Tag Archives: Lamp

Kaede, Lamp & Uwanosora “Stardust in Blue” Interview (2020)

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The following is an interview with Kaede, Lamp’s Someya Taiyo, and Uwanosora’s Kadoya Hirohide about Kaede’s 2020 mini-album Stardust in Blue (otherwise known as Aki no Wakusei, Heart wa Night Blue). A neat little interview about a neat little album. Enjoy!

Text & interview: Namba Kazumi (Japanese text)
English translation: Henkka
Kaede: Website, Twitter, Instagram
Lamp: Linktree
Uwanosora: Linktree

Note: You can buy Stardust in Blue on CDJapan.

Nine months after the release of Ima no Watashi wa Kawaritsuzukete Ano Koro no Watashi de Irareteru, the first solo album of Negicco’s Kaede, she is releasing a new mini-album, Stardust in Blue, on September 8th.

A first-time experiment, this conceptual album welcomes Lamp’s Someya Taiyo and Uwanosora’s Kadoya Hirohide as its producers, along with a lavish cast of musicians including Nagai Yusuke (Lamp), Sakakibara Kaori (Lamp), Iemoto Megumi (Uwanosora), and Tanaka Jacob (Yanushi).

We conducted a remote interview with Kaede, Someya, and Kadoya to ask them about the album.

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Uwanosora “Kadoya Hirohide & Someya Taiyo in Conversation” (2019)

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This is a great heart-to-heart discussion between Uwanosora’s Kadoya Hirohide and Lamp’s Someya Taiyo. It was originally included in Uwanosora’s “7 Years Live” pamphlet from 2019, only a couple of months after the release of their third album, Yogiri.

Their conversation discusses not only the album, but also the pair’s struggles with songwriting, Someya’s qualms with some of Uwanosora’s music, Kadoya’s concerns about “selling out,” and what the two would do in the face of Planet Earth’s imminent destruction.

Text: Yoshikawa Kohei
English translation: Henkka
Uwanosora: Linktree
Lamp: Linktree

Note: You can buy Yogiri on CDJapan.


Uwanosora

Someya Taiyo: What’s your favorite Uwanosora song?

Kadoya Hirohide: Hmm…

Someya: For me, it’s “Poolside ni te.”

Kadoya: Maybe “Namida no Forkball.” (laughs)

Someya: Oh… Okay… (laughs) The last bit in that song—in terms of my musical sensibilities, there’s just no place for jokey bits like that in my songs. The fact that you enjoy that kind of thing, it sort of makes you a bit old-fashioned.

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Lamp “Someya Taiyo’s Musical Roots” (2025)

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This is a fantastic, extensive column about—as you already gathered from the title—the roots of Someya Taiyo, as written by the man himself.

Learn here how he first came to love music, what his early influences were, how Lamp were formed, and how he feels about making music today. And if you happen to be hiring, there’s even his Curriculum Vitae for your consideration. I’d say he has at least “passed the audition.”

Text: Shibasaki Yuji (Japanese text)
English translation: Henkka
Lamp: Linktree

By uncovering the musical journeys of various artists, this project aims to highlight the joys of pursuing music and to reveal fascinating new sides of these artists.

This time, we dove into the musical history of Someya Taiyo, the guitarist of Lamp, a band who have continuously—since their formation in 2000—released new music, and who are currently attracting attention both within and outside Japan.

In addition, at the end of the article, we have published a playlist of songs that form his musical roots, along with track-by-track commentary from Someya himself.

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Minuano “Butterfly Dream” Reissue With Translated English Lyrics

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I am pleased to announce that this summer, Minuano are reissuing their 2019 full-length album Butterfly Dream (蝶になる夢を見た) on both CD and vinyl.

The album is scheduled to be re-released in August 2025. Pre-orders for both the LP and the CD+LP Bundle are now available on Shopify and Bandcamp. Do note that these pre-orders are only open until April 29. The Bundle comes with a bonus postcard, and the CD includes a 24bit/96k audio download code. (A CD-only pre-order link will become available in late July.)

Following Love Logic, Fruits Mechanical, and Spring Lovers, this is the fourth collaboration between me and Minuano. Yes, you guessed it: once again, both editions of this re-release will feature English translations of all lyrics on the album.

On a purely personal note, I am very glad we managed to give this treatment to Butterfly Dream as well, simply because for me this album in particular is Minuano’s greatest masterpiece yet. Hopefully my translation of the words can help you discover yet another side to appreciate about this collection of songs. As always, my intention was to take the absolutely beautiful Japanese lyrics and render them into English with the utmost respect, and happily Ogata Takero was there to guide me every step of the way to help us achieve just that. And now it is done.

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Minuano “Spring Lovers” Reissue With Translated English Lyrics

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Following the reissue of Love Logic and Fruits Mechanical, Minuano are soon re-releasing their long out of print second album: the fan-favorite Spring Lovers (ある春の恋人) from 2010.

This re-release will be coming out on vinyl and CD in March/April 2025.

Pre-orders are now live at Shopify and Bandcamp. Please note that pre-orders for both the LP and the LP+CD Bundle are only open from November 15 to 29, 2024. Because this is a limited edition pressing, it is highly recommended that you put in a pre-order if you want to be sure to attain a vinyl copy. (A link for CD-only pre-orders will be made available in March 2025.)

But no matter if you are going for the CD or the LP (or both), something that you will find in both editions of this release are my English translations of the lyrics.

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