original interview here
♪ Recording for「Halation」
Q1. What were your impressions when you first listened to the instrumental version and read the lyrics?
Furukawa Makoto：My immediate impression was “How do they make songs so badass and sexy!?” (lol)
When one thinks of RUBIA Leopard, the first thing that comes to mind is the intensity of their beat—which I’m also at the centre of with the thick vocal fry. That being said, I feel like Akane has been trying new things out with the band’s artistic direction recently, thereby getting off their beaten track. I was honestly struck by the scrupulous technicalities of the song in the service of such a melancholic yet impassioned melody. While the song is still very much in RUBIA Leopard’s style, there’s this… ‘Je ne sais quoi’ in its textures that hasn’t been quite explored by the band before. I find that so, so cool of them.
Lastly, I’d like to make a special shout-out to Mashiro for writing the lyrics! I wonder if he wrote them speaking from experience, or if he was making references to someone else… (lol) The glimpses at a man’s bleeding heart, concealed between the verses’ lines, coupled with the nostalgic melody made for a wonderful, emotionally-heavy song.
Q2. What was it like in the recording booth? Tell us what you were most conscious about, and what we should look forward to.
Furukawa Makoto：Singing was impossible! (lol) The sample files in themselves had no issue when I received them, of course; it’s when I began singing according to the score that I realised how small my window for error was. Each note was like clockwork, and I couldn’t miss any of its beats. Timing the breathing and suspensions was so tough, I began to suspect that it was intentional… There’s a certain “suffocation” that comes with the highs and lows of love after all; perhaps the song was built around that correlation: “if I can’t breathe, then I can’t sing” = “if I can’t sing, then I have less opportunity to tell you what’s weighting my heart.”
From the composition to the lyrics, Akane and Mashiro sure are crazy individuals. (lol)
On the other hand, I feel like Akane would approach the lyrics with an objective eye: he would be able to pick up the real, heavy sentiments that were poured into this story, as well as the implicit message Mashiro wanted to convey. As a singer bringing Akane to life, I had to preserve his usual fierceness and intersperse Akane’s personal interpretation of the lyrics.