It has been one year since Yumehito officially joined ayabie on November 16, 2006. They had their national and world tour and released a CD. Their power never seems to decrease. Throughout their activities ayabie have managed to put each members' personalities, as well as their musical direction, into their work more and more, gradually creating a well-balanced beautiful pentagon.

They will release a new mini album in November, and will do their national tour from December 2007 to January 2008, so we asked them about how they changed and developed throughout this one year.


It's just one year after Yumehito officially joined on November 16, 2006. How was this one year for you, Yumehito?

Yumehito: It's been so fast, it went by just like that.

After you joined the band the mood changed a lot.

Aoi: Not only has the mood changed, but also the band itself, I think.

Takehito: Yes, he influences even the band's color.

Aoi: The original members of our band are these three members (Aoi, Takehito, and Intetsu), and Kenzo joined a little after. I think a member change influences the band a lot. We did that twice, and we were able to grow, which means we, the original members, were right in who we chose to join, I think. When Kenzo joined, I think a lot of people had something to say about that, and our schedule was really hard for him right from the beginning. He worked really hard to make it work. Now he is a lead person in the band in various ways. Yumehito is a guitarist and composer, but he is replacing our former member who had these positions, so I think he also had a similar experience to Kenzo.

He must have felt a lot of pressure too.

Yumehito: Yes. I felt frustrated so many times like "I can't put up with this anymore! I want to give up!" but the other members encouraged me by saying "Don't worry. You'll see next year, around this time, that we are absolutely right." Even they themselves felt uneasy at times. I'm the type that reacts well to compliments (laugh). It think that they did well keeping me here through thick and thin.

Aoi: He pushed away various criticisms and became the main composer, so I think he works very hard.

Intetsu: Yes. When the former guitarist left our band, we were asked "Can you really continue?" by so many people. Then Yumehito joined and he was looked at by others as replacing the former guitarist. He was compared to him, but what changed his reputation were "his songs", I think. The world he expressed really touched our fans. Well we four members chose Yumehito thinking that "We can make a new ayabie with him", from the beginning. It's great that we can show that to our fans and staff through our songs.

As Intetsu said, did you want to appeal to fans through your songs and your world view?

Yumehito: Yes, because I only have my songs. So I wanted to be heard through my songs, then perhaps people could appreciate me. And I really wanted to help them. The other four members, except me, had their certain roles in the band already. I, who joined later, thought about that a lot. "What can I do for the band?" I think I wanted to be recognized by the band members first.

For the rest of the interview, please refer to Zy 37.

arhh, that;s sad D: . too bad, Zy's copy right. but there are som articles that they posted the whole thing, just too bad that this one dont (>_<).