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Novelist Asako Yuzuki Joins as a Narrator. Behind the Scenes of the Production Process
“Meshi” was mentioned as the first song Chappo created, but the album also features a narration, with novelist Asako Yuzuki’s writing highlighted.
Fukuhara: It originally started with a scene from Mikio Naruse’s Meshi (1951), where the kitchen is visible. I repeated that scene and added music to it. The part where the rhythm changes was meant to capture the feeling of children returning from the park, eagerly waiting for dinner as the evening sets in.
I created it about five years ago, and at that time, I was mainly writing the bassline myself. But five years later, I gave everyone the freedom to reinterpret and play it again.
(Meshi is a 1951 film directed by Mikio Naruse, starring Setsuko Hara. It was based on the novel by Fumiko Hayashi, serialized in the Asahi Shimbun, with a screenplay co-written by Shunro Ide and Sumi Tanaka.)
Do you often start songs from a visual image?
Fukuhara: Yes, that’s often the case. I began creating music for student films, so I tend to start with some kind of visual image in my mind, like “I wonder if this is how I felt back then?” It’s more of an intuitive process, beginning with some mental image I have.
I often get asked, “Did you base this on a boogie-woogie rhythm?” or “Was this inspired by the rhythm of Haruomi Hosono & Yellow Magic Band’s ‘Japanese Rumba’?” because I tend to talk in a way that sounds a bit like a researcher, but the truth is, I create music purely from imagination. Later, I’ll realize something like, “Ah, that sounds a bit like a New Orleans beat,” but that recognition happens afterward.
Hosono: When we first recorded “Meshi,” it was done remotely. Drummer Sota Ebihara and I were in the same studio, and On-kun was at home in Ehime due to COVID, so he directed us over the phone from there, saying things like “record it like this.” At that time, it was just the three of us, and it had a raw, energetic vibe that was great. But this time, it feels like we’ve powered it up.
Fukuhara: I didn’t plan to include it in the album at first. But Yuta clearly said, “I want to include it.” I couldn’t figure out what to do with the take we recorded five years ago with just the three of us, but in the end, I played the mandolin, steel guitar, and banjo myself. At the time, I thought, “This might not work,” but Yuta said, “We’ll make it work.”
Hosono: We didn’t think about it too much [laughs]. We just wanted to include it.
Fukuhara: But it actually worked out. When I play string instruments, Yuta handles the recording, and I play, saying things like, “Which one sounds better?” and we make the decision under his direction. It made me realize, at that moment, that he really wanted to do this [laughs].
How did the narration by Asako Yuzuki come to be?
Fukuhara: At first, I wasn’t confident about the song, so I thought about filling it with environmental sounds. I recorded sounds from a Chinese restaurant, like the sizzling of a cast-iron pan, and thought about filling the track with those. During that discussion, the idea came up, “What if we had a recipe read aloud?” But I didn’t want it to just be a simple recipe reading, so I thought of Asako Yuzuki.
I often visit Yuzuki-san’s house. When we talked about “Meshi,” it led to discussions about Fumiko Hayashi and even feminism. I thought that Yuzuki-san could write something that would capture my thoughts as well, and from there, everything progressed smoothly.
There’s no clear boundary between instrumental and vocal tracks, and various ideas like environmental sounds and narration are packed into your music.
Fukuhara: Basically, I leave the final decision to Yuta. I’m the type of person whose ideas come quickly, but I end up overthinking them. So, if Yuta is on board with something, it’s adopted. What he wants to do is what I want to do.I adopt it.
“Meshi” was probably the most like that. I thought, “It might be better to put something a little more diverse towards the end of the album, but it feels like it could work as the second track.” When I discussed it with him, he said, “It has to be the second track. You start with voices, after all.”
Indeed, the first track, “a one,” features a variety of voices.
Fukuhara: While making the album, I realized that the songs are shaped by the people I’ve met and the events that have happened over the last few years. It’s not the things I didn’t want to do or didn’t want to make that define me, but rather, depending on the situation, I end up choosing from what was already within me.
I think that’s what makes it uniquely ours. That’s why, for the first track, “a one,” we included the voices of people around us, and I feel that’s part of the theme of the album itself.
From what you’ve shared, it’s interesting that you come up with the ideas, but Yuta is the fixer [laughs].
Fukuhara: There was one time he said something really scary. He said, “I was ready to give up on you if you stopped making interesting music.” I thought, “Wow, that’s scary!” [laughs]
Hosono: That’s really scary.
Fukuhara: But even after we talk about it, he doesn’t remember saying that. So, even though it might seem like I’m being selfish, it’s actually Yuta who’s creating the structure behind it all.
If you had to pick one song that Yuta feels particularly attached to, which would it be?
Hosono: Probably “Standard.”
Fukuhara: Really? That’s surprising.
Hosono: “Standard” is a song I created quite a while ago, and we recorded it after about five years. It was really meaningful to be able to include sounds from people like Takushi Nomura’s synthesizer and various other contributors.nds of many others.
Was including horns something you originally wanted to do?
Fukuhara: I actually planned to avoid using horns this time. “Standard” was originally a vocal track, and it’s the first song I ever wrote, so I didn’t have much confidence in it and didn’t intend to include it on the album. It’s a very important song to me, and I’ve performed it as a solo piece, but if it was going to be on the album, it had to be instrumental, and I wasn’t sure how to approach that.
At first, this song had a working title of “Frankie Sakai,” but Yuta said, “Of course, ‘Frankie’ is going to be on the album, right?” I said, “No, I can’t put it on. I can’t sing those lyrics in front of people.” He then said, “You can make it instrumental, right?” I thought he must have an idea in mind, but honestly, I had none [laughs]. But in the end, it all came together really well, and I’m happy with how it turned out.
