Tower Records - 'You Can't Catch Me' Interview

Another interview from the 'You Can't Catch Me' promotional run up. This interview was apparently originally printed in a magazine but Tower Records Japan have posted it up on their website for all to read. It's quite short but it's a nice little read.


With her new album ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ in hand, woven together with the help of eminent songwriters, her new journey is just beginning!


Interview: Taihei Kubota
Original article: BOUNCE Magazine no.305 25th December 2010
Original Japanese text: Tower Records Japan


It’s been fifteen years since her debut and Maaya Sakamoto has been steadily building her presence, developing her individuality as a singer. It felt like appreciation of the music which brought success to her solo birthday live last year at the Nihon Budokan had reached a new level...but it was the lively preview of the new big-band arrangement of Sugar Babe’s ‘DOWN TOWN’ from her cover single, on top of the information prior to its release which listed a distinguished line-up of artists, that couldn’t help but build anticipation.

“Making [You Can’t Catch Me] was both fun and stimulating…although I wondered how it would turn out because I’d made the album going ‘well if I don’t try then I won’t know’, but when it came together on a single disc it was definitely a Maaya Sakamoto album that I could think of as expressing ‘who I am now’. That’s something I’m really happy about.”

Atsushi Sutemitsu, Jun Shibata, Yoko Kanno, Suneohair, Shintaro Tokita (Sukima Switch), Kaori Kano, Shoko Suzuki, Hidetoshi Sakurai (Manshin Brothers), Takaki Horigome (KIRINJI), Keiichi Tomita, Katsutoshi Kitagawa (ROUNDTABLE), Kana Yabuki: the title of the album which connects all of these songs by different artists together is ‘You Can’t Catch Me’. This diversity is similar to her previous work ‘Kazeyomi’, but this time on top of a large number of male creators being used, the album also features the largest proportion of lyrics written by men [in Maaya’s back catalogue]. Moreover, they are also taking part as performers: it’s another characteristic of this album that for many artists involved the listener will find it easy to picture their individual styles. That those styles can be dyed in a wonderful Maaya colour is because of that true ‘who I am now’, after all the ups and downs she has encountered during the fifteen years since her debut.

“Inside of me ‘Kazeyomi’ was a compilation. My image of an album put out during my fifteenth anniversary year would also probably be something a lot like ‘Kazeyomi’. However, I gained confidence from the fact that I had been able to complete it early, and thought because of that now I will be able to keep my own style even if I collaborate with lots of different people. So I thought for the real fifteen year mark I would make a piece of work that would establish a link with who I will be from now on. Because of that there wasn’t any eagerness that 'oh, I must complete something big', but a feeling that it would be nice if I could become a me that’s a little rough around the edges. Not spend too much time on the plan or the formation of the lyrics or the songs, but make something that I could throw my whole body into.”

The album jacket has is double-decker bus with the title written on it in huge letters. This could be the singer Maaya Sakamoto setting the ambition and excitement hidden within her heart on board and now, let’s start running!...The destination is surely wherever the wind will take her.

“My work has been followed by the key words ‘wind’ and ‘journey’, things that have an image of constant motion. I felt that ‘sense of movement’ especially strongly this time around. All these different people were climbing on board and getting off again, passing lots of different scenery; instead of feeling like I was on a fast vehicle it felt like it was more profound, slowly driving on ahead.

Each time I’ve made an album the number of people I meet increases, the number of things I am able to do increases, and little by little I understand something new, and that leads on to what comes next...that pattern is something I’ve repeated up until now, and it’s an expression of the fact that I’m looking forward to what comes next, to the point of where I’m thinking that I definitely don’t want to go back to who I was a year ago.

I think self-confidence and conviction come naturally with experience, but like with this album, when you want to be stimulated and try something new, even if you jump in with that strong conviction there’ll still be times when you are made a fool of, or feel lost or worried. But I think that being a person who experiences those things is good. This album was made from all the things I didn’t know despite fifteen years in the business and because I was able to improve.”

Fin.