What’s your process like when working with Kawano-san?
Once I’ve made a
demo, I give the data to Kawano-san, and then we get down to work. Sometimes
new ideas come to us when we listen to the track on the big speakers he has at
his house, or on the flipside he’ll be like, “Hey, the
demo is cool and all, but what about trying this instead?” So there are times
when a song takes a whole different direction from there. The process is super
fun — the vibe is more like we’re playing around with
songwriting rather than treating it like work.
When do you get your ideas for songwriting?
I
think most of the time lyrics come to me when something really hits me
emotionally — both in the good and the bad sense. Like, the words tend to show
up when I’m wondering why things are the way they are, or when I’m feeling sad. I have a LINE group with just me in it called my
“solo LINE” that I use as a notepad for writing down lyric ideas.
So are most of those emotional moments when you’re sad?
I’m not so
sure about that... Sometimes I’ll catch a live show
that moves me so much that the words just start pouring out. And sometimes what
I write isn’t even lyrics. For example, I’ll jot down how the air felt when I stepped outside, or how there
was a full moon right above me — stuff like that.
Do the lyrics come to you before the melody?
When
you ask it that way, I guess I’d say not really. The words I jot down
are more like notes that I stockpile and put aside without really knowing where
they’re going to lead. Recently, though, I’ve been getting more requests to write songs based on a specific
image, so the music usually comes first. Trying to come up with the lyrics
first is pretty tough, since it can mess with the pacing or make it hard to
figure out what to do with the build-up.
So you come up with the melody first, then add in some lyrics from your
stockpile?
A lot
of the time when I read back over my old notes, I think, “Huh, this sounds
weird now,” or “That doesn’t really work anymore,” so I actually can’t
use much of it as-is. But sometimes I’ll find an
interesting turn of phrase and just pull out the key parts. It’s pretty rare that I’m able to use a full
idea straight from my notes.
And do melodies also come to you in moments of strong emotion?
With
melodies, they don’t really “come to me” so much as I think them up. When I’m making a demo, I’ll work by feel and just
sing whatever into the mic. Maybe it sounds like Japanese, but it’s not actually any language. The bits I come up with that way often
turn out pretty good, and they usually end up becoming the foundation of the
song.
Do you come up with themes or images in your head when songwriting?
Yeah,
the imagery side of it is pretty important to me. I always try to have some
kind of scene running through my head — some kind of visual behind the music.
Back when Haku. started, this took conscious effort, but these days it just
happens naturally, like the scenes surface in my mind without me trying. From
there, I just try to layer on phrases or melodies that’ll stick
with people.
Are these scenes or images something you already have when you start
writing the song?
Not
really, I don’t see anything at first. But as I work on the lyrics, I let my
imagination wander, and the image gradually takes shape alongside the song.