[truehappiness]

03. Startin'
words: ayumi hamasaki
music: Kazuhiro Hara
arrangement: CMJK

ayu: We did the recording for this song in New York, but the sound in the studio was so good it was so easy to sing. There are a lot of people who have an image of "Startin'" being from dancing with the dancers during a tour or a-nation, but it was originally made to be a band-only song. I've done rock songs like "GAME" or "is this LOVE?", but this is the first time I've challenged myself with a vocal style like "Startin'"! While I was singing, I felt "You can sing like this too". What really brought out that new vocal style was doing the recording in the New York studio with such good sound and nice atmosphere.

mister kaz: The PV, too, has a strong, new CG feel like never before, doesn't it?

ayu: Yeah it does. I've known Director Ishii (Ishii-chan), who did "Startin'", since around high school, but even though I knew he was a director, we had never worked together. I was a little at odds as to how he would go about it (wry laugh). And even after knowing eachother so well from long ago, because it's work, you can't just go with it the way you normally would.

mister kaz: And like, your relationship in that case is that of artist-director!

ayu: Right. So that made it kind of... too... humble? So I guess it was a little awkward; it felt like a relative had come to work.

mister kaz: What sort of person is Director Ishii to you?

ayu: He gets it without me having to say it. So it was really easy to do, and I have confidence that we were able to make something really good. It was almost entirely CG, so there was a lot of performing in front of a green screen (to combine the images), but I felt like because it was Ishii-chan, we could do it! Because he believes in it, we could do it!

Here's the source, thanks to evolusean [who has left us, but I think he moved on...] for the translation.