Arena37CVol341 Feb2011 - Alice nine
「Gemini」 is somewhat an album that gives a different impression from other releases ne.
Saga: In what way do you think is different?
In the first half, it's still somewhat like the flow Alice Nine had been going until now, and i thought it will continue that way, but as I listened to the later half, gradually i think I can see a different side.
Shou: That's perfect
Saga: In order to make people think that way, we've worked hard.
For the album itself, was there an concept?
Saga: It's exactly what you've said just now. If we think deeply about our band, we have two trends that don't intersect. Normally, we might think that we have to merge the two together, but "it's fine to have 2 sides anyway", so turning upon that line of thinking, I guess that's our concept. Maybe this is Alice Nine (laughs)
When these two trends emerge, when did you starting thinking about how to deal with it?
Saga: Since the completion of 「Vandalize」, about the time when the songs were used for this time's album. Because we've come up with this pretty earlier on, it's like, finally this is completed. But, if we just consider our initial trends, it won't hold true for the band, i thought that also it won't work if we don't include the principle songs of Alice Nine. Because i think that the band cannot do without both factors, i want to create an album that can properly show that.
Do the members also think in that way?
Shou: That's right. During the phase quite earlier on, Saga-kun had been saying "I want to make an album that's like going from the Earth to the Moon". At the beginning, it's the Alice Nine that everyone knows but gradually it draws you into a deeper world, it's like bringing everyone on a travel in the universe.
Saga: The entrance is gentle, then as a result of going with the second half, I was aiming for the image of entering a world of a new Alice Nine.
Shou: I learned from Twitter, the first song was a song made during high school?
Saga: Right.
You learned this from Twitter? (laughs)
Shou: Saga-kun never says anything.
Saga: The intro is newly composed, but the melody and the chords itself were made during high school days.
Shou: The first song 「I.」
Saga: I didn't expect the song to be able to be included in the album though.
Shou: The producer gave the stamp of approval ne. It's good as the first song, he said
Nao: ........the meaning is deep ne.
Shou: The meaning is deep? It has a meaning right?
Nao: If we think about the pre-production going on for years, it's amazing.
Saga: It has been a long pre-production.
Hiroto: Because we're a band that can't be contented with just the previous catchyness, when Saga-kun said his concept I can agree with no objection. Just that since the start of the recording, for the time being, we've been trying to finish up with whatever songs that's ahead of us, so it had been frantic ne.
Tora: In the album, because the maniac parts of Alice Nine were also displayed, naturally I was able to accept it. It's not like gathering all the single-like songs together to form an album, so for that one piece of work, i think our expressions were nicely done.
Nao: That's right. If we made an analogy of our album-making process, it's like climbing Mount Takao....... [599m tall]
Hiroto: You can finish climbing it very soon (laughs)
Nao: Eh, you can finish climbing it soon?!
Tora: Even grandmas can climb it
Nao: I think it might be too extreme to say Mount Fuji. [3776m] So I'll decide on Mount Hachiman[1613m] (laughs)
Shou: Make it Mount Fuji, like climbing Mount Fuji (laughs)
Nao: Okay. So it has been a tough road, like aiming for the top of Mount Fuji. I thought that it was amazing that Tokuma Japan let us freely express the things that we want to.
Saga: If I'm the maker, I'll definitely say no to the 13-minute song (laughs)
Hiroto: Not concerning with the fact that all the other songs are really catchy.
Shou: but with regards to the other songs, whether they are fine or not, they [Tokuma Japan] didn't say anything once about them. It seems that it's different with other bands.
Nao: After the recording of this album, we are now being able to view the wonderful scenery from the top of Mt. Fuji which hints the band's activities from now on.
And the impression of the big work GEMINI is an unexpected magnificient musical suite.
Saga: While working on GEMINI, I wanted to finish it within about 5 minutes, but I couldn't think of a way to end the song. I don't have the ability to summarize the song to 5 minutes and before I knew it, it has become 16 minutes long. Of course, i was thinking this is bad......
It's still ended up being 13 minutes, so it doesn't really matter if it's 16 minutes (laughs) [i mean, it's still a freaking long song lol]
Saga: Just in case, I did my best to shorten it.
What did the members think when they learnt of GEMINI's existence?
Shou: The demo was present quite a long time ago.
Hiroto: The first one-chorus
Saga: During the meeting for the choosing of songs for HANA, I already brought along that demo.
Shou: We decided on the lead song on that occasion, Saga-kun said, "It has evolved", but the song he was talking about was HANA.
Saga: At that time, I thought "It's not the time for that song"
Shou: From that time onwards, we can see a glimpse of the beauty of the song, i thought that one day we'll definitely do that song.
At that time, was it the length of a single?
Shou: Yes. Even for now, until the chorus, it's not that maniac. Doing the recording at this timing, I thought it was great that we did a song like no other.
There are responses to it after listening.
Saga: Certainly we were thinking about working on it, but it wasn't intended to be 13 miutes. I want to emphasize on that.
For the song, are there compromises that you can't accept?
Saga: Not in this case.
Hiroto: Every week, it was increasing by some minutes
Saga: Just that it won't end
Hiroto: Saga-kun did the rough work itself quite a number of times. Everyday, he sent a mail, saying that he added new sounds, and it gradually increased. Honestly, I was thinking, I wonder how more this is going?
Saga: When I was working on it, it had the worst feeling. Because it doesn't seem to end. Because it's long, I thought probably no one will say it's good, and became rather downcast. And unexpectedly, everyone said "Isn't this good?". The members, the recording company too, the producer too, I thought that maybe everyone is weird. (laughs) I thought if the other members and I bring along a 13 minute song, we'll definitely be disliked. I was touched by how other the people had such open minds. What's more, it became the lead song, it's just too amazing.
Shou: But the song by itself is wonderful i think, even though Saga-kun said it like that, I could feel the passion in it. The artwork too was created from looking at the world connected to Gemini, it was a song with a lot of power.
Looking back at the recording, how had it been?
Nao: This time, we've worked hard~. I played a passionate drum. The producer said that he could see my drums beats attacking one after the other, so I think it is heard as being a powerful drum play.
Saga: For me as well, my bass picking has become stronger. I though GEMINI is a little like progressive rock, so I listened to King Crimson (rock band representative of progressive rock), and my bass picking became really strong and was really cool. And also, I was influenced. Gradually, I feel that my own direction has solidfied.
Hiroto: Sealing off my previous style, I challenged myself in bringing out the parts that I haven't brought out. Even more than the tone, I was obsessed with my play.
Tora: I also tried out various new things, so it has been fun. I was completely uninterested in progressive rock, but in the middle of GEMINI, it became really interesting, in the end, for myself, for the band as well, I think our new world has expanded.
Shou: In STARGAZER: I was concerned about the vocal techniques, I was consciously making sure that I inserted the right pitch at the right tone, but for the album, I thought the most about how to express the song. It has been tough on the vocalization for GEMINI, but i thought that maybe this is opera, I think I managed to see a new field for myself.
In total, the keys are really high ne.
Shou: The melody is mostly made by the original composer, but the feeling is, "have you guys ever tried singing the song in karaoke?" (laughs).
Saga: For me, i'm sorry (laughs).
Saga: In what way do you think is different?
In the first half, it's still somewhat like the flow Alice Nine had been going until now, and i thought it will continue that way, but as I listened to the later half, gradually i think I can see a different side.
Shou: That's perfect
Saga: In order to make people think that way, we've worked hard.
For the album itself, was there an concept?
Saga: It's exactly what you've said just now. If we think deeply about our band, we have two trends that don't intersect. Normally, we might think that we have to merge the two together, but "it's fine to have 2 sides anyway", so turning upon that line of thinking, I guess that's our concept. Maybe this is Alice Nine (laughs)
When these two trends emerge, when did you starting thinking about how to deal with it?
Saga: Since the completion of 「Vandalize」, about the time when the songs were used for this time's album. Because we've come up with this pretty earlier on, it's like, finally this is completed. But, if we just consider our initial trends, it won't hold true for the band, i thought that also it won't work if we don't include the principle songs of Alice Nine. Because i think that the band cannot do without both factors, i want to create an album that can properly show that.
Do the members also think in that way?
Shou: That's right. During the phase quite earlier on, Saga-kun had been saying "I want to make an album that's like going from the Earth to the Moon". At the beginning, it's the Alice Nine that everyone knows but gradually it draws you into a deeper world, it's like bringing everyone on a travel in the universe.
Saga: The entrance is gentle, then as a result of going with the second half, I was aiming for the image of entering a world of a new Alice Nine.
Shou: I learned from Twitter, the first song was a song made during high school?
Saga: Right.
You learned this from Twitter? (laughs)
Shou: Saga-kun never says anything.
Saga: The intro is newly composed, but the melody and the chords itself were made during high school days.
Shou: The first song 「I.」
Saga: I didn't expect the song to be able to be included in the album though.
Shou: The producer gave the stamp of approval ne. It's good as the first song, he said
Nao: ........the meaning is deep ne.
Shou: The meaning is deep? It has a meaning right?
Nao: If we think about the pre-production going on for years, it's amazing.
Saga: It has been a long pre-production.
Hiroto: Because we're a band that can't be contented with just the previous catchyness, when Saga-kun said his concept I can agree with no objection. Just that since the start of the recording, for the time being, we've been trying to finish up with whatever songs that's ahead of us, so it had been frantic ne.
Tora: In the album, because the maniac parts of Alice Nine were also displayed, naturally I was able to accept it. It's not like gathering all the single-like songs together to form an album, so for that one piece of work, i think our expressions were nicely done.
Nao: That's right. If we made an analogy of our album-making process, it's like climbing Mount Takao....... [599m tall]
Hiroto: You can finish climbing it very soon (laughs)
Nao: Eh, you can finish climbing it soon?!
Tora: Even grandmas can climb it
Nao: I think it might be too extreme to say Mount Fuji. [3776m] So I'll decide on Mount Hachiman[1613m] (laughs)
Shou: Make it Mount Fuji, like climbing Mount Fuji (laughs)
Nao: Okay. So it has been a tough road, like aiming for the top of Mount Fuji. I thought that it was amazing that Tokuma Japan let us freely express the things that we want to.
Saga: If I'm the maker, I'll definitely say no to the 13-minute song (laughs)
Hiroto: Not concerning with the fact that all the other songs are really catchy.
Shou: but with regards to the other songs, whether they are fine or not, they [Tokuma Japan] didn't say anything once about them. It seems that it's different with other bands.
Nao: After the recording of this album, we are now being able to view the wonderful scenery from the top of Mt. Fuji which hints the band's activities from now on.
And the impression of the big work GEMINI is an unexpected magnificient musical suite.
Saga: While working on GEMINI, I wanted to finish it within about 5 minutes, but I couldn't think of a way to end the song. I don't have the ability to summarize the song to 5 minutes and before I knew it, it has become 16 minutes long. Of course, i was thinking this is bad......
It's still ended up being 13 minutes, so it doesn't really matter if it's 16 minutes (laughs) [i mean, it's still a freaking long song lol]
Saga: Just in case, I did my best to shorten it.
What did the members think when they learnt of GEMINI's existence?
Shou: The demo was present quite a long time ago.
Hiroto: The first one-chorus
Saga: During the meeting for the choosing of songs for HANA, I already brought along that demo.
Shou: We decided on the lead song on that occasion, Saga-kun said, "It has evolved", but the song he was talking about was HANA.
Saga: At that time, I thought "It's not the time for that song"
Shou: From that time onwards, we can see a glimpse of the beauty of the song, i thought that one day we'll definitely do that song.
At that time, was it the length of a single?
Shou: Yes. Even for now, until the chorus, it's not that maniac. Doing the recording at this timing, I thought it was great that we did a song like no other.
There are responses to it after listening.
Saga: Certainly we were thinking about working on it, but it wasn't intended to be 13 miutes. I want to emphasize on that.
For the song, are there compromises that you can't accept?
Saga: Not in this case.
Hiroto: Every week, it was increasing by some minutes
Saga: Just that it won't end
Hiroto: Saga-kun did the rough work itself quite a number of times. Everyday, he sent a mail, saying that he added new sounds, and it gradually increased. Honestly, I was thinking, I wonder how more this is going?
Saga: When I was working on it, it had the worst feeling. Because it doesn't seem to end. Because it's long, I thought probably no one will say it's good, and became rather downcast. And unexpectedly, everyone said "Isn't this good?". The members, the recording company too, the producer too, I thought that maybe everyone is weird. (laughs) I thought if the other members and I bring along a 13 minute song, we'll definitely be disliked. I was touched by how other the people had such open minds. What's more, it became the lead song, it's just too amazing.
Shou: But the song by itself is wonderful i think, even though Saga-kun said it like that, I could feel the passion in it. The artwork too was created from looking at the world connected to Gemini, it was a song with a lot of power.
Looking back at the recording, how had it been?
Nao: This time, we've worked hard~. I played a passionate drum. The producer said that he could see my drums beats attacking one after the other, so I think it is heard as being a powerful drum play.
Saga: For me as well, my bass picking has become stronger. I though GEMINI is a little like progressive rock, so I listened to King Crimson (rock band representative of progressive rock), and my bass picking became really strong and was really cool. And also, I was influenced. Gradually, I feel that my own direction has solidfied.
Hiroto: Sealing off my previous style, I challenged myself in bringing out the parts that I haven't brought out. Even more than the tone, I was obsessed with my play.
Tora: I also tried out various new things, so it has been fun. I was completely uninterested in progressive rock, but in the middle of GEMINI, it became really interesting, in the end, for myself, for the band as well, I think our new world has expanded.
Shou: In STARGAZER: I was concerned about the vocal techniques, I was consciously making sure that I inserted the right pitch at the right tone, but for the album, I thought the most about how to express the song. It has been tough on the vocalization for GEMINI, but i thought that maybe this is opera, I think I managed to see a new field for myself.
In total, the keys are really high ne.
Shou: The melody is mostly made by the original composer, but the feeling is, "have you guys ever tried singing the song in karaoke?" (laughs).
Saga: For me, i'm sorry (laughs).