GARNET CROW “メモリーズ” Interview (BARKS)
December 5, 2011BARKSAdded on July 8, 2026
-- When we previously asked you about the period when you were making "Smiley Nation," you said you had gone into a mode of wanting to make something positive. The album *メモリーズ* has become a work where that side and the GARNET CROW of the past are mixed together in a very good way.
Yuri Nakamura:That's right. Now it feels like things have settled down compared with when we first started challenging ourselves with positive songs. Making positive songs no longer feels like a challenge; it has become something ordinary inside me. With songs like "Smiley Nation," "live ～When You Are Near!～," and "メモリーズ," I do not feel as if we are doing anything special. I have the sense that I have made that side my own.
-- In other words, that range now comes out naturally.
Yuri Nakamura:It may be significant that everyone accepted those songs at concerts and events. More fans have also started saying, "I like the bright songs." That has been a new discovery over the last few years. Our own quality lies in songs that contain sadness, fleetingness, and melancholy. Of course, we like those songs, but being able to receive appreciation for songs outside that area has become confidence for me and a strength. It made me think we could make things that people can enjoy at concerts too, without so much resistance. Especially this year, many things happened, so it was also a year when I thought about songs that could soften the heart at such times, songs that could make people smile naturally. Plus, it was precisely because we continued making bright songs that I came to understand even more that the original form of ourselves, the medium-tempo rock ballad you can see in something like "JUDY," is also our strength. In reverse, our own good points stood out more clearly.
-- You reconfirmed that there.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. So I think the album became one where songs that are like ourselves, positive songs, and new challenges like the digital-rock feeling of "Misty Mystery" all coexist.
Hitoshi Okamoto:That's right. It has those three directions: the traditional things, the things that are no longer exactly new, and the new things.
Yuri Nakamura:This year I had a very strong desire to make all kinds of songs without separating them. To stop creating taboos for myself. I thought negative restraints like "it has to be this way" were unnecessary. If I felt something was interesting, whether a sound or a material, I thought it should be all right to bring it in. Until now there was this image of "GARNET CROW means rock ballads," or "songs that make you cry," so I wanted to make more and more songs that people would listen to closely. That was the mode we were in, and we were doing it because we wanted to. But after entering this year, more than that kind of insistence, I felt strongly that I wanted people to see and hear more different sides of GARNET CROW.
-- I see. That is exactly why you could go all the way and make something like "ロンリーナイト."
Yuri Nakamura:Right, right. K-pop is popular out in the world, and there is a lot of digital music. In everyday life too, there are more opportunities for those kinds of songs to enter your ears, aren't there? When that happens, we start itching to try bringing some of it in ourselves (laughs).
-- As people who make music, those things catch your attention (laughs).
Yuri Nakamura:Yes (laughs). Some of it is pretty cool, and it is also a world we had not expanded into, so it feels fresh and interesting.
Hitoshi Okamoto:Exactly. It is not about jumping on a trend, but more like, "That seems interesting" (laughs). Like, "What's that? Can I have a little taste?" (laughs).
Yuri Nakamura:We tasted it and thought, this is good! That is the feeling. Maybe we should take a bite of fields we had avoided out of prejudice. Following the flow of "Misty Mystery," we pushed the digital side further, stepped deeper into it, and tried making something like "ロンリーナイト," a danceable disco tune. With the vocals too, until now we had a commitment to "song-oriented music." We wanted the voice to reproduce my natural sound as much as possible, so we did not process it; we were particular about making a sound quality where my own voice alone could carry it. But for "ロンリーナイト," the voice has Auto-Tune and effects on it. So it is not a raw voice. Bringing that in came from treating my own voice as one instrument, and asking the engineer to mix it like the sound of a guitar or drums. I told them, "Please play with it as much as you like." And this is how it turned out.
-- It is full of playfulness.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. This song exists on a different level from creating sadness or emotion. It is a fun song that can change the situation, as if the room instantly becomes a club floor when you listen to it at home. Then we think, what would happen if we did this live? Would it become like a club floor? People would want to dance, right? I have come to think that this too is part of the fun of music, and those strange fixations have been falling away. Maybe that is the experience of the eleventh year, or maybe it is room to breathe. I think music can have many more ways of being heard and enjoyed. There are no rules saying what kind of song you have to make at what time, or what kind of song you have to listen to. In that case, perhaps GARNET CROW can keep expanding too. This year, I became able to think flexibly that if there is something interesting, it is okay to bring it in.
-- Listening to you, it sounds very fun.
Yuri Nakamura:It is very fun for the people making it too. We were also able to develop our traditional selves further. Although when I said I wanted to put a Juliana-style voice into "ロンリーナイト" and simulated it, the leader (Hirohito Furui) instantly rejected it (laughs).
-- Even that scene sounds fun (laughs).
Yuri Nakamura:Yes! The fact that we made it while really enjoying ourselves is important.
-- Precisely because you have gone all the way in various places, the depth of a traditional GARNET CROW-like song such as "JUDY" stands out.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. I am sure it would be no good to lean only to one side. Because we want people to listen solidly to songs like "JUDY," the challenging things become enjoyable. After listening to things with playfulness, when people return to a song like "JUDY," we want them to say, "After all, GARNET CROW is amazing with these sad ballads," or "This is good." To do that, we want to have more cards in our hand through many variations.
-- The music video for "JUDY" is unusual too.
Yuri Nakamura:Yes. It has become a manga. There is a proper story, and the lyrics and world of "JUDY" are woven into it very well. Apart from this song, we had Hirara Natsume draw an original manga, and this music video is the second of three episodes. It is a sad story, and it concludes on the web. You can watch the video mainly as a manga, or you can simply enjoy it as a music clip and still enjoy the world of "JUDY." It feels like a collaboration between live action and manga.
Hitoshi Okamoto:I never imagined I would be drawn as a manga character. The one who reacted most strongly was the leader, though (laughs). Apparently it was his dream. To become a character in an anime, or appear in a manga.
Yuri Nakamura:Unexpected, right?
-- Unexpected indeed (laughs). By the way... it says "創世記 I." Will there be a "II"?
Hitoshi Okamoto:At the moment, there is not (laughs).
Yuri Nakamura:There may be a "II" in the future...
-- Why did you name the album *メモリーズ*?
Yuri Nakamura:Many things happened this year, didn't they? There is also a hidden message that when you look back on the past, memories, the things you have built up, and experiences are irreplaceable, so I want people to continue treasuring them. And the best thing would be if our songs could also walk alongside those memories. Music remains as the BGM of that time at each turning point, doesn't it? It attaches itself to memories, or something like that. When you hear this song, you remember that song. It would be nice if songs could become the table of contents for memories. This album also contains many songs that anyone can listen to.
-- You also have a countdown live on New Year's Eve.
Yuri Nakamura:Actually, this live concert is our first full-band solo concert of 2011, so it is our first concert in 365 days (laughs). And it is also our first one of 2012. Everyone has been waiting, right? We are thinking of the countdown live as something festival-like, so I want to be closer to everyone, make noise, have fun, and welcome the new year together.