[tethevo]

note: not literal translation

There were a lot of questions asking me to talk about how I met Ayu.

This will be from my perspective so how it happened may be different from Ayu’s perspective.

Our first encounter is when I was about 31, so almost 15 years ago.

I met Ayu through someone that worked at velfarre (Avex’s disco in Roppongi)

She was saying frothy things like “I’m in a dorama (Miseinen)” and “I will put out a song.” At the time, I was still someone of no importance. Even so, I remember telling Ayu that “selling music is that easy you know”

After that, for some reason, we met quite often.
Of course I did not predict at the slightest that she would become today’s Ayu

We would go to karaoke and have her sing, and I have a feeling I would dare to talk about what kind of voice she had, how well or bad she sung, or how high she can sing as I raise the key, etc.

We would randomly contact each other and met occasionally, but I don’t remember talking that much about work.

However, I distinctly remember her saying, “I went with my mom to my talent agency and quit”

I have heard her talk about wanting to become a singer, but I didn’t really take it seriously.

But, if she had went and quit her agency, then the question of “what are you going to do?” would of course come up.

Our partnership began from there on. (NOTE: He actually said “three-legged race”, which means the two worked together from that day on.)

In that case, I got serious too.

I began to think daily on the strategy to get Ayu debut.

At the same time, my relationship with Mr. Komuro was getting worse and worse.

So my biggest mission at the time was to make avex stand on its own without him.

To do that, there was a necessity for me to produce artists myself.

It was around that time when it was decided to debut ELT and I was pre-occupied with that.

ELT, August of 1996 debut

Behind the ELT that was selling spectacularly, I was giving my all to make my next artist debut. That was Ayu.

At the same time, in the January following their August 1996 debut, their 3rd single “Dear My Friend” was a big hit.
In the summer when their album sold over 2 million copies, they also had consecutive hits “For The Moment” “Deatta koro no you ni”. After that, with single hit like “Time goes by”, they released their second album in April of 1998, the month that Ayu was going to debut.

The album sold over 4.5 million copies. It took a year and a half from debut.

With that, it was my role to quickly fill the gaps left with the exclusion of Mr. Komuro.


And, just one week before ELT sold their 2nd album that got a sales record of 4.5 million copies, Ayu debut on April 8, 1998.

It took a bit over a year for her to debut.

I sent her to lessons in NY, and thinking that failure is not acceptable, I agonized over how I would debut her.

But, her one phrase of “I definitely want to go solo” kicked away all my thinking and worries.

Knowing how difficult it was to be a solo artist, I agonized over this but ventured to choose to difficult road.

Around the same time, we went around promoting her before her actual debut, but the reception was disastrous.

Friends from TV networks also told me “she won’t sell. Give up now.”

Seniors in the industry also told me “she doesn’t have a face that sponsors like.”

All I could do was to turn all that frustration into a spring (to make sure Ayu succeeds).

If that was the case, I thought at the time that then I was going to change even the tastes of people of this world.

At the same time, music production was happening at the studios with Yasuhiko Hoshino at the center of the efforts.

“poker face” was decided as the debut song. At the time of her debut, over 10 demo songs and up to her 4th single were already decided.

“poker face”, the theme song of CDTV, debut on April 8

After that, singles were released at a pace of one every two months

3rd single “Trust” entered top 10. We began to somewhat see the direction of her music.

4th single: with the help of Yosuke, she appeared in a Morinaga CM

5th single “Depend on you” entered top 10 again.

First album “A Song for XX”, released on Jan 1, 1999, became #1 on Oricon Chart.

And she became one of the million selling artists.

In July of the same year, she sold over a million for the single “BOYS & GIRLS”

You all know about her success after that.