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Grassroots Spirit for Music that Deserves Better: Hedigan’s Interview Part 2

2024.4.25

#MUSIC


YONCE, also known as Yosuke Kawakishi from Suchmos, launched the band Hedigan’s with his old friends. As mentioned in the first part of the interview, we learned about the band’s formation. In the second part, we delved deeper into their perspectives on “music” and “band,” starting from the background of their first EP, “2000JPY,” and how their worldview is reflected in their music.

In the first part, drummer Take Ouchi referred to himself as a “music practitioner,” and in the music of Hedigan’s, we hear sounds and words that seem to emerge as if guided by music itself. Hence, the music reflects the band’s deep-rooted love for roots music and their countercultural spirit, while YONCE’s outlook on life and society comes across in an unadorned manner. While Hedigan’s distances itself from the deliberate creation of music, they are not striving for grandeur. However, YONCE’s parting words, “I hope music becomes something even more wonderful,” are particularly significant. Once again, I reiterate the words written in the first part: Hedigan’s confronts the fundamental allure of “music” and “band.”

YONCE’s Perspective on Expression: Satisfaction in Spontaneity

-Which was the first song you wrote after starting Hedigan’s?

Ouchi: While we were recording The Street Sliders, we asked ourselves, “If everyone’s in the mood, why don’t we try a little arrangement of our own song? I think we were asked to play “Preachy Old Man’s Rumba.

YONCE: I shared my voice memo with them and asked them to listen to it. I wrote the lyrics to “Preachy Old Man’s Rumba,” “Salsberg,” and “Love (XL)” in my first or second year at Corona, when I was a stay-at-home kid. I was writing lyrics all the time when I was staying at home, and I recorded voice memos of the songs I liked and tried to add chords and songs to them.

-So you had been writing songs before you started Hedigan’s.

YONCE: The way I think about songs hasn’t changed. I started with “It’s so dark in the world, I wonder why” and tried to put something concrete to it. I had no motivation to release the song, but rather just recorded it for the time being in a way that was similar to excretion, not to organize my feelings. When I decided to do it with this lineup, I asked everyone to listen to it, thinking it might be interesting to touch on this part.

Ouchi: When we had just finished recording The Street Sliders and were playing around with making demos, we were halfway through my birthday project (a concert held on July 10, 2023, in which eight of Ouchi’s bands gathered), and I recklessly asked them, “Why don’t you think about doing one live performance here? We decided to arrange one live show for the event.

YONCE: That’s right. So, at the time, rather than aiming for a sound package, we were writing songs with the idea of trying to create something that would be easy and fun to play live.

-When it came to recording, was the Kurita brothers’ studio “STUDIO DIG.” and engineer Terry a big part of your work? You mentioned Terry (Hiroki Ito) as “the sixth member” during the live shows on the tour.

YONCE: I think “Hedigan’s” might mean Terry. He takes care of all the sound sculpting.

Ouchi: We might be the material [laughs].

YONCE: Yes. I feel like we are just ingredients for Terry’s cooking. We first went into the studio in Shimokita. That time is deep in my memory. It made me realize that I wasn’t suited to making music according to the reserved time, looking at the clock and saying, “I’ve got this song in mind for about this time, and the next song will take about this much time. On the other hand, when I was at STUDIO DIG., I didn’t spend a lot of time playing instruments or coming up with ideas all the time, but rather, when we were having a chat over a cup of tea, an idea would pop up and someone would go into the booth and say, “I’ll go do some work. I think it’s a very good way to create an open atmosphere. And then there is Terry, who responds immediately. I think we are in a very rare environment to be able to do music.

-The atmosphere, the sound, and the content and attitude of the songs are all consistent with each other. If I were to put it into words, I would say that it is a counter to capitalism and efficiency.

YONCE: Maybe it is largely embodied in the way we do things. In short, rather than striving to make what we have proposed “true,” we simply accept the status quo as it is. I don’t think there is much that one person can control.

Ouchi: For the past several years or so, it has become difficult to know how much to play to the lyrics. Everyone puts their heart and soul into writing lyrics, and drummers should pay attention to the lyrics when they play, but lately I prefer to play without worrying too much about the lyrics. It’s not like, “I’m saying these words, so I’m going to create this worldview. It’s more like we melt into the sound.

YONCE: That’s completely true. I am satisfied when the words come out of my body, so I have no desire to make them reach the listener. I have many thoughts about lyrics when I listen to music, but when I output them, I don’t want them to be misinterpreted or conveyed in a way that is inconsistent. Because it’s impossible. You have to let the other person measure you according to their own criteria. It is not music for lyrics, but music for music.

Ouchi: If you want to convey the message correctly, you should say it directly [laughs]. There is no need to use a band. So they say they are going to mislead you greatly.

YONCE: If I may say so, the “manner of defeat” is already “funny. There is a sense of laughter, as if you can laugh at it or not. But it doesn’t really matter.

Inner Complexity: Understanding Emotions and Personalities

-Of the six songs, “The Way of Defeat” is the only one that is different from the band’s sound. It is also the only one that is far removed from the band’s sound.

Ouchi: Mocchan (Motomura) contributes to “The Way of Defeat”.

YONCE: Mocchan programmed the beat for the breakbeats. The five of us recorded many takes of “The Way of Defeat” with various voices, and he took them home and made an interesting collage of them. I feel like this song was transformed by that process, or rather, it showed its true nature.

Ouchi: It started out with a completely different arrangement. It was a bit surrealistic, but while we were working on it, we kept thinking, “How is this going to sound? I don’t know. Let’s try different things until we figure it out. Then Motomura-kun came up with something really cool and said, “How about this? YONCE:Motocchan gave me the idea.

YONCE: Motomura made me realize [laughs].

-I know it’s not polite to ask him to talk about the lyrics, but since they came out honestly, I’d like to hear what thoughts were going through his body at the time. For example, “Logic is Lonely” was played at the end of the debut live performance before the release of the soundtrack, and it shook me to my core. It sounds like a song about happiness, life, and human beings.

YONCE: Hirauta is followed by two times, and it is written like two opposite sides of the same coin. Maybe there are both of them. There is a song by Shintaro Sakamoto, “Don’t take off your mask,” and the point is that people have various expressions. Basically, we aim to be natural, but there are times when we act under the influence of our natural environment. You say “just be yourself,” but you can’t just put your feet up on a desk here, you have to act like it.

Here, I am saying “you” () and “I” (). I am saying that there are both of them inside me. I think that both of us don’t understand each other. There is a part of me that I can’t forgive, and I can’t give up on it.

If you are looking for a place where you can never waver, like the “best” place or the best positioning, you will probably end up alone. In short, I think people cannot be with others unless they are imperfect.

I don’t think I can explain it perfectly – there are people who climb a mountain and then climb the next mountain from zero, and there are people who think they are at the top but there is more to come, and there are people who think they are just enjoying the ride. I think that the time we have to climb the same mountain in our lives is very precious.

Also, there are feelings and personalities that even within ourselves we cannot understand each other, and there is a deep river running through us, so we have to acknowledge it, not just say “over there” and “over here” or “I can’t forgive the other side”. The world has come to that kind of situation. I think the last part of the song probably has more to it. I may end up being alone, but I don’t think I will be.

Ouchi: “Loneliness” is an interesting theme. When I stay in this place while other band members around me go on to stardom, I have the feeling that I am alone, even though there are people around me. Maybe the other party might feel the same way.

YONCE: That’s true.

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