Forbidden Lover: History of a song 1
I.The MUSIC
The song ken composed between August 8th and 9th, 1998, was quite different from the version released on the following October 14th. He confessed that, since the beginning, he had considered it a “what-can-it-be?” song. Yet, in less than 20 days, thanks to band and staff’s hard and passionate work, it was transformed into one of the most moving singles of L'Arc~en~Ciel.
Sometimes a masterpiece can see the light of day also in this way.
You made it crying, didn’t you? (hyde)
The origin of forbidden lover tracks back to the beginning of August, 1998, when the Light my fire tour was on a break before restarting in September.
On 5th of August the band came back to Japan after a short trip to New York. One month after their simultaneous release of 3 discs (Kasou, HONEY, Shinshoku ~lose control on July 8th ), they were planning to create new singles for the autumn. So they entered a very hard schedule, consisting in composing new songs in only 3 days (6th, 7th, 8th ) at their place. On 9th they had the meeting with other members in the studio, in order to decide which tune to pick up.
To tell the truth, tetsu came back to Japan a little before, on the 3rd, because he needed some time to enter in “composition mode”, and to tide up his room. It seems that before creating a song, he usually did the cleaning. Then, in that short span, on 6th or 7th of August, he created snow drop.
Other members had a harder time: hyde had the idea of a violent song with slow tempo, but wasn’t able to put it into music, while ken had no idea at all. Nonetheless he composed the first version of forbidden lover. In this way:
Ken: No-Guard tactics
Interviewer: Which means?
Ken: I made it without any idea
Interviewer: Can you make a song without any idea?
Ken: Well, I thought: since I have none, what I’ll do? This time I can’t remember which was the first step. Maybe I finished the arpeggio at first, and then I made other things, or there was this phrase, then I made the rest… I made it somehow, but starting from what? I think that I was watching some videos since I wasn’t able to do almost nothing.
Interviewer: Even in this short time, you did a great work.
Ken: So in the blink of an eye, the last day arrived.
Tetsu: Deadline was on August 9th
Ken: The next day was almost starting, it was time to write a song. “Aah…no idea…let’s watch a video”. After watching it, I could compose some pieces.
Interviewer: The title of the video was?
Ken: Eeh? How embarrassing!
Tetsu: A Hong Kong film?
Ken: (laugh)
Tetsu: What?
Ken: “Forrest Gump”
Interviewer: Were there touching pieces?
Ken: There were touching pieces
Hyde: You made it crying, didn’t you?
Ken: (laugh) Before sleeping I made half of it. After sleeping for about 2 hours, I made the latter half and I presented it [at the meeting with members]. Since I made it that way, I thought that, whenever I was singing it, the melody was different! If I had been asked about more details, what could I have said?
(From: “Interview of 2 singles, snow drop & forbidden lover”, B-Pass November 1998)
Ken himself admitted it was a song he had made since the deadline was approaching. But when he put forward it (usually the composer of a song, singing to his own guitar accompaniment, shows the chords, while members try to join the tune), it made a good impression on staff and members (hyde said that the melody was beautiful), and they decided to work on it.
The version ken brought at the meeting was quite different from the single they released in October.
It’s difficult to reconstruct how it was only by reading comments from the band, but it’s interesting to try, because it’s possible to understand how much it has changed.
When ken put the song before members, he only had thought about the drum set and the feeling the song should give, and nothing more.
The arrangement was completely different, without timpani or strings, at the beginning they were performing the songs by themselves. The sound was different too. It seems that ken himself told tetsu that he considered it similar to Sonic Youth’s sound and he described it as carefree. hyde clearly stated that the guitar solo was more smooth. Words meaning “quiet” and “mellow” were used by tetsu and ken to describe how the first version of the song was.
When I asked him: “What kind of drums?” he answered with something like: “takatakataka, takatakataka”. I reproduced his exact sound with snare drum (yukihiro)
The first step to the final version was the request ken made to yukihiro about drums. He asked only to make the song uncommon creating an ever-repeating rhythm with snare drum, relying on yukihiro’s skills for the rest. The drummer was able to reproduce ken’s exact sound and create the unmistakable rhythm that opens the song.
Focusing a little more on this rhythm, ken pointed out that it doesn’t give any idea of marching, while Yukihiro remarked that this never-expanding rhythm made the song more dramatic. He thought that it turned out to be the charm of the drums and it was so cool by itself that there was no need of extra things. Since he had already created a song with ever-repeating rhythm with snare in ZI:KILL, he said it wasn’t a hard work.
Before I knew it, it became dramatic (tetsu)
According to ken, the real turning point was the arrangement of the guitar solo.
At first, he added timpani. The inspiration came from the desire of giving a chilly atmosphere to that part, but since he wanted it to remain mellow, he didn’t have the intention of putting strings.
Then, at one point, the desire for strings took simultaneously both ken and Hajime Okano, who was arranging the song with them, and while thinking about it, they grabbed the keyboard at the same time. So they added strings, too, and ken thought that they were matching properly the solo melody, as he added them only after composing that part with guitar.
After adding timpani and strings, the tune became more intense, and ken described this change as if a firm sensation was mixing with the previous mellow sensation, so that the song had become unexpectedly powerful. He underlined that it became a song with a climax and he had the impression that he was polishing the song while composing, and not during revision.
At first, he also thought to twine the guitar solo around hyde’s singing, but he gave up when he realized that it would have become really too much intense.
Talking about the bass line, tetsu was a little bit worried about it, since the song has a rhythm pattern where the percentage of snare-drumming is high. But he was proud of the cool bass line he was able to put in, and added that, especially in the most magnificent part of the interlude, he was playing in a very cool way. He only complained, jokingly, that, because other instruments have become too much magnificent, it can’t be heard!
When the arrangement came to an end, they started registering. The recording went smoothly, ken only regulated the sound of guitar in the solo and then the band played. They did so well the first take that, even if ken was a little anxious about it, they didn’t take another try. Also tetsu noticed how the first take was the best, it was solemn and the phrase was good, too.
On 25th the final version was almost finished, mixed, even if yet not mastered.
Since the beginning, they had planned to release a single in October. When they decided to arrange snow drop and forbidden lover, director Chieko Nakayama suggested to release both as singles. So they did.
tetsu chose carefully in which order to release them: because Kasou, HONEY, Shinshoku ~lose control were kinda hard, he thought audience could appreciate to have a little pause with a refreshing song like snow drop, before listening to a heavier song like forbidden lover. So it was decided to release snow drop on October 7th and forbidden lover a week after, on October 14th. He seemed also amused by thinking how the second song would have probably left people astonished.
Another problem was the length, as it’s even 6 mins long, so they were asked by staff from record company what to do about radio and tv.
Maybe, I’m only satisfied with the sound of the metronome following this rhythm. (ken)
Director Chieko Nakayama immediately noticed it: fate, Kasou and forbidden lover are 3 parts of the same work. They share the same medium tempo that was fascinating ken at that time, as it was relieving and relaxing. Ken underlined how this tempo matched well the band at that time.
When he was asked which colours he associates with Kasou and forbidden lover, ken answered “the pink you can see at night” for Kasou, and crimson for forbidden lover. Since pink is pronounced “pinku” in Japanese and the word for crimson is “shinku”, he said that the part they have in common is “-nku”!
I think they were aware of these similarities when they chose yukihiro’s remix of Kasou as the c/w for forbidden lover. The number 1014 attached to the c/w name refers to the release date.
These 3 songs also have the same outlook on world, too. Talking about similarities between fate and forbidden lover in lyrics, hyde pointed out that there are connections regarding both themes and expressions.
(To be continued. Part 2: The lyrics -> next week)
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OMAKE
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Interviewer: I thought your guitar solo to be quite long; since you are the guitarist, what do you think?
Ken: Long?… more than long is deep … during sex… about 1 week.
Interviewer: oh, after 1 week, it becomes quite deep ? (laugh)
Hyde: somehow his life has been discovered (laugh)
Ken: well, 1 month (laugh)
...
From “A feeling not allowed”, PATi PATi, November 1998
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Sources:
WHAT’s IN, October 1998
“A feeling not allowed”, PATi PATi, November 1998
“snow drop & forbidden lover- 2 singles released in 2 consecutive weeks!! ”, GB, November 1998
“snow drop & forbidden lover”, uv, vol. 35
“Interview of 2 singles, snow drop & forbidden lover”, B-Pass November 1998
“L’Arc~en~Ciel into labyrinth”, RR Newsmaker, November 1998
Album “ark”, jacket, July 1999