INDEX
“Reflecting on Three Past Albums
-This is how you came to be formed in March 2021 and released your first self-titled album “downt” in October of the same year. I think it was an important start in terms of presenting your worldview and direction.
Kawai: We just put it out to record first. Personally, there was a point where I was questioning the trend of mainstream singles at the time, and since it was the Corona pandemic, I thought it would be better to pop it out. There are many bands that I love even if their first album is not good, so my priority was to release it as an album first.
-I think there was also great joy in the fact that you wanted to make a work of art, recruited members, and were finally able to give birth to it in the world.
Togashi: I was already overflowing with emotion. It was my first time recording a song, and I didn’t even know what pre-production was, but through the arrangement, the song became many times better than the one I had written myself. I experienced the fun of giving shape to the song.
Kawai: It was a joy for me, too, but I don’t think I did anything new. It was just a feeling that I had packed in the essence of what I had learned in my previous bands, so it felt like I was just doing the usual things that are usually done.
-The second album, “SAKANA e.p.” (released in June 2022), seems to have had a more particular theme and focus as a band than “downt,” which was produced right after the formation of the band.
Togashi: I had never had any EMO in my roots before, so I was taught a lot of things and got into irregular tuning. From the second album, there were people checking out the recordings, and we recorded at Tsubame Studio, which we also used for this album, so I think we were able to experiment with the sound.
Kawai： There was a fish jacket that was used for the record first.
-There was a fish jacket that was used for a record earlier, “ANTHOLOGY” (an edited LP released in 2022).
Kawai： Yes. I decided to use that photo, which I liked, for the jacket. At the time, we were doing live shows with Kudaranai 1 Day, ANORAK!, and Togaru, and Togaru was influenced by them, and Togashi said he wanted to try it with irregular tuning, so we started making it. In the end, the fish jackets ended up on the record instead of the EP, which complicated things.
Personally, I didn’t really want to evolve. We were a band that came together to make a soundtrack, so from an atmospheric standpoint, I felt as if we had finished once when we released “downt”. As we challenged ourselves to come up with more things we wanted to do, phrases like “EMO’s superlatives” started coming from Togashi, and we had a hard time matching them.
-I guess you mean that the album is like the first episode of the second chapter.
Kawai: Let’s call it that.
-This is connected to the second chapter, but after the release of “SAKANA e.p.,” activities other than just creating works have expanded, such as the “Look a Ghost Tour” in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka and the appearance at “FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL ’22, I think you had some challenges and visions.
Kawai: There were none.
-You mean you continued to do what you wanted to do, the feeling you had at the time of the formation of the group?
Kawai： After “SAKANA e.p.,” I was getting tired of EMO and pirouetting songs. There were songs I wanted to create with that sense, but I couldn’t share the same image, so I struggled before and after “III” (released in June 2023).
Togashi: I couldn’t figure out what was different. I was always struggling with it.
Kawai: We wanted to spend a lot of time on “13th Moon” and one other song to build up the band’s style, but we couldn’t do it well. I thought it was too narrow to say, “This is our style. So, I don’t really want to do this with the band. We have always had the same desire to create works of art.
-Is that still the case today?
Kawai: The reason we focus on creating works is because it is easier for us to be active. Until now, I used to think that if I had time to think about other bands and the scene, I would write songs, but recently I’ve been thinking that if thinking about it makes my activities more interesting, then I might as well think about it.
-How about you, Robert?
Robert: Of course I am doing what I want to do, but compared to the two of you, I feel that I have less of a strong “this is what I want to do” feeling.
I think I’m going in the right direction, but I can’t articulate it clearly, so I feel like I need to pursue it more in the process of making “13th Moon.
