Yuko Natsuyoshi is also active as a voice actress, and as a vocalist, she has the singing ability to express a variety of genres, and her lyrics create a unique worldview. As a composer, Yamato continues to create a variety of songs that bring out the best in his singing ability.
The long-awaited original album “nemo” released on May 29, 2024 includes songs from various genres such as pop, rock, and ambient, as well as the ending theme song “blan_” for the TV anime “Unnamed Memory”. Recorded. This is a piece where you can thoroughly enjoy Arika’s charm.
–So far, you have released “1440-EP” and “LENS-EP” and have also experienced live performances, but you have decided to release your long-awaited 1st album.
Yamato: Up until these two EPs, I had created the songs first, and Natsuyoshi wrote the lyrics, but from the new songs we wrote for this album, Natsuyoshi was responsible for the first part of the production. I decided to have Mr. As a result, I felt that we became more like Arika, and I feel that we are now able to do something that only we can do.
ーー Around the time of your 1st EP “1440-EP”, Natsuyoshi-san was also writing lyrics for the first time, right?
Yamato: That’s right. But when I asked him to write it, he had a pretty solid worldview, so I thought I’d make use of that, so I tried using the lyrics this time, and he said it was really good.
Natsuyoshi: It’s still a few songs into the lyrics, so it’s still in the experimental stage, but I feel like I’ve started to see the vision I want to create. Up until now, I had been thinking about not mentioning Yuko Natsuyoshi’s name too much, and instead focusing on Arika’s music, but as a voice actor, I thought about the words, and I was able to get close to the story through tie-up lyrics, and it felt a little theatrical. That part. She started thinking that it would be great if she could incorporate acting into her singing.
–The world view of Natsuyoshi’s lyrics is unique, and I feel like it accelerates my thinking.
Natsuyoshi: Especially for “1440-EP,” I put a lot of energy into writing it, so I was just trying to knead and knead the expressions, but on the album, I think I wrote it pretty much the way I wanted it. However, it would be embarrassing to write exactly what I thought, so I couldn’t let go of the feeling of getting confused (lol). However, I feel like I’m becoming more and more honest.
–Why are the lyrics so dark?
Natsuyoshi: I’m also someone who can actually feel happy about something that makes me happy (lol). However, when it comes to expressing emotions, expressions like sadness and anger come to the fore, and I’m good at that. Fun and cute songs can also be sung in a character song, so when I’m asked to express something myself, I end up saying things like, “Come to think of it, that annoyed me.” However, there’s no point in just writing about what irritates me, so I write the lyrics while thinking about how I can write about it in a more beautiful way (lol).
–The album includes all the songs from 1440-EP'' and LENS-EP.” What kind of works were these two albums?
Yamato: 1440-EP'' is quite an experimental work. The first song we made together was Akatsukiko,” and when we made an EP from that, a consistent theme emerged.
Natsuyoshi: Since it was my first time writing lyrics, I received advice such as Why don't you write with this theme?'' and I want you to put some hope into the song.” But once I started writing it down, I was able to write it smoothly, and that’s when I woke up. It turned out to be such a tiring lyric. From there on, I was methodical, but since the first song was a morning song, I wanted it to follow the flow of the day, so I wrote the lyrics from morning to night, and the result was “1440-EP.”
–Did you notice Natsuyoshi-san’s Zeroichi ability there?
Yamato: That’s right. At first, since it was my first time, I tried to give a rough idea of the theme, but when I saw the lyrics of “Akatsukiko,” I thought that wasn’t necessary (lol).
–What do you think about Natsuyoshi-san’s vocal ability?
Yamato: I knew before we started working together that they had great singing ability, but when we started recording, when I told them that I wanted them to do better, their responsiveness was amazing. When I ask him to sing in a softer way, he sings two times better than I expected, and he can express the same note in completely different ways. So, I wanted to expand on 1440-EP'' and created LENS-EP.” Therefore, the melody became more intense and more ballad-like.
–There was also an element of preparing for the live performance, right?
Natsuyoshi: Let’s put in a song that will be exciting live! That was my aim (lol).
Yamato: There were some parts that we made simply because we didn’t have enough songs (lol).
–This full album will contain all of Arika’s progress up to this point, but were there any songs that changed after being included in the album?
大和：アルバムでやってみたかったこととして、『1440-EP』の1曲目の「暁光」と最後の「からたち」は朝と夜で、EPをループして聴くと繋がるようなギミックを仕掛けていたんです。それをアルバムでは「からたち」「暁光」の流れにすることで、シームレスに繋がるようにしました。
夏吉：そういうのが憧れだったんです（笑）。CDで聴くとシームレスに次の曲にいくことがあるじゃないですか。そういうのをやりたいです！と言ったら再現してくれて。だからシャッフル再生はしないでくれ！って思っています（笑）。
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