NISHINO KANA SPECIAL INTERVIEW
Oricon Style June 23, 2010
(http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/interv...shinokana0623/)
Translated by ストロボ・EdGE


I think I've really grown, and my values and philosophy on love has also changed.

----A year has passed since your first album; do you see any changes in yourself?
[Nishino] This album has the same main theme of LOVE, but in this year I’ve written many love songs, and also among the songs I’ve gone on to dedicate to my friends, I think it became a moment to face myself anew. I think I’ve really grown, and my values and philosophy on love has also changed, so this past year has been packed into this second album.


----The beginning, “*Prologue*~What a nice~*” and the ending, “*Epilogue*~to LOVE~” each stand on their own but they give the feeling of a story, don’t they?
[Nishino] I started this album in the spring, and I imagine it as the four seasons of a year. My first album started out with a first love, and ended with a broken heart. It’s a loop so that “In the end, is the answer of love reached?” sort of feeling was in the first album, and this time too it starts with harboring feelings for the first time, then ends with the unrequited love song “Aitakute aitakute”, but after that another included song, “You are the one” serves as it’s answer. This ending is different than the first album’s.


----You mean it became that “I’m glad we met” feeling.
[Nishino] I think so. Or rather, having been able to take a step forward from those lonely and painful feelings. It’s having the feeling that you’ve reached that point in yourself. From having met each other somehow or another you think it had good effect, and because you can feel you had good times, having met in itself was a good thing.


----Was there an occasion that led you to begin thinking that way?
[Nishino] There was no specific occasion, but I guess it was just time? It’s a feeling from the passing of time. And of love, friends and family, and other things too.


----As far as you can hear the songs, the feelings of gratitude are really shown.
[Nishino] It certainly is.


----This time you also had a collaboration with MINMI, “Summer Girl feat. MINMI”. In working with other artists, don’t you feel you’ve met another side of yourself?
[Nishino] Yes. MINMI-san is a person I’ve admired and listened to since middle school, so it’s a dream come true (smiles). She’s powerful but she also has her cute sides, and she’s kind and open-minded. Again, I think she’s a wonderful person. When our voices overlapped each other I got goose bumps, and it was all very fun.


----Speaking of something new, “Hey Boy” is very rockish. The subject seems to be of a girl’s “attack” against a boy.
[Nishino] I wanted this song to be like a crowd of girls talking. Like “Isn’t he so uncool?”, “Just go away!” etc.


----So it’s like many people are in one song. I really liked the line “I won’t let this year go to waste.”
[Nishino] (Laugh.) I wrote this song three years ago when working on my debut single. My teenaged self wrote it, but now my present self sings it… Personally, it’s a bit funny. Because of the time it was, I was kind of acting cute and charged up, and airy, so it was something I could write. Each year passing I feel something is definitely off about me.




I’m able to see myself objectively when writing lyrics.

----By the way Kana-chan, are you the type that can communicate their feelings?
[Nishino] I’m a chicken until I say it but when I decide to confess my feelings it’s simple. Until I decide that I’m very fidgety.


----In the beginning you said that your philosophy on love has changed, but what did you mean by that specifically?
[Nishino] The feelings I bear are, and things like my interactions with the other person; one by one I’ve increased the importance, like in the song “Kono mama de” and the last song “You are the one” but I also feel that my outlook has expanded a bit…


----What is your ideal love?
[Nishino] I want us to mutually understand each other, and to respect each other… As for love, “forgiveness” becomes an important topic. That has a close nuance to recognition and acceptance. I want to become a person with those big feelings, and I think that sort of romantic relationship is nice.


----On top of a relationship of equality, what other things does Kana-chan seek in a partner?
[Nishino] Now it’s gentleness and affection… Sturdy like the back of a chair I guess.


----It’s said that with love, the same mistakes are repeated, but Kana-chan grows from it right?
[Nishino] Hahaa. I think that’s definitely because of the lyrics I write.


----For you, is that facing yourself?
[Nishino] Yeah. I think I’m able to see myself objectively, and if I couldn’t write my lyrics, I think I wouldn’t be able to look back upon myself… Having a thorough understanding of my past loves, I’ve got the feeling that I grow through gazing upon them again and writing my feelings. And then this time around, I had influence in the sound and I enjoyed the music, and I think I was able to put all together in my own way things about loving and how to love in this album.


----It’s the Love Bible for teenage and girls in their twenties, isn’t it?
[Nishino] I’d be happy if it was (smile.)