The best miracale that has happened during the night of the crescent moon.

--Ayabie’s new single, “Mikazuki no kiseki”, is something of a fresh, new style of song.

Yumehito: Our previous work, “Melt away” is the kind of song that’s typical single material, so I thought for our next release we should do something that’s playful but with a twist. Then Take-P felt the same way.

Takehito: Yume is good at songs with a dance rhythm and he often writes this kind, but this time I felt that I’d like to do something along different lines. We’ve never had such a powerful song with this tight rhythm before, so when Yume had us listen to the demo I was impressed that he can do something forceful like this too.

Kenzo: I had, never thought we could do this kind of song before this, so I felt too that I’ll be able to do something new with this song.

--The use of horns colours the tone of this song, while the beat is funk. Taking this new approach to making a song, did you run into any troubles?

Intetsu: The day we recorded the rhythm, Kenzo and I were in the studio until 5 in the morning. Because this song makes a point of the groove, I thought we’d stretch out only the rhythm, and as this should become a new banner song for Ayabie we worked on it until the very end. And even though the day before we started recording the drums Kenzo was caught in the grips of a muscle pain that appeared out of nowhere, he continued too.

Kenzo: I wasn’t able to stretch out my arm. But it hadn’t hurt until then, and then it just went “crunch”.

--Nothing’s more important than your physical condition.

Yumehito:  Even though I’m the one who wrote the song, I left playing a short “wow” up to the others (laughs), and this time Take-P played the cutting for us. Humans, we all have things that we’re good at and other things we’re bad at, so I thought for sure that Take-P would do it best here. And as expected, he played it to really good effect.

Takehito: No, no (smiles). Throughout the whole song it’s like I’m always moving my hand, so won’t it be kind of hard to match it perfectly with the rhythm? I wondered at first, but once I tried to play I was able to do it nicely. In the past there was a time when I only practiced cutting. It’s just that in Ayabie, I’ve never had to play a song this way before.

--Finally you were able to show off your skills after years of practice (laughs). However, in contrast to the music, the lyrics are so sad they’re almost profound.

Aoi: When I first heard the intro, I thought it was rather summery…it made me think of the summer songs that bands like Southern All Stars and Tube are famous for, so at first I started to write along those lines. But when I put it together with the music, I felt that somehow it didn’t match. Thinking about the melody, I felt rather than the image of the mid-summer sun, it evokes images of summer nights.

--Ahh. So it’s not like, “Let’s go to the beach and soak in the sun!”

Aoi:  To talk about the title, actually “Mikazuki no kiseki” (“Miracles/tracks of the crescent moon”) is the phrase we had originally decided upon for our one-man tour. From July through August for 3 months we’ll perform in 33 places, for a tour that’s on the biggest scale we’ve ever done, and we want to create “miracles” for many people. Plus, we want to show the “tracks” we’ve left behind up to now, which is the double meaning of “kiseki”. Also, as this tour has us playing at more venues than we ever have, of course there are places that we never have been before, and places we only get to visit once a year, so there’s also the nuance of, “Let’s make the most of the one night a year when we can meet”, like Tanabata (The Star Weaver Festival). And single’s release date is close to Tanabata (July 7), so I wrote the song making use of this image of the title too.

--So there’s a story like that of Orihime (the star Vega) and Hikoboshi (the star Altair) incorporated into the lyrics. But in this case, one lover dies?

Aoi: That’s right. And “Mikazuki no kiseki” is told from the point of view of the one who has died, while the viewpoint of the one who remains is featured in the song “Hinageshi”, which is included on the Type-C single. It’s about the one night when the two lovers can connect.

Intestu: Because the song is up-tempo while the lyrics are sad, it’s hard to figure out how the crowd should get into this song at lives. But we leave all that up to Aoi, so we’re looking forward to see what happens when we play this song live for the first time.

Aoi: Afterall, lives are just that- live. So we can’t know what will happen until the time arrive (laughs).

--I’m looking forward to your first chance to perform it, which is the tour opener at Shibuya AX on July 11. Then there’s the track that appears on all 3 versions of the single, “Digital Neverland”, which is, as expected from the title, a heavy digital number.

Yumehito: Yes. I tried writing an electronic song!

Kenzo: Instead of drumming as if this is a live band, I tried to give my drumming a techno or electronic feel.

Takehito: I paid a lot of attention to creating the music, and while recording plugged into the amp as usual, in order to produce a digital feeling as much as possible. I included a strong digital-like line.

--Ayabie is accustomed to a hard driving sound, but this time it’s great to see you breaking things up. You haven’t stuck to a “band sound”.

Intestu: Rather than insisting on one sound always, we want to bring out a song’s good qualities to its utmost. This time I used both my usual bass and a synth bass, mixing their sounds about evenly.

Yumehito: I play the same thing for the entire song, but that’s the kind of song it is…I just did what the song called for.

--That’s why listening to this song you can fall into the illusion that it’s really techno music.

Yumehito: Like perfume (laughs).

--Yes! (laughs) Meanwhile the lyrics are completely sweet.

Aoi: Because for “Mikazuki no kiseki” I put so much thought into the details of the lyrics, for this song I wanted to write something straight forward. The phrase “Digital neverland” actually first appeared a year ago in “Cubic [L/R] ock”. Yumehito proposed the idea that to use a phrase from one of our previous songs as a title would have a strong impact. In fact, the message I want to convey is close to the one in “Cubic”, and it’s my first time to include the name of our band in the lyrics, so the song also contains a message aimed at our fans.

--The other songs included on the single differ according to the version. Type A includes a “Mikazuki no kiseki” DVD, and Type B contains the song “Hare no hi”, which is the kind of song having the audience clapping along to the beat.

Yumehito: We wanted to create the feeling of a Showa era song. This was also something new for Ayabie, and this was the longest it’s ever taken to compose the guitar part! I was very strict in judging the effecter timing as well as the special feeling of the song, and it was a rare occasion where I really felt like an artist (laughs).

Kenzo: To create a feeling of a sound from long ago, I changed the skin of my snare.

Intetsu: Also, because it’s a much more simple song than the others, it was hard to bring out the groove. We re-recorded this one quite a few times!”

--And who is responsible for the adventurous guitar solo?

Yumehito: That’s none other than Take-P! As with the first track, I thought instinctively, “This song is definitely for Take-P!” and he did something great for us again (laughs).

Takehito: Well since there was a Showa-like rhythm, I just wanted to ride on that feeling. This was also the first time that Yume wrote a song and left the guitar solo up to me, so I really wanted to try hard.

--And what is the theme of the lyrics?

Aoi: It’s a song for people whose emotions get worked up more than other people. These days, don’t we wind up seeing things in the media that we’d rather not see? It’s a story of people who are troubled by this aspect of society.

--In today’s world, for better or for worse, the distance from the object of our yearning is too close. Then you have the Type-C track, “Hinageshi”, which is written from the opposite point of view of “Mikazuki no Kiseki”.

Aoi: It ended up that way while I was in the middle of writing it. When I first listened to the music, the image that came to my mind was of flowers, at first it was hydrangea. There is a saying about blue hydrangea that says they express unchanging feelings, and while I began writing thinking of that, the image became connected to fireworks at night, but after it circled my mind, the image turned to “Hinageshi” (field poppies) (laughs). Well, poppies have petals that bloom in all colours, almost like foreworks, and the flowers that bloomed at the grave of Gubijin were poppies goes the legend, so I thought poppies fit well with the content of the song’s story.

--Contrasting with the absolutely sad lyrics, the music itself is easy to listen to. The sprinting feeling combined with the sadness of the lyrics makes this song the most smoothly listenable among all of Ayabie’s songs so far.

Kenzo: Since we’re approaching the summer tour, I wanted to write a song that could work up a lot of energy as we tour. But I simmered down mid-way and as the A melody and chorus were completed, Yumehito came in with a baton touch.

Yumehito: But whe I discussed it with Kenzo, I was too confused about what to do, and thought I don’t want to do the song together anymore…

Intetsu: Why are you telling everyone about that problem? (laughs) For me, this song was easy to do. For the sprinting feeling to come through smoothly, I just had to pay attention to adjusting the speed during the part where I play tightly.

Takehito: I recorded quickly with the backing sounds I usually use at lives. But it was tough at the actual recording site! This time we recorded 3 songs in 1 day, but out of the 8 hours we were in the studio, I spent 4 or 5 watching the DVD of Hide’s event.

--What’s that all about?!

Takehito: When I would watch it during breaks, the engineer liked it too so he would watch with me. When I got fed up with recording a song, I would take another break and watch the DVD, and everyone would come and watch too…over and over like that (laughs). But we finished everything on time. This time we had a lot of fresh, new songs so the recording itself was fun, and the breaks were super fun!

--It all turned out well in the end, didn’t it? After the release of this great single, you’ll take off on a tour across Japan which includes 2 days of lives at venues in Sapporo, Fukuoka and Nagoya, but not only that, I was surprised to see there are places where you’ll play 2 lives in 2 day.

Aoi: Since there are a lot of towns we hardly ever go to, we thought if we are going to go might as well play twice. Of course it is important to have a lot of people come to the lives, but this time we wanted to see how much we can communicate having the fans close to us. We wanted to take on that challenge.

--Along with the release of “Mikazuki no kiseki”, you’ll release a DVD containing footage from your live at AX held at the end of April, which is the perfect item to use as preparation for those who plan to watch Ayabie for the first time.

Aoi: But for us, we change a lot in 2 or 3 months. Especially this time, we’ll play 4 lives in Europe and for the first time 4 in America as part of an overseas tour that’s been sandwiched into our Japan tour, so we want everyone to expect change from us. Of course we’ll be happy if everyone comes to watch us having seen the DVD too.

Yumehito: We’ll probably change to a degree no one can predict.

Intestu:  I never know how things will turn up 3 months from now. Things never turn out as I’ve predicted. But if we fully make use of the experiences we’ve had and do things each of us wants to do, growing as a band, won’t we continue to change?

Takehito: As our biggest tour so far we’re doing 2 day lives in 1 day and I think there will be a lot of people coming to watch is for the first time. During this tour I want to fully put forth what we’ve cultivated as a band so far and express Ayabie’s view of things. I want to perform lives that will make both the people watching us for the first time, and the fans who have come to see us before go home thinking, “This was so much fun.”

--Lastly I would like an enthusiastic comment about the tour from Kenzo!

Takehito: You’re ending on the wrong note…

Kenzo: Well it’s summer and… it would be good if we can have some fun together.  If I have to give my impression…

Intestu: Not your impression, enthusiasm!

Kenzo: I’m always enthusiastic! I’, always trying my best!

All: For sure!!(laugh)