Sakurai Sho HBD35 - Are You Happy? Pamphlet [3/3] [English translation]

[arashitranslation]

Easy-going, watch it bit relaxingly…
It would be great to make a concert which everyone watches with smile.

In the first place to talk about the title… “Are You Happy?”, though it was my idea, actually there was another title which I proposed. And, to use the one I proposed, or use the title proposed by staff, which one? When I considered this, I suddenly thought about this title. Really suddenly (giggle). Indeed it is not “Happy. (period)” but “Are You Happy?” in a question form. There are people with “Yes, I’m Happy” but also people with “I’m not Happy”. Put it in short, the starting point was to create an album with “happiness, anger, sadness, and joy”, with songs of various expressions. Though at the end there is no song which is “Not Happy”. There was such starting point, that “to see different expressions”… Indeed, perhaps because there were sad news about Kumamoto and Oita, though it was not the direct reason, perhaps I associated them in my mind at that time.

This time, we five people were responsible for songs called “under the supervision” (USV). For these USV songs, again… everyone took challenge. It was quite aggressive, I was surprised by that. Really… everyone was doing different things. That was interesting. Five people had their own characteristics. When I opened the box [listened to others’ USV songs]… I thought everyone was with such diversity (giggle). The albums thus far, every time I introduce them like “there are various types of songs!”. Though I said so, that is… the albums were to include various songs, with a theme, indeed we… basically if it is not a group like us which we don’t create music ourselves such album won’t be able to be created. This time the range is, quite… broad. Just then you are in desert, then, let’s go to the South Pole! Range like this (giggle). Singles are also scattered. So far, listening to singles brings a sense of relief. [This time] it’s like “Again accelerating!?” (giggle). Such singles have never been made before isn’t it, from the result… really if it is not the title “Are You Happy?”, things so diverse wouldn’t be able to be included (giggle). The greatness of this “?”, right! That there is no confirmed conclusion [about the album title]… somehow, maybe it’s tricky or “sense of lucky bag” (giggle). We made an album with an exact package of “The ARASHI Now” isn’t it.

And, as for the USV song. I… this time my 80% or 90% of enthusiasm towards making this album was invested into the RAP song of us five (“To my homies”) (giggle)! As the theme as a whole, until now though there were songs with 1 or 2 lines of RAP mic relay, there is no song with one-by-one verse of RAP. Then… as a whole the picture I sketched in my mind was, though I think you would understand if you listen to the song, five people scatter in different places, though not alumni meeting, then they meet like “re-union”… gathering like this. I described the five emotions when they met again after long time. If asked “What is it?”, though I have talked about it in the past during the greeting in live, to me, members are not family nor friends… certainly, not lovers. Though I often say that we can only be described as “members”. To me, ARASHI… is family, is friends, well not lovers… (giggle), ARASHI means all of them, I think. And I want to make a song that depicts such feeling. Therefore, at the very end of the song there is a phrase “friend~”, that is very… how to say, very important phrase. From “Yume de ii kara” (2005) onwards, there is staff who helps do scratch for my songs. That person ends the last part of the song “friend~” “let’s go back let’s dance” with scratch… indeed my thought has been delivered. The division of the song was also decided by me… the first 2 verses (the RAP lyrics) were written in plane during the trips to and fro Rio Olympics. The remaining 3 were written in Japan… first I wrote 5 verses. And then, how to allocate them to members? At first, start the song by myself… no, [the feeling is] not right. Then who is going to take the second verse? I decided the allocation like this. Indeed, adding the voices of five people, the completed song was… great. I like it quite a lot. The song will also be performed at live with this image. The perspective of “The five people who are scattered are gathered”, how to depict it? the song will be performed in this way.

The solo song “Sunshine” is… a while ago, I listened to a song which I had listened to during my high school days all of a sudden. That was reminiscing (giggle). I started thinking that “Song with such feeling” would be great. Well, to speak from results, the song I made is different from such feeling (giggle). That is such thing. Song with “such feeling”… this song was reminiscing, doesn’t mean the other song would be reminiscing too (giggle). Therefore, why did I choose this song? Nothing but just I liked it (giggle). And this song was extraordinary. The first part… the first chorus was to sing commonly, the second chorus was to do RAP, and the B melody. Then, the interlude was like dance part, after the interlude was something like C&R… I thought it was quite an extraordinary song. I had an impression that the composition was interesting. In this song the visuals were changing, and the emotions were changing too. This feeling was interesting, I think this made this song extraordinary. There was not too much RAP too, what I thought about during the recording was… well, I had a feeling that this song is written to depict a bright expression / feeling. However… I have no insight at all how to do it in live performance (giggle). I shall think about it from now on.

How would this album be performed on concert? Now we are having work meetings about it. The “Japonism” last time was done with many delicate works… with that, I thought that MatsuJun was really superb. I thought he created a very detailed and delicate performance with sense of tenseness which was so new that it couldn’t be called a concert or a show. With that experience, this time we sort of make a gap, something with a sense of playfulness, that was the very first starting point. Even before the title was confirmed. From the result, I don’t know what this “gap” and “sense of playfulness” refers to. Compared with last year, it would be bit more easy-going. It would be great to make a concert that everyone would watch with smile. “Japonism” was filled with “fascinating” feeling… on the contrary, though not exactly the opposite, it would be great to make a performance that people can watch bit relaxingly. Really… what concert would that be? I very much look forward to it.

Comments

[naninuneno489]

thank you