GARNET CROW will release their new single “夢のひとつ” on August 13. Coming about five months after their sixth album “LOCKS,” released in March of this year, the song is a medium number where transience drifts through a beautiful melody. The lyrics, depicting a protagonist who has decided on parting yet still carries a wavering heart and tries to move forward, leave a strong impression. The sound woven from acoustic guitar tones, strings, and other elements has been finished so that it gradually seeps into the listener’s heart. Following it are “Love Lone Star,” which evokes a summer twilight, and “短い夏,” whose sharply defined development is appealing; both are summer songs treated with GARNET CROW-like sound approaches. By listening to all three songs, you should be able to feel a comfortable summer breeze. After releasing this work, GARNET CROW will be preparing for their first summer live. We asked Yuri Nakamura about this single and the live show.
—This single “夢のひとつ” has become a song where you can feel summer. What kind of image did you have when you first made it?
Yuri Nakamura:This song is one of the songs I made after the album “LOCKS” was finished and I returned to production work. I had a strong feeling of having accomplished something with “LOCKS,” so there was a period afterward when I didn’t make songs for a while. This was a song I made after I started thinking that I should make new songs again, so I could make it without strain, with a fresh feeling. That is why I think the current us comes out strongly in it. In that sense, it is also a song we feel attached to.
—What was the deciding factor in choosing this song as the single?
Yuri Nakamura:We had made several songs besides this one, and then we received the offer for the ending theme of “Golgo 13.” We chose this song because it fit that image. From there, the arrangement and lyrics changed several times, and each time I re-sang it, until it reached its current form. At first this song had a D-melody, with lyrics attached to it, and I had recorded the vocal too. But when we listened after it was finished, everyone talked about how it felt like there were two main parts, or how having the D-melody weakened the impression of the chorus, which seemed wasteful. So we moved in the direction of boldly cutting the D-melody. But the D-melody itself was a pretty good melody, so we jokingly said, “What if we tried playing the D-melody as a guitar solo?” When we actually tried it, it felt good, so we decided to use it. So actually, the guitar solo in this song is the melody of the D-melody. There were interesting things like that. Also, the break before the chorus wasn’t in the demo, but after it was decided that the song would become an ending theme, we thought it would be better to incorporate something catchy and easy to understand. So we placed a break before the chorus to create that excitement of “the chorus is coming next.” This song also modulates quite a lot, and we tried singing several patterns to see where that sense of modulation should settle. With the way the voice resonated too, it couldn’t be too high or too low, so we tried many things. So after it was decided to make it a single, the arrangement, lyrics, singing, and structure all kept changing as we made it.
—Many GARNET CROW songs have been made by refining them carefully, but was that especially the case this time?
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. From the very start, many things happened... It wasn’t so much that something was bad so we had to rework it, but more that everyone’s ideas came out at once, like, “This is fine, but to make it even better...” and that was how we built it. With the D-melody and the break before the chorus, the song came together by adding and subtracting, and I really felt that it isn’t good simply to pack everything in. The demos I make are sung in rough English, so you only hear the melody. But when it becomes a song, actual lyrics are attached and words ride on it, so you notice many things then. With the D-melody too, once I actually sang it, the amount of information became too large, so we felt it would be cleaner to leave it out.
—Were there things you were careful about in completing the song?
Yuri Nakamura:From the lyrics, I felt a thought like cherishing something precisely because it is fragile. So for the vocal recording, I was conscious of placing the words carefully in the A-melody and B-melody so that the listener could receive that image more clearly. This time, transience came up as a keyword, and from there the image expanded.
—You mentioned that the lyrics changed from the beginning. Were they completely different at that time?
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. At that time, the title and the words being sung were completely different. Actually, the lyrics in the second B-melody remain as they were, but when the lyrics change, the worldview changes too, and since the arrangement and structure also changed, it feels like something different from the beginning.
—Is there any part of AZUKI-san’s lyrics that you particularly like?
Yuri Nakamura:That second B-melody. I really like it, and it has stayed with me. When I first sang it, I thought that part was good, so when AZUKI-san changed the lyrics, I wondered on my own whether she listened to it, thought it was good, and left it there (laughs).
—That feels nice, as if something communicated between you without either side knowing.
Yuri Nakamura:I had sung that part with care from the temporary vocal stage, and even after all the lyrics changed, only that part was kept alive. So maybe my singing had some kind of power, and AZUKI-san thought, “Let’s not erase this part”... Those lyrics were originally attached to the first B-melody, but when the lyrics changed, they moved to the second. I could sing that part very comfortably, so when the lyrics changed and I realized it had remained, I was very happy. I don’t go out of my way to say that to her (laughs), but AZUKI-san hears the temporary vocal too, so I personally think maybe she kept it because of how well it fit (laughs).
—By the way, when making the song, were you conscious of a seasonal feeling?
Yuri Nakamura:In the act of making songs itself, we often make them without being conscious of season, so with “夢のひとつ” too, it wasn’t that I made it thinking of summer. More than that, I finished it while treasuring the worldview of the song itself. If anything, when choosing the coupling songs, we did think about the season. For example, we tried to choose songs that felt summery, or songs that would feel good to listen to in summer.
—Around when was “Love Lone Star” made?
Yuri Nakamura:This was around the same time as “夢のひとつ.” The later “短い夏” was too, but these three songs were made after releasing “LOCKS.” Although their styles are different, within me they feel connected, and I feel they make a very easy-to-listen-to flow.
—They certainly can be heard in a natural flow.
Yuri Nakamura:It isn’t that we forced expressions onto them; because they were made around the same time, they have the same tension within me, and emotionally I’m not forcing anything...
—Was “Love Lone Star” in this structure from the start?
Yuri Nakamura:Yes, from the start. Then when I looked at the lyrics, they seemed strangely compact, and I was surprised (laughs). But when I actually sing it, it doesn’t feel like that at all; it has plenty of volume.
—The postlude is also made luxuriously.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. It is made so you can listen to it carefully. I really like the prelude too. Actually, we thought about putting in the sound of waves, but in the end we stopped. So I would be happy if listeners let the sound of waves ring in their minds while listening to this song. I chose it as a coupling because I hoped people would imagine something like comfortably dozing off on a sunset beach while feeling the sea breeze. Its reputation around us was also very good, and I even thought we might keep it for a later work. But rather than having people listen to it in September or October, I thought that if we released it in the middle of intense summer heat, listeners could feel the comfort of the sea breeze at twilight more strongly. So we included it on this single.
—The feeling of heat still remaining at twilight really comes through.
Yuri Nakamura:I thought that might be a summer very much like GARNET CROW... Rather than a summer of sweating and getting excited in the middle of the day, I feel the twilight atmosphere suits us. It’s like a song that lets you take a trip to a summer resort... August is a hot, hectic time, so I thought it would be nice if it became a song where people could taste even a little bit of vacation. In my mind, the image is “Monaco in the south of France.” I sang while imagining myself alone there, opening a parasol, with the wind blowing and waves coming in.