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arashitranslation) wrote2020-12-07 10:05 pm
arashitranslation) wrote2020-12-07 10:05 pm
[Trans] 20.12.11 Weekly Asahi - ARASHI Interview
Q: What do you think about this year with COVID-19?
M: Well ... We've been thinking about various things more than ever. Every day we searched for ways to convey our feelings, because our plans kept being cancelled and changed. In fact, I've wondered how much of our effort was wasted. Anyhow, I had the most emotional discord during the stay-home period.
O: I was worried about what would things become when various works were postponed. Not only me, I think all people in Japan had the same feeling.
N: Because it is no longer a thing that would change at our discretion. The whole world is in a difficult situation.
S: It is a pity and regrettable that our planned works cannot be conducted, but we can only go on with what we can do. Rather than looking backwards, we should look forward and go on.
A: We changed the way we performed as have been, hoping to bring some fun contents to people who have been supporting us so that they would enjoy. We had a lot of discussion about "Such things may work". We five had discussion and we also had discussion with staff.
O: It's the first time that we five had remote working meeting, so when I saw the screen, I felt so new that I didn't know what to say (giggle).
A: It's also new to post on SNS. We started SNS on 3 Nov last year, I felt that we are "grade 1 students", when we thought about what to do individually indoors, it became a situation that we had to make the most use of SNS.
Q: Did you think about the contents of the instagram stories yourselves?
A: Right. I barely see other's SNS, so I have no idea at all what the basics of SNS is and what is better. We're still doing it by trial and error.
N: It's happy that by sharing part of our lives, I feel that we share something with our fans, and I hope that they would enjoy our posts every day. It's different from our performance thus far, I felt that we passed time together.
Q: You also conducted "ARASHI no WakuWaku Gakkou Online".
S: We've been having WWG in Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome, it's the first time we did it online. "WakuWaku Gakkou" started as a charity event because of Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. This year, we had the theme to support the medical workers, and many people attended the event even it was done online. This year, each of us issued "home assignment" to the students (people attending the online event), and they submitted their assignment online. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people submitted their "assignment" and we were very touched.
O: The "assignment" I issued was to draw the portrait of ARASHI members, and there were far more people than I expected who submitted their assignment. What's more, the assignment were of high quality. I simply thought "Uwa~ These works are so great", and many people of a wide generation drew with various ideas, I felt that they did enjoy the assignment.
N: The works were indeed amazing.
A: We were all very touched.
S: It took a lot of time and effort for them to prepare and participate in the event.
O: Since we cannot meet our fans directly like we do in live, though this even I once again felt that there are so many people who support us, and I felt so grateful.
M: Right. We have a feeling that our bonds with fans are strengthened through the "assignment".
Q: You also posted previous concerts on your YouTube channel free and did remote picture-card story telling. What do you think about this?
A: Picture-card story telling ... I had worry whether we could do it like this (giggle). Worry about the quality. Though we had the plot about the picture-card story, there was no so-called "script" at all so there were time that we showed our not-so-well-prepared side or our off-screen side (giggle). Though mainly it's me.
All: (Giggle)
A: During EP1, "Rather than having practice, let's just go with the take 1, this would be more interesting".
N: That was also very in our style, I hope that our audience would enjoy it. We were in such style through the last episode (giggle).
A: It's great that we five also enjoyed it. I felt that we were groping around, I couldn't feel such rough feeling anywhere else.
S: Speaking of the picture-card story telling, my classmate who hasn't contacted me for long time contact me and said "This is very well received among working mothers". Because there are more children and parents staying at home together, it's difficult to take a balance between raising children, work, and housekeeping. We started this project in the hope of helping them a bit with our picture-card story telling, so we were happy to hear such good comments.
Q: Were there lots of things that could only be done in such COVID-19 time?
M: There are also many such things. But indeed it's the best if we, as artists, could convey our messages to our audience. Though we have to change our performance to no-audience show, it's the best that we can go on with various preparation.
A: If possible, we'd like to enjoy with all the fans face-to-face. Therefore we don't think "It's great that we can do it in remote style". Of course, it's better that we can do it than not, we are happy as long as we can convey our messages to our fans, no matter in what format. Indeed, we have a strong desire to be with our fans in the same space directly as we have been.
M: There are few months until the year end (Remark: The interview was conducted in Sept), we would keep going on our entertainment so I hope that our fans would wait for us.
Q: What do you think about your image of not stopping the challenge (releasing all-English song "Whenever You Call")?
S: I think this is a challenge that only "2020 ARASHI" could take ... and I don't want to regret (by not taking the challenge) when I look back on myself later. When we gather few years later and say, "Let's raise storm again", there is no guarantee that there would be such an environment that we could continue to challenge. There is no certainly that many fans would be waiting for us until that time point. Therefore, we want to take as many challenges as we want to now. Besides, ARASHI is always a group that keep trying new things. Though there are things that look new to many people, from our point of view, this is the same context as we have been doing in the past 20 years.
M: It is not something that we start now, it's just something we've done has grown up. Of course, we also hope that there would be people who have never been in touch with our music would listen to our songs through Bruno's music. But rather than such "outward" feeling, I feel that Bruno's music is like an extension of how we want to communicate with people who've been supporting us and how we want to convey our feelings. I think this feeling is stronger to me.
N: Bruno has listened to our songs and watched our live performance, and then made this song that suits us now.
M: In this sense, I think this is a song that perfectly connects us with the fans who support us.
N: Even we decided our hiatus, when we continue our activities (before hiatus) it's inevitable that we have to take new challenges. Whether it's all-English song or song with French (Do you... ?), it's all the same as ARASHI's works.
Q: Indeed ARASHI continues new challenges in your 21st year.
A: Right. We had taken many new challenges starting from "WakuWaku Gakkou". This became a new challenge this year by being made remote.
O: I think it's very fortunate to be in an environment where we can still do a lot of new things even after 20 years of work. It's really challenging for me to memorise the English lyrics!
All: (Giggle)
O: When I listened to Bruno Mars-san's singing demo, I thought it was very great and I had a great pressure.
S: The melody was really beautiful, and it feels so good singing it. We have nothing but gratitude to receive such a magnificent song.
Q: What is "This is ARASHI"?
M: I think this album title is both straightforward and abstract. If you use a pinpointing, direct album title, I don't feel like this can really suit the feeling of ARASHI. I think ARASHI is something that cannot be expressed or explained in a single word like "ARASHI＝○○". There is no way and actually no need to categorise ARASHI.
S: We have tried many different approaches thus far on music, and we showed various performances thus far. There are cool "ARASHI-style" songs, there are also relaxing "ARASHI-style" songs. While the whole album constructs "This is ARASHI", on the other hand, each song also manifests "This is ARASHI".
N: Well, because all we've done in the past 20 years are ARASHI.
A: Indeed so. I hope that our audience would feel and enjoy the various aspects of ARASHI.
O: "ARASHI＝○○", I think fans would know better about the answer. We five would not see it clearly. I feel that people who view us objectively would have better answer on this.
N: And there is no single answer. Each fan may have his/her own answer.
Q: If not talking about the album, what is "ARASHI＝○○" to you?
S: ARASHI ＝ treasure. The time I spent with my members and also our fans, I can't think of anything other than treasure.
N: I would answer the same as just then (different people would have different answers), indeed to me "the time I spent as ARASHI is my whole". I can't summarise what ARASHI means to me. There are friends who can share these memories with me, there are people who would enjoy these memories. These are all my treasure.
M: Yup. But it feels like coming to an end if I summarise here, so I don't want to answer this question! (Giggle)
S: Right. ARASHI would keep going on and we hope that our fans would watch over us.
Source:
https://dot.asahi.com/wa/2020120400020.html?page=1
https://dot.asahi.com/wa/2020120400021.html?page=1
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