Songs that make you feel like dashing to meet summer.

Kagrra's new single "Rin" will be released on July 21. These songs were compositions that make you imagine summer. We heard about their thoughts regarding the songs, and secret stories during recording that astonished us!
―Your new maxi-single "Rin" is being released on July 21st right?
Isshi: Since it releases in the summer, it's good to think of it as a song that makes you feel like dashing to meet summer. Since Kagrra, has no songs like this up until now, the theme of the lyrics is a little different in that they're easy to understand.
Izumi: The tempo was unexpectedly difficult and I had trouble with it.
Nao: It's a good song that makes you imagine summer and want to rush to meet it.
Akiya: Looking back on ”Miyako" today, the songs were strongly concluded before recording. Since we didn't hesitate this time I think it was a good recording.
Shin: It was a recording that brought us one step back and one step forward.

―"Matsuri" is a song that overflows with Japanese taste isn't it?
Izumi: I was playing taiko for this song, something I haven't done until now. Anyway, since it's a festival, I think it's good to show that little details are big things.
Nao: I saw Izumi playing the taiko, but somehow it wasn't just his hands but also his face that was filled with effort. It was really funny. (laughs) It's a song that's very Kagrra-like, distinctive of Kagrra,.
Akiya: The chorus has guitar like nothing I've done so far. The things I can do are getting more varied lately and I'm happy.
Shin: Since this song is strangely excessive, recording was difficult. When I tried making copies, I think I understood that I had a strange way of moving my fingers. I started to worry about how I would do it at a live.
Isshi: Since it was a song we did with lives in mind, I was thinking things like 'What ind of form will it take?' and 'How will we travel if we do this song?' I was thinking about festivals for the lyrics as well, and wrote while imagining the stories of female kitsune in my neighbourhood.

―And what about the 3rd song, "Uta"?
Isshi: This song was unreasonably troublesome. Since the A-melody has a low tone, I was thinking "this will be awful if I don't practice" and meanwhile I was always sleeping in the lobby of the studio. So we got closer to performing the song without a rehearsal, and it was difficult to sing.
Izumi: It's a song I'm proud of, but in the beginning I needed 2 hi-hats for the pattern I was considering. I was wondering about what would be best, and finally went with the manipulator.
Nao: The sound we got was a direct contradiction to the sound we wanted to bring out. The theme for the next song was what came out.
Akiya: I think I was playing emotionally, but I was using too much trial and error so I didn't know what I was doing. I always use a 7-string guitar but an acoustic guitar has 6 strings doesn't it? I forgot that rudimentary sound that suited the song well.
Shin: We finished it in a swift attack without hesitation. When I just played clean guitar, it was like the tune of those commercials saying things like "Money is important~!♪" The engineers didn't know which it came from either, and it was troublesome to get rid of.

―And weren't there any scary stories?
Isshi: This time we have a scary story.

―Eh, what?
Isshi: For our punishment-game during recording, we did a dare. We often play yubisuma(*1). That time it was around 3 am, and we decided that the punishment-game was that when someone lost he had to go buy juice in the lobby on the first floor. Then a ghost appeared.

―Really???
Isshi: Nao encountered it.
Nao: I was thoroughly defeated, and all of the electricity cut off when I descended to the first floor via the elevator. But, for some reason, Isshi came with me. When I asked him "Why are you following me?" he said "Because I'm worried." But, at that time, Izumi was actually going to the first floor via a different staircase.
Izumi: Isshi and Akiya and Nao were walking together, I was going to be on standby and surprise them.
Nao: As we got closer to the vending machine, Izumi attacked us while making a loud yell, and I got startled and ran away. Then, I felt hair in my right hand and I thought "That's Izumi's hair." But when I thought about it, Izumi and I weren't in direct contact.
Isshi: I was the one who'd been in direct contact with Izumi. I saw that Izumi had run past Nao and absolutely didn't touch him. Furthermore, since it was low on Nao's arm where he felt the hair, no matter how you think about it, it was the ghost of a child.
Nao: Ever since then my arm was itchy.
Izumi: I heard an old man's voice in the studio. When I finished drumming, a low voice said "Ueeee~". It was absolutely something from the adjacent building.
Isshi: But the funny thing was that after our punishment-game, Akiya was always sending Nao mischievous mails.
Akiya: I changed my name to Ryouko in the mailer app and sent them.
Nao: When the mail came and the sender was Ryouko, it said "I'm sorry for what happened a while ago ok?" I was scared so I ignored it and didn't tell anyone. Then another mail came, "Won't you play with me this evening?" I had extreme jitters!!

―What do you guys do during recording?! (laughs)
Izumi: It was a harmonious atmosphere.
Akiya: All members are on good terms.
Isshi: But since it's a good quality work please listen to it. (laughs)
Notes: Yubisuma is a thumb game popularized by SMAP. My pal Faith gave me this description when I asked about the game:
"It's a game for many people. Each player puts their palms together with their thumbs facing upward. Someone calls out how many thumbs will be raised and everyone chooses whether or not to raise their thumbs at that exact time. They can raise one or both, or none. The person who gets the number right gets to play with one hand. If they win a second time, they are safe and can leave the game. Last person left is the loser."

As always, the song titles have links to the lyrics translations on my site. There's another interview about the song Rin itself, here.

And my scanner is awol so you get a photo of the interview photo instead. :D

Make a free website with Yola