B'z Tak Matsumoto & Inaba Koshi on MAY

FOREWORD
This interview was sent to me by B'z Kairaku No Heya's webmaster . It is originally an article from What's In Magazine (* ÁÂ ÁÂ ©p ¡A Àn¡I) ^^ Thanks to Glen and Boyd for correction on guitar terms.

B'z : On the making of "MAY"

<< MAY >>
	Q Was it recently that you did the recording for this new single? Tak This one was done sometimes before going to LA. Probably around early March. Q Did Matsumoto-san have a clear image in the head of the song to be done right after "Konya Tsuki No Mieru Oka Ni"? Tak No, nothing special actually. Since last year, we have been talking about releasing more singles this year. Therefore after the release in February, it was simply decided beforehand to have another release in May. Who would have guessed that since we went to work in studio early January, by the time we finished with "May", we have had about more than 10 songs to select from. We thought it'd be a good thing to pick one from these ten songs.
Q All of which you did in order to qualify for a good single? Tak Yes, because we did have quite sufficient timing. That's why it was quite a selection to choose from. As for style, all of them are songs that everyone will think as the very image of B'z. Q Last year there were "Giri Giri Chop" and "Brotherhood". I thought that "Konya~" and "May" were specially chosen to make a nice contrast. Because "Konya~" and "May" are a bit from mellow genre, therefore I'd say you have taken steps to go all the way opposite "Giri Giri Chop". Tak No, no. I have completely forgotten about "Giri Giri~" (laugh). That's something from the past. From the 10 something songs we completed, there are far more different styled ones. More 'up' songs. Q What was in Matsumoto-san's mind when you chose "May" from those 10 something songs? Tak What was it actually? Koshi Well, we wanted to go back to our starting point. Once again we returned to the style that B'z has always maintained to today. Even though we've had situation like this, or close to this many times before, we did not choose it just to make a nice contrast. Because other 10 something songs are also very different. It's the same thing with 2nd beat. We thought, there's no other place to put this one but here (laugh). Of course, also because it's a good song. Q About the melody then, is it also included in the so-called B'z typical image? Tak Hmm, there might be this element too. Because while making this song, we didn't consider outside aspects such as this. Like usual, we never give other aspects much thought. Q When Matsumoto-san composes the melody, there's a certain pattern or shape to follow in order to form the melody, right? Did the team follow your main idea? Tak How to say this, that they didn't follow it... Even though we have said for many years that we won't do anymore of the past style of B'z, we actually don't give it much thought when we're in the process of creating a song. Q Concerning the intro of the song, it continues to first verse without the slightest halt. Tak Yes, we made it that way to create such impression. Q From those 10 something songs, is "May" considered very special? Tak Is it special... We did the arranging with Oshima (Kyosuke)-kun, therefore his color can be strongly felt, right? Maybe because in the beginning I handed over the melody only. Q To Oshima-san? Tak Yes, and I said to him, please play it one time freely as you like. We created that part first. Q So it means that the whole melody was composed together by Oshima-san and Matsumoto-san? Tak First I came up with one chorus and said to him, 'Let's follow this feeling'. We progressed from there without making any big changes. When we put in the guitar playing, almost all the sounds were completed in one day. Q One of the reason for you to ask Oshima-san's participation is definitely because he has been in Survive Tour, right? You have evaluated his ability in music arranging, is it really the reason why you asked him? Tak Well, I've always thought about asking him. I really liked the stuffs he came up with for us. This time, since January, we actually had so many arrangements and recordings with so many different people. Although the bass in this song is played by Vagabond Suzuki-san, in the beginning we had Oshima-kun's drum loop. We changed the live sound of that. But the drum stayed. Q The style of Oshima-san is... how to describe in words? For example, if Oshima-san was left out from the arrangement, therefore this song was completely done by Matsumoto-san and Inaba-san, we don't know what kind of feeling you'll come up with, right? What is this special style of Oshima-san? Could it be his approach to music? Tak You're right. When I did my solo, we worked together one time. Even then, I somehow found that his rhythm or beat is quite special. His sense and preferences all came out clearly because of his approach. Oshima-kun's style really swings. Different than Tokunaga-kun. His beat doesn't bounce that much. Nor does Akashi-kun's. I can't put it well... Anyway, Oshima-kun has the beat. I really like his style too. Q What do you think, Inaba-san? About Oshima-san's special style? Koshi Hip-hop... Not that I'm well informed about hip-hop (laugh). I'm not talking about his approach to drum. It's definitely his bouncy beat that seems to make the music more alive. And certainly, it's also applied to the piano intro. Q Yes. Usually on this kind of groove song, I think this style of beat is quite unthinkable. But there wasn't any problem to this? Koshi Not all all. It's his best characteristic. Beautiful melody that is danceable... he also put in scratch. Q For sure concerning B'z, you're continously accepting new blood, people whom you haven't collaborated with before. Although Oshima-san has been on Survive Tour with you, that was the one test before working together to create arrangement for a complete song. Well, back to "May", Inaba-san, usually you write lyrics after listening to the song several times. Is it only this time that the arrangement broke this ritual? Koshi I think this time, while Oshima-kun was doing his arranging, I was completing most part of the lyrics. Q While you're watching him playing musical instruments. Koshi Yes, I saw that. And around then this image appeared and I got the feeling. Q His figure while playing the instrument? Koshi Not Oshima-kun himself (laugh). It was the sound of music he was bringing together. Q Oh, it's not Oshima-kun himself (laugh)... Koshi Yes, in the beginning, we tried to put in many things to create different sounds. The best part is the piano, right? We did lots of homeworks around that part. Afterwards, it was Matsumoto-san who thought of the title. I've always been considering about the lyrics but there's still no title yet. So I asked, 'What's a good idea?' And Matsumoto-san answered, 'How does May sound?' I immediately said 'OK. That's it!' Tak That was good enough, really? (laugh) Koshi It has a nice ring to it. Q I think the lyrics really reflect truest emotion in a man's heart. 'Mukashi ni modoritain janai, yarinaoseru ka douka nante, sonna koto wa dou demo ii...' ( Isn’t it great if we can go back to the past, somehow somewhat I feel that we can do better, but anyway, never mind with that...).* Especially these lines. They reveal the deepest corner of a man's inner-heart. Tak The lyrics describe this story for sure. It was when we were talking about the sound that we decided to return to starting point. I was wondering what kind of lyrics Inaba would come up with. May is a very simple title. Not that everyone hates May, but after the weather changes in April, that kind of atmosphere makes the heart feel a bit empty. As I read the lyrics, there was an obvious wish to return to so called easy-to-understand lyrics style. When I talked to Inaba about it, he said he paid much attention to achieve this. Q How about recording of the vocal? Koshi That took unexpectedly long time (laugh). Tak Which means it was difficult. Koshi This one was difficult to sing. Tak I had thought such thing was quite impossible since you've been singing for years. Q What was the tough part? Koshi For example, in the beginning we had machine-sound as backing. That part's lyrics is especially like spoken-words, besides it can't be over-emotional. Q Like you couldn't put it naturally... in the right place. Koshi It certainly felt like that! Afterward, I listened to my own singing and it felt as if the voice stood out too much. So we fixed that again. During the mixing phase later, we put in lots of effects. It needed lots of effort. Q That's very interesting. In order to bring it closer to the core of B'z old style, it's quite unbelievable that you find this style of singing difficult. Koshi It has always been like this, you know. It has always been hard work! When I'm around the phase of preparing and singing temporary songs, I'd know it right away... Some songs are like, waa... this one will be so much pain to sing. Q Are songs with more words easier to sing? Koshi It's not like that. Songs with more words depend on skill while less words depend on the fresh feeling you can put in. It's really just intuition to determine the difficulty level of a song. Q Is it more difficult to sing than "Konya~"? Koshi For me it is. Q That song is also not easy to sing then? Koshi It is also not easy, yes. Only the difficult parts I felt are decidedly different somewhere. Q Possibly the flow of the song? Koshi I think it's one of the reason, yes. Q Something decidedly different... hmm, it makes me wonder what it is. Koshi Something that cannot be expressed with words (laugh). But I felt it in me that it's completely different. Q Which part is it? I think possibly because there are so many essence put into it like loop, right? Koshi Yes, I think it's also mainly because what I don't have in me. Like the melody, even though it's the most important aspect, when I try to sing it, I think the range sort of widen.
<< You Pray I Stay >>

Q 2nd beat "You Pray I Stay", in the beginning when the vocal comes out, you put in echo-ranging. This song specially makes me feel clearly the present style of B'z. Is this song easy to sing? Koshi Yes, it is. If you are talking about easy to sing... (laugh).
Q You didn't feel difficulties whatsoever? Koshi ...it's not simple though. On the vocal, to my own satisfactory, I was able to do my best performance. I learnt alot from "May" (laugh). Q What about Matsumoto-san? About "You~" being more difficult than "May", did you have any difficulty along the composing of it? Tak Because the sound of this song was 'cooked' together by the band. Way before we went to LA, we've had the demo tape done already, right? Even though afterwards, we re-do it all over again, changing the structure two, three times. Koshi But at the end, we returned to some stuffs we did in the beginning, right? Tak Yes. Actually most of it, right? Koshi When everything was fixed, the last recording in Tokyo was all finished in one day. But then, we started to do new arrangements, one by one. On the last try, we decided to have simulation on hard disk and said, 'This is good, right?' The result was we thought maybe this style was better done during live, so we recorded it again (laugh). Tak The second day after we came back from LA, we had to appear in Music Station's Special Program. After we performed this song to everyone there, we said to each other, 'Shall we fix it again tomorrow?' (laugh) Koshi But lucky we re-do it again for the last time. Q Such a persistant song, isn't it? Koshi Yes, to think about it, we actually took a really long time to finish "You~". "May" was really fast. Tak "May" only took about 3 days to complete. Q And such persistant songs or not very persistant songs are all completed to perfection. Actually is there any song that makes you fall into argument? Like, Matsumoto-san is persistant, while Inaba-san goes, 'Doesn't this sound very good already?', less persistant? Tak It's only natural to have such phase in song-making. Since we can't possibly put everything in, which idea ends up not to be applied, we keep fixing and discussing it until we reach an agreement on that. Up to now, we have three persons doing the arrangements, of course we've had songs which we couldn't agree upon. For the same melody, we came up with three different arrangements. That kind of pattern exists. Q In the end of "You~", while the vocal remains to be the only thing heard, the ending guitar begins again to finish the song. That's an excellently fresh style. Tak Really? Isn't that our band's winning point? Q Yes, but the 2nd part of guitar was harmonized, right? Tak Even though Ive done some things at first, but during the harmonizing, there're many things which were left out. That's why I felt the need to do it. Q Yes, that's how it is. Wanna make sure whether you really did it or not. Tak I certainly did. Q For sure this style exists in the long history of B'z. Talking about Matsumoto-san's guitar, since when is the metallic sound gone? I was very surprised. Tak Metallic sound (laugh)... Ever since returning back to Japan, I've been thinking whether we should keep that style during live. I've been told that the crew are great people (laugh). With that style of backing, I told them, 'Let's do this type of guitar solo'. Q I listen a bit to dark genre (laugh). Tak (laugh) Talking about riff's styles, ones that applied nowadays are doing this a bit, right? Like, for instance, Korn. Koshi I don't really listen to dark genre. Tak Although I don't really listen to it, but I do apply some ideas from Ricthie Blackmore's Rainbow. Q If Matsumoto-san play that kind of sound for real, as you're able to anyway, what will become of the crew? Tak Because everyone working around me are all aging people (laugh). Q For sure, recently I've heard more and more different sound compared to the ones applied before. Tak That pattern of guitar solo is only done by us, presently no other people in Japan do it like this. Not that it's good or bad. Q But the guitar solo is not specially difficult for you, right? Tak Because I have it in me. Q It's quite a wonder that there's no problem doing this, right? Tak To say that it didn't happen, it didn't come up... or it wasn't gonna come up at all (laugh).
LiveGym Pleasure 2000
Q Well, about the highly-expected Pleasure 2000 lives, the most detailed parts of the shows are not decided yet, but is it not the same with Pleasure series from before? Tak Hmm, when was the last one? Q It was in 1997. This one must be quite different than last year's solid hard-rock "Live-Gym Brotherhood", will there be more danceable beat? Tak We will do some old songs too. But as long as rehearsal hasn't started, we're still not sure. Q No matter what, the image will be very showy? Tak How to say it... definitely because the place is huge, I think this might be the element that gives such impression. Q Actually although you have released Pleasure/Treasure albums, you haven't planned to do their Pleasure series? Tak Some people have mentioned this! But we think it's pretty impossible to fit everything in so it can't be done. Q What kind of mood will be applied to this year's Pleasure series then? Tak We're thinking much more simple stuffs. Things we shouldn't do anymore, shouldn't be done (laugh). To think about it, ever since the release of the best albums, we haven't done any Pleasure show. It's quite a perplexing matter. Q That's a huge problem that has to be fixed soon. Inaba-san, what do you think? Koshi The rehearsal hasn't started, so I completely have no idea (laugh). Q But definitely there'll be a lot of songs. Koshi It's not really like that. For the time being we're trying out many songs, re-do them with new arrangement. This way we'll have lots of new discoveries. We're in the process of fitting in the songs' sequence. Q I think it must be terribly difficult to decide which songs you really want to perform. Tak We have finished with that, you know. Q Oh, you have? How many songs will be performed then? Tak ...I can't say yet (laugh). But not too many. Because we can't possibly have all songs from Pleasure, Treasure and Mixture put in, right? I think this way the audience will get fed up too. Q There's no such thing! Tak Surely we must have condensed version of them. Q But I'd love to watch lives with about 50 songs. Tak Wow! That's not good! (laugh)