
If the chaotic melodies continued to the end, it would tire you out. What I mean is that the total balance of this release was good. Also, the lyrics from Track 1, 'theHangedMan' that say “surrender is victory, a paradox” also have quite a deep meaning. What kind of thoughts went into that part?
Chiori: There are some people that want to cross over a high wall, and there are some people that want to avoid a high wall. It’s like, ‘slow and steady wins the race’. I think a lot about “Which one is justice?”, but if you don’t accept the situation, you can’t find the answer. In the end, you decide things for yourself, so even if you’re bound hand and foot, I think there’s an option other than just saying that you give up.
Even if you create inconsistencies, you want to express yourselves as you are?
Chiori: Yeah. For example, this time there are a lot of people thinking about how 2 years and 4 months have passed, and there are probably people thinking that it took 2 years and 4 months to make this album. The way it’s perceived depends on the person, but for us making songs is repeatedly destroying things, so we couldn’t have done it without taking 2 years and 4 months. I think we were able to make something good as a result.
Since you like loud music, punk, brightness, and darkness, you tried to include them all in the release?
YOOKEY: Doesn’t everyone hate contradictions? But I think no matter who you are you have contradictions, so I think it’s better to put those out without concealing them.
You also have a lyric that says “To break the critical point, get mixed in, shaky”, and you were able to produce something with that exact feeling.
Chiori: Once I went to a ‘punk bar’ kind of place even though I didn’t know much about punk, but everyone there loved punk. When I was asked “What do you like?” I said “Well, I listen to pretty much anything. For genres I can’t give a specific answer” and was told “That means you don’t like this!” I also like R&B and J-pop, so I don’t really like people who define themselves by saying “Well, I like this music!”
For music, people each have their own relationship to it, don’t they?
Chiori: I understand that feeling too. When I was younger I thought that anything other than metal wasn’t music. But that was just because I hadn’t listened to good music, and after that I gradually started to widen my music taste.
With that awareness, you had a chance to make this release that touches various music genres. So, lastly, could you tell me what the meaning of the album’s name is?
YOOKEY: The last song we made was 'ØØØ'. From infinity, we thought it would be good to keep going and evolving. This album changed us, and we would like if it changed the people who listened to it as well. We thought it would be good if the listeners chose how it changed them themselves, and it would be good if it made their thinking flexible.
I understand. It seems like it would be difficult to perform this album live, but how is it?
YOOKEY: You’re right. Right now, we’re practicing as hard as we can (laughter).
Well, I’m excited for the release of the record!
YOOKEY: I see, thank you very much.
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