The band topped the Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 Artist Ranking "TOP ARTISTS" for the first half of 2019. In addition, the song "Marigold" dominated the top 4 of the Streaming Songs ranking for the first half of 2019, and the No. 1 song "Marigold" has been at the top for 20 consecutive weeks, setting a new record. AIMYON Following the single release of "Harunohi", the theme song for "Crayon Shin-chan Shinwedatsu Hurricane - Lost Hiroshi", vs tour" AIMYON vs TOUR 2019 "Love Call"" started in May, The tour was a great success, performing with a wide range of artists including Ken Hirai, HY, ORANGE RANGE, and My Hair is Bad.

From kids my age to legends, I've been able to work with people of all ages and musical backgrounds, and I think it's because of who I am that I'm able to work with these people now, and I think that what I've been doing up until now has not been wrong. I'm made up of admiration for people like Hirai Ken and HY, so I never thought they'd go on my tour, and I think I'm doing something that fulfills my dreams.

Alongside her own activities as an artist, Aimyon was more active than ever in providing songs to other artists in the first half of 2019. Following DISH//'s "Henteko," which she provided songs for for the second time after performing with them on vs tour, and the songs "Dare ni Datte Wake Aru" and "Tachimachi Arashi" sung by the guitar duo Haruleo, played by Nana Komatsu and Mugi Kadowaki, in the movie "Sayonara Kuchibiru," AIMYON also featured on Suda Masaki's "Kiss Dake dake," which became a hot topic. Tackling the theme of "menstruation," this song once again impressed upon us her edgy authorship, which does not create taboos.

It's interesting to see all kinds of reactions, both negative and positive, and I think that's the best part of music and art, so I'm happy to have been able to create something like that. I think "Just Kisses" is a raw song, but I didn't want Suda-kun to sing a sweet song, and I thought it would be better to make a provocative song with impact if we were to work together. Some people might have thought, "How dare you make Suda-kun sing a song like this," but since I write the lyrics and compose the music, I'm more of a "no NGs please," so I was grateful that he said, "I want to put it out."

The eighth single, "Manatsu no Yoru no Nioi ga Suru," to be released on July 24th, is the theme song for the TBS Tuesday drama "Heaven? ~Gokuraku Restaurant~," starring Satomi Ishihara. Inspired by the crazy character of the main character, Kanako Kurosu, played by Ishihara, the song has the theme of "becoming addictive." It starts with a strange sound-making, transitions to heavy rock in the B-melody, and opens up with a pop chorus, which is truly thrilling. It is a song that vividly colors the comedy-style story.

The script I received was really interesting, and I immediately had an image of how it would be good to start with this at the end. The main character is a strange person, so I wanted the song to be strange, too, and the melody changed all the time, giving it a strange feel. It's like three songs in one, and the singing style changes in 2A, and it's like a multiple personality. But it's easy to just do something strange, and in the extreme, if you just keep talking dirty, it will become a strange song, but that's not what I wanted. It has a proper content, but it feels strange. It was a very difficult task to express that in sound, and it was a production that refused to give up until the very last minute of the deadline (laughs).

AIMYON has released memorable "night songs" in the past, such as "Only Under the Full Moon," "Let the night," and "I can't get through the night without you," and they often contain sensual descriptions. However, this song, which sings "It smells like a midsummer night, the same scent as paint," and "Let's go down a path that we don't know whether it's heaven or hell," is a different type of "night song."

When the seasons change, people often say "I smell summer," but who knows what that smell is? I'm sure everyone has their own smell, like mosquito coils or chlorine in a pool, but for me it's the smell of a paint palette. What's more, the smell of a palette that has been used a lot and left to sit for a day and becomes crisp is what summer smells like to me. The restaurant where the drama is set is surrounded by a cemetery, and it's muggy, but it's also a little cool... like a haunted house. Everyone gets lost there, but it becomes addictive and they can't get out. I hope this song will be like that.

The B-side includes the phrase "If the two of us were Destiny," a twisted title, and lyrics with a punchline that are so AIMYON of Aimyon, "Telepathy."

I asked Shingo Sekiguchi (sound producer) to choose a song he wanted to do from the demos I've made so far, and the arrangement turned out to be something like "this song was born to be arranged like this." I know a band called sympathy, and in this song I just wanted to say "sympathy" or "destiny" (laughs). But I wanted it to have the meaning of "like", so I chose "telepathy". Right now I'm "the Marigold guy", and of course I'm grateful for that, but I don't want to be tied to an image, and I get bored easily, so I want to keep changing.

In the second half of 2019, she will perform at summer festivals such as "ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL" and "SWEET LOVE SHOWER", and from October to December she will hold one man tour" AIMYON TOUR 2019 SIXTH SENSE STORY". vs tour and songwriting, she will be able to interact with a wide range of generations, and this will be an opportunity for her to show her true worth as a singer-songwriter.

Up until now, our fan base has been mainly young girls, but we've seen more young boys on vs tour, and when I see photos on social media, I get really excited. "Maybe we're giving them a taste of youth?" It doesn't matter if those kids get tired of us by next year. "They were really into AIMYON. It's a dark history," but that's fine (laughs). If we can give those kids that time, even for just a moment, I think that's great. When we wrote "Kimi Wa Rock Wo Kikanai," we said, "We want to be someone's youth," and that hasn't changed.

Interview & Text / Atsushi Kaneko