SECTION 5
SOUZOU [CREATIVITY]

2. Shiya no Doraibu de Kyoku wa Umareru
[On Late-night Drives, Melodies are Born]

In the middle of the night, when I feel really dull, I get in my car and go driving by myself. Driving on the Tokyo-Nagoya Expressway, not thinking about anything, doing nothing but stepping on the accelerator, I watch the landscape flash by.

Then suddenly from behind, I get a shock as if hit with a baseball bat. Bam! It feels like I'm hit in the back of the head, and it practically hurts.

When I am in control of myself again, I can place a transparent screen in front of me. On this screen, still images are reflected. These images are converted to moving images and a story is projected. A thin filter appears between my eyes and the real world outside, and on there, I feel like images suddenly appear and come to life.

In those images, since the beginning, there have been times when the images are accompanied by sound, and also times when it's just the images. There have also been cases where it's just the melody and other times just the rhythm. Sometimes I have no idea what the images mean. But something that doesn't change is that there is always a story inside of me. These then become certain themes that rise to the surface. I get inspiration from these images, and melodies come out of them.

If the story is put down in individual characters, it becomes a short story, and if it's extremely short, it becomes song lyrics.

I usually realize these images when they hit me hard. This might occur frequently, and then there are times when it's far in between. When it doesn't happen, though people say to me "Please write more songs!" I can only say "I'm trying, but it's not working." At those times, I can do nothing but wait.

I always feel like that about my songwriting. It's the foundation of songwriting and I can't change it. Previously, I had a studio at home. I thought that if I had a studio at home, wouldn't it make it easy for everyone to gather there and to write songs? I thought I could also write songs that way.

But that didn't work, and when I thought about it some more, whenever I'm able to compose something, it's always an unexpected occurrence. It's when I'm looking at the landscape or when I'm driving. When I think "I need to write a song!" I can never do it. In the end, the studio doesn't matter. I hate shutting myself in to write songs.

A story always begins with the idea coming in from afar and hitting me with a bang.

So, even though the record company says "We need a new song by this date," it's not that easy. Generally, I have to push back the release date.

For Moon, I pushed back the release date a whole four months. Though I did that, in actuality, it took eleven months. From now on, things will probably take even more time.

Though this is not an apology to the fans who have been waiting, I'm a different kind of personality and not a "commercial author." I'll put out what I want to put out. I'm not going to compromise or make excuses. No matter how many months it takes, until I turn out something that's good enough, I won't make compromises. That is my duty. Furthermore, I believe that that is the final product that the fans wait for.

When writing lyrics, I want to use Japanese to its utmost. I love the beauty of the Japanese language. So I don't use English if I can help it. Compared to other artists, my ratio of English usage is extremely small.

It's very hard to match up Japanese words with music.

There are a great many ways to match up English words with each musical note. However, basically in Japanese, one word does not match up with one note.

For example, let's say there are these lyrics: "ano toki, paatii de kimi o mite." In English, it would be "When I/saw you/at the/party." You're able to push the whole line of "ano toki, paatii de kimi o mite" into four notes.

However, in Japanese, four notes are just four notes. You can only put in "ano toki." The main difference between Japanese and English is the percentage of words you can put into one note. So everyone is using English and becoming good at writing lyrics.

I feel sometimes like I need to get away from that.

However, when I first heard the theme song to "Fist of the North Star," it left me with a deep impression. I thought that part of the song was saying "You are shock." But then when I looked at the lyrics, it turned out that the lyrics are actually "You wa shokku." [note: "You wa shokku" is "You are shock" in Japanese >.> It's also the theme song to Hokuto no Ken, apparently]

I was shocked. Not because of anything to do with the meaninglessness of the phrase, but because my ears couldn't tell the difference.

That's not to say that I'm denying the use of English. Using English is also an interesting way of doing things. Of course, you're free to use it. However, because I'm Japanese, I want to put the beauty of Japanese into every note of music. I don't want to run away from that.

When I heard B'z's "Itsuka no Merry Christmas", I cried. I thought, why does this song bring to mind such a lonely scene? [lit: why does a lonely scene appear]. "Mou Ichido Kiss Shitakatta" was great too.

Though the one who writes the lyrics is Inaba-kun [note: Inaba Koshi, B'z's vocalist], he does it with a lot of passion.

Also while listening to Mr. Children's Sakura-kun's [note: Sakurai Kazutoshi, Mr. Children's vocalist] "Dakishimetai", I started clapping without thinking about it.

When I listen to a wonderful melody, I'm always moved. However, I'm not just moved. I'm also proud to be Japanese just like them. I'm proud of the fact that, in the Japanese music scene, there are people here who can write such marvelous music like this. When I was touched by the troubles in their lives [lit: felt their trouble-filled lives], I think that's probably the musician's way of life.

An artist's music and lyrics are like pieces of his or her life. They quickly cut away at the body, and are works that consist of a repetition of the artist's own experiences.

It's great that things like this can move people in such a way.

At times, the important thing for me is what I'm trying to convey to the listener, and sometimes I feel like it's like a letter. It's about making things importantly and consistently and searching for my roots. What I always think about is that music should never pressure people to fit a mold. I want to be flexible concerning music.

My music is a page of a book of notes about the lives of the people who have listened to it. I don't care if it's like a little written memo tucked away into a corner. I am glad if that little written memo is a motive for something and becomes a force pushing at people's backs.

No, in a corner of someone's life, my music is only something that was written down. The meaning of our existence is in that place, don't you think?