-- What first made you get into music, or what was your first encounter with it?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Junior high school. It was right around the band boom. Hokoten and Ikaten were popular, and friends who started instruments began appearing here and there. I followed that flow.
-- Were you interested in guitar from the start?
Hitoshi Okamoto:No. At first I wanted to play drums, but my parents fiercely opposed it, saying, "Where are you going to put them!" (laughs)
-- Why were you interested in drums?
Hitoshi Okamoto:When I turned on the TV, bands were performing, and the drums looked the most fun. It was a simple image.
-- So after giving up on drums, you first picked up a guitar in junior high.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. I bought a Yamaha Stratocaster with my allowance. It was a set with an amp and guitar, the kind of thing that says, "With this, you can start right now!"
-- Did you start by copying songs?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. I looked at a beginner's instruction book, listened to CDs, and tried playing exactly as instructed. It felt like, "It really works properly" (laughs).
-- What music were you listening to then, and which artists were you copying?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Rather than particular artists, it was mostly major music everyone in class was listening to at the time, such as The Blue Hearts, Unicorn, BOØWY, and X. I did listen to Western music too, but when it came to copying songs, for the moment it was Japanese music.
-- From there, did you enter high school and form a band?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. I was also doing a sports club, but around the school festival season I had a band. I was not a guitar kid, so at first my stance was not only music; I did other things too. But midway through high school, it was like, "From next year, I'm quitting sports" (laughs), and I shifted completely to music.
-- I imagine the works you brought this time connect there. First, what surprised me was Off Course.
Hitoshi Okamoto:This was not something I listened to on my own; my mother liked them and often played them at home. I think it was around the lower grades of elementary school. They were often playing in the car too.
-- Since you listened to them often from childhood, do you feel there are parts where they influenced you greatly?
Hitoshi Okamoto:I wonder. If you ask whether I was influenced or not, honestly I do not really know myself, but if you ask what my musical roots are, this is the first. After that would be Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, and things my older brother listened to when I was around the upper grades of elementary school.
-- When you listened to Off Course, did you feel that the voice was good or the songs were good?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Of course I still think the songs are good now, and even at the time, no matter how many times the same song played, I did not feel any pain from it as a child, so I think I did not dislike it.
-- If we follow the timeline, next would be Nirvana?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. There is quite a gap between Off Course and Nirvana, but among the things I brought this time, Nirvana comes next. I listened to this a lot from around the middle of high school to the time of university entrance exams.
-- It is a very famous album.
Hitoshi Okamoto:I am actually bad at this kind of column that searches for roots (laughs). If I wanted to look cool and choose a wide range of music, I could, but that also feels a little wrong (laughs). If I choose honestly and directly, then Nirvana's *Nevermind* could not be left out. This album is a worldwide, or rather, earthwide masterpiece. It is an unbelievably good work. I think everyone of the same generation listened to it.
-- What part resonated with you?
Hitoshi Okamoto:At the time there was a grunge boom, and besides Nirvana I also listened to Pearl Jam and so on. I think I liked the pop quality, or the easy-to-understand melodies, and also the heavy guitar and the feeling of being filled with power. Around that time, in Western music, there were Extreme, Mr. Big, Bon Jovi, and the kind of music anyone who played guitar probably listened to. I felt an appeal in Nirvana that was different from those.
-- Did you think you wanted to do this kind of music yourself?
Hitoshi Okamoto:I did not think I wanted to do it as an original. It is complete within Nirvana, so I thought it would be impossible to imitate.
-- Do you still listen to *Nevermind*?
Hitoshi Okamoto:I do not listen to it. But for me, it is one album I want to keep forever in a cupboard. It is truly one album from my youth. It overlaps exactly with the time of entrance exams, so when I listen to it in a mood like, "Ugh, nothing can be done," there are parts that connect to memories.
-- Around the time of entrance exams, did you already have the feeling that you wanted to do music professionally in the future?
Hitoshi Okamoto:No, I started thinking realistically after entering university. For the time being, my strong feeling was that I wanted to enter university safely and do music freely.
-- Next is Summer Camp?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. This is a work I got very into after entering university. A music-loving friend recommended it to me. Artists of this type at the time were often described as power pop. Summer Camp is power pop, but there are also songs that somehow feel grunge-like, the melodies are very good, and the chord work is very lovely. Also, this band's guitar solos are good. They are not pointless guitar solos where someone just plays by habit and it ends there. They are solid guitar solos properly built into the songs, and that is very good.
-- Did this area influence your own work?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. It is embarrassing to say "influence," but I do think I was influenced in some way.
-- You copied them too.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. I once copied the song "No Where Near" live. But that was the only song I copied; after that, I only traced things like, "How does the resonance of that chord work?"
-- In university, were you mostly doing originals?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. In university it was completely originals. We appeared at live houses too.
-- Were your bandmates friends you met at university?
Hitoshi Okamoto:There was a senior from my high school's light music club who entered the same university, and we thought, shall we do it together? At that time we were doing rock that had proper melodies and, if anything, a slightly hard-rock-like side.
-- A little different from the music you do now?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. It was completely different.
-- Next comes The Cardigans?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. This is an album I listened to after becoming a working adult. At the time, The Cardigans were often playing around town, and inside me I only had an image of them as having cute sounds. But when I first heard this album, I was surprised: "What? This is The Cardigans?" When I looked it up later, it seems to be an unusual work for them, and this style apparently only appears on this album. When you say The Cardigans, producer Tore Johansson is famous, and he also handled this album. It seems to have been an experimental album that completely changed their previous pop and cute image into something darker. This album was a hit in their home country of Sweden, but it was not very well received abroad, and as a result their popularity dropped a lot. But for me, it is my favorite album among their works.
-- I feel something that connects to your solo work.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. The melodies are properly there to begin with, but the surrounding decorations, or the decorative instruments, often have a twist, and that is very interesting. It completely changes from their previous image of refreshing instruments with human warmth. I do not know about pure fans, but to me it was an album that betrayed expectations in a good way. In any case, I thought the maniacal sound-making was good. In that sense, it may be a work that influenced my solo work.
-- By the way, around when did you start making songs?
Hitoshi Okamoto:I started composing in high school. At the high-school cultural festival, I was told that besides my own band, I also had to participate in another live performance that was like a light music club presentation. To participate in that, the theme imposed on us was, "Let's make an original." I have been making songs since then.
-- How did you learn how to compose?
Hitoshi Okamoto:In junior high, I had a friend who played piano, and he was already making songs, so I asked him, "How do you make them?" He told me that when a melody comes to mind, you fit chords to it. At first I felt like, "I have no idea," but while doing this and that, I gradually became able to do it somehow. After that, I also started with chords and tried putting melodies on top of them. While doing those things, I became able to do it naturally.
-- Last is Jellyfish.
Hitoshi Okamoto:This is also an album I encountered while listening to various things after I started working. It feels overproduced, but I thought it was amazing that they could be this obsessively particular about music. Since they are geniuses, maybe it did not take them as long as an ordinary person would think, but from my perspective, it is a work where they exhaustively pursued a level of obsessive attention that makes me wonder how much time they spent.
-- Does that mean the arrangement is elaborate?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. The songs themselves are of course very good, but also the layering of instruments, the chord work, the way the choruses are layered... People often describe them as "like overturning a toy box," and that expression fits perfectly. Those parts have directly influenced my solo work.
-- There are also songs that feel Queen-like.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Depending on the song, directly! I think they were probably doing it as a kind of reference.
-- Is Jellyfish a band you want to study as works rather than copy?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes. I have never copied them live.
-- By the way, in the music you have done so far, is there music or an artist that became a turning point?
Hitoshi Okamoto:A turning point! One? Hmm, what would it be... Speaking of turning points, maybe my first solo single was one. Until then I only wrote songs, but with solo work I could put out one hundred percent of myself, including the arrangement, so I was very lucky, and I think it was a major turning point. When you are only making demos, even if you make a rough song, a professional arranger will make it cooler, right? But with solo works that was not the case, so there were parts where I learned a great deal about arrangement, and parts where I suffered. So not only as a guitarist, but as a music person, or in a musician-like area, I think it was a turning point. If I had not done solo work, I probably would not be the way I am now, and I do not think I would have had utility. If we are talking about playing guitar, there are many people much better than me, and if I had only played guitar, I do not think I would have my current career.
-- After becoming a professional, did the existence of music change for you?
Hitoshi Okamoto:First, the way I listen changed. Even if I do not like something that much, I listen to it as reference material. For example, there is favorite music I play casually while cooking, brushing my teeth, or changing clothes, but there is also another self that listens to other songs. In the sense that I sometimes listen to music I can sublimate into work, I think the way I face music has changed a lot. It feels like there are two frames: music I listen to because I like it, and music I do not like that much but listen to as work.
-- I had arbitrarily thought the music you like might be UK music, but many of the works you listed this time were American.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Actually, I do not like UK music that much. The UK songs I like are limited. I am actually not that much of a UK maniac.
-- Aren't you told you sound UK-like?
Hitoshi Okamoto:I am. Maybe because of the feeling of my voice. There are many UK artists who are not exactly skillful but carry it with atmosphere. But in reality, if I am asked "What do you listen to from the UK?" only a few UK artists I like come to mind.
-- For example, who?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Leaving the Beatles aside, I do like Oasis. Also Ash, Stereophonics, that kind of area. Beyond that, it becomes more song-by-song than artist. There are really only a few artists whose albums I want to listen to deeply.
-- Were there guitarists you admired?
Hitoshi Okamoto:When I started playing guitar, rather than wanting to become that person, there were guitars I thought sounded good. For example, when I first started playing, there was Marcy from The Blue Hearts, and guitarists from bands I was listening to then. So I did not really have someone who was firmly like a master to me. Even now, more than who the guitarist is, if I think the guitar in a song sounds good, I search online and look with interest into what kind of equipment they use.
-- Finally, within musical activity, what kind of work do you like best?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Making demos is the most fun. You can have as many demo stocks as you want. Whether they are adopted or not is separate, but I like purely making many songs I like. In any case, it is the most fun.
Works Introduced
■ Off Course *SELECTION 1978-81* A Japanese group representing the new-music era, who released many hit songs from their 1970 debut to their 1989 breakup. This work, released on September 1, 1981, is a best album collecting songs from 1978 to 1981, Off Course's middle period. It includes eleven tracks in total, including the major hit singles "さよなら," "I LOVE YOU," and "生まれ来る子供たちのために," which had not been included on original albums.
■ Nirvana *Nevermind* The members were Kurt Cobain (Vo. & G.), Dave Grohl (Dr.), and Krist Novoselic (B.). They debuted in 1989 on an indie label in Seattle, USA (the drummer at that time was Chad Channing). That same year, they released the album *Bleach*. In 1991, they released their second album *Nevermind* on the major label David Geffen Company. When the single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was aired on radio and MTV, the album sold more than three million copies in the United States and reached number one on the chart. From that point, it created a worldwide grunge boom. They later released two albums, *Incesticide* in 1992 and *In Utero* in 1993, but Kurt became deeply immersed in drugs, and in April 1994, in the bathroom of his home, he took his own life by shooting himself in the head with a rifle. This shocking death forced the band to break up.
■ Summer Camp *PURE JUICE* A four-piece band from Santa Barbara, USA. This work is their first album, produced by Chris Shaw, who worked with Weezer. With sound full of speed and melodies that combine freshness and sentimentality, it captured the hearts of many music fans. A second work was greatly anticipated, but this was the only album officially released on CD as a band. Afterward, vocalist Tim released solo work.
■ The Cardigans *Gran Turismo* The Cardigans are a five-piece band from Sweden. Discovered by producer Tore Johansson, they made their record debut in 1994. "Carnival," a number from their second album *Life*, released in 1995, became a major hit in Japan. After that, they signed with Mercury Records, and in 1996 released their third album *First Band on the Moon*. The included song "Lovefool" became a worldwide hit. This work, released in 1998 as their fourth album, completely overturned their previous image of refreshing and warm Swedish pop and presented new musicality with a hard-edged sound making full use of technology. The band later suspended activities once, but resumed in 2003.
■ Jellyfish *Spilt Milk* Jellyfish were formed by high-school classmates from San Francisco, USA: Andy Sturmer, now also famous as a producer, and Roger Manning. A demo tape made by the four initial members led to a contract with Charisma Records, and in 1990 they released their first album *Bellybutton*. Then in 1993 they completed their second album *Spilt Milk* (Japanese title: *こぼれたミルクに泣かないで*). That same year, they made their first and final performance in Japan, greatly exciting Japanese pop fans. However, after that the band decided to break up. Unfortunately, this work became the final album of the legendary band Jellyfish.