Be With! Vol. 95 (September 2012)

Be With! » Be With! Vol. 95 (September 2012)

Be With! Volume 95 is the September 2012 issue for the band's official fanclub magazine mailed out to B'z PARTY members. This issue covers a lot of behind the scenes information on the band's debut English album, the involvement of drummer Shane Gaalaas in its production, and the band's latest plans for their then-upcoming tour, B'z LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free-. Elsewhere in the issue, B'z reveal their "must travel" items for when they leave home along with a detailed Jenga blocks battle of Tak vs. Koshi, and finally two reports on the PREMIUM LIVES from Osaka and Tokyo that predated the North American tour by just two weeks.

B'z Interview

Interviewer:		This time, we’d like to talk about the digital album you’ve released worldwide on July 25th. First of all, why did you choose “B’z” as title?
Tak:		We’ve been making a name for ourselves in Japan for many years now, but it’s our first time releasing something worldwide, so we thought it’d be easy to recognize if we named it after the band’s name. It’s the same concept when we started this band.
Koshi:		That’s right. It’s more like a theme we’ve been following, less like an actual concept, though.
Interviewer:		How did you experience the world wide release of your first digital album?
Tak:		How many times was it downloaded? Well, what we do from here on out is what counts.
Interviewer:		You’re going to tour North America soon, after all. What is the reason, why you chose to release it digitally?
Koshi:		It wasn’t enough material to release it in a full package, and they’re just English versions of already existing songs, after all. And considering that, we thought it’d be best to offer a digital download of what we’ve produced. It’s comfortable for everybody to get it and we were able to release it quickly. It’s also a good way to see how we do on a global scale.
Tak:		There seem to be a lot of people in Japan demanding a CD release. But there aren’t that many CD shops overseas. Especially in the U.S.
Koshi:		That’s because nobody is buying CDs these days.
Interviewer:		Do you think it’s good for artists to be able to choose between a digital release and a CD release?
Koshi:		It’s an advantage for their listeners, I think. The ratio of digital vs. CD releases is going to change, I think. The state of that change depends on the country. There might be countries where a lot of people solely purchase digital releases. The way we produce music and such as well as how we do music change in the same way for new generations and musicians.
Interviewer:		And with digital releases, you’re able to release the songs shortly after you’ve produced them.
Tak:		It also shortens the time to distribution.
Interviewer:		Do you also use digital downloads when you purchase music?
Tak:		I don’t really purchase digital downloads.
Koshi:		I do it regularly. It’s very easy to search for music using the software.
Tak:		I make use of digital downloads to gather material for work. That’s because it’s so easy to use. And as I said, places where you can buy CDs are disappearing. Instead, I’ve gone back to LPs. Somehow due to Barry’s influence. Some time ago, I was talking to Barry and he had brought a lot of LPs with him. We talked about how he frequently listens to them in his house.
Koshi:		There are LP stores, right? Because there’s so many fans collecting LPs. You’ll find them if you look for them.
Tak:		It’s been 20 years since the LP was replaced by the CD, but yet it still continues to exist. There aren’t a lot of LP stores, but they have a huge sortiment of LPs. It would take you about 2 hours to browse the whole store.
Koshi:		There are a lot of good places in Japan, right?
Tak:		Yeah. Japan is a better place to buy them than in the U.S. Barry also told me he buys LPs in Japan and takes them home with him. Actually, there are some places near our studio in L.A. and on Hawaii, but they’re all scattered. In Japan, there are stores which have been selling LPs for countless years! And you can also buy some mint condition LPs there.
Koshi:		You’re proud of yourself when you find what you were looking for, right? And the rare ones are really expensive!
Tak:		But actually, normal LPs that don’t come with a bonus are even cheaper now compared to back then! During our times, an LP cost you 2500 Yen, but now it’s no more than 2000 Yen for a record. If you’re looking for an original European version record, it’ll cost you 5000 or 6000 Yen, however. The Beatles’ “WHITE ALBUM” was with 250,000 Yen the most expensive record I’ve ever seen among the ones I looked at!
Interviewer:		250,000 Yen!!
Tak:		I’m not that much of a collector, so I’m not going to spend that much on a record.
Koshi:		Even though CDs might be gone at some point, LPs might always be around.
Tak:		Maybe. Because there have been fans for so long~
Interviewer:		When did you think about producing an English album?
Koshi:		Around the time when the North American tour was coming around last year. At the time of last year’s tour, we already started working on it.
Interviewer:		I always thought that Tak winning the Grammy gave you the motivation to work on an English album. What do you think?
Koshi:		We started talking about it at a party over drinks. After the ceremony. So yeah, that’s somewhat true. In the past we’ve worked with a lot of producers on our English songs and we haven’t produced any for quite a while, so while we were having a great time, enjoying our delicious drinks, we decided it was finally time to do so. We’re in a different situation now compared to back then, and now we have different people we consult with. At that point, we realized we wanted to do it. And that’s when we started working on it.
Interviewer:		How did you go about the production of the songs?
Tak:		Basically we’d start with Koshi’s part of the work. We’d change the lyrics while listening to them and I’d fix the melody here and there, but this time it was mostly about the lyrics.
Koshi:		Concerning the lyrics, I finally discovered that I could have the same degree of freedom compared to when writing lyrics in Japanese. That’s when I returned to the same concept and started working on the lyrics. Then Shane helped me out when picking out songs and gave me pronunciation advice. I spent most of my time working with him.
Interviewer:		Were Shane and Cory Churko doing the mixing for all the songs?
Koshi:		There’s a balance to who did what. It depended on who was working how much on each song.
Interviewer:		When did you decide to entrust Shane and Cory with the mixing process?
Tak:		The first time we did it was with “Splash” and what he produced was really good, so instead of hiring a famous producer, we’d go with Shane as we’ve been working and touring with him for a long time and he knows B’z music very well. Shane brought Cory along with him.
Interviewer:		What kind of impression did Cory make on you?
Tak:		I met him in the studio in L.A.... he’s very handsome, I guess? He’s Canadian like Shane.
Koshi:		He’s handsome and gentle-a wonderful person! We also had dinner with him.
Interviewer:		When you were meeting, did you voice any requests regarding the album?
Koshi:		As he’s been listening to our songs for quite some time now, I don’t think there was anything left to discuss. I think he was quite excited to be able to put to use the skills he has learned during his own recording work. Regarding his work, we’d just say we wanted something changed if there’s anything to be changed and if he agreed to doing it. That’s the stance we maintained.
Interviewer:		How did you decide on the 5 songs to be included on the album?
Tak:		We were going to pick songs that are easy to turn into an English version and that that sound good in English.
Koshi:		Shane also gave us advice on songs that might turn out to be interesting in an English version. We also wanted to perform these songs live, so it also had to be song that works well in a live performance setting.
Interviewer:		Did you have a song where you really wanted to produce an English version?
Koshi:		I didn’t know which songs we should do.
Tak:		When I listened to “Splash” (English version) for the first time, I was surprised.
Koshi:		That’s true. That song changed the most.
Tak:		I was really glad to do an English version of the song as it sounded really good!
Koshi:		We really saw that Shane really wanted to do “Splash” as he put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into it. He was working towards that from the beginning. Doing an English version called “Splash” was really a success.
Interviewer:		Why is “hara sae kukureba kowakunai” the only Japanese line left in the lyrics?
Koshi:		He was probably trying to spice that certain part up a bit and that’s why he inserted a line in Japanese at that point. It’s alright since it’s not even part of the main vocals.
Interviewer:		”ultra soul” is very popular in Japan. Didn’t you have any doubts about doing an English version of it?
Koshi:		We did most of the lyrics during last year’s tour, but we came to think that a lot of people would rather listen to the Japanese version, so we performed it in Japanese last year. Nonetheless, we went through with it and finished the lyrics for an English version. We are also going to perform it during the 2012 North American tour, but I don’t think we will perform it a lot after that, so consider it a special for 2012.
Interviewer:		So not a lot of people will get to hear that song! Which song took the most time to produce?
Koshi:		All of them took a lot of time to produce!
Interviewer:		Are you talking about the English pronunciation?
Koshi:		It’s different from working with Japanese lyrics, so we ran into a couple of unforeseen problems. Working with the melody was somebody else’s job and I gave it to Shane and he worked on it in his studio, after all.
Interviewer:		While your first worldwide digital album “B’z” was on sale, Tak, you released a solo album called “Strings Of My Soul” in America and Europe. How do you feel about its release overseas?
Tak:		I can’t really make heads or tails of it. I heard about the release being on August 7th, but I didn’t imagine it being released outside of Japan.　For some reason, it looks like CD releases are common when it comes to that genre. I thought we only released a digital version of it, but there are a lot of genre fans who prefer CDs, so a digital version as well as a CD was released.
Koshi:		It’s really different from genre to genre, right?
Tak:		Fans of rock music are another different type of personalities, after all. It looks like radio promotion is the most important thing over there, so people get to listen to it while driving, but I didn’t have such a chance.
Interviewer:		This year, you’re really attracting attention with your international efforts! In July, your collaboration single with Kim Hyun Joong, “HEAT”, was released. Did you hear about its reception after the release?
Tak:		Fans of Kim Hyun Joong really appreciated it! They said “Thanks for making it such a good song!” (laughs)
Koshi:		People saying “Thanks for making it such a good song” must be pure Hyun Joong fans (laughs)
Tak:		They liked it so much that a certain 2 people were following me everywhere (laughs)
Koshi:		I see! (laughs)
Tak:		They really liked the song. They were really happy about it.
Koshi:		“HEAT” is a really good song! It’s so good, I’m even listening to it these days.
Tak:		I also think it’s a good song. I’m glad I was able to do work with him.
Interviewer:		And Tak, you were also featured on Takashi Utsunomiya’s 20th solo anniversary album “TRILOGY”.
Koshi:		20 years solo career! How many years has it been for TM Network?
Tak:		TM Network was founded around 1983. So it’ll be their 30th anniversary next year. There have been breaks in-between, though.

Must Travel Item

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B'z PREMIUM LIVE in Osaka

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B'z PREMIUM LIVE in Tokyo

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Q & A Corner

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JENGA - Tak vs. Koshi

...Coming soon!