With the excitement from the countrywide tour following the spectacular “SIAM SHADE VI” still lingering, a new album is already here!!
On top of that, it is their first all English album consisting of two songs translated into English plus three songs already in English, all re-recorded.
It is an album that fans of western music will also applaud.
We asked this album's key person Hideki about his expectations and ambitions on targeting the world!!
Interview: 杉江由紀 (Sugie Yuki), 加藤祐介 (Katou Yuusuke), 長谷川幸信 (Hasegawa Yukinobu)
This is truly what you call “if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.” With the long countrywide tour ending safely recently, SIAM SHADE have released their album “SIAM SHADE VII” on 29.11. However, don't fall off your seats, it is a self cover album completely in English. How did the “my English grades were always 1”-vocalist Hideki end up singing English lyrics so wonderfully?
――In SIAM SHADE's case, you already had some songs in English on our previous albums. This time we have remakes of existing songs translated into English.
“ We wanted to do something a bit different. Since we already released an album (SIAM SHADE VI(1) ) this year, so if going by the book, we should've released a single next. But the way singles are is changing with the times and also it wasn't what we wanted to do now. That was when the idea of doing remakes in English was brought up. ”
――Also, you did yourself mention before that you would like to do that sometime.
“ Right. Frankly speaking, there are these people who only listen to western music. I thought that among such obstinate people there would be those who would come to like it, if it came on the radio and the name SIAM SHADE would be sort of kept secret. And maybe people not from Japan would listen to it also. In that sense, I thought that it would be really necessary, considering our “future.” ”
――I heard that this album is going to be released in Korea and elsewhere.
“ This is the first time we could do a release outside Japan. You can't release Japanese music in Korea yet, but this we can release. It was in Thailand I think, where it will also be released. Well, that was decided afterward, but thinking about it now, it was worth doing my best. ”
――Was there anything different comparing creating this album to creating the songs in English that you had before?
“ I would say everything. How should I put it... The English songs we made before were pretty much created on the spot, so the pronunciation and all that were not right. But this time, the concept being what it was, I did all sort of things for those things to be correct. ”
――Was the pronunciation the most difficult part after all?
“ Yep. After all, my English grades were always 1. (laughs) It was something I couldn't do on my own, so I asked Tim, who had helped us before in translating lyrics, and I had him live with me for 3 weeks and intensively train me for the recording. ”
――It's difficult to even handle English in conversation, and you also had to fit it into the notes.
“ It is nasty, really. With all that, this time Tim translated all of the lyrics and I focused just on the singing. ”
――There are parts where the pronunciation of Japanese and English differ completely, but you kept all that in mind, right?
“ That's right. It is really different. The point is, for Japanese you use your lips. You pronounce by changing the shape of your lips, but with English you make sounds with your throat and you don't much change the shape of your lips. There are sounds that don't exist in Japanese all over the place, like “the sound between ル(ru) and トゥ(tu).” Of course, the pronunciation of “L and R” and “th” are important. Anyway, it's like making an elementary school student read a novel, for a non-native speaker to try to sing perfectly in English. (laughs) ”
――That may be.
“ But I asked Tim not to give his approval until he thought that no one could find anything to complain about. To get to that level, I sang many times, recording each line into an MD. But thanks to that it has become somewhat unconscious. It's become so natural that when I go to a fast food restaurant and hear “**** please”, I think: “that's not how you say it!” (laughs) ”
――Humans seem to be able to learn anything when pressed enough.
“ You can't do it when someone commands you, but when you yourself decide to do it, you can. And if I create something half-assed here, SIAM SHADE itself would be made fun of. That kind of feeling, not wanting to be made fun of, might have been the strongest. ”
――While listening to the songs, I thought that when the same song has lyrics in English, the sound and feeling are subtly different. I think it also has to do with the articulation being different, they become somewhat smoother or how should I put it.
“ And that was another difficult part. Usually I do sing rather smoothly, but this time I was told many times that: “Hideki, you sure can sing English smoothly.” ”
――And at the same time, there's still rhythm there.
“ That's true. And you have to have attack inside that flow. ”
――That hard work was rewarded. Because of the English words, you can feel the orientation to western music remarkably in the sound itself.
“ Yeah, the sound is sort of dry, kind of LA sound. Basically we didn't change the sound of the background performances. But I too felt that just by changing the lyrics, it really sounds this different. ”
――Do you intend to take this occasion to master English in everyday conversation also?
“ Yes, I intend to, at some point. Since they say that English is the common language of the world, and as I'm a musician, I think that it is necessary. At some point I'd like to live overseas. ”
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