VOL.122 livescope 2005 排练探访报道

From music freak magazine Vol.122

GARNET CROW

Rehearsal visit: *livescope 2005 〜I’m waiting 4 you & live〜*

After releasing their fourth album, *I’m waiting 4 you*, GARNET CROW will begin the tour *livescope 2005 〜I’m waiting 4 you & live〜* at the start of the new year. We heard that rehearsals were under way and immediately went to visit.

GARNET CROW has appeared in this magazine many times, and I have interviewed them several times. I thought I understood the personalities of the four members to some extent. But when I thought about it carefully, apart from concerts I had never seen all four together in one place.

It was curious: although GARNET CROW is a band and each person’s character is clear, it was hard to imagine who took the lead or what atmosphere appeared when the four were together. Entering the rehearsal room offered a perfect chance to see how the four members interacted and worked together as a band.

I visited late at night on December 21. Rehearsals were apparently divided into daytime and nighttime sessions, and this day was scheduled at night. The room was about the size of thirty tatami mats, filled with instruments and monitor equipment arranged as they would be onstage. When I entered, the members had already adjusted their equipment and were standing in their respective positions. Their positions in the actual performance would probably be the same.

Facing the stage, Hirohito Furui stood far left, with a guitarist slightly behind and to his right. Hitoshi Okamoto stood just left of center toward the back, with the drummer directly behind him. Another guitarist was forward and to the drummer’s right, bass behind and to the right, and AZUKI Nana stood at the far right. Overall, the arrangement seemed much the same as on the previous tour.

Several touring musicians had changed this time, but the atmosphere felt less like a new combination than a group of old friends. It was no wonder: everyone had worked together more than once at Rina Aiuchi’s Valentine concert and ZARD’s tour the previous year, as well as the THURSDAY LIVE at hills bread factory, a live house in Kitahorie, Osaka. There was no awkwardness at all.

Yuri Nakamura would arrive a little later that day, so the band rehearsed alone first. They played roughly in performance order, initially more like a warm-up. But even the songs they had performed live before were already quite complete, and rehearsal proceeded smoothly. These musicians had worked together many times, and nothing sounded out of place.

I was most interested in how Furui, Okamoto, and AZUKI communicated during rehearsal. Yet, just as they had seemed quiet in interviews, they did not talk much during rehearsal either. They did not deliberately exchange glances often, but there was an atmosphere that floated lightly while remaining close and familiar. It was fascinating.

I had wondered whether one of them would act like a bandleader. Instead, whether deciding how to handle a pause or how to speed up and slow down, sometimes Furui proposed an idea and sometimes another musician did. Everything was decided within a very equal, democratic relationship.

In the latter half, Yuri Nakamura joined them and everyone began rehearsing together. They no longer played straight through from the beginning; they polished each song carefully and adjusted it into a live version. What surprised me was how different it sounded simply by adding the lead vocalist. The power and vividness of the performance were completely different from before. In a word, this was “the sound of a professional band,” and it felt as if I were witnessing the truth of something AZUKI had said in an earlier interview: “GARNET CROW’s music exists because it has Yuri Nakamura’s singing.”

After each song, Nakamura offered opinions about the feeling of the pauses and the sense of speed, while Furui immediately translated what she meant into more concrete directions for the musicians. Everyone adjusted quickly, bringing the performance closer to Nakamura’s image.

The professional skill involved was even more impressive as the rehearsal continued. Nakamura had a very clear idea of what she heard under different approaches to singing and wanted to realize it. The members adjusted rhythmic differences down to 1/120 of a second. Even a small fill in a pause was approached with different ideas and played repeatedly until everyone agreed. So this was how GARNET CROW’s distinctive groove was formed, by confirming each detail one at a time. I became even more curious about the final form of the new songs and rearranged older songs.

Seeing only one rehearsal is of course not enough to understand the whole of GARNET CROW as a band. But AZUKI Nana, focused on playing; guitarist Hitoshi Okamoto, as taciturn as expected; Hirohito Furui, attentive to tiny sounds like an arranger; and Yuri Nakamura, showing the presence of a band vocalist—all made me feel again that GARNET CROW can only be formed by these four people.

For a moment, it felt as if I had seen the warm atmosphere the members create together. Expectations for the actual concerts are growing.

(Text: Sai Saida)

New album

GARNET CROW *I’m waiting 4 you*, on sale now.
GIZA studio / GZCA-5052 / ¥3,059 (tax included)

Tour schedule

*livescope 2005 〜I’m waiting 4 you & live〜*

• Friday, January 21, 2005: Osaka Koseinenkin Hall Grand Hall. Doors 18:00, show 18:30. Inquiries: Sound Creator, 06-6357-4400.
• Friday, January 28, 2005: Aichi Prefectural Labor Hall. Doors 18:00, show 18:30. Inquiries: Sunday Folk Promotion, 052-320-9100.
• Thursday, February 3, 2005: Nakano Sunplaza. Doors 18:00, show 18:30. Inquiries: H.I.P., 03-3475-9999.

Reserved seating at all performances, ¥5,250 (tax included).

From music freak magazine Vol.122

GARNET CROW

*livescope 2005 〜I’m waiting 4 you & live〜*