A key to invisible doors

 

I'd like to start this interview with an episode from my recent trip to Hong Kong. When sitting in a restaurant in front of a bowl of won-ton soup, I suddenly heard the song "Tsunaide Te". When looking around surprised to hear the Japanese song in Hong Kong, I realized that it came from a cassette player in a shop on the other side of the street. While imagining some kind of DJ specializing in J-pop, the next song I heard was some Chinese pop muzak. It was a really nice experience, and it made me feel like asking you whether you have the desire or ambition to sing also in countries outside Japan. You have strong connections to Taiwan, haven't you? ^(*1)

 

I'd love to sing somewhere else if I had the opportunity. I once did a concert in Taiwan, and appeared at a local MTV event. My concert tour across Japan starts this coming May, but I hope that I'll be able to go to Taiwan again too…

 

While pursuing your career as a trailblazing artist, you seem to enjoy mixing with creators from other genres. I heard you're a fan of Lee U-Fan. Do you get much inspiration from art or movies?

 

Yes, definitely. Part of my newest album "Key" was in fact strongly inspired by the movie "Pan’s Labyrinth". The story of the film revolves around the Cthulhu Mythos^(*2), and I particularly liked about it the point that the aspects of yin and yang are treated not as some highly philosophical, esoteric matter, but as something that is directly involved in our daily lives. The protagonist draws doors onto walls, which function as gateways to different worlds. For me, songs have a similar function, and the album’s title "Key" refers to the basic idea of keys to unlock such invisible doors that serve as the album’s central theme.

 

Whenever you spot something that interests you, are you the type of person who immediately goes out to learn more about it?

 

In the case of the Cthulhu Mythos, I found a lot of information in "SF Magazine". I hadn't really read the magazine before, so I was quite surprised to discover the magazine and the fact that Kyogoku Natsuhiko writes for it. One thing that flashed across my mind in terms of "believing people" was that, when somebody tells you about something he or she has seen, you can't say "no you haven't!"

 

"Key" is indeed an album like a movie, with some kind of "narration" thrown in here and there. In rock music, Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, King Crimson or Prince used to make this sort of narrative records, but such albums have become rare these days…

 

That’s probably because artists ask themselves what’s the use of a concept album in times when people purchase single tracks from the iTunes store, and listen to them on the iPod in shuffle mode. But as long as there are people who want to listen to these kinds of albums, I want to make them. For example, especially on older R&B or hip hop records, there even were single songs that could sum up the respective artist’s entire life or personality, but as I'm not that sort of person, I do it my own modest way. (laughs) I guess what I do is closer to Tanikawa Shuntaro’s "Kotoba asobi uta" for example.

 

Facing the self and the audience

 

One thing that is particularly notable about this time’s album is the fact that it features results of various collaborations, such as "Chaban Geki", which was composed by Yokoyama Ken. Did you compose your own songs when you first became a singer?

 

A long time ago, when I had more free time, I used to compose, paint, and do other things through which I could reflect on myself. That was a period in which communicating things from me to others was all that I was having in mind, while now I'm much more considering also the listener. I happen to like playing around with words, so that’s probably why I opted for writing lyrics now that I don't have the time to do both.

 

To me personally, your lyrics sound more surreal the more I listen to them. In addition to the single expressions' meanings, there are those odd combinations of words, and a strange, "leaping" kind of thing that I feel going on between the lines. Even if it isn't directly "Pan’s Labyrinth", to me it does feel like walking in a maze while going back and forth through dozens of imaginary doors.

 

There is in fact something about words that I don't fully trust. There are always aspects of entanglement and misunderstanding involved in verbal communication, which is why I'm always careful when it comes to using such words as "love" for example. I immediately imagine people taking me by the collar and interrogating me about the "how pure", the "what exactly", and the "how much" of my "love"… (laughs) So, rather than creating "what if" kinds of encounter situations, I prefer illustrating sceneries that somehow communicate my thoughts.

 

How would you define your present position and feelings toward your audience?

 

I believe that there are things about me that I have to expose, and others that I better keep to myself. I once tried to work out a concept of myself as "an artist everybody likes", but there are always things I'm unable to communicate the way I'd like to. When talking to people on TV, they only use parts of such conversations, so who knows, some people perhaps see me as a girl that’s talking to power poles… (laughs) For now I think I'll just keep on doing my best singing for all those who like my songs.

 

I have to confess that I'm (secretly) comparing you to the late Teresa Teng, because I sense in your music the same kind of spirit of Showa era folk ballads that has otherwise become so rare today. This doesn't mean that your songs sound outdated, but that it is the kind of music that tells people about all the fun and the sad things in life. "Chaban Geki!" or "Edo Polka" would be two examples.

 

Speaking of Showa era folk ballads, the deaths of Aku Yu and Kuze Teruhiko were quite significant events, and even if I didn't exactly feel like I had to "inherit" something from them, these were occasions that made me realize that trying how much "human aura" I could exude on stage was the task that was imposed on me. So I go up on stage and exude with all my might (laughs), and while I'm of course happy when people like the entire album, I'm now at a point where I think it’s fine when people feel satisfied after a song’s worth of "human aura", because this proves that I did manage to communicate something, and that’s what it’s all about.

 

I'd like to close the interview with a question related to Tokyo, as it will appear on Realtokyo… Is there any place in Tokyo that you particularly like?

 

I like the "Cafe Rokuchome" in Todoroki, where I can just sit down and spend a couple of hours daydreaming. It’s a furniture shop with a caf_ in an old, traditional Japanese house. It’s run by young people, so it’s quite different from such nostalgic kinds of coffee shops as "Erica"^(*3) in Kanda for example. It’s a nice place that looks as if it will be there forever and a day.