Be With! Vol. 94 (June 2012)

Interview

Be With Vol. 94 Interview Translation

—: Interviewer I: Koshi Inaba M: Tak Matsumoto

—In the last interview we talked about B’z first U.S. single “Into Free -Dangan”, so today we would like to focus on things that have happened since then. First of all, please tell us about your collaboration with Kim Hyun Joong.

M: We received an offer by Unviersal and we gladly accepted. It all came about smoothly and I think we produced a good song. It gives off a typical B’z sound.

I: We met him for the first time when we were filmnig the music video for “GO FOR IT BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-”. We talked about what kind of music style he likes, but we mostly just greeted each other.

M: Inaba was going to take some time off right after the filming, so he talked to him immediately. I continued filming while Inaba was talking to him. Since Inaba was done talking to him, I thought Kim Hyun Joong would go home, but he was actually waiting for me. What a candid guy, I thought. Filming took a little longer than expected, so he waited for me. Therefore, I also got to meet him and we talked a little about the melody of the song.

—Did you write the lyrics and compose the music to fit Kim Hyun Joong’s image?

I: We went about it just as we usually do. Of course, we kept in mind that he would be singing the song instead, but the way we produced the song was basically the same as always.

M: When we thought about how we’d do it, we thought it’d be good to produce something everyone would think of as a B’z song. We won’t release our own version this time, though.

I: Would be cool to play it live, I think.

M: There are also English lyrics, aren’t there?

I: There are English lyrics for the chorus, but I think the Japanese lyrics sound good.

—Weren’t you going to bring in some Korean pop culture? I: No. (laughs)

M: Not at all. He said if he wanted something like that, he wouldn’t have chosen us. (laughs) But what we had to do was decrease the key as his voice is deeper than Inaba’s. That way, his voice will come out. I think it’s good that way.

—For a man, Kim Hyun Joong’s voice can hit a very high key, right?

I: He can also hit higher notes easily. His vocal range is not narrow.

M: Not narrow at all, that’s right. That’s basically because I am used to Inaba’s voice.

—I noticed that the B’z sound really comes out during the guitar solo.

M: As expected, that’s where I had to use B’z signature sound.

—Concerning the lyrics Inaba had to write, did Kim Hyun Joong request any special theme to be used?

I: He didn’t have any special requests as far as story and meaning go. However, he pointed out a couple of words that he found hard to pronounce, so we changed those as he was singing. I think it was alright overall. He’s got his own concerns, but when we listened to it, you could hear that it’s not his native language. We could make out a couple of sections where he really tried hard to sing in Japanese and we debated if we should change those. And that’s when we did.

—But I’ve seen that difficult expressions such as “乱れる宵(midareru yoi)” in the lyrics.

I: Japanese won’t use such an expression, but it’s easy to sing. I think you can still sing it without having to worry too much about its meaning.

—Did he receive advice regarding his pronounciation?

I: I gave him advice when it’d really sound awkward when you listen to it. That’s what we agreed upon. I thought he could sing in Japanese very well although he doesn’t speak it at all.

—He doesn’t speak Japanese?

M: He doesn’t speak much. That’s why he always had a translator with him when we talked.

—His pronounciation was good considering he doesn’t speak Japanese, right?

I: That’s true. At first, the producer who was working with him was singing and when I listened to it, I thought it sounded good and that he could do the same.