VOL.164 27th single“夢のひとつ”Yuri Nakamurainterview(first half)

●○○From music freak magazine Vol.164

GARNET CROW

New Single “Yume no Hitotsu” 2008.8.13 On Sale!!

GARNET CROW will release their new single “Yume no Hitotsu” on August 13. Their first release in about five months since their sixth album 『LOCKS』 came out in March, this medium-tempo number carries a sense of transience within its beautiful melody. The lyrics poignantly portray a protagonist who has decided to part ways but, while carrying a wavering heart, tries to move forward. The sound woven from acoustic-guitar tones and strings sinks gently into the listener’s heart. The following “Love Lone Star,” which calls to mind a summer at dusk, and “Mijikai Natsu,” whose appeal lies in its sharply contrasting development, are summer songs given a GARNET CROW-style sound approach. Listening to all three in succession should let you feel a pleasant summer breeze. Before GARNET CROW’s first summer live after this release, we spoke with Yuri Nakamura about the new single and the live shows.

●The new single “Yume no Hitotsu” feels like a song that evokes summer. What kind of image did you have when you first created it?

Yuri Nakamura (hereafter Nakamura): This was one of the songs I wrote after 『LOCKS』 was completed and I returned to production. I felt strongly that we had accomplished what we wanted to with 『LOCKS』, so there was a period afterward when I did not write songs for a while. When I began to think about writing again, I made this song without pressure and with a refreshing feeling. That is why I think it reflects who we are now very clearly. In that sense, it is also a song we feel attached to.

●What ultimately made you choose this song as a single?

Nakamura: I had written several other songs when we were offered the ending-theme slot for “Golgo 13,” and this was the one we chose because it fit the image. From there, the arrangement and lyrics changed in several directions, and I re-recorded the vocal each time until it became what it is now. At first, the song had a D section with lyrics, and I had recorded it. But when we listened to it, everyone felt that it had two main sections, so to speak, and that the D section weakened the impression of the chorus, which was a shame. We decided to cut the D section outright. Since the D-section melody itself was quite good, I jokingly said, “What if we played the D section as a guitar solo?” We tried it, it sounded good, and decided to keep it. So the guitar solo in this song is actually the melody from the D section. There were things like that. The break before the chorus was not in the demo either, but after it was decided that the song would be an ending theme, we thought it would be better to add something catchy and easy to understand. We placed a break before the chorus to create an anticipation that the chorus was about to arrive. The song also modulates quite a bit, so we tried singing several versions to decide where the changes should settle. We experimented with the vocal resonance too, since it could not be too high or too low. Once the song was chosen as a single, the arrangement, lyrics, vocal, and structure all continued to change as we developed it.

●Many GARNET CROW songs have been refined through a gradual process, but was that especially true this time?

Nakamura: Yes, there were many things right from the start… It was not so much that we redid things because they were wrong; rather, everyone kept offering ideas like, “This is good as it is, but how can we make it even better?” and we built the song up that way. The D-section discussion and the break before the chorus were both things that took shape by adding and removing elements, and it made me realize that you cannot simply put everything in and expect a good result. In the demo I made, the words are just improvised English, so you only hear the melody. Once it becomes an actual song, lyrics are attached and words are placed on it, which reveals a lot of things you do not notice otherwise.