“10 years of history packed in the best album, and what I want to convey.”
Kanon Wakeshima has released the best album “DECADE” on February 13th. Last year was her 10th debut anniversary and as a way to celebrate her anniversary, Kanon has chosen her best songs and made a compilation album. The road she had walked on over the last 10 years in her music career has been condensed into this one album. Also, the album includes her new song, “fragment ornament.” I had an opportunity to talk with Wakeshima and Naoki “-naotyu” Chiba, who has been involved in many of Wakeshima’s songs such as “Foul Play ni Kurari”, “signal” and “Tsukinami”. We came across many behind-the-scenes stories in Wakeshima’s music productions in the conversation in which the charm of Kanon Wakeshima became apparent.
Interviewed and written by Akira Sudo
Photography by Yusuke Kushiba
English Translation by Shunya
Original Interview (Japanese only)
If we are talking about “Foul Play ni Kurari”, it has to be Chiba
Was working on “Foul Play ni Kurari” (3rd single album “Foul Play ni Kurari / Sakura Meikyuu”, released in November 2011) the first time you’ve worked with Chiba?
Kanon Wakeshima: I think I was making that single around the time when I’ve met him for the first time…
Naoki “-naotyu” Chiba: Well, I was involved in the arrangement of kanon x kanon’s first single “Calendula Requiem” (released in November 2010). But I don’t think I had the chance to meet her in person at that time.
Wakeshima: Yeah. So I actually remember telling the staff members that “If we are talking about ‘Foul Play ni Kurari’, it has to be Chiba.” I had a feeling I could be at ease and relax because Chiba has a lot of respect for the demos I make and really understands and cherishes what I want to express through my songs. And “Foul Play ni Kurari” is a musical-like orchestra, so I thought he would make the song rich while emphasizing the unique nuance that I want to highlight.
Chiba: I’m very glad to hear that. But to be honest, when I’ve received the demo I thought to myself, “this song is very eccentric”. At the time, I rarely had any experience in strings arrangement, so I remember working on the arrangement with both excitement and worries. And I was told by Wakeshima that she wanted to “add the tuning sounds of the orchestra in the intro” so I remember searching for the sound material at the last minute.
Wakeshima: Oh really? But the sound of the baton was recorded in the studio, didn’t it?
Chiba: I recorded it. From that recording, you’ve created the part that starts off with a sound of the conductor hitting a music stand with a baton.
Chiba was also in charge of the arrangement for “Sakura Meikyuu” which was in the same single album along with “Foul Play ni Kurari”, right?
Chiba: Hmm, I can’t remember which song I worked on it first.
Wakeshima: I’m certain I wrote “Sakura Meikyuu” about one year before I wrote “Foul Play ni Kurari” which was the opening theme song of a game called “Fate/EXTRA CCC”. I think “Sakura Meikyuu” might had been released first because “Foul Play ni Kurari” was released later in order to be released with the game.
Chiba: I feel like that was what had happened as well. Anyways, both of the songs are quite unconventional orchestra songs even today. Neither of the songs used live drums.
Wakeshima: I should say “Sakura Meikyuu” is more calculated? I thought I wanted to give a digital feel to the song since it’s a game song.
Chiba: If I were to redo those songs, I’m sorry but I’m afraid I wouldn’t use drum and bass like I did then. At that time, I didn’t know Wakeshima well enough and I was very young too (laughs).
Wakeshima: (laughs)
If we were in the same class in high school, I don’t think we would’ve hung out
So you guys were messaging back and forth after that?
Chiba: Actually, of course, we’d have a meeting at first but when the music production begins, we don’t have much direct interaction.
Wakeshima: This is how it’s done usually: I hand him my demo, Chiba does his arrangement and I listen to the final product and I’m like, “Yup, it’s awesome.” But there are some things that I’m stubborn about that I request him to revise after revise after revise. One example that I can think of would be the D melody in “killy killy JOKER” (5th single released on April 2014), where I requested the part to be like Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky–now that I think about it, even I don’t know what I wanted to say exactly. I wanted to make the song feel eerie even though it was a classical song.
Chiba: That’s true. And there were many times we would get our managers and even directors involved in the conversation. Right now we are speaking to each another, but neither of us is particularly good at communication (laughs).
Wakeshima: In my mind, Chiba is an honors student type of person. On the other hand, I’m the rebel type one who isn’t really a good student. If we were in the same class in high school, I don’t think we would’ve hung out (laughs).
Chiba: (laughs)
Wakeshima: But Chiba has some amazing skills to enrich what I want to express through my song. My demo is really nothing but a vague abstract structure like a skeleton. So it’s impossible to picture what the final product would look like if someone doesn’t have a good imagination. But Chiba adds the meat in the bone and paint color to the colorless and makes the song rich and powerful. And sometimes he even adds stuff that I haven’t thought of, so it’s great to discover something new every time. He expands the horizon of the potential of my song beyond the boundaries of what I had ever imagined.
Chiba: No, Wakeshima’s songs have a distinctive central theme in all the demos she makes—whether it’d be her own songs or songs for other artists. If we are talking about anime opening songs for an example, she’d spend a great deal of time thinking about the theme of the anime. So it’s easy to get a sense of direction and what she wants to do.
Just by the way—what is the song that has changed beyond of what you had imagined at first, Wakeshima?
Chiba: I heard some rumors that the arrangement for “Mayday!” was different from what you had imagined originally?
Wakeshima: Oh, “Mayday!” was the coupling song I made with “Right Right Rise” (7th single, released in April 2015) which wasn’t included in the best album but…hmmm, that’s a hard question to answer.
Chiba: The song was quite simple so there was a lot of room for arrangement depending on how you interpret the song. The song turned out to be quite heavy though.
Wakeshima: Yeah, I was imagining something a little more danceable. But I said, “This is also good in its own way!” So even though it was different from what I had imagined, it was a plus at the end.
There were too many codes
Also, the single’s title song “RIGHT LIGHT RISE” was made by effectively using trumpets instead of strings, right?
Wakeshima: This was the ending theme song of the anime “Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a Dungeon?” but the image of the anime and the feel and tempo of the song weren’t very elegant. So Chiba and I had both concluded that we would add the cello in the song. Then we talked about adding a brass instrument for more uplifting feelings, instead of string instruments.
Chiba: It was an ending theme song, but I remember we made the song as if we were making an intro song with the themes like parade and marching to make the song more light-hearted and uplifting. Actually, how did the “flag-shaking” part in the interlude come about?
Wakeshima: During the production meeting for the song, I was talking with the staff members about something like, “How interesting it would be to see some cool staging at a big event like a festival that could make people involved”. I’ve always had a habit of having a flag on the stage of my live shows and swinging the flag so I said, “Let’s have a part in the new song where we can make use of a flag.” I can’t remember clearly though (laughs).
Any songs that you particularly like, Chiba?
Chiba: I like all of them of course. But if I have to answer the question, I’d probably have to say “signal” (4th single released in February 2014).
Wakeshima: The song “signal” is highly-regarded by all the fans and I still remember Chiba praising the code in the A-melody. While we’ve highlighted the cello through the arrangement, the piano and the drums could be heard quite clearly as well. My background is in classical music so I don’t make music thinking about the chord progression. So I make music in the piano in the classical playing style. Then I was told that there were too many codes in the hook that I should get rid of some codes when I play the song on the guitar, but I’ve decided to keep them all as they are because I was afraid it wouldn’t be the same.
Chiba: Certainly, it does go down on a quarter note all the time.
Wakeshima: They said, “Songs like this aren’t really suited to be played by bands.” And I was like, “Oh, right.”
Chiba: But it’s not fun if you care about all of that. And that’s also what makes Wakeshima’s songs in general and the song “signal” in particular very fun to listen to.
Wakeshima: Thank you (laughs).
I ride a bike if I can’t think of an idea
If you had to choose a song that was a turning point for Wakeshima in the best album—what song would that be?
Wakeshima: I think I’d have to go with “Killy Killy JOKER.” This was the first song that was used as an anime opening (Anime “Selector Infected WIXOSS”). Until that song, I had written a few ending theme songs but the opening theme song is definitely the face of the anime, right? In fact, there were many people who learned about my music from this song. Since then, both listeners and the number of the audience in live concerts have certainly increased. So this was the song that gave me a huge response from the audience.
Chiba: Of course, I couldn’t be happy without doing my absolute best for this song. I thought the intro of the song was particularly important. So it took me a week just to come up with some ideas for the intro. I still vividly remember how I was struggling every day with repeated “No!” over and over during that time. And I’d ride a bike to go to a ramen shop to clear my head.
Wakeshima: I ride a bike if I can’t think of an idea. I, too, often ride a bike to the next station.
Chiba: I remember getting a phone call from the director rushing me when I had just arrived at that ramen shop. It was very stressful (laughs).
Wakeshima: I’m sorry (laughs). I’ve put strings throughout the song and added the cello too. With the long interlude, this song is mostly arranged with strings.
Chiba: I tried my best (laughs).
Any other songs that was memorable?
Wakeshima: “Tsukinami” (3rd album, released in February 2015) is also a song that still receives good reviews from many listeners. They said they like both the lyrics and the song. While it isn’t an anime opening song but the title song of the album, I received very good feedback in the live shows. I was told that it’s a song that many musicians and people in the music industry have liked as well.
Chiba: “Tsukinami” has received a lot of positive feedback. I have several friends who said they really liked the song.
Wakeshima: Don’t you think that song doesn’t really have a hook though? It’s not a mainstream song that goes from the A-melody to the B-melody to the hook but it went from the A-melody to the hook seamlessly, right? Chiba and I were messaging back and forth to discuss whether I should have the B-melody come after A-melody or go straight to the hook.
Chiba: Yeah, I remember that. I remember trying different things like fading out the hook and accenting the hook and so on. And of course there was a string section as expected, so we must’ve given a lot of work to the band members in the end. The singing part was the centerpiece though.
Wakeshima: I wanted the feeling of each instrument playing fanatically wild.
Chiba: Ryota Kikuchi played the piano and the base and drum were played by Igarashi and Yuma from Hitorie. The guitar part was recorded in Kyushu by Kishida Team (Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets).
Wakeshima: Hayapi and Kishida, right? Hayapi’s guitar part was standing out too much so it was hard to balance it out with the rest (laughs).
Chiba: “Tsukinami” became a song where it feels like a free-for-all battle of instruments. I’m the kind of person who likes to switch up which main instrument to be emphasized in each part, so it might be a little different from other songs.