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Old 14th July 2020, 04:50 AM
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S Cawaii! March 2007 (A BEST SONGS)

Recently came across this translation again and it probably deserves to be seen more since it has some insights about Ayu that she'd made during A BEST 2.

Translated by ray@Ayumi-Hamasaki-Net.

Quote:
A BEST SONGS
From her latest album, Ayu chose her “best” songs.

Q. A PV that surprised you the most because its scale was bigger than you expected is…
Dearest
We took the shooting at L.A. We used a location where the movie “SEVEN” was filmed and a set inside Paramount Studio. This little girl was surprised at the fact, in studio next door, there were Hollywood stars shooting their movies (laughs). Oh, and I laughed when I saw the actors in “Star Trek” eating their lunch in their costumes.

Q. A PV that gives you the strangest feeling is…
Endless sorrow
It’s the only PV which I’m not the main character. I had a lot of feelings inside me at that time and chose to do this kind of PV, but the little boy who was the main character did a marvelous acting. When I see this, I recall myself just watching this shooting till the end.

Q. One of your personal favorite songs is…
HANABI ~episode II~
Of course I adore each and every of my songs, but this song is one of my top class songs. This is episode II, so I have a personal feeling for the original HANABI too. I only have the PV for part II, and it’s very simple one which I’m just crying. But it‘s the first time I showed so much emotion into it; I think I really gave out all of the emotions for the 2 songs there. I’m happy that a lot of people like this PV. Even though it’s not really beautiful… I’m just crying out with a rumpled up face (laughs). At first I hesitated if this is okay, but I think it turned out good. I’m not acting in this PV, I’m crying for real.

Q. Your PV which you had a most nervous experience is…
HEAVEN
I still remember the tenseness of that one shot. All of the cast and staff knew that it was only one take, so the atmosphere was really tense. When the cut was over and we were free from the tensions, there was an instant change in the atmosphere. We were like “We did it!” and cried together. I think that was the moment when we all were in the world of HEAVEN and united into one.

Q. A song which you can not write now, your personal masterpiece is…
Because of You
First of all, I love the melody. I also really like the lyric. Even if I look at it now, I think I did a good job writing this. There are other songs similar to this lyric, but Japanese can make a really big change in the meaning with a slight change in words. So I used a slightly different “Because~” wording in each chorus, which turns out to be a totally different meaning. 2 years ago when I sang this song in my countdown live, I thought it’s a lyric that I can’t think up now (laughs).

Q. Out of the songs you made, the song that was new to you and had the fastest melody is…
evolution
Those days I couldn’t make songs at home so I brought all of my instruments to the hotel and made them. Plus, I run out of ideas if I stay in the same hotel, so I changed the hotels at every song I make. I think I made evo at a hotel in Yokohama*6? Back then, I was into guitar too, so after a process of trial and error, even though I made it myself I thought “Wow, it’s a very fast song!” (laughs). Before that I especially had a lot of medium or ballad songs, so it was very new to me, and I think my fans were really surprised too. I don’t think I can make another evo song even if someone tells me too. I think this song was born because I had that kind of particular “feeling” back then. If I was to make another rock song now I think I’ll make something close to “Humming 7/4”.

Q. The first song you used English in the lyrics is…
Real me
This song was a big challenge for me; the song itself, and also the English lyrics and the dance in the PV. It was the first time I danced so much, so I practiced like hell (laughs)! At night I struggled to remember that very fast choreography in the studio, so I was really happy when I got an okay sign at the shooting, and the choreographers CHIHARU and ETSU told me it was good!
I removed the embargo of English from my album “RAINBOW”*7. Those days I got an award from MTV and I got a chance to perform at other Asian countries several times. When I did, I had a feeling that Japanese can’t reach out to those people. So this little girl simply thought English is a global common language. That was the start of it.

Q. The song that brings back the cruelest memory is…
my name’s WOMEN
This PV shooting was sooooooooo hard. How many hours was I awake? I was awake for like about 2 days and 2 nights, and in the last part of the shooting CHIHARU and ETSU, the dancers and I, well everyone were just laughing. There’s always somebody that make some kind of mistakes. But we could forgive them because it was so funny (laughs). I had a concert before the shooting, and I went on to take the shooting without sleep, and the day after that there was the Aichi Expo*8. I don’t remember how I went to Nagoya from the studio (laughs).

Q. On the contrary, the song that brings back the most pleasant memory is…
fairyland
This song brings me back a lot of memories. I also love this song. A few days ago, when I was using my computer, suddenly “fairyland” came on, and I just went on and listened to it. I never listen to my songs at home and even if my songs come up at TV, I change the channel. But I listened to it till the end and thought, “I really love this song”. The shooting for this song’s PV had a really good atmosphere. I went overseas with the dancers and had no rest and no sleep, but I had a really good time there. Even if I was blown off by the helicopter’s wind (laughs).

Last edited by truehappiness; 14th July 2020 at 06:29 AM.
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