GARNET CROW “Misty Mystery” Interview (BARKS)
August 29, 2011BARKSAdded on July 8, 2026
-- Two months after your previous release, "Smiley Nation," here comes a new song with a completely different tone.
Yuri Nakamura:It is true that the previous song, "Smiley Nation," and the one before that, "Over Drive," were relatively bright pop songs, the kind you can enjoy singing together with everyone. Maybe it was a reaction against that, but next I really wanted to do rock with a slightly cooler, stronger groove, something with punch. Not the smiling GARNET CROW of late, but a GARNET CROW that looks a little cool and does not smile. "Misty Mystery" is the song that shows that side.
-- I see. In a sense, it is a song that suits a pose struck with confidence.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes! It has a set form. But although I made the demo with that image, the first arrangement Furui (Hirohito) brought in was more GARNET CROW-like, or rather, it had a medium-tempo, swaying, sad feeling. So I had him remake it into a sharper rock song with more of a digital-rock tone and a strong low-end feel. Usually I leave both lyrics and arrangements to the others, so I almost never give that kind of criticism. But then he really pushed it all the way. As a result, it turned into something that betrays expectations in a good way, and I am very satisfied.
Hitoshi Okamoto:From the intro I also thought, "Is this really a GARNET CROW song? Did I put in the wrong CD?" (laughs). But once the vocal begins, you can enter it without any resistance, thinking, "Ah, it is GARNET CROW." I think fans will probably react the same way, so I want to know their response soon.
-- Actually, I was surprised too: "GARNET CROW is doing a song this beat-driven and danceable?" I imagine the process toward completion must have involved difficulties different from before.
Hitoshi Okamoto:You were particular about the vocal ad-lib, that "ah!" in the song, weren't you?
Yuri Nakamura:That was the hardest part, and I recorded it over and over! Because it is this kind of song, when I was recording the melody, I thought, "I want an ad-lib here." But I had never done that kind of ad-lib, so I did not know specifically how to produce the sound. I tried singing it high in falsetto, doing it in a low voice, bringing it out in my natural voice, all kinds of trial and error, and chose the one that hit me the most.
Hitoshi Okamoto:The chorus also has a lot of words packed in, so I thought it looked difficult to sing.
Yuri Nakamura:That was difficult too. The lyrics also rhyme, and the melody and phrases keep pressing forward, so unless I sang while constantly imagining the next lyric, I could not keep up. I was clinging to both the lyrics and the sound, emphasizing strength and sharpness, and in a sense singing desperately (laughs).
-- What impression did you have of AZUKI Nana's lyrics?
Yuri Nakamura:Words like "幻想" and "残像," that abstract use of language, felt mysterious and very GARNET CROW-like. It entwines well with the ennui of the gut guitar and brings out a strange, bewitching beauty that does not stop at being just a groovy, contemporary dance tune. You get swallowed by that mysterious, elusive atmosphere, and somehow it becomes addictive.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Within that, the guitar is also tossed around and enjoys it, in a way. When the sound is this programmed, the guitar's options actually narrow. The part that leaves an impression may be only the gut-guitar solo. Also, I really want people to watch the music video included with the limited first edition!
Yuri Nakamura:We shot image scenes in a grassland and used CG, so the shoot took nineteen hours. We also co-starred with a fake GARNET CROW played by foreign extras, and the person playing me was blonde (laughs). Also, the director's instructions when we were filming the walking scene were funny, weren't they?
Hitoshi Okamoto:Things like, "You've ended up in a place with such bad public safety that you could be attacked at any moment, so make a face that says, this is dangerous!"
Yuri Nakamura:I cannot picture that! I hope people pay attention to those acting-like parts too.
-- I look forward to it. In contrast to "Misty Mystery," which opened a new frontier, the coupling song "live" can be called an extension of the last few works.
Yuri Nakamura:That's right. Actually, this was a song that was a single candidate together with "Misty Mystery." We also had the desire to really make those bright positive songs we had continued with "Over Drive" and "Smiley Nation" our own. By the third work, it finally felt as if they had settled into us, so we decided to make it the coupling song.
Hitoshi Okamoto:It is an exceptionally pop song, and only at first did I wonder, "Is it okay to be this excited?" In that sense, maybe our own minds have softened.
Yuri Nakamura:At the demo stage it was an ordinary medium tune, but after it was arranged, it came back as a bouncing, bright song. I was so surprised that I wondered, "Did something good happen to Furui?" (laughs). Just as the lyric says, "'おと'になる 'うた'になる," many feelings gather and become one song... It is a song I could sing with that positive feeling, so I could picture the live performance and had fun recording it. That is why we made the intro conscious of the live setting too, so that people would know, "Ah, it's 'live'!" from just the drum fill.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Yes, you can see the live scene. The drum fill in the intro gets several times longer, and I can imagine someone doing MC over it (laughs).
-- The title itself is simply "live," after all. I could see Mr. Okamoto happily strumming an acoustic guitar in the sunlight.
Hitoshi Okamoto:That acoustic guitar is bouncing, and the tempo is fast! As I get older, I am becoming unable to keep up with detailed playing, so I did my best and played with the intention of getting younger (laughs).
-- You are still perfectly fine! And in contrast to the light, fun, high-toned "live," the regular-edition-only "I can't take..." pushes the low end, which makes the contrast interesting.
Yuri Nakamura:We had "Misty Mystery," which was a new challenge, and then "live," a bright and positive song in our recent mode, so for the third song, it was like a return to our roots. I wanted to do a minor-key medium pop song, the royal road of GARNET CROW that we have continued making from long ago.
Hitoshi Okamoto:The guitars are layered quite a bit too, or rather, their weight in the song is high. I play many different things, so live I wonder which part I should play (laughs).
-- Still, the repeated chorus phrase "I can't take" is quite intense. Was there any special insistence on that phrase?
Yuri Nakamura:You would think so, right? But according to the person who wrote the lyrics, she "wrote it by feeling." In fact, even we did not notice during production how many repetitions there were. But when it was finally finished, we talked about it and said, "Isn't this too many?" We removed about ten in total, from the a cappella-like chorus at the beginning and in between... but then we put delay on it in the mix, so in the end the number of times did not really change (laughs). Well, thanks to that it became interesting, like a wall of sound. While the melody line and sound recall early GARNET CROW, the lyrics are unusually mostly English and emphasize feeling, so I was able to sing it freshly.
Hitoshi Okamoto:It feels like dialogue somehow. Like someone dying of an incurable disease desperately trying to convey everything they feel... If you think of it that way, it sounds moving.
Yuri Nakamura:Amazing. You are saying something like Shakespeare.
-- (laughs). In any case, it has truly become a very well-balanced release.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. The new GARNET CROW, the current GARNET CROW, and the old-fashioned GARNET CROW are all in it. That is the mode we are in now. Rather than being caught by one thing, we want to greedily make songs in many variations.
Hitoshi Okamoto:After all, it is no good if we ourselves get bored. I think doing many types of songs, with new territory among them and also songs that hit the GARNET CROW strike zone directly, is necessary so that our own motivation does not drop. So I think the next album will probably reflect those things.
-- If we are talking about new territory, how about a "dancing GARNET CROW"? "Misty Mystery" would be a perfect song for that.
Yuri Nakamura:It is true that if it were modern artists, they would definitely sing this song while dancing. There is a part of me that admired that and made it with that in mind. I can imagine an image of us appearing while dancing coolly, but I could never do it myself, so at least let the song do it!
-- Do not say it is impossible. If you have come this far, why not push all the way?
Yuri Nakamura:You think so? Then we had better prepare dancers! (laughs)