Translated from Pakila Music, 2009.07.29
Original Text: Tomonori Nakazawa.
"Lies to truly hurt others", "Lies to protect ourselves", "Lies to make others remember us", the list goes on. I don't think it is what comes to mind with "Yasashii Uso", but I believe there to be lies that we use, knowing that they're lies, to hurt others.
This is Janne Da Arc's yasu, and his solo project, Acid Black Cherry.
"Yasashii Uso", his eighth single, will be released on July 29. Acid Black Cherry is also preparing to release their second album in August.
Before all that, I find myself fascinated by "Yasashii Uso".
Acid Black Cherry's songs seem to be popular with "people of the night", regardless of if they're men or women.
Your eighth single, "Yasashii Uso", is going to be released soon. This was true of your previous work, "Nemurihime", as well, but you have a strong tendency to use songs as singles that have resounding vocal melodies, don't you.
yasu: That, too, can be attributed to cutting things off, and balancing, right? There are a lot of differences between "What I want to do", "What I can do", and "What I'm seeking through doing this". While I think of how to balance these things, I consult with my staff, and we choose a song...and lately, they've been falling into "strong vocal ballads" moreso than those songs with strong composition.
But, I think in the case of Acid Black Cherry's fans, they're looking for something very hardcore...or at least that's my impression...
yasu: I think so too, though. Particularly the female fans, there are a lot out there who say, "I love the hard songs." However, surprisingly enough, the songs that are supported most by the male fans are those sort of strong vocal ballads. There are a lot of men who like the vocal ballads, because they can listen to them during their private time. Of course, there are a lot of women who like the vocal ballads, too, and there's also the aspect to them that makes them readily able to reach the hearts of new fans and act as a doorway to my music...so I think that's why I've been showing a strong tendency toward vocal ballads lately.
Of course, you play the band songs, too.
yasu: Oh, yeah, of course!! I think that just goes along with thinking about a sense of balance.
For a long time in the lyrics you've written, yasu-san, we've often seen themes like "The pain-wracked heart of the woman who casts her partner aside and is left with regret" and "The man who casts her partner aside by saying the opposite of how he really feels, regrets his actions afterward, and lives in his memories". Doesn't "Yasashii Uso" fall into this same pattern?
yasu: Ah~ I do have a tendency to use that kind of language, don't I. That's just a small detail, though. Janne Da Arc's, as well as Acid Black Cherry's, songs seem to be popular with 'people of the night', regardless of if they're men or women. But, it wasn't that I was aiming for this, or that I was even aware of it. But, since I've always been happy to hear people say I have 'empathy' when asked what kind of person I am, when I hear those kinds of things, they really make me happy to know them.
I mentioned this before, but actually, you have a fair number of male fans, don't you, yasu-san.
yasu: I'm just saying this from my perspective, but both Janne Da Arc and Acid Black Cherry have a lot of male fans. For some reason, knowing that, I'm very happy.
After all, people in your line of work have to sense how another person (the person coming to see your shows) feels, and pull them along. The woman in "Yasashii Uso" wanted to continue her relationship with her partner, and so she told her "tender lie" to keep it going. But, the man, while understanding how she felt, dared to turn away from those feelings. As a result, the man regretted breaking it off with her, and held the memory of her "tender lie" to his heart...
yasu: I think that there are times where people have experience with "things that we do, knowing the result, that hurt others"...myself included. The man in this song does what he does knowing the woman's feelings, too. And yet, even though he knows that doing such a thing (pushing away her feelings) is a terrible and cruel thing to do, he still acts in a cruel way. In that, we men are all awful, aren't we. (Laughs)
No, no, I think that it's not just men and women that have an experience like that at some point. It can be anyone.
yasu: Of course, since I've experienced this myself, I suppose I'm singing it this way because I understand the thought process that men have, where they say, That's what they think, huh...hmph...well, I really think this, but I can't just go and say that...
Listening to you talk just now, somehow I feel like I understand the feelings of the men and women of the night, the hosts and hostesses out there.
yasu: After all, the people in that kind of work have to sense how their customers feel, and take their hearts along with them. Even in that way, maybe people who listen to Janne Da Arc or Acid Black Cherry's music can understand that we have the same feelings.
You mentioned this before, but when you compose your songs, do you draw from your personal experiences?
yasu: Maybe one part, not the whole song, is influenced by something I've personally experienced. Of course, it doesn't account for that much...since I like talking to other people, I often ask others' opinions about love or romance, and their opinions have an effect on me. I really like listening to others talk about their love lives, too. I get my inspiration from those kinds of things, reflect on them...and then there's some honest, true experience on my part in there, too.
This might be the impression I get from a male point of view, but I think it happens in reality that we cause our own downfall by taking our partner's feelings a little too seriously, trying drastic measures to hang on to them...and just like the man in "Yasashii Uso", even though we still want to have a relationship with a woman, even though we don't want to be apart from her, we end up choosing our own destruction. As if to say, "Since I like them so much, I'll do and say things that makes it seem as if I don't".
yasu: Of course, there are situations like that. When I was writing these lyrics and composing the song, I had the impression in mind of "something resembling memories of heartache", so I used language that embraced those memories.
But, it's because we tell these kinds of 'tender lies' all the time, even outside of relationships when we think about what to do in relation to others.
yasu: I think so. But, I think there are a lot of different kinds of lies, too, lies as they may be: "Lies to hurt others", "Lies to protect ourselves", "Lies to make others remember us"...and on and on and on. Though in "Yasashii Uso", these lies invited unhappiness. After all, there are times when "lies" save people, too. Those people who listen to it thinking of it that way may feel happy painting the picture of those 'tender lies', just being able to feel the emotion behind them.
It's interesting to see you working together with so many musicians while performing solo. How do you feel about "Yasashii Uso", now that it's completed?
yasu: It's just me saying this, but I don't know if it's because we worked so hard on the arrangement, or what, but I think it's a song that 'leaves behind the impression that I've taken a step forward'.
For this piece, you've chosen AKIHIDE-san (BREAKERZ) on guitar, IKUO-san on bass, and KOZO SUGANUMA-san on drums. They're all nice performers, aren't they.
yasu: Since this song required fretless bass, I asked IKUO-san, who had done the work on "Jigsaw". Then, since I put a bit of a UK flavor, while mellow, into the piece, when I asked AKIHIDE, who loves UK rock, to play for me, he was in on the project right away.
It's to be expected of you that you'd have the sense to ask those musicians to work on this piece.
yasu: That's because it's through working with a lot of different musicians that makes solo work interesting. Everyone I work with is just full of multiple talents, though. Among those people, I get the ones to participate who I think 'here's his strong point' or 'he'd be great playing this part' and then we work together until we're all satisfied with it...and then of course, I get to thinking, 'Of course, I love this.' That's the best thing that can come out of the 'chemical reaction' of music. Naturally, there are still a lot of things I'm learning by performing together with them, too. So, I can't help but have a lot of fun recording with them.
When you mention The Checkers, of course you think, "Of course, that song?!" and sure enough, you put on "Jullia ni Shoushin". For the second track of the single, you decided on The Checkers' huge hit...I still remember when that was huge...
yasu: I think I was probably in my first years of elementary school back then. Though when I was young, I really did like The Checkers. So, if someone asked me, "Which one of the Checkers' songs do you like?", I thought, "Of course, that one!" and decided on "Jullia ni Shoushin".
Once again, it was given a bit of a harder arrangement.
yasu: When I was thinking of how to arrange the song, it was like, "Maybe it'd be fun to arrange it in a rockabilly style?!" From there, I talked to the arranger I was thinking of with this idea, and left the completion of the arrangement to him, because what I thought he could bring to it was a kind of surf sound with a rock feel to it. That kind of guitar sound that appears in that arrangement is one of my personal favorites, just like a Kayama Yuuzou song.
The intro, as well as other parts, are much harder than the original. Though the scent of rock is strong through the whole song. But the melody itself is just like the original...you really revived it, didn't you.
yasu: That's something that hasn't changed since the first single, though. I don't want to destroy the good things in the original melody at all. Sometimes, when it comes to covers, there are people who completely change the songs, right? Certainly, I too take into account that as far as the sound goes, you do change some of it to go with the times. But, completely changing the melody...I become aware of the fact that performing it would be impossible. After all, the best covers are the ones that take the best parts of the original, and decide how to play around with them.
The view of the world you showed us in "Jigsaw"--from this, you started putting together the story that was to be the base for your new album. In August, this long-awaited second album will go on sale. At the time of this interview, surely you are still in the midst of working on it. Please tell us about it, even if all you can say is what you think it will become at the current time.
yasu: This time, I think it will become a very conceptual album. After the release of my first album "BLACK LIST", Acid Black Cherry kept releasing works, in the four singles "20＋∞Century Boys", "Nemurihime", "Jigsaw" and "Yasashii Uso" as well. Right now, I'm working on recording the second album, though...when I was thinking of what kind of work to compose to include those songs, "Jigsaw" became the key behind all of it.
The single "Jigsaw" has a lot of meaning, doesn't it.
yasu: Right. The world view in "Jigsaw". Using that as a base, I developed the story for the album. Of course, sound-wise, it's a pretty hard album, but if you compare it to "BLACK LIST", maybe I can say that you'll feel like we've grown up at the end of it...? Though I think it will be a dark album overall. I intend to present a hard album that's not just made of reckless musicianship.
Then, starting in the fall and until November 2 at Nippon Budokan, you'll be on your nationwide tour!
yasu: It'll be the first one-man tour since 2008's BLACK LIST tour, so I'm really looking forward to it.