Category Archives: Interviews

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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MONO NO AWARE “Kakegae no Nai Mono” Interview (2019)

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This is an interview with MONO NO AWARE about their third album Kakegae no Nai Mono, which translates to “Something Irreplaceable.” I hope you find it useful.

On a side note, the second track “Enpitsu“ is one of my favorite tunes from this band. It’s got just the right amount of that lighthearted, nostalgic-sounding J-pop melancholy.

Interview & text: Ishizumi Yuka (Japanese text)
Photography: Oohashi Yuuki
English translation: Henkka
MONO NO AWARE: Website, Instagram, Twitter

Note: You can buy Kakegae no nai Mono on CDJapan.


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

On their first album, Jinsei, Yamaori Taniori, they expressed a kind of tricky, humorous funkiness which only indie bands can pull off. Their second album, last year’s AHA, was—as symbolized in the lead track Tokyo—something that resounded with the image of a mid-twenties youth living in Tokyo, transcending any particular music scene.

MONO NO AWARE are a rare thing. They are a rich, organic entity, in which band music comes together with themes, melodies, ensembles, and words, all at the group’s own pace.

The theme of their third album, Kakegae no nai Mono, is based on the personal vision of frontman and songwriter Tamaoki Shukei. Both the radiance as well as one’s apprehension towards “the future” as seen through the eyes of a child; a child’s affection for material things; that slight feeling of hesitation when one is standing at the brink of adulthood… Of course, it’s precisely because he is no longer a child that these themes he depicts resonate so deeply, and I believe that it’s this very thing that is the heart of this album.

With tracks like the theme song for film Chinbotsu Kazoku and the 2019 October/November song for TV program Minna no Uta, it was with hopes of introducing listeners not yet familiar with the worldview of this profound band that I spoke with its members.

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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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