Constantly changing with the timesRSJ: What are your favorite songs from Bring Me The Horizon's work?
Ayase: There are many, but I was particularly struck by “Parasite Eve”. I have no idea how they started writing that song.
Oli: Actually, I wrote the lyrics for that song a long time before the music. It was actually inspired by the Japanese novel Parasite Eve, which is about a superbug that is untreatable and resistant to antibiotics. I read a lot of articles related to it. I remember at the same time in England there was a heat wave, it was like 45 degrees in London which is unheard of. So I was getting very paranoid and scared about the future so I started writing this idea about this virus that takes over the world and kind of destroys mankind. I worked on this song a long time before Covid and then Covid happened and, at first, it was so strange because this song wasn’t about Covid but it became about Covid. And then people started dying and we said, “No this song could be offensive and people might be really upset at us making entertainment out of this situation.” So we stopped writing it and as the pandemic went on, we realized a lot of people were trying to escape and ignore it whereas some people were in a lot of pain and we felt they wanted to deal with it to get through it so we thought that maybe the song was important. I changed some lyrics slightly, the sections I thought might cause offense. For instance, we have this lyric, “When we forget the infection, will we remember the lesson?” I can't remember what it was before but it was darker. We changed a few of the lyrics to have more empathy for the people who may have lost someone. That was the moment we realized we were going to make it very topical. I usually write about myself so this was when I realized that this record should be about the situation, the pandemic, the current state of the world.
RSJ: Oli, you wrote a song inspired by the novel Parasite Eve. Likewise, YOASOBI creates all of their songs based on novels and stories.Oli: That’s so cool. That’s really cool. I like things that are conceptual, I think it's very interesting for the listener.
RSJ: What is the most important thing you keep in mind when making music inspired by novels?Ayase: It is respect for the author of the novel. It is also important for me to dive down to the same depth as the original author and understand it properly. That's what I want to stick to and keep doing.
RSJ: ikura, what kind of approach do you keep in mind when you sing a song that is not about you, but about a world inspired by a novel?
ikura: I think the original novel says it all but I imagine how Ayase digested this story and transformed it into music. It's just speculation, but without specifically discussing it, I have my own image of what I want to express anew or how I want the protagonist to sing or what emotions they might have. . Then, during the recording process, I try to create an image of the world and the subtleties of the main character's emotions. When the music actually comes in, I think the singing voice is a major element in the music. Therefore, as the last person to deliver the message, I try to sing with care, paying attention to every nuance of every word, so that I don’t drop the baton that has been passed to me , and I can carry on the feelings of the main character.
Oli: It’s awesome. Obviously, I don’t understand the words but I feel that, now understanding the stories, I can imagine what emotions are being conveyed when the moments get really orchestral and emotional and then go back to more fast and heavy. It reminds me of anime theme tunes, how they manage to give you a sample of each emotion and attribute of the TV show. I imagine it's the same with their stories, they may be singing about a sad moment or a heroic moment. That’s really cool to hear what they’re doing with their music.
RSJ: Their melodies are very catchy but at the same time very complicated. But ikura can sing it. She can make it. It’s amazing. Oli, what do you think?Oli: Yeah, it's very different to a Western ear. It almost reminds me of how different Indian music is to us. The different scales and note selection. It takes longer to be catchy to your ear, you have to listen to it more but when it gets into your ear, it's so catchy. DAIDAI showed me Vaundy and we’re actually covering one of his songs for our next record. We’re covering the melody because I love the melody so much.
RSJ: Ayase, you have experienced a variety of music from J-POP to metal, how do you create melodies?
Ayase: I think the melodies I create are very J-POP. I always liked J-POP music, and then I've been in metalcore bands for a long time. However, my roots are firmly in Japanese song-like melodies, so that comes out naturally.
RSJ: Oli, what kind of music did you listen to growing up?
Oli: I didn’t come from a very musical background. My parents didn't get me into anyone in particular. My dad had a very strange taste in music, he would listen to random songs like dance tracks or northern soul. So I never got a strong love for music until rock music. Before that, I liked drum n’ bass and techno and stuff like that but, like my dad, I wasn’t obsessed with anything. I would like certain songs I heard in movies or certain singles. I liked happy hardcore and techno a lot but it wasn’t until I was 13 and discovered Linkin Park and Glassjaw and that’s when I was like, “Wow, this is amazing.”
Ayase: I've been playing classical piano for a long time, so I've always been exposed to music. I still listen to classical music. From there, I got into J-POP. When I watched TV, there was always music playing so I listened to the J-POP that was popular in Japan at the time. I love singing, so I wanted to become a singer. When I thought about how to become a singer, I came across Maximum the Hormone. The band was cool, and I thought, “I want to be a vocalist in a band!” From there, I got into intense, loud music.
ikura: I lived in Chicago until I was three years old. When I was little , my siblings watched the Disney Channel all the time so listening to music along with TV shows was my first introduction to music. After returning to Japan, I grew up listening to Western music. In junior high and high school, I listened to J-POP bands, especially well-known J-POP artists . It became ingrained in me, and I started composing my own songs.
ikura（Photo by Maciej Kucia）RSJ: Both bands are drawing on past influences to create new music. . Oli, in your recent songs, you have incorporated elements of emo and post-hardcore from around the 2000s, while shaping them into completely new and original work.
Oli: Yeah. Obviously, when we did our first record from this series Post Human, it was during the pandemic. I think everyone was looking backwards because the future looked so depressing and bleak. Everyone was going back to what they used to do as a kid or what they used to listen to or playing old games, it was a very nostalgic feeling. We had that too, I wanted to go and be comforted by my old childhood things and that’s why the first record Post Human is very inspired by the alternative nu-metal and stuff from the 2000s like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit and Deftones. But also we wanted to make it feel nostalgic but futuristic and contemporary so we tried to push ourselves sonically with new sounds. We wanted the record to have a very specific energy so when you listen to the whole record it has one kind of feeling whereas amo was a collage of different emotions. So we decided with this series of Post Human records that’s how it would be, we would try to make something that was very nostalgic but also pushing forward sonically. So you feel comforted by the nostalgia but also feel like it’s something you’ve never heard before.
Ayase: I can relate to what Oli was saying about the pandemic. It felt like the world turned into night. It felt like being enveloped in darkness, where it's hard to see clearly and you want someone by your side, but it's too late to meet up. At night, you want to sleep, you want to dream, and you feel a strong sense of longing, so, as Oli mentioned, you also feel like revisiting nostalgic places. Then, when dawn breaks, everyone has somehow grown accustomed to the night, and now it's almost scary to go out into the day. Coming out of it, you find yourself thinking, “Was the world always like this?” and realizing that many things have changed without you realizing it, and even though things should have returned to normal, something feels off. YOASOBI started in the midst of that, so we've been continuously changing as if it's the most natural thing. While we're not consciously trying to deeply consider the times, since starting YOASOBI, I have been able to sense, or rather, hear, the expressions on people's faces, the thoughts they must be having, and the things they must be wanting.
ikura、Oli、Ayase（Photo by Maciej Kucia）RSJ
YOASOBI's early activities coincided with the period of the COVID-19 pandemic but it also seems like your live performances in the outside world bloomed once it was over. Did you feel anything new by going out and performing live?
Ayase: When festivals and live performances came back, I thought the audience was still a bit awkward. There was a certain sense of cautiousness in the air . This, in a big way, made me feel that we need to gradually rebuild, but at the same time, I felt that it was a point that everyone had been waiting for.
ikura: After the Covid restrictions had eased, , we were scheduled to perform at a summer festival for the first time in 2022. . That year, as Ayase said, the what-was-it-like-in-the-world atmosphere was still lingering . Through that, we moved into 2023 with more summer festivals and our first arena tour. Each of us has faced different challenges and hardships, and we continue to fight against the parts that feel suffocating. So, when people come to our live shows, it's not so much that I want to save someone or anything, but rather that I want to surprise and remind everyone that we're all in this together. I want to have fun and get everyone excited, even if it's just for these two hours, where everyone can be free, and then let's all work hard again starting tomorrow! That's the mindset I've adopted.
Ayase: After all, live performances are fun.
