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manjuhitorie · 6 years ago

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Meetia Polaris Interview - English Translation

Original Interview/Text: Sotaro Yamada Edit: Yukari Yamada Summary: POLARIS [First section: Overseas. Opinions on the sensations amidst the live shows. Unexpected differences and song choices, Rie resolution over overseas aspirations. Second section: Polaris backstory and Naruto talk. Unique touches and each member impacting the songs in ways of their own conscious volition. Third section: Strengthening values, wo being indulgent, yg being perceptive, Yuma being caring, SND being SND. Fourth section: RIVER FOG, CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLY backstory. Style agreements. Fifth section Nichijou to Chikyuu no Gakubuchi backstory. Is such persistence okay. It turned out great but,, okay.]

[We don’t keep our boundaries inside or outside of the country]

After Hitorie kicked of their “UNKNOWN-TOUR 2018“LOVELESS” tour in 2018, they added two appearances in Taiwan and Shanghai, then was their two-man project “nexUs TOUR 2018”, furthermore their tour of China and such. I get the impression they were quite busy with live shows. Especially the first overseas appearance, frankly how was it?

Yumao: The best of the bestest ain’t it. There were such many reactions I’ve never experienced before, it was quite the stimulation.

Shinoda: Also the cheers they do in China seem to be really really loud. From the first shout it was already ridiculous. I thought I was gonna lose my ears.

Yumao: The audience’s pace on the Japan side is to hype over uptempo songs and to quietly listen to downtempo songs, but in China there was none of that. They were hyped up the whooole time. If I put in extremes, from beginning to end it was like “Uwaaag!”

So it’s that different from Japan. With music there are songs which feel more of the quietly listen variety rather than hype up.

Yumao: But it seems like the “listen” type of songs are more popular.

Shinoda: The songs that were supposed to be trendy in Japan are insignificant over there. They aren’t even included in rankings of favorite songs. It seems like ballad type songs are liked there.

Specifically which song is popular?

wowaka: It’s included in an album from around when we debuted “Imaginary Monofiction”, called “(W)HERE”. A so-called ballad type of song with a BPM of around 120~130 and a goopy melody. Regardless the second we hit the intro, the entire venue went “Uwaaah!!”.

Yumao: Yeah yeah. It was like “Gyaaaaaah!!!”

wowaka: Such a reaction was unexpected. We had at least heard from the event staff beforehand that “(W)HERE was really liked there but, I couldn’t even imagine they would erupt into such an crazy cheer the first second we started. The level of intensity was even about the same in every venue too.

So is the popularity of “Imaginary Monofiction” especially high?

wowaka: It doesn’t seem like that’s the case either.

ygarshy: I theorized that the tempo when the body naturally feels good and takes motion is different there. When we perform “(W)HERE” in Japan everyone seems to recognize it as a type of ballad as they indulge, but in China they were pumped up for this song. Maybe riding such tempos is normal over there, I thought.

Shinoda There wasn’t anything like a mosh either.

Yumao: There were also people who were jumping for joy but, it was more as if they each had their own way to freely ride the beat. When I looked at the audiences faces, everyone’s pick point was different.

In Japan there are bands who achieve a decent amount of success and then completely alter their aim towards the overseas scene. On the other hand there are bands who thoroughly focus on the national scene. Which direction is Hitorie heading?

wowaka: This year was only our first overseas live but, overall it was a expansion of what we've always done. The desire to gain more range and listeners was there from day one of Hitorie, after all. It’s not as if we’ve pretty much conquered Japan so now the next step is to go overseas, it’s more that we’re going to be dashing inside and outside of the country.

Shinoda: It doesn’t matter whether it’s overseas or national, if we can do it then I would wanna go anywhere.

wowaka: If we could do a show on Mars we would (laughing).

Yumao: We put together the China tour in the first place because there was a necessity to; if there’s a place where we’re wanted, then, I think we would go anywhere. We don’t keep our boundaries inside or outside of the country.

wowaka: We still have a much to finish delivering around Japan also.

[For ‘Polaris’ I wanted to clearly convey those words, those sentences]

Your new song “Polaris” is the ending theme for the anime “BORUTO -NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS”. I want to know how conscious of the anime’s content were you as you created the song.

wowaka: We did write if for the anime so, parts of it were sucked in. As for what I remember, I was in high school right when the “NARUTO” anime started, and the people who represented the theme songs were ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION and ORANGE RANGE. Such powerful awesome bands. It gave me the impression that “Any artist who represents the OP or ED of ‘NARUTO’ is a badass”, and for a middle~high schoolers at the time, I remember “NARUTO” being a gateway to both anime and music. That’s why in sight of writing this song I read every single volume of “NARUTO” and “BORUTO”.

ygarshy: That’s why in terms of ‘NARUTO’ or ‘BORUTO’, I don’t feel a strong bond with it as much as I feel it's a natural occurrence.

wowaka: For our generation it’s something that’s so essential, it exists like air does. I never thought I would have the chance to affiliate with it, it makes me want to show it to my old self.

It’s a true pop song, it makes one want to sing when they listen to it. Personally I always felt Hitorie had many songs that were too difficult for ordinary people to sing. Yet this time the fast complex part arouses the desire of “This would feel good to sing”. I believe this is a huge transformation for you but, was there any sort of transformation in your mindset?

wowaka: During the “Loveless” tour, there was a definite breakthrough within me. Simply put, I was able to go undecorated and show my naked self to other people. I felt I was able to go up on stage without putting up a cool front, and throw “My individuality I want to display” and “What I deem precious” towards our listeners. Just when I was pondering over what I’m going to do next with this new me, we received this request. I imagine a lot of middle~high schoolers are watching “BORUTO”, so I had thought about how I could convey my sensations in an uncomplicated manner. I want to release myself from complicatedness, is also another way I had felt. As a result, the song attained it’s tone and it’s words. I wanted to clearly convey these words, these sentences.

Shinoda: During the recording, we put a lot of attention into whether or not the lyrics would properly permeate your brain even if you were in a state of nothingness.

wowaka: I wanted to make it into a song that would linger in your brain even if you sort of listened to it right before falling asleep.

I know wowaka writes the base of the songs but, when this song was first revealed to you what did you think?

Shinoda: I don’t know if this is the correct way to say this but, sometimes the chorus melodies he writes are so intense, that they’re almost intrusive. This time it was at a different angle from that stuff, I thought it was such a good melody for a change. Also, the guitar in the chorus isn’t complex. Halfway through that part so complicated I think it’s going to kill me does burst out but, the chorus is done really really simple. That’s for the sake of making sure the focus is on the voice and the words.

Though the drums before the chorus are so pounded they’re almost perverted.

Yumao: Past the second chorus right. That was definitely because I thought “I better do this”. The parts where I could freely fill-in the blanks were only that one I think. Anyway I simply wanted to make it flashy, the result was that sorta blast.

Shinoda: That part is what, “Watch me do this ’n hardcore mode”.

Yumao: Yeah yeah. I thought at least it would be okay for me to go crazy there.

wowaka: I had the feeling of how ”I want to fully and clearly convey what I’m saying to anyone who is listening”, equally as much as I had “I want to do something that spikes out”. I wanted to make “Easy to understand” and “Everything Hitorie has done up until now” collide in a good way.

Thanks to that collision the melody sounds even more pretty. Then what about you ygarshy?

ygarshy: Of course I aimed to bring the voice to life but, for me personally, simplifying my play to bring the voice to life sounds wrong. My thought process was more about how, the lyrics are like this over a melody like this, so I should do this. This time I used the lyrics and melody as the basis for the note writing. So I think it emerged as a performance that conveys us directly.

You consider the meaning of the lyrics as you write.

ygarshy: Of course I aimed to bring the voice to life but, for me personally, simplifying my play to those ends sounds wrong. My thought process was more about how, the lyrics are like this over a melody like this, so I should do this. This time I used the lyrics and melody as the basis for my note writing. So I think it emerged as a performance that conveys us directly.

That is extremely persuasive.

wowaka: There are times when we develop the song based on the instrumentals but yeah. This time the melody and lyrics came first.

[The more you confront things the more you confront how “alone” you’re becoming]

From everyone else’s perspective, do you think wowaka’s song and lyric writing has transformed in anyway these past few years?

ygarshy: Of course I think there’s parts that have come to change, and his ability to write is truly starting to evolve. Though, once he enters one mode, then next, he’ll enter the opposite mode, that part of him won’t change.

What do you mean by “mode”?

ygarshy: Put simply, it’s whether he’s holed up inside or opening up. He produces on that pendulum.

Was he more open this time?

ygarshy: He’s opened up as soon as he’s closed, sort of character.

Shinoda: Also in this single, there’s one song that anyone would say is eccentric, no matter how they listen to it. “Ah, this guy also goes in this direction ehh” is what I thought. It’s amusing because every once in a while he’ll smack us with this type of surprise punch. The way he entrusts us has also changed I feel. He doesn’t get firm and ossified, he more candidly throws the songs at us. And we’ve learned how to properly answer.

Is that, trust, I suppose?

Shinoda: …….Do ya think it’s trust?

wowaka: Haha (laughing). Between music production and life, everything, the members and staff were always there. More than entrust to them… they’re always there.

You speak of “always there”, but the word “Alone” shows up a lot in your lyrics wowaka. Is the sense that you’re alone still strong?

wowaka: That sense itself is actually getting stronger and stronger. Doing things with people who are “always there” and being “alone” are, by definition exact opposite, aren’t they. Yet, they’re existing completely simultaneously.

Yumao: Well, the more you do things the more you get like that.

wowaka: It’s not something only I feel right?

Yumao: I think the entirety of humanity can feel it. By simply being with other people, you also have to confront your own self.

wowaka: The more you seriously confront things the more you confront how “alone” you’re becoming, and the result of continuing to confront is that there’s people you’ll meet and who you can share things with.* Doing that you became a self that can make even better things. If I didn’t have this band I would never have noticed the lonely parts of myself, that I notice now. Only thanks to noticing that am I able to understand the sensation of “always there”, and the happiness that comes with entrusting myself to other people.

That concept also seems to be reflected in the phrase “Go down the road of no one”. By the way, about the word ‘Polaris’, wowaka you had tweeted “Literally it means the north star but this time I made it the title because of a different meaning.” What did you mean by a different meaning?

wowaka: Hmmmm… (Brooding on it for a short while). I don’t want to put this into words (laughing).

Yumao: It doesn’t mean the star?

wowaka: If you say star then it would simply be a star, wouldn’t it…. I’m often thinking about how I want to be released from the functional roles of words and their meanings. Instead of meanings I want to cherish the “sense of meaning”. This time too the emotions emanated from the song and the title and the artwork are everything. That’s why I dared to say “A different meaning from the North star”. *

The North star isn’t just one star, after all. 3 stars are all overlapping, so when you see it from afar it looks like one star.

wowaka: Ooh…. It’s like a band.

Yumao: That means there’s 2 inside it’s core?

No core, they’re around each other. The 3 look like they’re overlapping to the naked eye, and it releases a strong light, or such.

wowaka: That’s a really good detail. This truly was the perfect title. Amazing.

[RIVER FOG, CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLY: the strange color creation with noise music and a breakdown]

— Shinoda had said it earlier also, the second track “RIVER FOG, CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLY” is a song that doesn’t sound like any song Hitorie ever had before, no matter how you listen to it.

wowaka: We completed this song after Polaris.

Shinoda: At first we only had the first part completed, and we were going to end it there.

So the noise part in the middle wasn’t included during the initial phases?

Shinoda: It wasn’t. Why did we put that in, tell me again? There was some sort of reason we said “Let’s do improvisation here“.

ygarshy: We wanted to do something that doesn’t connect in a clean way, where a preposterous space appears and connects you to the next climax.

It reminded me of Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”. The electric sounds at the end possess a sadness, it makes me feel regretful when the song ends.

wowaka: That has it added on at the end huh.

Shinoda: We had disputed a bit over whether we should include that part or not though (laughing).

wowaka: Our opinions were split but, in the end I disregarded everything and I put it in myself.

That means there was a side against adding it in, who was that?

Yumao: Me! It’s super good when it’s there, but it’s also super good when it’s not. If that’s the case then isn’t it best not? I thought.

Shinoda: I was also against adding it in. It concludes with a band jam so, I thought it would have been pretty. That way, a synthesizer would be added in.

If you preferred it gone but ultimately it was added in, that means you’ve accepted it from some point.

Yumao: Naw, I accepted it from the beginning. It’s good either way after all.

[The overcoming of trauma: Nichijou to Chikyuu no Gakubuchi]

The third track “Nichijou to Chikyuu no Gakubuchi was originally a Vocaloid song wowaka had made solo. It’s a song that gained popularity even among all of wowaka’s 2011 album “Unhappy Refrain”, so reenacting that song must have required quite some courage. I’m sure “It was better the old way” is an existent voice as well. Why did you pick this song?

wowaka: We had started to perform this song as a band during the “Loveless” tour but…. Why do we do it again?

Shinoda: Out of all the songs on “Unhappy Refrain” I like it the most. Even since when it was first decided I would join Hitorie, I thought “We’re gonna do this song sometime I’m sure”. Yet, it seemed the culprit creator of it couldn’t come to terms with it.

wowaka: This’ll turn into a discussion of long times past but, this song is like the final single drop I squeezed out of myself at the end of the end of “Unhappy Refrain”’s production. I finished it way past my exhausted limits, it exists alongside dreadful memories. In a way it turned into a kind of trauma song for me.

Shinoda: You get such a bitter face when we talk about this.

wowaka: That’s why it’s a song I couldn’t positively face for a long while. There was a period of time when I would even say I hated it.

Yumao: Nevertheless on every occasion Shinoda would continue to play this song, trying to show it’s appeal saying “Why don’t we do this?”

Shinoda: That appeal, during the “Loveless” tour at the head of this year, finally penetrated.

Yumao: At first we only sooort of did it during a studio rehearsal, “It’s this kind of song so the drums will be like this, the bass like this” effort.Once we executed it we said “Wait? This is cool?”*

wowaka: At that pace, we started performing it on the “Loveless” tour despite never playing it live prior. Once the tour ended and it was decided we would release a single, as we were discussing well what sort of songs should we group up with this, Shinoda told us “Wouldn’t it be fine to put ‘Nichijou to Chikyuu no Gakubuchi’ in?”.

Shinoda: This is the first time we’ve ever recorded a song after we vigorously polished it throughout a tour. It was developed in a completely different way than our other songs, so I think this song has the most band sound over anything.

ygarshy: When we did this song on the first day of the “Loveless” tour, my bass amp broke halfway through and I couldn’t make any noise. If there was someone who didn’t get to hear it anywhere but at that live-house (Kyoto ‘Takutaku’), then that would be such a shame. So the fact that we were able to record it like this, personally purifies my regrets.

Yumao: Everyone may think all we did was arrange a Vocaloid song and record it, and well maybe they would have a point but, in terms of our will, that wasn’t in the context.

wowaka: That’s why I didn’t falter at all.

Such that you conquered trauma.

wowaka: I overcame it I did.

Original Post: http://meetia.net/interview/hitorie-polaris/

#interview

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manjuhitorie · 7 years ago

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浮遊と沈没と (Floating and Sinking) - Hitorie - English Translation

浮かべた色々の詞は A colorful amount of words floated up to me 意味を成すことも無く今も Even though they're nothing besides substance unable to achieve meaning 息き急いだ、 Both our lives move forward with motivation 私のことを宥める様に Like they're trying to placate me くだらないと窘める様に笑うの Like they’re trying to berate me for being useless, they’re laughing ふざけきった後のしじまも The calm after the storm, I messed around too much 覚めてからの夢の続きも The continuation of a dream after waking up 好きでいたいと思うのはなぜ Why is it that, I still want to find joy in them 咲きもせず都会の街並みは The cityscape, of this city which isn’t even blooming, is 飽きもせず世界を隠してまた Veiling away the world without even stopping 今日に沈んでく I sink into today

正解も間違いも見失って Losing sight of right and wrong 吐き出した水の中で泳いで Swimming in the waters of what I spit out 等間隔に並べられたお終い When I lined it all up at equal intervals, that was the end どうして　どうして Why, why 逆らわずとも夜は朝へ Even if without resistance, night heads to morning 望まなくとも音は外へ Even if without desire, sound heads to the outside ひとり　ひとり Alone　Alone ひとり、茨の向こう側へ行け Alone, go tread to the other side of the thorns 眼を凝らし手に入れた“今更” を Even if, after straining my eyes so hard, all I obtained was a "You’re too late" 何処に居たって見せびらかしていたいよ I want to show off that I was here 「浮かれた今を求むなら “If a joyous life is what I desire 私が消えればいいや」 then maybe it’d be easiest if I just disappeared" そう言って息を止めた I said that, then took a deep breath 浮かべた色々の詞も And all the words that floated up 腐りきった心の棘も And all the thorns of my rusted heart どれもこれも全��そうだ And whatever of these and all that, come on 撒き散らして笑いたい I wanna strew them all out and smile 浮き沈みばかりの世界はまた In this world of nothing but going up and going down 喧も騒も静も寂も飲み干して唄うよ I’ll swallow the hustle and the bustle and the peace and the quiet, to go on to sing だからどうしたっていうのでしょう？ So this is when you ask what’s wrong? それはいつもどおりのことでしょう？ Is this not how this always goes? ひとり　ひとり Alone, alone ひとり、姿を失くせど　行け Alone, even if I lose my body　Go 眼を凝らし手に入れた“今更” を Even if, after straining my eyes so hard, all I obtained was a "You’re too late" 何処に居たって見せびらかしていたいよ I want to show off that I was here

Official Comments:

--Songs on 'Imaginary Monofiction' perfectly get the point across that Hitorie is not just your typical music band. I felt it especially in the final track 'Fuyuu to Chinbotsu to'.

wowaka: I think the style of 'Fuyuu to Chinbotsu to' may actually be in the direction we as a group are most suited for. We don't have many songs in this style but, I think I would like to do more. This song, it's pretty good isn't it. ygarshy: It's good. Yumao: It's good. I like it, this song. It's suppper slow. wowaka: Yes, it's slow. ygarshy: The BPM is around 70, I believe? wowaka: Hahaha, I can't believe it. -- Hitorie is always performing on atrociously fast BPMs but, every member unanimously agrees that this type of slow song is good... (laughing). It is genuinely a good song though. wowaka: We wanted to assemble it all into the shape of an album, we wanted to see how capable we were of that much. Things that couldn’t be expressed without this such rhythm, these chords, this tempo, these words and lyrics, on their behalf. I think that a band like us who play so-called fast and challenging song should also be able to play slow songs. I think it’s interesting that way. --So like every other song in ‘Imaginary Monofiction’, what kind of ‘imaginary girl’ is in this song? wowaka: She’s someone who craves attention. “Everyone look at me, praise me, fall in love with me”, it’s that kind of song. Though, her cynical emotions, prejudice and jealousy, she wears those sort of hideous emotions on her sleeve. She ends up saying “ Maybe it’d be easiest if I just disappeared”, the complete opposite of what she truly wants. That’s how she pulls you in. It’s sort of yandere (laughing).

#ヒトリエ #wowaka #the tear gland destroyer #イマジナリ��・モノフィクショ��#fuyuu to chinbotsu to #imaginarymonofiction #https://www.m-on-music.jp/0000095212/

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