SHOXX 2005 Fatima Interview
*** translator's notes are in [ ] brackets
Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka One Man Tour --- "taiyou wa yoru mo kagayaku [tr: even at night the sun sparkles] ---- was where the 1coin (500-en) CD "tsumugi ito" was sold [restricted to each specific livehouse]. Next spring there are plans to release their first album. But in regards to the release before that, "kesenai ame/muchina inochi e" is finally finished! In this article, Fatima talks about their work, and the new direction it is taking. From the beginning, musical composition, and Sanaka's lyrics have drawn on society, and have grown extremely profound. Now, let us carefully discuss their three new songs.
SHOXX : Have you finished recording?
Towa : Until just a little while ago we were still recording, but have now finished it completely. 4ge-kun and Lay-kun are a perfect combustion system.
SHOXX : You mean like a burning generator system ?
4ge : Yeah...
Towa : It's no exaggeration. I didn't sleep for about three days. Also during that time, we had lives to do! My head was all funny. (Laugh)
Lay : ha ha ha ha ha ha ... (Blank expression)
SHOXX : Well then, at least you hung in there (Laugh) The first thing I'd like to talk about is the 1-coin CD sold at the Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka lives. The title is "tsumugi ito." The sense I get is a sparkling song. From what I've heard of Fatima, I think it seems to be a song only Fatima can do.
4ge : This isn't the first time we've done 1-coin CDs. But, by choosing produce this song, we've established a certain point. Instead of what we've been identified with, Fatima will do this feel of music.
Sanaka : It is different, huh? (Laugh)
Lay : (Frankly) Well, isn't it new?
4ge : No shout. [Heh. XD]
SHOXX : So I'd like to hear what the themes of the three new songs are.
Lay : It is the future Fatima .... No, that might be wrong.
Sanaka : Until now, Fatima hasn't had music with this kind of feeling. Furthermore, we created an image from a relatively catch-like-code, and conciously made the melody easier to listen to.
Towa : 4ge-kun incorporated into the song something like a peculiar ambience, scale, guitar phrase. Isn't that Fatima-ish? The drums have a lot of kime [Not sure what that is]. We, the musical part, showed our perfection, and it turned out really good.
SHOXX : The guitar sound, it is really cool.
4ge : It is?
Mizuha : Coolness (Smile)! Hmm... For me, I wanted to fly in the sky. I wanted that feeling of "fuwaaaaa, and so I "fuwaaaaaa."
4ge : Until now, what we've produced has been in some respects new, and carried a certain point with the sound we made, and the phrases we considered; however, on the contrary, this time we're doing what we haven't before, and it's in this that we think we've done something new. It's what's called .... Something like .... Hm, wanting to refine.
SHOXX : The sense is refining. So, with that in mind, what about the lyrics: what's the inspiration behind the writing?
Sanaka : When I was first writing it, I didn't sense any inspiration, but then I watched one of Shiina Ringo's PVs, and saw this boy with frightened eyes. It was something like ... this PV had an awesome Terayama Shuuji [A Japanese cult filmmaker] mood to it. And seeing that, I got the feeling of the first line. From there, I expanded in an unusual direction. Do you understand the kind of song it is? And why "tsumugi ito"?
SHOXX : Is it about a person and another person's relationship? At least, that's what I had thought.
Sanaka : A quick story, or so it seems. But the meaning is the feeling of believing in a red string of fate. The string is spun, yet nothing is there, and so it's the making of that thread... "Because of that, if you try to redo it, you'll become good quickly," that is the kind of feeling, right? In the last 1~2 lines of the lyrics, the image of the two people's relationship is expressed. But, this song's main character could be either male or female, it was blurred. I wanted to make it ambiguous. Although both can be perceived, I'd like to know what readers have daringly deciphered.
Lay : I can only think of one. Naturally, it is a male, right?
SHOXX : 4ge-kun, what do you think?
4ge : Someone that seems female that seems male
Lay : Or something in between.
Sanaka : Ahahaha! I'm a male, but partners can also be male. (Laughs)
Mizuha : Is it so?!
SHOXX : (Laughs) Stop stop!.... But, wanting to do things over again, wanting a wish to return, those kinds of things are more apparent in males. Girls are relatively doing things in the manner of pretty dreams, moving on is more apparent. [where did SHOXX get this idea? o_o]
Lay : That could be. But, people have personal sides, and that seems to be a little of the feeling that was implied.
Sanaka : It was the last line that really summed everything up, and I want listeners to think of that which is "a brilliant everyday life."
SHOXX : Well now let's move onto the early release of the single. First, Lay-kun's music in "Kesenai Ame." Last month you talked about how you researched JROCK, and the result of that was Fatima-ROCK.
Lay : That's true, since "shizumu taion" that's how things are flowing. Recently I've liked that feeling... though it's not 100percent.
SHOXX : Is that the result of liking pop music?
Lay : It could be. But things like that [pop music] have the feeling of more singer-focus, and less instrumental-focus----I don't care for that, so I don't do it. It's about balance.
4ge : I like this sort of music ...
Sanaka : Huh? You like it?
4ge : Yeah. I love it.
Mizuha : Any more than that I love!!! It's a great feeling.
4ge : Lay said to me something like, "I want you to play it like this~!" If I comprehended it: "This way, I wonder..."
Mizuha : But being uncooperative brings about nothing
SHOXX : Anytime there's uncooperation, it's 3 percent.
Sanaka : The sound is, huh?
SHOXX : You said you wanted to be concerned about the sense of sound, the texture.
Lay : Besides that, being able to listen completely straight through.
Towa : It's a great feeling to play. But, my wrists get tired (Laughs) But I don't really like cheerful things.
Sanaka : That's because you like painful things, huh?
Towa : Also, Lay-kun's influence, and things that aren't really a catch----that's what I like (Laughs)
SHOXX : But, doing this song, painfulness doesn't decrease?
Sanaka : Ah, it doesn't? I thought it was too cheerful.
SHOXX : What? It's not cheerful at all.
Sanaka : Ah, the lyrics are of course dark. But on the first line, I described a light image that listeners could hold onto [the merry go round? o_O haha]. One moment there's this illusion, "Sanaka's finally gone cheerful?" However, too bad, I didn't continue with that!
SHOXX : I understand that (Laughs)
Sanaka : I've also written into these lyrics, differences between people and myself.
SHOXX : What differences?
Sanaka : People who grasp positivity inside others, that's a little ironic.
SHOXX : Sanaka-kun, inside of you is rain and things like that, what do those symbolize?
Sanaka : Tears. The rain that appears in "muchina inochi e" is also symbolic. The truth is that I wrote from these symbols "muchina inochi e"-'s lyrics, and wanted to somewhere let the reader see the relationship of both songs on the single. The contents itself are completely different, but reading it a lot, the point of the theme is there, and it's somewhat alike. The line in "muchina inochi e": "ame ya same" is really what becomes the important keyword.
Lay : Seems like it'd appear in a test.
Sanaka : Surely it would appear. I'd draw a red line! (<---- It's the way of the sensei)
SHOXX : (Laughs) So you've said that both songs are extremely different, and the music is fairly different as well.
Sanaka : 4ge unconciously titled, and made "muchina inochi e," right? I want listeners to try and see that.
4ge : When conjuring up the song "muchina inochi e," I was constantly, and repetitively humming to myself the guitar intro melody, and the guitar interlude melody, things like that.
Everyone : Really~!
Sanaka : I really like the intro guitar phrase.
4ge : Well, the sound is coarse.
SHOXX : There's a lot of coarseness, that it's cool. It sounds like an old black musician playing.
Sanaka : It's our 2004 sound (Laughs)
SHOXX : Was it inspired by black music?
Sanaka : It's the B-kei [Hip hop, rap type of music] inside.
Towa : No, isn't it a different kind of black music [I think he's hinting to Jazz] that's gotten into you? (Laughs)
4ge : (Big laugh)!
SHOXX : Mizuha-kun, what image did you play?
Mizuha : I didn't want to fly through the sky in this, because it was an apathetic attitude. I didn't incorporate any effects, I just played. It was natural.
Towa : These three songs aren't what Fatima's known for, but it's at this point that we'd like Fatima to be known for.
SHOXX : So the quality of Fatima has risen, huh?
Sanaka : We've always worked to raise the level of quality in our music.
Towa : For everyone that's been there for us, we hope that this is the best Fatima you've listened to yet, and we look forward to future lives.
