#bless4

——Congratulations on your solo debut. How do you feel?

This is my first time releasing a solo CD, but while working in Bless4, I have accumulated experience with singing solo in live concerts until the present moment, and I will keep singing from now on too, so though I am doing a solo debut, nothing in my stance until this point has changed at all. In fact, we include “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” even in Bless4’s concerts, and I sing it solo. Only, I indeed have this feeling that the opportunities to operate solo have increased for me.

——What I felt to be different when I listened to “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” was the song has a form of expression unlike the ones that you had been singing solo until now. “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” is a very uplifting and pop-like song, isn’t it?

Even I myself get a refreshing feeling when singing it. The songs I have sung until now were either danceable ones or ballads where I did duets with AKINO, all of them quite serene pieces. A refreshing rock number like this one was my first, so when I heard the composition for the first time, the feeling that “I can challenge myself with a new style” sprouted in me, which made me happy. However, I also had a hard time when we inserted the singing, wondering about how I could bring out an uplifting voice that had to be different from usual (laughs).

——So as to match the music piece and the TV anime “Hoshiai no Sora”?

That’s right. The setting of “Hoshiai no Sora” is a middle school soft tennis club, and its contents are very youth-oriented. I was conscious of my voice quality allowing people to feel a “sense of youth” fitting of that series.

——“Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” projects the conflicts and strong will of the protagonists’ hearts, as they want to flee their current situations and fly away even farther.

Exactly. The boys from the soft tennis club, where the story is set, grow up little by little through not only their club activities but also the daily lives they lead as students, which include their school, families and friendships, while shouldering all sorts of conflicts. The lyrics of “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” overlap with their emotions in many ways, so I think people will be even more aware of the thoughts I have put into the lyrics if they try to remember their feelings from their middle school and high school days while listening to it.

——AIKI-san, were you also relating it to your own younger days while singing it?

In my case, I debuted with Bless4 when I was eleven, and since then, I have had a daily life centered on musical activities. Regarding school life, I have never had any experience with club activities. For that part, I listened to my friends talk about their own experiences and sang expanding my imagination. Even so, I also faced a lot of indecision back then in my own way as my mind was developing, and I also experienced moments where I could not understand myself, so just as I freed myself from this and grew up little by little, I felt many aspects of it overlapping with myself.

——Just like the lyrics project feelings of worry and conflict even though the melody is refreshing and makes your chest tickle, this is not a song that only seeks light and a future. That’s probably why we feel a deepness from it.

I interpret “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” as precisely a song that shows hope at the end of all the suffering and strifes. Rather, I feel through “Hoshiai no Sora” and “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” that student life is something wonderful, including the distress of it. ——AIKI-san, you also had an experience with leaving your siblings’ side for a while and coming in contact with all sorts of people when living by yourself overseas, right? I engaged in volunteer activities for a two-year period from when I was twenty-four to twenty-six years old, and went to live in Los Angeles. Back then, it turned into an opportunity to have really good encounters and incentive, and to absorb all kinds of values, through not just the contacts I had from the volunteer activities in a daily live of room sharing with people from many countries who were about as old as me, but also through having lived together with many people who have identities of their own in their normal lives. People of many cultures live in the city of Los Angeles itself, and the people I shared a room with changed one after another, with the longest stay being of half a year. So my exchange of thoughts and values with so many people might have been a bit different from the usual student life, but thinking back upon it again, I can say it was an experience that connects to the same kind of mental growth. That was quite literally a page in the book of my youth. ——Same goes for the people who appear in “Hoshiai no Sora”, as each of the individuals who show up in the story, not just the children that it centers around, evolve while bearing all sorts of conflicts and hopes in their hearts. While listening to “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa”, I felt that the emotions described in it were things that surely everyone has experienced. I think that is what it is. I believe “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” is a song that gives a push on the back of the people who listen to it. In particular, the part of the lyrics at the very beginning that goes, “Ever since that time when I found a blue sky where I wanted to fly, my heart has been drawn to the future” was something that I strongly felt to be the same as my own life. People will find an objective, a so-called place they want to fly to, and it is for its sake that they start running, but as they advance, feelings such as anxiety, discord and worry obviously get bigger, yet we can also grow as humans by running on while carrying them along. The boys from “Hoshiai no Sora” are exactly like that. “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” also became a song that gives their feelings a push on the back, so while singing it, and while touching upon the series, I feel like my feelings are also being allowed to evolve. ——So, AIKI-san, you mean that you understood the boys’ feelings of unease and complication, and sang in an uplifting way with the emotion that lies beyond the surpassing of these feelings. Right. Even if we try to summarize it with the word “youth”, if grave things happen even within relationships from club activities, which are precisely the setting of the story, then many conflicts will be born inside their hearts until they get ahold of their objectives. The funny thing is that, when you talk about clubs after having become an adult, everyone’s faces shine brightly even while saying stuff like, “We went through such harsh and tough times back then, huh”. They also say things such as, “The guy I got into a fistfight with at that time is now my best friend”, looking like they are having a lot of fun. When I watch them, I find that the things I used to deem as awful in the past will one day turn into a part of my glittering youth. ——Indeed! Same goes for when I sing “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” - the contents of the lyrics are like being in the very brim of youth and bearing terrible things in your heart, but whenever I sang it, I would do so by transforming into a version of myself who could talk about these experiences with bright emotions. That is why I managed to sing it with shiny feelings despite sensing a bit of pain from it, I think.

——I sense that these feelings of yours are also projected into the coupling song “Sanagi”, which you wrote the lyrics of.

Right. I finally got to sing “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa”, so I wanted to make a song that could connect it to the anime “Hoshiai no Sora”, which is why I wrote the lyrics of “Sanagi”. What first came to me was the image of newborn animals. For example, baby dolphins start swimming as soon as they are born, and fawns stand up immediately after being born too. Animals are demanded independence from the instant they come into this world, but humans are incapable of living without relying 100% on their parents from the moment they are born until a certain time. We are really weak existences at first, but people gradually become strong while receiving protection from their parents. I felt that the memories, recollections and places that people go through when growing up are something like a “chrysalis” (sanagi). That people develop from children into adults while surrounded by these experiences. Don’t butterflies come out of the chrysalises that they themselves put up, and take flight leaving the empty shells behind? For us, these chrysalises might be things like shirts and shoes that we have grown out of and cannot put on anymore, or games that we were crazy about and used to play. At that time, these kinds of things were a comfort zone for us, but as we grow up, we become adults and take flight while leaving them behind. The thoughts that I felt to be relatable with this were put into the lyrics of “Sanagi”.

——I see. “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” is a pattern form of a youth currently in progress. And “Sanagi” is a memory from looking back at your young days, right?

Right. Both “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” and “Sanagi” depict conflicts and hardships, but the point of view in “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” is in the present. “Sanagi” is the gaze of someone who has grown out of it, and is now accepting it while recalling the nostalgia. Regarding “Sanagi”, I put into it my wish for it to link up as strongly as possible with the memories of the people listening, and inlay several keywords that many people surely have experienced.

——An MV was already made for “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa”, and the setting is a school, right?

Filming at a school was extremely fun. Aside from the two main boys, everyone is a student at that school. Even the members of the tennis club are children who belong to it in real life. I have only had experience with tennis one time in school, so it was fun getting to do a rally while being taught by those boys. Also, I later got many tips from my friends who are experienced with tennis, including how to use the racket (laughs).

——After having come in contact with many emotional patterns in “Hoshiai no Sora”, I had the feeling that I could properly assimilate those emotions by listening to “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” in the ending.

I can tell that people’s feelings arouse as the thoughts portrayed in the story and song connect with them. However, this makes me worry if people will get too excited over it and not sleep (laughs). Rather, I would be happy if they could fall into a comfortable sleep and wake up fine and refreshed in the morning.

——Bless4 is currently on a tour throughout the whole country. Are you going to sing both songs live?

I will sing “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” live. When it comes to my solo songs, I always have to move a lot because they are mostly danceable pieces, but “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa” has an uplifting melody, so I will be singing it with a completely different look from usual. Since it has this kind of freshness to it, as always, I have received reactions that made me extremely happy even before the day of release, with everyone saying “I liked it so much”.

——The national tour will only have Kawasaki’s Club Citta Park left to go by the time the single is released, on November 15.

I’ve forwent including the Japanese and romanized lyrics this time because I’ve done so much line “reworking” for fluency that I really don’t think there’s any point to trying to line them up (which I used to be really fussy about, for whatever reason).

The moon was gazing upon the two of us, incomplete*, as we called out for each other and took the long way of a long path

Red and black, pulling towards each other; Darkness and light, chasing each other; everything in this world is made from two coupled entities

Because you are here, I am here too Even if we're apart, I am by your side by your side We all continue to search for one more part of ourselves, that important thing we call our other half

I'm only being saved**, so you think; you don't realize it, but you must be saving  someone else too

Life and death, reverberating each other; Water and land, illuminating each other; two opposing entities project the sights of this world

Because you're going, I will go too I won't hesitate to face forward face forward Because no one understands the way that they are, they can come across people who will teach them

Like the other side of the moon impossible for us to see from the ground, there is yet one more half to your heart (your heart) that I wish one day you will show me without hiding your tears and (your sadness) your sadness

Because you are here, I am here too Even if we’re apart, I am by your side by your side We all continue to search for one more part of ourselves, that important thing we call our other half

Lyrics source

* The word they’ve used here, 欠けてる, can also be used to refer to the waning of eclipse of the moon. It’s clear that this serves as a dual reference to two of the lyrics’ primary motifs, the moon and duality (specifically, one’s other half), but since it didn’t quite translate into English I opted for the latter as it made more sense in English.

** This verb can mean either “to help” or “to save,” but given the context of the anime and the song I feel like “to save” is the slightly more appropriate interpretation.