KANNO YOKO x GRANDFUNK Special Long Interview

VOL.04

translation by mai

RELATED PEOPLE COMMENTS CATALOG

Miyuki Hatekayama

When I go to the studio, and I receive Kanno’s smile, I am somewhat wrapped up with a magical sense of security. If I entrust all to her, everything is alright; As long as I do as she says, everything is alright.
Then, in fact, it’s true, that while I was looking at her in blank amazement, I see resonating music being constructed inside her head, and I am overwhelmed in wonder.
Ms. Kanno, who gives those accurate, prompt instructions, is so cool.
Ms. Kanno, congratulations on the launch of your work collection!
When we meet by chance, I’d be happy to have a meal with you ♡

Yukawa Shione

Ms. Kanno’s work place is always wrapped up in a spirit of good feeling and anticipation.
When I receive a call there, a new breath is born inside myself each time.

My best regards in the future.

keyco

Ms. Kanno, congratulations on the second part of your CM Yoko release ☆ Being able to work with Ms. Kanno became a very good learning experience. Her methods are done softly and gently, yet very briskly. I am in love with the way she speeds up recording with great concentration and decisiveness.
Please allow me to join you in future big activities!!!

(more…)

KANNO YOKO x GRANDFUNK Special Long Interview

VOL.02

translation by Fuducky

CM YOKO2 – AN EXPLANATION OF EACH SONG BY THE COMPOSER

-The cover of The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love.” First of all, the band groove is superb.

Yeah, the clapping, the drums, and what not.

- The drummer you got was Araki Yuuko-san (A very popular drummer who is in great request for both shows and recordings by the likes of Kururi, Cornelius, Suga Shikao, etc. and who also has her own unit called Migu) wasn’t it? What was your impression of Araki-san?

She plays the drums in a very universal way that transcends generations. Very band-like yet very classical. There is a certain kind of catchiness to her drumming.

-The way you replaced the brass counter melody ‘tara ta tara~’ that’s after the ♪All you need is love～with the ‘kankankankan’ banging pipe sound leaves quite an impression.

­I did it going along with the cut breaks in the video (of the CM).

­-Did you have any direction points for the recording?

Essentially nothing needed to be said to Araki-san and the band (The same band members for Cornelius’ live sessions, Guitar/Shimizu Hirotaka, Bass/Kitada Maki). From the moment we invited them, I knew all would go well.

-“Kojika (Fawn)”

Oh, the one for Tauchi-san (Director Tauchi Takeya of M-one Productions). It was for a makeup commercial and, at the time, it was quite a busy period. So when I showed up to the studio without any makeup on, Kanehashi-san berated me saying, ‘It’s work for a makeup product, so at least put on some lipstick!’ (laughs). At the time, I didn’t have the mindset that our company offered a service. So when I was told that, I suddenly realized, ‘oh, this is a service industry’ (laughs). Looking at it from the client’s perspective, even though the song turned out well, they were probably thinking, ‘what the heck? Who is this girl?’

-(laughs) It’s a wonderful arrangement that integrates modern music and comical soundtrack elements with marvelous timing in just a 15 second segment.

Yes, even though I’ve never really studied modern music. The arrangement followed that kind of mysterious but cute image that you get when you see the fawn pop up in the forest.

-“Himatsuri no Odori”

We had all great musicians perform this.

-Toyoshima Yasushi (vl), Kanda Masaharu (vc), Imahori Tsuneo (g), Date Gen (perc), and Kanno-san on keyboard. A leader in the classical world, a leader in the studio world, a leader in the guitar world, and a leader in the Latin world met for a very rich and varied session. And the ‘hoi hoi’ shouts in the background by us staff (laughs).

This usually impossible session is the best part of CM music. Making a band with people you’ve never met before… this kind of sound is great. It’s something you can’t do in other genres besides CMs. The performers too are more enjoyable. Yes, and I quite frequent round up the on-site staff for shouts, handclaps, and things like that (laughs).

-This “Modern Line” song that appears…

Why did I write this type of song, I wonder (laughs).

-I definitely do not want to miss this opportunity to ask the composer that (laughs).

A picture… a line, rolls up and became this song.

­­-Hm?

How should I put it, it’s quite physical. It’s like I made my body into a line and danced (using her body she makes gestures like a line dancing) and it became a song.

-I see… I don’t know any other song that is quite as catchy in modern arrangements. It gently hints but stays in your head.

It’s great isn’t it? Shimizu Yasuaki-san did multiple recordings by himself of the music as written. I probably couldn’t think up anything other than this. I don’t have a sense for modern music since I’ve never really understood it in the first place. I’m sure there are many types of modern music, but one way of creating it is the rejection of anything melodious isn’t it? Like creating a song through mathematically replace the musical scale and intervals with the alignment of the stars. I don’t make songs like that because, for me, the melody is always dominant. So that’s probably why it stays in your head.

-I see, you are quite known for this song since it’s won many awards. It’s solid and stylish, a song where you can feel everything perfectly.

Next is “Success Road.” (more…)

Fuducky, I (and this community) owe you a million internetz for this translation. Thank you!

KANNO YOKO x GRANDFUNK Special Long Interview

VOL.01

translation by Fuducky

-Tominaga Keisuke (GRANDFUNK Inc.): You were abroad until yesterday weren’t you? Where did you go and what were you there for?

YK: I was in America on the west and east coasts for about 10 days seeing two shows a day. I saw Elton John, the Cher and Cirque du Soleil collaboration, Bette Midler, Celine Dion, David Byrne, etc… I saw quite a few but Bette Midler was the highlight out of the bunch!

I almost haven’t seen anything that amazing before.

Even though the stage was bright pink, and there were sexy dancers wearing almost nothing in the background, I couldn’t take my eyes of Bette Midler who is in her 60s! Just when the audience was full of energy and I couldn’t help laughing as she ran around the narrow stage from end to end, sat in a car seat while in a mermaid outfit (laughs), she came out in a simple black one-piece without high-heels and began singing a ballad (Rose) so magnificently… so cool! Anyway, it was amazing… It would be impossible for me to do that (laughs).

In the professional world of show business, when looks are not her selling point, it is not a half-hearted thing to pull off something like that. If you have an opportunity, you should definitely see it. I was really surprised.

-That sounds amazing (laughs). I would like to see it once.

With the new CM Yoko site and the release of CM Yoko2, it’s a new step for Grand Funk so I would like to have a long interview with you about how you got to where you are now.

Sure

-Please tell me about your very first experience with music.

It’s been reported a few times before so you know right? Oh well (laughs). On a visit to my relative’s house when I was two and a half years old, after my parents saw how unwilling I was to part with the piano that my relatives had, they decided to buy a piano for me. I can still remember that time.

Actually I recently asked my parents about it. According to them, they bought me a piano so that in the future when I became a housewife, I could teach children in the neighborhood how to play piano because I would be too busy even to drink a cup of coffee. To their disappointment, I did not become a piano teacher (laughs).

­-There’s nothing to be disappointed about since you’ve become such a great musician (laughs). I didn’t know all that. And after that?

­In my own style, I played piano and sang so loud that my parents told me to stop because it was embarrassing (laughs). The preschool I went to was Christian… I wasn’t really religious or anything but we got to sing hymns which I really loved. In the hymn collection on the first page it was written, ‘do not take the lord’s name in vain.’ Being so small, I mistook it to mean ‘don’t sing hymns in front of people.’ But I wanted to sing them, so I would cover myself in the futons in the closet and sing ‘ma~mi~noki~’ (laughs).

-For Kanno-san hymns were the forbidden fruit. So what about the first song you made?

That was also in preschool. ‘xxx-kun in the neighborhood is so cool, I like him’ –that kind of song was the first I think. My parents were strict so I couldn’t say that kind of thing, but if I made it into a song I could say it as loud as I wanted.

-And elementary and middle school?

Representing the school, I entered local composition competitions targeting students. I always won.

­-How did you win every time?

In those competitions, you were asked either to select from given lyrics and make music for it or choose a motif from a list and make a song out of it. Even though you only had to choose one, with one hour, I could do them all. I made music for all the lyrics, I developed all the motifs, and even made D-part melodies (extended part of a chorus with A, B, and C parts). I’m sure the judges thought I was a very annoying kid (laughs).

-…you were an amazing kid. Like the heroine of ‘Garasu no kamen,’ Kitajima Maya (laughs). Around that time, did you receive the guidance of any judges that were musicians like Akutagawa Yasushi? (more…)

I just fetched it in the mail today

The packaging is pretty detailed and fancy, but considering that it comes from a recording company that primarily makes advertisement music, this is to be expected.

The main jacket is just one piece, which opens up like a book and houses the lyrics on the left pocket, and the CD in the right pocket. The CD itself is wrapped in a semi-transparent envelope with some text on it.

As I mentioned, the jacket opens up, and inside it are images of Kanno and a chick, with the song names pointing to parts of their bodies like in an anatomy book. (more…)

I’ve mentioned before that I’m too lazy to check Grand Funk for the CMs that suddenly appeared without notice… apparently ffbum has checked them out way before I noticed them last February!!! There are certainly gems in here, and not just the instrumental version of After All.

Looks like one of these tracks will go to Space Bio Charge I’m sure you guys will know what I’m talking about once you hear it.

Also, I just noticed that there are tracks there under “Samply Red” too, which aren’t in ffbum’s collection. Nothing particularly of my liking though. Here are some from ff’s set that I like.

These are only some of the “hidden CMs”, the rest are downloadable in the YK FanBlog.

For reference, the tracks are:

10039 – Shiseido
11026 – Toshiba
4123 – NTT Do.Co.Mo
7132 – Murata Manufacturing Co.
5052 – NTT Group
6025 – Asahi Kasei (more…)

Thanks to Yuki from Wanna be a Wind!

As some Kanno fans might know, there are some Kanno songs that are “recycled”, in a sense that they are essentially the same song, but were used in completely different releases. In this case, “After All” is a song from Turn-A Gundam, while “February Stakes* Kiri (February Stakes Mist)” is a CM she made for the Japan Racing Association. They were released on the years 2002 and 1997 respectively.

*I am not sure about “Stakes”, I’m just guessing out of context. The text says “スティクス”, and “sticks” or “styx” doesn’t seem to make sense.

For those who want check Grand Funk, it’s under “CM Music > Sa”. For those who are lazy, I downloaded it and you may want to listen to it here:

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