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If I had started in my teens, I don’t think I would be doing the kind of music I am doing now.
–Both of you started playing music seriously when you were around 30 years old, and I think it would be great if more people like that started playing music.
Takano: Takano: “I wondered what it would be like to start at my age. Takano: I thought, “What about starting at my age? Age, gender, and so on.
tami: I think it is still a minority to start at that age, but I think the times and environment have become much easier than when I was a child. I also feel that if I had started when I was a teenager, I would not be doing the kind of music I am doing now. If I start playing music in my teens, I may play it until I die, so I want to play music that I can play until I die, even when choosing a genre. Takano, is there any relationship between your style of music and the age at which you started?
Takano: I think it depends more on the environment than on my age. I started with GarageBand, so I naturally started typing. …… But age may also have something to do with it. I started when I was 33, and everyone around me was working, so it was difficult to make time for it. That meant I might not be able to play in a band. So we decided that it would be better to create the music by inputting data and record the vocals as the vocalist, so that we could communicate with each other using only minimal data.
tami: So it ended up sounding very current.
Takano: I was lucky, though, because the kind of music that could only be done in that environment happened to fit my tastes as well.
tami: I read in an interview with you that you have a 1:1 mindset between work and music.
Takano: You mean the “café au lait theory.
tami: I think that is difficult to say in terms of income. ……
Takano: It is difficult. In terms of income, it would be a café latte (laughs).
tami: But I understand what you mean. I’m not sure if I actually think of it as a 1:1 ratio, but if I think about it softly, it’s more like a 1:1 ratio for me.
Takano: Gradually, there is a mutual interaction between the two. Frasco and I communicate via Slack, and I don’t think I would have been able to do so much “I have a deadline, so I have to do this by then” if I hadn’t been working. Work is work, and the ideas and creativity that I have cultivated through music come to life as ideas, and I think it works both ways. I also thought that it would be better to disclose the fact that I am doing music. I work for a creative advertising company called Kayak, and if I keep saying “I’m a musician” within the company, there are times when I make music as part of the company’s work.
tami: You didn’t join the company by pushing your music career?
Takano: Yes, there was that too. If you search for Frasco, you can find a lot of things, so my entrance to the company was based on my musical activities.
Takano: Then, when the Poop Museum project was just starting up, I was like, “Someone who can play music just came in,” and I asked Kenmochi Hidefumi (Wednesday’s Campanella), who was in charge of music at the Poop Museum and had connections through his musical activities, to join me. It was really an interaction, and I was very lucky.
–In terms of the cafe au lait theory, what kind of interaction do you see between your musical activities and studio management?
tami: I think everyone should have working experience. When I deal with people who probably don’t have working experience, I sometimes think that if they did, I would be able to deal with them more smoothly. The reason I can do that without having to go out of my way to learn is because I have experience in the business world.
Takano: In the end, communication is very important, isn’t it? Both in work and in music. When dealing with various people in the music business, people who have good communication skills are trusted, and it is pleasant to work with them.
Tami: That’s true. There may be explosive type artists, but that is based on the premise that there is someone who can communicate on their behalf, so if you think about doing it all by yourself, it is better to be able to do it. I understand that the more experience you have, the better, and I understand that there are people who say you don’t have to do the hard work that you don’t have to do, but I think it’s more profitable to be able to communicate properly with people when you’re dealing with them.
