On February 27, Matsumoto Tak released one full album "HANA" and one mini album "Dragon From The West" at the same time. 3 years has passed since the last solo works. What kind of thought did he have in mind when he was doing these new albums? Below is an interview plus everything we want to hear on the subject.

"The feeling was like all the things I had inside me from way back then, all coming out naturally."

The long-awaited solo work of Matsumoto Tak finally came out on February 27. Furthermore, two albums were released at the same time. One mini album called "Dragon From The West" with the name "Tak Matsumoto", and one full album "HANA" with the name "Matsumoto Takahiro" (in Kanji). The albums are plentiful in volume, gathering 18 songs, which are all the finest representation of creativity and inspiration that flows strongly in him.

Tak "At first, I didn't plan to separate the songs into two albums. I was recording as many songs as I could, number by number coming out. Finally I collected 18 of them. So I thought, this might have to be devided into two. Therefore, we decided to separate them, "Dragon~" has hard-rock numbers while "HANA" has quite a proportion of mellow numbers. So I didn't continously compose and create songs with a clear definitely goal in mind. Whatever song, each of it was done and delivered in random order. This time I thought of nothing else... all the songs came flowing out smoothly, completed with so much good spirit. Even so with the recording process, because I was on the pace completing one song per day."

The songs included in the albums this time are all instrumental. Concerning the taste, they are rock, blues, jazz-oriented. The range of the songs is wide. The sound is of many colorful choices from accoustic to drums. It is the way to approach instrumental only songs from the highest level. Matsumoto's desire to enchance his musical range is very apparent from his effort.

Tak "Starting from about last year, I thought about making a full instrumental only solo album. Before, I have done songs with singing, so up to that point, inside myself I feel that the wish for that part is already completed. Because for sure, guitar playing is my first priority. I want to enhance my skill, widen my range on this one aspect."

Just like what he said earlier, the mini album "Dragon~" with its 6 songs, has brought out the truest form of hard-rock. "Sacred Field", as the main theme song of Fuji TV program "Kandou Factory - Suboruto!", was created around the concept of hard-rock. The guitarist, Takahiro Matsumoto's thrilling and full of 'speed' guitar skill is such a pleasure to listen to.

Tak "I think this is definitely something that people who have ears for guitar would love to hear. People who play guitar, people who love B'z... because they definitely have listened to my guitar playing a lot."

On the other hand, full album "HANA" includes 12 songs that revolve around beautiful melody as main concept. There are cover numbers of the legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and the movie "Romeo & Juliet" main theme. These are songs which show how Matsumoto, as the player, put great importance on the melody as the heart of the songs.

Tak "On this side specially, the songs do not reflect the image of Matsumoto from B'z, instead they give very strong colorful image of Matsumoto Takahiro as an artist and musician. Even for people who have never heard of my music to this day, I'd really love for them to listen to these songs. Because they are things that came out straight from the centre of me. That's why I don't emphasize on the fact of being a guitarist here. There's plenty of way to make music. Of course there are a lot of songs in which I played big portions of the melody myself. Every single thing, from the start right to the very end, were done by me. The sense with which I did these songs is that of a song composer."

It was first decided for the album title "HANA" to use Kanji. Afterwards, some songs in the album were also titled with Kanji. Whether this is done in order to follow his own sense or the music's concept itself, they fully represent the Japanese man inside Matsumoto. The music he delivers, the fresh melody which was overflowing from his heart are gathered into the new songs which strongly felt of his passion as a Japanese man. Moreover, a Chinese instrument was played in "Hana" and "Koi Uta". The featured Er-hu is to infuse stronger color to Oriental element in the songs. Besides these, "#1090" as main theme song for Asahi TV program "Music Station" was recorded again in a newer version. Again, the taste and concept of Oriental element in the song is very strong.

Tak "I grew up listening to rock music, so I'm deeply influenced by it. But living in Japan doesn't mean listening only to Led Zeppelin or Beatles, right? Therefore, I'm going back to much earlier time, following my own roots. There's been a growing desire inside of me to do this important deed, to create music with melody that has more Japanese feel."

And while doing the new songs, the thought of following his own roots became even stronger inside him.

Tak "Actually West in 'Dragon From The West' simply means Kansai. Because I'm originally from Kansai. There's a term of Kansai Blues in Japanese Rock, right? It's a completely different thing with blues from Southern America. As someone who was born and grew up in that neighborhood, I understand quite a lot about it. And I often think about being born and growing up there, and then leaving it to come out here. That's why the recording for this album was done completely in Osaka."

The title of the new album "HANA" is a very suitable word to describe the present life of Matsumoto Takahiro.

Tak "Even when I'm being called as 'a person in his highest glory' and I do wish to be such a person, but I think of myself as someone who is giving his best try and brightly welcoming everyday."

Whether peaceful or action-packed, romantic or wild, both sides are well representated by "HANA" and "Dragon From The West". These are art works that spare no tiniest details in giving out overall information about their creator, the artist, Matsumoto Takahiro.

02. #1090 [Sen Mu Ichiya]
I performed this song during a LiveGym last year. At that time, the feeling was great! So when "Koi Uta" and "Hana" were in the process, I wanted to do this song very much too, therefore I recorded it again. (* Sen Mu Ichiya = a thousand dreams in one night )

03. HANA
It's always been my wish to include er-hu playing in this song and "Koi Uta". After seeing Chen Min-san's magnificent performance in TV, I asked for her participation. The second half-part was ad-libbed. (* Ad-libbed = done spontaneously )

04. MACHI
This is a song I wrote for Shichio-kun's CD. All my life, I've always been doing concerts. Wherever I go, I'd fondly remember them with nostalgic feeling, like, 'Aa, when is the next show coming?' that kind of feeling.

05. Midosuji Blue
This is with no doubt a song that has the biggest influence of Kansai Blues. For certainly, I have such thing in the centre of me. And I genuinely like Midosuji very very much. (* Midosuji is a place in Osaka)

06. Shu ~Asayake~
The song itself was done fairly long time ago. Even if there're distressing matters that can't be overcome, morning still comes along. I think that's how this song feels to me, let it be, everything will be okay. (* Shu = orange, Asayake = sunrise color)

07. Little Wing
Even though this is a song I've done countless of times, whether during concerts, for B'z or for other sessions, and I even had it recorded once too. This time I wanted to do the songless version.

08. Romeo & Juliet
I participated to do this song in the album "Guitar Monster". And I really wish to include it into my own album. This time it was Steve Vai who did the mixing for me.

09. Hallelujah
I wanted to do a gospel song. There are many gospel songs with beautiful melody. Well, this might sound absurd, but I sort of think it might be nice to have one of these songs in my own album.

10. ENGAGED
Takuro-kun from GLAY and I have talked about doing something together when there's an opportunity. So finally the timing was good for us to write a song. It was fun because he even came to the studio to see the recording.

11. You Know...
Even though this is a song I wrote for Nanao-kun's recording, I really love the fresh feeling of it. This time for my own album, I did the instrumental version and did a bit of changes to the melody.

12. 2011
There's completely no jazz element inside of me. Therefore it's not because I want to brag about it, I just wanted to try and see if I can do it. And the feeling was like pouring out of me.

02. Fighting Bull
This one was because I wanted to imitate the works of Michael Schenker's Group. Doing it was so much fun. The music I did was just as expected, also like the rhythm.

03. Dragon From The West
I did this song with 'happy' as the concept. The nuance of Oriental feeling came out gradually and naturally. Dragon in this title is means the icon that symbolizes the Oriental world.

04. Notteke
When I was thinking about doing the variation of the guitar's instrument, I thought since I never had the chance to do it like the Ventures, I wanted to try. But I was unexperienced, therefore this one was very difficult. (* The Ventures is an American guitar instrumental band, popular in US and Japan during early 60's)

05. Riverside Blues
When I was drinking along a riverside in Osaka, I thought, "Well, let's do this feeling of song tomorrow." This kind of Kansai's Blues song just flowed out very naturally from me.

06. Trinity
This song is the ending theme for F-1. It's a song that everyone who can play guitar would wish to copy. For the TV version, I wanted to copy it once again, and the most fantastic song came up (laugh). (* F-1 = Formula One, car racing. "Go Further" another Tak's solo was used as its main theme song, and Tak has performed live on the program once)

B'z Net Party Video Service. Download Tak's Sacred Field PV, Koi Uta MS Live and F-1 Live Performance in Real Video format.