KinKi_Kids_Review

KinKi Kids Personal Review and Interview about "E Album"!

Track 1- "LOVE SICK"
Kouichi: We did all of the background vocals for this song all by ourselves so if you count all of Tsuyoshi's and my voices it would actually add up to like 20 people's worth. (laughs) I've always wanted to try a song like this so personally, I really like this song.
Tsuyoshi: It's a type of song that we never really sang before. I like it so much that I wouldn't mind making it a single! Like the writer of this song told us to, I tried to sing as if I really were being troubled by something. (laughs) We did all of the vocals in the chorus, so it was quite difficult to put together.

Track 2- "Boku No Senaka Ni Wa Hane Ga Aru" or "There Are Wings on My Back" (E Edit)
Kouichi: This applied to the Hong Kong, Taiwan concerts too, but for some reason, I feel at ease when I sing this song. This version sounds a lot more raw than the single, so please pay attention to those parts.
Tsuyoshi: There might be people out there who can't really tell the difference between this and the single...actually, to tell you the truth, I'm one of them (laughs)...but this is the E Edit. Each time I hear this song, it reminds me of when I was filming "Aiken Roshinante".

Track 3- "No Control"
Kouichi: Of all the songs in E Album, I think this song is the most "KinKi Kids-like"
But then again, this might alter the listener's perspective towards the song, so I hope everyone'll listen to it without jumping to any conclusions beforehand.
Tsuyoshi: The person who sang the demo of this song really sounds like Mr. Children's lead vocal Sakurai-san (Tsuyoshi is a big Mr. Children fan). Almost to the point where you can't tell the difference. Well, I couldn't get that voice out of my head so I actually might be singing exactly like him in this song.

Track 4- "Hyakunen No Koi" or "Love of a Century" (Tsuyoshi Solo)
Tsuyoshi: For this song "Hyakunen No Koi" I did everything how I wanted to. This is my very first hard rock number. All my other songs were medium rock and I'd always wanted to compose a song with more tempo since a long time ago. I came across many songs that I didn't think were right and then finally, I came upon this song that I was satisfied with. At first, I was kinda fiddling with the guitar and I found this phrase that I really liked so I took it home with me and started making this song.
This is the first time for me to play a guitar solo in an album...and with a Gibson Gold Top too! I was always too scared to try it, but this time they asked me if I wanted to play so I just said, "Ok, I'll play then." I chose the tempo with the studio musicians and wrote the phrases as we had sessions. And in the end, I wasn't satisfied with the lyrics so I sort of fixed them up a bit. The lyrics too, have a kind of "hard" feeling to them but they aren't gloomy at all. They're very happy! The lyrics to my other songs were a little too deep, so I decided to be a little more care-free, simple and easy-to-understand this time. The lyrics are really high spirited and sort of like, "I love you sooo much, I can't help it!" but actually, I don't currently feel this way about anybody right now so I had a hard time trying to think up some good words. Thus, I just decided to write about an ideal feeling of love that I have and just added on from there. I tried to choose words that I seemed the most familiar with and wrote it without being under any pressure at all.
I'm pretty sure some people might be a little shocked when they first hear the lyrics "Crawl on top of me, go ahead and toy with me" at the end, but those lyrics don't necessarily mean anything sexual. I just wanted to say, "I love you so much that I don?t care what you do with me right now." There's no special or hidden meaning to it at all! (laughs)
Actually, the songs I write are usually completely opposite to what current mood I'm in when I wrote it. The song "Panic Disorder" that I wrote last year is a perfect example of that. (laughs) Inside I had that kind of strong attitude, but during the summer concerts I wasn't doing very well health-wise. The mental image that I had of myself and the real me on stage were so different that some days, I was even frustrated to tears. At first I would be feeling fine and then I would feel terrible all of a sudden and in the end I would end up losing to my own body...this happened quite a lot. I was still doing concerts in that condition and I started feeling very guilty that people would come pay money to watch me when my heart wasn't really into the performance. I thought it was wrong for a professional to be like that. If I was a true professional I should first become someone that can overcome those problems and then after that, I would have the right to stand on stage. I would be causing trouble to Kouichi and a lot of other people but since I didn't want to run from my problems, I decided to just try my best to overcome them. I never thought it was necessary to talk about this at concerts or on television at all. I just thought I'd speak up if this topic were to arise somewhere. (laughs)
There are many people around me that are the same as I am. There are more and more young people in this society now so it's not anything unusual. Even if there's nothing wrong with my body, I sometimes feel suffocated when I stand in front of an audience, I sometimes feel dizzy and uneasy. Though I do think that a lot of it comes from fatigue and stress. Well, one of my close friends fell in love with a girl that's sort of like me in this way. He told me about her condition and said, "I want to understand her and give her my support." When I heard this story, I thought to myself, "I'm going to make this into a song!" for the sake of my friend, myself and all the people that have been supporting me until now. Also, I want people who can relate to or know someone who can relate to the song to realize that they aren't alone, and hopefully be able to grasp some courage and hope. I've realized that I myself, am not alone in this world and because I found that there are more ways to protect myself now, I feel a lot more at ease. I?m able to pull myself away from getting depressed now. And now I can even listen to those who have the same worries and problems that I did. The other day, one of my guy friends was feeling a little down so I heard him out and a few days later, he sent me an e-mail saying, "Meeting you, Tsuyoshi-kun, has been the most happiest thing in my life!" I was so happy to hear that I had been of some help to him! (smiles)
Well, anyway, please listen to this song when you love someone so much you could die!

Track 5- "Father"
Kouichi: This is a song that we asked Okui-san to write for us. Tsuyoshi and I call this "Our Old Man's Song" (laughs). During recording, I tried to remember my father while singing this song...nah, actually I didn't at all. (laughs)
Tsuyoshi: Former Princess Princess member, Okui Kaori-san wrote this song for us. Isn't it a really nice heartfelt song? I really like it. I think you could really get hooked on it if you were to listen to it while watching the sunset alone.

Track 6- "Te O Futte Sayonara" or "Wave and Say Goodbye"
Kouichi: This is another "KinKi Kids-like" song. It has a guitar-sound arrangement that Tsuyoshi loves, and I love the part where the strings make a powerful entrance. I find those parts really interesting.
Tsuyoshi: This is another heartfelt song that I love. I tried singing it a little slower than the usual songs and it really felt like I'd sang to my heart?s concert. Well, (thinks for a while...) try listening to it when you've just broken up with your boyfriend/girlfriend! (laughs)

Track 7- "Broken Reizokou" or "Broken Fridge"
Kouichi: Actually at the end of this song, I yell out "Tsuyoshi~!" I had to yell something and I thought to myself, "What should I scream...? Oh well, I?ll just yell Tsuyoshi! (laughs)" Well, I did but it?s pretty hard to hear so please try to find it!
Tsuyoshi: Kouichi really liked this song, and it's a song in which we had a lot of hope to get in the album. Since Kouichi loved it so much, I decided to let him be the main vocal and I tried to sing a little more reserved. (laughs) Please listen to it when your fridge breaks down!

Track 8- "Jyounetsu" or "Passion"
Kouichi: This was the theme song for "Rookie!" When I first heard the title, I thought that people would get it mixed up with Koyanagi Yuki-san?s "Aijyou" song. (laughs) But it seems I was the only person to be worried about that. (laughs)
Tsuyoshi: There are two versions of "Jyounetsu" and this is the original version that everyone knows. I bet there's many people that will remember Kouichi-kun during "Rookie!" each time they hear this song. Please listen to this song when you have fallen deeply in love with someone!

Track 9- "Love U4 Good"
Kouichi: This is a ballad. Before we decided to put it in the album, I listened to it and thought, "It has a nice mood to it." so we chose it. I thought we could change the pattern of the arrangement a little bit more, but I really like the feeling to it.
Tsuyoshi: This song was really hard! It was a type of ballad that we never really tried before. It was really tough because we even used a forset but I?m happy it turned out nice. I think a hot summer night would really match it.

Track 10- "-so young blues-" (Kouichi Solo)
Kouichi: I composed this song and asked Sophia'?s Matsuoka-kun to write the lyrics for me. To tell you the truth, since we aren't having summer concerts this year, I had figured that we weren't releasing an album until next fall, so I thought that I could take my time in thinking about writing a solo song until after I finished shooting my drama....(laughs) Then they told me we were releasing an album in the summer so I panicked. (laughs) I wasn't even finished with my drama yet so I hardly had the time to spare for writing a song, let alone the lyrics too, so we decided to ask someone else to write the lyrics for me and I thought it would be interesting to have Matusoka-kun do it.
I first met Matsuoka-kun more than a year ago. I was a guest on his radio program and since we both love cars, we had a lot in common and started hanging out together. I'm still surprised to this day that he agreed to write the lyrics for me with such short notice! I mean, I hadn't even written the song itself yet! I sent him an e-mail saying something like, "I?m not sure what kind of song it's going to be yet, but could you please write the lyrics?" and even though he was just as busy as I was, he said, "Sure!" I'm very thankful!
Well, with things like that, I just had to write up a song before Matusoka-kun finished the lyrics, right? So in the middle of filming, I had about 3 hours of free time and I was able to write up a simple bass part. I then finished shooting the drama for the day, went home at about 11 at night and wrote like mad until 8 the following morning. So actually, I wrote this song in like a day...well, more like a night. Well, it?s not like taking a long time to write a song will make it any better. I really concentrated on finishing it so I'm quite proud of its quality.
I asked Matsuoka-kun to write me some erotic lyrics. (laughs) I had always wanted to put a female voice in the chorus so I thought if the lyrics were a little sexual or mysterious, it would turn out to be a great song. Did the lyrics turn out the way I wanted? Of course!
I do feel a little bad about frantically running all over the place and bothering Matusoka-kun when he was also busy promoting his own band?s new single. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to contact Matsuoka-kun since then and I haven't had the chance to properly thank him yet. I also would like to ask for his opinion about the song I composed as well. I've got to contact him in the near future.
Matsuoka-kun also chose the title for this song, but I think "So Young Blues" was only supposed to be temporary because, well, the words "so young blues" only come out once in the 2nd verse. But I decided to use it anyway. (laughs)

Track 11- "HONEY RIDER"
Kouichi: Doesn?t it sort of have a crazy feeling to it? (laughs) It sounds a little stupid but it's really catchy. And the guitar riff is so remarkable that it ticks me off. I love that feel to it!
Tsuyoshi: We recorded this song only on its first try. I was a little irritable that day so I decided to just yell my head off and they liked it. But I'm a little worried about singing it at a concert. I wonder if I can gather up enough energy to sing it the same way again! (laughs)

Track 12- "Gekkou" or "Moonlight"
Kouichi: This is the song where in the end Tsuyoshi and I do a fake and then harmonize. We tried it out and really thought it sounded nice so we decided to put it in, but actually, I won't be surprised if it doesn't make the final track listing of the album. (laughs)
Tsuyoshi: It's a very mature song. It has the image of a cool summer night. I think if you were to use this as background music while just staring into space and looking at the moon, it would be great!

Track 13- "Jyounetsu" (Acoustic Version)
Kouichi: We tried singing this song really slowly once during "Doumoto Kyoudai" and I really liked the feel to it. So we asked Yoshida Ken-san, who had arranged it then, to arrange it again, and here it is.
Tsuyoshi: We had Yoshida Ken-san arrange it for us. When we did the acoustic version during "Doumoto Kyoudai" it got great reviews so Kouichi said that he wanted to do it again. I really like this song's arrangement too.

Final Thoughts from Kouichi and Tsuyoshi:
Kouichi: "E Album" was particularly hard for me to put together because the recording schedule was overlapped with my drama "Rookie!" As soon as filming ended, recording for the album began and I think it was the busiest that I've ever been in my life! (laughs) On the last day of filming, we celebrated it's end until 3 A.M. and immediately after that I returned to the recording studio for editing until like 5 A.M. But I never had problems with my throat or singing or anything like that.
Like usual, we had to choose songs to put in the album. To make the songs better, we even tried rearranging them and stuff, although we did so in "D Album" as well, this time, we even tried rearranging the lyrics. There are quite a few songs in this album that we had saved until now because we wanted to change them a bit. For example, "Love Sick", "Broken Reizokou" and "Honey Rider" were all saved songs from before, and because of this, I think this album will be nearly perfect! We were able to fix songs up to make them much better than how they were originally.
What's the best way of choosing songs? Umm...we don't really think of such difficult things. We just simply choose the songs that we like. We also tried to gather songs that didn't sound similar to each other. There are actually a lot of great songs that didn't make this album; we're planning to save those for next time.
Instead of putting a picture on the cover, we decided to go with a logo...this was our wish. Wouldn't males have a easier time buying it this way? I mean if I were to get an album and there was a huge picture of KinKi on the cover, I would be too embarrassed to purchase it. (laughs) There were some people in the staff that wanted to put a picture on the cover, and possibly some fans would prefer a picture, but I'm sure they'll all like the finished product. It's actually really cool. The words are bumpy and it has a different kind of set-up to it. I personally really like it.

Tsuyoshi: What things were we extra particular about this time? Hmm...I wonder what...I guess you could say that we tried to match each song with a unique singing voice, and we also tried to vary the different ways of singing for each song. We also kinda played around by slowing down the rhythm and/or making it faster. Well, I still had to consider the balance of my voice with Kouichi's at the same time, so I just stated my opinions and received advice from the staff.