Earlier this year, Harmony Instruments shocked fans by announcing that the band would be taking an indefinite hiatus after December 31, 2024. A unique space opens up in the music and features the unique singing style of lead singer Suzuka Yuko. After ten years of brilliant success at home and abroad, the group sums up its career to date in a best-of series called Best album ever thanks to – Yasou no Oto -.
Band members Suzuhana, Beni Ninakawa (Tsugaru shamisen), Kurona (wataiko, Japanese drums), Machiya (guitar and vocals), and Wasabi (drums) sat down with Billboard Japan to talk candidly about why they chose to take a break anniversary, and the process of creating the 18-song greatest hits album, which also includes re-recorded versions of familiar hits and two new songs.
The news that the band would be taking an indefinite break came as a surprise to me when it was released in January. Can you tell us how you came to this decision?
Yuko Suzuhana: It was less than a year after we formed the Japanese instrument band and debuted, and it’s been an extremely busy decade since then. But when we first started, all the members had their own bands or were doing solo work. and instrumental ensembles suddenly attracted a lot of attention, so we stopped everything we were doing and put all our energy into this project. We have been discussing for over a year the great idea of taking a break from the band and focusing on our solo activities.
Beni Ninakawa: We thought we would do our best until the end of the tenth year, and then, after that, we would take some time to reflect on ourselves and further improve our skills. It was a positive decision to get together again as we progressed and made better music.
Suzuka: The band is not on the decline, so the timing of this announcement may surprise some people, but we said the hiatus would be indefinite simply because we didn’t set a time limit. The news was inaccurately reported, especially outside of Japan, that we were disbanding and I received a lot of inquiries from overseas.
Listening to this greatest hits album, I was moved by the way it traces your history over the last ten years in a very dramatic way.
Machiya: We didn’t want to make a greatest hits album that only lined up our famous hits. Since this year marks our 10th anniversary, we decided to re-record some of our earlier releases and use this album as a retrospective of the ten years we spent with our fans. It’s a very conceptual structure that allows you to trace our history by listening to the songs in order of release.
Ninukawa: What’s more, the early songs we re-recorded have completely different sound quality compared to the original recordings, so that’s something that our fans can enjoy.
Wasabi: Especially the original version of “The Story of Six Dynasties and One Night” sounds quite relaxing. There were parts we should have done more solidly, but it was a fast-paced song and we couldn’t express it at the time. But because of what we’ve been working on for the past ten years, we’ve finally been able to shape it into shape, and I think you can feel the weight of our ten years in the sound.
After listening to the re-recorded version, I was struck by the presence of the wadaiko.
Kurona: Rock music can be made with just a guitar, bass, and drums, so traditional Japanese instruments aren’t really necessary. But in this ensemble, they can’t just be discreetly included; They must become indispensable, and voices should exist because they are necessary. There’s no precedent for this before Wagakki Band, and we’re still the only ones doing this… We’re still in a process of trial and error.
The tracks “The Year of the Six Birds and the Story of a House (Re-recorded)” and “Senbonzakura (Re-recorded)” were released digitally prior to the album’s release. My phrases and calls haven’t changed at all since (the original), but maybe because of the change in the way we recorded it, I’ve had people tell me that they thought I added more wadaiko phrases and calls. In this sense, I feel that the results of my attempts and how to make Japanese instruments sound richer, including the meaning of my own existence, are expressed in these re-recorded versions.
“GIFT” is a positive, fast-paced new song composed by Yuko.
Suzuka: Before the break, I imagined what I would look like and what kind of melody I would like to sing at the end of our tenth anniversary. I spent a day or so coming up with a positive, bright melody and rhythm and writing it down on the piano. I named it “Gift” because this band was a gift to me. My life has been completely changed by this band, and of course I hope that the music that the eight of us create can also be a gift to our fans. So this song is about how the presence of an instrumental band makes life better for all of us.
Ninagawa: Everything we wanted to convey is contained in this song, isn’t it?
Machiya: If you listen to the song after reading this interview, you might notice that our pause is a little different than what those who interpret it as a negative move might think.
Another new song “Yasou Emaki” is attributed to Wagakki Band.
Machiya: What makes this Greatest Hits album different from previous albums is that we asked fans what songs they wanted included. We base our selections primarily on the best answers in the survey, but these songs are to be expected, right? There are many alto songs that didn’t make the cut in the top 100. We wanted to meet the expectations of the fans who voted for this type of song, so we started working on this new track with the idea of mixing them together as much as possible. I was the one who did all the actual stuff, but we made it together because it sampled phrases that we both made, so we put it out as a band for the first time.
I forget how many songs I ended up using, but I sampled over 80 songs. I derived all the melodies and chords in the same key and then spent about two weeks extracting the words from them.
You’ll be touring with the album from November to December, temporarily ending your ten-year music career. Can your fans expect this tour to be a joyous celebration?
Kurona: We know our fans are buying their tickets with some feelings of sadness and loss because we’ve broken a corner in their hearts, so we want to make sure the show continues those feelings for as long as possible. We want people who are feeling down to go home with a brighter outlook, saying things like “I had a great time” and “I’m glad I came today.” To that end, we’re putting on a show that’s cooler than ever.
“ALL TIME BEST ALBUM THANKS – Yasou no Oto –” is live broadcast at https://wgb.lnk.to/thanks_digital. Click here for ticket information for the “WAGAKKIBAND Japan Tour 2024 THANKS-YASO NO OTO-” Tokyo performance for overseas residents on December 10 https://wagakkiband.com/contents/857663.
—An interview with Tomokazu Nishimi appeared first on Billboard Japan
