Oricon Style [Oct.1.2007] YUI Special Interview: What’s the most important for writing songs?
From:http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/interview/071001_01.html
Translated by: Xerith-sama
Its been 4 months since YUI’s release of the single “LOVE & TRUTH”. The title tune “LOVE & TRUTH” was used as the theme song for the movie “Closed Note” (starring Erika Sawajiri and Yuko Takeuchi).
— Before writing the melody and lyrics for the song “LOVE & TRUTH”, you began by reading the original novel and the movie script, didn’t you?
[YUI]: Since I normally enjoy reading novels, I read it just as I always would with any novel. In particular, the fact that I was to write the theme song for the movie was not something I consciously thought about while I was reading.
— That’s because you wanted to be fully absorbed into the world of the novel, right?
[YUI]: Yes. I wanted to see what I would feel from the novel and what I thought about it. It was fun.
— So when you finished reading it, what were your thoughts?
[YUI]: Although until about midway, the mood was relatively lighthearted, but as you progressed towards the end, there were quite a few of more sombre scenes. When I just finished reading the novel, the heart-wrenching feeling was overwhelming.
— Based on such emotions/thoughts, what kind of theme song would YUI san create?
[YUI]: Well, I didn’t want the song to end solely with feelings of sorrow… Of course while facing the themes present in both the original and in the movie script, I was asked to write the song from my own unique view and that wasn’t the world I had imagined, writing what you felt directly into song is the most important part of writing music.
— And what were these direct feelings that you felt?
[YUI]: I wanted to combine the wish of Ms. Ibuki (played by Ms. Yuko Takeuchi) to continuously encourage her students and the feelings of Ms. Kae (played by Ms. Erika Sawajiri) into a powerful appealing melody.
— Was the idea to add a string arrangement always there from the start?
[YUI]: No it wasn’t. The base melody and chord progressions were written first. After that, I considered whether the song fits well with the movie and decided that adding strings would make a better match with the movie. We added in the string arrangement and that’s how the theme song of “Closed Note” was completed.
— In the end, it became a powerful song, which at the same time, also had its gentle, thoughtful and sorrowful parts, right?
[YUI]: The song was named “LOVE & TRUTH”, which although involves placing two most powerful words next to each other, these words also invoke a sense of sorrow and tenderness at the same time. Although different people may see these words in different ways, I wanted to sing a pure and simple love story and that was how I finally arrived at “Love and Truth”. I also included the powerful feelings of accepting everything from the past into the song.
— The second track called “Jam” uses lyrics which peeks into YUI-san’s everday live. Words like “drum”, “guitar”, “leather jacket”, “punk rock”, “live house”, there were alot of these rock words.
[YUI]: I think the lyrics are realistic, but maybe a but of mischievousness came through (laughs). As much as possible, I kept it as indie band style and had fun both while writing the song or performing it live. I wanted to write a song expressing my enjoyment of music.
— The third track was the acoustic version of a previous single called “My Generation”.
[YUI]: I’ve always put an acoustic version of a previous single as the third track since my debut single. Since I always used to perform on the streets with an acoustic guitar before my debut, by using a simple acoustic guitar again, I would be able to recreate the same atmosphere from that time and make a version of “My Generation” different form the original using the sound of a simple acoustic guitar to deliver the song.
(Text by: Matsuura Yasue)
You’re welcome to leave comments in the forum
