Be With! Vol. 101 (March 2014)

Message from Tak and Koshi

Be With! Vol. 101 is a fresh start.
We got together and made an effort to bring you a new issue to your liking.
This year we started out doing our own solo projects, but of course, we will also start doing work as B'z again.
Please look forward to it.
Tak

How have you been?
Have you been sneezing? [talking about pollen]
I am taking a new approach to music with a new feeling.
Please feel free to experience my new music with your eyes and ears.
Thank you very much.
Inaba Koshi

Tak Matsumoto Interview

Interviewer:		After having celebrated B'z 25th anniversary, 2014 started with the announcement of your respective solo projects. This does not mean that B'z will be on break, but it is very often that you embark on your solo projects/releases at the same time. What are your thoughts on this?
Tak:		What about it, I wonder? Inaba-kun has also been working on his solo projects in his free time for a while now, right? But comparatively speaking, it was the same for me this time. I was working on it in my free time, and, if I recall correctly, I started the year before last. Then, last year, our 25th anniversary came up and I had to put things on break temporarily. It wasn't until December that I could put things into shape. It only took me a short amount of time to put everything together, but I've been working on my compositions for nearly two years.
Interviewer:		B'z, of course, as well as you and Inaba-san have a high potential respectively. Do you think that your individual solo projects have an influence on your works as B'z?
Tak:		I think that for our works as such, our tastes and interests have an influence on them, so whether it's solo or with the band, the good parts will definitely take over. I don't really give it much thought when switching between going solo and working as B'z since I'm doing instrumental music. We also talked about starting work as B'z once we finished our solo activities, but that's only natural for us.
Interviewer:		Now I would like to move on and talk about your solo project. We thought that it has been 12 years since the last time you released an album fully composed of new songs solely by you, namely 「DRAGON FROM THE WEST」(2002) and「Hana」(2002).
Tak:		Yes, because my last release contained only re-recorded versions of previous songs. I guess it's true, now that you mention it.
Interviewer:		We got the feeling that you wanted to close off a previous chapter with the release of 「Strings Of My Soul」.
Tak:		That may be true. Now that you mention it, one might actually think like that. As I said, this time it took me nearly two years and during this long period I was toying with a lot of ideas, but for quite a while I was unsure what kind of music to create. Be it self-composed songs, or cover songs... I tried out a lot of ideas, but they were lacking my personal sense of direction. Where I wanted to go with it. I was really pondering over it for quite a while until our 25th anniversary came up, but I thought I could think it over in a hotel room while on the road. When our 25th anniversary tour ended and I was completely free, I still couldn't decide which direction to take. So after November's show at the EX THEATER ROPPONGI I went back into the studio and thought I'd give up on it for now if I couldn't come up with something. I wondered what I should do, so I'd try to put the songs I had prepared into shape and if I couldn't bring everything together, I said to myself that I would give up on this project.