There was a slight problem with Blogger last week, and for several days, I could not write posts in my blog. Sorry not to update my blog so long, but please do come to visit here!
I will do my best to keep you informed all about Fujifabric!!
Let's take a look at 'Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni Nattara' ('When a starry night comes'), the 12th song in their 3rd album, 'Teenager".
This is the only song of Fujifabric in which Kanazawa kun, the keyboardist of the band, was involved in writing the music. According to FAB BOOK (The first book on Fujifabric. See details in FAB BOOK), Kanazawa kun brought a melody of all the parts including the main ones, but each melodic line sounds so "dramatic" (according to Shimura kun) that the main melody does not come to conspicuous (does not stand out) against the rest. So, after the discussion between Shimura kun and Kanazawa kun, Shimura made and added the melody matching the main ones written by Kanazawa originally.
'Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni Nattara' is widely recognized as a song written by Kanazawa, but in fact, the work was accomplished by collaboration of Kanazawa and Shimura kun as clearly stated in an attached booklet of 'Teenager'.
In the 15th volume of Aka-Fuji Tsushin (little leaflet handed out free to purchasers when bought Fujifabric's new single CD or album), Shimura kun and Kanazawa kun discussed about this song cheerfully.(Please find this site for details. All written in Japanese language, but there are many photos that you can enjoy. Toshiba EMI : Aka-Fuji Tsushin by Fujifabric)
In the interview, Kanazawa kun said that he made this melody a long time ago.He was, at that time, eager to make something different to the gloomy dismal songs which the other members of the band brought into the meeting for an auditory presentation - he wanted something like "healthy and cheerful pops".
The big difference between the 3rd album, 'Teenager', and the 1st, 2nd and 4th albums is that there are a relatively great number of songs in 'Teenager' that the other members wrote. (5 songs out of 13)
The music of 'Kinen Shashin' ('A Souvenir Photo'), 'B.O.I.P', and 'Mabataki' ('Blink') were written by Yamauchi Soichiro, the guitarist of the band, and 'Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni Nattara' was composed by collaboration of Kanazawa and Shimura kun. 'Chocolate Panic' was written by Shimura kun and an American musician, Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
Considering almost all the Fujifabric's songs are written by Shimura kun (the 5th album is not counted here as Shimura kun was not involved in the process of making this album as he had already passed away at that time), the band was making a new attempt in the 3rd album as usual.
Yamauchi kun said in the interview on the 15th volume of Aka-Fuji Tsushin, "The members could communicate each other well this time about the lyrics and songs. Shimura kun nicely took the other members opinions, like 'this song was made when feeling such and such.' or 'I want this song to be in this way.', and so on. The process of putting things into a real form was very smooth, and that was nice.".
Shimura kun also said, "Discussion on music, understanding and communication between members were perfect. We could work cooperatively to make the music.".
It is noteworthy that even in 'Teenager' putting an emphasis on cooperation, the lyrics were written all by Shimura kun. There is no particular reason stated in any of the interviews which I have in front of me right now, but it is true that the lyrics Shimura wrote were considered to be worth publishing as a book.
'Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni Nattara' is one of those cooperative songs in 'Teenager'.
After this album released, Shimura kun suffered from a mental and emotional conflict on cooperative work on his music.
He confessed in the interview in 'CD&DL Data' (February 2009), "'Teenager' was a democratic album. To make it possible for everyone (in this sense, he means all the members) to enjoy, everyone pursued what he wanted, and everyone's opinions were taken into account. That is wonderful, but by caring what the others wanted to do, I lost myself, what I wanted to do. I felt like I am in a position of a middle manager."
"It is surely a matter of course to make everyone happy or absorb everyone's opinions, but I lost what 'I' wanted to do."
"I started to think 'allow me to make my music next time'."
Difficulty must be beyond our imagination for a band coming together to make a music, as each one of us has a different taste and sense to music, just exactly like each one of has a different face and figure. Negotiation becomes a key.
Then, the 4th album, 'Chronicle' was born. The music and the lyrics, even arrangement were done by Shimura kun, and sadly, it became his last work.
Let's have a close look at the lyrics and music in the next post.
Today's song is 'Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni Nattara'
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