#and furthermore do not ask me about the chaos of trying to upload these.

[gothprentiss]

Emily Prentiss, 16x06 True Conviction

[x0401x]

Music Voice Interview with Jin

Who Jin is and what his real motives were for not yielding his continuous self-questioning during these five and a half years.

The merch creator Jin, who is a musician and a novelist, released the latest album of Kagerou Project, “Mekakucity Reload”, after about five and a half years. Kagerou Project is a complex series which, in addition to the lyrics and tunes that Jin produces, is also a combined work that has multilaterally portrayed its world-building, with the stories pictured in the musical compositions that Jin himself wrote being used as material. In this scene, it gathered great repercussion, and was also turned into animation.

Ever since the second album “Mekakucity Records”, in order for Jin to look into himself, there had been no releases of CDs with his name. The reason was that he could not bring himself to lie to the fans while being at a loss. During this period, Jin had been asking himself questions such as, “What am I?” and, “What’s the music I want to be making?”. It is said that the grasping of their answers was his trigger to write actively.

Amidst this, he uploaded the video of Shissou Word on YouTube at the end of 2017. Jin felt the response to that song. It can also be said that this work is an ambitious one, which loudly proclaims the resumption of his musical activities. However, why did he decide to turn back towards composing at such a timing?

This work is overflowing with Jin’s confidence, to the point he can say, “I want to think of it as the beginning of the five and a half years that it took to make this series”. What kind of feelings have been put into it? And what was this period for him? We have asked him about the true meaning of it all.

Translations Index >>

He can’t tell lies.

――It’s been over five years and six months until this work; what was the reason for you not to release any works in this meantime?

I was 19 back when I first submitted a musical composition using VOCALOID to NicoNico Douga. That was Kagerou Project. From then on it felt like I rushed my way through the next two or three years, publishing several pieces until the point where I was able to make the second album (Mekakucity Records, which went on sale in May 2013). For this, the fact I was blessed with a workplace that makes music together with me was also a big deal.

Still, human beings change in the process of leading their lives while making their own stuff, so I started thinking like, “I wanna try creating things more like this”. That also meant I was no longer musically compatible with the people that had been making stuff together with me. I think a certain something is right, and they, my partners and the people around them, think that something else is right.

This doesn’t mean that either side is wrong, just that what we deem as “correct” differed. Even in the middle of this, they would ask me, “Isn’t it better for you to be making (compositions)?” and, of course, I did feel like making them. But if I were to go along with that in order to produce them, I thought they would end up turning into lies.

The listeners are sensitive to this kind of thing, like, they’re not tricked that easily, so to say; I even now think that their hears won’t be so moved and they won’t be so touched by something I make in hesitation. I strongly felt back then that there isn’t much meaning in creating things like these.

So I thought that, firstly, I had to take time in order to find my own lifestyle and a means to get to know the way that many people think while producing stuff, until I could create something that would give me a good feeling and that I could puff out my chest and say, “This is the best of best” to those who would take it in their hands. Still, I didn’t think that I wouldn’t release it until five and a half years later (laughs).

In the end, this kind of sentiment in particular is strong in Kagerou Project after these five years and six months. The people who listen to it are younger than me, and children listen to it too. That’s why I really can’t lie as long as these kids are listening to it with pure intentions. I couldn’t bring myself to write songs that go like, “I’m having fun!” when I actually think, “I’m having a hard time”. I want to create honest works from these occasional feelings and my thoughts of “I wanna make this thing”.

But, although I didn’t release albums during this period, I did write the tracks of the anime and the like. In the middle of this, a few years ago, there was actually a time when a change happened within me in a certain sense, in which my desire that “this is the only thing I won’t yield about” solidified; furthermore, there were people that had me like, “I wanna make music with them”, so I’d found myself in situations where I started thinking that I wanted to try creating works with my name together with them.

I’ve been treading these five years and six months with care, so to say, rather than taking shortcuts. I came to think that I could create something good, and so I made this album.

――About your wish to make a work in which you could be honest with yourself, you also mentioned something that you “wouldn’t yield”. What exactly would it be?

In these five and a half years, my feelings changed. For example, while I used to think that I wanted to be famous, I also wanted to be praised by experts. Like, I wanted to get compliments from prominent music critics, and I wanted a load of views; there was a time when I was thinking about that stuff. But looking back, I wonder what use this period had to me. Anyhow, I even then believed that something remained the same, so to speak; that I should have in me at least one thing which I wouldn’t lose no matter what.

When I realized this, something changed. Also, in the past, I too often had the thought that losing to anyone was frustrating, but all of it vanished as well. What was left were things like, “I wanna keep making stuff that I won’t regret”. Like, “I don’t wanna tell lies”. There are people who say they enjoy the two albums I’d made before, but there’s also a side of me borne from half-heartedness that’s like, “But is it really okay the way it is?”. I believe this is positive, and when people say my stuff is good, I do think that it’s a precious world, but...

Whenever I was told that “it’s because this is the standard” or that “it’s because this is how music pieces are”, no matter what... I found myself thinking that if it went on, I couldn’t keep up.

As of late, it’s not like I don’t want to lose to anyone, or that I want to become famous, and I have no desire to be praised whatsoever; I just feel like the fact that I’m emotional, that only something similar to thinking, “I must definitely convey this to you right now”, is richly visible  within me. This is why I thought I could make the album.

The theme “I want to say this to you” is precisely what’s prominent in the songs we’ve recorded this time. It’s the third one, and although that’s obvious, it’s my first time making three albums. Of course, I don’t know whether or not that was the right thing to do. But we had a lot of feedback, and it made my thoughts regarding the albums sparkle a little more.

Currently, there’s two of these songs uploaded, and when I see the reactions and all, it has me going, “I sure am being supported”; just like this, I was able to make clear the distance between other people and myself, as well as something akin to my goal in striking people with my stuff, and I was able to think of wanting to create an album through that, so this is my motivation now, and that’s the kind of album I deem the third one to be.

――It is also said that you were able to look back at it through the series being turned into anime in 2014. What you just talked about has a connection with this, right?

I think that’s precisely it.

The light novels acted as a trigger for him to take a new step.

――Meaning that you decided to leave the music aside for once and headed to the direction of pouring your strength into the novels. Through this, the song compositions also changed.

I made lots of attempts at experimenting during that time, so to say. Regarding the novel, back when the anime ended, the people around me commented, “You seem to be bad at this” about the way I wrote the story, and even I myself thought so too. About whether I can write stories... I’m doing my best at writing, but that wasn’t being conveyed to others. That’s why I began to wonder what exactly being told “you’re great at this” by people was.

But it wasn’t like I wanted to become great in the first place, either. For starters, the matters concerning my writing caught my attention before the music did. That’s why, after the anime was over, it felt like I was somewhat reeling about while trusting my senses. But it also felt like I was actually worrying. So I was like, “Then, let’s try to write the novels first”. I thought this was unmistakably going to turn into some sort of discovery, which would definitely be a big deal for the way I express myself through text, because, since this world only exists inside me, if I could convey something to someone with it, it would certainly become a thing of value for myself. Guess I had the feeling that the novel was always the axis during these three years...

I read many books, saw many people’s way of expressing themselves, and while writing the novels, many people told me that it “made them cry” and the like. On the other hand, I was also told stuff like, “the writing isn’t interesting” and, “the story is fun, though”, so it was chaos. I didn’t have a definite answer, so I began to think of all sorts of things.

From this, there was the song “Shissou Word”, which we uploaded at the end of 2017, and when I thought of writing the lyrics to it, unlike the way I had come up with themes until that moment, the theme came to me in a raw ore-like condition in that it had a proper focus. An incredible motivational power like, “I want to convey this” through the lyrics was already properly present before I made them. From that point, I managed to create the melody and composition, and I became capable of using strong words when writing the lyrics. It felt like I’d become able to write lyrics that I could say loud and clearly. If you ask me why I wrote the novels, I’d say it wasn’t exactly something calculated.

――So a change in your perception of creation happened through the novels. You also said that, from writing these novels, you also became able to reduce the number of words in the lyrics.

I sure was. In light novels, the word count is huge. You have to write down the directions too. I’m also in charge of the manga’s original story and the like, but I don’t give directions in those. I just write the dialogues. When it comes to lyrics, it already becomes even more abstract whether it’s dialogues or scene depictions, and the lines get blurry.

I wonder if it’s all about the vividness of the focus. I think lyrics are meant to go from vivid to faint. Still, the lyrics are in Japanese, so by the moment that something incredibly vivid comes to light, I isolate the blurry parts and, with few words, I have people enjoy the sentences and also enjoy them myself in a sensorial way, rather than in a rational or emotional one. I believe I became capable of doing that.

I think this is actually because I had the novels. I kneaded it as much as I could and, through pondering over how I should convey the story or what I should do about its mechanisms, the circumstance where I was able to use words and sing freely turned into a coil spring for me. I could certainly see from various different points of view. Either just around the time when I had finished this song or right before I started it, the answer to those questions appeared.

――About the novels you’ve published up to now, do you write the stories already envisioning the ending from the get-go?

That’s right. There was a scene that had me like, “I wanna end it here”. But there are many patterns. When I tried writing the novel as it is, things turned out the way they did far beyond my imagination. When you first attempt writing, doesn’t the story move forward from that one viewpoint? Back at the stage of planning the plot, I thought of doing it a certain way, but I’d be like, “Humans don’t think these things”. For example, in scenes where people aren’t getting along, I’m like, “The mood will darken if they say this kind of stuff, so won’t they be on bad terms?” and since that’s the type of friendship I’m writing about, I change the story here and there.

If I were to say it, the theme is more important than the beginning and the end. Like “how I want the reader to view this character” and “what I want them to reflect on”. I hold autograph sessions and the like, and whenever a small child comes towards me, I think along the lines of, “I wanna talk to this kid more”, but I’m not in that position, so I believe what I can do is to convey the things I must – in other words, the themes. I think they’re the most vivid ones.

This is an era in which music is at people’s reach.

――I feel that music is becoming a combined form of art. There are lyrics, sound and images. Promotion videos have existed since the past, but I believe the things that spawned from NicoNico Douga – as in “covers” (utatte mita) and “Vocalo” (VOCALOID) played a large role in tying it together even more. What do you think about this?

Indeed, I do think that music is present in many moments. For example, when I’m watching an animation, I deem the songs and OSTs, even the music just playing normally in the background while the acting is going on, as extremely complex, and I think this is unmistakenly the instant in which the music manifests an effect. Of course, songs paired to videos and MV culture have existed since long ago in NicoNico Douga, but when young children started wanting to watch MVs instead of listening to CDs, that field was specially strong in it, myself included. It was a time when they were like, “I wanna go to live concerts” and, “I wanna see this in an MV”. If you say music is becoming composite, I also think so.

――I think videos take shape because they are displayed, but music can’t take a shape. I have the feeling you are somewhat challenging that.

The new song I previously uploaded also doesn’t get into your head if there’s only words, like, “Are there really people like this?”. When something is inserted in a song, you have the feeling that it’s being drilled into you, so to say; songs have this sort of efficacy, but it’s not like this is elucidated by them. They merely turn out like that because I planned and made them that way. It’s no short amount of fun for me as well when people have some kind of reaction to them.

Indeed, it doesn’t last; music is ephemeral, so to speak... For example, I think paintings and the like are awesome. If you show someone a painting, it takes only an instant. Not even a second later and people are already like, “I’m moved” and, “This is wonderful!”. Music has to be performed when you have an opportunity to play any sort of sound, with equipment and within a time limit, so it takes a bit of work. It’s not something that exists concretely, so you have to reproduce it. I think that, on the other hand, there’s an amusing aspect to music because of this, but there’s also a difficult one.

Aren’t we able to listen to songs just fine with earphones and the like thanks to the viralization of smartphones? I believe this is an era in which it’s become incredibly easy to listen to music. That now is a time in which music is close to people. From now onward, since there are people who present many different types of music and ways of associating with each other, several other types will be generated on their own accord. I also want to keep on doing that and having fun with it.

The keyword is “friends”. || His obsession with sound.

――What kind of work is the latest one that you made in this meantime?

It’s a work that has “friends” as its keyword. I think it’s an album that includes something like my thoughts regarding my own friends. Even though I say “friends”, it’s not “friends who are my age”, but “vs. adults”, “vs. my past self”, “vs. the person I like” and such. It’s an album in which I’ve inserted my thoughts about people who are the opposite of me. Of course, there are also songs that are easy to grasp, like, “Is the friend who I used to play with doing fine right now?” and there are also lyrics in which I fret over being unable to comprehend my sense of distance regarding others.

These five and a half years were really hard ones in my life, and I believe they were a period in which I’ve changed. Like, I was completely betrayed by someone I had a lot of faith on back when I was making the first album. In contrast, I thought I had been the one who ended up betraying them instead. I thought human beings were extremely complicated. What scaried me the most was that there was no malice to it. It’s a moment in which the other person probably isn’t the bad guy and neither am I; something like that. There’s a moment in which one human being and another can’t become happy with the sense of distance between them no matter what, and I think that’s exactly why I had a painful time and was troubled over it, so I believe this is a fitting theme for the current album.

Kagerou Project itself is a series that endorses friends and not being alone. Even now, I think this is right, but since no one can live on their own, they’re always worrying about someone else, and I believe that continuously coming up with answers through always taking action is most likely what life is about, so I also want to say this to the kids listening to my stuff.

This time, and also during that five-and-a-half-year period, I fretted a lot. Like, “Can I really live on with others?” and such. There was a point in which I thought this would be difficult, so I felt that this was also a theme and wrote about it.

――About the fact that the songs included in it are have a relation with your past works, is it because you feel like each story is linked through something that fits their thematic nature?

That’s right. It feels particularly like they took a two-stage stance. Probably, even people who didn’t know about Kagerou Project will also be emotional to an extent when listening to them. Of course, there’s the fact that one will be able to take something from them just by reading the lyrics too. On the other hand, people who have known the previous works are taking it as good things coming to those who wait. It’s picturesque whether you glance at it or see it with a general view, and I think there are many songs like that.

――The sound does a power-up, doesn’t it? It’s really good.

Thank you very much. I get super happy when I’m complimented on my sound.

――Does your experience with forming bands also have to do with the shape your music has taken now?

I quite have sounds in my head that I deem as the right answers for myself, but I indeed became able to express myself better due to the many experiences I had. Like writing the songs of the anime, or having times to listen to music more carefully. I wanted this sort of time when making the second album too, to tell the truth. This is also my anger venting at the fact that I didn’t even have time to worry about things like, “This one type of method is necessary for me to express a certain sound in my head; all right, let’s do it”. Like, hey, try to take a look at it; the current album has a better sound. I had this kind of ambition, and I’m happy to have been able to deliver it in a way that compelled people to tell me, “It’s really good”.

Rather than calculations or experience, I think my rage was what did it. Back in the day, I think that I had to dispel something I was worrying endlessly about, that I had to prove myself. Otherwise, those five and a half years would have been for naught (laughs). I wouldn’t like it if people ended up thinking, “This isn’t much different from back then”.

When I wondered about why these five and a half years had even begun, I concluded I had to make it into something that would have people thinking, “They began so that he could create this”. That’s the reason for something akin to rage from thinking “why” at the initial moments to be probably residing in my sound.

――The accoustic version is pretty emo, so this “rage” really comes through.

I’m angry (laughs). I’ve been creating stuff with absolute wrath lately.

――There are cases in art where rage can also be a driving force, after all.

Indeed. But even though I’m raging all over the place, it’s not like I’m thinking that I want to defeat anyone. Just as I said earlier, it’s not like anyone is bad, just that our senses of righteousness are different, and I can’t comprehend the distance between other people and myself because of this, so we’re unable to reach a mutual understanding. I really do have a lot of rage directed at this.

No matter how many words I come up with or make up my mind to be careful and do well in my relationships with people, none of that has much meaning. I do think that I’m extremely small before the absolute mechanisms of this world, but I believe music reverberates far more loudly than myself, so I think expectations were created from this and that these songs turned out as being entrusted with all sorts of wishes. In “Shissou Word” and the like, I’m also quite angry. I was really angry when I wrote, “Oddly enough, ‘normal things’ are difficult to achieve in this world”. That’s what I’d wanted to say when I was asked, “Why can’t you do normal things?”. It’s mysterious. People would talk about “normal” as if it were completely natural and be like, “How come it’s hard for you?”. For starters, what is “normal” even? Anyhow, a part of me exploded with rage, but in the end, it was impulsive.

――From the point of view of young ones, it might seem like you are speaking as their representative.

If so, that’d be good. I like THE BACKHORN because I spent a moment in truancy when I was in middle school and listened to them at that time, and turns out they’re a band that says everything I’d wanted to say. There was a song that went like, “This planet will burn down in an explosion”, and it had me thinking, “They’re the best!”. But I neither am THE BACKHORN nor am I trying to become them; as of late, I just thought it’d be great if I could do something like that within my own sense of justice, so I developed this sense.

――Thinking of it that way, the musical nature of this work might be very different.

That’s right. It’s indeed different. But it’s an extension of the musical nature of up to this point. I feel it’s moved forward. It’s not like I’ve built the rails because it changed, but it feels as if we’ve arrived to this station through properly piling the rails up. It actually hasn’t changed to me, but I think I might’ve made it into something that’s becoming a different thing.

――Meaning you were able to find out that you’re “a mystery”.

I think I’ve managed to! This really may be what I was most successful at doing in making this album.

――If so, you’re strong. I’m looking forward to now on too.

So am I. My rage is still all over (laughs). There are still things within me that I believe I must say, so I might be able to create good things. In the first place, this album is unmistakenly one that I want everybody to listen to, so I’d be happy if people listen and feel something from it.

――I think the way people understand music depends on each individual, but in the novels, many things are intertwined, so I feel that they showcase a different form of entretainment than what was being presented until now. Regarding the people listening for the first time, is there any way that you would like them to enjoy it?

To the people who are listening to this album, if there’s anyone to whom this album is your entrance to Kagerou Project, and if there was any point that had you moved, or if you thought that you empathize with the lyrics, please do read the novels. If so, you might be able to find a different type of enjoyment in it. The people who didn’t get particularly moved are fine, though. I want those who wish to enjoy music as music to listen to it the way they please. The novels and manga have the same kind of heat, so to say; they’re both things I’ve created while burning up with feelings and reasonings that don’t change from the ones I had when making this album, so the people who have become interested in them might have fun by taking a peek.

[gelatoeamici]

Vaglia

A huge part of Florence for me really was exploring the tiny towns surrounding it. I loved Florence, but I had an image of the Italian countryside that I was hoping to experience. Being able to take the bus for free allowed me to achieve this so easily. During my last day in Florence, AJ and I took the bus to the town of Vaglia. On a bit of a side note, as I was walking to the San Marco bus station I passed a tiny restaurant that had a snapshot from the movie “American in Rome”. According to Professor Anna, that picture of the main character, the son, stuffing his face with pasta is extremely well-known to Italians. It struck a cord with me because now that my classes are over, it helped me realize how much I had learned. That picture would have meant absolutely nothing to me had it not been for watching that scene in class. Furthermore, the picture actually contained a deeper meaning aside from recognition. The photo is part of a scene in the movie where the main character is finally giving in to eating traditionally Italian food after trying to force down all sorts of Americanized cuisine. This all started after the 1950s, according to our lesson, when television began to enter Italian homes and America became an idealized place. For some time, there was a subsect of Italian culture that was focused on attempting to Americanize or, at the very least, bring aspects of American life in to Italy. I stopped to take a picture of the screengrab from the movie to commemorate what felt like a sign that I had gained a more personalized understanding of what it has meant to be an Italian.

Refocusing, I had travelled to Vaglia the day before in hopes of going to a protected park, but, like the Professor told us, you cannot always know when things in Italy are actually open, and we found the gates locked shut. The Giant of the Apennines in The Park of Pratolino was unbeknownst to me until Valentina uploaded pictures of other groups visiting earlier in the week. Once I had seen the image, there was not a doubt in my mind that I was going to have to get there. Nothing in this world makes me happier than natural beauties and fine art. I knew that seeing the combination of the two, as the piece was intended to be, would be more than I could ask for in a monument.

The moment I walked through the gates to the park, I was stunned. The views stretched for miles upon miles. My eyesight ran out before the green hills could. I am terrible with directions no matter how obviously they are explained to me, so I was not surprised when I led AJ and myself almost a full mile off course. I usually get frustrated by situations like that, but like I said earlier, it is so difficult to stay angry somewhere so unreally gorgeous. I wandered around under I found the sign that said “gigante”. I may not speak Italian, but I have no idea how I missed something so obvious the first time around. I followed the arrows until, finally, I arrived at the Giant of the Apennines. I want to come up with something to say to describe its awesomeness, but even photos cannot capture its beauty.

The statue was made around 1579 by an artist by the name of Giambologna. Aside from its clear external beauty, the statue also contains several rooms. Sadly, the rooms were closed off. I would assume a scheduled tour is necessary if one wants to go in, although it may not be possible at all. If I ever return to Italy, that would be something I would need to research. There are frescos, a fireplace, and hydraulic systems inside, according to what I have read. The hydraulics, some of the first of their kind, push water from the small lake surrounding the statue out of the serpent’s mouth that is located below the main statue. Meanwhile, the small fireplace is intended to create a smoke that billows out of the monster’s mouth. I assume this monster is in reference to the small dragon above the entrance to the side rooms, but neither of the systems were in operation when we visited. The plaque at the statue said that Giambologna had intended to create a famous scene from the story of Narcissism. According to the legend, narcissism was so enamored by his own vision that when he was unable to pull away from his own reflection in the water, he drowned.

Although I have learned in-depth stories about fine arts throughout this trip, being able to experience something like that on my own time felt a little bit different. I was happy to be taking my own free time to experience something on my own with someone else who I knew would appreciate it as much as I would. A lesson that the woman giving the Medici lecture taught me has stuck with me. I realized that the reason she was inspired to write about the history of the Medici women, to find a depth to humanity beyond war, chaos, and death, is the exact reason I find myself stuck in awe by these artistic pieces. No matter what humanity has done or decides to do next, these beautiful figures were created at the hands of people who were no more than that: mortals. We are all stuck in time. No matter what we do, that time is fleeting, and, with or without us, time will continue just as it always has. There are some things, though, like bringing beauties into the world that we can all strive to achieve and, no matter our differences, come together to appreciate regardless of cultural barriers or centuries of change.