Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - [Translation] "Memorial address" beatfreak track-by-track interview

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[Translation] "Memorial address" beatfreak track-by-track interview

Phew! FINALLY got this one done. A BEST and A BALLADS are next up, at least until I find more of the later interviews, lol :)

This is one of the more interesting interviews, I think. I think Ayu gets a bit more personal & honest than usual - no HUGE revelations, but these feel less like canned responses than previous interviews, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, enough of my yammering. You can read it now! XD

Quote:

Can you give us your thoughts looking back on the past year? This year was as busy as ever, right? From March until the end of May, you had your first Fan Club Members-only Live House tour, "Limited TA Live." Then in July, you released the four-song maxi single "&." On August 30th, the single "forgiveness" and, starting in October, your 30th single release commemorative concert tour "A museum." Then the November release of "No way to say," and now in December you've released the "Memorial address" mini-album.

A: Yeah. But '03 went really smoothly, I think. I took on various challenges. Of all of them, the "A museum" tour I did in the fall is the biggest deal for me... After that was done, "No way to say" was created and then the Mini-album "Memorial address" was born.

"A museum" made use of the entire venue, with you teleporting between several stages, wearing a pure white wedding dress with a 50 meter veil trailing behind, the whole thing was really amazing. And 22 songs! Performing for two and a half hours!! It was really quite surprising.

A: I know, right? And performing "A museum" let me see all my supporting band members & dancers, who I'd worked with before, in a new light. It's hard to accurately describe it, but there was so much that came from putting on this concert, I think it had an immesurable influence on me. This concert, being called "A museum," was really huge for me personally.

This album, "Memorial address," comes in two versions, a CD-only (2100 yen) and a CD+DVD (3465 yen), and on the DVD there are PVs for all tracks excluding the bonus track, plus an "A museum" digest video.

A: Mm-hmm. If you watch the DVD I think you can get an idea of the overall feeling of "A museum."

At any rate, the CD+DVD is packaged in a nice 2-disc set. Can you give us some details of the PV and Live contents compiled on the DVD?

A: I've started to have an interest in film since the beginning of this year, watching the works of various directors proactively. Because of that, for this year's first release "&", I had new directors working on each of the three songs' videos. When the producers watched those works, they started saying things like "You should release a CD+DVD mini-album." So, having heard that input, I compiled the 7 PVs and the "A museum" digest, all shot in 2003, which all together took shape to reflect me, and I could feel the potential and appeal that the films from this year projected.

It became a work expressing the ways those films appealed to you personally.

A: And I want people to plant their bodies and watch it as closely as possible! This is something that moved ayu to really feel. I think whether you watch it alone or with alot of other people, experiencing it with both your eyes and ears is very different from only taking in the sounds.

Continuing on, can you tell us the theme of the album artwork?

A: The jacket's themes are "strength hidden inside" and "thoughts & feelings kept to oneself." Because I wanted to express this, the cover photo and inside photos are all "neither smiling nor crying, totally expressionless," and the colors are de-emphasized so it's mostly all gold.

When you get to the photo of you in green, you're posed rather like a doll or a puppet, which also reflects that feeling. Inside that doll, there is a heart that cries out in protest, but...

A: Yes. That's exactly how it looks.

Can you tell us a little about the contents of the mini-album itself? This time you had 5 songs released on singles, so there are three new songs put together here. Was the album originally intended to have 8 songs?

A: Eh, well... From the time I started this "mini-album" I was thinking about "what songs are good?" So when I finally decided on the 8 songs, there were 5 that happened to already be on singles plus 3 new songs. I think it turned into just conveying more than just the thoughts I had packed into those five songs.

The three new songs are "ANGEL'S SONG," whose main characteristic is its pop melody; "Because of you," which speaks of love feelings that you can't get rid of; and then also "Memorial address," which was recorded with your band. All good pieces of music. You chose "Memorial address" as the album's title track, but didn't publish the lyrics inside the booklet. Could you tell us the reasoning behind that?

A: When thinking about the fact that "this mini-album = myself this year", "Memorial address" contains things that had become fundamental to me. So I think using it as the title for the album was the right thing to do. But as far as the song is concerned, I didn't plan on explaining the various things going on inside me. I'd prefer if people listened first. I think if people listen to the song properly, they'll get a better idea of what I'm thinking in it. The lyrics aren't printed in there, so people have to listen to the song first, before having any information (any written characters to look at). This is because I wanted people to feel the song.

INTERVIEW: Kazuki Okabe

*Profile
Born October 2nd, 1978. Hometown is Fukuoka. Blood type A. Debut on April 8th, 1998 with "poker face." Since then, has released 31 singles and 19 albums (including remixes and best-ofs).

*New Release
Mini Album "Memorial address"
CD+DVD: AVCD-17410/B / '03.12.17 / 3465 yen (tax in)
CD Only: AVCD-17411 / '03.12.17 / 2100 yen (tax in)

01 "ANGEL'S SONG"
Music: Tetsuya Yukumi / Arrangement: HΛL
PV Director: Hideaki Sunaga
"ANGEL'S SONG"'s melody really gets at you. The version that came to me from the composer, Yukumi, had more of a rock taste, and more of a sad feeling, but HAL did the arrangement and it really became more of a "UPBEAT HAL!" sort of arrangement... So the song is much closer to what was inside me. The PV was directed by Sunaga, who also directed the "Greatful days" PV. I change into a wolf and fight a gang. But what I thought of in my head when I heard about the aforementioned change, and how it actually turned out, they were two very different things... I was quite surprised (bitter smile).

02 "Greatful days"
Music: BOUNCEBACK / Arrangement: HΛL
PV Director: Hideaki Sunaga
The subject matter in the lyrics is really very simple, maybe I didn't have alot I wanted to say? Actually, even though it's easy to listen to, there's probably alot I'm saying... That's the kind of thing I wanted to do, actually. The melody has this proactive feeling of "let's go this way!" But since the song is absurdly and excessively bright, you can't understand what sort of face I may be making in singing it (bitter smile). I was pretty much always smiling during recording. "We can be naughty because the summer gives us freedom" became the theme of the PV. It feels like, if "ourselves" is the nightmare, this is the good dream.

03 "Because of You"
Music: BOUNCEBACK / Arrangement: HΛL
PV Director: Kouki Tange
A friend of mine has someone they met who they got to really like. Things were nice between them for awhile, but then quickly dropped off. When I asked, "Do you think it would have been better if you'd never met?", that friend was able to reply with a sunny face, "I think it was good that we met, as far as I'm concerned, the moment we encountered each other was a happy one." That moment stuck with me very strongly, and "Because of You" was born from it. The dancers I usually work with on tour perform in the PV, but I suggested this to the director Mr. Tange. That's because when I did "A museum," I was really moved by the expressiveness I saw from them. That day, I saw the dancers on-set, and it sort of manipulated the atmosphere, and I think I understood what my goal was exactly. The "How do you do, friend?" atmosphere was something we had to not let out, but I think was visible in the final film.

04 "ourselves"
Music: BOUNCEBACK / Arrangement: CMJK
PV Director: Kouki Tange
A cool and incredibly pure song. Rather than "romantic passion," I'm singing about life itself, not just happiness. I have more than enough to fulfill myself, but honestly, there's still this sort of unending sadness. I wanted to write about such a feeling. As for the PV, I'm in very striking makeup & costume, and I'm thrown into an insane world where these scientists are tearing up my posters and there are eerie anti-fans. And they've put on these masks with my face. This video feels like, totally "Tange's World!"

05 "HANABI ~episode II~"
Music: CREA + D.A.I / Arrangement: tasuku
PV Director: Shuuichi Tan
"HANABI", released last summer on "H," ended with the lyric "I can't do anything about it," it seems. That's all well and good, but I thought I should give it a proper ending. Of the 7 PVs on the DVD, this is the only one shot on-location (Kujukuri Beach). From sunrise to sunset, we kept to the shooting schedule even in worrying weather. The gray and hazy sea in the background, rain sliding down the glass, tears falling, and in the middle of this lonely time I furiously play guitar. And then, the transient fireworks scatter. I think my sad faces and everything in this video all marks the end of summer so entirely.

06 "No way to say"
Music: BOUNCEBACK / Arrangement: HΛL
PV Director: Ukon Kamimura
I want to explain, but I can't explain well enough. The more I talk, the more a wall is built up, and the more words become obstructed. There have been times when I felt like I'm terrible and expressing myself when I talk. So when I was saying this to people, there was someone who said "everyone feels like that sometimes, right?" And those words were the reason I was able to create this song. I requested Kamimura, who directed "Real me," for the PV. Standing on a street corner, Santa is handing tissues to the people who are coming & going, but he gives me a different color of tissues from everyone else, and when we meet again there's a scene where he hands me a present in red wrapping. In this world today, we can communicate so many feelings and business details with email and other conveniences, but I think it's just so nice to hand-deliver a gift, that we put alot of thought into, to someone we care about. So I included a scene with that sort of feeling.

07 "forgiveness"
Music: BOUNCEBACK / Arrangement: HΛL
PV Director: Yoshiya Okoyama
Instead of raising and lowering my gaze unreasonably, I was thinking, whatever age someone is, whatever era of their life they're in, there are still so many younger children out there, and what do we all have in common? And I thought, "love." From the time we're babies until we're old grandpas & grannies, I realized, we always have "love." The title, "forgiveness," comes from an image of "feelings of wishing," "feelings of repentance," and "feelings of solemnity." In Japanese, we have words like "yurusu (permission)" and "kandai na (leniency/tolerance)," but for this song I think "kandai na" is the closest to what I mean. The PV is very busy with CG, and the director Okoyama would say things like "Okay, so I think such-and-such a thing is gonna go here...", and there were a bunch of places where I would have to perform while imagining it. It was extremely difficult.

08 "Memorial address"
Music: Tetsuya Yukumi / Arrangement: tasuku
This is the title track, but also the bonus track, and the only one of the 8 tracks that was recorded in a band session. Originally I was going to record this song by myself in the studio, but during recording, there wasn't just me, the band and chorus were all around me. When I heard them playing I just wanted to sing, I think. Yo-chan's guitar, Enrique's bass, Shingo's piano. It calmed me down, the sound of all these people who've supported me. I think I really needed it. "Memorial address." In my mind, it's very special, and when I made it, it became important to me in the same way "teddy bear" (from "Duty") is.

Thank you for this! I feel too as if she's being more honest in this interview.

Thank you, that was a great read! :heart. Ayu did seem to be a bit more frank than usual... but I kind of like that. I wish she had at least mentioned Memorial address being about her father, though, and I wish she had discussed the Because of You PV more (that PV has some, er, interesting things going on, after all...:laugh). But still, this was very informative as usual and I love hearing Ayu talk about her own music, so thanks! :D

Quote:

08 "Memorial address"
In my mind, it's very special, and when I made it, it became important to me in the same way "teddy bear" (from "Duty") is.

Memorial address and teddy bear are actually two of my fave ballads all the time! *o*
I'm grateful she considers these songs as "important" ones for her, just like they're for me too x'DD

thanks for your awesome translation btw ^^

Thanks, I'm going to read it now. And can't wait for the other translations.

It's this kind of stuff that made me truly love Ayu.

thank you deli <3

Thanks for the translation.

I think the main reason why she seemed to give more details in this interview/be more open and honest is that the questions in this interview can't really be answered with a simple short answer unlike some in the past.

thanks for translating ^-^ I love how she explains the theme behind the cover-shoot

Sankyuu!!
MA is one of my fave album!
i love the story behind No Way To Say

Memorial address has always been too interesting to me. :D Now I know some stuff behind it. :) Actually some of Ayu's explanations made me feel so touched somehow, I don't know why but I think that I almost cried. ;3 But anyways, I really loved this interview. Memorial address has lots of personal songs. It's a amazing Ayu album. *___*

Thanks u so much ! i waited for a long time to get it ! looking forward to A BEST ^^

Thanks for the translation

Thank you!
I never knew the lyrics of "Memoriall address" weren't printed in there but it's interesting to know the reason..

thanks for the translation~

how i hope ayu will do the same interview with her upcoming single and album~

Thank you do much Deli!
This kind of readiing really makes me warm inside. I have been waiting for this albums translation since it is my big fav album! ^^

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu *cries*

thanks so much Deli! :D

i just got this album today, now i'll listen to it with more insight ^^

Thanks for translating!! Very interesting read :D

Thank you so much, once again! :) Yeah this interview did seem somehow more "open" indeed. I loved reading it.

Quote:

A: The jacket's themes are "strength hidden inside" and "thoughts & feelings kept to oneself." Because I wanted to express this, the cover photo and inside photos are all "neither smiling nor crying, totally expressionless," and the colors are de-emphasized so it's mostly all gold.

This was interesting, somehow I never paid any attention or realized her expressionlessness.

Quote:

I change into a wolf and fight a gang. But what I thought of in my head when I heard about the aforementioned change, and how it actually turned out, they were two very different things... I was quite surprised (bitter smile).

Hm, does she mean that like many of us here (:laugh) she didn't exactly love the deformation either? I'd find it weird though if she had included it anyways if she didn't like it.

great interview, i loved what she said about memorial address, the reason why the lyrics aren't in the booklet :yes

that interview was great!! thank you sooo muchs!! there's a lot of songs I love here!!

""Memorial address." In my mind, it's very special, and when I made it, it became important to me in the same way "teddy bear" (from "Duty") is."

I always thouhg of this connection between both songs... And it's great now that I know whay there's no lyrics for memorial... But I still don't know what that simple sentence mean... someone knows that??

wow, I absolutely love that comparison, if greatful days is the dream, then ourselves is the nightmare. so cool. and I love how she says episode 2 is the end of summer, then we have the winter pv. So beautiful.

:yes Memorial address was certainly a well-thought out album and is a masterpiece all on its own.

What's interesting though is that in my 5-ish years of being an Ayu fan, I don't think I've ever seen a thread on a forum saying "Did anyone notice that Memorial address' lyrics aren't in the booklet?" :laugh

Thank you so much for translating this! Such an interesting thing to read! :D

I wonder how the sadder, rock version of ANGEL'S SONG sounds like and what Memorial address would sound like had she recorded it with her original intentions?

Thank you for the translation.

This is a really special album for me, Because of You was my first Ayu song, and this was also my first Ayu album, even though I didn't get it until a few years after first hearing Because of You.

This interview really makes you appreciate this masterpiece of an album even more. Even Greatful days which I feel is the most annoying Ayu song ever made!

I love it when she goes behind the scenes with her PVs. It's fascinating to see the story behind the avant-garde imagery.

Thanks, Deli! Your amazingness knows no bounds. XD

Thank you so much Deli!

Yeah, MA was my first album (or rather, the songs on this album) I ever heard from Ayu. This interview just made this even more special now.
When I was reading the "No Way to Say" explanation and thinking of the PV, it almost made me cry. I think this was her most in-depth and emotional album she ever made. She is very creative and thoughtful with her works, no?

But I hear people saying that MA was about her dad (the song, not the whole album. I also heard the same thing with "No Way to Say"...?). While I can gather this, how did people come to realize this, apart from looking at the actual album picture with the mirror and the date on it?

The lyrics state explicitly that this is someone she DIDN'T have a good relationship with, but that she wished she HAD. She wished she'd known more about him, experienced the love she felt she was supposed to receive from him. This ties right into her father leaving when she was a child and the two of them never getting to know each other. During her All Night Nippon radio appearance in late 1998, she said that she thought it might be nice if she got to see him again one day before she died, and if she still felt that way in 2003, then him passing away before she got the chance would have been a HUGE regret for her. The lyrics to M.a. really put that feeling across. There's alot of regret, anger, frustration, and longing in the lyrics as opposed to simply sadness that someone has passed away.

She's also said openly (I believe, although I don't remember where) that "teddy bear" was about the emotions she felt when her father left. Even before this interview was translated, it appeared that "teddy bear" and "Memorial address" went together as a set for Ayu, since she performed them together in concert with no break in between, and it seemed very much as though the emotions felt during "teddy bear" were carried over into "Memorial address" in the performance - it was extremely raw and rather heart-wrenching to watch. It stood to reason that the two songs were probably about the same person.

No way to say's PV was aimed at thoday's modernized world?! wow...I really never saw that. But hey, that's true.

And it's no wonder she sang teddy bear and Memorial Address in AT0304

this is an amazing mini album. I never knew HAL arrange Because of You and MOST of this album..which means...rock songs + HAL is pure awesomeness (just like t2m). I would LOVE Kouki Tange to comeback as a director. Sunaga's MV are just random and funny ahhaha

thanks for the translation! this was a great one and i really enjoyed it; especially the parts about Memorial address (the song) and how it's connected to teddy bear. there's proof to its meaning if we ever needed one!

thanks..with this translation I like No way to say more and more

As my favourite Ayumi album, she didn't say enough about it! Saying nothing about the title track... aaaargh! We all know what its about, and she gives it away as she links it with teddy bear. But she didn't want to give it away because she wanted fans to give it its own meaning from their own interpretation. That's what we all did.

No doubt the teddy bear + memorial address performances during AT 03-04 is probably her most emotional performances ever. I just love that part of her arena tour. It blew me away.

I'm interested in the rockier take on ANGEL'S SONG as well. Makes you think how many of her songs have alternative arrangements that we'll never hear.

And not enough about the Because of You PV, argubly her best video ever.

Thank you as always!

I had no idea that that was ayu playing the guitar in the hanabi pv. Her hair looks so weird there. I think that's really cool.

thank you for the translation Deli ^^ fantastic job as always :)

Thanks a lot for this, Deli~ The translation is really good, and I got a lot of good info out of this. :yes

I never realized how stressful that year must have been for Ayu. O_O A MUSEUM, Memorial address, and all those singles! =O Lots of maxi-singles. It's cool hearing....er, reading... Ayu's reflection upon that year.

Thanks again. =]