First of all, please tell us the time when you startted out creating [Stargazer:]
Shou: First of all, from our list of possible songs after 「Senkou」we narrowed down to 3, we also did included a temporary song from Hiroto's house, and presented all those to the recording company. Also, from this time onwards, we got producer Okano Hajime-san, but he blatantly said "Isn't this not going to work?", so we redid everything. At that time, when he said those words, i think somewhere in my heart, i was also thinking along the same line. It's a vague feeling but it's like i don't have the conviction in myself. That's why i could agree with his words.
Shou-kun, you said you vaguely felt something, what is that something?
Shou: If i say an analogy in Okana-san's way, when a chef of a ramen house wanted to make something good, instead of making ramen to compete, he made curry ramen instead. [not sure, maybe the analogy that alice nine is trying to make a good song, but they are making a different kind of thing that's not quite what their forte is]
I see, that's easy to understand (laughs)
Shou: Okano-san always like to use food to explain things. For instance, using the previous example, no matter how delicious the curry ramen is, if the customers know the reputation of the store, then won't it [curry ramen] be different from their expectations. [if alice nine had a good song, but is different from their usual ones, it will be something unexpected for the audience] While it is important to break the preconceived notion of what defines Alice Nine, it's also important to take up those preconceptions and after answering those expectations, isn't there the way of going beyond expectations through a high quality result. From the beginning, we somehow created good works that were different from people's preconception of us, which i think became a perversity. Okano-san said "you guys don't know what your own good points are". Certainly, we didn't know how to express our own good points, and the methods that we did not know to achieve that, i think it was Okano-san who taught us. Also, he didn't teach us from head to toe; he raise a question for us and we think about it, and we compared with the things we did in the past, and through voicing our feelings about it, we formed the idea. [of how to express their good points] I think that is connected to our growth, it was a very happy encounter. Realizing what our charm is and taking a step forward ahead became our confidence.
How did Okano-san become the producer for this time's release?
Shou: He was the producer for the band [I believe it's L'Arc~en~Ciel] that I had admired, because he was an existence above the clouds, i didn't think we will be given the opportunity to work with him. But when we met at Creature Creature's live, we talked a bit and managed to make contact, and finally it became reality.
Did you hear any severe words?
Shou: We really heard a lot. SID's Aki had also been produced by him before mentioned "he's strict, but you'll definitely learn from it", and so I mentally prepared myself and took up the challenge
How did the actual recording go?
Shou: When Okano-san first heard my singing, it was during the recording of a temporary song, he said "It was good, better than what i thought". In actual fact, personally, i already decided to rely on Okano-san since this year around spring, in order not to get him mad at me, i practised quite a bit (laughs)
I think you've been working hard until now, going for voice training and all.
Shou: Until now, I've just been doing my best about normally, it's something that anyone can do, so vocal training is just something that someone points out something to you and you just go about practising it. This time, I've been thinking about singing every minute when i was awake, even after work, without watching tv, without playing games and without going out with friends, i've been practising intently.
Previously, you read and learned from the book by Christina Auguilera's voice trainer right?
Shou: Until now, I only listened to the words of one of my favorite voice trainers, but personally i also think that it's important to learn from different kinds of people. For that, I read different kinds of books, and the most important thing is it's also good to reaffirm the similarity between ourselves and everyone else; i also learned methods to present the same thing in different ways, i think i've managed to increase my breadth in different areas. I think for myself, the things i can do became wider when i put what i've learnt into practice. For the sake of becoming an independent vocalist, i think it won't do if i don't start working on it by myself, so it really became something that's all for my own sake.
You also read the thick HOW TO book, just that, I have to respect you. (laughs)
Shou: But it was actually interesting. The national traits of a Japanese is that they put a lot of emphasis on mentality and spirituality. The books that i read were mostly from North America, but whatever the conclusion that everyone wishes for, the focus is the same anywhere. There were parts where they narrow down explanations on how to convey main points in a fun way, i strongly felt the difference in race and nationality, which was interesting.
Let's return to the talk on recording (laughs)
Shou: Okay. But unexpectedly, the recording was quite smooth. It's probably not good to say that it was fun, but with concentration and a freshness within ourselves, after we're done recording our part, it was in contrary fun. There are also times when it was an NG, but we got a lot of specific and sensible advice, so we were able to understand immediately and our doubts disappear completely. You can say that there were no unnecessary work, and i also found the link with the books i read, so it became a smooth process. I was able to bring out my style where i want to, i was also allowed to sing freely, so singing had been fun. From the feeling of being able to sing freely, i realized the good thing about making corrections through accurate judgments, so i really felt i was pulled along. It's also the same with songs, i was able to be pulled along naturally at the good parts, even though the level may have gone up, after doing them, it felt like our axis were not blurred and so it had been fun.
In this single, it seems that no matter which song, it can be felt that Shou-kun's singing can become really powerful.
Shou: Well that, because if you look back at the songs we did in past tours, you'll particularly get that feeling. In the past, I hated my voice. By nature, my body is big, thus my vocal cords are large as well, so my voice is deep. But a vocalist i like had a fine voice, so i unreasonably tried to train my voice to be fine like that. But because I ended up practising by myself, without trying to sound like anyone, whatever the situation, i understood that the best way to resound my voice is if that's my own voice, so i stopped trying to force myself. With that meaning, for myself, for the band, i think that we're in really good form while facing Budoukan.
Shou: First of all, from our list of possible songs after 「Senkou」we narrowed down to 3, we also did included a temporary song from Hiroto's house, and presented all those to the recording company. Also, from this time onwards, we got producer Okano Hajime-san, but he blatantly said "Isn't this not going to work?", so we redid everything. At that time, when he said those words, i think somewhere in my heart, i was also thinking along the same line. It's a vague feeling but it's like i don't have the conviction in myself. That's why i could agree with his words.
Shou-kun, you said you vaguely felt something, what is that something?
Shou: If i say an analogy in Okana-san's way, when a chef of a ramen house wanted to make something good, instead of making ramen to compete, he made curry ramen instead. [not sure, maybe the analogy that alice nine is trying to make a good song, but they are making a different kind of thing that's not quite what their forte is]
I see, that's easy to understand (laughs)
Shou: Okano-san always like to use food to explain things. For instance, using the previous example, no matter how delicious the curry ramen is, if the customers know the reputation of the store, then won't it [curry ramen] be different from their expectations. [if alice nine had a good song, but is different from their usual ones, it will be something unexpected for the audience] While it is important to break the preconceived notion of what defines Alice Nine, it's also important to take up those preconceptions and after answering those expectations, isn't there the way of going beyond expectations through a high quality result. From the beginning, we somehow created good works that were different from people's preconception of us, which i think became a perversity. Okano-san said "you guys don't know what your own good points are". Certainly, we didn't know how to express our own good points, and the methods that we did not know to achieve that, i think it was Okano-san who taught us. Also, he didn't teach us from head to toe; he raise a question for us and we think about it, and we compared with the things we did in the past, and through voicing our feelings about it, we formed the idea. [of how to express their good points] I think that is connected to our growth, it was a very happy encounter. Realizing what our charm is and taking a step forward ahead became our confidence.
How did Okano-san become the producer for this time's release?
Shou: He was the producer for the band [I believe it's L'Arc~en~Ciel] that I had admired, because he was an existence above the clouds, i didn't think we will be given the opportunity to work with him. But when we met at Creature Creature's live, we talked a bit and managed to make contact, and finally it became reality.
Did you hear any severe words?
Shou: We really heard a lot. SID's Aki had also been produced by him before mentioned "he's strict, but you'll definitely learn from it", and so I mentally prepared myself and took up the challenge
How did the actual recording go?
Shou: When Okano-san first heard my singing, it was during the recording of a temporary song, he said "It was good, better than what i thought". In actual fact, personally, i already decided to rely on Okano-san since this year around spring, in order not to get him mad at me, i practised quite a bit (laughs)
I think you've been working hard until now, going for voice training and all.
Shou: Until now, I've just been doing my best about normally, it's something that anyone can do, so vocal training is just something that someone points out something to you and you just go about practising it. This time, I've been thinking about singing every minute when i was awake, even after work, without watching tv, without playing games and without going out with friends, i've been practising intently.
Previously, you read and learned from the book by Christina Auguilera's voice trainer right?
Shou: Until now, I only listened to the words of one of my favorite voice trainers, but personally i also think that it's important to learn from different kinds of people. For that, I read different kinds of books, and the most important thing is it's also good to reaffirm the similarity between ourselves and everyone else; i also learned methods to present the same thing in different ways, i think i've managed to increase my breadth in different areas. I think for myself, the things i can do became wider when i put what i've learnt into practice. For the sake of becoming an independent vocalist, i think it won't do if i don't start working on it by myself, so it really became something that's all for my own sake.
You also read the thick HOW TO book, just that, I have to respect you. (laughs)
Shou: But it was actually interesting. The national traits of a Japanese is that they put a lot of emphasis on mentality and spirituality. The books that i read were mostly from North America, but whatever the conclusion that everyone wishes for, the focus is the same anywhere. There were parts where they narrow down explanations on how to convey main points in a fun way, i strongly felt the difference in race and nationality, which was interesting.
Let's return to the talk on recording (laughs)
Shou: Okay. But unexpectedly, the recording was quite smooth. It's probably not good to say that it was fun, but with concentration and a freshness within ourselves, after we're done recording our part, it was in contrary fun. There are also times when it was an NG, but we got a lot of specific and sensible advice, so we were able to understand immediately and our doubts disappear completely. You can say that there were no unnecessary work, and i also found the link with the books i read, so it became a smooth process. I was able to bring out my style where i want to, i was also allowed to sing freely, so singing had been fun. From the feeling of being able to sing freely, i realized the good thing about making corrections through accurate judgments, so i really felt i was pulled along. It's also the same with songs, i was able to be pulled along naturally at the good parts, even though the level may have gone up, after doing them, it felt like our axis were not blurred and so it had been fun.
In this single, it seems that no matter which song, it can be felt that Shou-kun's singing can become really powerful.
Shou: Well that, because if you look back at the songs we did in past tours, you'll particularly get that feeling. In the past, I hated my voice. By nature, my body is big, thus my vocal cords are large as well, so my voice is deep. But a vocalist i like had a fine voice, so i unreasonably tried to train my voice to be fine like that. But because I ended up practising by myself, without trying to sound like anyone, whatever the situation, i understood that the best way to resound my voice is if that's my own voice, so i stopped trying to force myself. With that meaning, for myself, for the band, i think that we're in really good form while facing Budoukan.
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