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Originally Posted by ayu
I was FINALLY able to make the announcement today.
The announcement that I would be covering one of the most famous songs in the history of famous songs in Japan, a song by Yumi Matsutoya, whose greatness is far beyond that of someone you would merely call a veteran of the industry.
I've been so, so nervous.
From beginning to attempt to reimagine the song and working out how best to approach that task as a singer unto myself, while also deciding upon an arrangement suitable for Ayumi Hamasaki, to hammering out the best possible way to genuinely and definitively represent the song visually through the new music video...
Nobita-sensei, for whom I have the utmost respect, is the one who provided me with such a wonderful arrangement. When I could feel it heading toward the end of the song, I couldn't help but gasp. I was mesmerised. Actually, I have to admit that I was shrinking in the face of it...
Throughout the recording process, I've chopped and changed the way that I've tried to express myself so many times, and after obsessing over it and deciding to go one way or another I've felt beaten down by the pressure, and then gotten back up again with a new approach for a new day, only to find that I've lost my way again... But ultimately, with Yong-chan, Princess and VOJA-san doing backing vocals, I felt like all the time they'd spent practising last year had really begun to pay off, and I was so deeply moved by that.
And acting as director this time is Shimoko, a long-time partner of mine who I also hold in such high esteem and who brings his own perspective on capturing the painful fleetingness and ephemerality of the world through art.
My costume this time, which we ordered in from Kyoto, is a one-of-a-kind Japanese dress hand-dyed in a Yuzen-style (TN: Yūzen (友禅染) is a Japanese resist dyeing technique involving the application of rice paste to fabric to prevent colour transfer of dye to areas of the fabric (from Wikipedia)), courtesy of the hard work of the Okei-chan team, and the doubly incredible effect that they achieved with this aesthetic was one of both necessarily minimal stress (given the current state of my physique) as well as one of the utmost beauty and magnificence.
And then there's Nakata-sensei, who is absolutely indispensible when it comes time for me to wear traditional clothing; I don't even want to so much as try it on without him, and so he did me the favour of rushing to my side the minute he was needed.
Shimoko wrote "I'm putting my life on the line for this one" about this project on SNS, and I honestly have to say that I feel the exact same way.
The jacket shooting, the recording, the filming of the music video -- I'm putting my own life on the line for each and every one of these things.
To tell you the truth, when we'd finished producing everything, I wondered to myself how many years it had been since I'd single-mindedly and devotedly offered everything right down to my very soul to something I'd been making, to the point where I didn't even care whether I was having fun or not.
And I came to the realisation that that was it, that's how Ayumi Hamasaki had done things until now, that that's what I'd lost sight of somewhere along the line. As harsh as it sounds, I've finally come to my senses.
And now, I want you to experience "Haru yo, Koi" for yourself, whichever way you like.
Once you do, I believe that you'll also come to realise a certain something, and that you and I will both share what I see beyond that.
There's no way I can stop here. I need to see it through, to give Ayumi Hamasaki back to Ayumi Hamasaki.
Until that day comes, I'll live firmly alongside her.
For in due time, she'll come back to life to rejoin us, and "that day", in all its glory, will be the one that we look forward to the most.
ayu
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6th March 2021, 06:28 PM
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