ai/SOlate Meetia Interview
A leader of the vocaloid scene, wowaka, ygarshy, Yumao and Shinoda, who writes the Chikyuu Monogatari manga on this Meetia as well, have been the best rock band ever since 2012.
They delivered. They made a new album of 6 songs with the title “aiSOlate”. A title with many meanings behind it, it’s deep baby, deep. With the pre-released song Unknown Mother Goose at it’s heart, it’s an album that’s delivers that good good Rie sound, while at the same time is full of songs of a broadened range.
Fortunately, I had the chance to interview them before their album was released. And I could feel how this album was a step towards their new phase. How do I put their stimulative words into a report though, even after thinking about, it was tricky but, I’ve decided to start by writing about the manga “Slam Dunk”.
Why “Slam Dunk”?
Well, actually anything like “Kuroko no Basket” or “DEAR BOYS” would work too, I just want to start with the subject of basketball.
When I first saw the title “ai/SOlate”, as an author who used to be in the basketball club, I almost automatically thought of “isolation”. Isolation is a play that involves the other 4 players to open up half of the court, to separate the two most skilled players for a one-on-one. The four other players clump on the left side of the court, so they can freely fight one-on-one on the empty right side. It’s a strategy that only comes into play when you have an overwhelmingly strong aggressive one player.
For example, the first time isolation happens in the manga “Slam Dunk” is during the high school tournament battle of Shohoku vs. Ryonan.Ryounan’s player Fukuda “Fukuchan” Kicchou, who possess overwhelmingly strong aggression, starts an isolation one-on-one wirh Shohoku’s “anxious” Sakuragi Hanamichi. And the match begins to fall in Ryonan’s favor…
Well, it would be better to read “Slam Dunk” to understand more than the gist of it but. If we were to compareHitorie’s album to basketball, the one with the title “ai/SOlate” and Unknown Mother Goose” in it, then, completely without a doubt, it’s an album of isolation, freely displaying the power of it’s an overwhelmingly strong ace, wowaka.
Let’s dig into it. First of all, it’s about how this album was produced. Up until “IKI” Hitorie would produce by just the other bandmates responding to wowaka’s orders; wowaka would review their work and judge whether it was good or bad. Yet by “IKI” wowaka and the bandmates have changed how to interact with each other, it’s evolved into “something more like we’re running alongside each other”.
So what was it like this time around.
“It was sort of like, we went back to how it used to be? wowaka was really getting into making it and all” proclaimed shinoda.
Yet, there was a reason as to why he was proclaiming so airily.
“That’s certainly what happened analytically but, it actually felt completely different. It was like we’ve become able to communicate with each other without words. There were times when we didn’t have to talk much, I think, there’s much more times where we can understand each other without words nowadays. (Yumao)”.
“Yumao said it. That’s how it would be analytically but, the peace of mind and the sense of trust that comes with this is something completely different. I think that this album might be full of our new approach to music, and a new challenge with our hearts. (wowaka)”
These are the keywords, the “peace of mind and sense of trust” words that came out of wowaka’s mouth. Just as isolation is the play that allows aces to freely battle it can never happen unless the team has a sturdy trust between them. As even if he were to miss the shot, the center field can take the rebound. Even if the enemy team were to steal, the guard can stop the attacks-. It’s a relationship of trust that brings out each other’s strengths, it’s only a strategy that teams who have obtained trust can accomplish.
So, why was Hitorie able to create an album like isolation. A hint lies in their “IKI” production and tour. Now that we’re done with the introduction, from here on is going to be a normal interview.
“IKI” to confirming yourself
The album “IKI” was full of moods like “Compromising with other people” or “A sense of unleashing” and “Happiness”. So what kind of evolution happened during a tour after that album.
“Our ‘IKI’ tour was one that let us confirm, the freedom and the happiness we achieved during the album production, this real sense of being alive, what kind of people we are and what we want to do, and making that all a little more into our reality. Through spending half a year, trading moods with our audience amidst a concrete atmosphere… The things we put into our album became something real. Our final at Shinkiba was emo. (wowaka)”
wowaka’s tweet from after the live show was moving. I had referenced it in my IKI live report as well but, I’m bringing it back in this interview now too.
“My mom came to Shinkiba and told me she was moved by it. I’m glad I pursued music.”
(click on the picture to the original tweet)
wowaka said “My mother came all the way from Kagoshima to Tokyo for me, saw my live and told me that ‘I was moved’. That was the first time she’s ever said something like that to me, so I was surprised. Even just talking about it now is going to make me emo but…., I felt, glad that I worked so hard to get here.“ and, even now, his “emo” feeling seemed about ready to overflow when he was looking back at the Shinkiba final.
Happiness, a real sense of being alive, who you are. The “IKI” tour was one to confirm all that, and it ended in a big success. However, after that Hitorie started to decrease in live appearances.
“I wanted to concentrate on producing this summer. To shutout a bunch of other things, and just simply make time to make things” were wowaka’s words. Which ygarshy responded to with “We talked about that in the izakaya didn’t we.”, nodding like he was missing those days too.
“Even though we had converged with so many people and gained such happiness through ‘IKI’, this time we did the opposite, and broke up with them. What came out of holing up and working for 2-3 months was “Unknown Mother Goose” and all the songs in this album. (wowaka)”
The idea of “holing up and producing” also links up with the title of “ai/SOlate”, doesn’t it. It seems like we’re finally reaching the core of this interview.
“That works too. ‘ai/SOlate’ was, for me, a way to properly come back to what I have done, and to what I want to do. Just like how our band name started off as ‘Hitori (alone) Atelier’ yet then was shortened into ‘Hitorie’, I started this thing alone yet, as it goes through each of our members’ existences and interpretations and meanings, it then goes off to stab the heart of any lone listener. That’s what my image of music is. That’s what type of music I’ve come to accept and have been touched by. I think there’s a strength in being alone and unaided. I firmly trust in it. The feeling of ‘nobody is here for me’, I think anyone has to some degree. I started making music off of the motive power of such. I was able to confirm that through IKI and the tour. (wowaka)”
With such solitude, what sake do you make music for?
wowaka, who makes music off the motive power from the feeling of “no one is here for me”. In using such solitude, what sake does he make music for?
That was the question I confronted next, and the answer was, “human”. I want to interact with humans more, and in a weird way I want to become human too. There’s something that happens between one person and another, and I want to see what that is for myself. So when I thought about it, for me that was ‘love’. Consciously using the word “love” was a first for me, even in my lyrics even in my daily life. That was “Unknown Mother Goose”. The happiness and anger that comes with being with other people, then wanting to spread this sphere of every emotion all the way out to space. That’s my image. And so, if you put that into one word, then I think that’s ‘love’.”
For Hitorie, up until now ‘love’ was something that was ‘played backwards’ (in ‘Imperfection’) or ‘almost forgotten’ (in ‘Ikitagari no Ko’). Yet this time, it’s a theme that’s laid out directly. “Unknown Mother Goose” starts with the lyric ‘If I were to preach of love, How would your eyes picture it?’
“That’s why it’s ‘ai/SOlate’, because I finally found ‘love’. It means ‘Love that came out at last’. Moreover, an alone and unaided ‘Isolate’, and a love that came out at last, I was able to express those together as ‘ai/SOlate’ and, it makes sense, it’s all definitely two sides of the same coin. Even as an alone and unrelated Isolate, I’m fighting to find the ‘love’ that comes out of interacting with people, that’s the very thing I’m trying to do, that’s what I’m trying to say.”
The importance of “Unknown Mother Goose”
The song that’s the heart of ‘ai/SOlate’, ‘Unknown Mother Goose’ is a very important song. If there’s such thing as the vocaloid scene, and on the other side there’s such thing as the band scene, then think as if there’s something in between them separating them. As, Vocaloid “is something that they cannot accept at all” (quote: Wada Takeaki interview). However, “Unknown Mother Goose” breaks that separation, or could it even be said that it fuses them. Just like how most people don’t say “guitar scene” or “bass scene”, maybe people will no longer say “Vocaloid scene”. I threw that question at them but, completely different answers came back at me.
These boys hold the whole scene in respect, yet, they say that it’s like their songs are more personal. Yumao says that “I’m just satisfied that we were able to deliver high quality songs”, and Shinoda says that “There’s no need to mix the two, and, as long as there’s people doing them then won’t the scene stay alive?”. For ygarshy, from the beginning “there was nothing separating the Vocaloid scene and the band scene”. wowaka’s thoughts were the same.
“I didn’t have even a milliliter of intention to ‘break the wall’ with this song, and Hitorie isn’t really something that we wanted to be a bridge between Vocaloid and bands. It’s more of something at a micro-level. For me, I had come to Tokyo and met Vocaloid, I got people to look at me but, I became unable to understand who ‘me’ even was, and, that’s when I started Hitorie. That’s why I made the song I had to make, with the methods I’ve used to write for these past 5 years, I made the song I wanted to make now. Of course, I think there are different implications when I sing a Vocaloid song as Hitorie. So based on that too, it’s a song that’s essentially personal.”
Living troubled by the feeling that “I’m being misunderstood”
Besides the word “Unknown”, there’s lyrics such as “Nobody knows who I am” in NAI., and the nuance of the lyrics about “I’m not understood” stand out in this album. For wowaka, who writes the songs and the lyrics, he said that he distinctly feels that “What I really think never gets across”. “I’ve always been troubled and conflicted by that. That I’m being misunderstood in a lot of ways huh. I said that the scene has nothing to do with this, yet I want to talk about the scene but (laughing). For about 2 years after 2009, back when I posted Vocaloid songs and made CDs, everything that I had received from the scene was really so sparkly. So sinless, so pure. Yet, in 2011 I felt that the situation was beginning to get suspicious.”
He was laughing painfully as he tapped his fingers on the table. He opened up with “It’s not like I’m attacking anyone specifically but…”, and wowaka continued on saying this.
“Put simply, the problem is as to whether there is love or there isn’t. If it’s not just an act. Back then, I felt that something really lame was coming towards me. This sort of ‘If you use Vocaloid and do this, we can get people together, we can start a business, we can deceive the children.’ theories and atmosphere. I’m saying this pretty brutally but, there actually was such going on at the time. That was painful to me. What felt hard to me was, that I was being seriously put into this superficial mess.”
As someone who carried the Vocaloid scene, wowaka gained many followers. And one after another, most Vocaloid songs were being impacted by wowaka. People even say that he invented the “Vocaloid-sounding song” format. However, the fact that songs which were just crudely tracing the surface of that format kept popping and popping up, started to torment him.
Exclaiming a yet unknown story as one song
“Thinking about it know, I think I was really mad at the time. I was depressed. Because of that, the answer to the conflict of ’Who am I’ was, Hitorie. Yet, at the time there was people who listened to us and said “Will wowaka do Vocaloid again” or “wowaka sounds cooler when he’s not the one singing”, or even “wowaka’s Vocaloid songs sound so inorganic and mechanical and cool”. When I heard those voices, I felt that what I treasure the most isn’t even conveying clearly. For me, there’s actually something more that I want to convey. There’s absolutely a story that was yet unknown to Miku and I, to Shinoda, ygarshy, Yumao and Hitorie. So now is the time, let’s explain that all as one song. “Unknown Mother Goose” is a song made out of those feeling, isn’t it.”
What’s being said amidst one album is always all connected
The song that was placed as the final track of the album, “NAI.”, the sound of it and the lyrics all scream Hitorie. It feels like a compilation of all their work up until now. However, if you listen to the album in order from song one, the lyrics to “NAI” are exceedingly interesting. It’s because, there’s lyrics that sound as if they’re rejecting the contents of song one “Absolute”. For example, the part “The word absolute, has nothing to do with me anymore”. However if you ask wowaka, he said that “The’s two songs are actually saying the same thing”.
“On the other hand of the vector of the emotion “happiness” that I confirmed through ‘IKI’, I also want to treasure the opposite. I had been really mad in the past, and I hadn’t even realized that. At the end of burdening that and ailing allalone I started Hitorie. I had not known how to use my emotions.
But I know now. That’s why I wanted to write lyrics using those emotions in their entiretly, from every direction, from every angle. Forme those emotions are something “absolute”. Except, that is entirely how it is to me, now I want to ask ‘So what do you think?’. That’s the reason that I came up with the lyric ‘It’s not absolute’. That’s why it’s not rejection, the contents of ‘Absolute’ and ‘NAI.’ are actually the same. That’s how it always is but, what’s being said amidst one album is always all connected.”
Hitorie’s 2017
To summarize, because he created a vector of happiness, ‘IKI’, wowaka found the chance to confront his past. So, through once again holing up and producing, with ‘Unknown Mother Goose’ as the start, the swarm of songs ’ai/SOlate’ was born. Even though it’s an album that started from extremely personal emotions, in it you can strongly feel a connection with society. ‘ai/SOlate’ is an album that almost connects Hitorie’s past and present.
Lastly, I asked what 2017 was like for them, the year where they created a monumental piece.
“I got good at drawing manga this year. During the time when wowaka was concentrating on producing, I was focused on drawing. I wrote “Chikyuu Monogatari” on meetia, and I wrote a manga for Wada Takeaki’s (Kurage-P) album ‘Watashi no Miseinen Kansen’. (Shinoda)”
“I feel like I was hit with a thousand baseballs this year. Or I went to catch every ball this year or something. That’s why this album, I think that people who listen to only the bass will say that, there were seconds where they thought it sounded more simple than before, but I’m just playing way more fast and complicated now than before. That’s how much my body strengthened (ygarshy).”
“Drum-wise, I learned exactly what it is I can do and what I can’t do this year. That’s why, I’m really troubled right now. How do I learn to do what I couldn’t do. I think I’m having a lot of troubles involving that, and I feel like I’m about to enter a new phase. Well, I won’t know until I try but (Yumao).”
“I found a place where I can be myself this year and, for me this year was a turning point in my life. In just that year, the fact that I was able to release to the world, both a ‘Unknown Mother Goose’ as Hitorie, and a ‘Unknown Mother Goose’ as wowaka, is extraordinarily big to me. Next year, we have to figure out how to perform the six songs of ‘ai/SOlate’ in front of people. I want to make the belief in Hitorie and the belief in wowaka, something stronger. (wowaka).”