INDEX
Producer Isao Takano’s Pioneering Concept: GRAPEVINE’s Unconventional “Band Essence”
-Any difference difference between Takano as a keyboardist and as a producer?
Tanaka: I felt he did not allow things he had allowed in the past. For example, he used to say, “If Kamei played a drum-fill phrase that way, it’s OK,” which was replaced with, “No, I want to do it this way. The same was true for the bass guitar. I felt that he was a producer in that respect.
Takano：It is not the only case with GRAPEVINE, but I work with that kind of mindset everywhere, and everyone is rather vague about rhythm. However, if we organize the rhythm well, it is easier to build up the rest of the song. Tanaka is a person who writes lyrics from the perspective of the orchestra, so I have long thought that this would make it easier for him to come up with more ideas.
-I see. By organizing the rhythm and orchestration, the freedom of the song will increase.
Takano: Especially in recent music, it seems that “singing good is what matters,” but I don’t think that’s the case. I care about the rhythm of the melody, how easy it is to sing, how pleasant it is on the ear, and so on. For example, Kamei is a songwriter, so he sings the drums as well, but I asked him to be more conscious of the song’s overall story.
Tanaka: That was great. The drums are now more dramatic. It makes it easier to imagine the scene of the song.
Takano: After being in the same band for 20 years or so, you get bored and have nothing to do (laughs). It is good to take an approach that hasn’t been done before and digest it, but I thought it would be better to go in a different direction and do something interesting with a more band-like or human-like feel. That is why we asked Tanaka to do more than just play chords. He also has charm as a guitarist, and that aspect comes out during live performances, but I also wanted to incorporate his guitarist side into the work.
Tanaka: That’s why it was quite difficult to play while singing this time (laughs). “Little Sparrow” is extremely difficult. But regardless of whether it’s easier or harder to play, I think the guitar on the previous album was a little more quiet. Or, it was a bit more ambient, rather than quiet. But this time, the guitars are distorted a lot, and I think they sound really good. Afterwards, I felt that was what Takano wanted me to do.
– I think the fusion of that and the previous album’s R&B and Hip-Hop element has resulted in something that has never been done before.
Tanaka: I would have to practice hard to perform live, but the recording was a lot of fun, and recently, I’ve been having a lot of fun at live performances.
