Dans le dernier GIGS (magazine musical japonais de très haute tenue - un mélange de Rock'n Folk et Guitar Magazine puissance 1000!), une interview extrêmement riche sur comment elles ont géré le confinement, comment elles ont composé Different mais aussi le nouvel album, leurs dernières évolutions de technique et matos ... Ca n'intéressera bien sûr que les amateurs passionnés du groupe, mais c'est très instructif!
The 7th single Different — “Preface” to their next stage
In February this year, Band-Maid finished the long World Domination Tour that started in 2018, and they entered the run-up to their next step. And now, the five of them have completed the latest single Different, chosen as the opening theme of the anime Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table that will be aired from January 2021 on NHK E-TV. How did they make the ambitious work in the COVID-19 pandemic? In this special feature article that concludes our magazine, we let them talk about their activities and feelings from the end of the tour to the present and especially about the latest single. We would like to dig into their deepest feelings, with the album Unseen World in January next year and the concert at Nippon Budokan in February within sight.
Interviewers: Takayuki Murakami, Hiroki Katagiri
Photographer: Reishi Eguma
Let’s start with an interview with the five of them about the latest single Different. After showing off their “evolution” of both sound and performance, just as the tour title, at Line Cube Shibuya in February this year, how have they spent the unusual situation up to the present and completed the song?
— Artists have been unable to do usual activities since March this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. How did you spend your days from the stay-at-home period to the release of this song?
Kobato: We couldn’t rehearse or meet each other during the stay-at-home period, po. So, we decided to make individual practice menus and do them together on Zoom. We couldn’t meet each other in person, but we talked together seeing each other very often, po.
Saiki: We started to do around three remote rehearsals a week, and I think we contacted each other every day for some reason other than rehearsals.
Kobato: Yeah. The member-only LINE chat room was always active, po. Also, we were like “Let’s talk just while we make a meal” and we ate together on Zoom in the end (laughter).
Akane: I felt like we were living together, you know (laughter). Like, talking on phone for 6 hours.
Misa: The longest record was 9 hours (laughter).
— 9 hours?! Did you all talk for such a long time?
Saiki: No, most of the time, only me, Akane, and Misa remain in the end (laughter).
Misa: Because we feel lonely (laughter).
Kobato: We have a meeting on Zoom and we are like “OK, that’s all for today” but we just keep the connection for some reason, po (laughter).
Saiki: And we sometimes switch from Zoom to LINE, you know. We should stop there (laughter). Some of us keep talking all the time, and some go out and some come in, so the number goes up and down. So, when we realized, 9 hours had already passed (laughter).
— You are a good team as a band and at the same time you are good friends in private too. Also, we can see your high consciousness as performers from your attitude to look for and work on what each of you should do now.
Kobato: I was like “I’ll be messed up from anxiety if I’m doing nothing, po”, and Kanami-chan suggested like “If so, why don’t we improve what each of us is not good at?” po. She made practice menus in a table format for each of us, which were really helpful. Like that, we were working on what we can’t usually do, aiming to improve the level of each of us.
Akane: I reviewed my basic techniques again quite a lot. In usual rehearsals, I mainly try to perfect the songs to play, and when I’m on tours I don’t have time to practice… So it’s more difficult than you might think to do basic training steadily. However, during the couple of months of the stay-at-home period, I was able to do basic training for a whole day, so I think I’ve improved my level a lot. In that sense, it became a very meaningful period.
Misa: While practicing individually, we also upgraded our equipment. I changed the audio interface. …Is it called an interface?
Kobato: Right, po (laughter).
Misa: Good (laughter). I replaced my previous interface with a higher-grade model, and I also bought Cubase. …Oh? Did I buy Cubase before?
Kanami: Yeah, I think you bought Cubase a long ago (laughter).
Misa: Oh, I see. What else did I buy? …Oh yeah, I bought a new computer.
Kanami: You also bought a new speaker, right?
Saiki: You also bought a new keyboard, you know.
Akane: Everyone else remembers better than you (laughter).
Misa: I don’t remember anymore… Anyway I changed all my equipment like that (laughter). Now I can exchange song data with Kanami more smoothly with my upgraded equipment. Other than that, I spent my days keeping in mind that I’m above all Misa of Band-Maid (laughter).
Saiki: What do you mean?! (laughter)
Kobato: What kind of state is it to forget that, po? (laughter)
Misa: It’s a state of zoning out, kind of. I’m the type who gets messed up if relaxed too much. So I never made time to relax.
Saiki: Uh-huh, I kind of understand that. When I couldn’t get out of my house at all, I also wondered what I am. Exactly because of that, I kept practicing all through the stay-at-home period. Since I was at home, I sang without being loud, and I worked out and stretched. I thought like “24 hours is this long” (laughter).
Kanami: During the stay-at-home period, I was quite depressed… I decided to take this opportunity to devote myself to writing songs, so I kept writing and practicing, but being unable to meet the rest of us seems to have affected me badly. Up until that time, even when I had hard time writing songs, I was always able to meet them for various reasons and received their energy. So, during that period, I got really weak mentally.
Kobato: Every time I called Kanami-chan, she said to me “Thank you, Kobato” and hung up. I was surprised why I was thanked for just calling her, po (laughter).
Kanami: Because I felt better when I heard the other members’ voice. I realized I would feel really down without them. I’ve become mentally stable since we began to meet again little by little like this interview, and now I’m feeling much better.
— I believe what each of you felt and experienced during the stay-at-home period will make you Band-Maid grow further. So, when did you come up with the idea of releasing the new single?
Kobato: Actually, Different has almost nothing to do with COVID this time, po, because we started the production of Different about two years ago.
— Oh, is that so?
All: Yes (laughter).
Kobato: We received the offer of the opening theme of Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table about two years ago, and we recorded it about a year ago. It was quite a long time ago, because we recorded it together with the previous album Conqueror (released in December 2019), po (laughter). After that, the broadcast schedule of the anime was delayed because of COVID, and the single was postponed too, po.
— So that’s how it came about. Before you wrote Different, did you receive any requests for a song feel or lyrics from the anime production side?
Kanami: There was no request. I picked up one from my stock of demos and proposed it like “How about a song like this?” and they immediately said “It’s good”, thankfully. I was like “All right, I’ll arrange it to match the story and the atmosphere of Log Horizon” and I completed it to the current form.
Saiki: However, you communicated with them about the melody several times, right?
Kanami: Oh, you’re right. In response to the first melody I proposed, they wanted me to make one with a brighter feel and one with a stronger hook. So I put out a few patterns and one of them has become the final melody.
— I’d like to rewind the story a little. What was your original idea to write Different?
Kanami: Around the time when I wrote it, I got stuck on riff making. I talked about it with someone, and I got advice to make riffs with open strings. So I tried to make such riffs, which was the starting point of Different. I added a little bit of quarter-note triplets to make the riff sound faster. When I wrote Different like that, I realized again how important riffs are, so during the stay-at-home period, I was a complete “riff-making machine” (laughter).
— I’m looking forward to your future songs with the riffs you made then. Could you please talk about the lyrics of Different too?
Kobato: There wasn’t any particular request for lyrics either, but since we were offered a chance to write an opening theme, I wanted to write something you can enjoy when you watch the anime, po. You know, an anime and its opening theme usually make a kind of set. If the opening theme is far from the anime’s image, it will spoil the fun, and if it fits the image perfectly, it will double the fun. So, I read the original novel the anime is based on, and I expanded the image from there, po. The novel uses a lot of strong words… or unique words, and I put that taste into the lyrics so that not only those who watch the anime but also those who also like the original novel can enjoy.
— Your good sense of word choice shines in the lyrics of Different. As the opening theme of Log Horizon, the lyrics make us imagine a different world and battles, but you haven’t used the words “fight” or “battle” explicitely.
Kobato: Exactly, po! If you use the word “battle”, the image will be too fixed, you know. Log Horizon itself is a battle anime, but battles are not the only focus of its story. Including that, I wanted to write lyrics different people can enjoy differently in their own way, po. Also, when Kanami-chan sent me a demo of this song, its melody had so many notes. I wanted to make the most of it in the lyrics, so I wrote them while thinking “Sai-chan (Saiki) must be going to have hard time, po” (laughter).
Saiki: Thanks to them, it was quite difficult to sing this song (laughter). It has a fast tempo, but I thought its melody didn’t exactly match its tempo. However, I thought if Kanami-chan made such a vision I should follow her, and I sang it in the recording emphasizing the smoothness of pronunciation. I changed some words in a part where I couldn’t sing easily no matter how I tried, and I also aligned my parts and Kobato’s parts that had interferences.
— The song has both power and gorgeousness, and your “pressure” of the development part is overwhelming.
Saiki: That was the hardest part.
Kobato: She said she was out of breath, po (laughter).
Saiki: However, I took enough time to record this song, so I feel I was able to pay more attention to details in recording than usual.
Kobato: The backing vocals were also hard, po. In the demo, Kanami-chan put in more singing parts for me Kobato. First I recorded all of them, and in the mixing I removed many of them so that only the best parts will remain, po. That said, the busy part of this song is busier than before. It was hard because the ups and downs of intensity are very wide and the vocal range is also wide, po.
Saiki: It’s the first song where you did the “hairball”, right? (laughter).
Kobato: Exactly! I tried it for the first time in this song, and I decided to grow that singing style (laughter).
— What you call “hairball” is the “voice of a cat throwing up a hairball” you talked about in the interview of Conqueror, isn’t it?
Kobato: Yes (laughter). I didn’t keep it in Different in the end, but I used it in the album instead (laughter).
Akane: When I listened to the demo of Different, the first thing I thought was “Here came a song entirely with two beats.” It was the first song that’s two-beat from start to finish, while songs up until then often become two-beat only in important parts. Moreover, its tempo is fast, and the hi-hat hits throughout. In that sense, my basic training was very effective. I was focusing on finger training around the time when I recorded it, so my practice of getting used to the tempo by moving the sticks with my fingers took the best effect ever. Also, I wanted to bring out the melody above all, so I consciously tried not to fill it with too many sounds. Fast two-beat tends to sound noisy, so I intentionally made a simple section to emphasize the change, and I kicked only once every two bars. I thought quite a lot how to make it simple while keeping the speedy feel.
Misa: As for the bass, it’s a little like what Akane says. To keep its speedy feel, I tried not to put in so many difficult phrases. Instead, I played phrases that make picking stand out and sound cool. I also wanted to have the bass that is fast but at the same time with a longer sustain. The drums and the guitars are all tight, so I thought the bass might sound better if I play it that way. So, I tried not to move my left hand too much while moving my right hand fast all through, and I consciously added a nuance of glissando.
— When I heard you play the bass with this sustain at this tempo, I thought that’s so you, great as usual.
Misa: I’m probably getting used to this speed. As we told it a while ago, we recorded Different about a year ago, you know. So, I don’t feel it’s fast in particular when I play it now (laughter). I’ve become such a bassist since I joined Band-Maid (laughter).
Kanami: I’ve incorporated my favorite chord progression. I’ve always quite liked progressions with diminished chords, and I also wrote many songs with tension chords like this when I was a singer-songwriter. I thought it would be a good time for us Band-Maid to use such a chord progression with a lonely feel. So, the song is more elaborate in terms of chords than before. Another characteristic might be that the guitar solo is not like “Listen to this solo!” I just play a short one behind vocals. That’s because my image of the anime Log Horizon is something like a picture book. It looked a little dark picture book for me, so I focused on the storyline rather than the rock feel and decided not to put in a solo that sounds a typical guitar solo.
— We must pay attention to Different, which matches with the anime well and at the same time shows a new aspect of you Band-Maid. Now, I’d like to talk about the B-side Don’t be long. This is the first instrumental song among Band-Maid tracks [note: excluding the bonus track Onset].
Kanami: It’s the song I wrote just after Different. As you know, in classical music, you have études and “exercises for Chopin”. As I talked about that a while ago, Different has a lot of tension chords, but Kobato hadn’t played the 7th, the 9th, or diminished chords so much until then. So, actually I wrote it as a practice piece for Different (laughter).
Kobato: It was a kind of preparatory song in order to play Different at servings (concerts) (laughter). We’ve been playing Don’t be long for about a year and a half at servings, po, in order for me to get used to tension chords before Different. She was like “If you master this, you can play Different”, po (laughter).
Kanami: That went just as I expected (laughter).
Kobato: I didn’t know that in the beginning, though. A while after I started practicing it, Kanami-chan said to me “By the way, if you master this, you’ll find Different easy”, and I was like “Oh, is that your intention?!” (laughter) At first, I was surprised because she gave me a type of song I’d never played before, po. I was like “What? Am I really going to play this?” (laughter)
Saiki: We were thinking it would be nice to have a new instrumental for servings. Then, Kanami came up with the idea of making a practice piece for Different.
Kobato: So, when we made Don’t be long, we didn’t plan to put them in the same work. However, when we were making this single, we found the two songs go along well together. A practice piece matches well with its goal, of course (laughter).
— You made a good instrumental song and improved your skills at the same time, so you killed two birds with one stone (laughter). Some listeners find instrumental songs hard to approach, but Don’t be long has a catchy melody, so those who are not familiar with instrumentals can also enjoy it.
Kanami: Thank you very much. There’s a catchy melody like the theme, and the chorus has a melody like singing. I wrote it basically as a song to play at servings, so I made the flow where Misa starts the song, then Kobato comes in, then me, and then Ah-chan (Akane). I have an image of the series of solos where a spotlight is cast on us one by one like bang, bang, bang.
Akane: I talked about subtracting sounds in Different, and this song is also kind of subtraction. The guitar melody was so relaxing I wanted Kanami to play it freely. So, rather than filling it with drum sounds, I thought about beats that would fit the relaxing feel. That’s why I packed the fill-in just before the last chorus with a lot of sounds on the contrary [note: from 2:34]. I thought it would be more effective to make a contrast.
— That fill-in was really awesome. Have you tried several patterns?
Akane: No. I understood what Kanami wanted when I listened to the demo, so I didn’t change that much. I didn’t want to destroy the image Kanami had in mind, so I only changed some sequences to make them even easier to hear.
Misa: In this occasion to record it for the single, I reviewed the original bass phrases I played at servings again and arranged some of them. I changed especially the slap phrase at the beginning and the bass solo. As for the solo, I tried a lot to express a sexy and cool middle-aged man, and when I came up with the current solo, I played it thinking “This is awesome!” (laughter). I love it.
— It’s awesome to put a mellow bass solo in the intense song. Besides, your bass tone with heaviness and sharpness is also nice.
Misa: Thank you very much. I like this kind of sound, so I’m happy I was able to package it.
Kanami: I took good care of nuances of the guitar in Don’t be long. I imagined as if the guitar were singing, and gave close attention to details during the recording like “Here I want to slide”, “Here I want a vibrato”, and “Here I keep this bending for this duration”. Otherwise it didn’t resonate with me. I felt once again the difficulty of making the guitar sing a melody. I still have a long way to go, but I think I played the most emotional guitar I can express now.
— I really enjoyed your play. I enjoyed a comfortable play. Quite a few people seem to notice the difficulty of playing single note phrases all through a song when they play a guitar instrumental for the first time. How about you?
Kanami: Oh, I had no problem. I also keep playing them in other songs just like Don’t be long, so I’m completely accustomed to them (laughter).
— Wow, I see (laughter). Different has become a gorgeous single suitable to celebrate your return from the COVID hiatus. In addition, you will release the new album Unseen World on January 20 next year.
Kobato: As the title of the new album “Unseen World” says, our main concept is to show you the world of Band-Maid you haven’t seen yet, po. Moreover, we also have the two themes “return to the roots” [note: 原点回帰] and “progress from the current point” [note: 現点進化], and the perfect limited edition is going to be a double album separated for each theme. We like both the intense tunes we played in our early days and the recent catchy ones, and we want to do both. So, not only our masters and princesses (Band-Maid fans) who have been listening to our songs for long but also our masters and princesses who got to know about us recently, and those who will get to know about us with the new album will be able to enjoy it, po.
Kanami: Roots is made for our masters and princesses who love old Band-Maid albums, and it mainly contains riff-based songs. We auditioned the riffs I made during the stay-at-home period, and we decided like “We hire you!” (laughter). As for Progress, you can feel our future vision in it, and we made it wishing those who love the atmosphere of Conqueror will love it.
Saiki: When we started writing songs, we weren’t aware of “return to the roots” and “progress from the current point”. However, as we went on writing songs, we often talked like “Those who have been cheering us for long will love this song” or “This song shows what we are now”. Then, we got conscious of the direction of arrangement of each song, like making an early-ish song even harder. There were several songs like that, and also ones we made use of our recent color for, and ones we tried something new for came out, so we thought it would be better to separate them. That’s not because of the concept but we just separated what naturally came from within ourselves. Also, Unseen World has a song Kobato sings for the first time in a while, so please look forward to it (laughter).
Misa: The new album has the song I had the hardest time to play the bass in the Band-Maid history, and I also tried programming the drums for the first time when I made a demo. I really feel I’ve opened a new door again like that. Also, as the others have said, it has the latest models of Band-Maid, and our different sides from before, so I’ll be glad if you look forward to it.
Akane: I also tried fairly new things in this album. On the other hand, it has songs I could play because of my accumulation so far, and songs I was able to put out my familiar moves for, so personally it will be my summary. There’s also the fastest Band-Maid song ever (laughter). It has various songs, and they’re all good. I’m sure we’ve made an album you can enjoy, so I’d like to share it as soon as possible.
Introduction to the latest guitars & sound system
We at GiGS are going to unveil the latest Band-Maid sounds toward the album Unseen World to be released in January next year and thier first concert at Budokan in February in several issues from now. In this issue, we’d like to cast a spotlight on Kobato and Kanami. With what kind of gear and in what state of mind do the two guitarists, who have been refining their sounds according to diversifying tunes, play now?
Kobato’s “Unseen” guitar sound
Kobato: My main guitars haven’t been changed. I use two guitars, a Cards (Aces & Eights) and a Leaf of Zemaitis, po. Basically I use them according to tuning, and the Cards is regular and the Leaf is half drop down. However, considering the connection between songs, I sometimes change the tuning using a (Digitech) Drop, so it’s not strict, po. I began to use the V (Zemaitis MFGV22) at Line Cube Shibuya in February this year, but I was initially a little nervous, po, like “How will I look with the V in our masters and princesses’ eyes?” and “Will the guitar of this shape match with us Band-Maid?” However, when I actually had it in my hands, it fit me smoothly. Back when I began to use a Zemaitis, I really felt responsible to acquire techniques and performance to make myself suitable to the guitar, because my image of Zemaitis guitars was that they are for established guitarists, po. But the V was different. It seems it came into the Band-Maid world quite naturally. Its sound has a very different character from the main metal fronts, so I’m still using it by trial and error, but I’d like to use it in more and more songs, po. As for my system… I, Kobato, have finally made my multi-effector debut, po! I had my amps modified to control all of them by Helix. That’s because the tones I use at servings get wider and wider, and I sometimes can’t change them quickly enough while playing. So, I thought about how to make it easier while keeping my sound making so far, and I’ve reached my current settings, po.
Kanami’s “Unseen” guitar sound
Kanami: On our previous tour, I used a PRS Custom 24 with a Seymour Duncan Nazgul too, but I didn’t have an occasion to use it in our recent online servings. So, my current main guitars are the violet one and the green one I’ve been using since before that. I had been using them according to tuning until recently (the violet is drop C#, the green is regular or drop D), but now I use them according to their tones. The violet one has a mahogany body, so its sound is bold and it can express low sounds. It also has power, and it sounds cool when distorted, so it matches well with rock songs. The green one is korina (body), so its sound is more delicate than the violet. I use it for such songs as Endless Story and Mirage where I want to put out high to mid ranges more than low range. It has a better chord separation, so I don’t distort it much. I haven’t changed my amps, and I added only one pedal to play Conqueror songs, probably. I feel I’ve almost completed my sound system. So there will be no big change anymore. However, since my sound is now fixed, I’m rather gradually interested in shifting my sound. Now I’m wondering whether to change the OCD (overdrive from Fulltone) or the One Control Strawberry Red Over Drive to have crunchier sounds.
In rod we truss.
"Quelle opulence" - themidnighter
"It's sink or swim - shut up!"
