VOL.136 “籟・来・也”Yuri Nakamurainterview

●○○ From music freak magazine Vol.136

●Your first single of 2006, “Rai・Rai・Ya,” has turned out to be a wonderful work worthy of GARNET CROW as they enter their sixth year since debut. First of all, since the song is tied to a TV program (the image song for the TBS network nationwide Canon Special “Ancient Excavation Mystery: The Great Discovery of the Giant Amazon Civilization's Hidden Region! Ruins from Before the Common Era... A Mysterious People Who Reshaped the Land”), I imagine it was written with the program's concept in mind. What prompted it?
Yuri Nakamura (hereafter Nakamura): Actually, this song already existed last year, and someone at TBS heard it and said, “This is perfect for the program!” That is how it came to be used. So we did not write it specifically for the program. From the beginning, the song existed under the title “Rai・Rai・Ya,” with this arrangement.
●That is surprising.
Nakamura: It is. The title was also already set, and it was one of several songs that had been completed by last year. We had simply kept it in storage, thinking that we might put it on the next album because we had something with this kind of character (laughs).
●Even the phrase “Rai・Rai・Ya” seems almost too perfect for the program. I had assumed that the singing style and lyrics had been created with the program in mind.
Nakamura: From our perspective, we were amazed that a program perfectly suited to this song happened to exist (laughs). It was surprising in the opposite direction: that there was a program with a concept that fit our song so perfectly.
●The title is innovative, too.
Nakamura: The title “Rai・Rai・Ya” was added last during production. At first, when we followed the demo, I sang it with a fake vocal like “ai-ai-ya~.” But because it was the strongest melodic part at the very end, we thought it might be better to put some lyrics there, and AZUKI came up with “Rai・Rai・Ya.”
●So “Rai・Rai・Ya” was born from the “ai-ai-ya~” fake vocal.
Nakamura: Yes. She said that, and when she thought about how to preserve those vowels, the first character that came to her was “rai,” and then she added “kuru nari,” meaning “it comes.”
●I thought that a word using the character “rai” must have taken considerable thought to arrive at. The lyrics depict spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and the song conveys an immense sense of nature's grandeur. The melody also has a Japanese flavor. Did you have that kind of image when you first brought in the song?
Nakamura: I have always liked a Japanese flavor, so I emphasized it a little this time. But the final worldview only emerged after the arrangement and lyrics were completed. I feel that they brought out the qualities and direction the song had possessed from the start. The image was not yet that concrete at the demo stage, but once that arrangement and those lyrics were added, the song's direction became much clearer.
●So the arrangement was shaped from the beginning entirely by Furui's sensibility, in that form?
Nakamura: It was already like that.
●So even the sounds of those ethnic instruments were there?
Nakamura: Yes, they were already there. The sounds of the quena and other ethnic instruments had been included from the beginning, and it was almost complete. That is what they liked when they heard it.
●I can hardly believe it (laughs). With a program about the Amazon wilderness, the fit with this song is so perfect that I assumed the arrangement had definitely been made with the tie-in in mind.
Nakamura: We are surprised ourselves (laughs).
●Still, this seems likely to become one of GARNET CROW's signature songs.
Nakamura: It is a song with a very distinctive character. I think it may become the kind of song that people cannot forget after hearing it once. The lyrics and worldview are somewhat different from what we have sung before: they have a grand scale and sing about nature, what it means to be human, and how we should live. I hope people can feel something fundamental about humanity in them.
●What impression did you have when AZUKI gave you these lyrics?
Nakamura: I thought they were unusual, but they fit the melody so well that I liked them immediately. It is such a distinctive melody, so I was impressed by how well they fit. I had wondered what kind of lyrics would work, and then thought, “Ah, so this is how she approached it...” The lyrics may have an even deeper spirituality than what we have done before.
●There is a similar depth in the vocals. I heard that you even redid the entire vocal recording this time after recording it once.
Nakamura: We redid the singing quite a lot. We changed the sense of tempo in various ways, trying it a few beats slower at a subtle tempo, and so on. We sang it each time to find the tempo that fit just right, so I think I sang more than usual. It felt like I had sung and sung and sung it. It was a little difficult to find the best tempo, but it felt good to sing. I felt as though I was singing to the earth and the sky, and I sang with a tremendous sense of freedom.
●I hear that “wind” runs through the entire single as its concept. When did that image arise?
Nakamura: We felt it in the finished product, so it was almost an afterthought.
●“Wind” is the theme of all three songs. Did that happen as a result?
Nakamura: Yes. The other two songs also existed last year. When we decided to release “Rai・Rai・Ya” as a single, we chose what else to include, and by coincidence the two songs we selected also turned out, in retrospect, to share the theme of “wind.”
●Did AZUKI have that concept in mind?
Nakamura: I wonder. The songs had all been made separately. They were not recorded in advance for this single. “over blow” and the others already existed, and we simply chose them based on how well they suited “Rai・Rai・Ya.” Once we had made the selection and put them together, we realized, “Ah, if you look closely, they are connected by wind” (laughs).
●Even the unifying theme was added afterward. It sounds as though coincidence turned into inevitability.
Nakamura: You cannot really create something like this just by deciding to do it. Even if you thought, “The theme is wind,” all kinds of winds would come to mind, and if you tried to write a song for a single around that, you would probably get stuck and be unable to finish it. That is how it feels to me.
●What kind of wind does each of the three songs evoke for you?
Nakamura: This is my impression after placing them together. “Rai・Rai・Ya” gives me a powerful image of the earth, and I feel a strong wind. “over blow” feels like a very comfortable breeze, a light wind sweeping gently past your ear. “Kaze no Oto Dake wo Kiite” feels like a draft blowing through the heart, giving me a sense of fiction and emptiness. But I am happy if everyone who listens to them feels something different for themselves.
●This is certainly a single that took shape through a strange series of coincidences. That happens often with GARNET CROW, doesn't it (laughs)? You continued creating at your usual pace, without feeling pressured by entering your sixth year since debut, and this work came together.
Nakamura: That's right (laughs). There was absolutely no pressure (firmly!).
●You really do work in a completely natural way.
Nakamura: I want to keep our own pace; I do not want to disrupt it. I think the foundation we cultivated over five years has gradually grown, but this year may be the year when, having planted the seeds, we settle in, put down deep roots, and spread outward. But we still have a long way to go (laughs).
●Finally, please give us a word about last year's fifth-anniversary premium live show. The costumes were glamorous as well.
Nakamura: (smiling) It was fun. It became a wonderful memory. Since the venue was so lavish and magnificent, we all dressed up a little (laughs). Since it was called a premium show, we wanted to create a special feeling, so we tried to express a worldview we normally could not. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and go home happy, and the response was good, so I am glad we did it.
●Finally, what do you think GARNET CROW will be like in 2006?
Nakamura: We did not release an original album last year, so I hope we can release one this year. That will probably be our first goal for the year.
●As fans, we are hoping for more live shows too.
Nakamura: Live shows are fun in their own way, and original albums and live shows are becoming the two pillars of what we do, so I want to value live shows as well. Please wait patiently (laughs).

New Single “Rai・Rai・Ya” Release 3.1
GIZA studio　GZCA-4066　¥1,260 (tax in)

1. Rai・Rai・Ya
2. over blow
3. Kaze no Oto Dake wo Kiite
4. Rai・Rai・Ya ~Instrumental~

※“Rai・Rai・Ya” TBS network nationwide, 28 stations: Canon Special “Ancient Excavation Mystery: The Great Discovery of the Giant Amazon Civilization's Hidden Region! Ruins from Before the Common Era... A Mysterious People Who Reshaped the Land” image song
Broadcast on BS-i from 19:00 on Sunday, March 19

★The new song “Yume・Hanabi” has been confirmed as the opening theme for the TV Tokyo network anime “MÄR” beginning Sunday, April 2!!

■ OFFICIAL WEBSITE　garnetcrow.com