Be With! Vol. 101 (March 2014)

Message from Tak and Koshi

Be With! Vol. 101 is a fresh start.
We got together and made an effort to bring you a new issue to your liking.
This year we started out doing our own solo projects, but of course, we will also start doing work as B'z again.
Please look forward to it.
Tak

How have you been?
Have you been sneezing? [talking about pollen]
I am taking a new approach to music with a new feeling.
Please feel free to experience my new music with your eyes and ears.
Thank you very much.
Inaba Koshi

Tak Matsumoto Interview

Interviewer:		After having celebrated B'z 25th anniversary, 2014 started with the announcement of your respective solo projects. This does not mean that B'z will be on break, but it is very often that you embark on your solo projects/releases at the same time. What are your thoughts on this?
Tak:		What about it, I wonder? Inaba-kun has also been working on his solo projects in his free time for a while now, right? But comparatively speaking, it was the same for me this time. I was working on it in my free time, and, if I recall correctly, I started the year before last. Then, last year, our 25th anniversary came up and I had to put things on break temporarily. It wasn't until December that I could put things into shape. It only took me a short amount of time to put everything together, but I've been working on my compositions for nearly two years.
Interviewer:		B'z, of course, as well as you and Inaba-san have a high potential respectively. Do you think that your individual solo projects have an influence on your works as B'z?
Tak:		I think that for our works as such, our tastes and interests have an influence on them, so whether it's solo or with the band, the good parts will definitely take over. I don't really give it much thought when switching between going solo and working as B'z since I'm doing instrumental music. We also talked about starting work as B'z once we finished our solo activities, but that's only natural for us.
Interviewer:		Now I would like to move on and talk about your solo project. We thought that it has been 12 years since the last time you released an album fully composed of new songs solely by you, namely 「DRAGON FROM THE WEST」(2002) and「Hana」(2002).
Tak:		Yes, because my last release contained only re-recorded versions of previous songs. I guess it's true, now that you mention it.
Interviewer:		We got the feeling that you wanted to close off a previous chapter with the release of 「Strings Of My Soul」.
Tak:		That may be true. Now that you mention it, one might actually think like that. As I said, this time it took me nearly two years and during this long period I was toying with a lot of ideas, but for quite a while I was unsure what kind of music to create. Be it self-composed songs, or cover songs... I tried out a lot of ideas, but they were lacking my personal sense of direction. Where I wanted to go with it. I was really pondering over it for quite a while until our 25th anniversary came up, but I thought I could think it over in a hotel room while on the road. When our 25th anniversary tour ended and I was completely free, I still couldn't decide which direction to take. So after November's show at the EX THEATER ROPPONGI I went back into the studio and thought I'd give up on it for now if I couldn't come up with something. I wondered what I should do, so I'd try to put the songs I had prepared into shape and if I couldn't bring everything together, I said to myself that I would give up on this project.
Interviewer:		This is a surprise. Have you been in a situation like this before?
Tak:		I don't really remember, but when I worked with Larry Carlton, it took me over a year to come up with something we both could work on. I didn't really know what kind of music to compose, what direction to take.
Interviewer:		About being troubled with composition: If it was for example you, wouldn't you think about who to collaborate with, or to release a new album with a completely different concept?
Tak:		No. I didn't think about collaborating with someone at all, nor did I think about things such as performing with a domestic orchestra. Anyway, after the B'z tour ended, I had free time and went on to slowly put songs together. After the EX THEATER ROPPONGI show in November, it was about how much I could put together in two weeks. And I was able to put it everything together in such a way I was content with and wanted to proceed with recording and producing it. In fact, the schedule for the tour was already set, but I thought to myself "If I can't put this together, we'll have to cancel everything...". It was almost like, if I couldn't get everything together in these two weeks in December, I would go to the office and tell them "Maybe no solo project after all". (laughs)
Interviewer:		Could that be because you've always been at the top, or because you feel pressure since winning a Grammy Award? Something along those lines?
Tak:		No, I didn't feel any pressure or something like that, but when you work on something, you want to create something you are satisfied with, right?　I didn't really know if it was going to be something I would be satisfied with, but nonetheless I finished my demos and started recording the guitar parts and the brass section. That's when I realized: I'm glad that I did this. This time, Paul Brown helped me out a lot. The last time [with Strings Of My Soul] I also entrusted him with a lot of songs and this time even with the mixing, but that doesn't mean that I entirely entrusted him with everything. Because I went to Paul's recording studio. I also feel that our relationship has deepened. Most of the musicians--aside from bassist Travis and the drummer John--were introductions made by Paul. The brass section and also the percussions by Lenny Castro were all introductions by Paul, and they're all amazing musicians. After all, Paul is producing a lot of people, plays the guitar, and releases his own works. He is really amazing. I really think that we produced something amazing here.
Interviewer:		Will we see a US version of the album?
Tak:		Yes, we have plans for a US version. I personally decided the track list for the Japanese version of the album, but since I do not know the American market, I met up with Paul at his home, and we listened to the songs one by one to discuss which ones are a fit for the American market. The others will be cut. But I'm going to meet up with another producer called Robert to work out the details one more time, so it's not set in stone yet.
Interviewer:		Moving on, we would now like to talk about your new album. We felt that there's a certain beauty to the album which offers creative leeway. We also thought that tone-wise the melodies have become simpler.
Tak:		That's true. There are a lot of songs with the same kind of melody throughout the song.
Interviewer:		Making the melodies simple won't cause so much deception, after all.
Tak:		This is often the case, yes. At this time (the time of the interview), I haven't finished mixing all the tracks yet, but I when I listen to the songs, I get the feeling that I was able to achieve a better thickness in the clean tone compared to before. When I listen to 「TAKE YOUR PICK」 which I produced with Larry Carlton, although it's an album I like very much, the details of the tracks still bother me. A couple of years have passed since then and I feel that my tone has gotten a bit thicker compared to back then. The three years since then were really good. With these results, I feel that I spent my time well.
Interviewer:		Now we would like to talk about the album song by song. Let's start with the titular song "New Horizon". Could you tell us about the meaning behind the title?
Tak:		I believe there are a lot of ways to interpret this, one could say that it's a prospect and that I changed my perspective to try out a lot of new ideas and such... As if I have been reaching a new frontier.　And with that I had the feeling that something new is going to happen, a very positive feeling. To be honest, I just called it like that because it's just that kind of song...well, not really, but because I have a certain image in my mind. (laughs) This just happens to be the first song, which I had to choose from a lot of songs that felt good. The first song might be a different one in the US version, I think.
Interviewer:		And also, you have increased the variety in the composition of songs, right?
Tak:		I guess you could say that. The composition of this album is different than the ones before. I might have done that deliberately. Because I have that freedom with instrumental music as my basis. However, there may be perhaps some parts where I deliberately added Jazzy parts and such. But basically I'm just composing it freely.
Interviewer:		We feel that there's a new sound now that there's not just guitar solos but also solos by other instruments.
Tak:		Yeah. So far I haven't made any wind instruments the main instrument in a composition, so this is fresh for me.
Interviewer: