Tegomasu on Oristar 3 May 2010 - Translation
Scans courtesy of stahsee
Highlights: Massu at his random best, while Tegoshi tries to salvage the situation!
Oristar staff's comments and questions are in italics.
We'll send you our love
The vocal unit Tegomasu, formed by Tegoshi Yuya and Masuda Takahisa of NEWS, is releasing their long-awaited mini-album. What is this 'love' that they want to express through their songs?
From romantic love to love for your mom, Tegomasu sings about love!
----Since the mini-album is called 'Tegomasu no Ai', it seems that the theme is 'love'?
Masuda: We discussed with the staff, and decided on the theme quite quickly. Actually, Tegomasu has always had a lot of heartwarming songs, or perhaps I should say that we have many songs about love, so it was natural for our mini-album to be about 'love'. It wasn't like, "Eh? We're going with 'love'?", but we felt that it was a matter of course.
Tegoshi: We decided on it when we saw the songs that had been handed to us. As they are differentiated by their themes on 'love for your mom' and 'love for your friends' ecetera, we thought "let's go with 'love'" as the theme. The style of Tegomasu is such that it is well-suited to singing about love. As we can sing both cute and serious songs.
----This work includes pieces on a broad range of love-related themes, from romantic love, love for friends, to even love for the Earth. Which 'love' left the greatest impression on you?
M: I like all the songs. At first I just quietly thought to myself that they were all good songs, but when I really sang them, I felt love for the songs starting to spread within me. When I harmonise with Tegoshi, I like them even more.
T: I like them all too, but personally, I feel Pasta is a really good song.
----It's a song about love for your family, or I should say love for your parents.
T: At the time when I received the song, I had started living on my own. I realised how great moms are, when I didn't understand it when I was staying in my family home. This song is about returning the favour to such a great mom, by making pasta for her. For me, although I make much fewer dishes by myself compared to when I am at home, I take double the time my mom takes. As it was just about the time when I realised the greatness of our parents, I found the song easy to understand as I was singing it.
----The idea of conveying your love for your mom through food seems to be related to the theme of Tegomasu's first single Miso Soup. But instead of just feeling grateful, the child makes a dish for his mom in Pasta. It's like he grew up a bit.
M: It was good that we came across another nice song about food, it's like 'Miso Soup 2'. Since the pasta was meant to return the love towards mom that was experienced in Miso Soup, maybe the pasta has the taste of miso... but that probably won't happen (laugh).
----It seems a little random (laugh), but Hoshi wo Nagameteokure also made me feel that Tegomasu has grown up. While Kisu~Kaerimichi no Love Song and Aiaigasa are about people in their teens, Hoshi sings about 'when we want to go overseas/we took both our passports'. It seems to be about a couple in their 20s.
T: I really like this song too. It's cool and has an adult feel. But the adults are pure-hearted, or maybe I should say pristine.
M: This song is surprisingly easy to sing for Tegomasu. It's like a song we can sing at karaoke, that's how much the melody suits us. It feels comfortable, but also grand.
T: But I also like Cheetah Gorilla Orangutan, which has exactly the opposite feel. Even during recording, I could picture us and the fans going nuts over this song at concerts.
M: Although it seems like such a funny song, its lyrics are about love for the Earth, which I think is great. The fact that we could sing about it in a pop song, that's fantastic.
T: It's a song we can be high over, and it also carries a message. It's really fun singing it, so I can't wait to have fun with it together with the fans at our lives.
Even Tegoshi is embarrassed!? Heart beats fast at the recording!
----This love for your fans is expressed in the last song of the album (RE only) Chu Chu Chu. This is...
T: Everyone likes it, right?
M: It's a song that people will definitely become excited over. But I was surprised at the 'I like you so much it troubles me' and 'Tegonyan's heart is beating fast' at the beginning of the song. Tegoshi is calling himself Tegonyan! (laugh) I was so embarrassed at first, and up to the day of the recording I didn't feel confident, but when I started singing it I really had fun, and nowadays this is the song I listen to the most. It's like falling in love with the person who bothered you in school.
----That's a good analogy! (laugh) What about 'Tegonyan', Tegoshi-san?
T: ...... (resigned smile). The day after I received the songs was my rest day, so I went back to my family home. After I took a bath, I read the lyrics while listening to the music, together with my parents. The moment I saw 'Tegonyan's heart is beating fast', I started pretending that the song didn't exist (laugh). Reading these lyrics in front of my parents was impossible for me.
M: Speaking of which, your mom is also Tegonyan. So it's Mama-nyan? (laugh)
T: After my parents had gone to bed I secretly listened to it alone. Like Massu, I had no confidence that I would be able to sing 'Tegonyan'...
----Even Tegoshi-san felt this way?
T: That's because even though (Koyama) Kei-chan and others have called me Tegonyan before, I had never, not even once, called myself Tegonyan.
M: You have, haven't you?
T: No I haven't! (laugh)
M: Maybe not.
----So which is it!?
T: I haven't! That's why I was saying, I didn't know what to do for the recording. I went into the booth but was so embarrassed that I couldn't sing it, and I had to go out of the booth. When I went back in, I forced myself to laugh 'ha ha ha ha ha!' to raise my spirits, before I could do the recording.
----So tough.
T: But when I'm on stage, thanks to everyone, I am in 'ON' mode. This is really a song that only Tegomasu can sing. Not even Hey! Say! (JUMP) can sing it.
M: That's because Tegomasu is cuter than Hey! Say! (laugh).
For both NEWS and Tegomasu, concerts connect the love.
----Tegomasu's live tour will start on 1 May. What will it be like?
T: It will be a little different.
M: Well, we won't be moving around as much as we do for NEWS, but to get close to the fans, we will be trying out a different way, which will be a continuation from the last time when we were using wooden horses. Maybe we should bring out real horses? We could bring them up on stage, feed them with carrots, and sing alongside them.
T: That's impossible.
M: What I really want to do at least once, is to place a fence on the centrestage and scatter grass around, and sing where there are goats and the like.
T: Then you should go to New Zealand.
----As usual, you are in sync with each other (laugh), are the lives occasions where you feel more love and connection for each other than usual?
T: This is not just true for Tegomasu, but for NEWS too. People like (Nishikido) Ryo-kun, Yamashita-kun are seniors, but after doing more and more concerts together, the distance between us decreased. Lives are important.
M: We create them with such fervour, and they are so much fun, that after doing them together you become closer. Like becoming friendly with this guy, after being at a sports meet together.
----But since there are only 2 of you in Tegomasu, is the feeling towards your partner even stronger?
T: At lives, when we harmonise or sing in unison, we look at each other. That's not for performance's sake, that's to coordinate our breathing.
----I see.
T: If you're singing alone you can just match the key and sing, but that's no good as a duet. If we don't look at each other, and go 'se-no' and match our breathing, we can't produce beautiful pieces. So every time our eyes meet, love bubbles up.
M: Is that the case? Because you occasionally look towards me when we're singing, I sometimes think that you like me.
T: I'm in love with Massu? That's not the case.
----Doesn't Masuda-san feel love at those times?
M: Not just during lives, when we respect each other's pace, I also feel love. When we're with NEWS, because there're 6 of us, we have to match our pace with the slowest person; but there're only 2 of us in Tegomasu, we can match our pace naturally without having to think too much about it. Or maybe I'm the one who doesn't think about it, and it's Tegoshi who tries to match his pace with me.
T: Nope, I'm also not bothered by it.
----By the way, this album doesn't have a song called "Tegomasu Ai", but if you're going to make it what would you want it to be like?
M: That won't be a song by itself, but you should feel it after listening to the album. I think it is conveyed by the whole album.
T: Exactly as Massu says.
Check out the music video!
The theme of the music video for Moshi Mo, Kono Sekai Kara Maru Maru ga Nakunattara, one of the songs in the mini-album, is love for people. To match lyrics like "if, the word 'sorry' disappears from this world", the music video switches between a monochrome world that is missing a precious something, and a colourful world that has love. There is a touching final scene where Tegoshi and Masuda meet on the streets after everyone else around them has disappeared. We are healed by their smiles and heartwarming voices!