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Yanaginagi @ Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival 2015

Yanaginagi is a singer-songwriter from Kansai, Japan. Her music journey began when she started producing music on Desk-Top Music (DTM) softwares. As she composed original work and put them music websites, the online community took notice of her beautiful singing voice, and more and more users started requesting her to lend her voice for their work instead.

That led to the start of her music career in 2006. She was the guest vocalist for the band, “supercell” for a period of time since 2009, and in the year 2012, she had her solo debut, with the single, “ビードロ模様(Vidro Moyou)”. It was the ending theme song for the animation, あの夏で待ってる (Waiting at that summer). Her involvement in anime and game music broadened over the years and now, she is an internationally loved artist with fans across the globe!

Her songs feature not only have beautiful soothing melodies, but also carry within them a deeper message, which is what is so attractive about her music.

Her latest single, “Haru modoki”, which was released in June this year, is doing very well in the Japanese market, ranked 8th on the Oricon charts, marking her highest record to date. This is her third time travelling to Singapore and we managed to catch her in an exclusive interview!

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Yanaginagi @ Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival 2015

Q1. What do you feel is the difference when you produce songs for game and animation, as compared to other kinds of songs?

For anime or games, I will usually read the manga, or study the scenario of the story, and then create my own spinoff of the work. I usually draw inspiration from the work itself. For non-anime and non-game music, I tend to get inspiration for writing these songs from my own experiences and imagination.

Q2. We heard you like to watch anime as well. If you could pick an anime to compose songs for, which anime series would it be?

It is difficult for me to choose one anime, but if I were to choose, it would be “四月は君の(Your lie in April)”. Before the anime was made, I had already read the manga and absolutely loved the series. I really wanted to get involved with the anime, but before I knew it, the anime was released and everything was over. *laughs*

Q3. Are there any things in your daily life that inspire you to compose songs?

I love to go star-gazing. I would go watch the meteors during the meteor shower periods, like in August and December. When I see things like these that are out of the ordinary, it sparks my imagination. Also, during summer festivals, where many booths and stalls are set up on an otherwise ordinary-looking street, the street turns into a lively place, and at times like these, I’m inspired to write songs.

Q4. We think that you are amazing at writing songs that are so fitting for the anime series. One of the anime songs of yours that we love is Aqua Terrarium – we feel that it is one of your most touching pieces and it really suited the tone of the series, Nagi no Asukara. Could you share with us your thought process for writing the lyrics to that song?

The series that the song was used for is about people living in the ocean who moved over to live on the land. Aqua terrarium is comprised of different parts – one part is the water, and there is also another part containing the land element, which is the sand. That (aqua terrarium) actually symbolises the world that we are living in. It is a complete world on its own.

Aqua terrarium has water and land and we can live in it. And we feel like we are living in such a big world. However, from someone who looks at it from the outside, it is actually such a small world. So it feels like the people who are living in it (aqua terrarium) are kind of trapped inside to a certain extent.  That is what I was imagining when I wrote the lyrics for the song.

Q5. This is your third time coming to Singapore. How do you like it here? Is there any particular thing that you look forward to doing, or local food that you would like to eat while you are here? And is there anything that you will miss about Singapore when you return to Japan?

Well, I love meat *laughs bashfully* So every single time I am here, I eat chicken rice. With regard to the places in Singapore, I have been to the zoo and the night safari. I really enjoyed the night safari because in a way it was quite an “unreal” experience (referring to her inspiration for song-writing).

However, I have not been to the aquarium in Sentosa, and I would really like to go there.

Thank you very much yanaginagi for answering our questions!

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Yanagi nagi @ Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival 2015

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We thank yanaginagi for answering all our questions so sincerely and patiently. It might only have been mere minutes, but her love for music was evident in the way she responded so truthfully and passionately. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were not able to ask more questions, but we were glad to have been able to meet with this very obliging lady.

We look forward to hearing more from her! She will be performing near us in Jakarta, Indonesia for the Anime Festival Asia Indonesia 2015 on the 26th of September 2015. Those whom have been awaiting the chance, be sure to not miss it! 

Links:

Yanagi nagi’s official website

Official Website of Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival in Singapore