Charting the Path Forward: downt’s Musical Journey Across Genres

Unconventional Introduction: “Formerly Declared Hatred for Music” (Kawai)

– I feel that -downt’s music is fragile, as if it could end at any moment, and yet it has the strength to stand tall and dignified. I would like to ask you about that today. First of all, please tell us about your first encounter with music.

Togashi (Vo&Gt): My first encounter with music was when I was a child taking piano lessons. My older brother liked Western music, so there was always music playing in the house. However, it took me a while to get to know the band. When I was in junior high school, I saw some seniors playing in a band at a school festival, and I decided I wanted to try it too, so I bought an instrument when I entered high school.

-So you chose guitar from the beginning?

Togashi: Yes, I did. I played guitar for four years in a college club, but when I started working, I stopped playing the instrument for a while. One day, I decided I wanted to throw it all away and moved to Tokyo to start a band, and downt was born.

Robert (Dr.): I think my mother listened to Noriyuki Makihara and Hikaru Utada, and that’s how I got started. I didn’t start playing an instrument in junior high or high school, but Bump of Chicken, which I listened to when I was around junior high school age, may have been what made me fall in love with the band.

-What made you start playing in a band?

Robert: I liked LINKIN PARK when I entered high school and made friends through music. From there I became interested in musical instruments and started playing drums when I entered college. From there, I played in various copy bands, and when I became an adult, I started an original band and met Kawai-san.

Kawai (Ba): I was playing the electone by the time I can remember.

-Is that something you learned?

Kawai : Yes, that’s right. I was in the countryside, so I had no choice but to take lessons from my cousin, but it was boring. At the time, I introduced myself by saying, “I hate music.

-What was the catalyst for your shift from such strong dislike to an interest in music?

Togashi: I liked games and anime, so it was game music that got me started. We didn’t have CD stores in the countryside, and it wasn’t the era of listening to music on the Internet, so I used game consoles to listen to music.

-I guess game music and bands were different in some ways.

Kawai: My high school dorm friends taught me about Hi-STANDARD, GOING STEADY, Metallica, and other bands, and I fell in love with them a little. I played bass with a keyboard at a school festival, but I wanted to play properly, so I started playing guitar.

-Do you feel that you are reconstructing the roots you just mentioned through “downt”?　Or are you adding something that is not on your own axis?

Robert: I have a strong sense that I am beginning to touch new things that are outside of my consciousness. I don’t take what I have been listening to and consciously change it.

Kawai: I think that I can only do what moves me, so I try to express in my own way what I find good in live performances and sound sources. If we try to create something “original” from scratch, we end up with something safe or with a unique “atmosphere. And that’s not just with music.

Togashi: I don’t originally use what I hear as a reference. I often started by trying to incorporate abstract things like the flow of waves into guitar phrases. I think it is similar to the feeling of drawing a picture in my mind.

Kawai: If you try to neatly trace a template that already exists, you may want to change it without permission in the middle of the process, and the final result will be slightly different. It is just like cooking.

downt’s Journey: An Anxious Start in Member Recruitment

-What was it that made you stick to the band format and recruit members when there were other ways to do it, such as playing as a soloist?

Kawai: Why indeed?

Togashi: During the blank period after I graduated from the circle, my friends around me formed their own bands and played original music. I probably watched them and envied them. I wanted to try it myself, but I couldn’t write songs and there was no one to call on. I think I had a bittersweet regret.

-I think it was because of these regrets that you chose to be in a band. It must have been a big decision to move from Kyoto to Tokyo by yourself for the band.

Togashi: I had a lot of hope to be able to form a band, but I think I was more anxious. We didn’t know what kind of people would come to the band from online recruiting, and they might not show up at the studio. I was full of anxiety, but I kept telling myself, “It will be okay. It’s going to be okay.

– Kawai, you contacted her after seeing Togashi’s announcement.

Kawai: I was simply looking for a band, as there was no band I was a member of at the time. So I sent him a message, and after going through the studio, we just happened to decide to work together.

-Was there any aspect of the music that resonated with you?

Kawai: Honestly, not so much the songs. I thought they probably had never played in a band before, but I thought we could just barely make it work.

-Do you mean it can be materialized?

Kawai: No, I felt that I could put my own essence into it. If it had been different from my direction, I would have said, “Why don’t you have someone else do it? If it was different from my direction, I would have said, “Why don’t you use someone else?

-So you had something in common with yourself.

Kawai: That’s right. The melody was beautiful, but there were some incomprehensible fill-ins.

Togashi: It sounds terrible now, doesn’t it?

Kawai: No, it was good. In the end, we had to cut it down, but I could tell that what he wanted to do was “punk,” so I thought we could work together.

-Robert, you were invited to the studio by Kawai. Did you feel that you could put in what you wanted to do?

Robert: I had a strong sense that it would be interesting because I had never done it before. I wanted to play the drums more, and the timing was such that I wanted to spend more time on the drums with a lot of bands. I also wanted to work with Kawai-san, and “111511” that was sent to me had parts that made me think, “Can a person play drums? I was excited that something fun was going to happen, even though there were parts that made me wonder if people could play it.

-I think Kawai and Robert sometimes play with bands other than downt. Do you feel that there is a difference in your position or role in other bands and in DOWNT?

Kawai: I am not particularly conscious of it. But rather than wanting to focus on a particular band, I would rather play in a band with people who want to live their lives around music. I may make different choices for each band, and I may say different things to each band, but basically, I am centered on music.

Robert: We utilize what we’ve noticed in each band, but we don’t change our standing or roles.

-In the course of being in a band, I believe that besides musical direction, personality compatibility is also crucial. Was there a sense of resonance on a personal level from the beginning of your encounter?

Togashi: I have no idea why at all, but when I first entered the studio with Kawai-san, we had the same smell.

-Was that intuitive?

Togashi: Yes, that’s right. So I thought I wanted to be in a band with him without any doubts. I thought Robert-san is a solid person and there would be no problems.

Kawai: I also thought Togashi was a solid and serious person, but he was working as a full-time employee, and then suddenly in the second studio he said he quit his job to do what he wanted to do, and I thought he was a crazy guy. I thought it was a weekend drinking kind of band.