Go!Go!GUITAR 2006.08 — Is Ohayou no Kiss wo the first song YUI ever wrote?

To most fans, “Why me” has always been “YUI’s first song”, but in this interview, YUI reveals a different story.

Translation: Kikino
Correction: Spring-san
Original transcript: Akabaneouji

We went to meet the popular revelation, singer songwriter YUI. We could ask her many things related to the movie “Taiyou no uta” that she starred. But instead, we tried to push questions about “Songwriting”
The text in question will be about her first album “FROM ME TO YOU” First of all, about the time she wrote the songs…

If you ask me where can I write songs, it’s not about a certain place, but whether or not I can concentrate enough. There are times when I outline something inside my head thinking “I wanna write a song like this…”, then I look for the chords as I play the guitar and I get inspired in many ways. By doing so, I explore until I find the shape of the song.
However occasionally, I find a sound that’s different from what I had in mind, but if I continue, it becomes something better. Songwriting can be something strange right?

The song called “Why me” was the first song I made putting lyrics and music together. But the truth is before that I had made a song to which I didn’t have any lyrics attached.  It was a time of troubled feelings. I was not sure about what to do with it, so I stopped thinking about it. I just grabbed my guitar and started singing English-like made up words. But when I did it, I was able to feel somewhat restful. As if a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
I love words, and I wanted to learn a lot of them. Even so, that doesn’t mean I made the song considering many things. I did it obediently instead. I don’t use difficult words, right? That’s because I’d get very happy to know a kid in 6th grade will remember and sing my songs after listening to them. There are cases where parents and children listen together too. I want to reach as many people as possible with my songs. But then I think that putting in simple words what everybody feels can be difficult too…

 
Every word YUI uses are simple and common. After listening to a couple of songs you realize she uses words that are not unusual to hear in everyday life.This might be a rare thing to girls around her same age. I wonder how her own character and thoughts influenced the content of her songs. “TOKYO” can be regarded as an autobiographical song in a way, and you can feel how the hope and insecurities of a protagonist taking a new step forward are pictured from reality. The virtue of this song is that your hopes are not forced into insecurities, nor will those insecurities crush hope. The phrase “I can’t choose the right things all the time” is really excellent.

I think it’s better if you take this song “as it is”. It’s a song about coming to the capital. Also “Feel my soul” has lyrics I wrote in Fukuoka just before coming to Tokyo. I sing with the will to keep going forward while struggling. But then, you could say aren’t the love songs autobiographical too? I think it can be said like this. When I want to convey “things that make us get in conflict” I will compare it to a romantic relationship.

You can interpret many implications when listening to love songs, that being said. I wonder if “Spiral & Escape” is one of those. On the other hand “Bluewind” makes a contrast between “Inventors” and “People in the crowd” It stares calmly at the sublime and fragile sides of a people.

That song… I think I could cover many viewpoints. The song describes “the girly side” inside a person, the freedom people look for, and other things. It would make me happy if the listeners can interpret all those things…
Usually, I think towards many “influences”… And then, I also think about “Responsibilities” and such.  The lyrics might have been made for the reasons mentioned above.  Being in conflict with myself, thinking about many people, therefore, those things I think about might have become a part of the lyrics.

—

The first thing I thought when YUI mentioned she wrote a song before “Why me” was this screenshot from “TOKYO” MV. Maybe this was a hint?

Then, Spring-san reminded me that yui mentioned something I had completely forgotten.
yui wrote in her diary that “Ohayou no Kiss wo” was a song she wrote in Fukuoka in her early days, and that she never managed to put lyrics in it until FLOWER FLOWER was formed.
It definitely seems like she is talking about the same song both in FF diary and the old interview! Being “YUI’s Opus 0” and at the same time, one of the latest song she has ever released… Maybe, in this song we can hear both, the young YUI, looking at the distant future, and the present yui, looking back.

Now I’m even more curious… what would have happened if they had chosen this song instead of “Why me” to be included in her debut single? How would “Ohayou no Kiss wo” sound if arranged by Hisashi Kondo? Moreover, how would “Why me” sound arranged by FLOWER FLOWER???

Now on a more personal note…

YUI always tried to dodge questions regarding her romantic life. To the point she even looked displeased about it in some interviews. This led some fans to believe she never had any serious relationships other than a highschool crush, or that she was some kind of asexual being, like Morrissey or… I can’t name anyone else. It’s definifelt something out of the ordinary.
That’s why I embraced that myth. It made her so special in a way.
But I wonder who was shocked the most. The fans who always thought she was alone, or herself, realizing that one aspect of her super private life was all over the news?
How responsible are the journalists of “Friday” in yui’s mental breakdown?
I wonder if yui ever knew about those fans who called her a “traitor” over 2ch. Where they responsible? How responsible was I, covering the news here?
She said in this old interview: “ I want to reach as many people as possible with my songs” But what about now? How much did motherhood change her?  I’m sure it was all for the best, but… can she live without music now?
In the end, these questions are meaningless. Knowing how secretive she’s always been, there must be a whole story much bigger and intricate than anything we know. I’m afraid we will never know the real person behind “yui”.
The wall between yui and the fans is taller than ever. And this time it was built not by Sony, but by herself.
She doesn’t want us to know the name or her kids, or their birthday, or her wedding anniversary, or even when her new single will come out, even though we all know about it.
I think the message is pretty clear. We are not allowed to celebrate anything with her. “Enjoy the music whenever it comes. Don’t go any further.”

Let’s just hope the next single is a success. That should be our only concern.