Category Archives: Translations

Takahashi Yuichi – Bourbon (English Lyrics)

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バーボン
Bourbon

Day after day
I work until the small hours of morning
In this bar with bottles of Western liquor lined up side-by-side

Each time as I polish the dishes I swear to myself
“I’ll drink as many of these guys as I possibly can”

One day I’ll save up the cash and start my own bar
My chance will definitely come
Until then, I’ll save my strength

Surely my dream will come true
That’s what I keep telling myself
I’ll believe only in myself and I’ll show them

On the rare day off, I bring over a nice girl
Taking some liquor from the bar without permission

Doesn’t matter what anyone says — bourbon is the best!
I love this stuff more than anything else

Already decided long ago where I’m going to build my bar
The best residential coast area in town
Couldn’t care less if it gets covered in rust

Surely my dream will come true
I keep picturing the moment
I’ll believe only in myself and I’ll show them

Surely my dream will come true
That’s what I keep telling myself
I’ll believe only in myself and I’ll show them

Surely my dream will come true
I keep picturing the moment
I’ll believe only in myself and I’ll show them

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Lamp “Kanojo no Tokei” interviews (2018)

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Lamp released their most recent album Kanojo no Tokei in May 2018. Translated below are two interviews they did in promotion of this fantastic album. The first one is from OTOTOY. Enjoy!

Original interview & text: Yuya Watanabe (parts one & two)
English translation: Henkka
Lamp online: website, label, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram

You can buy Lamp’s music directly from the band, both physically and digitally, on Bandcamp.

Lamp — a band characteristic of their feel-good sound that is both complex yet refined, seamlessly weaving together various styles of music. Their music is always fresh, yet containing elements of their musical roots. We arranged this interview to talk to the members about this release consisting of eight songs to which the members have given their all. Kanojo no Tokei, their 9th album in total, follows nearly four years after their previous release, Yume, and is the band’s first release on their own label, Botanical House.

In the first half of the interview, we talked to the band about Botanical House and about AOR and Brazilian music — the foundations of Lamp’s musicality. Since their formation in 2000, Lamp has always placed the utmost importance in pushing themselves to make the kinds of works that they’ve wanted to make, and as a result the band has now reached a point where they will soon be performing an instantly sold out show in Ebisu LIQUIDROOM. In this interview, we managed to catch a glimpse at the sense of aesthetics shared by all three members.

The band also talks in the interview about how they’ve been finding it more and more difficult to produce new albums with each passing year — apparently they finally completed Kanojo no Tokei only after various ups and downs along the way. However, when you actually listen to the material they’ve delivered, the refined production as well as the songs with their mellow sounds that serve as vivid reminders of the 80s immediately dispel any doubts one might’ve had. In the second half of the interview, the band reveals that what first pointed them in the direction of this exceedingly amazing new album was “Sachiko,” the last track on their previous release.

Interview & text: Yuya Watanabe

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Lamp – Sachiko (English Lyrics)

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さち子
Sachiko

The horizon and the sweet late-summer ocean breeze
Blowing through the girl’s newly cut short hair

Melancholy carried by a freight train running across the seashore
Tears and the prologue to a kiss hidden inside a seashell
Summer bluer than the sea…

Memories now flowing from the car stereo
Sounds of the waves and your singing

In the vast loneliness of a late-summer sunset beach
Chasing after the shadow of her straw hat blowing in the wind

Running across the shore with her toenails painted red
Creating ripples in the water
Epilogue to a nearly forgotten mermaid fairytale
Summer deeper than the sea…

Ah, resounding from the far corners of my memory
Sounds of the waves and your singing

I always knew it would one day end like this
Our brief time together
Like bubbles fading into the bottom of the ocean

Even if you were a fish I would still find you
Endlessly I keep calling out your name
Where are you singing now?

Lamp “Zankou” interview & liner notes (2007)

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Zankou, Lamp’s collection of new material and previously unreleased songs was released in March 2007. This interview regarding the album was posted in 2007 on a site called mf247 that no longer seems to exist. I’ve also included translations of liner notes of three of the six songs on the album; these were written by Taiyo Someya between 2004 and 2007. Enjoy!

Original text: Masaru Yokota
English translation: Henkka
Lamp online: website, label, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram

You can buy Lamp’s music directly from the band, both physically and digitally, on Bandcamp.

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If I was to summarize them very briefly: they’re a hidden gem of pop music. Give them a listen and you, too, will quickly hear that they’re truly deserving of the title. City pop, soft rock, MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira, a genre of Brazilian music that came after bossa nova), soul, AOR, bossa nova, etc… You can find components of many musical genres in Lamp’s material. Now, nearly two years since their last release, they’re breaking their radio silence to release their first collection of unreleased material, Zankou, while they’re busy working simultaneously on their fourth and fifth albums. With a focus on this collection that gives us a glimpse into their future with its newly-written songs, this interview zooms in both on Lamp’s past as well as what they wish to achieve going forward.

Interview & text: Masaru Yokota

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