"parallel universe," an Album of "Another World" That Draws Out New Appeal
GARNET CROW, who marked the tenth anniversary of their debut this March, have completed a new album, *parallel universe*. This one-of-a-kind band, who have consistently depicted a world containing sadness and fleetingness, have gained through this work a colorful and open new paradise. Its content greatly transcends the image they have built through their activities so far, and the finish should become a definite trigger that invites in not only longtime fans, but also new listeners.
For their first appearance on Natalie, we interviewed vocalist Yuri Nakamura and guitarist Hitoshi Okamoto. In contrast to their serious artist image, the two carried a very pop atmosphere, and we threw at them not only questions about the new work, but also various questions that approach the band's identity.
Incidentally, it has also been decided that Hitoshi Okamoto will release his first solo work in six years, *Now Printing...*, under the name SUPER LIGHT on the same day. There, he sounds out superb pop music that bursts with a Western-music sensibility different from GARNET CROW. Please savor the craftsmanlike attention packed throughout.
Interview & text / Hideyuki Mori
The Reason They Continued for Ten Years Is the Just-Right Balance Between Production and Live Performance
-- Some time has passed since your debut anniversary, but first, please look back once more on your tenth anniversary.
Nakamura:Sensationally, it felt short. For about two years after debuting, we only produced music and did not do live performances. After we started doing live performances, it went fast. We make an album, present those songs live, and then make music again. Because we have been able to keep that kind of regular pace, I feel we have continued this far without stress.
-- So that cycle suited GARNET CROW.
Okamoto:Yes. I think the style of being able to calmly carry out that cycle suited us.
Nakamura:If anything, we are the type who want to make songs carefully, but once we learned the pleasure of directly interacting with fans, we inevitably wanted to do live performances again. The switches of wanting to produce music and wanting to perform live probably fit the pace of our activities in just the right way, like gears.
-- Mr. Okamoto, how were these ten years for you?
Okamoto:Even after ten years, people do not grow as much as you would think. Of course, you do gain knowledge and skills properly, and I think that is growth too, but when I put my hand on my heart and ask whether I became a bigger person, I do not really think so.
-- You mean as a person?
Okamoto:Yes. It is not about music, but whether I have become bigger as a human being. For example, have I become tolerant toward someone's mistakes? Maybe I have not, something like that (laughs).
A Band Without Many People Who Act Too Much Like "Artists"
Nakamura:Ahahaha (laughs). Everyone has not changed, right, those character-like parts.
Okamoto:Right. They have become even more distinct, and easier to understand as people.
Nakamura:That is what is interesting. By being together for a long time, you come to understand more clearly what kind of person each one is, and you also gain the room to enjoy that. The members who are not here today are especially interesting. Among them, I am the most normal, though. I am a sensible person. I think I could work as an ordinary office lady. The other members absolutely could not.
Okamoto:It is true that you are strict about time, but I do not think you could be an office lady (laughs).
-- Mr. Okamoto, what kind of character are you within the band?
Okamoto:I suppose I am the cushion. I am the most grounded, so I connect the three people who speak freely, like, "Now, now, now." If I were not there, I think it would probably become a serious situation.
-- I am slightly concerned about what you said earlier, that you cannot become tolerant of mistakes (laughs).
Nakamura:Ahahaha, true. That makes you no good as a cushion (laughs). He is more craftsmanlike than artistlike. Like a potter at home turning a wheel. He is stubborn too. Even if everyone around him says okay, if he himself is not satisfied, he will smash it and make a new pot (laughs).
Okamoto:If you put it that way, isn't everyone like that? AZUKI (Key) seems like she would keep turning a potter's wheel too.
Nakamura:AZUKI is more of a genius type, closer to an artist. And Furui is like a master teacher.
Okamoto:Though he is pretty loose.
Nakamura:And only I am a sensible person. An ordinary person.
-- You are pushing that point quite hard (laughs).
Nakamura:Ahahaha. But with that kind of balance, there are not many people who are overtly artistlike, yet when the four gather, they become the artist called GARNET CROW. That is mysterious.
-- Considering the mysterious artistry that drifts from GARNET CROW, the impression I get from meeting you two for the first time is quite unexpected. I thought, you are this easygoing?
Okamoto:In artist photos we do not smile much. We take it in a serious direction.
Nakamura:That is because we draw out the image from the worldview of the songs. If we grin too much, it loses persuasiveness. We are active on the premise of the songs, so we also feel that we ourselves should not become the main subject too much.
-- Many of your songs have a dark impression too.
Nakamura:There is no fixed idea of "we should be like this," but unconsciously the tastes we like do come out. Those are things containing fleetingness or melancholy, or songs with a slightly dark tone, and I think we have left behind many songs like that. So I do think that is the "GARNET-likeness" we have built up during ten years of activity.
We Leave It to the Listener How They Feel When Hearing a Song
-- Speaking of "likeness," I think it is rare to find a band that does not force messages on listeners as little as GARNET CROW does. There is a firmly constructed worldview, and the songs are fully alive, but they do not feel like they push aggressively into the listener's side.
Nakamura:We do not give them a message in that way. I think the best thing is to leave it to the listener how they feel. They hear the worldview we create, and how they feel is up to them. We do not want to force it ourselves. I think saying "please be moved" or "isn't it sad?" is different.
-- I see.
Nakamura:But after all, I think a song is completed only when it makes a person's heart tremble, so we always try to make songs that let people feel something.
-- Yes. I think that is the interesting part. You do not simply present artistic, self-satisfied songs, and that also feels very GARNET CROW-like. You do not force empathy, but it is not music without listeners.
Okamoto:True. It is interesting. Saying "please take responsibility for how you feel" may be irresponsible in a sense, but that way suits us. We have the feeling that the emotions that arise in the heart of the person it reaches are also part of the work.
We Have Not Often Been Told We Sound "Like" Something
-- Do you care what kinds of emotions have sprouted in listeners?
Okamoto:Of course I care.
Nakamura:The hardest thing would be "I did not feel anything." A reaction like "This song is not really to my taste" is fine. Of course there are likes and dislikes. But the scariest thing is when even that kind of negative emotion does not arise. It does not have to hit the target one hundred times out of one hundred, but I hope there is something that catches. Ideally, I would be happy if it became a song that remains together with that person's memories. Fundamentally, music is not disposable; I think it is something that can remain forever. So I hope GARNET CROW's music can enter alongside the images of memories, like a table of contents for each turning point. To do that, it has to be music with blood running through it, so we make songs with the feeling of putting our whole soul into each one.
-- GARNET CROW is an extremely rare presence, both in sound style and as a band's stance. I cannot think of a similar band or a point of comparison.
Okamoto:We have not often been told, "You sound like such-and-such," that is true.
Nakamura:Yes. It would be the best if, later on, people appeared who were said to have "something like a GARNET sound." If we can be in that position.
-- I feel your unique world has already taken root in the scene. Do you not feel that?
Okamoto:Not really.
Nakamura:Not at all (laughs). We are still beginners, or rather, we are only finishing each song with the same fresh feeling we had when we debuted.
Our Current Hearts Are Colorful and Released
-- Now, the new album *parallel universe*, completed after the tenth anniversary, may be an innovative work for GARNET CROW. While it possesses the "likeness" you have built up so far, it is packed with many expressions that had not been visible before. I got the impression that the songs, whose variation has widened further, intertwine with good balance as one album.
Nakamura:Recently our drawers have increased. We have become able to challenge new song tones, and with this work we tried to build further appeal for GARNET CROW. For example, we tried a very urban and jazzy song called "As the Dew," and we developed colorful songs with openness and a feeling of breaking through, like "Over Drive." We are in a mood of wanting to try various things. I think that probably comes from a confidence in the unwavering appeal GARNET CROW has, namely sadness and fleetingness, and the room that has started to grow from that.
-- Has reaching the tenth anniversary also had an effect?
Nakamura:Since this year was an anniversary year, there were far more opportunities than usual to interact directly with fans. There were parts where we sublimated the great amount of power we received there and made it into works, so I think songs with instant force, songs with a sense of release, and my own slightly uplifted mode came out. Moreover, this album is composed only of songs written this year, so I think it became an album packed with the trajectory of this one year, or with GARNET CROW as we are now.
Okamoto:I still cannot listen to it objectively, but when you said "intertwine with good balance," I thought, yes, that is true. People often say this album is bright, and when I myself listened casually, I thought it was a bright album. But rather than bright or dark, I now strongly feel that it truly became a work where many things intertwine. Thank you (laughs).
-- That said, it is also true that the "bright expression" as a new appeal of GARNET CROW jumps in strongly. I feel the album title and the colorful regular-edition jacket symbolize that.
Nakamura:Yes. This time, with the thought that we may have been able to show another GARNET CROW world, we chose the album title *parallel universe* with the meaning of another paradise, and the jacket reflects exactly that image. The limited first edition jacket, which uses a photo of us standing in a wilderness, symbolizes reality, or ourselves up to now, and beyond that door you can glimpse a world of flower fields. The regular edition jacket enters that flower-field world. Both are GARNET worlds, but it has the feeling of "please look" at the fact that our current feelings are colorful and released.
-- Some fans may be surprised by that new mode.
Nakamura:It is not that we never had brighter song tones before, but this is the first time our feelings have been this released and blown open. Until now, I myself had the desire to pursue a deep world more than bright song tones. Thinking now, maybe I was avoiding it without trying it. Once I actually jumped in, I thought, what a wonderful thing it is (laughs). This is a door that finally opened, so I will keep doing my best not to close it.
Okamoto:So we can go back and forth at any time.
-- At the end of the year, a live tour in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka has also been decided.
Nakamura:I am very happy that we can close the tenth anniversary with live performances. I am thinking of making it a somewhat lively live show, as a way of giving back to the fans, or conveying our gratitude. Christmas is also near.
-- The Nagoya live is on Christmas Eve.
Okamoto:Yes. Christmas Day itself is, unexpectedly, a travel day (laughs).