◆About a life after a debut
- Why did you decide to record your records outside of Japan ?
I really wanted to. Carol King was my favorite singer and song writer and
I used to listen to her records. While listening to a wide variety of music
including hers, I felt that the records made in the U.S. sounded better.
So I definitely wanted to have my records made in the U.S. I was not concerned
about the cost, but I had this dream and it came true. No other Japanese
singer had ever done this before, so it wasn't easy to get permission to
do it, but my manager finally agreed to let me try it, and I went to the
U.S. for the recording.
- Were you able to communicate with the musicians in English at that time?
A little. We were completely different types of people who grew up on the
opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean. I was very nervous the whole time.
Everyone at the recording studio called me by my first name, 'Mayumi, Mayumi',
and tried to help me relax. I realized that it was a very good atmosphere.
- How did your audiences react after you appeared in a TV commercial ?
Well, I appeared in a TV commercial for pens and they had used my song
'Tobacco Smoke' as background music.Later when I had a joint concert with
a Japanese folk singer in Kyoto, he started singing 'Tabako no kemuri(Tobacco
Smoke)' as a joke. The audience suddenly went crazy but I didn't know what
he had done at thetime. The audience kept getting more and more enthusiastic
and I didn't know why. At that time, I realized how much influence the
media had on people and I still remember the situation clearly.
- What kind of clothes did you wear at that time?
I always wore jeans.
- Did you wear them from the beginning?
Yes, I didn't have any dressy clothes.
- Did wearing jeans match your feelings?
Yes, it did. It suited me perfectly. I believed the jeans existed only for me.(laughing)
- What other kinds of clothes did you wear besides jeans?
I often wore cotton clothes, especially loose clothes. I wore only cotton
clothes, like the Japanese proverb 'Kitakiri suzume (sparrows wearing the
same clothes everyday)'. I also liked T-shirts ,especially T-shirts with
something printed on them. They seemed to suit me fine, with my guitar.
- What kind of books did you read then?
I didn't read much, but I sometimes read books by Kenji Miyazawa. I read
some novels by Soseki Natsume later.
- Did you receive fan letters?
I think that they were delivered to the office. At the time of my debut,
I didn't understand the meaning of turning professional and becoming popular.
I only knew that my records were released, but I didn't know what would
happen after that. I was really at a loss at that time. I knew people were
listening to my records somewhere that I didn't know about, but I couldn't
grasp the idea that so many people were actually coming to my concerts.
I became more and more cautious. My albums sold well and externally I was
becoming famous, but at the same time, my heart was going turning inside.
Maybe I was supposed to be like that.
- Have you had more and more interviews since then?
Actually I have a pretty bad reputation among the media people. They say
"Mayumi Itsuwa never answers the questions."(laughing) I did
not even give serious answers to questions like 'What is your favorite
color?'
- In doing that, you decided to concentrate your energy on writing your
own songs, didn't you?
Yes, I did. I didn't write songs just to sell my records or to be a star,
or to be superior. I started singing out of a pure wish to find myself.
I didn't expect that my songs to become hits. I tried to stay out of the
limelight that attracts people to hang around like groupies, so as a result
I avoided things like having interviews. If I had wanted to be famous,
I would have followed a more traditional way, the track already laid out
ahead of me. But I intentionally avoided that kind of situation.
- Did you have different songs for the albums and for singles at that time?
No, not at all. If I had done that from the beginning, it wouldn't have
felt right. I didn't plan anything. I just wrote songs from my heart.
- How long did you continue writing the lyrics first?
Well, I did that from 1972 and even do so a bit to this day, depending
on the situation. Sometimes the music and the lyrics come together, like
an inspiration. But most of the time now, the music comes first.
- Which songs were like that?
The first example where I wrote the lyrics first were 'Sayonara dake wa
iwanaide' and 'Nokoribi' and also 'Aikagi' and 'Koibito yo'. Maybe after
that, when I was writing 'Marionette', the idea for the lyrics and the
music came together like places and time suddenly merged into one. I thought
'These lyrics may fit that tune', or 'Well, there is a time lag of about
this much.'(laughing) I think 'Koibito yo' is my best song. While writing
those songs, it seemed I had reached a high point in my writing. I got
the feeling I could write songs in a different way, kind of relaxing into
it. Then the music came to me first.
- Were you nervous the second time you recorded outside of Japan?
The second time was easier because the musicians were the same. My voice
had became stronger, and I think I was more relaxed.
- At that time, have you ever thought of writing in a more western style?
Not at all. For me, I used to write the lyrics first. For example, I wrote
the melody for the song 'Tobacco no kemuri' to call attention to the lyrics.
There were a lot of lyrics though. I never thought of westernizing my songs.
- You said that your father used to play Koga music at home, but your songs
are more like western music. Why is that?
I heard my father playing a lot of Japanese music when I was growing up
but I also listened to other types of music on the radio -- American music,
French music, Italian music, etc. That influence became apparent in my
songs after 'Sayonara dake wa iwanaide'. I told you that I changed my style
around 1978. My songs have been influenced more by Japanese pop songs since
then. Before that period, I felt reluctant and embarrassed to write pop
songs, so I didn't dare to try it. I think I could have if I had wanted
to. Pop songs are a kind of conservative, don't you think? I had the idea
that a young generation needed something new.
|
