Are You Happy? Pamphlet Translation - Sakurai Sho




A concert that can be watched in an easy going, relaxed manner… It would be wonderful if it could become that kind of concert for everyone to enjoy.

Firstly, in terms of the title we decided on, Are You Happy? was my idea, but in reality, there was actually another (title idea) that I initially recommended. At the time when we had to choose between that title or the staff’s idea, I suddenly came up with a different idea. Like, really suddenly (laugh). Rather than just Happy. (period) it’s the question Are You Happy? so there would most likely be those who answer, “Yes, I’m happy” and conversely those who reply, “I’m not happy.” In other words, the starting point was our objective to present “human emotions” through the variety of songs incorporated in our album. In conclusion, there isn’t any song that I would consider as a “not happy” song. But the idea of the album “containing various emotions” … my thoughts most likely associated it to this year’s sad news in Kumamoto and Oita [1] amongst others during the time of the album’s creation.

This time, each member supervised an album track as their “under the supervision” (aka. USV) song. Once again… everyone took on new challenges in the production of their USV songs. Everyone pushed their boundaries quite a fair bit, so I was surprised. I thought, “Everyone’s really trying something different, aren’t they?” It was really interesting. It’s like… it turns out that each of the five of us really splits apart (laugh). Every time, I’ve been saying how “there’s a wide range of songs included!” I’ve been saying that, but I meant that there are a variety of songs included despite there being a theme. I think they’re albums that could only be created by those who are like us – in other words, groups that generally don’t create their own songs. The range of songs this time is a bit… too wide. It’s like, one minute we’re in the desert, next minute we’re suddenly heading towards the South Pole! It’s that great of a level (laugh). Even the singles are all really different. Usually I tend to relax once I reach the track from a single whilst listening to the album, but this time it’s like, “It’s accelerating even more?!” (laugh) I believe it’s the first time I’ve viewed the track singles in such way, and as a result…… it honestly has to be under the title Are You Happy? If not, it can’t possibly wrap up the songs conclusively in one album (laugh). The question mark, “?” is very important, okay! Since we’re not in any way providing an answer to the album title… it gives quite a tricky, or in other words it has a mixed bag sort of vibe (laugh). It has truly become an album that packs “the present Arashi.”

About the USV track, how would you say this… You see, I’m placing around 80 to 90% of my enthusiasm on the rap [2] sung by the five of us in this time’s album production (laugh). Generally, there have been songs containing rap connected through a mic relay between one line and the next, but there hasn't really been a song with rap sung verse by verse. Also… the overall image I envisioned of the song is something I think people would realise by listening. It’s the idea of the five of us being dispersed in various places, and then coming together… not quite like the gathering of alumni, but we “reunite” together. I imagined the feelings of reuniting after a while and wrote it into five parts. If you ask, “What would those feelings be?” It’s related to the things we said a lot during the final speeches of our concerts in the past. Members aren’t family nor friends… and of course, they’re not lovers either. “Members” cannot be explained by anything but the word “member,” and it has its own special meaning… is what’s often said. But to me, Arashi is both family and friends and, well, not lovers but… (laugh) I believe that Arashi encompasses all those words, and so I wanted to incorporate that thought into a song. That’s why when I sing “my friend” [3] at the end, it’s… how would I say this, a very important phrase to me. Since Yume de Ii kara (2005) [4] there’s been someone I know who has been adding scratch noise to our music for me, and in this song, they ended it for me with the scratch noise, “my friend,” [3] “let’s return, let’s dance.” [5] I think… this way, it really conveys my feelings. I wrote the beginning two verses (rap lyrics) in the round-trip flight for the Rio Olympics coverage. As for the remaining three rap parts, I wrote it in Japan, to initially prepare five parts. From there, my concern was, how should I split the vocal arrangements? Initially, I thought I would take the first part, but then I decided against it. Then I thought, who should go next? That was ultimately the way I decided how to divide the vocal parts up. As expected, the outcome after everyone’s vocals had been recorded was… really good. I like it quite a lot, you know. The image I have of the live performance is exactly as the same as my image for the song. It’s just trying to figure out how to present the idea of “the five of us being dispersed in various places, and then coming together.”

As for my solo, Sunshine… I rediscovered a song I listened to during my high school days, so I sort of felt nostalgic (laugh). Then, I thought it’d be nice to produce a track with that song’s vibe, and it started from there. In the end, though, it became something different (laugh). As expected, it turned out that way. I wanted to have a track with “that song’s vibe” for its nostalgic feel, but it’s just the song itself that’s nostalgic, and it’s not like mine would become nostalgic because of that reason (laugh). That’s why, when you ask why I chose this song, it’s simply because I took a liking to it (laugh). That, and the fact that it was peculiar. Firstly… it’s sung normally in the first chorus, it has a rap part in the second chorus, then it goes to the bridge. When it reaches the interlude, it becomes something like a dance part, and afterwards it turns into a call and response… which was why I thought it was unique. I had the impression that the structure of the song was interesting. It’s that within one song, the images it depicts change… or should I say, the emotions within the song keep changing. So since the song’s ambiance was interesting, I felt the outcome would also be something interesting. There’s not a lot of rap included this time, so whilst recording I kept thinking about what to do with it. Ultimately, I wrote the rap to suit the image of a cheerful song. It’s just that… I still don’t have any idea at all of what I’d like to do with the stage in the live performance (laugh). That’s something I still have to continue to think about, I guess.

Although we’re still having meetings right now to discuss how we want to transform this album into a concert, last time’s Japonism was produced to the finest details, which is just one of those things that makes me think that Matsujun’s amazing. In some ways, Matsujun’s creation of last year’s live performance had the tense atmosphere of something new that can’t be simply called a concert or a show. This time we passed on that idea and instead, we decided to crack down on our usual approach to a meticulous concert. We thought “let’s add some playfulness to our live performance.” That was the starting point of this time’s album – before we even decided on the title. As a result, that “carved opening” and “playfulness” points to a concert that’s more laid back than last year’s, although to what extent, I still don’t know myself. It would be nice if it could become a concert that everyone could enjoy with smiles on their faces. I wouldn’t call it quite the opposite of Japonism’s “charm,” but… it would be nice if it could become a concert that can be watched in an easy going, relaxed manner. Honestly though… What sort of concert will it become? I’m really looking forward to it.

T/N:
[1] - The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes were a series of earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock which struck at 01:25 JST on April 16, 2016 beneath Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture. (Source: Wikipedia)
[2] – Are You Happy? Track 15. To my homies
[3] – To my homies lyrics: “友よ” (tomo yo)
[4] – One Album Track 12. Sakurai Sho solo
[5] – To my homies lyrics: “戻ろう 踊ろう” (modorou, odorou)

Aaaand the interview section is done! So far I'm planning to do the cross-talk after this, and we'll see where it takes me. I saw the "happy" photo section being translated on tumblr whilst I was being slow so I might just leave it up to them.

Thank you Toni (tapsilogue) for all your help correcting sentence structures and clarifying sentences (as much as possible) and just helping me out so much in general!!! I know it was difficult with IRL getting in the way of fandom life, and I'm very very very extraordinarily grateful. <3 I have no confidence that the quality I would have produced alone would be sufficient to getting people to understand what each interview was saying lol. Anyhow, hope you all enjoyed reading the interviews! :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAREST SHO, BTW! <3 I respect and admire all aspects of you so much - your lighthearted, easy-going nature, balanced out with your work ethics. You are a huge inspiration to many. <3 I hope you have a special 35th birthday that's as wonderful as you! :)

Images are taken from my own pamphlet. Please do not repost/retranslate without permission! Thank you. :)



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Are You Happy? Pamphlet Translation - Ohno Satoshi




The album title alone projects a cheerful image, but cheerful things don’t all necessary mean “happy” things, and there are different forms of happiness. It would be nice if we could convey this through our concert.

This time, the album title Are You Happy? has a cheerful image, doesn’t it? It’s conceptually different from Digitalian and Japonism, and projects the strong image from the word “Happy” in itself. How should I say this… it has a much more casual vibe? (laugh) I feel that it’s a word that can be expressed in so many ways because people interpret it differently. Every single song is like a rich meal… which is why I felt really full upon finishing listening to one song, I guess? To the extent where I was so surprised I thought, “Eh?! There are still more songs after this?!” (laugh) This time, each member supervised a group track as well as their own solos. I… get confused by which song’s which, like, “Eh? Which one’s their solo?” (wry smile) The under the supervision (USV) songs which each of the four of them took under their wing have genres that differ quite a bit from each other, and it has each of the members’ characteristic touch. I also think that the feel of the tune in Don’t You Get It and the perspective conveyed in the lyrics have the overall balance most suitable for the lead track in the album. It’s really an album with a wide range of songs that gives the impression, “There’s a lot of songs in here!” (laugh)

Now that I think about it, there aren’t any singles that are ballads in the album this time either, are there? There’s only a calming type of song like Miles away (Ohno’s USV song). If you ask why I chose this song? I’d say that it’s because I wanted to produce a song that emphasises the lyrics… or more specifically, the ad-libs, since I realised that I haven’t really listened to the other members sing them before. Up until now, the vocal parts have been divided in a certain pattern, after all. When it comes to ad-libs, I’m usually the one assigned. But if we keep it that way all the time, it would get boring, wouldn’t it? (laugh) With that, I carefully split the vocal parts for the members throughout the song production like, “Here I’d like Matsujun to sing the ad-lib,” and, “It should be Nino here.” I wanted to split the vocal parts into a pattern that’s different from the usual. They’re vocal parts only I can assign…? I guess you could say that. That’s why the recording staff were somewhat surprised. (laugh) It was probably because the vocal parts were split in a way that was different from how the recording staff would generally do it. I was even told by the members that “the vocal parts were complicated.” (laugh) I wonder if that’s the case? Personally, I actually like it. The finished product with everyone’s voices in it turned out to be exactly as I imagined it to be, so I was really happy. It turned out to be a good track. After we finished with the song, I repeated it many times, thinking, “It’s so good!” (laugh) I almost immediately decided on the vocal parts, you know? I also immediately decided on the song, thinking its vibe was nice. From there, I loosened the tempo and little by little inserted the ad-lib parts. It’s a song that also has quite a lot of falsettos and harmonies along with ad-libs in the vocal parts. It was fun thinking about how to layer everyone’s voices nicely within the song… and about other things. Intuitively, I approached this the same way I thought up our choreography in the past. After all, when I choreograph our dances, my initial thought is, “If we dance as the five of us, would it become like this?” From there, I try to imagine the final outcome. It was the same when I was supervising the song for the five of us, where I thought, “What if we did this type of song together?” or “What if we split the vocals this way?” Thinking about it was a lot of fun. I still haven’t decided how I want to perform this in our concert though. I have thought that it might be interesting for the five of us to stand side by side in a line. I think it’ll be good to have a simple performance without any special enhancements. Then again, things might change after we have meetings for our concert since we’ll still add stage effects to the live performance as well. But I feel that this song will shine even on a simple stage.

Up until now, we haven’t been in charge of a song aside from our solo, made to be sung by the five of us. It was something new. I thought everyone had an interesting attempt at each of their own productions, and it certainly felt refreshing hearing the other members’ USV songs, realising, “Oh, so it’s like this.” (Similarly, in other members’ USV songs,) There were also songs that already had set vocal parts where you’d go, “Whoa, that’s unusual,” since the split parts are different from the norm as well. Sho-kun’s (USV song) To my homies was unusual in that way too, you know? That rap… I laughed by myself. (laugh) I laughed a lot from the start in the part that goes “HA HA HA.” Sho-kun was the one who decided the singing parts there as well, but in reality, it hadn’t been matched up to each member yet when we recorded. So I listened to the demo Sho-kun provided, and memorised it. You see, because raps are fast, for someone like me… Even if I read the lyrics while I sing, if it’s in kanji [1] I can’t sing along immediately. Unless I write in the pronunciation using hiragana, [2] I can’t keep up to the rap speed at all. (wry smile) That’s why… I prepare by running through it one time, then once I can say it all together, I start the recording of the song. I gave my all to it, but that “HA HA HA” part had no emotion to it at all, did it? My rap is like… a bad-mannered guy’s rap, or like it had the, “What is wrong with this guy… He’s so rude!” sort of feel to it, didn’t it? (laugh) Even I think so when I listen to it myself. Although… overall, the end product became interesting. (laugh)

As for my solo… I’m always troubled with how I should go with it every single time. Honestly speaking, I don’t know anymore. (laugh) I can’t even imagine what I want to do myself so this time, I sort of thought, “Whatever, let’s just try jumping into it!” That’s why… there’s no particularly deep meaning in this time’s Bad boy production. (laugh) But I did have the image of dancing, and I planned to take it seriously and just jump straight into it. That’s why in terms of the song itself, I explained that I wanted “this sort of feel” to the tempo, and had it created for me. The choreography emphasises on the steps. So that those who watch the dance would think, “He made his choreography complex again...” (laugh) That’s how I’d like it to become. Then again, that’s still a work in progress. I’ll do my best. (laugh) This time, my plans for being in charge of the choreography are… which ones, I wonder? At the moment, it seems like I will be doing the choreography for my solo and TWO TO TANGO, but I’m still not sure. We’ll have to continue discussing it in our concert meetings. I really can’t believe… that a month from now, we’d have started our concert tour. (laugh) It’s going to become the next concert following our Japonism Arena Tour. Anyway, right now, I’m just thinking hopefully, “Can’t November come sooner?” (laugh) Because although the meetings and rehearsals are tiring, once the tour starts I’m able to think “Everything’s all right!” to myself. Can it just start soon? (laugh)

This time’s concert, Are You Happy? has a cheerful image from its title alone, but cheerful things aren’t all necessarily “happy” things. When you talk about happiness, there are different forms of it, so… it would be nice if we can convey that through our concert. It would be great if it becomes a concert everyone is able to enjoy!

T/N:
[1] – Kanji (漢字): are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system, along with hiragana and katakana.
[2] – Hiragana (ひらがな): is the basic Japanese phonetic script. It represents every sound in the Japanese language.

First and foremost, thank you to the wonderful Toni (tapsilogue) for taking time out to edit my translations very thoroughly from her busy schedule during the festive season and when RL is at its peak at being hectic. <3 Second of all, sorry for the delay! In the midst of work, vacation and family time, although it was already in the stages of editing when I posted Nino's, this took longer than expected. ;;

Anyway, enjoy~! Sho's one is in the editing stages but probably won't be released until the beginning of next year, so let this be a belated Christmas and early Happy New Year present!!! 💙❤💚💛💜 :D

Images are taken from my own pamphlet. Please do not repost/retranslate without permission! Thank you. :)



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Are You Happy? Pamphlet Translation - Ninomiya Kazunari




The under the supervision (USV) songs supervised by each of the members are, of course, an aspect of the album which you should look out for. However, the other songs on the album are all songs of the same high calibre, so I would be grateful if people would be able to enjoy the entire album as a whole.

Are You Happy? It’s a good album, isn’t it? This time, everyone chose songs they had to supervise in production. Isn’t it good? This way, there’s a whole range of songs included. It’s an album that has never been created up until now, hasn’t it!

My USV song, WONDER-LOVE, was chosen upon knowing of everyone’s USV track decisions. In other words, I thought it would be good if it became the balancing element when some things were lacking or when others stood out too much. If you ask me what to look out for in this song, it would be the “dance.” This time, everyone will most probably dance in their solo songs, but that’s not the case for the songs we sing as the five of us. I thought, “We’ll probably only dance in Aiba-kun’s Seishun Boogie, wouldn’t we?” so I decided I would make my track a danceable song. This song has the live performance as its starting point. What I wanted to try doing this time was the idea that “only those who sing will dance.” The people who aren’t singing don’t dance until it’s their turn – instead, they’ll walk or stop altogether. I wanted to showcase a performance where “only those who are singing are working their hardest.” (laugh) I brainstormed using that as my basis, so up until the chorus, we don’t sing in unison at all. Then, by the second verse, we sing in solos, pairs, trios, quartets, and then as the five of us… Then, we sing as the five of us and decrease as a quartet, trio, pair, and then solo… That was the sort of vocal arrangement assigned. Then, in the final part – just the final part – we finally sing as the five of us. I’m creating it that way to work with the visualised concert staging.

In this time’s solo, Mata Kyou to Onaji Asu ga Kuru, the highlight is “sound” – the emphasis of sound. Well, I thought it was something lacking in the solo songs that I write myself. You see, I was asked by the record label staff again this time if I “wanted to write my own solo.” I was told things like, “We believe the fans are also looking forward to it.” I was told that over and over again. But you know, I have a bad personality (laugh). The more I’m told to do something, and the more I’m praised for doing it, the more I end up not wanting to do it. (wry smile) You see, the reason I started to write my own songs was to showcase my own personal appeal, like, “I can do things like this too, you know.” It’s like introducing sides of myself: “I can play the guitar too,” “I can write songs,” and “This is who I am.” More than trying to give the song’s perspective of the world or how writing lyrics add meaning to the song itself, I think it was more that personal appeal that I aimed for. That’s why I never thought my writing was something in demand. Then, in the past two to three years, I haven’t been creating my own songs, but I keep getting told about it more and more. Whenever I keep getting told about it, because of my personality… you know (laugh). Right now, I don’t write my own songs at all. After all, I haven’t been listening to any music, only Arashi’s (laugh). The only songs with vocals which I have been listening to are all Arashi’s. That sort of musical desire I had before… I don’t really have that right now. The fact that I’m working all the time is a factor, I think. Before, I had a lot of spare time on my hands, and no one really knew who I was. That’s why there were a lot of parts I composed myself. It’s definitely a factor that I have less and less free time as I go on, and I feel inside myself that my interest in a lot of things has also decreased, so here I am now.

Musicians tend to have the desire to express themselves and want their thoughts heard, don’t they? But I don’t really feel that way. For example, even if I do write lyrics, I might be able to write my own lyrics about anything, but there are occasions where I won’t be able to sing them. In that sense, idols are not exactly free in the way they are able to express themselves. Because I’ve been doing this under such conditions this entire time, I expressed myself through the composition itself rather than the lyrics. Ultimately, the song itself held a higher priority. That's why this time, although I’ve been credited for writing part of the lyrics, I only adjusted little bits here and there. Really, I was mainly playing around with the sound the entire time instead. I fiddled around with it quite a lot, and I also thought about and played around a lot with how I should sing the song. I fret over areas like where I go “hmm~.” In that sense, rather than creating the song myself, it’s more like I contributed (laugh). Professional creators are really amazing. As expected, people who create music for a living… they are on a completely different level. I ended up thinking, “There’s no need to make my own, is there?!” (laugh) It was so high a level that I thought that way. Also, whenever I explained that I want something done “this way,” it would gradually be accurately reflected in the song itself. In that way, I think I might have become better at explaining myself (laugh).

Well then… I talked about a lot of things, but in my solo this time, I’m going to dance! I think you’ll understand what I mean in relation to “dancing,” for the first time during the performance itself. When everyone sees me dance, I think I’ll be able to understand whether they think, “As expected, the Nino who dances is cool,” or see it as “somewhat ordinary.” (laugh) I haven’t properly danced for the past few years, after all. I may have done some tap dancing and other challenges, but I only danced during the tap dance part. The choreography afterwards is up to me, after all. That’s why this time, it’s back to the simple “singing while dancing!” mindset in me. Although I’m still thinking about the performance set. Somehow, I felt that dancing briskly to a quiet song would be cooler than energetically dancing to fast paced electronic dance songs and black music. [1] Wouldn’t it be thrilling to not dance and instead just sing to danceable music? That original concept became the production theme this time around. I looked up various things on the internet and thought a lot of things were nice. Even now, there’s a video that I keep re-watching over and over again. It’s a sort of loose song, but performed with a fast-paced dance… which I found inspiring. This way, it’s also suitable since I think that fast-paced dancing to a quiet song gets more attractive with age. Honestly, I’ve been watching that one video the whoooole time at home (laugh). If Arashi dances like this, I thought we'd look really stylish. Although it’s very difficult… but if we’re able to manage it, wouldn’t it be really impressive? That’s why this time I would be dancing dully, just like a doll! (laugh) It’s the case for both of the songs I supervised, as well as my own solo… I guess.

I think it’d be wonderful if people could enjoy this tour. Of course, the performance on stage that showcases the USV songs directed by each of the members is a promising aspect to look out for. But in saying that… there may be people who aren’t particularly looking out for it. There may be people who think, “it’s not in my interest” that the members have produced and directed some of the songs in the album, you know? This time doesn’t the album production seem to be an overarching theme? It’s not like we’re not involved at all with the other songs that haven’t been supervised or chosen as a solo. The non-USV songs are all songs of the same high calibre, so I would be grateful if people would be able to enjoy the entire album as a whole.

T/N:
[1] – Black music (ブラックミュージック) is the umbrella term referring to music produced or influenced by African Americans. It includes genres such as R&B, hip hop, blues, gospel music etc.

The BIGGEST thank you to Toni, (tapsilogue) who once again tirelessly helped me edit through the entire translation mess despite being bombarded with so many things IRL (especially considering the festive season!) I honestly do not know what I would do without her. :') so please shower her with love!

I just have a couple of words regarding this interview, and no, not because I'm biased. (maybe I am, a little) I had the BIGGEST wave of feels from reading all the things Nino mentioned. I've said this on Twitter too, but Nino really has a way with words that enables you to think as his audience, about things that we often subconsciously don't pay too much attention to. I tried my best trying to get that across, so I hope that I did it at least some form of justice! Next up is Ohno's (which is in the process of editing). :D

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Are You Happy? Pamphlet Translation - Matsumoto Jun




There’s freedom in music, so there are no correct answers. Whether it’s the limitless range of songs or each individual’s excitement level at the time, I think it would be nice if it could become a concert where you could feel “the present you at that time.”

Looking back over the past few years at Digitalian and Japonism both as an album and a concert, haven’t we continued to strongly emphasise following themes based on a specific concept? That’s why this time we avoided becoming particularly set on a concept as our starting point in producing this album. Instead, we thought it’d be nice to return to the idea of the “joy of music” and “our own musicality.” However, if we were to do that, we realised we had to think about how we’d have to execute it, so the five of us decided to try creating our individual productions of Arashi’s music. That then became the “under the supervision” (USV) songs. Up until now, we’ve each had our own solos to work on, and even in the songs we sing as the five of us, we’ve been able to express Arashi’s music through various methods including Sho-kun’s rap and Leader’s choreography. But this was our first time directing individual songs to line up together later. After all, the things you’d want to do as a solo as opposed to the things you’d want to do with the five of us would be different. Our individual characteristics, and the things that we included are also different. As a result, that has become the overarching concept for our album this time, which I think was an interesting approach. Even from the title, “Happy,” I believe each individual would have their own interpretations of it. It’s most likely different amongst the members, and I believe it’s also different for those who listen to it. Trying to mould those differences we have into our album resulted in the mismatched feeling found in the album following the broad spectrum of “cheerfulness.” These were essentially the circumstances we took on board in the decision of our title, Are You Happy?

DRIVE (Matsumoto’s USV song) wasn’t where I thought “I want to do this” from the start. At the start, while we were thinking about how we wanted to create our album, the five of us chose 3 songs from the demo song list which also included our lead track. Within the demo song list, there was this song in it. I thought that from the song’s atmosphere that it probably wouldn’t be chosen this time since the impact wasn’t “strong” per se. But because it didn’t show up particularly strong, I thought it suited a drive, where the night view and images of the town at night are strongly represented by the song. I personally really liked the song, which can be listened to comfortably. The other song candidate was a danceable track which I thought of choosing, but in order to attain balance with the songs chosen by the others, I chose this. I said, “Then I’ll think about this one,” and chose it. Although I already decided on it, we talked about eventually mixing the parts that was performed by musical instruments, parts we juggled around with and the guitar parts to be inserted together. But everything including the head arrangement [1] essentially hasn’t changed much from the original. When I listened to the finished album, I was surprised that it was chosen as the honourable first track of the album (laugh). As expected, it’s probably due to this song’s effortless feeling, isn’t it? Everyone probably wanted to start this album on a laid-back mood.

The solo Baby blue wasn’t step recorded [2] at all, and instead contains the whole raw performance of the instruments. Previously, I’ve had a lot of solos that were step recorded, so I wanted to incorporate the use of live musical instruments in producing the song. That’s how it came into form. In the lyrics, there’s the perspective that relates to the question mark, “?” in the title of our album, Are You Happy? The album doesn’t only give a cheerful outlook of the world. Instead, it has parts in it that ask, “How are you in the moment?” and “What about you?” We thought we wanted to make it a positive album so we decided to do it by not only featuring cheerful songs but also including songs that contain negative ideas of separation and sadness. Something like Sakamoto Kyu’s Ue wo Muite Arukou, [3] I guess. That’s the sort of impression I had. It has a very catchy melody, and the overall impression the song gives is positive and bright, so it’s become the song that “gives energy to Japan,” but in reality, the lyrics aren’t simply cheerful. The lyrics “alone” and “tears” are in it, you see. If you just read the lyrics by itself, you’d feel the sorrow and grief in the song. The fine balance achieved and the perspective conveyed through communication in the musical field was nice… I thought. If at all possible, I think it would be wonderful if the song Baby blue could… not necessarily push someone sad further onward, but instead lend support upon listening to it. Which is how the song became how it is.

Once again, I believe it has become an album that showcases great diversity in the songs it has. It’s true in the sense that it has a rich range of genre, and it has a great number of songs too. I think it’s quite a unique album (laugh). The concept itself was unusual, after all. But that’s exactly what makes the album so interesting. We have the five USV songs produced by each of the five of us, and the fact that up until today… The members have come to terms with what Arashi’s music is to them personally over the past 17 years, and to now produce music that makes you think, “They chose to do it this way?” and “Ah, this was what they were thinking about?” It’s interesting to see the difference between the things we want to depict as individuals versus the things we want to depict as the five of us. You’d think that we’re all disconnected after all (laugh). I think that the characteristic choices that are conveyed in disconnected parts is sort of the main charm of this album, though. As expected, I like all the songs everyone chose. There’s an added sense of fondness in it. On a side note, I think I’m fonder of the songs chosen by the others than the one I chose myself.

At this point, the meetings for the concert has just started, but this time we thought we’d need to challenge trying new things out, otherwise there would be a lot of things we still don’t know out there. There is also the significant increase in opportunity to communicate between members and get involved this time around with the USV song productions. The feeling that we created this album together is very strong. Presently, the fact that the songs won’t really fit together is a bit tough but… (laugh) I think it would be fun to see how far we can take the mismatch to keep things interesting. It’s like, how well are we able to organise the variety of songs together without removing their individual characteristics? In that sense, I believe it will become an album and live performance which showcases this challenge.

After all, there is freedom in music, and there are no correct answers nor particular forms that it should be aimed towards. I think that it would be nice if it could become a concert where you could feel the range we explored in the album, as well as each individual’s own grasp of “the present them.” It’s not about trying to exert the things we have and stretch our boundaries this time. It’s more about the fact that everyone has come all the way to the concert venue just to see us. In order to respond to all the support everyone has given us, I believe it would be wonderful to work hard so that it could become a performance which can be enjoyed by people and their excitement levels. It would be nice if we could give them an enjoyable sight to behold, wouldn’t it?

T/N:
[1] – A roughly outlined musical arrangement that is played from memory and is often learned by ear.
[2] – Use of a graphic editor and/or other computer programs to input precise notes for composition.
[3] – The song Ue wo Muite Arukou, (上を向いて歩こう, "I Look Up As I Walk") otherwise better known as Sukiyaki worldwide.

Once again, please shower Toni (tapsilogue) with all the love she deserves for her tireless efforts reading through and editing through my translations, making sure the English is comprehensible and smooth enough to be understood! :D Next up is Nino's.

Images are taken from my own pamphlet. Please do not repost/retranslate without permission! Thank you. :)



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Are You Happy? Pamphlet Translation - Aiba Masaki




There are rough edges in this album – in a good way. But I feel like those areas would be where we can show variety in our live performances.

While my overall impression of this album does somewhat revolve around the word “happy,” it’s not like it’s filled with songs that only project the idea of “happiness.” It’s more like a part of it is “happy” and the rest is an album where you’d go, “they can be this versatile with their songs—?!” Since the album title asks Are You Happy? as expected, the answer would not all be “happy” and most likely, there would be some who’d answer “unhappy.” This time, we didn’t limit the album to a specific image or scope in which to produce our songs, so we were able to widen the range. This then allowed us to produce an album that compiled various songs which fit different genres. I also developed slightly different impressions on the whole album between the first time and second time I heard it… I really think it’s quite a rich album (laugh). I believe it has become an album which can exceed your expectations and can be easily enjoyed over and over again.

In the “under supervision songs” (aka. USV songs) which each member was responsible for, we thought of producing songs which haven’t really been heard nor seen up until now. In Seishun Boogie, which I was responsible for, I actually decided the concept from an early stage. Though it was mostly an image I had of the live performance. It included the idea of it having Yosakoi Dance elements [1] along with Japanese elements and a certain hardness… which is similar to the manga Sakigake!! Otokojuku [2] image I have. (laugh) I matched those ideas with the Yosakoi Dance, and decided I’d like to mould it into a form never made before. That’s why ultimately, the song has the image of a group ensemble. Even in the past, I vaguely thought it’d be interesting to do a song like this. The song’s content is quite out there, so we can’t really include it as the B-side track of a single (laugh). That’s why I thought it’d be nice to do it once we found the chance.

From the image I had of the song, more ideas started popping out, and I started thinking about how I can produce a song which matches this concept. Since it is a song, I wanted a catchy chorus, but I also wanted to aim for a slightly nostalgic tune that was found in popular songs… I thought about a lot of things (laugh). That’s why the intro is quite catchy, isn’t it? It's quite a catchy song. The lyrics are as well. The lyrics have the idea of standing back up no matter how many times you get rejected… I wanted to make it into the “if pressing it once is no good, keep pressing it!” sort of lyrics. As expected, putting all those ideas into the conception of the song was difficult (laugh). In order to incorporate the various concepts, prevent them from becoming at odds against each other, and avoid any bias or areas which stand out too much, we did it again and again to attain the balance. That’s why, when the five of us finished recording our voices, the moment of completion, I was really happy. My vision had successfully been produced into a song. “It went really well!” …was what I thought (laugh). I’m completely satisfied with the end product! Although I was told by Nino that it was an odd song (laugh). Everyone’s singing was really well done too. In Seishun Boogie, there’s a part where you have to sing really fast, and in that part I thought once more that everyone was really great. Our vocals were able to match up. In this song, everything’s “sung in unison.” Normally, there would be parts where we break up to sing in pairs and trios, as well as solos, but here we sing everything as the five of us together. There’s not really a song where we sing all together like this… so I really like it.

For my solo, I thought I wouldn’t be creating a particular character with the song this time like I did with the previous two solos in particular, Disco Star and Mr. FUNK (laugh). So then I came up with Amore, although I initially thought “amore” might have sounded a bit silly (laugh). In the crucial parts of the song, the phrases “amore” and “amigo” appear, so I thought why not? That’s why I ended up deciding it as the title. Although I accidentally slipped up my words at the end. It’s not a song title you’d really hear nowadays… Plus the English lyrics at the very start of the song is also unusual (laugh). This beginning is also something I’m really set on personally. There was a Japanese version along with various other things, but I ended up finding the English one interesting and got really into it, I guess. It’s like having a start where people go, “eh… What is this? What sort of song will this be?!” which evolves into the song it is (laugh). The song’s good… It’s really good. If I was to put it into words, it has the feel of a fast food restaurant I guess. It has the unique feeling you couldn’t receive from a high-class restaurant (laugh). The melody’s also really nice. They really let me cram a wide range of things. I’m also really hoping to be able to get pumped up together with the audience in the live performance. The last two songs have been mainly me getting excited alone after all. It was mainly the audience getting pumped up in order to pump me up. I seemed to have relied a bit too much on others back then, so… (wry smile) That’s why this time I had to produce a song which would allow the audience to go along with the performance! Otherwise the audience would get tired of it, you see (laugh). Well, that’s why the song turned out this way. Rather than just dancing, I wanted to have a song which could be enjoyed together with the audience as well.

Ah~ I put quite a lot of effort into both of those songs, you know (laugh). Having to not only take care of my own solo, but also direct a song for the five of us was quite tiring. However, it was enjoyable! There has never been this method in the production of songs in the album, after all. I didn’t know what sort of songs would be created from the other members’ USV songs either. When I recorded vocals for the songs, I listened to them and was like, “Oh, it’s this sort of song?!” Our unique attributes really shine through. Leader’s [3] had vocal parts which were really complicated and difficult. Nino’s [4] also had vocal parts which were already decided upon from the start, and is a song that has never really been heard or produced by Arashi before. Sho-chan’s [5] is characteristically Sho-chan’s, which is a song that incorporates the rap he wrote verse by verse. I sang it quite a lot of times. Matsujun’s [6] is one which we sang with a refreshing sort of feel. We sort of sang it going with the flow. Now that I think about it, there’s also the bonus track [7] which doesn’t involve the members’ supervision, but counting it makes it 3 songs. With it, you’re able to see the members’ charms. It might be an album which can be particularly enjoyed by those who have watched us from a long while back and know us to the core (laugh). It’s not like you have to be concerned with who was in charge of which songs or anything, but by knowing it, you may be able to enjoy the song even more.

During this time’s live performances, I think it’ll be centralised on the member who was in charge of the USV songs we each produced, but who knows? I think there are rough edges in this album – in a good way. In each song, everyone is largely involved after all. Combining songs that have unique attributes and combining it all into one concert may be difficult, but I feel like it’ll be a performance which would show off the variety of songs we’ve produced. I believe it’d be wonderful if it becomes a tour that captures a wide range of “happiness.”

T/N:

[1] - Yosakoi Dance (よさこい) - is a unique style of dance that originated in Japan and are danced at festivals and events all over the country. (Source: Wikipedia)
[2] - Sakigake!! Otokojuku (魁!!男塾, lit. "Charge! Men's Private School") is a manga series written and illustrated by Akira Miyashita. It was originally serialized at the Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1991. (Source: Wikipedia)
[3] - Are You Happy? - Track 14. Miles away
[4] - Are You Happy? - Track 9. WONDER-LOVE
[5] - Are You Happy? - Track 15. To my homies
[6] - Are You Happy? - Track 1. DRIVE
[7] - Are You Happy? - Track 17. TWO TO TANGO

Special thanks to Toni (tapsilogue) for all her help in correcting any grammar and English mistakes and suggestions in making the translation smoother. Without her you would all probably be tearing your hair out asking "WHAT IS AIBA TALKING ABOUT?!" the entire way through so. XD She was also the one who encouraged me to do this project in the first place. Hope you enjoyed the interview! Next up is Matsujun's. :D

Images are taken from my own pamphlet. Please do not repost/retranslate without permission! Thank you. :)



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