GARNET CROW’s seventh original album, “STAY 〜夜明けのSoul〜,” will be released on September 30. As the powerful title suggests, it has been completed as a work made up of songs with a strong presence. We spoke with the members about this album, which once again surprises us with the flexibility of the GARNET CROW sound.
—When did the discussion begin about releasing this album?
Yuri Nakamura:Originally, it wasn’t as if we were making songs while consciously thinking that we would release an album. After releasing the previous album last year, we continued making songs steadily, and once a certain number had accumulated, it started from the feeling that “maybe it’s about time to gather them into an album.” From there, we gave it shape. In the final stage of album production, there were some adjustments where, while choosing the songs to include, we would newly write and record something because we felt, “We don’t have this type of song, so we want one.” That part got a little hectic, but overall it progressed naturally.
—Was there anything that became a standard when deciding which songs to include?
Yuri Nakamura:After “Stay,” which also became the album title, was finished, I felt like I could see the outline of the album. This song was created around the time after we released “Doing all right,” and it may have been a turning point in the production process. The way we made this song was different from before; it moved forward almost like improvisation, or like playing it by ear. When making the demo, it wasn’t a case of refining the melody. What I sang as it came to mind became the demo, and we asked for the arrangement in that state. I didn’t first build the worldview myself and finish the demo; there wasn’t even a temporary lyric, just “la la la” singing that became the song, so it felt very free. I had never made a song where the melody and chord progression seemed both present and absent, so when that took shape and was completed, I thought, “This will become a very important song for us.” Then when we entered summer and began choosing album songs in earnest, we couldn’t ignore the presence of “Stay,” and my feeling that I wanted to make it the core became very strong. “Stay” was a song where I could feel our inner passion and thoughts toward music now, in other words our Soul, and I think it became a song where people can feel the GARNET CROW spirit. So we decided to develop the album around this song.
—“Stay” has a unique development.
Yuri Nakamura:It’s very free. I don’t think I could ever make a melody like this again. With this song, for the first time, I listened to my own demo and wrote the melody line down as sheet music (laughs). I sang it impulsively, so I didn’t remember what chords or what melody I had sung. It is a song made with the heart at the center, so it truly has Soul packed into it. The A-melody and B-melody have a jazzy feeling, and you can sense blues in them, while the chorus has something reminiscent of gospel chorus. In that sense too, I think it has a taste none of our songs had before. It wasn’t something we intentionally made that way; the fact that it ended up with that scent as a result was also a first, so it felt very fresh.
—Furui-san, when you first heard this song, did you feel it could become the core of the album?
Hirohito Furui: I did. I felt it was a very good song, and I strongly wanted to make it with care. But I didn’t agonize over it there; it was more like I built it up one piece at a time, surprisingly naturally. After I arranged it, lyrics were added, and then the vocal was added, right? In that process, it kept being upgraded, and I felt a strong response there too.
—Okamoto-san, when you heard this song, did you feel it was a different type of song from before?
Hitoshi Okamoto:The melody felt very fresh, and I thought it seemed difficult.
Yuri Nakamura:When you heard the demo, were you able to remember the melody right away?
Hirohito Furui: After listening a few times, you do end up remembering it. Sometimes I made the arrangement while humming it, to expand the image of the song...
Yuri Nakamura:I want to hear Furui-san sing (laughs).
Hirohito Furui: I lock the room, so no one can come in and no one can hear me (laughs).
—Nakamura-san’s singing voice on “Stay” sounded different from usual.
Yuri Nakamura:It’s a strange song, like singing and speaking at the same time. Since it has improvisational power, it sounds cooler when you break it down while singing. At first I thought I might sing it in a more broken-down way, but considering the balance of the album as a whole, I held it back a little. The downbeats don’t line up, and the vocal chases after the backing track; it’s completely different from our songs so far. Usually, that kind of construction would feel uncomfortable, but with this song it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. If anything, it felt better to listen to that way. It is a song packed with the goodness of music that can only be expressed in that moment. It was made from the combination of the air at that time and my own state of mind, so even if someone told me to sing it now, I don’t think I could sing it exactly the same way as what is captured here.
—So it is a song that may keep changing as you sing it going forward.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. If anything, I think it would be better for it to keep changing. It is a song worth singing, one that makes me feel the joy of being a vocalist. Rather than singing exactly as written, it’s cooler to sing it in my own way according to my mood and the nuance of the performance at that moment. In that sense, it became a song that shows one side of GARNET CROW’s new musicality. I think we were able to take it into a new development while still keeping the melancholy and transience.
—Did making “Stay” the pillar of the album broaden the range of song selection?
Yuri Nakamura:I think it created the feeling that any kind of song could be accepted. Many of the songs included this time are dramatic and let you feel sadness and transience, but that is our individuality, and the musicality we like is born from there, so I thought we should put all of it in without resisting it. This album has many songs with a brilliant presence. Because of that, we struggled with the song order (laughs). When I heard “Hello Sadness,” I thought it would be cool as the first song, but for an opening track I felt it needed one more touch in the intro, so we had strings added in an SE-like way. It gives the feeling that something is about to begin, and after the drums come in, the expression of the song changes, making it feel like an overture that draws listeners into the world of the album.
—Was “Hello Sadness” made recently?
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. It was recorded toward the end of album production, so I think it is the newest song among these. I wanted a song to decorate the first track of the album, so I tried making something upper, groovy, and full of movement.
—In terms of arrangement, were there points you were particular about because it has that introductory element?
Hirohito Furui: I wanted to make the synth sound stand out at the front. I don’t think we have gone this far with any of our previous songs.
Yuri Nakamura:The synth part feels like it stirs you up the way a movie trailer does, and from there the flow enters the main feature, so I thought it worked well. I think you can trip into the GARNET CROW world in an instant, so it felt very effective.