If They Had Not Stopped Moving Forward, Their Friendship Might Have Disappeared
Agawa Sawako x SPEED
A= Agawa, S = SPEED, H = Hitoe, T=Takako, E = Eriko, h = hiro
Page 1
A: Even though it’s a bit late, I want to first congratulate you on your reunion.
S: Thank you very much!
A: SPEED debuted in August of 1996, disbanded in March of 2000 and reformed in August of last year. Now, please introduce yourself first. The eldest is…
H: I’m Arakaki Hitoe, 28 years old. When I debuted, I was 15 years old, in 3rd year of Junior High.
A: Hitoe-chan is very good at dancing.
H: Perhaps it’s dancing and appearance? I usually stand out with my outfits and make up. (Laughs)
A: Sometimes, your appearance would be Buddhist style(as in her style in Wake Me Up Ram Rider Mix PV) or with an Afro. (Laughs) Next is…
T: I’m the second oldest, Uehara Takako. I’m 26 this year. This coming January, I will be 27. Along with Hitoe-chan, I’m in charge of the chorus and dancing parts. I’m also in charge of the talking parts.
A: Oh, I always thought Takako-chan is the least talkative.
T: I used to not talk a lot. When I was doing solo activities after the breakup, I then realized, “it’s not very good if I don’t talk during the interviews.” (Laughs) After that, it had become that once I start talking I cannot stop. Now, I talk so much to the point where I’m almost being told to “shut up”.
A: Then please take care of the talk today. (Laughs)
E: I’m the third eldest, Imai Eriko. 26 years old. Hiro-chan and I are in charge of the main vocals.
A: Only you have become a mother. And next is the youngest…
h: I’m Shimabukuro Hiroko. I’m 25 years old.
A: The reason you had reformed was because of 24-Hour Television?
E: Yes. I announced in the show that my son has a hearing disability, and I want to express my feelings to him through music. My son was diagnosed with a hearing impairment 3 days after he was born. When he was 6 months old, there was a time when I was humming a song while I was playing the guitar and my son looked very happy. So, it made me feel that perhaps the things that cannot be communicated to him through music, can be changed to something visually or through vibrations to express them to him.
h: Also, there is Nojiri Yuri-chan, who has a serious illness as well, but has supported SPEED since our debut. The segment’s original idea was to show the feeling of wanting to be together and to sing as a group again.
A: So after 1 year of activities, you have also released your best album “SPEEDLAND” where you re-sang your hit songs. In which area do you feel you are different than before?
E: Our understanding of the lyrics is very different compared to before. Our feelings while singing the songs have changed since we have accumulated more life experiences.
A: Speaking of which, looking at SPEED’s lyrics now, it really does not feel like it’s written for elementary and junior high students to sing. Especially like “愛してる, 抱いていて / I love you, hold me” [White Love].
h + E: Also “あなたの為に生きていきたい / I want to live for you” [White Love].
H: Hiro-chan also has an amazing line in Body & Soul.
h: “平凡な毎日じゃつまんない / The ordinary everyday life is too boring”[Body&Soul]. (Laughs)
T: She was only an elementary school 6th grader.
E: Elementary school students’ everyday life should be very ordinary. (Laughs)
T: My heart was beating very quickly when I read the lyrics to STEADY for the first time. I was only 13 years old. At that time, I really loved reading manga. I was so excited to have finished the manga, then I saw the line, “逢いたくてたまらない / Cannot stop thinking about you”[Steady], which made me thought of that situation (of loving manga), and I thought, “Ah, what should I do”. (Laughs) Also, there was another line, “想い出すだけで胸がギュツとなる / My heart aches just missing you”[Steady] that made my heart beat uncontrollably as well.
A: You were elementary students who had no experience in love. They had actually let you sing those songs. (Laughs)
T: As our producer and lyricist, Ijichi-san had said, “he wanted to create songs which SPEED could sing no matter how old we were”, so he did not put any words associated with students in the songs.
A: Like [My Graduation]. At first glance, it seemed like a song that would be sung during graduation, but in reality, that was not the case at all.
H: That’s right.
Page 2
A: As for the group’s breakup, I heard it was the result of Hiro-chan’s strong request?
h: Yes. When we started to do our solo works on top of our group activities, I kept thinking that I wanted everything to stop.
A: Why?
h: I was only in 2nd year of junior high, I really didn’t know anything and I didn’t even have the time to live with my family. At that time, I thought if I grew up without even experiencing the most basic things, then I would not be able to understand other people’s feelings later. And I didn’t think SPEED could always stay at the top. Would it be okay to keep continuing… I began to have a lot of anxiety about a lot of things.
A: A 2nd year junior high student was already thinking so much about life?
h: I really thought about a lot of things. As long as I was still an artist, still in the entertainment business, I would have to turn on my “artist” switch when I’m in front of the camera. Later on, I felt like I was lying to everybody. I started to really dislike myself.
A: That’s really in depth.
h: Singing should be my favourite, but I even started to hate singing. My voice wouldn’t come out. So, I started to feel like I needed the time to think. I must first stop moving forward.
T: At that time, everybody had just started their own solo activities. Because we could each do the things that we like, so when the idea of, “let’s first stop and let everyone do the things they want” came out, everybody actually wanted to have this kind of time. Even though there were still quite a number of things to consider, nobody rejected the idea at the time.
A: So then, everyone had the feeling of, “Ah, from now on I could do the things that I want”?
H: I was really happy then. In my heart, I was screaming, “Ah, I can go to New York!” (Laughs)
A: Ha ha ha.
h: But now, I feel like we made a really scary decision then.
A: Honestly speaking, that was how it was. (Laughs) You really had created a lot of trouble for the adults around you then. But, I really admire you guys. You didn’t breakup just because of an impulsive decision. And if you had continued then, it would have affected your body both physically and mentally.
h: That’s true.
T: Our friendship might also have disappeared. (Laughs)
A: What did everyone do after the breakup?
H: For about 6 years, I was flying between Japan and New York. I was learning design and dancing over there. I had also released some CDs in Japan. Right before we got back together this time, I had just obtained my yoga instructor’s licence. I also opened a yoga studio in Japan.
A: How did you feel when you heard that you would be reforming?
H: For awhile, I was really troubled. Working as SPEED and my own solo activities are two completely different things. Also, how were we going to explain this to our fans? We were worried about how we could communicate to everyone. But, after hearing the stories about Yuri-chan and Eri’s son, I also felt that I wanted to do something for them. After many discussions with everybody, we decided to start over again.
A: Takako-chan?
T: The day after SPEED’s final performance, I didn’t know why but I felt like I had unloaded a huge weight off my shoulders. My feelings at the time were, “Ah, I feel more relaxed”. (Laughs) “From now on, I only have to think about myself”. That was how I felt at that time.
A: You were really a rare group.
T: But afterwards, no matter what kind of work I did, I would still be labeled as an “ex-SPEED” member. I started to feel that no matter what I did, everybody would not see me as an individual artist. So, there was a period of time when I had hoped that everyone would stop thinking of me as SPEED. It wasn’t until after I had turned 20 years old, that I could think of it as my starting point and accept the title of “ex-SPEED” member.
A: One of the lines that I have read in an interview that Uehara-san did during the breakup was, “Before I could only share ¼ of the happy feeling, but now I could have this feeling all to myself”. (Laughs)
T: Ah… Ha… (Covers her face with her hands)
h: That’s bad. (Laughs)
H: But, everyone did have periods like that.
Page 3
A: But Takako-chan is the only one who did not take a break and kept working.
T: I took a break from singing and continued working as an actress instead. Because I didn’t have a lot of confidence in singing, to be asked to sing solo was a very troublesome thing to me. I was very happy before because the four of us could sing and dance together, but I never thought I could use singing to enter the entertainment business.
A: The time you were still at the Okinawa Actor School studying dancing, when the principal asked you to go to Tokyo to work, I heard that Hitoe-chan and Takako-chan were against the idea?
H: To leave the island of Okinawa and go to a mysterious big city was a very scary thing.
T: I was the closest with Hitoe-chan, so I had said, “If Hitoe-chan decides not to go, then I will not go either.” (Laughs)
H: We actually had this conversation while we were playing on the swing set.
A: That’s so good. (Laughs)
T: After the breakup, there was a period of time when I felt like a puppet. There were also period of times when I felt irresponsible and considered quitting the business. It wasn’t until I did my first musical 4 years ago that I earnestly experienced a true sense of responsibility again. And because I had to maintain my physical condition well for a month, it enables me to have a sense of responsibility in any work that I do now.
A: The first time you had self-awareness.
T: But because I did not rest and had kept working, I felt that I did not really absorb the things that I have learned. Someone once told me, “After a few years, if you could continue to do some matter, then the matter itself would also become meaningful. So, you have to keep going first.” These words really helped me a lot.
A: Ah, what did the third eldest, Eriko-chan do?
E: I had kept singing. I also starred in some musicals. I wanted to keep working even though it was solo work. Because of my marriage, I had left the talent agency for about 1 year. And during this 1 year, I had written some songs myself and I also gave birth to my son.
A: But you got divorced.
E: I got divorced. (Laughs)
H: We were all shocked! (Laughs)
h: I felt like I wanted to say, “Ah… La…”
E: I’m sorry. (Laughs)
A: Then what did Hiro-chan do?
h: I also released some songs as a solo artist. Because I was not allowed to cut my hair short when I was in SPEED, after the breakup, I had tried to cut my hair or changed my hair colour. I was free in that area. Then, I received the demo for [Treasure] from my manager. When I first heard the song, I had only one thought, “I want to sing this song! Nobody else can sing this song!” If it was not for this song, I think I might have left the business long ago.
A: When you became solo artists, and your fans’ reactions were not as enthusiastic as when you were part of SPEED. You were also not as popular and your CD sales were not as good as SPEED. Did all these things bother you?
h: Of course I felt troubled. But I thought of it as a test for saying I didn’t want to be part of SPEED anymore.
H: It was the opposite for me. I did not realize how popular SPEED was until I had gone abroad. SPEED’s CDs are really expensive at New York’s BOOK OFF. (Laughs) Sometimes, I would meet Japanese people who live over there and they would tell me that, “They used to support SPEED.” Through these things, it made me realize that we had made a really big decision back then. So my feelings to everyone also changed to feelings of gratitude.
A: That’s probably the feeling of missing home.
H: So when I first got to New York, I phoned home and told my parents, “I’m sorry.” I only realized then how spoiled I had been.
E: When I had stopped working after my marriage, I, too, had experienced the powerfulness of SPEED’s influence. Even the title of, “ex-SPEED member” would make me feel proud. So, I’m very happy that we can reform again.
A: Everyone had each experienced a lot. Please raise your hand if you would like to say how others have changed.
h: Taka didn’t like to talk so much before. In one of SPEED’s songs, Ijichi-san wrote a line for each of us.
T: Hiro-chan’s was, “恋に恋してる / Try to fall in love.” Eri’s was, “笑顏みがいてる / Always keep smiling.” Hitoe-chan’s was, “上を目指してる / Aim for the Top.” Mine was, “自分をさがしてる / Try to find yourself.” (Laughs) I guessed I had once looked very lost.
h: But I feel that Taka now has already found herself. Because she has kept working, she could always give suggestions at the appropriate times. Like, “from the audience’s angle wouldn’t it look like this?” or “it might be difficult for everyone to adjust if the arrangement is like this.” From her suggestions, we would review and come to the conclusion that, “Ah, she’s right.” This will always happen now.
H: Many times.
T: Amazing! I received so many praises today. (Laughs)
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5th April 2010, 04:32 PM
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