INDEX
Individual Musical Influences and Shared Backgrounds Among HALLEY Members”
-What kind of music have you listened to so far yourself, Taehyung?
Taehyung: My mother and father are Christians, so I grew up in a Korean church. Because of that influence, I always listened to Korean and American gospel music. In 2014, 15, and 16, the Korean R&B artists who are now at the forefront of the music scene emerged, and I started listening to their music and became more and more educated, and from there I started listening to foreign R&B as well. I started listening to foreign R&B and other music. I started listening to foreign R&B from around the first year of high school, The Internet, Daniel Caesar, and so on.
I didn’t listen to much Japanese music. The first Japanese music I “properly” listened to was Kaze Fujii and others. So it was very recently (laughs). I memorized songs by aiko and Ken Hirai to sing at karaoke, and I learned the lyrics to GReeeeN during lunch time at school.
-There are many bands based on black music in Japan today, but I think the uniqueness of HALLEY lies in the fact that the vocalist, Taehyung, is imbued with Korean R&B in his body. While there are other artists in their early 20s who are influenced by Korean R&B and hip-hop, I think the route of having Korean gospel music as a base and then absorbing R&B is also unique. As for yourself, where do you realize that you developed your singing style in HALLEY?
Taehyung: Korean R&B and ballads are probably the most colorful. I used to listen to Naoru (BROWN EYED SOUL) and Hyo-shin Park. When I was little, I used to have my father download the MelOn (Korea’s largest music distribution service) charts from No. 1 to No. 100 and listen to them on my Walkman, and I think that was a big influence. In terms of gospel music, I was also listening to Carl Franklin and BOYS II MEN, so I think the music from two different countries, “Korea” and “America”, was a big part of it.
-Do the other members have totally different roots again? Each of them has different roots, and I feel that their sounds are woven together to create HALLEY’s music.
Taehyung: We are all in the framework of “black music,” but we each have a wide range of music that we like. The bass player, Tsugu, is also a Christian and has been listening to gospel and R&B music since he was a child, so he is close to me. Naoto, the drummer, heard Michael Jackson for the first time when he was in elementary school. In high school, he played Japanese music in the light music club, but when he entered university, he got into gospel music and still plays in a gospel group. The older group–Me, Tsugu, and Naoto are 22 years old–has pretty close roots, and gospel music is probably a big part of our lives.
Haru, the guitarist, whose mother is Hong Kong Canadian, lived in Hong Kong and came to Japan when he entered high school. The first music he listened to was Metallica, and he seemed to like metal music a lot, and he still listens to loud rock and other music. But he also likes free jazz, R&B, UK rock, and music from the Japanese indie scene. I think he has the widest range of music he likes. His keyboard mind is a classical musician. He also used to play saxophone in a brass band. He loves jazz and rare groove music, and recently he has been listening to 1980s soul music, so he sometimes suggests sounds that really express that, but I sometimes say, “This is a little too stale.
– but I can hear that flavor in your tone and playing. In terms of the beat of the drums, I think it can be said to be in the context of the 2010s, after jazz and hip-hop came closer together, so I guess you must be listening to that area as well.
Taehyung: I listen to it a lot. Justin Tyson, who plays drums in Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, who plays in D’Angelo, Questlove, etc. I listen to them as well as him.
-The songs on the EP are credited to Taehyung as lyricist and HALLEY as composer, but how do you usually write songs?
Taehyung: It depends on the song. I usually make a rough draft first, and then we all get together to write the rest of the song. For example, in the case of “Sugary,” I first come up with the chord progression, and then we all try jamming together.
For “Set Free,” Naoto, the drummer, wrote the riff for section A, and I added other riffs and melody lines from there. For “Clear Mind,” we were working on the guitar riff at guitarist Haru’s house, and suddenly I came up with the chord progression for the final C section–which is also strongly influenced by Korean R&B and other styles of music. It was strongly influenced by Korean R&B and Stevie Wonder, but we all worked together on the arrangement at the end.
