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tomeltinto · 10 months

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For us to be ourselves (2023/12/06 Interview)

The Novembers released “At the Beginning” in the first half of 2020, while the new coronavirus was just starting to exert its fury. In the same year we fell into a situation where concerts with a live audience could not be held, but starting from 2021 they held one-man concerts in Usen Studio Coast and Zepp Haneda (Tokyo), appeared in large-scale festival Fuji Rock Festival, and in addition to that each member has intensified their own solo activities and kept moving widely. Then, after 3 years and a half from their latest work, they completed the ninth full album, “the Novembers.”

The name of the band was crowned as the album title, and it is about 16 years after their debut album of 2007, “THE NOVEMBERS”. Members explained the reason as “We wanted you to feel that the Novembers of now are this”, and revealed that it is a “rock album where the us of now are condensed”. At Ongaku Natalie, we are celebrating the release of this work with an interview to Kobayashi Yūsuke. Looking back to “At the Beginning”, he's talking to us about the background in which they created this rock album, “the Novembers”.

──The period of the creation of the previous work “At the Beginning” was just the period when the new coronavirus was spreading around, and back then you [Kobayashi-san] talked about how, along with the state of the world, the composition of an album would change as well.

Back then we had scheduled a tour not just in Japan, but in Asia as well, and that period ended with many activities related to “At the Beginning” that could not be executed properly. So, honestly, it became a work where many regrets and feelings linger. It became introspective as in “what can we do now?”, because of several activities that we had to cease.

──“At the Beginning” was a strong album with a dark mood, also because it came after 2019’s “Angels”. At first “Rainbow”, that depicts in a majestic way a “beginning”, was supposed to be the last song, but you were saying that with the spreading of the virus, you decided that “if it hasn’t yet begun, it’s already too late”, so you decided to move the song order at the top.

The air of the moment of creation and the zeitgeist flow into every album, and since we changed the song order and the arrangement, matching “At the Beginning” to the state of society, maybe it was more in real-time than anything we had ever done. We were constantly trying to think “That’s good”, and as we continued doing this in the album, and it was not like only in this particular moment we thought “let’s do this in this mood”. However, I feel like there were many moments when we were looking for both parts oozing out of ourselves and the most self-conscious parts. The result of working on what kind of band we are, so, became the style of that album.

──In 2020 the Novembers temporarily halted concerts with a live audience, but starting from 2021 you gradually restored them, and continued one-man (shows) in large venues like Usen Studio Coast and Zepp Haneda (Tōkyō). And also, in 2022 you appeared in Fuji Rock Festival, so it seems like you had a favourable new start.

Looking back, large-scale concerts continued then.

──On the one side, when you held the one-man show at the Liquid room, in november 2022, you said “I’m writing new songs, but I didn’t give them to my bandmates yet, and only the songs I didn’t show anyone have increased”, and “what I want to do with this band, it’s become something that weighs heavily on me”. Was this disquieting state somewhere [then]? What was the situation like in the band back then?

My words at the time worried the fans and I apologized for that. Starting from 2020, all the members tested each their own strengths in activities outside of the Novembers, me with the Spellbound, Takamatsu started working with Petit Brabancon.

──Even outside of music, Kengo worked in many collaborations and Yoshiki [Ryōsuke] even opened a clothing brand. That’s quite vast.

Obviously, both Kengo and Yoshiki kept making music, they also started being support members for other bands. All of us have experienced new methods, aesthetics, philosophies from other places, different from the Novembers.

──About the individual activities of the members, did you set in advance until what point to undertake them?

Not particularly. Each one of us had a positive experience in their own field, and since we wanted to have a good communication once we would meet again, there were no restrictions. On the one hand I was fretting about not neglecting the activities with the Novembers, but I also felt frustrated about not making an album.

──Were there different parts, points where you made use of the activities outside of the Novembers, during the making of the album and in live performances?

I think there definitely were, but it wasn’t like we were talking about it like “let’s change this” or “let’s make use of this action from that one time”. We do not talk about it, but I feel like it shows from the performance, from the sound.

The meaning of the Novembers being the Novembers.

──At Natalie, we asked you a few times to talk about the activities with the Spellbound, and one of those times you said that “[you]’d like to use with the Novembers what I got from the Spellbound”. As with the Spellbound as well you’ve worked tirelessly on the creation of an album, concerts and large-scale festival performances throughout several dates, I imagine this has been for you a valuable experience.

It’s been only three years since I’ve started working with the Spellbound, and I’ve spent such an intense time that it doesn’t feel so short. So I end up inevitably comparing music by both the Novembers and the Spellbound. Before I started working with the Spellbound, I was creating with a feeling like “I will only make the songs I want to make”., and I realized that that’s something that makes me self-sufficient, for better or for worse.

──Working with Nakano Masayuki, (The Spellbound, Boom Boom Satellites), your way to confront music has changed quite a lot.

Nakano-san always thinks earnestly like “how can I change the world with music?”. I think that seeing this scene before my very eyes, I understood why I was so attracted by Boom Boom Satellites and why they’ve been driving my life. At the same time, I understood how serious and hard it could be to guide people and the times in a positive direction.

──So, also the attitude and music you were looking for in the Novembers changed as well.

The hurdle of a standard of value entered in me all at once, so I could no longer be satisfied saying “That’s a pretty good song”. I kept thinking about what it was that could make someone happier, something cooler, and time passed while I was working. So because of that, rather than saying that I fell into a slump, it would be a nuance close to being conflicted with all my heart, so as to make a better work. To make an example with food, I was fermenting. (Laughs)

──Fermentation (laughs). Did the other members know that you were so conflicted while writing?

Honestly, after falling into the Corona outbreak, we didn’t meet much with the other members. We’ve been friends since our 10’s, so if we had united it would have been like always, but I was convinced like “I have to settle this matter all by myself”. Obviously, it’s important to have time alone to think, but thinking along with someone else is important too. And with that, we weren’t able to share daily things like “I want to make this come true, now and in this situation” and grow together.

──Because they’re long-time friends, there are things it’s hard to talk about.

On the contrary, there are things I have to tell them because they’re friends. However, there are times where I prioritized too much getting along and harmony, and I ended up not having a meaningful contact. For a band, if you throw even a pebble, there’s the possibility that that harmony could crumble. But more than settling “let’s continue this band the four of us”, we had to think together about what it means for the Novembers to be the Novembers.

──About “Kanashimi ga kawaitara”, released this April, you commented this: “we’re taking back ourselves” and “we’re ascertaining the meaning of being the Novembers and the meaning in our meeting”. So there was this background.

Yes. We’ve also had the time to deeply consider how to keep going with the band from now on, with this meaning.

Creating an instant when we come into contact with new music.

──Before the general distribution of the new album “the Novembers”, it was put on pre-sale in each venue of the one-man tour, and even tickets where the members would be handing over the CD were arranged.

Just releasing an album, and only then carrying out a tour would be dull. Now the distribution became the main point, and the span between it and presenting the new songs becomes shorter, so we wanted to deliver it more carefully and thoroughly. So by presenting the new songs of the album with a tour before the general distribution, we made the very first moment of contact with the new music into a live concert. Also the CD conveys directly the feeling that “This is us now”.

──Even naming the album after the band name was due to “I want you to feel the very band itself”. We could say it’s like you returned to the early days of your activities in a way, with an act close to having someone taking into their hands the sound source at the venue, going to see the concert without including prior information, buying (the album) in a direct sale if they like the songs.

In addition, since in case of purchase of a ticket including the album, we were making people decide in advance whether to buy or not the album without having listened to even one of the new songs, it becomes even more of a hurdle. Since there were many people who bought that ticket including the album, I was grateful and also very tense. Because it conveyed not only the desire to support our activities, but also the thought that they believe that the new work of the Novembers is something good.

──You went and personally handed over the albums to the audience, how was it?

There were many people from whom I felt that they really looked forward to this, and there were many people that thanked me like “I’ve been following you for nearly fifteen years, but it’s the first time I’ve spoken to the members” or “Thank you for always been so close to me”. We also receive messages on social media, but I was happy that we could let them express their feelings in front of us.

──So far, you as a band have always been treasuring the act of giving something to someone, the letter and the flower seeds enclosed in “zeitgeist”, the formula of the “share-CD” in the single “kyō mo ikitane”, where you included 2 CDs with the same contents, the delivery of the “Tour 2022 - Kangiten” after the end of every performance, the paper with the lyrics of the songs you’ve just performed at concerts. The very personal delivery of this album, we feel what you want to convey in that stance.

From the personal delivery words and feelings are born, and since the energy you can’t see comes and goes, we can say that it’s a truly intimate communication. When you think that it’s not only a thing, but also every conversation and gesture is a gift, the appearance of your everyday life, and the way you grasp the facial expression and aura of your partner change as well. Precisely because I live with someone, I am regularly becoming more aware of a feeling like “I want to increase the happy moments”.

If we don’t express all we have now, the baton of energy won’t stay.

──As the comments you made when the release date of the new album “the Novembers” was announced, like “a rock album where the us of now are condensed”, and “after all it’s really cool to be in a rock band. It’s that kind of album”, this was an album where you condensed the charm of rock that you [the Novembers] have pursued until now. From the first song “BOY”, you demonstrate your will to plunge forward with lyrics like “Please don’t stand in our way, if we destroy everything”, “We are reborn, pressing on the accelerator”, and it feels like you divided the songs into two, the first half that emphasises guitar sounds from you and Kengo, and the second half, from the sixth song “GAME”, that emphasises the rhythm elements from Takamatsu and Yoshiki. How did you decide the whole composition or concept?

This time I wrote all the song at pretty much the same time, and in that I could see a connected story. And from that eventually I came out with the theme of a “rock album” and it was kind of like the flow.

──So in the first half you express frankly a sound like “The Novembers is this kind of band” with “BOY”, and after that “Seaside” is new wave, “Daremo shiranai” is hard and alternative, and songs that shake free from every genre that you have taken as a motif follow.

To be honest I didn’t realise the idea of musical taste and genre. It’s not like we especially discussed “BOY” being the first song. More than calculation and deliberateness, the mood and aura of the band that we can’t express with words became the criteria for the musical composition and the song order. Somehow it was more of a feeling like the fighting spirit, in a way, of “let’s express everything we have now”, “the baton of energy we’re giving the listener, it won’t linger if we don’t do our best”.

──It’s the feeling, and the individuality of each song has stood out.

Also I think that the idea of every member like “I want to be like this” or “I want to develop like this” is dwelling in each song. The songs grow in the same way as watering flowers, it’s a natural and healthy way of creating.

──The ballad in the middle “Katachi aru mono, Bokura wo tabanete” while incorporating a mood similar to “Saikin Anata no Kurashi wa dō” and “kyō mo ikitane”, is a challenging song that also features the sound of saxophone.

We played this at Shindaita Fever, at the celebration for the 15th debut anniversary, and thanks to that we completed it. Not only at the exhibition, but I also participated at a talk event with tobird, who has been handling our artworks for a long time, and while we were looking back at the activities until now, I realised that we have many accomplishments, like treasures. And I wanted to turn those memories into a song.

──This talk event was focused on looking back to all of your activities from the early days up to now, there were many valuable topics.

There are also parts where you reflect when you look back on past events, but I also understand things I finally realised now and that I treasure. I often daydream if I’d look glittering if the me of the past saw the me of today, and if I’d be a person who could inspire [that past me]. On one hand there were moments when I thought “I was good back then”, and I feel like I’ve lost something important. But through the past (I’ve) accumulated, I want to keep being the best now.

Not to get closer to the ideals, but to keep working while feeling

──One more song in the middle of the record, “November”, precisely because it recalls the name of the band, does it quote elements from the past songs, does it give a new interpretation?

“November” is a song I’ve developed from some lines I wrote back in 2010, so it’s not like I wanted to collect and reinterpret the motifs of old songs. In my case, the more what I want to express with a song is concrete, the more its explosive power grows dull. Picturing the blueprint and creating by getting closer to that ideal, it’s just not my thing. Most of the time I complete things touching the songs, working all the time while feeling with all my heart.

──So what’s the reason you gave it the title “November”?

At the stage of the rough sketch of songwriting, without parts of the song composition like A-melody, B-melody, the hook, being clearly defined, it just kept on flowing like a road movie, and it was good. Only at a later time it started to sound like it was a symbol of our band and existence itself.

──In the second half follow “GAME” which showcases Yoshiki’s powerful drumming, “Cashmere” where Takamatsu’s complex bass becomes intertwined with ethnic tunes, “Morning Sun” which abundantly uses step recording vaguely resemblant to the 1980s synthpop, songs with a characteristic way to use rhythm. It’s also something that the Novembers challenged in recent years, and developed ideas of new sounds.

With “GAME” using only one type of riff I wondered what kind of song could come out, and it was ready with the rehearsals in studio sessions. Normally I try to make sounds accurately with the effector board, but I just tried to perform with the amp and guitar in the studio. For how long the time I couldn’t make songs along with the other members, I feel like we genuinely rejoiced at being able to perform the 4 of us together. I completed “Morning Sun”, like “November”, based on an idea I’ve had for a long time.

──Like “November” and “Morning Sun”, there’s also the pattern of developing ideas conceived several years ago.

But instead of dragging them out, it was like thinking unintentionally “Let’s do this song once more”. Truthfully, this year we’ve encountered some trouble with the hard disk where we had been safekeeping the original tracks, and we lost all the songs we’d made and stored during the corona.

──You also talked about it during the talk event. Yoshiki, who was sitting there too, said that “We were absolutely depressed.”

Especially if we’re counting the number of songs, there were enough to make three albums, and they all disappeared. But we broke through it, and while making use of some ideas left in my head, reflecting also the ideas of each member, as a result we used this as a chance to make fresh songs, and it tied us together.

The power of words “Dakiau yō ni” unleashed

──Then, the last song “Dakiau yō ni” is the song that probably symbolises not only the album, but the Novembers from now on. In an interview with The Spellbound, you said about lyrics “the form when transcribed, the type to be fixated on the world view that is expressed in the lines”, but hearing those words, I realised that the Novembers’ lyrics have, to a certain extent, many long lines.

I see.

──Also, regarding that, “Dakiau yō ni” accumulates short and kind lyrics like “Even if I forget the fun things, let’s walk just a bit” and “Even if I forget the happy things, we will walk”, and it feels like the whole song enhances the power of words.

This is also something my activity with the Spellbound has had a huge influence on. I think earnestly about something I want to convey, I understand how closely I can examine it, and it paid off with the result that a better standard has been raised.

──This feature of your poetry is also shown in the single “Kanashimi ga kawaitara”, and I suppose that it was further defined in “Dakiau yō ni”. Furthermore, with “I’m gradually coming undone, breaking, when I can’t understand anything anymore, reassure me”, and the influence generated by the Novembers, with “I’m gradually coming undone, even if I break, because you make me remember my shape” you’re making the fans that have been following you feel a sense of trust. Precisely because every word is so sincere, it’s like a persuasive power has born.

I’m glad. It was worth to value so much which words I should use.

──By the same token, aside from the songs that could, for example, cheer someone up, if the words employed are too dark the persuasive power fades as well, if the tone is too strong an uncomfortable feeling arises, as if you were being forced. This balance is very difficult, but how do you think about the lyrics while also paying attention to all that?

Lyrics are very mysterious, when I looked at them as characters, when I read them aloud, when I talked about them, when I sang them on the melody, the way they are transmitted changes in each moment. Even the simple “Fine”, the impression changes completely if it indicates a specific someone, or if it doesn’t necessarily indicate it. It happens that the energy of the singer yields the persuasiveness of those words, and the opposite happens as well. It’s hard to quantify it and to explain it, but because the deep emotion of music is born from vibes and feelings impossible to analyse. When I value that, it sparks joy in me too, and I’m able to share that feeling for the first time to the listener. It resonates.

──Also, it’s a case-by-case thing, but there are also cases where discrepancies arise between the original artist’s intention and the listener’s interpretation.

Yeah, that’s unavoidable… there are people who are deeply moved seeing the hard work, and there are others that may have a negative reaction. But if the feeling of “I want to make something good making something” is true, what is transmitted by the work could change. The old me would be making music with a feeling like “I like this kind of music” or “I like this beautiful thing”, happy just by looking at those things. I jumped out of that extent of self-absorption, and I started thinking “I want to create for someone who also includes myself”, and then the moment I’d feel like I maybe I’ve actually delivered it, I’ve started thinking that that was good.

Rock changes the “here” you are into “somewhere”

──There are people who claim that due to many musicians being on the scene for a long time, and the number of listeners increasing, they gradually could no longer understand who to make music for, or that they could no longer write lyrics. You [seem to] address your songs to the right person, how do you gain that consciousness?

I’m that kind of person who worries about the lyrics all the time too. But maybe that’s normal, and the fact itself that both I and the listener could think that the words and melody I came up with are good, it’s a miracle. Maybe it’s about wondering if the thought of “I want to share it even if it’s painful” will prevail. Also, I think it can coexist with the wish for both the people close to us and the world to be happy. It’s important to write lyrics as if we were writing about the meaning of our existence in the world in a letter, and I feel like that kind of songs will keep being heard forever.

──Another one, this album is, again, a work where you’ve been searching what rock is, and rock is violence and beauty, and it’s sinister, you can express it with many images. What do you think rock is?

Yeah… I believe rock changes the “here” you are into a “somewhere”. The rock bands that changed my life are all like that, they made me feel like the place where I am now has changed into a completely different world. To put it in other words, it changes something in a person to the point their world view changes. They’ve been driving my life, and that energy still remains inside me. That’s why I’m doing it too. To me, that’s rock.

──Indeed in this album, with words like “start walking” and “fly”, it’s depicted a state where you tap into a different world. Going even further, in the line “we’ve flown beautifully to the other side of the rainbow” in “Dakiau yō ni”, is charged with the desire to go in the same direction of “Rainbow”, that was supposed to be the last one of your previous album, and, differently from “ANGELS” and “At the Beginning”, the whole album is wrapped in a bright atmosphere, and it’s like finally it’s showing in a very Novembers-manner the words you’ve been saying for a long time during the MC speeches, “Let’s meet in a bright future”.

I have the actual feeling that we made a good album. But there’s also the feeling of “we can make an even better one”.

──It’s also important what appears in the vision of what comes next.

Yes. More than vision, it’s about premonition and hope. Rather, without those it’s very tough (laughs). From now on too, we’ll keep having this feeling like “let’s make an even better one”. So if with the last work of my life I’ll feel like “I did it!”, it will be the best.

#the novembers #kobayashi yusuke #takamatsu hirofumi #kengo matsumoto #yoshiki ryosuke #2023 #the novembers (2023)#interview

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