The following interview is from the June (2001) issue of "J-Groove Magazine."

Garnet Crow
The Scenery in Kyoto

Garnet Crow's new door, which peeks out from the center of peace

--Your first album, "first soundscope ~mizu no nai hareta umi e~" has met with favorable reviews. "Last love song," your chosen follow-up single, has a very peaceful atmosphere to it. Was there any reason for chosing this song?

Azuki Nana: There wasn't any particular reason. We were just kind of "Which song shall we do next?," "Let's go with 'Last love song.'" I just kind of heard it and sort of fell in love with it. (laughs)

Nakamura Yuri: It was just a really natural flow. This song just came up. I guess we finished our album, and this is what came out of our flow as Garnet Crow. I guess that's how we all see it. Not really noticing, we just decided "Let's go with this." It just came out with a natural timing, and the sale date was decided with a natural timing.

--Exactly when was this song completed?

Nakamura: Around the beginning of the time when we reentered our creative phase, which came after taking a some time to catch our breaths once the songs for our album had been decided. That's why it's fresh. (laughs)

--And that freshness was a perfect fit for a song released after the album?

Nakamura: I guess so. The mood isn't really peaceful, but it just feels kinda quiet. I can't really say, though. (laughs) I guess we had a bit of room to relax. We put out our album, and dropped back a step. More over, the response to the album was unusually high, better than expected. For us, there was this kind of "that can't be right" feeling, and it tended to add to our confidence and composure, causing the current flow to be created.

--Because it has a fresh feel and an air to it that seems inclined towards what comes next, right? It feels like something new is about to start.

Nakamura: Yeah. Kind of like something is about to start... or rather, a sign of things about to start.

--Just one thing. The first half of the lyrics has this really warm imagery to it, and feel like they're wrapped in happiness. But, as you get into the second half, an objective viewpoint is displayed that asks "so what can I do now, what can I leave behind, what can I go on feeling?" I felt a difference between that and your lyrics up until now.

Azuki: I don't really focus mainly on love songs... feelings and objects are all things that are just there and passing by, and that's where I think the idea that "If feelings of sadness must eventually flow, joy must exist there as well, which will probably progress to something which passes on" is an absolutist philosophy. In this song, I'm writing about being in love, but actually, anything would have sufficed. Greed would have worked, people falling into love or falling into hate, or being able to do what you want to do, or having dreams... So I think that feeling something and creating something is all nothing more than a passing point. Because behaviorally, there are always things that seem fleeting.

--It seems like this song is trying to show how to live as a human being.

Azuki: If you listen to it thinking that, I'd be happy. Aren't lyrics the first thing to fade? A song your heard in your teens which affected you might not affect you in your twenties or thirties, right? Voices and sounds are different, with cool things still always remaining cool, but aren't there times when you think "Wow, I was moved by that kind of thing back then?" But I don't want that to happen. I want to be able to listen to the lyrics for a long time after my views change.

--Listening to you talk, I feel like your feelings towards lyrics have changed.

Azuki: I wonder. Emotion-wise, I think I'm the same, but in terms of approach, I think I've become a bit more concerned with what I want to show. Before, I used to have an impatience. Because there were a lot of times where I'd write, wondering "if I write about this kind of thing, would people accept it from this point of view?" But I think I've changed the way I approach it this time. When I finish writing, I just think "how's that?" but the more I listen to it, the better it gets. So I felt like it was something I'm glad I made. If, in the extreme case that I wasn't able to release it, individually, I'd still be happy so long as I can get Yuri-ppe to sing it, and leave the cassette in my house. (laughs) I think I'd want this kind of song as an interior substitution. I made a song I want to leave. (laughs).

--You always tell me that you completely immerse yourself in your lyric writing, and feel exhausted after your finished. How's about with this song?

Azuki: "It's done!"

--I see. (laughs) On to the coupling song, "Jewel Fish." It has some glittering imagery, just as the title suggests.

Nakamura: This song was fun. (laughs) Kind of like some light is reflected in the sea, and just sparkling.

Azuki: But it's about a funeral. (laughs). An aqua-requiem. (ed. note: She uses a typically Japanese pun here, where the sound for two words are the same, but the Chinese characters are different. In this case, she said "suisou" is written as a water burial, but with different kanji becomes a "fish tank"). An underwater funeral.

--Huh!?

Azuki: In my own way. (laughs). A burial at sea.

Nakamura: That's pretty deep. (laughs)

--You sang this without knowing that, Nakamura-san?

Nakamura: I had no idea. (laughs) I said it was fun. But, how to say it... I thought "suisou" was the one that meant fish tank. The fish in the bubbling fish tank dreaming of going out and living in the open sea. The feelings of that fish.

--After all, you don't portray any sadness at all in your singing.

Nakamura: I try not to read too deeply into the lyrics. You could say that's a freshness, or that it's better to not put in weird interpretations. So when the lyrics said "Returning home to the place I was born," and "Going out to live in the open sea" I just thought the fish in the fish tank was dreaming. Moreover, these colors just came to mind; like a pearlish red, blue, or yellow on a black background. In water spot patterns. The various colors of a jewel. When I read and heard the lyrics, those images just popped into my head. This might be the first time that colors were the first to come to mind. And then, just before the chorus, there the sound had a kind of bubbly feel to it. Like, "blub, blub." And it wasn't the "blub, blub" of the ocean, either. It was the "blub, blub" of a fish tank. That's the connection that lets "suisou" be a fish tank, and also a different "suisou." (laughs)

--What an interesting connection. (laughs) By the way, what meaning does "Jewel Fish" hold?

Azuki: There's this movie, called "Arizona Dream." In it, there's this sparkling fish that's just swimming lazily through town. That fish was the "Jewel Fish" that served as the basis for that imagery. It just kind of went along its way just like a human being, and in the end died and was buried. I was just kind of playing around by myself.

--How unusual. I mean, the song had no such feel to it...

Azuki: But that's okay, I guess. Because I want people to look at things from a different angle. But the basic thought behind it was the same as in "Last Love Song."

--The thinking that there's but one passing point, even when it comes to "death."

Azuki: Yeah, I guess so. But 80-90% of the time, I insert death scenes to satisfy myself.

--Death scenes? Were there really so many death scenes?

Azuki: I put them in to satisfy myself. So that others don't know.

--But this is the first time I've heard such a thing from your own mouth. Is it a feeling of being able to face your own lyrics honestly?

Azuki: That's right. Because up until now, the singles have had quite a bit of malevolence in them. For example, there would be times when I'd think to myself that "I have to write this kind of thing," and I'd feel like I was really making an effort to do that. But now, it's like I'm relaxed a bit, and can take it more easy.

--It seems like your change to your approach might be connected with that.

Azuki: I guess after putting out our first album, I may have changed my way of approaching things in my own way.

--In a lot of ways, these two songs let us see a fresh new side to Garnet Crow. Would you say they display a feeling of trying to move on anew to the next level?

Nakamura: There definitely is a feeling of closure. Feeling-wise, there's not much difference in the music I compose, but the way I feel about it. Like, "I think I'll try a new way." Like turning over a new leaf. The way I handle my own feelings gets reset. Starting over from 1. Like a beginner. A sense of innocence comes out.

--That foretells of slowly and certainly turning towards the next direction. That seems very "Garnet Crow."

Nakamura: It's not like we're going to immediately turn that way, but that it somehow seems as if that's what's going to happen. I think that if we do it as "Garnet," then that's how it will turn out. *

TEXT: Murata Keiko; translated by Ryu