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.
Interviewer:		This is a surprise. Have you been in a situation like this before?
Tak:		I don't really remember, but when I worked with Larry Carlton, it took me over a year to come up with something we both could work on. I didn't really know what kind of music to compose, what direction to take.
Interviewer:		About being troubled with composition: If it was for example you, wouldn't you think about who to collaborate with, or to release a new album with a completely different concept?
Tak:		No. I didn't think about collaborating with someone at all, nor did I think about things such as performing with a domestic orchestra. Anyway, after the B'z tour ended, I had free time and went on to slowly put songs together. After the EX THEATER ROPPONGI show in November, it was about how much I could put together in two weeks. And I was able to put it everything together in such a way I was content with and wanted to proceed with recording and producing it. In fact, the schedule for the tour was already set, but I thought to myself "If I can't put this together, we'll have to cancel everything...". It was almost like, if I couldn't get everything together in these two weeks in December, I would go to the office and tell them "Maybe no solo project after all". (laughs)
Interviewer:		Could that be because you've always been at the top, or because you feel pressure since winning a Grammy Award? Something along those lines?
Tak:		No, I didn't feel any pressure or something like that, but when you work on something, you want to create something you are satisfied with, right?　I didn't really know if it was going to be something I would be satisfied with, but nonetheless I finished my demos and started recording the guitar parts and the brass section. That's when I realized: I'm glad that I did this. This time, Paul Brown helped me out a lot. The last time [with Strings Of My Soul] I also entrusted him with a lot of songs and this time even with the mixing, but that doesn't mean that I entirely entrusted him with everything. Because I went to Paul's recording studio. I also feel that our relationship has deepened. Most of the musicians--aside from bassist Travis and the drummer John--were introductions made by Paul. The brass section and also the percussions by Lenny Castro were all introductions by Paul, and they're all amazing musicians. After all, Paul is producing a lot of people, plays the guitar, and releases his own works. He is really amazing. I really think that we produced something amazing here.
Interviewer:		Will we see a US version of the album?
Tak:		Yes, we have plans for a US version. I personally decided the track list for the Japanese version of the album, but since I do not know the American market, I met up with Paul at his home, and we listened to the songs one by one to discuss which ones are a fit for the American market. The others will be cut. But I'm going to meet up with another producer called Robert to work out the details one more time, so it's not set in stone yet.
Interviewer:		Moving on, we would now like to talk about your new album. We felt that there's a certain beauty to the album which offers creative leeway. We also thought that tone-wise the melodies have become simpler.
Tak:		That's true. There are a lot of songs with the same kind of melody throughout the song.
Interviewer:		Making the melodies simple won't cause so much deception, after all.
Tak:		This is often the case, yes. At this time (the time of the interview), I haven't finished mixing all the tracks yet, but I when I listen to the songs, I get the feeling that I was able to achieve a better thickness in the clean tone compared to before. When I listen to 「TAKE YOUR PICK」 which I produced with Larry Carlton, although it's an album I like very much, the details of the tracks still bother me. A couple of years have passed since then and I feel that my tone has gotten a bit thicker compared to back then. The three years since then were really good. With these results, I feel that I spent my time well.
Interviewer:		Now we would like to talk about the album song by song. Let's start with the titular song "New Horizon". Could you tell us about the meaning behind the title?
Tak:		I believe there are a lot of ways to interpret this, one could say that it's a prospect and that I changed my perspective to try out a lot of new ideas and such... As if I have been reaching a new frontier.　And with that I had the feeling that something new is going to happen, a very positive feeling. To be honest, I just called it like that because it's just that kind of song...well, not really, but because I have a certain image in my mind. (laughs) This just happens to be the first song, which I had to choose from a lot of songs that felt good. The first song might be a different one in the US version, I think.
Interviewer:		And also, you have increased the variety in the composition of songs, right?
Tak:		I guess you could say that. The composition of this album is different than the ones before. I might have done that deliberately. Because I have that freedom with instrumental music as my basis. However, there may be perhaps some parts where I deliberately added Jazzy parts and such. But basically I'm just composing it freely.
Interviewer:		We feel that there's a new sound now that there's not just guitar solos but also solos by other instruments.
Tak:		Yeah. So far I haven't made any wind instruments the main instrument in a composition, so this is fresh for me. All the solos are played as improvisation.
Interviewer:		Are your solos also improvisations?
Tak:		As for my parts... rather than calling them improvisation, I chose to use the good verses that I played while improvising and put them together. It really depends. There are times when my improvisation was really good that I would use it as-is, and then there are times where I would put things together "manually" while keeping in mind that it should be easy to listen to.　As far as the wind instruments are concerned, they're all improvisation and we went with the best takes out of them all. This time I had Greg Vail do the solo and it was really powerful! His technique, of course, is very good, but also his feeling for music. His verses are really cool. I would really like to work with him again. What really surprised me was what happened with the horn section. I originally had one prepared in Japan and we would use it as a base while Paul was directing and changing a lot of things here and there. If it was Japan, it would be really difficult, and they would be against it. But this time everyone was very flexible and agreed to it and started adjusting. In the beginning we used what my arranger Terachi-kun had come up with as a base, and were like "This needs a little bit more of that here" while changing it bit by bit. Everyone was really nice and they would do anything if that meant we'd get a good song out of it. And also, Paul gave us very detailed instructions.
Interviewer:		That sounds wonderful. I personally like outlaw guitarists, but I'm sure all the guitar freaks will love it.
Tak:		I see. (laughs) About that: I'm also thinking about doing the concert that way.
Interviewer:		By the way, this is also a tie-up song for Sagawa Express, right?
Tak:		Yes, I talked about it with Sagawa in person and they showed me the video they were shooting with Ryouko Yonekura in it. I then chose the song with a fitting image among those I had recorded, and edited a version to make it a fit for the commercial.
Interviewer:		When we first heard about the collaboration between you and Sagawa Express, we didn't think that your's and Sagawa's image would align.
Tak:		Well, that's because I usually do songs for doramas, movies and such. That's why it was really interesting for me to do it.
Interviewer:		Next up on the tracklist is the cover of Jazz masterpiece "Take 5".
Tak:		We have been talking about wanting to release this song as a single in the US. Paul and Robert said that we first should release a song that would be played on the radio. I started working on the demo tape about a year ago, when I was still in my trial and error phase. I was like "Let's give "Take 5" a try". Later on, the song changed completely when we inserted a live rhythm and a live flute into the song. The flute was also played by Greg Vail. Whether it's the flute or the sax... he can do anything.
Interviewer:		He's really amazing. Although it's a cover, it's not an actual copy of the original. How did you arrange it to give it the "Matsumoto touch"?
Tak:		I was actually wondering about that for a while since musicians all over the world have covered this song, but Terachi-kun, my arranger, was like "Why don't we add a little bit of bossa nova in here". And that's what we went with. I really think that it turned out very well. Terachi-kun really has a lot of music styles at his disposal.
Interviewer:		Your 1st solo album 「Thousand Wave」also contains a cover of this song, but it looks like you didn't retain any of it. (laughs)
Tak:		I guess not. (laughs) Although it's included in this release, I haven't listened to my original cover, but it's obvious that it'll change 26 years later. (laughs)
Interviewer:		I'm sure that the history of your works will be discovered (laughs)　By the way, you have a really broad interest in music, but do you deliberately listen to something sometimes?
Tak:		I don't force myself to listen to something. I listen to it because I like it. But right now, when I get in the car, I solely listen to Jazz stations (laughs)
Interviewer:		And with the next song, "Feel like a woman tonite", the whole atmosphere changes abruptly.
Tak:		Actually, this time we didn't meet up to record the vocals. Paul recorded the vocals before I went to LA and asked me if I wanted a male or female vocalist. I said it should definitely be a woman this time. I think I talked about this before, but when we were recording "Live Life", I also said that a female voice would better suit the song. However, Paul couldn't imagine a woman singing this song and suggested it should be a male vocalist. Since Paul is my producer, I entrusted him with that decision. But Sam was really good, too. And this time, that's why I didn't meet Wendy. But I really like her songs. She seems to be famous and also release works in Japan.
Interviewer:		Did she also write the lyrics for the song?
Tak:		Dax wrote them, like the last time. Although he is a man, the lyrics for this song have gotten even easier to understand compared to the last time.
Interviewer:		By the way, this is actually your second time working with Paul. Do you like working with him again?
Tak:		Especially with regard to the melody, I handed over completely arranged versions for the chorus, but he changed them completely. Last time, it was the same. While working with the rhythm, I think he added a brass section and also wind instruments, but also this time, he did it even more at ease with my demos. For the recording, Paul came to the LA studio, would sit next to me and direct everything...it's been a while since I played the guitar while someone else was directing (laughs) You see, usually I direct myself (laughs) Since Paul is also a guitarist, he gave me very detailed directions such as "Don't do so much guitar choking here, let's go with slides" (laughs)
Interviewer:		(laughs) Speaking of which, did you have the intention of adding songs with vocals?
Tak:		Originally, when working on Strings of my Soul, 335 Records demanded that I definitely put one or two songs with vocals on my album, so this time I thought they would ask me to do that again, and in anticipation of that, I already prepared a song. I really like the song. It became really good. In the US, a lot of musicians who do instrumental music decide to add one or two songs with vocals, and there may be some musicians who add even more than that. Paul also added two or three songs to his own albums, I believe? Since it's easy to do promotion with them.
Interviewer:		And the fourth track on the album is "Rodeo Blues".
Tak:		This is actually going to be the "M-1", when I started recording the year before last, this is the first song that I toyed around with, but I couldn't get but one chorus done. I couldn't do the rest. But I kept thinking that it will turn out to be a good song. And then in December last year when I started recording in Tokyo, I worked on this song at the end. I was able to put it into shape and thought "Ah, this is good.". In between, I put it on hold and left it undone. And then in the end, I went back to the start and arranged it. This music style was actually one of the styles I wanted to try out this time.
Interviewer:		I see. Your guitar sounds and tone really give off a warm feeling.
Tak:		As far as the tone is concerned, I do it the same way when I record music as B'z: I play the same melody over and over with different guitars and choose a fitting guitar for the song. I'm not actually sure, but there are people out there who spend hours or even days trying to find the right tone. I'm usually like "This is it" right away and go with it. In fact, in the end I decide it with my left and right hand. But I might still get some inspirations. Of course I listen to my own songs and I only want to create music that I would listen to myself, so I pay a lot of attention to the rhythm and the nuances when it comes to the guitar. And the touch would also change completely.
Interviewer:		"Island of peace" is different from the outlook presented by the first four songs, and starts with the sound of waves on a lively beach, followed by the guitar sound slowly fading in. We think, this one takes a different approach than the other songs before.
Tak:		That's right, because I wrote that song on Hawaii and "Island of peace" is also about Hawaii. Concerning the guitar work, there are some parts played with a guitar pick, but there are also some parts where I played with just my fingers. And this is not just limited to this song. Sometimes I would just start playing with my fingers.
Interviewer:		This song was written on Hawaii, but do you tend to write different songs depending on where you are?
Tak:		I suppose so. For example, if it's a certain country, or depending on the area, there's Hawaiian music or traditional Japanese songs, right? I think there's definitely music born under the influence from the local surroundings.
Interviewer:		And also, we believe that you simply cannot leave out wind instruments in your works. Is the root cause for this the influence by your parents?
Tak:		I love and I'm sure they had an influence on me. I've been listening to that since my childhood, after all. But I didn't really listen to it because I liked it back then, but because my parents put on the music. It's not like I listen to classical music every day, but I like adding some orchestra and strings elements to my music. It gives me a good feeling when I listen to it.
Interviewer:		And with "That's Cool" you go in a completely different direction. The song starts off with drums and bass, and just like we talked about earlier, this time Larry Carlton's son Travis is also participating in the recording.
Tak:		I went to see Travis last year, when Larry came to Japan. He was playing the bass at the time and I thought he was really good, so I definitely wanted him to be part of it. And the drummer John was touring with us the whole time during my last solo tour with Larry. He's really the best among the drummers I've met in this genre. I would even go so far as to say he's perfect. I love him. (laughs)
Interviewer:		(laughs) By the way, is there anything about Travis that gives away that he's Larry's son?
Tak:		I don't think they're that alike... Well, they're both guitar and bass players. He's really a great bass player and he's also touring with us. In fact, I think he's still in his early 30s, so he's very young. And he's really tall, too. Like "Are you really gonna wear those denim clothes hanging that far?". I'm not sure if he does it on purpose or not. (laughs)
Interviewer:		So Travis and John are going to be joining you for the tour as well. Can you tell us more about the other musicians that will join you for the tour?
Tak:		Onozuka-kun will be on keyboards and Ohga-kun will be on guitar. It's been a while since I stood on the same stage with Onozuka-kun, about 30 years ago, when we were working with Mari Hamada. And Ohga has become an irreplacable member. He's also part of Sensation, right? Which means that he also likes instrumental music, and that he's comfortable playing it.
Interviewer:		And "Shattered Glass", the next song on the list, is a song with beautiful faint minor chords as base.
Tak:		We first decided on a title and a background story and then worked on the song based on that. I was thinking of telling that story in the booklet for the album... but what should the contents be? ... I think it might be better if they just read that. (laughs) It's a story in English, however. Once I have the complete image in mind, it's really hard, but when I heard "Shattered Glass", I thought it was really good. And I was actually the one who came up with the story. (laughs) I then started to compose a song around that. It was really fun to do that because I had a very clear vision. There's no video to it, but it felt like I was producing a soundtrack for that. These things are really fun.
Interviewer:		Now I would like to talk about the solo takes for each part; would you insert your solos after finishing a take? If you were to insert your solos beforehand, wouldn't you be influenced by your solo takes?
Tak:		I added Onozuka-kun's solo takes first. Since it's much easier to work this way. He finished all his takes and we put them together in December last year.
Interviewer:		Time is of the essence, again, right?
Tak:		Time is of the essence everywhere, not just music! If the timing is wrong at work... (laughs) It's true for everything, right? Gotta be careful (laughs)
Interviewer:		I will be careful. (laughs) Next up is your cover of "Tsuki no Akari" by Masahiro Kuwana.
Tak:		This was actually a long time ago, but I have played this song live with Kuwana-san several times during concerts, and... the year before last, was it?...He passed away and I immediately started recording the song. After all, I learned a lot from him and I'm very grateful for that.
Interviewer:		Speaking of Kuwana-san, he's had a very scary image, but was your impression of him any different?
Tak:		(laughs) When I worked with him, I was about 22~23 years old and he was in his 30s, so he was still in his "hot blooded" phase. (laughs) He got angry at me during rehearsal very often. But later on, he really liked me when I started as B'z and we would go for drinks when I was in Osaka. The first time I was working with Kuwana-san was when I was called to work with him on his album called 「ROPPONGI NOISE」. In the end, I probably ended up playing all the guitar parts on it, I guess? That was really really a lot of work. (laughs) Kuwana-san would sit beside me and tell me "one more time" "one more time" (laughs) And I would just say "....OK....". When it was time for the 「ROPPONGI NOISE」tour, I was also called in and we toured together... And I also got to visit him at home. A lot of things happened. It was really fun.
Interviewer:		Are there any special words or moments that made a special impression on you?
Tak:		The "one more time" "one more time" I talked about before has had a very great impression on me. (laughs) And such, well... When I wanted to quit the band... I called Kuwano-san and told him "Please let me quit"... well... don't you think it's hard to say these words? "Please let me quit". It would have been easier if I just got fired. At the time, I wanted to work on something harder, so I called Kuwano-san and when I asked him to let me quit, he just replied "Well, then you do your best, too" in a very friendly manner. I was really thankful for that.
Interviewer:		Thank you for this very insightful story. The next song on the list, "Reason to be...", doesn't have any lyrics, but we get the feeling that the guitar is telling a story on its own.
Tak:		This is an ongoing thought in my head, but first I did "THE WINGS", "Eien no Tsubasa" for the movie "Ore wa Kimi no Tame ni Koso Shini ni Iku" (For Those We Love) and then there's "hotalu" which I recorded when I was working together with Larry. These three songs have been composed with war as the image. Yesterday, too, I went to see "Eien no Zero" in cinema and I really think that since such things happened to us Japanese, that we should know about them. We should not forget about it. "Reason to be..." means "There's definitely a reason that this happened" if it was a normal phrase, but I added the "..." at the end, which makes it more like "Was there a reason why this happened?" or like "Why did this happen? Is there a particular reason for it?". That's the thought I put into the title.
Interviewer:		I see. And next up is "BLACK JACK" collected for the first time on an album.
Tak:		This is actually the third version of it. I wrote the first version over 10 years ago for the BLACK JACK soundtrack, which was a rock version at the time. This one hasn't been released to date. But then I recorded an orchestrated version of it on 「House Of Strings」 And then I thought "How am I gonna go about it this time?", and started thinking about a different style. I liked the melody I had in my head, so I went with it. I tried it out and if it didn't work out well, I would be heartbroken, but I did it and when I added Greg's sax the feeling would change completely and the overall song was much better. Actually, I wasn't sure whether to do "Hokuto no Ken" or "BLACK JACK"...I also made "Hokuto no Ken" for a soundtrack and melody-wise, I'm sure I can make it a lot better, but this time I went with "BLACK JACK". "Hokuto no Ken" and "Ultraman" haven't been released either so far. That's why I might include them on an album later.
Interviewer:		We found it very surprising to find a cover of "Gakuseigai no Kissaten" on the album.
Tak:		(laughs) This is also a song from my trial and error phase where I said "Let's do this". (laughs) At the time, this was actually a song that took the world by storm. GARO was a folk group trio, by the way. I chose this song because the melody is mysterious and it would be interesting to see an instrumental version of it. In addition, I was also around at the time and even bought their record. (laughs) I don't have it anymore unfortunately. It was at the time when I was a 5th or 6th grader, and I didn't even understand the lyrics, but I loved the song simply because of the music. I then had my parents buy me the record of it, and I remember listening to it at home a lot of times. If there was to be another cover, I wanted to do Sayuri Ishikawa's "Amagigoe", but when I went to the NAMM Show the other day, Marty Friedman was playing it live. (laughs) If I didn't know that he was going to do it, I'd be really surprised. Marty Friendman also had great works, right? This is Japanese Soul, or Japanese Blues. It's really a great song. If I still was to cover it, it definitely wouldn't cover it the same way as he did, so I didn't really care about who would cover it.
Interviewer:		We were talking about how the melody is mysterious, but wasn't GARO employing a more "progressive" style?
Tak:		This might actually be because TOMMY was playing the guitar, I think? With TOMMY, I mean Hidetaka-san, who passed away, and we've played together before. There was a live bar kind of event in Roppongi and we were all invited to play there. All the three of us, TOMMY, Higuchi-san of LOUDNESS and me, would jam together. (laughs) Unfortunately both of them already passed away.
Interviewer:		I didn't know that there was so much to it. And the last song on your album is "Rain" which was performed during the ENDLESS SUMMER tour. I think it's very suitable for a closing song.
Tak:		I think Paul will cut this song from the US version, but I think that this is really a good way to close the album. Shane and Barry are really at their best here. We've been playing it live for quite a while, so they really came to understand the song and its core points. Their performance is really great. Since that was a live version, I reworked the guitar part for the CD version, though. The organ is played by Onozuka-kun, which also makes for a different atmosphere compared to Masuda-kun's style. I really like it.
Interviewer:		Lastly, we would like to ask you about your guitars. We noticed that you started using new guitars during the EX THEATER show.
Tak:		This one is called a Firebird and we have plans for a new signature model. The one I'm currently using is the first prototype. During recording I used this Firebird and a hollowbody Les Paul. These were my two main guitars. Originally my guitar technician suggested that a Firebird might also suit my playing style, and I thought this might be true. So I asked Gibson to produce a Firebird model for me.
Interviewer:		Have you recently bought any new guitars at an actual guitar shop?
Tak:		Actually, not too long ago, I bought a Stratocaster and an acoustic guitar at a Guitar Center in LA. I was about to start recording the guitar parts and thought I would buy some new ones. I was really glad that I was able two good guitars. I'm also using that Stratocaster in "Feel like a woman tonite".
Interviewer:		This guitar has also been selected for the photoshoot this time. It's really a beautiful guitar. So, if you were to categorize that album into a certain genre, what kind of name would you give the genre?
Tak:		Hmm...I'm not sure. I guess the ones who listen to it should decide. I am originally a Rock guitarist, so I suddenly won't become a Jazz musician.