Skip to main content
NEWS EVENT SPECIAL SERIES

Revealing the Revelations of a ‘Miserable Monster’: Sori Sawada’s Exploration with 11 Books

2024.2.29

澤田空海理『己己巳己』

#PR #MUSIC

Singer-songwriter Kukairi Sawada has recently released a new track titled “己己巳己.” Formerly known as Sori Sawada, she transitioned to using her real name in 2021. Renowned for her lyricism that delves into personal narratives, often referred to as “a slice of my life,” Sawada crafts a distinctive style by vividly portraying emotional landscapes through precise sound design. Following her major label debut “Testament,” a response to a specific individual who served as a recurring motif in Sawada’s previous works, “Ikoi Miki” stands as a composition where she labels herself a “miserable monster.” In this song, she explores the thoughts and emotions beyond that persona, expressing a desire for a profound exchange of hearts and minds while acknowledging her own struggles.

The guiding principles of Sawada’s life philosophy stem more from novels and manga than from music. Having been a member of the baseball club from elementary school to university, he encountered works by female authors and manga artists like Kaori Ekuni in his twenties, leading to a significant update in his thinking. Describing this period as “finally starting life in my mid-twenties,” the impact has been immense. In this interview, Sawada brings novels and manga that have deeply impressed him throughout his life, allowing him to delve into the unique background of his authorship under the name Kukairi Sawada.

Songwriting without the Intention of Beautiful Words

Sori Sawada
Stimulates listeners’ senses by superimposing real emotions full of contradictions on everyday scenes. She is a singer-songwriter who also works as a professional writer. Her signature song, “If There Was Another Day,” has been covered by singers from a wide range of genres, from singer Mirei Touyama to virtual singer Hanafu. The total number of views of his cover videos exceeds 10 million.

I feel that your music is “music,” of course, but it also has a personal novel-like and visual appeal that doesn’t fit into the general category of “pop music. This is a strange question, but what do you yourself think you are creating?

Sawada: I call it “letters” to the outside world, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch, and in layman’s terms, it’s more like a “diary. It is not so much a “proof of my life” as it is a diary of the things that change over the course of my life and the things I have to leave behind as I live my life. …… I don’t think it is a collection of poems. I am aware that I am not trying to write beautiful words.

-How do you feel about calling it “art”?

Sawada: I would like to call it “art,” but I think what I am making is too childish to be called that, and it is definitely not cultural. If art is only possible when there is respect and understanding for the context, I don’t have that much of it. I don’t listen to a lot of music. So I guess it would be correct to say that I create within the limits of my own life.

-Sawada: Yes, that’s right.

Sawada: Yes, it is. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what the core of my creation is, and the more I look for it, the more I realize that I don’t have it, and I think this is a very dangerous thing. In other words, I feel that I can easily let go of music if I lose my enthusiasm for it somewhere. I’m surrounded by people who have a love of culture. I often go to houses where my friends are sharing a room, and they are all music lovers, and in their spare time they talk about “whose new album was good” and so on, but I can’t be a part of that. I feel that what I am doing is music production, not music culture.

-Are there many creators around you?

Sawada: I guess that’s a legacy of the Vocaloid era. I used to make compilations in my circle, so I still keep in touch with illustrators and other people I became friends with at that time. I think that if I try to acquire this knowledge now, it will be an “effort” rather than a “love”, and I would rather renew what I have cultivated than learn something new.

“My Life didn’t Start until I was 25 or 26 Years Old

-In terms of “authorship,” I think the novels and manga you brought today have probably had a greater influence on you than music, so I would like to ask you to introduce one book at a time. First, “Honey and Clover” by Chika Umino.

Sawada: I think it is the same with Chika Umino’s works in general, but just using the manga format, I have the feeling that I am in touch with her ideas and what she considers to be a beautiful way of life, and I think this is especially evident in “Honey and Clover”.

If you look at “Honey and Clover” as a whole, you might think it is a love story set in an art school, but there is also a story about creative theory in the middle of it, which is also very core to the story. There is a story about a bicycle trip in the middle of the film, and it’s because he’s going through the same struggles that I am. I mentioned that I am the only one who doesn’t like music culturally, but it’s the same thing. and sets out on a journey to find out. But the answer he comes back with is “I’m fine with that. It is not that he comes back with something special. Chika Umino’s philosophy and her way of thinking about creation are included in this book, and yet the quality of the romance story is so high. …… This is a good luck charm for me.

-I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not, but I’m sure it’s a good idea. Ekuni’s name has come up a lot in past interviews.

Sawada:Mr. Ekuni is the author I admire the most, and the first book I read was “Falling Evening. It may sound a little dangerous, but if I had been born with a female gender, I would probably read Ekuni Kaori and get helpless despair all the time.

When I look at the comments about Ekuni’s works on the Internet, I often read things like “she puts something into a universal love story,” but in my opinion, it’s more like imaginary, or “if she goes this far, it’s already the realm of drama. But Mr. Ekuni never lowers the resolution. He never writes about what he doesn’t know without knowing it, or rather, he writes as words that come from his core, so to me they seem to be his thoughts. I am aware of this when I write lyrics, but even if the lyrics are self-satisfied, I think it is important to strike despair into people’s hearts. If the intensity of the lyrics is not strong enough, it is absolutely useless, so in that sense, he is one of the writers I admire. I also love the heroine Hanako so much as a character that I put her first in my life (laughs).

(Laughs) – Another of Ekuni’s novels is “Holly Garden.

Sawada:I don’t like to use this kind of word for Ekuni’s novel, but the gimmick stuck with me so much. In the middle of the novel, there is a story about a can, which I call a “cursed can,” in which the main character stuffs pictures of her ex-boyfriends and other important people into the can and keeps them out of her reach. Actually, I do the same thing.

As in all of your novels, all of your characters are very strong. They are sometimes written as fragile, but they have a strong, unwavering character, and they flaunt that character to other people. They show that “I am just crazy about love, but the rest of me is normal. But the way he leaves his unresolved feelings behind is very easy: “I put them in a can and keep them out of reach,” and there is something human about that, or maybe it is just the naivete of people who do that. It’s a sense of balance that in the end everyone is not so different. I think it’s really wonderful.

Next is Kamenosuke Ogata’s “A Bright Night Like Castella,” his only collection of poems.

Sawada:I originally read it as a quote from one of Ekuni’s novels and thought, “What a beautiful passage. It is very difficult for me to blur my imagination and give the reader some kind of scene. I think people who can write lyrics like poems think about the lyrics one or two times more than I do. I think that if I don’t give it enough resolution, it’s just too clean. But if you reduce the resolution too much, it becomes just beautiful words, so I like people who strike a good balance between the two.

When I read the line, “The night as bright as Castella,” and it made me think of Castella in the night sky, I thought, “I’ve already been completely absorbed into your world. I learned that the power of words is most beautiful when used in this way.

-By the way, when did you first encounter “Honey and Clover” and Mr. Ekuni’s works?

Sawada:It was late. I was probably around 20 years old when I saw “Honey and Clover. Ekuni’s work was more recent, like in 2020, I think.

Until then, you were in a baseball-centered, boyish world, and then you came across these works.

Sawada: I feel like I finally found a place where I fit in. I don’t think I’ve said this in many interviews, but I didn’t really start my life until I was 25 or 26 (……), and now I don’t think I did much thinking with my head. I met a lot of people, thought about a lot of things, and when my tastes and interests became more in line with my own, I think I was able to see the outline of who I was for the first time. Until then, I was in a culture that was really the complete opposite of my own, and there is a part of me that has decided that I will never go back there.

RECOMMEND

NiEW’S PLAYLIST

NiEW recommends alternative music🆕

NiEW Best Music is a playlist featuring artists leading the music scene and offering alternative styles in our rapidly evolving society. Hailing from Tokyo, the NiEW editorial team proudly curates outstanding music that transcends size, genre, and nationality.

EVENTS