About three months after their previous work “Doing all right,” GARNET CROW’s new single “花は咲いて ただ揺れて” will be released on August 19. Their 30th single is a deep ballad that can truly be called the essence of GARNET CROW. It is a song whose lyrics, wrapped in a sense of mercilessness, and sound full of scale pierce the heart. The coupling song “愛に似てる” is a medium ballad with groove, and a notable track where listeners can enjoy AZUKI Nana’s distinctive lyrical world. We asked Yuri Nakamura about this release, which contains two songs with strong individuality.
—Along with the announcement of this single’s release, a great deal of information was unveiled, including the live tour. Had GARNET CROW also been preparing with emphasis on those activities?
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. Since the beginning of this year, we had already decided our plans for the second half, so while steadily preparing toward that, we were also producing recordings. It feels like all that information has finally been released.
—Was “花は咲いて ただ揺れて” created during that production period?
Yuri Nakamura:This song, the coupling “愛に似てる,” and about one more song were already finished around the same time last year. Among them, we chose the song that fit best as this single, and that became “花は咲いて ただ揺れて.”
—What was the deciding factor in choosing it as the single?
Yuri Nakamura:We chose it with emphasis on the fact that it was a royal-road ballad very much like GARNET CROW. Since we also had an album announcement coming up next, I wanted to release as the pre-album single a song that could be treated almost like a banner saying, “This is GARNET CROW.” So from among many ballads, we chose the one that was easy to listen to and had the most dramatic, brilliant quality.
—So the timing was also a major reason for choosing a royal-road ballad.
Yuri Nakamura:We entrusted this single with the role of an introduction that would make people interested in the album. I wanted people to listen to this song and feel, “So this is what GARNET CROW’s worldview is like,” and want to know more. For that purpose, I thought a ballad that could become almost synonymous with GARNET CROW would be good.
—Was there anything you imagined while creating “花は咲いて ただ揺れて”?
Yuri Nakamura:This song was one of the songs that came out last year during a period when I was writing nothing but ballads. From the demo stage, its worldview was already firm, and there was a dignified strength along with a sense of transience and weakness. We expanded that and finished it. In the sense that strength and weakness coexist within a single song, it may be something rare among GARNET CROW’s works so far.
—There are gaps within the development of the song too.
Yuri Nakamura:I think the lyrics let you feel the transience and fragility of flowers, but when you listen to the singing, the gloss and firmness of the voice in the chorus let you feel a dignified strength too. The way you feel the words differs between reading only the lyrics and hearing them as a song, and that is interesting as well. The lyrics trace the life of a flower, but the words can also be considered by replacing that with a human life, so I think they are very easy to understand. The song structure is also a very easy-to-understand royal-road ballad, so it enters the ear easily... In that sense, it has become a stable song that can soak into the listener’s heart without stress.
—To give it that stability, you must have paid attention to the balance of each sound.
Yuri Nakamura:When you prioritize ease of listening, it can lead to the whole song becoming light, so we made sure that did not happen. We were careful about how to keep the ease of listening while guiding the song into something dramatic and grand. In the sense of treasuring the melody, Furui-san says, “I’m betting my life on the intro,” and Okamocchi (Okamoto) also says, “I played the guitar with a lot of feeling,” so each member’s particular dedication should come through in the sound. In recording the vocal too, I sang while paying attention to the balance between making it a brilliant, dramatic song and properly expressing its clarity and catchiness.
—Did production go smoothly?
Yuri Nakamura:This song had a clear image from the demo stage, and the work was simply to give that image form, so it came together quickly. We didn’t have to record it over and over through trial and error, and it also wasn’t the kind of song that needed to be matured over a long period, so we were able to make it without stress. This kind of ballad is also a style we like, so it became a confident work we feel strongly about, a song into which each of us poured our own tastes while enjoying ourselves.
—Recently, many of your songs have seemed conscious of listeners or included new attempts. After that, returning to a ballad like “花は咲いて ただ揺れて” feels meaningful.
Yuri Nakamura:When I thought about what kind of song would show GARNET CROW-ness the most, I felt it would have to be this kind of style... We are also good at this type of song, so it feels like we brought out one of our specialties.
—What did you think when you read AZUKI-san’s lyrics?
Yuri Nakamura:The song itself already had strength, and it also let you feel beauty and transience, so when lyrics came up that compared those things to flowers, I thought, “I see.” Beautiful words that make it easy to imagine the scenery are scattered throughout, and I simply felt it was a beautiful song... After mixing it, I thought it had become a very glossy song. It’s like the image of flowers wet with water, with drops falling from them... I feel it became a song with sensuality.
—When the words in the lyrics are beautiful, does that make it easier to put feeling into the singing?
Yuri Nakamura:From the intro, I could enter the world of the song, so I was able to sing on top of the sound without thinking about anything. In the chorus, I got carried by the feeling and almost added vibrato, but if I did that it would become too sensual, so I held that back while singing. In any case, the development is easy to understand, so all I had to do was reflect the song’s worldview directly in the vocal. It felt good to sing.