Special Interview


IKIMONOGAKARI

Following the ballade <Futari>, the new single gives an intuition representation of IKIMONOGAKARI’s “Pop after sadness” character. A brilliant work done by vocalist Yoshioka Kiyoe who was able to impact people with her real emotion!
 
An up tone that reflects the current IKIMONOGAKARI style
 
──So after the tour, did you take some time off?
[Yoshioka Kiyoe] Yeah, we did. After <Futari> was released, we had about one week free time.
 
-----What did you do?
[Yamashita Hotaka] I just got onto Shinkansen (the name of railway line) to travel to Sendai.
[Yoshioka] Yeah (laughing). I went to my hometown. Picking raspberries, it was quite a relaxing time.
[Mizuno Yoshiki] Basically I was having a rest (laughing), and also went to drink with my local friends who I haven’t met for ages.
 
──Well, I can see different characters from this. And I think the new single <Hotaru no Hikari> kept a perfect balance in sadness, speed and pop sense, it reflects “Ikimonogakari style”.
[Mizuno] Oh, really. This belongs to the same type of <HANABI> and <Bluebird>, actually that type was developed after our debut. We didn’t have such guitar sound of high tempo before debut.
 
──You were focusing on ballade during  Street Live Show, right?
[Mizuno] That’s right. But 3 years later after debut, little by little we also realized that “Hotaru no Hikari” was also one of “our own styles”.
[Yamashita] You can say that was an accumulation. Both the ballade like “Futari” and this one are our own music.
[Yoshioka] If both of “Futari” and “Hotaru no Hikari” are included in the setlist that consists of 4 to 5 songs from the event, there will be a contrast (laughing) in that. We were not so good at the fast tempo song when we just came to debut. However, we were able to keep up with the rhythm since <Bluebird>. I was feeling that this kind of music finally became part of us.
 
It’s great that we could present the music from Street Artist Time
 
-----I see. The coupling <Omoide no Sukima> has a completely different taste to <Hotaru no Hikari>. I was pretty impressed by the tone of wooden guitar and harmonica
[Yamashita] It’s a very old classical music. It was made 6 years ago, and the value is that it’s about a personal story. The heartbroken song depicted from a man’s eyes was performed by Kiyoe. We have rarely tried this pattern after debut, but it feels right.
[Mizuno] We’re very appreciated that this song can be recorded. The lyrics are not revised at all, neither is the music arrangement. It means a lot that we made it now. It’s kind of we rediscovered that this is such a fun to get our feeling into the music (CD).
[Yoshioka] We haven’t sung this for quite a long time, but we were not tired of it at all. It’s a little different than before, including the way of singing and the sounding—it feels like the world view we used to depicted was now represented. As if this song is saying by itself “you finally remember to sing” (laughing). Somehow I’m glad that we continued to go so far.
 
(By Tomoyuki Mori)
 
 
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