GARNET CROW “THE ONE ～ALL SINGLES BEST～” Feature

GARNET CROW’s Dream: “We want our songs to stay beside each person’s memories.”

1999 was the year Morning Musume’s “LOVE Machine” became a massive hit, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “energy flow” helped ignite the healing-music boom, and “Dango 3 Kyodai,” born from NHK Educational TV, took the number-one spot in annual sales. That same year, GARNET CROW was formed by four music creators belonging to Being: Yuri Nakamura, AZUKI Nana, Hitoshi Okamoto, and Hirohito Furui.

Their music, born through a relay among the four members, stood apart from other bands and units from the very beginning: a voice and melodies tinged with melancholy, lyrics completed by the listener’s own imagination, sound production that was always experimental, and a balance that could elevate any kind of song into pop music.

The biggest reason was their song-first principle.

They did not seek extreme media exposure, did not use social media such as Twitter, and did not compete through personal elements. Nor did they try to become popular entertainers. When a tie-up was decided, they pursued “why this song becomes the theme song” and “why it plays within the work.” When hit songs solidified the image of GARNET CROW, they moved forward, saying, “Remove the taboos. Do things that would have been impossible before,” and instead of aiming to become hitmakers, they continued to search for the original value of music.

To borrow Yuri Nakamura’s words, they continued to be raised in a room of sound, in sound quality itself. That is what established GARNET CROW as a one-of-a-kind music unit, and what kept them standing at the front of the scene even as the situation surrounding music changed.

“The first thing is the song. Because we can make good songs, that connects to promotion, and because we can feel that we want many people to hear them, that connects to live shows and to the next work. So unless the song comes first, it won’t work no matter how much we try to step forward ourselves. In the end, whether people think, ‘Ah, this is a good song,’ is the dividing line in how GARNET CROW is evaluated. If that collapses, everything collapses. So the quality of the songs is the one thing we absolutely cannot lower.” (From the “Nostalgia” interview)

Then why did GARNET CROW continue to be raised in that room of sound, in sound quality?

They had blessed visuals too. If you went to a live show, you could feel the star quality in each of the four members’ personalities. But GARNET CROW’s dream was never to become famous themselves.

“We want to create the GARNET sound. This is our ultimate goal: to establish music called ‘GARNET CROW’ as a genre. Like how, when you say the Beatles, you think of the Liverpool sound. We want to create a situation where, even if it isn’t a GARNET CROW song, people can say, ‘This is the GARNET sound.’ That dream has never changed. (...) When I think of an iPod, I always create with the hope that our songs will be the kind that are always near the top in play count. I don’t want them to be disposable. I want them to be cherished, and I want them to stay beside each person’s memories.” (From the “Over Drive” interview)

GARNET CROW will hold their final live show, “GARNET CROW livescope ～THE FINAL～,” on May 24 at Tokyo International Forum Hall A, and on June 8 and 9 at the Main Hall of Grand Cube Osaka, also known as the Osaka International Convention Center.

And yet, the story of the songs GARNET CROW has created will likely continue on and on. Even the breakup may become nourishment toward fulfilling the dream of the four members. There is that much powerful feeling here.