2015.05.20
Exclusive Interview! Ayumi Hamasaki speaks from her heart about “running away from the past” and “looking forward to the future.”
April 8th, ayumi hamasaki released her 16th album, “A ONE”.
17 Years since her debut as a songstress, this album is her ‘back to basics’ album!
On April 11th-12th starting at Saitama Super Arena, Ayu embarked on an 11-location, 22-performance, large-scale Japan tour.
Here she shares her recent feelings regarding her gruelling schedule making the new album and preparing for the tour.
Ayu opens up in an unprecedented way!
Only in 109 News!
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Your Countdown Live concert got rave reviews and at last, the Japan tour has begun!
I’ve been looking forward to it!
ayu: This tour, “Midnight Circus” inherits the title of the Countdown Live concert, but its contents are not exactly the same.
The Countdown Live acts as a preliminary announcement and the real tour is where the story actually begins.
In other words, its like a prologue and concluding episode.
There’s a lot to look forward to!
You’ve really taken it to the next level haven`t you?
ayu: Of course! The overall running time is just over 3 hours.
That’s amazing! On April 8th, the new album “ A ONE “was released. Can we expect lots of new songs in the set list?
ayu: Absolutely! Packed full of them.
I invite you to check out the album before going seeing the concert for maximum enjoyment.
Photos from『ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2014-2015 A Cirque de Minuit 〜
Actually, I have already listened to it! It is a very ayumi hamasaki-esque album isn’t it.
Heart-rending rock ballads, lyrics that envelop you with warmth but leave a tinge of wistfulness… Were there any particular experiences you had that inspired these songs?
ayu: While I was living overseas, I guess I realized that I really craved the subtleties and detail of the Japanese language.
That feeling of “I want to express it in Japanese” built up inside me and I started to write lyric after lyric.
Being able to express what I wanted to say by immersing myself in the music-making process was a joy.
There were also songs that were written after the Countdown Live concert.
I feel like the concert was something of a “re-emergence” for me, and naturally the songs that followed reflect upon this feeling.
To be perfectly honest…
It wasn’t that I purposely sought out to make an album that sounded like the old me, it just happened.
When you refer to those songs, do you mean songs like “Out of control” and “Last minute?
ayu: Those two songs are Mr. Yukumi’s songs, and his songs are always easy to sing.
Recording sessions of Mr. Yukumi’s songs are always fast-paced.
However, if you were to talk about a song that illustrates that feeling of rekindling my old self, that would be “ Last minute.”
I realized after writing it that this was the same “me” that wrote “MY STORY”.
At the listening party for the new album and tour there were fans in tears.
It was like this was the Ayu they had missed; that they had been pining for.
What does the album's title, “A ONE”, mean?
ayu: The word “one" implies starting from scratch, uniqueness, a sense of self, and at the moment what I would call my best.
This is what I eventually arrived at. All those aspects are there.
This album is the result of a long process of whittling down from a much wider selection of songs I wrote. The cream of the crop, if you like!
It was there in the trilogy “Zutto…” “Walk” and “Last minute”
you put out at the end of last year, but with this album there really
is a sense that this is the “Ayu” you have decided to be going forward,
with all the difficulties that entails. In that way it has a very similar
air to past albums like “Secret” and “MY STORY."
ayu: That might be the case. I thought that “me” was gone, but actually she’s still here, for better or worse!
I felt like I had outgrown songs like “secret”, that I had moved onwards and upwards… but that isn’t the case at all.
Making this album showed me that I am still the “me” who can sing “secret” – even “A song for xx”.
I thought that perhaps both I – and everyone for whom songs like “A song ~” touched a chord – had changed, but I realized that the fundamental idea that people are born and die alone is still there inside me.
Perhaps other people will realize something similar about themselves when they listen to this album… that they are still the same person they were, and that that’s not a bad thing.
Having accepted that maybe that’s just who we are in this life, perhaps we can all move forward.
I guess that’s another aspect of “ONE”.
ayu: I realized during rehearsals for the Countdown live that I had been running away.
I think I said to you before when I started dividing my time between Japan and overseas how I wanted to keep my private life and work separate?
It makes me laugh to even say it now! Like that was ever going to be an option…
I tried to run away but I couldn’t, not really. And do you know what? Eventually I realized I didn’t even want to.
It’s not about where I am or who I’m with: I am still me, and this is still my life. So I decided to stop running away.
The Countdown Live concert came from having made peace with that.
That was when a lot of things became clear, and I rediscovered a certain intuitiveness and confidence.
I guess one could say that life is a series of such cycles, of confusion and rediscovery,
taking us all forward. Welcome back, ayu!
ayu: Yes! Yes! I thought that myself! “Welcome back, ayu!” Haha.
I think people who are close to me figured out a while ago that I had been running away.
I’m sure my fans could see it too!
[laughs] If that’s so, what would you say to them?
ayu: I would say “I’m back!” as if nothing had happened. Oh, and perhaps “Sorry”. (Smiles)
So, following on from the Countdown Live is this a new “ayu” that we will be seeing on tour?
ayu: Yes! It’s all there in the setlist and on the stage; everything I want to say.
Come on down and enjoy the show!
Interviewer/Takako Tsuriya
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