A voice from inside a story leans toward “you” in a dream and begins to speak. At that moment, a quiet question surfaces: what kind of dream does someone inside a story see? Maybe it is nothing more—or less—than the reality we are living in. The thought lands with a jolt.
“Nee, kimi wa doushite yume no naka demo kimi no omou you ni kimi o shinai no?”
Repeated in the album’s closing track “Atoaji Warui ya｜sour”, the line sharpens into a message that leaps out of the music and strikes the listener head-on. This is a work that trusts the listener to receive it.
Following their February 2025 release ”Nemuru – walls”, Laura day romance have now unveiled a new album, ”Nemuru – bridges”. As its title suggests, the record was created as a direct continuation of the previous work. Together, the two albums form ”Nemuru – walls or bridges”, the band’s third full-length album—a 20-track double album completed as a single, cohesive statement. To create a long-form, concept-driven work in this era, and to embark on such restless musical adventures within that extended narrative, is no small feat. This is a monumental album. More than that, it is a work that will become inseparable not only from the band themselves, but also from those who receive it—an album deeply entwined with the reality of 2025. It brings the contours of the present moment sharply into focus.
As with the first part, I had the opportunity to speak again with the three members of Laura day romance. I wanted to ask not only about the artistic vision behind the album, but also about how the band has changed over the past year, because ”Nemuru – walls or bridges” clearly carries a documentary trace of their journey. Kagetsu Inoue (Vo) spoke candidly about how there was “no choice but to grow as a person.” Jin Suzuki (Gt) described an adventurous spirit drawn simultaneously to confusion and excitement. Yuta Isomoto (Dr) reflected on freeing himself from the pain of carrying too much responsibility alone. All of these stories feel like essential clues to understanding the album.
It’s a long interview—but then again, the album itself is long. That feels right. Take your time with it. Read slowly. Let it unfold. I believe that this willingness to linger—to spend time—is itself one of the messages this album, and Laura day romance as a band, are quietly sending out into the world.
INDEX
Choosing Action Over Hesitation and the Soundscape That Emerged
With the release of ”Nemuru – bridges”, the second half of ”Nemuru – walls”, this project is finally complete. At the same time, it also marks your major-label first full-length album. A major debut that arrives as a sequel feels very on-brand for Laura day romance.
Suzuki: It really does, yeah [laughs].
Looking back on the entire ”Nemuru” project, including the first part, do you feel there’s a gap between what you originally envisioned and where you ultimately arrived with the second half? Or did things land roughly where you expected?
Suzuki: With ”walls”, we had time, and I already had a fairly clear image of how it should begin. So that process was about carefully translating that vision into music. With ”bridges”, though, I think we worked with a much stronger desire to push beyond our own boundaries. This time, we made a simple rule for ourselves: “If we’re unsure, we do it.” Whenever we were faced with a choice—whether to commit to a bold arrangement or hold back—we always chose to go for it. As a result, the soundscape grew far larger than we’d imagined, and we ended up with many songs that spilled beyond the conventional shape of a single track. In that sense, the album expanded in unexpected directions. Personally, I was able to create it while feeling confused and excited at the same time.
Why did you decide on “if you’re unsure, do it” from the outset?
Suzuki: When I looked back at ”walls”, I felt it was a very polished, complete album. But because we followed the blueprint in my head so faithfully, it also ended up feeling slightly more compact than I had anticipated. It felt like an album that sat neatly along the extension of what we’d done before, and that stayed with me. When I thought about what it really means to move forward as musicians, I realized that unless we actively brought in new elements and made more daring choices, we’d never reach moments that even we couldn’t predict. That realization became a big turning point for me.
(From left: Yuta Isomoto [Dr], Kazuki Inoue [Vo], Jin Suzuki [Gt])
A Japanese band steadily expanding their fanbase among music lovers both in Japan and abroad. Laura day romance’s sound is shaped by the wide-ranging musicality of Jin Suzuki’s songwriting, Kazuki Inoue’s expressive vocals with a strong sense of world-building, and Yuta Isomoto’s drumming, which combines tight precision with flexibility — supported by carefully selected support members who join in the form best suited to bringing each song to life.
With every headline show, the scale of their live performances has continued to grow, culminating in a sold-out concert at Tokyo International Forum Hall C in April 2025. Beginning in March 2026, the band will embark on their first-ever hall tour, “Laura day romance hall tour 2026 ‘Fixing a hall’.”
Kazuki, how do you feel about the distance between where this “Nemuru” project began and where you ultimately arrived?
Inoue: When we were making the first half, we honestly had no idea what the second half would turn into. Even looking back at the demo stage, I never imagined the songs would expand to this extent. Jin kept refining the arrangements right up until just before the vocals were recorded, and as I was laying down vocals, I kept finding myself surprised—thinking, “So it’s going to be this diverse,” or “Wow, that sound comes in here.” It felt like all these sounds far more interesting than anything I’d imagined were flooding in. Compared to “walls,” it’s much more experimental, too — there are sounds in there that make you think, “There’s no way we could pull this off live” [laughs].
Suzuki: Hahaha [laughs].
Yuta, how did it feel from your perspective?
Isomoto: With the final track on “walls,” “Nagisa de Aimashou | on the beach,” it really felt like the end of a first season — like a clean break. So I kept wondering what the second half would look like. Would it be an epilogue to “walls”? A direct continuation? Or maybe something more fragmentary, like side stories? I spent a lot of time imagining different possibilities. But once we opened it up, each song felt like it was pointing in a different direction—in a good way. It constantly went against my expectations. So in terms of distance, it definitely ended up far from what I’d imagined. And I think I was able to dive into it with a huge sense of excitement.
That feeling of confusion and excitement existing at the same time seems like something all of you experienced while making “Nemuru – bridges,” and it also feels closely connected to what’s being depicted in the album’s story itself.
Suzuki: Yeah, that’s exactly right.
In the end, Laura day romance released the equivalent of two full albums’ worth of material in 2025, and even at the “walls” stage you didn’t yet know how it would all turn out. The second half must have come with significant time constraints. Listening to it, I had the sense that those limits may have worked in the album’s favor. Suzuki, how did you personally feel about the shortness of the production timeline?
Suzuki: In terms of release pace, it was definitely fast. But even while we were making the first half, we were already thinking in parallel about the second—about things like, “This song will probably end up there.” So it never felt like we were running out of time. That said, when you’re trying to create something on a scale that’s almost beyond your own control, there were moments where I felt genuinely confused—like I couldn’t fully grasp the entire shape of the work myself. And I do think that state of confusion ended up working in a positive way.
So the confusion was something you were actively seeking?
Suzuki: Well…
Isomoto: Hahaha [laughs].
INDEX
A New Beginning for the Band Built on Trust in the Listener
The combined title for the two-part project has been announced as ”Nemuru – walls or bridges”, and the choice of the conjunction “or” between walls and bridges really stood out. If it had been ”walls and bridges,” it would naturally recall John Lennon’s well-known album ”Walls and Bridges” (1974). Was that album part of the conceptual groundwork for this project?
Suzuki: It wasn’t an influence in a musical sense, but I did feel a strong connection between the Japanese title of that album, ”Kokoro no Kabe, Ai no Hashi” (Walls of the Heart, Bridges of Love), and the concept behind our own album this time. Beyond that, the circumstances under which ”Kokoro no Kabe, Ai no Hashi” was created, as well as its overall atmosphere, were things we did reference to some extent.
“Kokoro no Kabe, Ai no Hashi” is often discussed, historically speaking, as an album that emerged from what’s known as John Lennon’s “lost weekend,” isn’t it? A period when he was viewed with suspicion by the U.S. government, living apart from Yoko Ono, staying in California with his lover, and drinking heavily — by all accounts, a time of deep disillusionment. How do you personally take in an album that was born out of circumstances like that?
Suzuki: I’ve always had this image of John Lennon as someone defined by extremes — huge ups and downs. He feels difficult to approach, in a way [laughs], impulsive even, but the love at the core of him feels completely genuine. I imagine he was a complicated person like that. With “Kokoro no Kabe, Ai no Hashi,” I sense a kind of despair mixed in, something like the backlash of a manic phase in a romantic relationship. The bigger someone’s capacity for love is, the harder the swing back can be. That idea became a hint for us when we were making our own album.
In Laura day romance’s case, you connected “walls” and “bridges” with “or,” and that choice almost feels like standing in front of an unpredictable future, where you don’t yet know what will happen. Why did you decide on “or” as the conjunction?
Suzuki: I think it’s an “or” in the sense that everything comes down to judgment — how you choose to decide. It’s about asking, “Which way do we judge this?” That’s the kind of title we wanted. And honestly, I think it’s also possible that “walls” and “bridges” could be the same thing.
I sometimes feel that storytelling inevitably becomes a kind of document of its creators. To what extent do you think ”Nemuru – walls or bridges” functions as a document of Laura day romance as a band?
Suzuki: For me personally, when it came to making the second half, the decision to allow ourselves to make more aggressive, risk-taking judgments was something rooted in what we’ve built up so far, and in the trust we have in our listeners. We’ve made our major-label debut, and for everyone who’s stayed with us up to this point, there are things we didn’t want to change — mainly matters of quality. Those core elements stay the same, while we’re saying, “We’re going on a new adventure.” The soundscape of this album was born from that choice. In that sense, it does feel like a document of the band, shaped by our history… though, well, who knows.
Kazuki, what do you think?
Inoue: From a vocalist’s perspective, there are always multiple viewpoints at play: the narrator’s perspective, the protagonist’s perspective, and my own. I start from the premise that I need to weave those together in a balanced way as I sing. With that in mind, I feel that my own personal perspective comes through more strongly on “bridges” than it did on “walls.” Rather than fully slipping into the role of a protagonist, or staying purely objective as a narrator, there were more takes this time that were chosen because they felt like my own voice, my own song. My approach to singing also changed between “walls” and “bridges,” and you can hear that shift. In that sense, the visible progression itself might be what makes it feel documentary-like. Though, honestly, I think that applies to all of our work to some extent.
Yuta, how do you see the connection between this album and your own reality as a band?
Isomoto: When I think about the last two or three years for us, a lot has really happened. There were moments when things didn’t quite line up with other people, and about those kinds of issues, we talk as band members on a pretty regular basis. It’s not like we sit down formally and hash things out knee to knee, but we can talk about them casually, in a frank way. Because we’ve built up that kind of communication over time, even without having the album’s theme spelled out in advance, I was able to take this record in as something very personal to me.
Also, the changes in sound between the first and second halves reflect where we want to be headed as a band going forward. Whether it’s the themes or the sonic direction, I feel like the band’s own document is deeply embedded in this album.
