Interview/Text by Masaki Usuki
October 19th 2011
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I
can sing a Christmas song that matches my own idea of Christmas
── Finally, let’s look at the album which
brings these three releases to a close: ‘Driving in the Silence’. This is your
third concept album, continuing on from 2001’s ‘easy listening’ and 2007’s ’30 minutes
night flight’.
Every few years or so there will be
something in me that says “it’s about time.” ‘You can’t catch me’ was an
adventure, collaborating with lots of different people, so with this CD I
wanted to try a different way of working. And if I was going to make a concept
album next then I wanted it to be seasonal, to be something that completely
fell in line with a certain time of year. And the season I like best is winter.
──So you felt the timing was right.
Yes. I really love Christmas but I’d never
sung a proper Christmas song before. Somehow it seemed embarrassing, like, is
it really ok for a Japanese person to be singing this happy Christmas song?
(laugh) I didn’t know how it would sound because I’m not the type of person to
put out a love song or party song ‘just because it’s Christmas.’
──’Fuyu desu ka?’ (from 2005’s ‘Yuunagi
LOOP’ album) was a bit of a curve ball, wasn’t it?
I like Christmas albums by other artists and
listen to them quite a lot but I never thought about doing one myself. But then
I thought, well, I can sing a Christmas song that matches my own idea of
Christmas. Just putting one song into an album would be a bit embarrassing so
right from the start I liked the idea of a full album that you can only listen
to in winter.
An
image of a minimalist, indoor winter
──My impression of the album as a whole was
that it sounded like winter: each and every note sounded like crisp, winter
air.
I kept saying to the arranger Shin Kono
that the whole album had to be ‘winter’ and he really expressed that wintriness.
Even for a single word like winter or Christmas, everyone has slightly
different ideas of what they mean. For example, my image of ‘everyone getting
together’ [i.e. in ‘homemade christmas’ lyrics] is not a lot number wise, but
being in a small room surrounded by the most important people in my life. It’s
a very minimalist, indoor image.
──So it’s not a winter going out and having
a wild time with lots of people.
No. And after I said that, the musicians
were like “Oh, I see, I see” and “Being at home sounds nice”, playing spoons as
percussion instruments (laugh). As everyone got into it and came up with a lot
of ideas together I think the sound became really interesting.
──Do you usually have an indoor Christmas?
Is that what you prefer?
Yes, it is. It’s definitely what my image
of Christmas, New Year and winter should be. Going a bit off topic now but I
can’t imagine ever putting out a summer album.
──Ha, ha, ha.
After explaining that “This album is going
to come out in the winter” and “This is a winter song”, when everyone played
their instruments they all expressed different ideas of what winter was to them
individually. And I think that thanks to that you really can’t tell we recorded
it in the middle of summer as it sounds so cold (laugh). I was listening to it
on my way here and right from the intro it brings winter to you - to the point
where I was thinking, “I want it to get colder soon!”
──Do you have an image of the scenery it
matches?
Taking a walk in the cold city on a winter
night…In my head it’s Omotesando (laugh). That kind of scenery floats up. Also,
there are a lot of hand claps on the album, so it sounds to me like everyone is
gathered round the fire having a good time. I think it brings a lot of
different things to mind.
── Personally, I think the progression of
the keyboard in ‘Sayonara Santa’ really makes me feel like it is winter. This
is the first time you’ve worked with Rasmus Faber, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. I originally listened to Rasmus’
cover of my song on his album and that’s how I discovered him. I thought his
arrangement was really cool. As I was going to be releasing an album in winter…it
was a rough image but I thought ‘Northern Europe!’(laugh).
I put in a request to him with the simple thought that if I want something that
sounds like Northern Europe I ought to ask someone from Northern Europe to do
it. And I got the OK (laugh). When we met I was throwing out all these random
things like, “It’s winter,” and “It’s indoor.” He replied with something like, “Well,
I’ll make some songs then if you like them you can have them.” He sent three
songs a few days later. At first I was planning to choose one but I fell in love
with all three so I used all of them!
A
lot will happen next year but I’m sure we’ll be OK
──I feel like with this album that your
style of singing and the arrangements were quite different to your other works
up till now. Did you consciously set out to challenge yourself with something
new?
I often say this when I make a concept
album but it’s like shooting a short film. There’s a storyline, a cohesiveness
that moves in a single direction etc. The direction of the whole thing is set
so it is like I am playing a character inside that world. I didn’t really set
out to challenge myself with something new specifically but I think because it
feels like taking on a role it is possible that I was able to show a side of
myself that no one has seen before.
──To give a specific example from a sound
angle, I was surprised by ‘homemade christmas’ - it has this retro, electric
sound that I don’t think you’ve done before.
Even at the demo stage it was a tricky,
interesting song. And Mr. Kono’s approach with it was really unexpected – that
he had this side to him, to make such an all over the place arrangement!
(laugh) It was really fun singing it.
──The melody and the sound both seem
difficult but the lyrics are surprisingly straightforward for you, singing about
Christmas.
Well, there was a thought that since I’m
saying that this is a ‘winter album’ there has to be at least one Christmas
song in it. And as a song coming out for Christmas 2011 I wanted to say that “next
year a lot of stuff will happen too, but I am sure it we’ll be OK.” It was a
song that I sang for the sake of those final two lines.
To
get married is for one of you to witness the death of the other
──This album also contains your second self-penned
composition ‘Chikai’. Your first song ‘everywhere’ (contained on her 15th
anniversary best of album ‘everywhere’) was created while you were traveling
alone in Europe. How about this one?
‘everywhere’ taught me the enjoyment that one
can find in composing and I wanted to compose more and more but I never really consciously
set about doing it and sort of left it going, “It’ll come to me when it comes.”
Then my tour which started in the spring was put on hold and my other work was
also put off or cancelled completely…I spent the whole time at home, anxious
about the tour and about what would happen in the near future; my feelings were
all over the place. After a few days I finally went outside and when I was
speaking to people at the office who had gathered for the first time in a while
I thought, “Why am I such a standstill?” It was replaced by the thought that “I
mustn’t stop creating things.” I don’t have a stage now and I can’t go to the
studio but I have to do something! It’s times like these that I have to create
something! (laugh) At the time it didn’t really have any lyrics but that is how
I composed the song.
──I’ve spoken to a lot of artists recently
and all of them speak about the effect of the earthquake.
While winter’s fun with Christmas and
everything, the nuance is that it is the season that is waiting for spring; winter
is the big trial we all must go through before spring comes. I feel like winter
brings something out in me. Every year winter will come to an end, seasons that
won’t suit my album will come. But next year winter will come again…In that
way, no matter how much I want to stop and stand still I will be swept away, as
time moves forward steadily there’s no choice but to be swept along with it. In
this song what I wanted to express was that there is no way that I can be left
in winter forever. Spring will come and I will live in spring, summer will come
and I will have to live in summer. Because no matter what happens winter will
end. Someday it will be spring, someday it will be summer. I feel like I must
experience all this and bring everything to a proper close with my own two
hands.
── Yes, yes.
I think that everyone sings to get across
their own message. I also feel like there are things I want to leave behind in
tangible form. I got married recently, and I think that it has come home to me
that I will witness the death of someone, the deaths of the people closest to
me. What’s someone who just got married doing talking like this? I know, I know
(laugh) But I really thought about it, you know. Getting married means that one
of you will have to be there at the death of the other. I know I shouldn’t be
putting the two together but it’s just like when you have a pet (laugh).
── Ha, ha , ha, it is (laugh).
Pets are very healing for us but the day
will come when we realize we have to bring them into the house to nurse them
and so we can be with them and send them off in death. I’m not saying marriage
is exactly the same (laugh). But when I thought about it and that my parents
and their parents have all lived this same cycle, it really became reality to
me. No matter how sudden it is, I can’t allow it to stop me going forward; I
have a responsibility that after I have seen that person off properly in death
I mustn’t allow my own life to be lost. That’s how it should be, that’s what I
thought after all the things that happened in this half year and I think it
comes out in the lyrics.
That’s
the sound of a pencil hitting the corner of the sofa…
──Did you have any problems creating the
melody?
Strangely no. But the song I wrote myself ended
up being the hardest to sing (laugh) When I tried singing it I was thinking ‘this
is hard, where am I supposed to breath?’
──I see (laugh) But maybe that was in
itself something special that wouldn’t be found in the work of a more experienced
composer?
Well, when I gave the demo to Mr. Kono, as
I couldn’t sing and play at the same time, and at home I don’t have anything
like Pro Tools, I recorded just the vocals, then just the piano, everything was
separate and I just handed it all over, like ‘here you go’. To demonstrate the
tempo I hit the corner of the sofa with a pencil while singing. That sound was
kept for the intro of the song (laugh).
──That’s a pencil and a sofa?!
Mr. Kono is always like that, he always
takes pains to keep little things, like maybe a piano melody I was tinkering
with. This time he kept the sound of me hitting the sofa (laugh). When I
listened to the final version it sounded like the hands of a clock and I don’t
think anyone would have ever known it was someone hitting a sofa.
──I think know I know it will sound
completely different when I listen to it.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything
(laugh).
Summer
exists in my iPod
── You said that you couldn’t imagine putting
out a summer album but have you really never made something with a summer
concept till now?
(Straight away) No. I don’t like summer.
──So you never get into the summer mood
after listening to good music?
Of course I have songs which I want to
listen to in summer and there’s even a folder on my iPod labeled ‘summer’ (laugh).
But my songs aren’t really included. I don’t think they suit summer. I wonder
if I need to sing a summer song for all those people with their parasols up.
──2011 has been high pace for you, what
with two albums and two singles. Do you have any ideas for what’s coming next?
I have a general idea of what is happening
next year. I’ve actually been making a lot of music for some time, just taking
my time on each track. I’m not just churning them out all at once (laugh)!
Fin.