The lead number “Mikazuki Sunset” in the first album “Go To The Future” was pretty much talked about. Do you have any stories about the song?

Yamaguchi: The song “Mikazuki Sunset” was what we’d been arranging for about 10 years although it’d been never released. When completing the recording for the first album, we got a sense of accomplishment. Of course the song is still evolving in our shows, but we felt it was the end of the song sending to the world. Interestingly, to release music is like the experience to give one’s daughter away. Once it’s released, we felt the song is not belonging to us anymore. As many other artists do, we also realized how difficult to show our color or originality in this world with enormous artists. It was fortunate that there was such a response to the song we put on the first album.

How was the “Countdown Japan” held in Makuhari, Tokyo at the end of last year?

Yamaguchi: It was a quite big festival with about 40,000 people in total. The musicians’ line up was also powerhouse. There were 4 stages and we appeared on one of them. We were not sure how it is like to play in front of about 3,000 people, but it was as if we were in front of a huge TV. Comparing to the small stage, the show became more entertaining on the big stage like in Countdown Japan. It went well after all, and we could finish it without being too eager.

Ejima: We had had many opportunities to play on such big stages after releasing the first album, but when we did the show at smaller live-house in Okinawa, we experienced the fresh feeling. Because such small places were only where we used to play at, we could go back to our first objective. I think it would be nice to enjoy regardless of the size of the place.

The first national tour will start from March. How do you feel about that?

Yamaguchi: It’s great to present our show to people who only know the sound source of Sakanaction, as we are the band having big differences between the sound source and live performance. We’d like to deliver the goodness of live performance with confidence as well as the sound source.

What is the hardest thing to do the music as an professional?

Yamaguchi: It’s a relationship with people. There are so many new people we meet that we cannot even remember their name. We’ve been in a small studio in Sapporo, and many people started gathering there.

Iwadera: We got more and more supporters. Although it became a pressure, we discovered how music is created with people.

Then, what do you feel pleasure the most to?

Yamaguchi: Being a creative place to see how people evaluate what we do. We are all happy to be able to stand such a place. Also, it would be great that there are people who enjoy our experiment.

When do the words in your songs come to your mind?

Yamaguchi: When I feel sad, wistful, and lonely. There are about 3 times a year that I feel really gushy, and I write songs all on those days. Looking back what I wrote afterward, I sometimes use the different interpretation from my real feeling though. Music especially sides with the emotional mood, so I want to make music fitting with the feelings. When I was 20 to 24, I had such gushy feeling almost everyday, which I think was the most sensitive time in my life, and the accumulation of that time is now influenced on what I create. I became to be able to control myself, gradually knowing the real dirt in the world, but it’s hard to say about the real thing if controlling the wistful feeling.

What is music as an creator?

Yamaguchi: Music is art. Especially the live performance is completely virtual, like a play. You can leave it as it is, and also can show what you don’t want to do as what you do. Only what you need is the skill. I guess there’s only few people who see the artists knowing they are virtual in front of the audience, but when we find that such people still say they like our barefaced human side, there’s nothing we feel embarrassed about anymore. We hope that the day will come when the mind between senders and receivers is connected well. So I think that music is art. What we treasure to do so? It’s the kindness or understandability. We are trying not to slip into self-complacency. If what the artist oneself thinks good becomes also what people think good, the artist is a genius, but I realized I’m not a genius, so I want to control what people think good. Let’s say it’s the way of kindness.

Ejima: I’m not achieving to think “what a creator is” yet. I’m not aware of it. It’s really profound to set up music to be listened comfortable, and we might not be able to understand it forever. It’s just that we are the creators.

Do you have any concepts for the next album?

Yamaguchi: We’d like to do the roots music of Japanese Pop such as techno pop, arranging such as old folk music like HAPPY END or Haruomi Hosono. For now, it’s not that we’ll do it only with a folk guitar, but it would be great if we can find something there.

How would you like to be in the future?

Yamaguchi: We’d like to be the “Inst. band” eventually. I think there is a limit in age to play with songs, and in order to play in the current Japan, we wouldn’t be accepted without songs. So after age 35 or so, we’d like to send our instrument music abroad as the name of “sakanaction” in English (currently it’s in Japanese). That’s our dream to be like. We are now in the first stage to success, which is the front-line of Japanese Pop we hadn’t even listened well, and the next stage might be to try intrinsically in the underground. Because I think music is art.