Cellist and singer-songwriter Kanon Wakeshima will be celebrating her 10th debut anniversary next year. Not too long ago, she got herself involved and played in VAMPS’ Halloween event “Halloween Party” as cellist —which was her 5th consecutive year appearance. She also composed and wrote lyrics of numerous anime theme songs and had been to various events all over the world this year. But music isn’t the only talent she’s got. Being involved in creating live goods for her live shows as an example, she had been working as an illustrator/designer as well. She had proved both her music and art could win the hearts of the audience. This multi-talented musician’s concept live show “The Strange Treat!” will finally take place for three months from November 2017 to January 2018.
“Kanon Wakeshima Live Tour 2017: Blue Beast Biology” was held on July 17th at Tsutaya O-East music venue in Shibuya. I was very touched by the finale, so much so that I can still vividly remember the finale as though it happened yesterday even today. It goes without saying I am thrilled about her upcoming live show “The Strange Treat!”. On that note, I’ve had an opportunity to have a quick chat with Kanon Wakeshima to talk about anything and everything. So without further ado, let’s get started—Volume 1: Kanon Wakeshima’s beginning.
English Translation: Shunya
Original article (in Japanese)
Vol. 1: The Road To “J-POP” That a Young Cellist Chose
We started the talk with the surprising answer she gave when asked about what her dream was at the finale of the previous tour: “I’m embarrassed to say this but when I debut, I thought I was going to sell out Nippon Budokan when I’m 24.”
Kanon Wakeshima: I was still young at the time and thought I had developed and completed my own unique style. Now that I think about it, I was very shallow back then. Life is hard and there are things that simply don’t work out as planned. The reality was different from what I had dreamed it to be. I was shooting for the stars but maybe I was dreaming too big. I felt bad and did some self-reflection on that actually (laughs).
On the other hand, however, there is no doubt many would hope to see her sell out Nippon Budokan and witness the moment when her dream comes true. We then dove into the topic of what she was like before her debut and talked about how she was raised.
Kanon Wakeshima: I started playing the cello when I was three but my parents were quite different from any other parents. They said, “You don’t have to study, but we want you to play the cello every day. And we don’t want you to quit.” And they were very strict on how I played and wanted me to put emphasis on expressing myself. They said, “It doesn’t matter whether you play well or not as long as you try to express yourself.” That’s what I’ve always been told as a kid. I was told to express myself through music because it’s meaningless to play absent-mindedly. My parents were very strict and there were times when playing instruments were quite depressing. But I had a great music teacher who showed me how interesting music can be when I was little. That’s how I kept up with music. I felt like my life was set up to pursue a career in music because of how I was raised—my parents telling me I don’t have to do well in other things as long as if I take music seriously—and also because I managed to keep playing without quitting.
That was like the definition of a gifted program! But it seems like she didn’t have much passion for music at the time which she now has and shows in her live shows. So what changed her mind?
Kanon Wakeshima: I started listening to J-POP for the first time when I was in middle school. Until then, I’ve only listened to classical music and early music like renaissance music. And I listened to jazz if I were to listen to something more modern and contemporary. Then I started listening to J-POP and western pop music and I thought, “Ah, there’s also a genre like this.” At that time, J-POP still felt distant to me. But the more and more I listened to the songs that my friends recommended, I started thinking, “It would be nice to write songs.”
There was almost no room for improvisation in classical music because you have to follow the music notation written in the sheet music. But I had a big ego at that time and wouldn’t follow the sheet music and played how I wanted to play (laughs). So I was very fascinated by how much freedom you have to express yourself in J-POP and thought I’d write songs on my own when I was in highschool. Then, there was an audition for teen singer-songwriters so I thought, “I’ll give it a shot as a learning experience.”
J-POP has completely changed her life. It’s interesting to see her say “It would be nice to write songs” and “I was very fascinated by how much freedom you have to express yourself in J-POP” because it’s no other musician but Kanon Wakeshima saying these things. This time, I was curious about what her future plans were before that audition.
Kanon Wakeshima: Before the audition, I thought I would study music in college. So in high school, I studied music and practiced in a particular manner so that I would be prepared for the college entrance exam. But I was still debating whether to go to college or not to study music, so I thought I’d focus on becoming a singer-songwriter if I do well in the audition. In the end, I did well in the audition so I didn’t think about going to college and didn’t study classical music since then. So I am getting worse and worse at playing classical music… (laughs).
Hahaha! Speaking of getting worse and worse, a few days before the interview, she performed at Saito Neko’s string quartet event and cried out loud saying, “My parents are going to kill me (because I’m so bad now)!” Anyways, if you had thought about going to college, I suppose you were doing well academically as well?
Kanon Wakeshima: I did poorly in all subjects, except music… I did well in middle school but when I went to high school, I thought to myself, “I can no longer keep up with the rest of the world” (laughs). On the scale of one to five, I had five in music and art but I was average in all other subjects.
What a relief to know there’s something she’s not good at! And even though she is really genuine and has a kind personality, her passion for her work is without a doubt above average and deserves a five on the scale of one to five– though Kanon Wakeshima might say that’s only normal and nothing to be special about. Next up, we hear more about Kanon Wakeshima after her debut.
I had an opportunity to meet with Kanon Wakeshima to talk about anything and everything. In volume 1, we talked about Kanon Wakeshima’s early days before her debut where we had the opportunity to feel the passion she has for music and how much she wants to express herself through music. In volume 2, we will talk about the meaning of some of the words she uses to express herself.
Vol. 2: I Wanted To Be Loved
When Kanon Wakeshima debuted, she co-produced the debut song with producer Mana. At that time she wondered, “How do I stick to my style to make myself stand out and express myself while creating synergy with the given music?” Wanting to express herself through her work must’ve put a lot of pressure to Kanon Wakeshima—as if she needed to readjust all cogwheels because one tooth of a cogwheel doesn’t work with the rest of the cogwheels. That’s why she started using words like “Music of heart” and “Music of brain” after she had produced a song on her own.
Kanon Wakeshima: When composing anime theme songs, I put my ego aside and try not to add my worldview too much. Not only do I have a big ego and strong belief in how I think, but also I would like to express that one hundred percent through my music. But if I do that, I’d lose consistency with the worldview of the anime. But if I don’t add my style in the songs at all, I’d start to think I don’t have to stick to my style and would lose my style eventually. In the end, I try to sing songs in my style anyway, but there are songs that I need to think about maintaining the balance between the song and how I sing. Those are the songs that I call “Music of brain.” If I don’t think about that and sing one hundred percent just focusing on expressing what I think and how I feel, I call those “Music of heart.”
Your answer was very clear and easy to understand! There must be a reason for that as well.
Kanon Wakeshima: If I simply make music by focusing on how I think and feel and don’t provide much explanation, I was told it’s hard to understand what I wanted to express. I was told even the lyrics were hard to understand. So I learned it’s very hard to communicate what I have in my mind and be understood. After I’ve explained things over and over, I’ve learned how to better explain in a way that others could easily understand. It would be much easier if I had songs with simple and straightforward themes so I could say, “Happiness is the theme of this song!” People have a hard time understanding if I just tell them “Music of heart” or “Music of brain”, so I end up explaining a lot.
This answer, too, was very clear and easy to understand and I felt the confidence and her desire to express herself in every word she spoke. Next up, I asked her about what she meant to say when she tweeted, “I wanted to be loved”.
Kanon Wakeshima: While I chose the career to stand before the audience, I think I would’ve been a good fit to do the behind the scene works too. It’s not that I don’t like the feeling of “getting people involved” when I stand before the audience and perform on the stage. But there is a creator/producer side of me that thinks being an idol producer is much cooler than being an idol. I think it’s really cool to be in charge of the behind the scenes. So there was a time where I had questioned myself whether I was trying too hard to be liked and decided to act cool in order to save face. But I soon realized I’d lose many opportunities to make more people listen to my music if I continued to act that way.
So I asked myself, “What was it that I ultimately wanted?” and “What inspired me to do music?” Then I realized I wanted to become a top musician who can sell out large venues like Nippon Budokan. I realized I was telling myself, “Oh I don’t need such fame,” and acted cool when in fact, I wanted more people to watch me and listen to my music because I have a lot of good songs. I wanted people to know me and my music if they didn’t know who I am. So I’ve finally decided to be honest to myself. That was when I was soon to celebrate my 10th year debut anniversary, so I suppose that was a little late (laughs).
It seemed like she had thought this through for a long time so there was confidence in her answer. She sounded a little defensive but she spoke ever-so-genuinely as if she’s taking that emotion as a part of her feelings too. On the other hand, there are a lot of fans who love Kanon Wakeshima’s cool persona too. When asked, she started to talk about a challenge she’s facing now.
Kanon Wakeshima: My manager told me that I have a huge gap between when I am on stage and when I am not on stage. And he wants me to be more like an artist all the time. If you ask me what it means to be more like an artist, I’ll need more time to study on that… Like how I carry myself and interact with others? Artists are very distinctive in that regard, right? If you think of Michael Jackson for example, you can clearly tell that he’s an artist when he talks, even when he’s not on stage. It’s like he’s making a statement in what he believes in by how he carries himself. And Lady Gaga with her eccentric fashion in her everyday life—she’s very straightforward in that regard, right? Gee… I don’t know (laughs).
Both thoughts of “You don’t need to change a thing” and “I want to see how she will change” came across my mind when seeing her sigh after she had explained the challenge she’s now facing. We’ll talk about how Wakeshima Kanon expresses herself other than music.
Kanon Wakeshima: I enjoy drawing too. I liked drawing since I was in elementary school, so much so that I had a dream of becoming a manga artist. In fact, I thought about pursuing art as a career and wondered if music was the right career for me even when I was auditioning. If I didn’t do well in the audition, I might’ve become an illustrator and devoted my life in drawing.
That being said, she also works as an illustrator and a designer nowadays. She will demonstrate her artistic talents in the project celebrating her 10th year anniversary, which is as exceptional as the upcoming concept live show. On that note, we will be talking about a particular book that’s very important in said project in volume 3.
I had an opportunity to meet with Kanon Wakeshima and talked about anything and everything. In volume 1, we talked about Kanon Wakeshima’s early days before her debut and we’ve talked about the meaning of some of the words she uses in volume 2. Next up in volume 3, we will be talking about “The Mystery Book” she made for “The Strange Treat!”—a series of concept live shows which starts on November 26th, including a new year’s countdown event and the collaboration with Zepp DiverCity Tokyo. Also, we will talk about some of the goals she wants to achieve in the future.
Vol. 3: Considering Live Stages as Holy Grounds
“The 10th Anniversary Project: Art Planning Book"—which was introduced in the last tour as “The Mystery Book”—will contain the original sketches she did for various projects. She will be unleashing her artistic talents through this opportunity to celebrate her 10th Debut Anniversary in 2018. She will be in charge of making all the stories, illustrations, and music that are in the book which would include lyrics, keywords of the songs, musical composition and so on. And the explanations as to what “Know”, “Sonata” and “Story” mean in the subtitles of the concept live shows—“Invitation from Know” (Nov 26th, Shibuya 7th Floor), “Communication with Sonata”(Dec 31st, Kichijoji Star Pine’s Café) and “The beginning of the story” (Jan 8th 2018, Zepp DiverCity Tokyo)— can be found in the book as well. So I asked her why she launched such project and made the book.
Kanon Wakeshima: I’ve always liked Disneyland and I go to Disneyland quite often. In Disneyland, there are a lot of movie-based and comic-based attractions and people go to Disneyland to see the places or meet the characters they’ve seen in the movie. So Disneyland is like the holy land for many. And in today’s world, people visit and travel places because they’ve seen those places in anime scenes. So I thought I needed some story that would make people view my concerts as the holy land. I thought I would write a story where my songs would be playing in the fictional universe of the story—like in a store in the story. So that it would give people an opportunity to meet the characters or listen to the songs they enjoyed in the story I wrote, if they come to my live shows. So I started this project in order to give people more reasons to come to my live shows so that there would be more people at my live shows.
I was surprised by her idea. It seemed like she could spend all night on this topic, so I asked her to talk about “The 10th Anniversary Project: Art Planning Book.”
Kanon Wakeshima: So “The 10th Anniversary Project: Art Planning Book” is the guidebook of my fictional universe. I am not sure how the book will look like in the end so I can’t say this with absolute certainty, but I want to connect the stages I’ll be performing with the universe that I have in mind. I watch a lot of plays and shows. There are even plays and shows based on manga or anime now, right? I think it’s called 2.5D or so. There are a lot of young producers in that field who sell out large venues—and they are not even that famous yet. I think an adaptation of the original work is simply the way to go. But I am not saying anybody could sell out large venues if their show is based on some original work—of course, those producers are amazing.
When I went to watch one of the shows myself, every actor and actress was very passionate about their character and the production, blocking, and stage movement were amazing. It was a good show overall but most of the audience came because of the original work. So I thought the original work was very important. You see a lot of movies based on manga or anime series, right? There must be a lot of novels that could be turned into movies and yet movies based on anime, manga and games are the movies that get the spotlight. So I thought I would make an original work myself and increase awareness of my work and get more people to listen to my music.
Her original work might be her music because she’s a musician. But it’s not easy to break through and set oneself apart today’s world when the music industry is now subdivided into genres and new songs are flooding in everyday. If that’s the case, it seems like she wanted to prepare some original work that she can write songs based on the story, in order to make her music more well-known and reach greater pool of audience. While we should hear more about the importance of the original work she talks about—for now, we will hear more about what kind of experience she wants to give to the audience.
Kanon Wakeshima: As an example, let’s say anime songs, right? It’s true that the number of people coming to the live shows increased because of anime and I feel the power of the adaptation of the original work. While I know I’d be challenging myself , I wanted to create my original work because I’m also a person who wants to express my worldview through my music. I’ll challenge myself thinking that people would come to my concerts because they liked my original work even if they didn’t know who I was. I have hopes that the original work would be the masterpiece that could bring a lot of people to me—though it’s only been passed around within my fan group so far.
I asked her what her ambitions were so that’s why she was giving me these answers. How would her feelings of “I want to make a masterpiece” be translated into the concept live show “The Strange Treat!” that will take place in November?
Kanon Wakeshima: I think theatrical production is amazing and I want to put theatrical elements in my live shows. There are a lot of live shows that have people dancing in the back—I mean, that’s cool too—but I want to have something special that the audience has never seen and will never see in anywhere but my concerts. So I thought I wanted to add some theatrical performances like acting and dancing, to create synergy with the song.
It seems like there are a lot of secrets to her stage production which only makes me more curious. In fact, she asked her fans about what kind of live music they wanted to hear through social media. And it seems like she is still pondering what she would do in her live shows. Finally, I asked her about the progress she’s made with the original work she’s making (Kanon Channel: This was later revealed to be THANATOS).
Kanon Wakeshima: I have started on the beginning of the story but I still have to finalize the overall plot. So I would do smaller parts here and there in the meantime.
I am curious to know what kind of story she would write to mark the 10th debut anniversary next year, which could change her career significantly going forward. In addition, the book includes a prologue, character designs, world settings and the plot of the story and can be purchased at the concept live show, “The Strange Treat!”