Es VOL.18 The musician to the musician plus 第 11 回 Hitoshi Okamoto(second half)

●○○From music freak Es Vol.18

Summer Camp were a power-pop band too, but they also had songs that felt somewhat grungy, wonderfully strong melodies, and very appealing chord work. Their guitar solos are excellent as well. They are not the kind of pointless solos where someone just plays out a collection of familiar licks and stops. They are solid guitar solos properly integrated into the songs, and that is what makes them so good.

●Has this influenced the way you make your own work?
Okamoto: I feel embarrassed calling it influence, but yes, I think it has influenced me in some way.

●You have played covers of them too.
Okamoto: Yes. I have played a cover of a song called “No Where Near” live. But that is the only song I have covered. For the others, I only tried tracing things out, wondering, “What kind of sound does that chord have?”

●Did you mostly play original songs at university?
Okamoto: Yes. It was entirely original music at university. We also played at live houses.

●Were your bandmates friends you met at university?
Okamoto: There was a senior from my high school light-music club who entered the same university, and we decided to play together. At the time, we played melodic rock with a slightly hard-rock side to it.

●Was that somewhat different from the music you make now?
Okamoto: Yes, it was completely different.

●Do The Cardigans come next?
Okamoto: Yes. This is an album I listened to after I started working. The Cardigans were often played around town at the time, and I had an image of them as having a cute sound. But when I first heard this album, I was surprised and thought, “Huh? This is The Cardigans?” Later, I looked into it and learned that it was an unusual work for them, and that this style was unique to this album. Tore Johansson is famous as The Cardigans’ producer, and he also worked on this album. It seems to have been an experimental record that completely shifted away from their earlier poppy, cute image toward something darker. It was a hit in their home country of Sweden, but it was not received very well abroad and ultimately caused their popularity to fall sharply. Personally, though, it is my favorite of their albums.

●I feel something in it that connects with your solo work.
Okamoto: Yes. The melodies are solid, but many of the surrounding decorations—the ornamental instruments—have an unexpected twist, which makes it very interesting. It completely changes the earlier image of bright, warm, human instruments. I cannot speak for their devoted fans, but to me it was an album that delivered a very good kind of betrayal. I especially liked the obsessive approach to the sound. In that sense, it may be a work that influenced my solo work.

●When did you start writing songs, by the way?
Okamoto: I started composing in high school. At the school festival, I was told that I had to take part in a live performance with my own band and another event organized by the light-music club. The theme for taking part was, “Let’s make an original song,” so I started writing around then.

●How did you learn to compose?
Okamoto: In middle school, I had a friend who played piano and was already writing songs, so I asked him, “How do you write them?” He told me that when a melody comes into your head, you fit chords to it. At first I thought, “I have absolutely no idea,” but after trying various things, I gradually learned how to do it. Sometimes I started with chords and tried putting a melody over them. After doing that for a while, it began to come naturally.

●And finally, Jellyfish.
Okamoto: This is another album I encountered while listening to various things after I started working. It feels somewhat over-produced, but I thought it was amazing how obsessively they could pursue every detail of the music. They are geniuses, so perhaps it did not take them as long as it would take an ordinary person, but from my perspective, it is a work that pursued its eccentric attention to detail to the point where I cannot help wondering how much time they spent on it.

●Do you mean that the arrangements are elaborate?
Okamoto: Yes. The songs themselves are of course excellent, but so are the layering of the instruments, the chord work, and the way the backing vocals are stacked... People often describe them as sounding like “a toy box turned upside down,” and that expression fits perfectly. Those aspects had a direct influence on my solo work.

●There are songs that sound very Queen-like too.
Okamoto: Some of them are unmistakably so! I imagine they were probably doing it as a kind of joke.

●Are Jellyfish a band whose work you would rather study than cover?
Okamoto: Yes. I have never covered them live.

●Have there been any kinds of music or artists that marked a turning point as you continued making music?
Okamoto: A turning point! Just one? Hmm, what would it be... My first solo single may have been the turning point. Until then, I had only written songs, but in my solo work I was able to express 100 percent of myself, including the arrangements. I was very lucky, and I think it was a major turning point. When you are only making demos, you can write a rough song and a professional arranger will turn it into something even cooler. With a solo work, I could not rely on that, so I had to study arranging a great deal, and I struggled with it too. So it was a turning point for me not just as a guitarist, but as a music person—as a musician. If I had not done solo work, I probably would not be the way I am now, and I would not have had the versatility I have. There are many people who play guitar better than I do, and I do not think I would have the career I have now if I only played guitar.

●Did music change as an existence in your life after you became a professional?
Okamoto: First, the way I listen changed. Even if I do not like something very much, I end up listening to it as research. I have favorite music that I play absentmindedly while cooking, brushing my teeth, or changing clothes, but I also find myself listening to other songs. In the sense that I sometimes listen to music I can turn into work, my relationship with music has changed considerably. It feels as though there are two categories: music I listen to because I like it, and music I listen to for work even though I do not like it that much.

●I had assumed your favorite music was probably British, but many of the works you chose this time were American.
Okamoto: Actually, I do not like British music that much. There are only a limited number of British songs I like. I am not really a UK fanatic.

●People do not tell you that you sound British?
Okamoto: They do. Maybe it is the quality of my voice. Perhaps it is because British music has a lot of singers who are not technically great but carry things with their atmosphere. But in reality, when someone asks, “What do you listen to from the UK?”, there are not many British artists I can think of that I like.

●Who, for example?
Okamoto: Leaving The Beatles aside, I do like Oasis. Ash and Stereophonics too, I suppose. Other than that, I tend to think in terms of individual songs rather than artists. There are very few artists whose entire albums I want to listen to closely.

●Were there any guitarists you admired?
Okamoto: When I first started playing guitar, it was less that I wanted to become a particular person and more that I would think, “That guitar sounds great.” When I was starting out, for example, there was Mercy from The Blue Hearts, as well as the guitarists from the bands I was listening to then. So I never really had one person who served as a strict master or mentor. Even now, rather than focusing on who the guitarist is, if I hear a guitar on a song that sounds great, I search online and take an interested look at what equipment they used.

●Finally, what kind of work do you enjoy most in your musical activities?
Okamoto: Making demos is the most fun. You can never have too many demos in your stock. Whether they are selected or not is another matter; I simply enjoy making lots of songs I like. It is the most fun of all.

＜WORKS INTRODUCED＞

■Off Course 『SELECTION 1978–81』
A Japanese group representing the New Music era, Off Course released numerous hit songs from their debut in 1970 until their breakup in 1989. Released on September 1, 1981, this best-of album collects songs from the group’s middle period, 1978 through 1981. It contains all 11 tracks, including the hugely successful singles “Sayonara,” “I LOVE YOU,” and “For the Children Yet to Be Born,” which had not appeared on their original albums.

■Nirvana 『Nevermind』
The members were Kurt Cobain (vocals and guitar), Dave Grohl (drums), and Krist Novoselic (bass). They debuted in 1989 on an independent label in Seattle, USA (their drummer at the time was Chad Channing). That same year they released *Bleach*, followed in 1991 by their second album, *Nevermind*, on the major label David Geffen Company. When the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” began airing on radio and MTV, it sold more than three million copies in the United States and reached number one on the charts, sparking a grunge boom around the world. They subsequently released *Incesticide* in 1992 and *In Utero* in 1993, but Kurt became deeply addicted to drugs and took his own life in April 1994 by shooting himself in the head with a rifle in his bathroom. The shock of his death forced the band to disband.

■Summer Camp (SUMMER CAMP) 『PURE JUICE』
A four-member band from Santa Barbara, USA. This debut album was produced by Chris Shaw, who had also worked with Weezer. Its energetic sound and melodies combining freshness with sentimentality captured the hearts of many music fans. A second album was eagerly anticipated, but this was the only record the band officially released on CD. The vocalist Tim later released solo work.

■The Cardigans 『Gran Turismo』
The Cardigans are a five-member band from Sweden. Discovered by producer Tore Johansson, they made their record debut in 1994. “Carnival,” from their second album *Life*, released in 1995, became a worldwide hit. In Japan they signed with Mercury Records and released their third album, *First Band on the Moon*, in 1996; “Lovefool,” included on that album, became a huge hit around the world. Released in 1998, this fourth album overturned their previous image of bright, gentle Swedish pop and presented a new musical direction with a hard-edged sound shaped by technology. The band later took a break, but resumed activities in 2003.

■Jellyfish 『Spilt Milk』
Jellyfish was formed by Andy Sturmer, now also famous as a producer, and Roger Manning, former high-school classmates from San Francisco, USA. After a demo tape made by the original four members led to a deal with Charisma Records, they released their first album, *Bellybutton*, in 1990, then completed their second album, *Spilt Milk* (Japanese title: *Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk*), in 1993. They gave their first and last performance in Japan that same year, thrilling Japanese pop fans, but decided to disband soon afterward. Sadly, this became the final album by the legendary band Jellyfish.