Natalie Power Push Interview 19th October 2011 - Part 1

It's been a while since I posted an interview translation, this one from late last year covers both singles and the concept album so I've split it into two: one for the single content and one for the 'driving in the silence' related content. You can expect the next part some time in the near future when I finish translating it. I came back to this interview after discussing 'Driving in the silence' with Frecklegirl and decided I needed Japanese practice anyway so here we are! 

Enjoy!

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Maaya Sakamoto concluded the fifteenth anniversary of her debut with the release of her album ‘You can’t catch me’ in January. Just when we thought she was winding down after the completion of her largest album tour to date, we received news of a new release. Not just that, but that it would be two singles and a concept album consecutively.

This singer and voice actress has created music at a somewhat laid-back pace up to this point but with her fifteenth anniversary has been delighting her fans with a high-pace, aggressive activity schedule. Natalie interviewed her about her current state of mind and what went on behind the scenes of the these three new discs containing thirteen tracks in total.

Interview/Text by Masaki Usuki

Original Japanese Text and Interview Natalie.mu Power Push

October 19th 2011

I wanted to dive into SPF’s world

── The album that you released in January, ‘You can’t catch me’, had so much content that one could say it was like a fifteenth anniversary compilation. With that in mind, I had expected you to leave more of a gap between that album and your next move…but in less than a year we’ve got these two singles and an album – pretty energetic.

Since last year a lot of activities were compiled and pulled together with my fifteenth

anniversary: the concert at Budokan, the release of my best of album. But I didn’t like the thought that this year, this point in time would be the peak and that the next year would be quiet again. We actually decided this year’s schedule about a year in advance and while we were doing it I was thinking, “You all think this is the most exciting year but next year’s going to be even busier!” (laugh)

──Well, I think everyone is surprised (laugh). Today I’d like to talk to you about your three new releases in order. First, let’s look at your single ‘Buddy’. I tried imagining the various directions that you could go, what kind of songs might follow “You Can’t Catch Me”, but collaborating with School Food Punishment (from hereon SPF) was certainly out of the blue.

This was the first time I’d actually met them in person but I’ve always thought that their sound is really cool. I received a request to sing the opening for the anime first, and while we were in the process of talking about what kind of music would be good and how to match it with the world of the anime while expressing how I feel now and I came up with “what about collaborating with SFP, for example?”

──It’s quite an aggressive sound, was that your original image of what you wanted?

Yes, I wanted something with a bit of an impact. I don’t think SFP have done work composing for another artist before so initially I wasn’t sure if they would be interested or not but happily they agreed to take the project on.

──When they were composing the music did you tell them what image you had regarding the world of the anime?

Rather than telling them about what the anime was about, I asked them to try making music the way they normally would. At the most I asked for something up-tempo, but I wanted to dive into School Food Punishment’s world, you know? Apparently the elaborate strings section in the track was something they added based on the impression they’d got from listening to my back catalogue.

Informal, with a fine balance

── The coupling track “Something Little” was composed by Ryo Tsukamoto, who supports Ohana Youmoto., and the arranger was Ryuuji Yamamoto, who usually composes for Yuko Ando. I felt like this was another brand new chemical reaction.  

What I ordered from Mr. Tsukamoto was something with completely different nuance [to this song]. I wanted something with the feel of an Ohana Youmoto song: slow, acoustic. I got the song that I had imagined but when I thought about what I wanted in an arrangement for a coupling track to “Buddy” I decided that I wanted more of a fine balance in the sound, something relaxed and informal, not forcing itself on the listener…so I asked Mr. Yamamoto for a slightly different arrangement.

──Looking at the credits one might imagine an acoustic track but it’s very fresh. It brings to mind the soft rock approach of the 1960’s and 70’s.

I think Mr. Tsukamoto was also surprised (laugh).

──It’s a real b-side; I like it when you can enjoy the coupling track as a contrast to the main title song. This is pretty much my ideal “B-side track”.

I know exactly what you mean! I also think this is what I think a b-side should be. (laugh).

Maaya Sakamoto x Yumi Matsutoya

──And then one week later will be your second single release “Okaerinasai”. This follows on from your cover of Yumi Matsutoya’s “Yasashisa ni tsusumareta nara” which was the opening theme song of last year’s “Tamayura” anime OVA, and is a number composed by Yumin. How did this collaboration come about?

When it was decided that “Tamayura” would get a television series I was asked if I would sing the opening song and the director’s request and the image that I myself had was of something that was a continuation of “Yasashisa…”. Something sort of nostalgic, that was drawn from that anime’s world view. Something that sounded traditional, that would never age. If Yumi Matsutoya composed it I was sure that it would be the closest we could come to that ideal, and I wondered whether we could make it happen. I knew she was in the middle of a tour and while I knew she was busy I pulled myself together and asked her – and she said yes! When we met she gave me her feedback on my album and really threw herself into it. I was really, really happy.

──It really is a timeless, warm track – it makes you think ‘so this is what a collaboration between Maaya Sakamoto and Yumi Matsutoya would sound like!’ You wrote the lyrics while Ms. Matsutoya composed the song; how exactly did you go about creating the track?

Well, for this song we had a clear request from the director Junichi Sato from that start that: “I want you to make something using the theme ‘welcome home’ (okaerinasai).” And when I first spoke to Ms. Matsutoya she said that “I’m definitely going to write a melody which brings to mind the words ‘welcome home’”. I waited for the melody to arrive, imagining various possibilities about what sort of lyrics I would write and while it sounds strange to say that when I first listened to the track I thought, “this is exactly how I thought it would sound”, it was more that I’d been waiting for this song! Everything came perfectly, it fitted, it was really moving. It was just a piano demo but I wanted to keep the simple, warm arrangement and we made the track to reflect that analogue feeling.

A song I love as a Yumin fan first and foremost

──Did you feel any pressure writing lyrics for a Matsutoya song?

Of course! At the start I felt like “whatever else happens, I’ve got to write good lyrics!” but once I had found what I wanted to write inside me I was able to write the lyrics without worrying too much.

──The coupling track is another cover of Matsutoya’s, “A HAPPY NEW YEAR”.

Last year was the first time I’d challenged myself with a cover so I did want to try it again. And when I thought about what sort of song would fit as a coupling track I thought a Matsutoya song would be best. I didn’t want to ruin the original song’s beautiful vocals and atmosphere so I decided not to change the image of the song too much.

──It’s a New Year song with a unique atmosphere; it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle that’s characteristic of New Year but it’s also not making a grand gesture of the ending year and the coming year, it’s a New Year song which has a very special atmosphere. It starts with that floating melody that doesn’t die down, not progressing from A to B to the chorus. Like it’s quietly touching down. I can’t get enough of this ‘Yumin magic’.

I know, right? Yumin’s…I always called her Yumin, Yumin but now we’ve actually met in person I sort of hesitate to call her that (laugh) But first and foremost I love this song as a Yumin fan.

To be continued...