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☆ Alice Nine SHOXX vol.187

Friday, December 26, 2008, 3:19 PM.

vol.187 interview with Alice Nine
translated by: Noriko 'Non-Non' Takeuchi





↓p50

I haven’t seen you for 5 months, since you released「MIRROR BALL」.With 「MIRROR BALL」, it was an original song made to be the theme song of the movie [Aquarian Age] (Japanese Title). The concept of that song was obviously arranged to fit the movie, however, this time I really feel that [RAINBOWS] displays 120 percent of what alice nine. is about now. I think that it is a great single; it has a lot of force.

Shou: I’m happy to hear that. I think that you described it well.
Hiroto: Did get the feeling that there is nothing binding us or holding us down? .(laugh)

Yeah, I felt that.(laugh)

Shou: When we were selecting songs, Saga brought in「RAINBOWS」, and was really confident, saying “ Listen! This song is my living will! People will love this song!”.
Saga: Hang on, I didn’t say that. (laugh) You know that I brought it in casually.
Tora: Did you?(laugh)
Hiroto: We did not really have any theme that we were making the songs to, so each member just made songs and brought them in. There were about 17 songs in all, I think. From these, [Rainbows] was selected.

Yet in a way, I feel more of alice nice. in the poppy [Strawberry Fuzz] than I do in [Rainbows].

Shou: Yeah. Pop used to be our thing, but then one day I noticed that we had started to do more hard rock. I think that [Strawberry Fuzz] is very much the alice nine. that everyone is used to, and the name [Rainbows] sounds very pop too, but when you listen to it is totally different which is a little unexpected I think.

Yes that’s right. I imagined it to be a pop song like [Strawberry Fuzz], so I was surprised when I heard the intro. I think that is part of the appeal. The intro starts with computer sounds with looped drums, so it seems a little mechanical, but after the shout from Shou, the rhythm puts all the sounds together and the result is over whelming. I really like that part.

Saga: Yes, that is the part that we really want you to listen to. We looped the head part and arranged it using radio voices. I made the mechanical flow on purpose. Then I wanted to give a feeling of a sudden attack.
Tora: You were very particular with the quality of the bass.
Saga: Yes. I had never distorted bass sounds so much like that before. However, overall it was more electric and digital rock at first. But as we produced it, we increased the real instrumental sounds more and more. I wanted to attach all our sounds putting our all into it.
Tora: This time, I was very particular about the color of my sound. I had many troubles making guitar sounds, and it was hard to get to the place I wanted to go.
Hiroto: The sound could not be too straight or too processed.

I think that too much mechanical sound is associated with dance music. I think that it’s each instrument’s real sound that leaves that strong rock impression.

Nao: Drums were also quite difficult in this work.

I am kind of a two bass maniac, and having twisted in after the interlude was very cool.

Nao: Ah, I played that part with one foot.
Saga: Huh? Did you really do that?
Nao: Yeah! I am pretty talented with my feet! No, I am just joking. (laugh) It’s just two bass as you said! Isn’t it good? To be honest, this song had more a digital feel about it, so I was planning to make more use of digital sounds rather than real drum sounds at first. But when Saga said that he wanted to make use of my drums for the song I changed my thinking. So my soul is in every hit of the snare.
Saga: You sound like a famous foreign musician.(laugh) But when you compare it to the original song, the rhythm image totally changed. The first demo tape was recorded with looped drums, and it had more a mechanical or computer feeling. But it turned out to be hard rock through the use of real drum sounds in the song.

The drumming was not too bouncy, and I think that the guitar solo emphasizes the rock elements in the song.

Tora: Yeah, that’s right. It was more a dance music song at first, so I wondered if I could emphasize the rock elements in the interlude, so when we tried it in the preproduction it fit in quite well.
Hiroto: Let’s talk about my guitar playing in the outro, too!

I’ll start that now.(laugh) Tora plays a guitar solo in the interlude, and Hiroto plays a guitar solo in the outro. Your sound is so strong, the guitar sounds as though it is screaming.(laugh)

Hiroto: You think so too! I think that’s the highlight of having two guitar players after all. I think it’s part of the charm of this band that we show each guitarist’s character in solos in both the interlude and outro respectively. I think mine is more rugged guitar playing.(laugh) With the guitar solo in the outro, when we finished arranging the outro, we decided at the last moment that it would be better to run high in the end. I played the phrases which came to mind, and that is the way it turned out.

After the guitar solo, bass sounds conclude the song slowly. That flow is the best.

Saga: I think that it was good that we did not finish the song completely before recording. That allowed room for us to change things in the studio and the end product was very good.
Shou: I think so too.

Yeah, you are probably right. What about the lyrics, Shou?

Shou: When I listened to the demo tape this time, the image of a futuristic disco where various colored leaser beams are flying around in the air came to mind. And then I imagined us playing there. I had a clear picture of shouting strongly from the darkness to the light, so I made the lyrics with that in mind. This song is also re-start from the album『Alpha』, so that was also in my mind when I made the lyrics. I always have an image of pushing forward to the light from darkness, and this time I chose words that really matched that image. I chose a rainbow as a symbol of what we are aiming to do.

How about [Strawberry Fuzz]?

Hiroto: When that song came to me, it was purely one that I wanted to do in live concerts.
Shou: To me, when someone starts something new, or stands up to chase a dream or something there is a kind of embarrassment that occurs, I think. If I made that kind of feeling into a color, for me it would be pink. So I thought of the word ‘strawberry’, and added the word ‘fuzz’, as we tend to hide that feeling, or make it fuzzy so others can’t see it and surge forward to that goal or dream.
Saga: It is a very straight, bright rock, so I used Precision Bass to make thicker rock sounds instead of my usual jazz bass. And I usually sit and play in our recordings, but we all stood up and played in this song so I think that because of that it gives it a live feeling.

And [Kochouran] in the regular edition. You really broke fresh ground in this song! This song is incredibly good. R&B is mixed with rock very well. The mood is so beautiful.

Hiroto: Really! I really wanted to do that! I really concentrated on the mood and flow of that song. I wanted to put in female vocals so I asked to be introduced to some people from the R&B field.
Nao: It was so hard to create that mood! It was a new challenge for me; a new way of playing. You never release this kind of delicate bouncy feelings using synchronized music. You really have to hear it!
Tora: It was very hard to play this song but I did it. The mood of the intro was particularly difficult, but I learned a lot through this song.
Shou: With the lyrics, the theme was people’s weaknesses and inferiority complexes about beauty, and I used images of flowers and butterflies to do that. Hiroto said that he felt a morning mood and a kind of resentment in the song, so I used that when thinking of the theme. This song is new ground for us, so I want everyone to listen to it carefully, because I want you to really feel what it is saying.

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