Namie Amuro talks about the ‘amuro’ legend on Ishigaki Island.
Why Namie Amuro now? To figure out why, you only have to watch her latest concert DVD. The new style she’s established, the magnetism which pulls in a new generation as she shines even more vividly than during the old movement, the breathtaking live performance that only Namie Amuro can deliver…once you’ve seen all that, all your questions will disappear. Thirteen years since her debut, on Ishigaki, an island off of her hometown of Okinawa, she talks to us about her past, her present…and her future. In the newest long interview from Nylon, Namie Amuro shows us her real face at 27.
How is it being in Okinawa after such a long absence? Is this your first time on Ishigaki?
“I’ve come here for work before, but unlike places I go for fun, I don’t remember much about places I go for work. This time I got to go sight-seeing my first day, like it was summer vacation or something. I was thinking how Okinawa really is pleasant….remembering the past a little.”
So how did you get into music?
“When I was in the 6th year of elementary school, I was scouted by a talent school in my hometown. I wasn’t really interested in it before. (she laughs) I was scouted out of the blue, and it happened before I even knew it. That’s what it feels like, really.”
If you hadn’t gotten scouted, then Namie Amuro as she exists now might not…
“Maybe not. Plus, there was an acting course and a dance course, and originally, I was in the acting course, because I figured, ‘Well, if I’m going to do this, I might as well become an actress!’. But you know, obviously you have to recite your lines in front of the class, and I was so embarrassed, I was like, ‘Well, this won’t work!’. (she laughs) And when I switched to the dance course, everyone was just paying attention to their own reflections in the mirror… And I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t embarrassing…’ That’s how it all started.”
I never knew you wanted to be an actress! And to think you started dancing to escape embarrassment! Did you start to get into it after that?
“That’s right. I treated it like it was an after-school activity. But everyone was dreaming of making their debut, and we had recitals a few times a year, and so gradually I began to want to get better. That was when I fell in love with Janet Jackson. We practiced with videos of foreign artists, they were like our teachers, and I wanted to be able to sing and dance like [Janet Jackson] one day…”
When did you start working in Tokyo?
”I think it was in my second year of junior high. At first I just went back and forth for little jobs, and then when I was 15 I moved to Tokyo. In the beginning I was with the other members (of the Super Monkey’s) and we were in this place that would barely sleep four people. We had to wake up at 7 am. Then we’d eat breakfast and train by going running in the park nearby. We had a 6 pm curfew; it was really strict. (she laughs) No matter where we went, we all had to go together, we pooled our money to buy food, and we had to use our own money for transportation. If we bought clothes or something, we had to call home and be like, ‘Mooom…’ (she laughs) If I hadn’t had the other members, I might have gone back home to Okinawa right away. I really believe that we were able to make it through because we all had each other.”
I can’t believe you had a period where you were so down and out. Did you experience any other kind of culture shock in Tokyo?
“Hmm…well, we didn’t have the money to go out. (she laughs) It really just brought home how harsh reality is. I had thought that we’d get to have concerts as soon as we moved to Tokyo, but I was so naïve. If you don’t sell CDs, you can’t have concerts, and you can’t go on TV. And the dance lessons were at such a high level, the ones we were used to in Okinawa didn’t compare at all. I saw with my own eyes just how lacking my abilities were, and it was such a shock. I basically had to start from square one again.”
But gradually more work came in, right?
“Yes, thinking about it now, I realize how lucky that was. In the beginning we had two boys in the group, but it was decided that a girl group would be best…”
Isn’t that the age that, if you were a normal high schooler, your biggest concern would be love? How did you balance those things? When was your first love?
“Oh, I was wondering when this question would come. (she laughs) When I was in elementary school, I really loved the sumo wrestler ‘Maruhachi’.”
You mean Kouken Sankan? ….you’re kidding, right?
“It’s true. I was really small, so I liked people who were really big, I wanted them to sweep me off my feet.”
You were a precocious child! Does that mean that you were quick to go from idolization to an actual first love?
“There was this one boy I liked from 3rd grade until my first year of junior high. But I was too embarrassed to do anything about it myself, so it was completely unrequited love. When I finally thought things might be mutual, I was halfway into my teens. To tell the truth, there was even a period when I decided I cared more about love than work. (she laughs) But you know how girls are, when things are going well in love, it gives you motivation for all the other aspects of your life as well. If you have a fight you get depressed, if things go well it can be a plus for your work, and you can enjoy it more. I think that no matter how old you are, a love that you can turn into a positive force for your work is important.”
This’ true. But when the Amrer Phenomenon hit, you didn’t have time for any of that, did you?
“No. During the peak of all of that, I only went home to sleep for a few hours. I don’t actually remember much about that time, I was just so desperate to get through all the work I had in front of me. Rather than thinking about how hard things were, I thought about how if I didn’t sell CDs, I couldn’t do concerts; I was consumed with wanting to be on TV, with wanting to be # one, and I didn’t even have the presence of mind to be able to think calmly about the position I was in, or any of that.”
That was when you left the Super Monkey’s. Had a solo debut been a dream of yours?
“Janet was my first idol, so I’m sure part of me did want that. But more than being happy about it, when it was decided I felt pressure, and I was uneasy about it all, like, ‘From now on I’ll be all alone…’.”
The direction of your music has changed dramatically from back then. When was it when you began to clearly assert yourself as far as the musical direction you wanted to go?
“When Komuro-san was producing my work, I focused on how to make what I was given my own, and how to make it into something of even high quality. To tell you the truth I didn’t have the time or the presence of mind to step back and take another look at my own tastes and the kind of music I wanted to do. It wasn’t until I had gotten married and was on leave that I began to see that kind of vision for myself.”
Things are different now, but at the time it was such a shock for you to get married at 20 years old. Did you worry at all that it was too soon?
“It felt like the natural course of things to me. Thinking about it now, I do think that it may have been a little soon, but I don’t regret it. There are some benefits to having a child young. As my son gets older, it will be lonely for me as he goes off on his own, but when it’s come time to think about how to live a fruitful life after [he’s left], I feel like I’ll have a wider range of possibilities.”
What kind of life did you live when you were on your leave?
“All of sudden I had free time, and I had nothing to do, so it was a problem. I woke up and then cleaned the house and did the laundry in the morning, but then I had nothing to do in the afternoon, so I’d just watch TV. But I was so excited and so happy about having a baby growing inside me, and I enjoyed having a normal life for the first time in so long. It wasn’t until after the baby was born that I started to think seriously about work and what I wanted to do next. While I was on leave I was able to read magazines and watch TV and see how I’d looked to others, and rethink what ‘Namie Amuro’ was, from an outsider’s perspective, and I decided that from now on I needed to put my own wants and the music I liked first.”
Come to think of it, that’s when you started writing lyrics, right?
“Actually, I’d been writing lyrics for a while. I still have a lot on my computer what will never see the light of day… I’ve kept it a secret until now, but I wrote the lyrics to a song on the album that I put out then, under a pen name. If I told people I wrote it they’d start analyzing it, and I didn’t want that, and I was embarrassed, so I’ve kept that fact a secret.”
Now I really want to know what song it is!
“It’s one of the album songs. But I’m not telling the title. (she laughs) Please just have fun imagining which it could be!”
The first song that you wrote under your own name, as shy as you are, was ‘Say the Word’
“Yes, and because it was well received I could do the same for my next single, ‘I WILL’. I had written those lyrics a long time ago, and revised them many times. It’s one of my personal favorites; when I read the lyrics again, I decided that it would be a good choice. But even now when I present lyrics I’ve written, my heart pounds. I almost chicken out every time. (she laughs)”
Now there’s a school of thought that if you don’t write lyrics or music yourself that you’re not an artist, that if you just sing, you’re an idol. What do you think about that?
I’ve always thought that I’m glad to be somewhere in the middle there. That I can go either way. I think that with a dance song that people are going to respond to at concerts, the lyrics need to be something cool. The lyrics that I write myself fit more with ballads, so if there’s someone who is good at writing that kind of cool lyrics, if I ask them to write the lyrics, the end result will be a higher quality produce. So I don’t want to be too caught up in that school of thought. I think the best thing is only to write the lyrics myself when what I want to get across fits with the song perfectly. Because for me, the thing that’s most important when I chose my songs isn’t that kind of creativity, but whether or not people will respond to the song during a live performance.
It was around ‘I WILL’ that you began to put more of your own colors to the forefront in your music, and it seems as though your work with SUITE CHIC after that helped bring you to your current style. Could you tell us about that?
It was so inspiring to work with so many different artists, and I really did feel that I had gained something from it. My desire to do the music I want to do is even stronger now. I was always worried about the fan’s response, I but I think that the singles I released after, ‘shine more’, ‘Put ‘em up’, and ‘So Crazy’ were accepted because of my work as SUITE CHIC. The fans went really wild during my latest tour too. I think that really good music will make it. So I’m glad that I challenged myself.
People certainly did go wild on your last tour!
I feel a real sense of accomplishment, that this was the best tour I’ve ever done! So much that I don’t know if I could do anything better. It was a long tour, half a year, but the audience gave such a wonderful response each time, so I never got sick of it. I thought, ‘I have to show this concert to my kid!’, so I let him see my concert for the first time. He didn’t really know what his mother did for a living, so I thought that it was time to really show him. Because I want him to think, ‘Mama’s working really hard, so I want to do my best too!’. That’s one of the reasons I keep working. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, and it all depends on how my son takes it, but if it makes him want to do his best, and to work really hard at something when he finds something he wants to do, then I’d be really happy. So I want to make something that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show my son, something that I can be proud of and explain to my son with my head held high, I’d like to be able to teach him something from the stage. I feel like it’s my job as a parent. I try to make the weekends family days as much as I can, to try to make up for the time I have to work.
By the way, what do you think is the charm of ‘Namie Amuro’, from an outside perspective?
That’s a difficult question. Personally, I love performing, and I really enjoy it. Of course I want people to listen to my CDs, and look at the magazines and TV programs, but more than anything I want them to come to my concerts. I love the ‘Namie Amuro’ singing and dancing on stage, and that’s the thing that I really want to be doing. I can’t analyze my own charm, but I do want to do what I think is cool, and I want to be cool up on stage. That’s something that’s never changed.
Do you think of the dances yourself?
I do get an image… Like, the feeling I’d like the dance to have, or the atmosphere of the stage. But I’m not the one who actually makes up the dances, so it’s people that I’ve been working with for a long time, like TRF, or other people that I trust, who are the ones who make that all happen.
You’ve been working with TRF for a long time.
They were helping me with my performances since before I got married, so I communicate in just a few words just what I want to, or what it is I’m imagining, and they completely understand where I’m coming from. I really trust them as my creative partners, and they inspire me as well.
Has having a child and understanding maternal love had any influence on your songs?
I think that it’s pretty separate for me. But as my son gets older, I’m wanting more and more to show him my performances, so I guess it’s had some of an effect. Sometimes people tell me, ‘Why are you still working, when you have a child?’, or ‘You should focus on raising your child.’ But I want to show my son how that is mother is doing something wonderful, that she’s really working hard. So I need to make something good.
When you were single, you got your energy from love, do you now get that energy from your son?
It does make me want to do my best.
When you finished your tour last year, you had a series of very successful concerts in Korea and Taiwan. I’m sure that the warm welcome you received from the audiences there, everyone yelling ‘I love you’ in Korean, for example, have boosted your confidence, so what is your plan for next year?
This year was such a good year. It may have been my best year since my debut. This tour gave me the chance to take another listen to all my past singles, and took sing them again, and it hit me again how I’ve been blessed with such good songs. I got to go to a lot of places I’d never been before, and was told a lot of things that made me very happy. There were so many times this year that made me think how glad I am to be doing music. Although I do feel pressured in terms of how I can make my next tour even better than that. (she laughs) But it was a really fulfilling time, and I was able to do everything I wanted to. I hope next year can be that kind of year too.
It must be tough to have the pressure of making something good enough to make you doubt if you could make something better. Do you tend to be a perfectionist?
No? I can be surprisingly quick and careless about some things, and apparently people are shocked by that gap. They often say, ‘But you were so precise about what you wanted for those other things, you really don’t care about making a decision about this?’, and when something becomes a pain in the neck I tend to just say, ‘Oh well’, and forget about it. I guess the thing is that when it comes to music or things that I’ve invested myself in - things that I want to do - I’m so stubborn and I won’t give an inch, but when it comes to other things, or things that I’ve gotten tired of, I play things by ear. (she laughs)
You’re in the midst of recording your new album; What will it be like?
It’s coming together to be mostly R&B, songs that make you dance. I’m not sure how the lyrics will be yet. I guess since I think of my songs as being at their best, being complete only when I sing and dance during a concert that I want to choose the best lyrics to fit that. Concerts are where everything is perfected. Songs aren’t complete yet as they are on the CD or when I perform them on TV. The song only becomes perfect when I sing it at a concert. That’s what I think about when I choose my songs, and those moments of inspiration about how I could perform a certain song are also important. With this album I’m aiming for something that brings that part to the forefront even more.
So it sounds like we’ll be able to expect something amazing in your next concert.
Yes. I’ve got the songs, I just need to bring them to perfection with my performance. But the only place I can do that is at my concerts, so I really want people to come to my concert and see a new ‘Namie Amuro’.
So it sounds like your goal has always been something better than before: Looking back, do you think that ‘Namie Amuro’ is a shining presence?
Rather than shining myself, I think that many different people help me to shine. Because of this job I sometimes receive awards, and people tell me they’re jealous of me… Even when it comes to doing what I want, while I’m the one doing those things, it takes so many people’s help to actually make that happen, and it’s only when there are people to appraise it that it starts to become a reality. No matter how much I wanted to shine, it’s impossible on my own, so I feel so lucky to be given the place and the chance like that.
Well what is the next dream that you want to realize?
Well, my biggest dream, from when I was a teenager, of wanting debut, wanting to become a singer, that’s already come true, you know? After that I dreamt of having concerts, of getting #1 on the charts…and those dreams have also come true, and my goal has always been to continue that, and that’s how I got to where I am now. So, what’s next? As you get older, it gets harder to have dreams, I think. The things you want to do get more difficult as you get older, and sometimes people quit something when they could have just kept doing it. I really don’t know how I should be when I turn 30, or how old I should sing until, or how long I’ll be able to keep dancing. So all I can do is do it as long as I can.
You’re not ‘Namie Amuro’ if you’re not singing and dancing?
That’s right. That’s something that I never want to change. I’ve never had a concert where I didn’t dance, so I don’t know how it would be, and it’s hard for me have my next dream when I just don’t know. The only thing I can do is do everything I can, shine as bright as I can, have people to help me shine as much as they can. I guess my real dream is to go as far as I can.
But on MTV you see James Brown giving a concert at 80, and 70 year old women cheering in the audience, right? How about aiming for something like that?
That’s true. (she laughs) The real problem would be whether or not I keep thing up to the quality that I felt good about. If I couldn’t, I might like to produce someone. Because there have been times when I couldn’t do something I wanted to because it didn’t fit my image, and I would like to send those things out into the world. When I start thinking like that, there’s no end to what I can dream, I guess.
She herself has said that 2004 was her best year ever. Her half a year long tour, and concerts in Korea and Taiwan were a big success, and the foreign newspapers said, ‘She showed us just how high the quality of the Japanese music scene really is.’ When she says she’s worried whether or not she can produce a better tour than this one, it’s not fake modesty, but her real feelings as an artist who thinks of her live performances as completion, and will never compromise or spare any effort. In 2005, the 13th anniversary of her debut, there’s no question that she’ll show us an even better performance. She’s reached the top of the ever-changing entertainment business, and build her own style in the midst of that commotion, and never compromised her own life style as a woman. The path she’s come on wasn’t some simple Cinderella story. If you look at her statement that ‘It was love that supported me at times’ from a different angle, it’s proof of all the hardships she’s had to overcome. ‘If I am shinning, it’s not something that I did on my own. But it is up to me how bright I can shine next.’ A woman who believes in herself, and doesn’t get caught up in the trends of her time, and this side of her as a working mother. Her lifestyle hold a fascination larger than any musical genre.
November, the first day of the shoot on Ishigaki Island. Returning to the hotel from the location search with the photographer, I ran into Amuro-chan, who was holding a photo of one of the tourist sights in her hand, of which she crowed gleefully, ‘I got someone to take my picture there!’ It’s ‘Namie Amuro’, but something is different. This may be the first time I’ve seen her so natural. Of course that smile she gives during concerts - the one that says just how much she’s enjoying herself – is really cute, but there’s something more childish and mischievous about this private smile. Just when I was satisfied that I’d seen and unexpected side of her, I got a glimpse of yet another unknown side at the BBQ and fireworks we had that night… Since it was the day before the photo shoot, she didn’t drink, but over and over she asked me, ‘Are you drinking?’ It was heartwarming to watch her with the local boys who were helping out at the BBQ. I was able to see many things I would never have seen on the official scene, such as Namie holding a sparkler in each hand, and giving her manager Miss Y the impossible order to ‘Jump them!’ (of course she was joking), and I have come to the following conclusions:
Amuro-chan is good at getting you to drink.
Amuro-chan is a good mother.
Amuro-chan is sometimes Diane.*
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17th January 2018, 03:49 AM
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