2016.07.06
Interview with CHIO (Vocals)
By Takeshi Yamanaka
Original Interview (Japanese)
With their 1st mini-album, “PROLOGUE” released on 2015/12/2, THE MUSMUS have made a striking comeback. After bringing their tour to a finish with a sold out show at Shibuya O-Crest, they have finished their first full album. This new production, “THE MUSMUS TALE I”, is the first chapter of the story of THE MUSMUS, which will continue from here. With a sound that nobody else could create, the one and only CHIO envelops listener’s hearts, sometimes with kindness, always with power. For this month’s interview, I called up THE MUSMUS’ leader, CHIO, who said her mental state has undergone some huge changes, and asked her about her thoughts and her music.
You just finished the tour for your mini-album, “PROLOGUE”, released on 12/2 last year. How was it?
CHIO: It was fun! I was surprised at how fun it was.
Why was that?
CHIO: I don’t know (laughter).
You don’t know? (laughter)
CHIO: I don’t know, but it was probably because there wasn’t as much pressure. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but I feel like there was a lot more pressure before. During the UPLIFT SPICE era, every time we put out a CD I was anxious, but I guess you could say THE MUSMUS is something that let me part from that briefly... Of course, we still had the expectations of people who loved UPLIFT SPICE, but it’s a completely different thing.
What I thought when I saw your final live show was that, as you just said, it feels like during the UPLIFT SPICE era there was a lot more strain. It’s not that you're acting leisurely now, but I guess you could say things felt rough back then, in a good way.
CHIO: To try and put it into words, UPLIFT SPICE was “destruction”, so we kept destroying things, and presented it to the audience like “hey you all, try destroying your lives for a while!” But for THE MUSMUS, more than anything, I just want to sing.
You didn’t want to sing before?
CHIO: Right. I just wanted to do live shows. I was like Hakaider (a villain from the TV series Kikaider).
What on earth is this person saying...?
CHIO: I wanted to destroy our this world that we live in. But I broke. My band fell apart, and we took a brief pause. At our final live show, I felt like “This, this is what I used to do.” However, after that, there was nothing left that I wanted to destroy, so I thought “Well, what’s next?” Then I thought “I want to create a new world.” YOOKEY said “Let’s be in a band again”, so I listened to the songs he had. I immediately thought “I want to sing these songs.” Those songs, they had such a beautiful feeling. Until then, rather than beautiful, I had felt the roots of human rage and resentment. Perhaps YOOKEY had also changed.
Wow. What about him had changed?
CHIO: I think he became more honest than before, and that might have been present in the music, but it was just really beautiful.
For THE MUSMUS, you’re Thouzer (character appearing in “The Fist of the North Star”/meaning that CHIO is the leader of THE MUSMUS and judges everything), right? You said the tour was fun, but wasn’t there a lot of pressure from having to pull the band?
CHIO: There was some, but I personally feel that all I can do is move and work harder than anyone else. I had a strong sense that “this is my band.” Before, I didn’t have that feeling.
Going through the tour with that consciousness was fun?
CHIO: It was more fun than I could have imagined. I was glad.
The tour was supposed to go until April, so when did you make the album?
CHIO: There are actually some songs on the album that we made but didn't put into “PROLOGUE”. On tour we didn’t have many songs, which meant we needed to use songs from the UPLIFT SPICE era. Because of that, I felt like I needed to increase the number of THE MUSMUS songs. We went to the studio and worked our hardest from about December to January.
That was right after you released “PROLOGUE”. So, Thouzer, from your viewpoint, what kind of music were you trying to make for your first full album?
CHIO: The part I liked quite a bit about “PROLOGUE” was the title we attached, meaning “prologue”, so I felt some pressure that we couldn’t outdo that. But when we were making it, the feeling that “this is definitely gonna be cool” gradually came out.
I see. What I thought when I listened to this work was that your singing really looks good here. I guess you could say it was pop, but I was really drawn in by the singing.
CHIO: Until now I’ve done many different recordings, but this time was the most fun. There was absolutely no pressure. I think that influences the singing.
Singing was fun?
CHIO: Yeah. It feels good to be singing, and I don’t know why, but the recording was fun. Probably because there was no pressure.
I think important factor in UPLIFT SPICE’s music was the fleetingness and ephemerality. But I don’t really feel that nuance from THE MUSMUS.
CHIO: Without the destructive “instantaneousness”, there’s a feeling that we are moving forward. Even if there is an ephemerality, you could say we are still trying to advance. Up until now, each step of the way we would think “Whatever, I don’t need a break” and move forward.
I can really see that. With UPLIFT SPICE there was a feeling of “sorrow facing towards destruction”, but this work didn’t have that feeling, in a good way.
CHIO: Right?
I said I was drawn in by your singing, but your consciousness about singing has changed, hasn’t it?
CHIO: I think my interior is also changing. For example, if a friend comes to me and says “That guy beat the hell out of me.” Until now I would have said “Do you wanna go beat him up together?” but now I say “Let’s go get you fixed up.”
Has your way of thinking about yourself changed?
CHIO: Before I thought “It’s no big deal if I break a bone”, but now I’ve done some research, and I realized “Well, if you break a bone it hurts, and even if it gets better it aches on a rainy day”.
Hahaha (laughter). Do you also have the sense that your way of thinking or facing things have changed in regular life as well?
CHIO: Living has become much more comfortable. From the time I gained consciousness until high school, I seriously thought “Why am I even alive?” I was pretty rebellious. Then, during the UPLIFT SPICE era, if I felt persecuted by something, like if someone forced me into an unpleasant situation, I thought “It would be great if I could destroy that.”
So that’s why you said “destruction”.
CHIO: On the contrary, right now there’s nothing wrong. Maybe the end has arrived.
The end has arrived?
CHIO: In the end when I think about what I would like to become, of course I want to be someone cool. There’s a part of me that admires people who think really positively, so maybe I’m starting to think positively, little by little.
Would you say you’re thinking positively in your own way?
CHIO: Yeah. After all, I decide what’s good or bad myself. For example, even if 100 people around you say “that’s the right answer”, if you think “that’s wrong”, you don’t think you’re mistaken, right? That’s what I mean when I say the way I think things are is fine. I’ve also started to be interested in terrible people.
Wow.
CHIO: “Why are you such a terrible human? What made you so angry?” But really, if you think honestly and purely, nobody can be that bad. Because I started thinking about that, the number of people I like has increased from what it was in the past. I’ve started recognizing “I hated this part of someone, but this part was okay”. Having said that, as far as being judged myself, if I don’t know about it then I’m fine not knowing about it.
You’ve grown up, haven’t you?
CHIO: However, my attitude of, “If you pick a fight with me I’ll fight back with all my strength”, hasn't changed.
Surely you have a calmer disposition than before?
CHIO: I’m very calm. And I have no patience. When I’m fed up with something, I’ll say “I’m so done!” The other three members accept that.
Your band seems pretty well unified.
CHIO: Those three, they aren’t rockstars.
What does that mean?
CHIO: They’re like a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant.
That’s Momotaro! (Famous Japanese folktale in which the protagonist is accompanied to the island of demons by a talking dog, monkey, and pheasant)
CHIO: If I say this kind of thing they might get mad at me, but they’re like little pets that help soothe me (laughter).
That’s extreme!
CHIO: But, they’ll cheer me on all the way to the island of demons, and even accompany me there, and if I say “I’m done!” they’ll take care of me (laughter).
Well, for the vocalist, that seems fine. You’re a team, after all.
CHIO: That’s why, if I had to choose people to bring me to the island of demons, I think anyone other than those three wouldn’t work.
I mentioned that I was drawn in by the singing, as there’s a lot more variety this time. For example, track 5, “SHAH MAT”. Would you say it's classic opera?
CHIO: What should I call it? Gothic? ...Actually, that song is the first one that actually made me decide to be part of band once again.
Wow!
CHIO: That, “BINARY”, and “BAPTISMA” (two songs from “PROLOGUE”).
Those were the three songs that you asked YOOKEY to make as a prerequisite for joining the band.
CHIO: It was such a big song. The moment I heard it I thought “so cool!” My imagination for the lyrics started to swell up, so I was able to write them quickly. I could write forever.
There’s a miraculous sense of newness to it, something you couldn’t find anywhere else. That’s the response you felt.
CHIO: Yeah. I thought “This is the kind of song that only we can make”.
I see. Speaking of the lyrics, they’re the words of CHIO, amazing as always.
CHIO: Oh, you really thought that?
I really did. You could say it was like a shonen, or a fantasy world, there were a lot of those kinds of words.
CHIO: Really?! I'm so glad?!
This time, are there more lyrics about space?
CHIO: Actually, “Suna no Hoshi (Sand Star)” isn’t about space, but there’s some connection to stars.
I was thinking of titles like track 7, “Akashic Records”.
CHIO: Now that you say that, I see those same words have come through as always.
Akashic Records was actually my favorite song.
CHIO: Oh, really?
I felt Akashic Records was really focused on the singing, and thought this album was the first where you had become Thouzer. That is to say, your personality and feelings really came all the way through.
CHIO: Yeah.
That song was sung just as a THE MUSMUS song should be sung, and was received as a song really geared towards the listeners. That’s why I thought it was a song that symbolizes the current THE MUSMUS.
CHIO: Ahh~! If the Akashic Records existed, for example if there was someone I really loved but had to part from them, that might be engraved in there (The Akashic Records is the concept of a record of all events, thoughts, and feelings in the world from the beginning of time).
Yeah.
CHIO: When I think about that, I think everything is futile. Even if there’s something sad, even if there’s something bitter, even if something fun has passed, even if I forget myself completely, if I try recording it then it seems like it wasn’t all for nothing.
I understand that feeling.
CHIO: Other than the musical meaning of “record”, I thought it would be nice to use the double meaning of “documenting/remembering”.
In the lyrics there’s the phrase “let the song echo eternally”, which makes it feels like that your music is piling up on itself.
CHIO: I’ve said this for a long time, but I don’t think negatively about my own death. But, among my friends, there’s one who says “If I die, everyone will definitely forget about me”.
I see.
CHIO: But, if something like the Akashic Records existed, you could face forward a little more, and see that it’s not so scary. Even if you think there’s nothing going on in your daily life, once you lose that, it suddenly starts to seem like a fond memory. So, I think you would start to value everyday life a little more. That’s the kind of meaning I wanted to include in the lyrics.
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