INDEX
“A Band Embodies a Fusion of Reality and Fantasy. HALLEY Engages in a Form of Mutual Validation.” (Toyama)
-What was your idea of “the flow of time,” and how did you express it in this work?
Takahashi (Ba): In music, time flows from the moment you press the start button until it ends. In the artwork for “Daze” (1st EP released on September 1, 2023), I expressed the moment when the concept of time began with the Big Bang and the birth of the earth and light. I think there is an affinity between that and the kind of jam-like music we like to do, such as sessions, where one piece of music starts to flow and everyone converges on it. I took the liberty of overlapping those meanings.
Taehyun: That’s very nice.
-Music is a time art, and I think HALLEY is very particular about how to create a cathartic flow from the beginning to the end of each song, and how to create a groove while adjusting the unit of 0.1 second or 0.01 second. I think they are very particular about how to create a groove by adjusting the units of 0.1 or 0.01 seconds.
All: Yay!
Shimizu: Indeed, music and time are inseparable, or rather, they exist together.
Taehyun: Where time flows, there are people, and when there are people, emotions are born, and people who are moved by emotions live again. The time period of “From Dusk Till Dawn” is ambiguous, so there are times when we are lost, times when we experience joy, sorrow, and happiness, times when we can clearly express our self-statements, times when we take a little detour and sing about our love for others, and times when the songs tell their own stories. I think that the twists and turns depicted in each of the 12 songs is what makes this album worth listening to. So when I am asked, “What do you think of time? I would say that time is the trajectory of our lives up to now, and that is what this album is about.
Shimizu: It is the trajectory of HALLEY’s personality from the time we formed the band to the release of the album.
Toyama: “From Dusk Till Dawn” is “time” as an abstract concept, the previous EP is a unit of “days” by intertwining “Daze” and “Days,” and the three singles are separated by one more unit: “day” (1st Sg “Set Free”), “night” (2nd Sg “Whim”), “morning” (2nd Sg “Whim”), and “night” (2nd Sg “Whim”). ), and “morning” (3rd Sg “Breeze”).
Toyama: I think the band itself has a real but unrealistic aspect to it. For example, people you meet in college come to our live concerts, but just by being in a live music club, things change a little, don’t they? I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a fantasy, but I feel that the …… band is real, but in a fantastical way. I had this image of the band to begin with, and I feel like I’m trying to answer that question with HALLEY. I also wanted to express that kind of unrealistic nature of the band in my work.
That’s why I decided to make the last song “Write Me a Love Song” a time to come back (to reality), so I decided to make it a song that I play along. When I was making this album, I used “Spirited Away” as a reference. I was thinking that it would be nice if I could make a piece about the time spent walking through the tunnel.
