Extrait de la très longue interview accordée à ROLLING STONE (japan), au sujet de la production de Tony Visconti:
For this album, you received a passionate offer from famous international producer Tony Visconti to produce one of the songs - [The Dragon Cries]. Could you share more about that process?
Kobato: Thomas-san who wrote the lyrics for [The Dragon Cries] like Japanese culture a lot. He liked BAND-MAID after seeing us and told Tony-san-po. They are very close friends and work partners, and Thomas asked him if he would like to jointly produce a song for us-po. It turns out that Tony-san also loves Japanese culture and told Thomas that we would definitely want to do it together. The 2 of them contacted Crown (Nippon Crown) and asked “Could we co-produce 1 song (for BAND-MAID)?” -po. On our end, we thought it was some scam at first, “could that be true?”. We were rather unnerved but it turned out to be true and realized in the end-po.
On the production, where did it start and where did it end?
Saiki: Everything (the whole song).
Kanami: At first, we sent him a demo from me which included Saiki’s recorded vocals. I thought we would get various exchanges on amendments or something, but we got the reply “Great. Let’s go with this”.
Kobato: It was an immediate reply with acceptance (can’t quite translate 二つ返事 properly).
Kanami: At that time, there was anxiety like “Is it really going to be ok?”, so with Tony’s reply, it was a real confidence booster. He is an internationally well-known producer, so that means our music could work internationally as well. The instrumental recording was done in Japan but the 2 vocalists flew to Japan to do the vocal recording. In addition to melody-work, the song arrangement was also mostly redone.
Kobato: We were supposed to record the vocals at Tony’s studio in New York, but when we were there, we were told they would like to work together to think about the melody on the spot while working on the production. We had never done that before, so I thought that we could come up with something new-po.
How was the recording session with Tony-san?
Kobato: He was very friendly and gentlemanly and went “I want you all to sing what you want to sing and at the same time, create something that brings it out even more, so let’s do this together”. He would hum melodies or use the keyboard and have Kobato try singing along. While recording these melodies, I’d think “let’s have Saiki try singing this-po!”. In this manner, we progressed. From the foundation demo, only the main melody of the chorus (“That’s why......) remains unchanged-po.
The lyrics are in English, right?
Kobato: We had 1 song with all-English lyrics during our indies days, but none since our major debut. Tony-San said “BAND-MAID performs all over the world, so i think it would be better to have a song sung in English, which will lead to more masters and princesses listening to your other songs”. That was his advice to us-po. He added that having something simple like reading the story of a picture book suits the current BAND-MAID and will probably also be well-received in the US. That’s how the lyrics came to be-po.
Saiki: Throughout the recording, (he) kept praising us. Saying things like “I can feel the possibilities of your potential”. For our 2 shows in New York City during our US tour, he came to watch us on both occasions.
Kobato: At that time, he also came to praise us in a very excited state. “You girls are performing real rock music, so I think you will be able to do even more internationally.” We were really happy to hear these words spoken to us.
Kanami: Regarding the (song’s) mix, Tony-San shaved off a lot of sounds from the guitars, bass and drums. He also told us that it’s perfectly fine to keep things simpler. When I heard the finished product, I was very moved. I thought “this is the sound of the US huh”, and felt it with my skin. It (The NYC shows) was the first time he heard the 5 of us live and so, he immediately went back after the show to redo the mixing for us. It was like “I’ve got it!” .
Kobato: We’re really thankful that we were able to get to know Tony-San -po. We learnt many things and also felt that our music was really loved and appreciated. He was unbelievably friendly and after our last show in NYC we went to see him because we definitely had to bid him goodbye in person. At the farewell he asked us “When will you come again next time?” with tears in his eyes and we ended up crying as well-po .
Saiki: He felt like a close relative. It was really a great experience.
In rod we truss.
"Quelle opulence" - themidnighter
"It's sink or swim - shut up!"
