[Only Star 3.11] Arashi - Go on a musical journey with us! (3/?)
Taking a break from the member interviews and delving into the cross-talk! The members give tantalizing glimpses into what went behind each song.
Only Star: As with last year’s album, “LOVE”, “The Digitalian” has a solid concept. Did you have such discussions during the production process?
Jun: In that sense, it began with “Popcorn” from 2 years back, right?
Sho: That’s right. We wanted an album that had a Pop sound, and we followed up with “LOVE”, which was a thematic album. Then we began thinking, “What shall we do this year?” Rather than conceptualizing the album from the title, we wanted to have a central theme. We hoped to create something digital, something human with a feeling of warmth.
Jun: Yeah, something human, right?
T/N: Jun literally uses the English word “human” here.
Sho: We wanted to take a step forward, to create something new and edgy. Therefore, we needed a title with impact. Sequence-wise, it went like this: we decided not to put out an anniversary album à we’ll release a new studio album à we decided the concept à we chose the title à we started selecting the songs.
Only Star: During the song selection stage, was there a song that you just had to put on the album?
Jun: It was “Zero-G”.
Sho: It had the digital sound, and if Arashi was to cover it, it had a good balance. (turns to Ohno, who’s dressed in a blue and white striped shirt.) So what does Mr Lawson think? You did the choreography, right?
T/N: Here’s Ohno versus a Momoiron Clover member dressed as a Lawson store employee.
Ohno: Yes, that’s right. The demo had English lyrics and the melody had various elements in it. Wasn’t that what we liked about it?
Jun: Who are you looking to for affirmation? (laughs)
Nino: How do you like the finished product?
Ohno: Even better.
Aiba: That’s good!
Only Star: Moving on, “Wonderful” is a mature song too.
Sho: Our singing parts during the chorus were divided pretty intricately too. We’ve mostly been divided into pairs or trios, so that’s the unique feature of the song.
Jun: As for me, I keep singing the lower notes in the chorus in the chorus, so it’s really boring. I won’t sing it at the karaoke by myself. I’ll never sing this song unless Ohno-san is around!
Nino: That’s because Arashi consists of the five of us, yes?
Ohno: What were the singing parts again?
Jun: In the first chorus, we all sing different lines.
Only Star: From a cheery tone, the third track suddenly turns melancholic with “Tell Me Why”.
Ohno: It’s sad, isn’t it? The last line is the finishing blow, right?
Aiba: There’s no way out, isn’t it? It’s a rare sort of angst.
Nino: That’s true. Somehow (our songs) have always managed to have some light at the end of the tunnel.
Aiba: Yeah, I thought the song would slow ascend (out of its melancholy), but it didn’t stretch out a helping hand at the end… That’s the great part of this song though!
Jun: (laughs) It’s a mid-tempo song, but the second half becomes more lively before toning down.
Ohno: It’s not a quiet song throughout.
Only Star: Then we move on to “Asterisk”, which is again a digital number. It feels like an electro house tune with a mellow beat.
Aiba: Everyone liked this one, right?
Sho: We had an argument about whether it would become the leading track. Regarding the rap, I recorded the segment 4 times, but Matsujun suggested that the other members join in for the second half of the rap. The staff okayed the idea and we rewrote the each members parts. Was that difficult?
Ohno: I thought it went unexpectedly well.
Aiba: Yeah, I thought it went pretty smoothly. It fit in rather well.
Ohno: It was really easy to do.
Sho: (shocked look) Really!?
Only Star: Did it bother you?
Sho: I felt that recording this track was difficult, that’s why I was shocked to hear that their recording processes went smoothly.
Only Star: What was the intention behind Matsumoto-san’s suggestion?
Jun: It felt good listening to it, so I definitely wanted to give it a shot. I wanted to sing it myself. (laughs)
Sho: Rather than having a chorus of Sho’s voices, everyone had their own parts in the rap.
Nino: My part was the highest, so it felt good singing it.
Sho: Yeah, I wasn’t too worried about Nino or Matsujun. (laughs)
Aiba: It went something like, (adopts a suave voice) “Oh really? May we sing it with you?”
Only Star: And for the first solo, we have Ohno-san’s “Imaging Crazy”.
Ohno: I thought I had chosen a song type which I hadn’t really done before, but after everyone had listened to it, they said, “It’s very you.”
Sho: It is very you. (laughs)
Aiba: You recorded your song really early on, didn’t you?
Nino: When the five of us got together to record the album, your solo was already done.
Jun: And you did all the chorus work yourself, right?
Ohno: Yeah. It took a really long time.
Only Star: The low and high notes during the chorus was something refreshing.
Jun: You don’t really get to hear Leader sing at that key when he’s recording with us.
Ohno: The lower register?
Jun: Yeah.
Ohno: I guess not.
Only Star: And then we have “GUTS!”
Sho: The character of the song stands out, so it was fun performing the song in different ways during the music shows.
Nino: The song’s direction is easily understood, right?
Only Star: Aiba-san’s solo shines between the two singles.
Nino: It can’t be helped, he’s a star.
Aiba: My solo wasn’t supposed to turn out this way though.
Sho: Hahahahaha! Really!?
Nino: Weren’t you aiming for something like that?
Aiba: It was a tune that was strong enough to overturn any prior images I intended for my solo. I thought, “Oh no, I have to switch gears.” I loved this song too much. We reconsidered the episode and the composers wrote the lyrics for me.
T/N: Instead of switching gears, I think "changing tracks" fitted what Aiba tried to convey.
Jun: The disco feel is great.
Sho: It rivals “Magical Song”! When we heard the intro, we were so excited! “Here it comes!” we said.
Ohno: When the staff announced our solos, that was the first song we heard.
To be continued...
Scans: satopi@weibo
Music beta: nekobot01
Only Star: As with last year’s album, “LOVE”, “The Digitalian” has a solid concept. Did you have such discussions during the production process?
Jun: In that sense, it began with “Popcorn” from 2 years back, right?
Sho: That’s right. We wanted an album that had a Pop sound, and we followed up with “LOVE”, which was a thematic album. Then we began thinking, “What shall we do this year?” Rather than conceptualizing the album from the title, we wanted to have a central theme. We hoped to create something digital, something human with a feeling of warmth.
Jun: Yeah, something human, right?
T/N: Jun literally uses the English word “human” here.
Sho: We wanted to take a step forward, to create something new and edgy. Therefore, we needed a title with impact. Sequence-wise, it went like this: we decided not to put out an anniversary album à we’ll release a new studio album à we decided the concept à we chose the title à we started selecting the songs.
Only Star: During the song selection stage, was there a song that you just had to put on the album?
Jun: It was “Zero-G”.
Sho: It had the digital sound, and if Arashi was to cover it, it had a good balance. (turns to Ohno, who’s dressed in a blue and white striped shirt.) So what does Mr Lawson think? You did the choreography, right?
T/N: Here’s Ohno versus a Momoiron Clover member dressed as a Lawson store employee.
Ohno: Yes, that’s right. The demo had English lyrics and the melody had various elements in it. Wasn’t that what we liked about it?
Jun: Who are you looking to for affirmation? (laughs)
Nino: How do you like the finished product?
Ohno: Even better.
Aiba: That’s good!
Only Star: Moving on, “Wonderful” is a mature song too.
Sho: Our singing parts during the chorus were divided pretty intricately too. We’ve mostly been divided into pairs or trios, so that’s the unique feature of the song.
Jun: As for me, I keep singing the lower notes in the chorus in the chorus, so it’s really boring. I won’t sing it at the karaoke by myself. I’ll never sing this song unless Ohno-san is around!
Nino: That’s because Arashi consists of the five of us, yes?
Ohno: What were the singing parts again?
Jun: In the first chorus, we all sing different lines.
Only Star: From a cheery tone, the third track suddenly turns melancholic with “Tell Me Why”.
Ohno: It’s sad, isn’t it? The last line is the finishing blow, right?
Aiba: There’s no way out, isn’t it? It’s a rare sort of angst.
Nino: That’s true. Somehow (our songs) have always managed to have some light at the end of the tunnel.
Aiba: Yeah, I thought the song would slow ascend (out of its melancholy), but it didn’t stretch out a helping hand at the end… That’s the great part of this song though!
Jun: (laughs) It’s a mid-tempo song, but the second half becomes more lively before toning down.
Ohno: It’s not a quiet song throughout.
Only Star: Then we move on to “Asterisk”, which is again a digital number. It feels like an electro house tune with a mellow beat.
Aiba: Everyone liked this one, right?
Sho: We had an argument about whether it would become the leading track. Regarding the rap, I recorded the segment 4 times, but Matsujun suggested that the other members join in for the second half of the rap. The staff okayed the idea and we rewrote the each members parts. Was that difficult?
Ohno: I thought it went unexpectedly well.
Aiba: Yeah, I thought it went pretty smoothly. It fit in rather well.
Ohno: It was really easy to do.
Sho: (shocked look) Really!?
Only Star: Did it bother you?
Sho: I felt that recording this track was difficult, that’s why I was shocked to hear that their recording processes went smoothly.
Only Star: What was the intention behind Matsumoto-san’s suggestion?
Jun: It felt good listening to it, so I definitely wanted to give it a shot. I wanted to sing it myself. (laughs)
Sho: Rather than having a chorus of Sho’s voices, everyone had their own parts in the rap.
Nino: My part was the highest, so it felt good singing it.
Sho: Yeah, I wasn’t too worried about Nino or Matsujun. (laughs)
Aiba: It went something like, (adopts a suave voice) “Oh really? May we sing it with you?”
Only Star: And for the first solo, we have Ohno-san’s “Imaging Crazy”.
Ohno: I thought I had chosen a song type which I hadn’t really done before, but after everyone had listened to it, they said, “It’s very you.”
Sho: It is very you. (laughs)
Aiba: You recorded your song really early on, didn’t you?
Nino: When the five of us got together to record the album, your solo was already done.
Jun: And you did all the chorus work yourself, right?
Ohno: Yeah. It took a really long time.
Only Star: The low and high notes during the chorus was something refreshing.
Jun: You don’t really get to hear Leader sing at that key when he’s recording with us.
Ohno: The lower register?
Jun: Yeah.
Ohno: I guess not.
Only Star: And then we have “GUTS!”
Sho: The character of the song stands out, so it was fun performing the song in different ways during the music shows.
Nino: The song’s direction is easily understood, right?
Only Star: Aiba-san’s solo shines between the two singles.
Nino: It can’t be helped, he’s a star.
Aiba: My solo wasn’t supposed to turn out this way though.
Sho: Hahahahaha! Really!?
Nino: Weren’t you aiming for something like that?
Aiba: It was a tune that was strong enough to overturn any prior images I intended for my solo. I thought, “Oh no, I have to switch gears.” I loved this song too much. We reconsidered the episode and the composers wrote the lyrics for me.
T/N: Instead of switching gears, I think "changing tracks" fitted what Aiba tried to convey.
Jun: The disco feel is great.
Sho: It rivals “Magical Song”! When we heard the intro, we were so excited! “Here it comes!” we said.
Ohno: When the staff announced our solos, that was the first song we heard.
To be continued...
Scans: satopi@weibo
Music beta: nekobot01