When You Say Conan, You Mean the Famous Detective! A Special Interview With GARNET CROW, Who Sing the Movie Theme Song!
This year's Golden Week is packed with films that will send readers of this column into delight, including *The Wolfman* and *Clash of the Titans*, but there is one more! When you talk about a Golden Week hero, you also have the theatrical *Detective Conan*! The latest film, *Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky*, opened on April 17! This time, I went to interview GARNET CROW, who are in charge of the theme song. Vocalist Yuri Nakamura responded to the interview on behalf of the members.
The interview took place on April 14, the release date of "Over Drive," the theme song for the Conan film, and the day its CD release event was held at Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu in Tokyo. In fact, the campaign for this "Over Drive" uses the method of a viral campaign, often used for major Hollywood sci-fi and hero films. "Viral" comes from virus; in short, it creates an event, an incident, that easily becomes a topic of conversation, and sets up word of mouth, or buzz, online. With hero films, there are many patterns where things that appear in the world of the film, the fictional world, are made to seem as if they exist in the real world. Famous examples include *The Dark Knight*, where there was a website launched by the Joker and mysterious orders flew out from there, and *Iron Man 2*, where there was an official site for the "Stark Expo" that Tony hosts in the film.
In GARNET CROW's "Over Drive" campaign, warning letters saying that Kaito Kid, Conan's rival and a phantom thief appearing in the film, would "appear on April 14 and steal 'Over Drive'" were scattered through GARNET CROW live events, newspapers, magazines, and TV advertisements. Boldly, he even hacked GARNET CROW's official site, where another warning letter appeared... The development suggested that Kid would probably appear at this Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu event. This interview was held under the tense circumstances of being targeted by Kid himself (laughs).
Below:
中:Yuri Nakamura す: Supi
す:Thank you for speaking with me. Under the difficult circumstances of being targeted by Kid, thank you for taking the time (laughs).
中:No, no, thank you as well. I look forward to it (laughs).
す:Today, in honor of "Over Drive," and wishing for clear weather, I came wearing a full blue suit inspired by the blue sky.
中:Thank you! It did clear up (laughs).
す:Let me jump right in. GARNET CROW is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year (congratulations!), and over these ten years you have provided as many as nine opening or ending theme songs for the TV *Detective Conan*. But this is your first time providing one for a theatrical film, right? What was the biggest difference in songwriting between tying up with Conan on TV and providing the theme song for a movie?
中:This time, the film production side had quite specific requests. The keywords were "blue sky," "freshness," "exhilaration," and "a feeling of breaking through." They said not a ballad or a medium tune, but in any case please make it an uptempo, bright song. Usually, with television, there are not instructions that go that far into the tone or type of song. They also wanted us to include the grandeur unique to a film, and the infinite breadth that evokes the sky. So we were making a song within a very narrow strike zone.
す:But when the instructions are that specific, doesn't that sometimes make it easier to write?
中:No, no... We made five songs, and it was only with the fifth that we finally reached agreement (laughs). It was supposed to be finished by the end of the year, but it was Valentine's Day by the time it was done (laughs).
す:Five songs!
中:Yes. And it was not at the level of revising what we had made the first time; we remade both the song and the backing track each time. Every time, we submitted it and waited for the result, like exam students (laughs). We were completely worn out, feeling like, "Conan, help us!" (laughs). We handed the fifth song to the film production team and waited for the "exam results," and I was nervous. They contacted my cell phone, but when it rang I was too scared to pick up (laughs). I listened to the voicemail. When we "passed," I was truly happy. The film staff had believed in us and waited.
す:Why was it that difficult a birth?
中:In the end, even if there is a concrete direction like "a refreshing blue sky," the "refreshing blue sky" GARNET CROW imagines and the "refreshing blue sky" the film production team wants are different. For GARNET CROW, we tend toward a slightly damp blue sky, one with humidity in a good sense, but for the film, it is purely a dry, clear blue sky. It took many exchanges before we finally reached agreement on that.
す:Certainly, the "blue sky" depicted in "Over Drive" is different from the "blue sky" in GARNET CROW's worldview up to now. In GARNET CROW's world, even the "blue sea" is a "clear sea without water" (laughs). "Over Drive" is a straightforward blue sky. (Note: GARNET CROW has a work titled "水のない晴れた海へ.")
中:That's true (laughs). I think GARNET CROW's individuality is probably melancholy, shadow, and minor-key tones. We are even said to have "songs unsuitable for weddings" (laughs). So it was an order that was the complete opposite of that GARNET CROW-ness. But I am very glad we did it.
す:It was a good "exam," then (laughs).
中:Yes. Since we were reaching our tenth anniversary, there was also a desire to challenge new things, and it was a good opportunity to try that. For ourselves too, we could think, "Ah, bright songs are also possible for GARNET CROW," and it felt like our drawers increased.
す:Speaking of freshness, the PV is wonderful too.
中:Yes, it feels fresh and innocent, doesn't it? Almost to the point of thinking, is this all right in our tenth year since debut? (laughs). Our debut single "Mysterious Eyes" was the TV Conan theme song, so Conan always gives GARNET CROW a good opportunity. I think movie-version Conan gave us another challenge in our tenth year.
す:Conan is a good partner for GARNET CROW.
中:Conan is a detective adventure story, but another axis is the relationship where the main character, Shinichi, and Ran keep missing each other. GARNET CROW has sung the sadness of those two. For ten years, we have always watched over those two being hesitant (laughs).
"Ah, they are being hesitant again. You two, shouldn't there be some progress soon?" I do think that sometimes (laughs).
す:Many children will come to see this film. Did you make the song with children in mind in any way?
中:In the way I sang. I sang so that small children could properly hear what words I was singing. For GARNET CROW, phrasing where you cannot tell what is being said after only one listen is also one of our features, but this time I abandoned that insistence. For example, the phrase "silent kiss" would normally become "siren kiss," but I pronounced "silent" properly. The "bu" in "Over Drive" would usually be weak, but this time I pronounced it clearly all the way through the "bu."
す:I am sure children will like this song too. By the way, what anime theme song did you like when you were a child?
中:"Hajimete no Chu" from *Kiteretsu Daihyakka*. (When this title came up, all the staff around the interview harmonized, "Ah, that one, 'Hajimete no Chu'..."). It is an anime theme song, but both the music and lyrics are wonderful. It is a splendid work. I would like to aim for that.
す:I think anime theme songs are, in a sense, the first songs children become absorbed in, and even in Disney films, songs are the lifeblood. They are a very important element. So through Conan theme songs, the fact that GARNET CROW provides high-quality music is extremely important for cultivating the musical sensitivity of Japanese children.
中:I am happy to hear you say that. Thank you! Also, what I learned this time is that making a theme song for a film or anime is not about handing over an existing song and saying, "That's it." It really is about how properly you face that work.
In other words, the story or scene and the song have to be linked. If a scene does not come to mind just by hearing the song, it will not reach the heart. This time, our song plays in the final scene of the film. We were shown the storyboard for the part right before the song comes in, and we discussed it. While speaking to the hearts of the audience, who have just been a little shocked by the final scene, the song also has to remind them that this film was a grand story of an ascending airship racing through a dry, refreshing sky... That is the mission of the theme song. So the opening begins with GARNET CROW's first a cappella, appealing directly; then the freshness is entrusted to strings and used almost like foreshadowing; as the song progresses, the strings grow hotter and hotter; at the end, the string arrangement becomes large... That part expresses the feeling of the airship rising and the infinite sky spreading out. If the vector of the story and the vector of the song do not match, it falls apart. I learned a great deal from that.
す:This a cappella version is a version only for the movie theater, within the film, right?
中:Yes, that's right. Please hear it in the theater (laughs).
す:I definitely want to hear it with the good sound system of a movie theater. Finally, what kind of person do you think a hero is?
中:Someone who knows strength and weakness, someone who understands the pain of the heart. (This was an immediate answer. It must be something Ms. Nakamura always thinks.)
す:I think that is a wonderful definition. Thank you very much for today!
中:Thank you very much! Now I will do my best and go get caught up in the incident (about Kid this time) (laughs).
After the interview: A very cute songstress and a sincere creator, that was Ms. Nakamura. She spoke passionately and in a way even I, a layman about music, could easily understand about the process by which one work is born. It was a fun interview.