GRAPEVINE has released their 18th album, “Almost There.” This latest release amplifies the band’s distinct alternative style, crafting an imaginative blend of programming and distorted guitars, interwoven with powerful lyrics delivered in the Kansai dialect, notably exemplified in tracks like “Little Sparrow.” Steering the creative helm of this album is the band’s keyboardist, Isao Takano, a seasoned member whose journey began as a supporting player in 2001, alongside bassist Satoru Kanedo. In various interviews, vocalist Kazumasa Tanaka has emphasized the quintet’s core, including Takano and Kanedo. This interview marks their inaugural “dialogue,” promising an insightful exploration of GRAPEVINE’s distinctive essence, a band renowned for its exceptional musicality.
INDEX
Takano: GRAPEVINE Remains its Core Regardless. The Band Should Fearlessly Experiment on Any Ideas
-Takano, you’ve been involved with GRAPEVINE and supported and produced various other bands like Sunny Day Service and Yogee New Waves. How would you describe the significance of GRAPEVINE in your musical journey?”
Takano：After working together for this long, we are comrades. The staff around us hasn’t changed that much since then, including the production staff for live performances and the recording staff.
He began his career as a keyboardist in the early 1990s, performing in sessions and producing. He has produced, arranged, recorded, and performed as a live support musician for numerous artists, both male and female, including Sunny Day Service, GRAPEVINE, Kashitani Kaoru, Kazuyoshi Saito, GLIM SPANKY, and other bands and solo singers.
-How did you come to be the producer for the new album “Almost There”?
Tanaka: Whenever we make an album, we always talk about having a producer as we can have a third opinion, objective viewpoint, and various ideas.
Tanaka: But I always have a hard time deciding. We are a band that works from the idea of “what to do with the songs that come up” rather than having a blueprint, like “I want this album to sound like this, so I’ll ask this person to do it.” So, we had some potential producers for this project as well, but it’s hard to imagine what they would be like, because we don’t have anything to present yet. So we thought Takano, who is well versed in our style and groove, would be a great fit for the producer. He has been playing the role of a leader in the band for a long time.
-It’s quite surprising that he hasn’t done it before.
Tanaka: Thanks to him, this project went very smoothly. Fortunately, we had time, or rather, there was a gap between the previous album and this one, so we were able to save a lot of songs to some extent. Usually, it takes time to arrange a song without a plan, thinking about how it should be done, but this time, Takano always prepared two or three samples, saying, “How about doing this song like this?
Kazumasa Tanaka (Vo/Gt), Hirotake Nishikawa (Gt), Toru Kamei (Dr)
The band started its activities in Osaka in 1993. The band was named after Marvin Gaye’s “I heard it through the grapevine. Moved to Tokyo and made their debut in September 1997 with the mini-album “Kakusei” from Pony Canyon. In 2014, he moved to Speedster Records, where he has consistently released five full-length albums. Their 2021 album “New Fruits,” which includes the songs “Gifted,” “Nezumi Jodo,” and “Awake Mashi wa Itsumo Narimasenai,” debuted at No. 8 on the Oricon Weekly Ranking. The current lineup is Kazumasa Tanaka (Vo/Gt), Hirotake Nishikawa (Gt), Toru Kamei (Dr), Isao Takano (Key), and Satoru Kindo (Ba). 3 years after the release of their first new album on September 27, the band will launch a nationwide tour “GRAPEVINE TOUR2023” in October.
-What did you have in mind when producing the album?
Takano： They may not realize it, but in the end, no matter what they do, GRAPEVINE will still be GRAPEVINE. No matter who produced the album, it would end up being GRAPEVINE, so I wanted them to do whatever they wanted. I wanted them to do whatever came to mind and throw away a lot.
In the past, when we made 10 songs, we often thought, “we might as well use them all to make the most of what we made,” or “Let’s keep at least 3 of the 10 songs,” and then we would get lost in the process.
INDEX
Tanaka: It’s Us Japanese Doing it. Even If We End Up Creating Something Unusual, I Still Think it’s Alternative in its own Way
-There are various colors in each song of the album, but it feels like GRAPEVINE’s alternativeness is even stronger. Especially, the lead track “Little Sparrow” stands out.
Tanaka: I didn’t expect “Little Sparrow” to be the lead track either. Victor made such a bold move (laughs).
-What kind of images and references did you share while working on the song?
Tanaka: For “Little Sparrow,” I knew from the time we made the demo that we were going to make something strange. Kamei wrote a lot of songs while I was sick during the year-end and New Year holidays. I already had two or three demos with beautiful melodies, so with these songs, I thought I could do anything I wanted and write a very experimental songs. The image I have of “Little Sparrow” is that black music, more like something known as black rock music.
-I heard that you like Yves Tumor.
Tanaka: Yves Tumor is a bit cringy for those who know the old music. It’s not only honestly cool, but in a way, it’s cool to listen to now, including the cringy parts, like Living Colour and Kiziah Jones. I like Prince because everyone likes him, but I also refer to music after him. Nishikawa also listened to Living Colour and said, “No, no, I don’t have effects pedals like this” (laughs).
-This album has a large synth element, but overall, the guitars are quite distorted, aren’t they?
Tanaka: Yes, it is. It has been a long time since I distorted guitars this much.
Takano: I somehow interpreted the intention of “Little Sparrow” from listening to the demo tape, so I was quite conscious of the contrast between distorted and non-distorted parts. Also, as in the other songs, people are already tired of listening to the black elements such as the rhythm box, so I wanted to add something more to it, and I had this image of Kamei playing it live and creating a picture.
-Undoubtedly, tracks such as ‘Little Sparrow’ and ‘In a Black Out’ incorporate rhythm boxes, which, in isolation, might bear a resemblance to recent trap music. Nevertheless, integrating the band’s physicality into the blend results in an entirely fresh and unprecedented sound.
Tanaka: I’m actually quite proud of that. It has a feeling that you can’t find anywhere else. Well, it is just an idea as an arrangement of a song, and we are the Japanese who are going to do it. Even if we say, “Let’s try it like this,” and end up with something misunderstood, I think that is exactly what alternative music is all about. It would be a fun recording session if we could get excited about it.
