Translated from BARKS, 2006.05.16
Barks: You've been continuing to commemorate your ten-year anniversary with the release of the Indies BOX and special lives, but when you look back on all of it, what are the dates that you remember?
yasu: I can't really think of anything in particular, but this is really it. It's really been 10 years. Though, if you say it's a long time, then it's a long time, isn't it? Ten years ago, I felt like I didn't write very many songs. Rather, I feel as if I wrote a lot more songs after our debut. Also, ten years ago, I couldn't have possibly imagined being where we are now. I remember being very nervous and excited during our first tour.
Barks: Within the last ten years, do you have a memory that makes you the happiest?
kiyo: Appearing on Hey! Hey! Hey!, and meeting Downtown. (Laughs)
you: I thought that there was no way that we could possibly do all this, while handing out flyers in the welfare offices in Osaka...so when we did our first live, I was very happy.
shuji: When the car I'd had since the indies period finally became a new car, or at least enough that the engine usually worked, I was happy. (Laughs) Since I had a lot of uninvited guests.
ka-yu: The live house tour we had at the same time that the Hanshin Tigers took the championship was a lot of fun; especially the launch party we had with the staff.
Barks: You all have a lot of memories...when you think about it, continuing even one thing for ten years sounds awful, but in that time, did you have a turning point of sorts?
yasu: When you say things like "debut" and "turning point", I think that I must have one around that time, but I think for me it was when we made our first CD.
Barks: Ten years passes just like that, and you've increased your releases by one more CD, the Double A-Side Single "HEAVEN/Möbius". Please let us ask, first of all, about "HEAVEN".
yasu: I wasn't really conscious of this while I was writing it, but in the end it became a song with a very summery feel. The song is rather up-tempo, poppy, but I wanted to make it something that was still manly. About the arrangement, it's a pretty straightforward song, but everyone put in their own sound as well.
kiyo: In terms of the keyboards, if the major key is bad, it becomes somewhat of a one-hit wonder, so I was very careful to avoid that. Because we're a band, the most important thing was to make it a "catchy" song.
Barks: I get the impression that with a "summery" song, the keyboards bear most of the burden.
kiyo: Maybe so. I didn't sense that, but listening to it at the end, I suppose it does contribute to the overall atmosphere.
you: In regard to the guitar part, you might be able to say that it's quite strong in this, being that the part is rather energetic. The song itself lends that kind of atmosphere on its own, though, I think. So, it isn't that we packed it in, it gives more of the impression that we were free to play how we pleased. I didn't think about the finer points of the song very much.
shuji: As for the drums, I didn't think about it deliberately...it was all intuitive. The melody is upbeat, so it wasn't really a song where you felt like you had to put in this over here, or that it wouldn't work without this or that.
ka-yu: The song may be straightforward, but it's one where you really can just let it all go. Before we went pro, there were a lot of surprises and gaps, so I thought about the things that get buried in the bassline.
Barks: The bass phrases leave a quite strong impression, don't they?
ka-yu: Aah, that wasn't how I planned it at all. Burying the gaps in the song with the bassline. But if that's the best way to do it for the song, it's a good thing that I tried it out!
Barks: As for the lyrics, were you intending on writing a love song from the beginning?
yasu: Yes. Since the song was pretty straightforward, I wanted the lyrics to be straightforward as well, so it became a love song. I thought I'd try to say the words in these lyrics that you'd never let out of your mouth. (Laughs.)
Barks: Moving on to "Möbius", the image is entirely different, isn't it? The lyrics have rhyme, but the words also give a sort of "groove" feel to the piece.
yasu: From the start, the lyrics are a little bit more serious. From the demo stage, the lyrics rhymed, so I used them that way.
shuji: In recording, this song took priority over "HEAVEN". It's melodious with strong contrast, so it's better that the tone color of the drums is heavy, too. We discussed what kind of sound would become the piece, and we used the tone color that left us all with a good impression.
you: As a matter of fact, during recording, I wasn't able to use one of my fingers.
Barks: Are you injured?
you: Yes, I am. Therefore, even more than the arrangement, I was worried. "Is it going to split open?" that kind of thing. (Laughs) Even if I thought about many different arrangements, it was based in my injury, so I thought about that a lot. So that I didn't put in chords that would make it split open. But, it was a good thing that I never got the feeling that it was impossible to do things that way even listening to it at the end. (Laughs) But perhaps on some off chance there are some things that I can do without the use of one finger after all. I get that feeling whenever I switch chords, but I'm not very worried about it, though.
ka-yu: I was smooth. I didn't have to think about covering the gaps in the song with the bassline, either, since I had been working with the world view present in the song since the demo stage.
kiyo: Isn't this a song that you can tell the mood of it just by listening? Songs that turn to that are the best for burning up the keyboard. Spreading airborne infection is the keyboard's best field of expertise. There are some bad things, and some unexpected things, that come out of considering doing this song live, so during recording I spent some time on it. The interludes and ambiance are entirely different, and there are so many elements in just one song. But, the stream of the tempo doesn't stop. I finished it feeling as if there is modulation in it.
Barks: You guys have a live on May 20 at the Saitama Super Arena, but it's sold out, isn't it!!
yasu: That's right! I was surprised. We don't want to turn this live into a huge production, rather I think we're just going to do it the same way we've always done lives. Last month, we released the Indies Box, but we haven't had much of a chance to actually play the indies-era songs. Because of that, we thought it would be a good thing to play a good variety of songs. We want to play a lot of songs that everyone wants to hear, too. Therefore, I want to arrive somewhere that would ask about our indies-era songs.