soraya “soraya” Interview (2024)

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Here is an interview with soraya about their self-titled debut album from 2024. Of all the new music I’ve discovered this past year or so, this duo is one of my personal favorites. Highly recommended listening for anyone in search of some warm, laid-back, jazz-infused pop with genuinely memorable songwriting. Or, really, for any music fan in general.

Most of this post originally comes from an article by AVE, along with some additional questions from the April 2024 issue of Music Magazine. (These segments are marked “MM.”)

Interview & text: Murao Yasuo (AVE), Munekata Akimasa (Music Magazine)
English translation: Henkka
soraya: Website, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

Note: You can buy this album on CDJapan.


soraya
Ishikawa Kurena & Tsubosaka Kento

soraya is a unit comprised of two musicians active in the jazz scene, Tsubosaka Kento (piano) and Ishikawa Kurena (vocals, bass).

Drawing influences from a variety of musical styles—not only jazz, but also folk, rock, R&B, and world music—the duo aims to create something universal; songs that can move the heart precisely because of their simplicity. Even as their work overflows with playful ideas, one can clearly sense their sincere love for music.

We got to ask the two about their feelings behind their first album soraya.

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Uwanosora ’67 “Portrait in Rock’n’Roll 2” Interview (2022)

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This is a lengthy interview with Uwanosora ’67 about their album Portrait in Rock’n’Roll 2.

Very enlightening and in-depth, this discussion is a real treasure for fans of the band. I was going to include a disclaimer warning you against reading it all in one go (the word count is over 10,000!), but hey, there are worse ways to go than overdosing on Uwanosora.

Interview & photography: Sugano Keisuke (Japanese text, additional photography from Uwanosora’s social media)
English translation: Henkka
Uwanosora: Linktree

Note: You can buy Portrait in Rock’n’Roll 2 on CDJapan.

What follows is an interview conducted on 2 August 2022 with Iemoto Megumi and Kadoya Hirohide of Uwanosora ’67, commemorating the release of their album, Portrait in Rock’n’Roll 2. It is the first release by Uwanosora ’67 since 2015’s Portrait in Rock’n’Roll.

In their work, Uwanosora/Uwanosora ’67 have tirelessly continued to pursue their musical desires. The first half of the interview is a conversation with Kadoya, and the second half with both Kadoya and Iemoto. We would be glad if this interview could help you understand even in some small way what this new album is all about, and what these two are like as people.

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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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MONO NO AWARE “Gyouretsu no Dekiru Hakobune” Interview (2021)

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This is an interview with MONO NO AWARE about their fourth album, Gyouretsu no Dekiru Hakobune, or Ark With a Line.

As far as this album goes, “Zokkon“ might be the highlight for me—as always, this band just absolutely nails the simple stuff. Calling it “simple” might be misleading, though, because when it’s simple, there’s nothing to hide behind. But MONO NO AWARE make it sound so effortless.

Interview & text: Nagahata Hiroaki (Japanese text)
Photography: Masuda Renzo, Taniura Ryuichi (some photos taken from here)
English translation: Henkka
MONO NO AWARE: Website, Instagram, Twitter

Note: You can buy Gyouretsu no Dekiru Hakobune on CDJapan.


MONO NO AWARE
(L-R) Kato Seijun, Tamaoki Shukei, Takeda Ayako, Yanagisawa Yutaka

MONO NO AWARE—armed with a peerless command of language and a warm band sound, they continue to update their music while never being tied down by genres.

On 9 June, they released their fourth full-length album, Gyouretsu no Dekiru Hakobune. The album features ten songs, including “Zokkon,” the theme song to theatrical anime film The Stranger by the Beach released last September, and “Soko ni Atta Kara,” their first digital single of 2021.

In this interview, we sat down with the four members of the band to talk about the creation of this album, about conflicts within the group, and about what they think in regards to this current “mood” that hangs in the air of society today.

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