Looking towards Nippon Budokan, the 3rd album that opens new doors

This interview will cover the first song she wrote lyrics for which also is the title track, with a total of 12 bright and forward looking songs included. Also in this interview is her thoughts on last year’s tour and her upcoming two days in Nippon Budoukan.  This is the third of 4 parts to this interview series by Natalie.


Accepting your weakness makes you stronger

While you have many up-tempo songs, the 10th song, Mizuiro Memory, is a sorrowful ballad so it feels like one of the outstanding songs in this album.

Minase: This time, I chose songs that people would want to hear in their daily lives but when I first heard Mizuiro Memory, I felt that it had a lot of emotions in it. I really like songs that make you cry thanks to its refreshingly warm feeling. And just like that, Mizuiro Memory isn’t a song about a breakup because of jealousy, but it’s a sing about the good memories from meeting the person in the first place.

Like the color blue, it is fleeting memory that you’d yearn to revisit again. This feeling is written in the song. It’s not about hoping the feelings would reach someone but when you look up to the sky and naturally whisper “I want to meet you” .

The 9th song TRUST IN ETERNITY is a song where I sing with passion, but Mizuiro Memory is where it’s okay if it doesn’t reach anyone. There’s a huge contrast when one song leads to the next.

Compared to when you first debuted, you are much better in being able to express your emotions. This time, was there any songs you had difficulty recording?

The songs that Ryota Nakano wrote, Ima wo Boku rashiki Ikiteku Tame ni and brave climber were especially difficult. He wrote MELODY FLAG before but, every time the increase and decrease of the range is very intense like a roller coaster. For Ima wo Boku rashiki Ikiteku Tame ni it is Ikenai yo Ikenai yo and for brave climber it’s Boku ha kyou mo nobori tsuzukeru yo kono ryoute de.

During these parts, the range shoots up and every time I record them, I end up full of swea. However, iti s thanks to that experience that it was easier to insert my emotions and every take becomes progressively better and I feel I showed my persistence in that. Even for TRUST IN ETERNITY the recording took some time, so when I hear the flow of songs from brave climber to TRUST IN ETERNITY, I cried a little inside my heart. (laughs)

For the amount of time you put in, some good music was produced. Even when you had songs with frustration and conflict inside, thanks to the way you sing, it had a positive ring to it.

These songs sing about not giving up no matter how beat down you are. As long as you accept your weakness you become stronger through it. And it really connects with my emotions too.


It feels like the beginning of something new

In this album, was there a song you specifically requested for?

This time, I asked for kz and Ryutaro Fujinaga to make a song. Mr Fujinaga has helped me for numerous songs and I wanted his help to help express myself. For Fujinaga’s rock songs have very strong guitars but, this time I wanted to challenge electronic rock and he wrote Yakusoku no Asterism.

As for kz?

For kz, before I started my solo career, I worked with him on Tokyo 7th Sisters and the songs there are very unique. The character songs are very much different from my own, but I felt my songs would fit well with a band sound. Kz doesn’t use a lot of instruments so I felt it wouldn’t fit with my songs, but I really wanted to work with him. However, in my 2nd album there was Arpeggio where I challenged a four on the floor beat. Regardless whether it suited me or not it was refreshingly fun to sing it so I asked him to help me this time. This time it’s not a character song but Future Seeker is a Inori Minase song which he wrote for me and I’ve very glad. Thanks to the experience in the 1st and 2nd albums, I was able to put this song in the third album.

A wish that has been fulfilled. With those songs, can you please tell us your thoughts on the album again after all these 12 songs have been completed.

For the 1st album I basically worked hard to finish what was in-front of me, so I felt empty afterwards actually. But the time I spent working with the songs and density of my involvement increased so my feelings towards each and every song was deeper and more unique in this album. Back then even during the audio mixing, I was just interested in my own singing. However, this time during recording I gave myself to the instruments and sang at the same time. It feels like the beginning of something new, like as if I have opened a new door.