Halley Discusses the Background of Rich Sound and a Globally Recognized Sensibility

Diving into Waseda University’s Black Music Society

-I understand that this is the first time you have been interviewed in this way. Could you start by telling us how the band was formed?

Taehyung: I had been playing and singing by myself since right after I graduated from junior high school, at live houses in Chiba and other places. After entering Sophia University, I spent about three years in a storytelling club, and when I saw one of my seniors sing “How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees at a graduation live, I thought, “There are people who sing this genre of music. I thought, “There is someone who sings in this genre. That senior told me, “If you go to the Naleio, you will find many people who sing in this genre,” and that is when I went there. That is where I met the members of HALLEY.

-the Naleio is a historical black music circle at Waseda University, isn’t it?

Taehyung: We have senior members such as BREIMEN and Haruka Sakamoto (Edgar Sullivan, MEMION), and it is famous among people as “a circle where you can meet people who are doing music. I had a great desire to make and release a sound source as soon as possible, so I went there with the intention of finding a partner. I first found Naoto (Shimizu) on drums, then I invited Shin (Nishiyama) on keyboards, then Haru (Toyama) on guitar, who was a friend of Shin’s, and then I invited Tsugu (Takahashi) on bass, whom I had known since my first year of college.

-That is May 2021, right? I think all five members of HALLEY are key players, but what kind of music did you want to do with the people you gathered?

Taehyung：We all joined the Naleio because of our love for black music, so we all naturally had a certain direction in mind, but at first we were like, “Which black music should we play? We formed in May, and at our first show in June, we played The Maine Squeeze’s “Dr. Funk,” Jamiroquai’s “Alright,” Kirk Franklin’s “Love Theory,” and many other songs. We did a lot of scratch-and-miss stuff, like Kirk Franklin’s “Love Theory. From there, we gradually found a sound that suited us and settled on R&B, saying things like, “Smooth jazz is a little different,” or “Gospel-like music would work,” and so on.

From there, we just kept going and going. On the day of the show, I said, “Let’s write a song,” and instead of going out for drinks after the show (laughs), we wrote one song at the place where Tsuugi lived. In August, we had a live show at WARP in Kichijoji. Then, in September, I was going to Canada to study for a year.

-Since you had already decided to study in Canada, you were trying to do what you could before September at a high speed, right?

Taehyung: Not exactly. It was the Corona disaster, so I didn’t know until the last minute whether or not I would be able to go study abroad.

-I came back to Japan a year later and released three singles and an EP in the year since then. Things are going pretty well for you as a band, aren’t they?

Taehyung: Everyone is very smart. They play music properly, and in addition, they are not only devoted to music, but they also know how to build relationships. They are respectful and can think, “If I say something like this, it will probably hurt him,” so no matter how many stinging words are said, we can understand each other in any situation, thinking, “He must have an intention in this. I think the fact that we had matured as human beings is also the reason why we have been able to continue playing music together. Many people who play music are clumsy, but these girls have a kind of clumsiness that you can tell is kind.

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.

Lyrics Crafted Like Journal

-When did you start writing songs?

Taehyung : In the first year of high school. I lived in Thailand for a year when I was in 6th grade, and when I came back I got a guitar for the first time. Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part” was popular at the time, and they say that “music begins with imitation,” so I decided to make a song by copying the chord progression. I added my own little arrangements and that’s how it all started.

-You mentioned at the beginning that you had a desire to release the soundtrack as soon as possible.

Taehyung: I was on a half-year break from college due to Corona, and then switched to online after that, so I was studying DTM for that entire period. I still have a song on the platform that I made with GarageBand at the time, but it was super low quality for me (laughs). After that, I had the desire to make and release more properly. But until I met HALLEY, I didn’t have any friends around me who could share this kind of musicality.

-Do you think that what you want to write lyrics about has changed since you were in high school? Or do you feel that the roots are the same?

Taehyung: I don’t think it has changed. There has been a change in that I started writing lyrics in English at some point, but since then I have often written love songs by writing down my feelings when I fell in love. In the band, there are songs like that, and sometimes I write happy lyrics, so there is a lot of dialogue with myself.

-That’s exactly right. It’s a dialogue with myself. You write songs about yourself for yourself. I feel that kind of attitude from the songs.

Taehyung: Yes, that’s right. My English teacher in high school had a big influence on me. From that time, I got into the habit of reading and writing poems in English, and I think I write lyrics like this as an extension of that habit. It’s like writing a journal. It’s a journal.

-There is a subtle difference between a “diary” and a “journal,” isn’t there? A “journal” is more about organizing one’s mentality and keeping track of what one is thinking. For you, making music is similar to that kind of thing, isn’t it?

Taehyung: Indeed. I often write as if I were throwing up. I tell myself what I want to say, or write things that I don’t think about. In the case of “Clear Mind,” I write things like, “What’s in the past is all for the best. I don’t think about it at all, but it is easier to think like that, so I wrote it as a kind of a spell.

The first paragraph of “Set Free” was a lyric that already existed, and I added it when the song was written. Since the atmosphere changes between the A and B sections, I thought my feelings must also change, so I incorporated the changed feelings into the song. So it’s conflicting content. I am writing about myself being saved, with a self-deprecating story.

-The “you” in the B section is written in a way that can be taken as “someone else” but also as “yourself”.

Taehyung: That is my intention. In my mind, there is a person to whom I am singing, but there are also things that need to be felt by the listener. I often use “he” and “you” so that there is no subject.

-In other words, in the last line of “Breeze,” “We know he’s the only king. (After all, he’s the only king of us.)” Like you just said, it’s up to you who you apply the “he” to, isn’t it?

Taehyung: Yes, it is. Who will be the king of your life – I’m a Christian, so when it comes to “he,” such a being comes up – it can be yourself, or it doesn’t have to be a person. It can be myself, or it doesn’t have to be a person. I hope that when people listen to this music, they will feel as if they are being guided by someone or something that they remember.

-When we listen to the groove of “Breeze,” it can be taken as if the music is guiding us.

Taehyung: That’s a nice interpretation. In the music video, the breeze is in the middle of the story, and I think it can be interpreted as if the breeze is the one who helps you.