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Creating Music That Gives You That ‘Wow!’ Moment, Like Smelling Your Favorite Scent
I feel that before SATOH focuses on “what kind of sound to create,” they first explore “what kind of person they want to be,” and then work on expressing that through their music. This year’s seven releases seemed to showcase SATOH’s identity more than ever, and I’m curious about what led to this shift. Looking back at those seven tracks, what inspired the creation of “Welcome to life”?
Linna Figg： When I was writing the lyrics for “Welcome to life,” I was in the middle of a period of exploration. With the record deal and the changes in my environment, I started thinking about where I’ll be in 10 or 30 years. In my vision, SATOH won’t exist 30 years from now. I thought I’d stop before I get too old. During that time, I found myself questioning whether the path I was on was the right one, and there was a lot of confusion and internal conflict. But when I finally felt that “I can do this,” that’s when the song came together. Also, my friend Harry Teardrop came to stay with me from New York, and when we went to the local Life supermarket, we saw “Welcome to LIFE” written on the sign. Harry got really excited about it, saying, “This is it! We should make a song about this!” That energy definitely contributed to the song’s creation [laughs].
Kyazm: I remember playing the guitar in a very relaxed way.
It might sound a bit awkward to put it into words, but do you feel that the sound aligns with the feeling of starting to overcome confusion?
Kyazm: Yeah, exactly. During the recording, I tried playing so softly that I could hardly hear my own sound coming back. It was like capturing the “space” within the song through the guitar.
How about “Rich & Famous”?
Linna Figg： This one is all about having fun. My friend ary, a rapper and songwriter, came over, and while we were watching a live video of Tomoyasu Hotei, he suggested, “Let’s make a riff like Hotei’s.” So, we just messed around and created the song [laughs].
If I were to sum up what SATOH has been singing about across all seven tracks, including “Rich & Famous” with its mellow verse and explosive hook, along with themes about self and other artists’ attitudes, I’d say it’s “love and frustration.” How do you feel about that?
Linna Figg： That’s a bit embarrassing [laughs].
[laughs]. Even though “Rich & Famous” was created in a playful way, looking back at the seven tracks, what do you think has been the driving force behind these songs for you?
Linna Figg： “Rich & Famous” was pretty much a freestyle, but now that you mention it, I might have been thinking about those things. I definitely felt frustrated. But recently, I’ve been thinking… don’t you ever feel like something like a substance comes out of your brain when you’re listening to music?
Out of your brain?
Linna Figg: Kind of it, but it’s more like the feeling you get when you smell your favorite scent and go, “Wow!” For example, you can get that feeling from movies or things outside of music, but it happens a lot with music. That’s probably why I love it so much. The music I create needs to evoke that feeling, or it just doesn’t feel right. If I don’t get that substance, I scrap the demo. It might be that I create music more with the intention of bringing out that feeling, rather than focusing on what I want to sing.
For me, my brain shakes when I see something hidden by the creator of a song revealed within the music. For you, Linna, what kind of elements bring out that “substance”?
Linna Figg： When I go to the airport, I get that “Wow!” feeling. Also, I’m from Yokohama, and in the Kohoku New Town area, in the evening, the light in the apartment looks like dots, and it feels like the walls themselves are glowing. The sky is blue at the bottom and dark at the top. Those kinds of scenes also give me that “Wow!” feeling. It’s that kind of vibe. I’m not trying to create those exact scenes, but I want to make music that gives off a similar kind of substance.
Do you share that feeling with Kyazm?
Kyazm: I don’t share that exact feeling, but I do really love the songs. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be working together. For me, it’s more about movies, games, and manga that make my brain shake. It’s not the visuals themselves, but the structure, the composition, that really gets to me.
Linna Figg: You’re a genius.
Kyazm: To put it simply, it’s like “foreshadowing” even though I might’ve made it too obvious.
Linna Figg： Sometimes, depending on the vibes at the time, I can’t find the right song to listen to, so it’s not about showing off or anything, but honestly, it’s faster for us to just make it ourselves. On the other hand, this past week I’ve been so obsessed with Yuki Chiba’s album that I’ve been listening to it non-stop, so I’m not really in the mood to make music. I’m fine for now [laughs].
It’s great that you’ve been able to maintain the style of not forcing yourself to write when you’re in the mood to listen to music, even after signing a major contract.
Linna Figg： There are a lot of deadlines, and it seems cool to go to a family restaurant in the middle of the night and write songs, right? I thought, “That sounds nice,” and tried it once, but it was just impossible.
Kyazm: Haha [laughs].
Linna Figg: If it doesn’t feel right, I try not to force it [laughs].
It’s not that you’re rejecting the approach of writing music with deadlines or themes, but rather that you admired it.
Linna Figg： I just think it’s really cool. If I were writing songs for someone else, I could make as many as I wanted, but if it’s for my own work, it would be a lie if I didn’t feel motivated. So I think it’s pointless to create something when I’m not really feeling it.
I also felt that the “person” came through in the 7 songs, and I think that’s because you naturally expressed only what resonated with your own mind, and you delved into expressing that as SATOH.
Linna Figg： I feel like I’ve reduced the amount of thinking I do. When I start thinking about whether the casual ideas I put out there have better hooks, are more understandable, catchy, and easy to convey, I end up falling into perfectionism. I think with the album BORN IN ASIA that we released in 2023, I tried to refine things like that. But then I decided to stop doing that for a while. There’s not a particular reason for it, but I just felt like it would be better or more interesting this way.
You decided to just put out what came from you, without adding too many embellishments.
Linna Figg： Yeah, I thought it would be better that way in the end. Sometimes when I talk to people who listen to us at live shows, I realize they’re listening much more thoughtfully than I expected, and they’re thinking a lot about it. I’m not the type to say, “This is what I want to convey,” but if they’re feeling it freely like that, I thought it would be better to keep it more natural.
