OFFICIAL INTERVIEW

"More excitement, more confusion, more life."
AIMYON 's third full album "I heard there's delicious pasta"

• AIMYON 's third full album, about a year and a half after her last album, is finally complete. Her previous album titles, such as "Excitement of Youth" and "Shunkanteki Sixth Sense," were typically "Kanji + Katakana," but the title of this album is "I Heard There's Delicious Pasta." The humorous title is AIMYON of Aimyon, belying expectations.
• AIMYON: Whenever I make an album, I don't decide on a concept and I think about what title would be good. But one day, I opened my notebook where I had written down all kinds of words, and for some reason I wrote "I heard there's delicious pasta," and when I saw it, I thought, "That's good." So it's a title I decided on pretty much by intuition. I also considered a combination of kanji and katakana, but it didn't really feel right. "I heard there's delicious pasta" has a good rhythm. The previous two albums also have a total of 14 characters, which is a common theme.
• It's the same every time, but I think the title gradually takes on meaning later. What I'm thinking now is, "I heard you can eat delicious food here," and I hope it's an album that people can listen to with the same feeling as if they were just walking through a shop curtain. Also, I have a strong admiration for folk songs, so I'd like to say, "I eat pasta with a fork" (laughs). I think my admiration for Ozaken is also reflected in this title.
• Looking back, AIMYON has been putting her awareness of "doing things differently" into her work since the start of 2020. Her first digital single "On This Day We Say Goodbye" was an alternative message song featuring electric guitar, and "Naked Heart" was a AIMYON love song in Aimyon's style, released in an era when it was said that "ballads don't sell." This awareness of change is also reflected in the title of this album.
• AIMYON: I think it was a period when I wanted to do more interesting things. I'm really happy that many people are listening to "Naked Heart," and because I insisted that I wanted to release this song as a single, I was worried about what would happen if it failed, so now I'm just relieved. It made me feel like, "I've become an artist who can put myself in a position like this and still get people to listen to me," and it was also an opportunity for me to think, "I can go all out and sing ballads from now on."
• In addition to the two songs mentioned above, the album contains a total of 12 songs, including the three singles released in 2019: "Harunohi," "Manatsu no Yoru no Nioi ga Suru," and "Her Blue Sky." In the opening song, "Tasogare ni nai ga a no hi wo omou o toki wo," he shows his unchanging rebellious spirit with lyrics such as "I want to live a life with ease, but I won't go where the bells ring," and "People with ease are cool, but a life without ease is burning," and to the marching rhythm reminiscent of a band, he sings loudly, "More stimulation, more confusion, more life."
• AIMYON: Only the first and last songs were decided from the beginning. "Tasogare ni" is more of a declaration of intent, and as I was working on arranging this song, it reminded me of the time of "Seishun no Excitement". At that time, I wasn't as well known as I am now, so I think I had more of a rebellious spirit than I do now. The first song on that album was "Akogaretekitanda", and at the time I hadn't met anyone I admired at all, but now I'm in the same place as those people, and I think I feel fulfilled in some way. In that context, I wrote this song, and it made me realize that "I still have these feelings," so that was good.
• "The direction where the bells ring" is a play on "the direction where money grows", and I don't want to go to the direction where there is sweet honey. I think that's related to growing up in a big family, and it's easier to create when you're not so relaxed. That's how I motivate myself... I remember when I was interviewing for "Seishun no Excitement". "Akogaretekitanda" is the first song that has a kind of "Once upon a time, there was a place...", and the main character, a girl, admires many people, and the songs that she later wrote are the ones that came after that, and "Tasogare ni..." is also a kind of first song... although this one has a stronger opening feeling (laughs).
• The 12 songs have a wide range of styles and arrangements, and are arranged by Yusuke Tanaka, Shingo Sekiguchi, Tomiyo, and Shigekazu Aida, all of whom are familiar with AIMYON work. The three songs by Sekiguchi, "Cigarette," "Morning Sun," and "Potpourri no Ha," each skillfully portray the psychology of the female protagonist, while the funky "Morning Sun" also shows Aimyon's growth as AIMYON.
• AIMYON: This time, we hardly took any time to record the songs, and the only thing I struggled with was "Naked Heart". I think I've become able to change my voice tone and things like that, but rather than "I've gotten better at singing," I feel like I've "gotten to understand how to sing my own songs." I've come to understand things like, "This kind of voice sounds good with this kind of melody," and in "Morning Sun," I intentionally sang a little higher. "Morning Sun" and "Potpourri no Ha" are songs I wrote based on my own experiences... For "Morning Sun," I wrote about the embarrassment of being asked, "What are you planning after you missed the last train?" No one actually asked me that, but people who ask things like that are crazy (laughs).
• Perhaps in keeping with the rhyming opening lyrics, "I lost my black APC wallet and dived into the ocean," the Motown pop tune "Chika" seems to be an homage to the Jackson 5's "ABC," and sings about a girl who is by no means perfect, but who is somehow lovable. "Marshmallow," with its thick guitar sound and meaningful lyrics, "I want to stain the Marshmallow hill in front of me with chocolate," is a song that makes you feel like, "This is AIMYON!"
• AIMYON: "Chika" is my number one pick, but at first I thought of it as a series of "○○-chan" and the title was "-chan". But because she sings about mysterious things like "dive into the sea", I assumed she was a mermaid, and so I named her "Chika" after the fish's name. "Marshmallow" is a song about breasts, and I even think to myself, "These are the lyrics that I associate with me". It's a really SEX song. I wrote it with a feeling similar to when I read erotic novels a lot, and found out the meaning of Hirai Ken's "Naked Heart". I love Toomi's ballads, but I also love arranging up-tempo songs, so I'm glad I was able to do this kind of song with Toomi again after "Yumeoi Bengal".
• The album closes with "Living like that" arranged by Shigekazu Aida, who also worked on the previous album's "From the corner room on the 4th floor," and who was responsible for the final song on both albums. "Everyone has their own way of living, so I always go with the flow Living like that," he writes about his own way of life.
• AIMYON: I wrote this song about two years ago, but compared to my previous songs, it's closest to "Forever." If you can be pampered by pretending to be unhappy, I can do that too, but I'm going to live my life riding on my own wind. So, what I'm singing is almost the same as "At Dusk...," and this is also a song that expresses my intentions, so I thought it would be a good song to end the album. The atmosphere is also very "last woman"-like (laughs).
• Just like "Tasogare ni...," which ends with an atmosphere of singing alone in a room, "Living like that" also ends with a humming sound as if one is sulking alone in a room. The first-edition bonus CD of her acoustic guitar, "Kaze to Ribbon," was originally scheduled to record the Okinawa performance of "AIMYON Acoustic Guitar Tour 2020 "Kaze to Ribbon"," which was scheduled to be held in spring, but as the tour was postponed, it contains 10 songs recorded in the kitchen of POTATO STUDIO, a studio in a house that serves as AIMYON 's production base. Including the unreleased song "Saraba," which sings, "Let's walk, let's move forward, now I'm saying goodbye to tears," the album feels linked to the current situation in which people are spending more time indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• AIMYON: "Saraba" is a song I wrote a long time ago, and it's a song that only those in the know know, so I simply put it in with the thought that "I hope everyone will enjoy it," but somewhere along the line I thought that this song was appropriate for the current time. I've always loved producing, and I was not good at live performances, so now that I can't perform live, I feel like I've been released from the pressure. However, I don't like "with corona" at all. I know it's being used in a positive sense, but I really want to go back to the way things were, don't you think? Of course, I think it's a good thing that teleworking is being reconsidered, but there are some things that you can't understand unless people meet each other. So... I still want to continue my activities as before.
• As the world is facing a major turning point, AIMYON has once again reaffirmed the rebellious spirit she had at the time of her major debut, and is working hard to continue creating songs that will resonate across generations, just as she has done until now. If you get to know AIMYON 's inner thoughts, the title "I Heard There's Delicious Pasta," which at first took me by surprise, seems even more meaningful.
• AIMYON: I hate making my fans anxious, so as a rule, I try not to use the word "corona" when I'm posting. At one point, there was a trend on social media of "Who can do the most interesting thing during this period?", but now that has calmed down, I think it's best to continue my activities as usual. I'm the type of person who wants people to buy my CDs, so I'm very sad when I can't go to a CD store, but I think that if I make good music, it will reach people, so no matter what the situation is, I think I'll be fine as long as I just make good music without compromising. Also, I'm sure everyone is tired of artists releasing songs that are related to corona, right? Of course, I think there are people who say that they are "encouraged" or "encouraged," but if they do that, I think it would be better to make what they want to make more purely.
• Text by Atsushi Kaneko

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