JUNGLE LIFE
“THE WORLD WE CAN SEE FROM THIS PLACE WE’VE STRUGGLED THROUGH MANY THINGS TO FIND OUR WAY TO IS BEAUTIFUL.”
Through their 10th anniversary year in 2017, guitarist JaY joining last year, and then drummer Hibiki officially joining from January 2019 on, Matenrou Opera has developed into the current line-up. In the midst of all that they have, after their two part metal concept work of “Pantheon Part 1” (April 2017) and “Pantheon Part 2” (November 2017) brought a full album to perfection. Letting us remember vividly Matenrou Opera that we’ve know up until now, while packed full as can be with the sound of the fusion of the current 5 people’s natures, is the album “Human Dignity.” Depicting the energy of humans to live, and evolving it into a profoundly sublime world, the sound of their newest form expresses a beautiful world before our eyes.
“From here on out we still have this special feeling like we can do something new. Just like the mood from back when the band was formed, feeling like “we can bring forth a miracle.”
☆ On January 1st of this year Hibiki-san was allowed to officially join as a member. Up until then there was a support period, right?
Hibiki: Yes, that’s right. I acted as support for about 7 months.
☆ Hibiki-san, from your point of view, has your impression of Matenrou Opera changed from before you joined to after you joined?
Hibiki: A changed impression, you say? Well, there’s a feeling like I was able to see a part that I didn’t know up until then. I didn’t really know this scene in full detail, but still I’d actually known of Matenrou Opera since way back. That’s because the musicianship has metal as it’s foundation.
☆ Yes
Hibiki: So, my impression of what you’d call the musical part is unchanged, but actually with trying getting involved, I’m getting to see the personal human side and such. I can say for sure it’s my number one reason for deciding to officially join is that Matenrou Opera’s interpersonal relations are really awesomely nice. I had been doing two bands up until this, and playing support for quite a few besides that, so I’ve been seeing a lot of bands really. During those experiences, on top of doing a band, I think what really is crucial is the way their human relations are, don’t you?
☆ Indeed
Hibiki: And however famous a band may become, if their human relations are broken, they totally won’t go on. Having that thought in mind, getting involved with Matenrou Opera, getting to know each member personally was huge, you know.
☆ From the other members’ perspective, what is Hibiki-san like?
Sono: He’s a person who can do things well, isn’t he? I’ve kept on the lookout for a flaw, but there’s none to be found.
☆ Amazing
Ayame: I’ve been searching for a flaw all this time too, and there is kinda a shortcoming. He doesn’t drink carbonated beverages.
Hibkiki: That’s right. I don’t drink carbonated drinks.
☆ That’s his only failure? LOL
Ayame: ‘Cause that means he doesn’t drink beer either, and I thought it might be bothersome at the launch party on tour and such. But, when he was taught about oolong tea highball and jasmine tea highball he drank it like it was delicious, so I’m glad.
☆ Hahaha LOL. Yo-san, I would think you have a lot of interaction being in the so called rhythm section together.
Yo: When we were requesting support there was a bare minimum of Matenrou Opera songs we required, but when I actually tried working with Hibiki he was drumming well at way more than we’d required, and on top of that his personality is good too. Without fail, I’ve been searching for a flaw too, and just recently I found that he doesn’t drink coffee much either.
Hibiki: I’m not very fond of coffee.
Everyone together: HAHAHA LOL
☆ So his weakness lies in drink, LOL. JaY-san, how is your impression of Hibiki-san?
JaY: For me with Hibiki, I was in the band nearly a year and we’re the young generation, and I thought, “we’re living in the same era, but I wonder, why are we so different?”
☆ How would you say that is?
JaY: Hibiki-san is totes seriously serious, young yet so dependable. I think, like, “is he really a bandoman?” And is drumming is great too. He’s amazing.
☆ Like that, welcoming the new member, and the creative work to ring in the present line-up, the current album, is called “Human Dignity,” correct?
Sono: Yeah, that’s right. As for the making of this new album, the first creation of these five people, the reflection of Matenrou Opera up until now… Ayame and Yo and I, the part the three of us have… and the part that JaY and Hibiki have… the loudness factor… thinking it would probably be good if we could mix it all together, we got started. And so, I was listening to this riff that JaY had which is the intro to Track-1 “Human Dignity,” and I was like “this is the song!” like it hit me like *ping* as they say. I was like “when I add the melody to this sound, and the members flesh it out, it’ll really become this new Matenrou Opera, won’t it. So crafting “Human Dignity” first, from there we expanded out into the whole album.
☆ I felt that vibe from “Human Dignity.”
Sono: Yes. Cause this is the first song that was made really firmly getting a sense of these five people. We made this song around summertime last year, a little before that we had the discussion with Hibiki-san, saying “I want to become a member” and the timing got to be like “let’s do this together,” so it was a phase of getting a sense of “what can we five people do?” So “Human Dignity” was, like, born during that.
☆ JaY-san, what kind of image would you say you made the riff of “Human Dignity” with?
JaY: When I made this music, I had the image of the first music in an album. Isn’t there a pattern of the intro music flowing when you play a CD? On the contrary, when first playing the CD I wanted “BAM!” and so I put in this guitar, y’know.
☆ It has impact, like you raised the curtain.
Sono: It’s a perfectly JaY-like guitar riff, and it was easy to blend our colors in the song. Cause we had this reaction like “when we finish this it’s gonna be so cool!” so we chose that music to become the linchpin of the album.
☆ I felt that what you sing about in “Human Dignity” was conveyed in the whole work. To put it specifically, “life” and “death.” Those two are really a common thread throughout the whole work, right?
Sono: Yes, that is so. The meaning of the words “Human Dignity” is “ningen no songen” (human dignity), and concerning the lyrics of this song, it’s the power of a human to live, I made it to be something stamping, pounding, with that person’s resolve or pride. Like we just discussed, hearing the guitar riff that JaY had, there was a sense of strongly feeling the human-ness, wouldn’t you say? I thought, “it’s not basic rock, it’s not basic metal, it’s a riff with depth,” so when I got the image from there, I went on to express through the lyrics the “strength” that humans have.
☆ It was a sound that resonated with emotion.
Sono: It really is, isn’t it? More than straight fist pumping in the air “ganbarouze!” (let’s never give up!) lyrics, I more wanted to sketch an image of what’s within humans.
☆ Indeed. I think the present work has all kinds of impressive songs, for example, track 7 「箱の底のMUSIC」 (hako no soko no MUSIC/ music of the bottom of the box) takes the mixture approach, doesn’t it? Although it’s in the middle of the album, it’s a pretty unique song.
JaY: This song is only around 1 minute and 20 seconds long, but at the live, I wonder, how many times might we do it?
☆ Would you say it’s easy for the fans to get a sense of unity and join in this one together?
Sono: We put a clap in this song, but while we were working on an arrangement saying “ah” it added up steadily. The seed is this track, with it being only 1 minute 20 seconds, it’s jam packed with a whole lot of elements.
☆ Eh? You say?
Sono: ‘Cause there’s the clap, and we put in indies era stuff… stuff from over 10 years ago, into an instant, and we put whole lyrics from songs from a few years ago in there. It’s really a song with a lot of tricks.
☆ Ah, so it’s like that? I didn’t pick up on it to that extent.
Sono: Will the people who know 10 years plus of Matenrou Opera catch these tricks? This 1 minute and 20 seconds crammed full of that idea. These days momentum of “Let’s do something fun!” has been overflowing in the band, lots of ideas like that were flying out of every member.
☆ I think so. When listening again and again the fans will savor it more deeply, when they discover these “tricks” they’ll be happy, huh.
Sono: Well, yeah, I’d kinda like to explain all the elements I’m referring to, but it’s all prepared for this point.
☆ Hahaha LOL. Also, there’s one part that stood out to me, the song that you as 9th in the album, “Cee.” With rap guitar, it’s an impressive instrumental track. With the song placed in this position, I’d say the flow of the whole work is story-like, right?
Sono: Ooh.
☆ When I listened through the album, from Track 1 “Human Dignity” to Track 8 “actor” with “longing” and “problems” and such, in the songs, I got the impression of a bit of a dark mood.
Sono: Mmhmm.
☆ But going through the instrumental “Cee” the thing is the mood that’s in the middle of the song feels like it shifted.
Sono: Ah really? Well, strictly speaking, we didn’t make the flow with that aim, I didn’t do the lyrics with that aim. But for sure, due to the placing of the instrumental in this position it gives it a feeling of the story shifting, right? Sketching out “longing” and “problems” up until there, after the change from “Cee” you could say we’re sketching hope heading to the end of the album.
☆ Yeah yeah. The flow from after the ballad 「見知らぬ背中」(unfamiliar back) at track 10 to “SNOW” at track 11, and towards track 12 “The WORLD” makes the story-style prominent, and as you’ve said when finishing up listening to the album I feel great “hope.”
Sono: That’s right, hmmm? But the thing is, at first we weren’t particularly aware of crafting the album in that way. But, concerning the result, the story born in the song order, that’s a win for the ideas of the members who thought up the song order, isn’t it. Concerning song order, the thing is since we have all the songs present at the start of recording, the members decide it, so during that the flow came to be like that.
☆ Well especially in the album’s finale “The WORLD” the feeling became like everything is redeemed. I feel like I accepted all the longing and problems depicted in the rest of the songs.
Sono: In the opening songs I did the lyrics whittling away at the dark part of human nature, but in “The WORLD” I put the beautiful part out in front. Cause everyone keeps struggling to carry on, but I wanted to say “even so, it’s alright, really.” The making of “The WORLD” wasn’t particularly the last in the production, but we did make it with an eye on the finale. This song, the image that the warm melody made the sound bloom into, was connected with the succor expressed in the lyrics I think.
☆ It really is warm, isn’t it. This song is different from the rest, I’d say the like all the musical instruments are singing the melody?
Sono: “All the musical instruments are singing the melody,” that’s a good way to put it, huh, lol. It became an arrangement where everyone seemed to make the best of the melody, right? With this song everyone, from the beginning when everyone took on the arrangements, it was turning into something where they were enlivening the melody, actually I said, like, “It’s really alright to do it freely as you please more.” But since the melody part got stronger and stronger, naturally we polished it up from this form I think.
☆ Certainly it’s turned out to be an album which expresses the newest form of Matenrou Opera. What would you like to say about the tour that will follow the release?
Sono: The state of the band at present, from here on out we still have this special feeling like we can do something new. Just like the mood from back when the band was formed, feeling like “we can bring forth a miracle.” So, I think it will be good if it becomes a tour where we can share that with the fans, y’know. I think when everyone sees us live they’ll get to saying “Wow, the current Matenrou Opera is badass.” There’s a reaction that with that we can continue on and move towards the next step, so I hope lots of people come see us.
Translated by: Ruth