VOL.143 “THE TWILIGHT VALLEY”interview(second half) and 成员自解

…more clearly through this album, too.

Nakamura: We make albums to turn everything, including the parts that cannot be expressed by singles alone, into a single world. In that sense, I think the album is the best way for people to understand our musical world. The tracks on this album are varied, with catchy songs alongside sharp songs that pursue our sound to the limit, so I think it became a well-balanced work that people can listen to all the way through without losing concentration. We ourselves realized that the album contains many songs that let you see pictures as you listen. That was not intentional, of course, but the songs were selected from those we wrote during the two years since our previous original album, so perhaps their individual personalities are simply that different. In that sense, it may be easier for people hearing our music for the first time to understand and enter GARNET CROW’s musical world. Listen to the songs, read the lyrics, look at the jacket and music videos: it is an album that lets you use all five senses to experience our world.

● Do you feel that your past work led to this album?

Nakamura: I think our creative drive has continued without interruption because of everything we accumulated over the past five years, and releasing the best album may have been significant. Putting out the best album allowed us to reconfirm that our past work still stands up today and that the music we had made was not misguided. That became a new source of confidence and led to the feeling that we wanted to “write even better songs.” We had always wanted to write good songs, of course, but the best album gave us a chance to look back at the past, and I think that made us want even more strongly to create something better.

● Were there any songs that were difficult to make or particularly memorable during production?

Nakamura: “Anywhere” was difficult to sing. “Kakurenbo” surprised me because it differed from my image of it, while “Haru Matsu Hana no Yō ni” reminds me strongly of last year’s Premium Live. “Rai・Rai・Ya” became our first image song for a documentary program, and we were allowed to make the soundtrack as well. Making an a cappella version with a chorus using only my own voice was a fresh experience, and it became a memorable song because I learned how to make music to accompany images.

● Then please each name three favorite songs from this album.

AZUKI Nana (hereafter AZUKI): “Himawari no Iro,” “Haru Matsu Hana no Yō ni,” and “WEEKEND.” I chose “Himawari no Iro” simply because it is the kind of song I like. Rather than feeling like the GARNET CROW sound, this melody has a strong image of being a Yurippe (Nakamura) song. I chose “Haru Matsu Hana no Yō ni” because we performed it at last year’s Premium Live and it can finally be heard on CD. “WEEKEND” felt fresh because, unlike before, its melody does not sound like one written by a woman; it has a masculine quality.

Nakamura: “Anywhere,” “Yellow Moon,” and “Kakurenbo.” I did not expect “Anywhere” to become this difficult when it was a demo, but it was hard to sing and took a long time to record the vocals. I gained confidence when I finally sang it through properly, and it left a strong impression because it had such an impact that the album’s image solidified when “Anywhere” was completed. “Yellow Moon” begins with the chorus, and I like how catchy and memorable it is. I had not sung a song in 6/8 time for a while, which also made it feel fresh. “Kakurenbo” shocked me when I read the lyrics. I had never sung lyrics in which Japanese was so fully to the fore… I never imagined that, as a vocalist, I would sing the word “torii” over a melody. It felt strange to sing words such as “shrine grounds” and “oni,” which evoke Japanese scenery, over a melody I had created myself. I felt that I was singing about something even more rooted in Japan than “Yume・Hanabi.” “Kakurenbo” was written the year before last, but I still cannot forget the shock I felt when I sang it for the first time.

Hiroto Furui (hereafter Furui): “Yume・Hanabi,” “Mō Chotto Sagashite Mimashō,” and “Rai・Rai・Ya.” From a sound perspective, “Yume・Hanabi” is packed with ideas, and I feel that it incorporates many technical elements. I took care over everything, from how it begins with the verse and how to preserve the speed and groove of the rhythm, to adding a flute sound in the solo section and choosing what instruments should enter at the end. I refined the song with those details in mind, so I have a strong attachment to it. When I heard “Mō Chotto Sagashite Mimashō” on the demo tape, the chorus was poppy and stayed in my ears. I emphasized its cascading movement and made the whole song feel energetic. It was a song we built by combining various drum sounds as well. “Rai・Rai・Ya” was unlike anything GARNET CROW had done before, and I do not think I had ever made anything so bold in my own life. I sensed a distinctive world when I first heard the melody, so I began making it because I thought it would be good to have a song like that on the album, and through a turn of fate it became a single. I chose it because, among the songs I expanded while preserving the impression of the demos, it gave me a real sense that we could do something like this too.

Hitoshi Okamoto (hereafter Okamoto): “Maboroshi,” “Kon'ya Eden no Katatsumi de,” and “Hare-dokei.” I was happy that “Maboroshi” became GARNET CROW’s first drama tie-in song. When the tie-in was decided, I did not know what kind of drama it was, so I imagined all sorts of possibilities in the studio (laughs). The guitar part was difficult musically, but it was also the part that guided the beginning of the song, so I was glad I managed to get it right. “Kon'ya Eden no Katatsumi de” sounds like straightforward rock at first and is easy to listen to, but it is a song where many strong personalities collide. There is also a pinpoint section, “the world sparks,” which we sent through a delay; the way it locks into place is fantastic! “Hare-dokei” reminds me of filming the music video. We filmed in a wide grassy area, and I remember crows pecking at the snacks from the catering table. They had prepared so many snacks, but the crows ate a little of everything, so we could not eat them… (laughs). Looking at the jacket for this song brings it all back. I also remember performing “Hare-dokei” and “Haru Matsu Hana no Yō ni” at the Premium Live. The venue was a distinctive and beautiful building, and it was a strange space because the audience included both people seeing a GARNET CROW live for the first time and people who had seen us several times.

● Finally, please give our readers a comment about this album.

AZUKI: Since this is our first original album in two years, it became a satisfying work with plenty to listen to, including not only the singles but also many album tracks.

Nakamura: I think it is an album packed with the GARNET CROW of today. Our current worldview is expressed in it very realistically, so I would be happy if people could feel the deeper parts that we could not express in the singles through this album.

Furui: I think it is an album that allowed us to take many different approaches.

Okamoto: We used many different instruments this time, and in that sense I think it became a work we approached with great enthusiasm.