Billboard Japan spoke with SCANDAL for the most recent installment of its Girls in Music interview collection that includes feminine gamers within the Japanese leisure business. The WIM initiative in Japan started final 12 months to have fun artists, producers and executives who’ve made vital contributions to music and impressed different girls by way of their work.
The four-woman band is gearing as much as carry out at Billboard Japan’s Girls In Music Vol. 1 occasion, set for Nov. 3 on the Hibiya Open-Air Live performance Corridor in Tokyo. This 12 months marks SCANDAL’s seventeenth anniversary and the band has been licensed the “longest-running rock band with the identical musicians (feminine)” by the Guinness World Information. This newest interview highlights the inner-strength of the 4 members as they elaborate on the significance of self-reflection by way of their views on being labeled a “lady band,” the difficulties girls face when making an attempt to stability a music profession and motherhood, and extra.
You’ll be performing on the Girls In Music Vol.1 present in November. How did you are feeling once you have been requested to do it?
HARUNA: We’re all delighted to have been invited to this excellent occasion this 12 months, which can also be necessary to us as a result of it’s our seventeenth 12 months as a band collectively and we’re making an attempt for a Guinness World Report consequently. Being a girl is one thing we’ve at all times valued in our profession as a band, so we predict that is the right occasion for us.
RINA: Though we haven’t laid down the small print of our efficiency but, we hope to indicate the place we’re as a band proper now together with a brand new track we’ll be dropping subsequent month. Additionally, as HARUNA mentioned, the idea of the occasion hyperlinks to our personal sentiments, so we need to make a press release by way of our music whereas additionally having enjoyable.
Can’t wait to see you carry out. You talked about that you simply’ve valued being a girl in your profession. May you be extra particular about how this has influenced SCANDAL’s actions?
RINA: In our case, particularly throughout a sure interval a few decade in the past, we have been typically instructed how we’d “gone past the scope of a lady band” or that we “have been not a lady band, however a rock band.” I’m certain it was meant as a praise, but it surely felt actually off on the time. Once we thought of why it felt that approach, we realized we’d by no means felt lady bands have been by some means higher or worse than some other form of music, and that we simply actually appreciated them as a style. Being a lady band had solely optimistic connotations for us, so after we have been instructed we’d “gone past” it or no matter, we couldn’t take that as a praise.
TOMOMI: I started to assume round that point that it’d be good if folks may get pleasure from music created by girls in a band in a extra unbiased approach.
Till I met you all, I assumed that prefacing “band” with “ladies” was pointless and that you simply is perhaps proof against being known as that. So once you mentioned you prefer it as a style by itself and take delight in it, I spotted my lack of know-how. What do you want about it?
TOMOMI: We’ve had alternatives to carry out outdoors of Japan since our indie days, and used to put on matching college uniform outfits onstage again then. Due to that fashion, I believe native audiences noticed lady bands as part of Japanese popular culture like anime and manga. Once we have been interviewed within the U.S., we have been requested why we didn’t begin a dance group as 4 girls in music. I believe a part of the explanation why they requested was as a result of EDM was big again then, so all-female rock bands will need to have been uncommon over there. Being categorized like that felt new so we took it in a optimistic approach.
RINA: It appears rock bands have gone out and in of vogue in numerous international locations over time. We’ve been doing this for 17 years because the fads have come and gone, and I believe we’ve been in a position to open doorways for women who need to play an instrument or play in a band. That’s additionally one in every of our causes for at all times taking delight in our id as a lady band.
MAMI: For us, taking part in in a lady band is extra about residing our lives in our personal approach, moderately than liking the lady band style and doing it for its personal sake. Being in a band has been one of the best ways for us to ship messages by way of our songs concerning the issues we really feel in our each day lives.
You all met at a music college the place you took vocal and dance classes, and the instructors organized so that you can begin taking part in devices, which is how you bought began as a band. There weren’t as many all-women bands again then in comparison with as we speak. How did you are feeling at first?
RINA: It was a problem studying the best way to play an instrument I’d by no means performed earlier than and it was arduous technique-wise. However there was additionally pleasure in doing one thing no one round us had ever completed, and it was enjoyable regularly turning into higher at one thing I couldn’t do earlier than. We have been the primary lady band at our music college, in order that additionally felt particular.
HARUNA: I enrolled in that college as a result of I at all times beloved music and needed to get on stage to sing and dance. However I couldn’t get my large break. I used to be in my final 12 months of highschool on the time (of the band’s formation), so I used to be questioning whether or not I ought to go to school with out realizing my dream or begin in search of a job and didn’t need to miss that chance. I may need given up if I’d been alone, however I used to be in a position to get pleasure from every day anew and hold at it because of the opposite three members.
Why do you assume fewer girls type bands in comparison with males within the first place?
RINA: Nicely, you possibly can’t type a band alone and once you type one with solely girls, there’ll come a time when every member comes throughout life modifications like possibly having children sooner or later. Our our bodies change all through our twenties and thirties regardless, so even in case you have the drive, it’s possible you’ll run into issues concerning bodily power and time constraints. In that sense, the bar is perhaps larger for girls than for males.
TOMOMI: Yeah. If every of us had children at totally different instances, we’d need to droop our actions for numerous years. So I actually respect artists who proceed their music profession whereas elevating kids. It should be so arduous.
HARUNA: When you think about that, we would have been fortunate to have fashioned the band early. We will hit that life stage the place issues change after we’ve established ourselves to some extent as a result of we began early.
RINA: There was a time once I nervous about these related issues as different girls who’re, say, workplace staff and never in music about the best way to stability my profession and personal life. I assumed so much about what it meant to have a contented and pleasing life and that modified the way in which I make music.
HARUNA: Yeah. We went by way of a part of writing a number of upbeat, flamboyant songs that hype up the gang in festivals and concert events, however began questioning if that was actually sufficient.
MAMI: After we took a very good take a look at our personal lives and future as girls, that had an influence on our songwriting, which I believe was a extremely good factor.
Do the 4 of you ever discuss such modifications in how you are feeling with one another?
MAMI: It’s not like we repeatedly get collectively to debate such issues, however we do have alternatives, like now, to verify one another’s opinions in interviews and assume, “Yeah, she’s proper.” We additionally discuss it naturally after we’re writing songs. We’ve at all times shared a standard consciousness, which is to maintain taking part in music on this band whereas having fun with ourselves, staying wholesome each in physique and spirit, staying true, and for so long as we will.
TOMOMI: And constructing on this frequent consciousness, we need to hold updating ourselves and be the most recent model of who we could be, and that feeling is one thing we additionally share in our each day conversations I believe.
I’m starting to see how arduous it will need to have been to maintain going for 17 years. Why do you assume SCANDAL has been in a position to proceed for thus lengthy? What’s your secret?
MAMI: I do a whole lot of our songwriting, and at any time when I’m stumped about one thing I seek the advice of with the opposite members they usually typically give me hints that fill within the missing components. It’s like every one in every of us makes up for what the others lack.
TOMOMI: Perhaps the lecturers who first approached the 4 of us had an eye fixed for what would work. I’ve puzzled, “How did they know the way properly we’d alongside?” We match collectively like items of a puzzle.
HARUNA: And we by no means gave up taking part in our respective devices. We’re all aggressive and decided. [Laughs] Perhaps that’s what the lecturers noticed in us.
RINA: You’re proper. [Laughs] Even after 17 years, we’re nonetheless in alignment, pointing in the identical route. We went by way of a extremely lengthy interval of not being certain about the place we ought to be headed as a band. We tried so many alternative issues by way of our music and efficiency and even what we put on onstage. By way of all of it, surprisingly sufficient, our emotions have been aligned as to what will get us excited or not.
TOMOMI: We did have bother discovering route for a very long time, however we finally acquired previous that by making an attempt various things. I used to be most likely struggling to develop into somebody. I needed to suit into some form of mould, however as soon as I ended making an attempt, issues acquired simpler.
RINA: Additionally, our mantra is “talk till it will get throughout.” It doesn’t matter if it’s not elegant or cool, simply talk every thing we’ve from the stage. After we acquired into that mindset, we have been in a position to recover from our difficulties.
HARUNA: We additionally realized there are issues that may solely be communicated by conserving at it. I believe that’s why the music we specific retains altering increasingly. The issues we will solely do at this second in time is valuable, however so as to hold doing this for a very long time, we need to do music that we will proceed into our fifties with out it feeling awkward.
May you elaborate on what you imply by music you possibly can hold doing for a very long time?
RINA: BPM, tone, and lyrics. There’s a line the place we will inform if it’s OK with the place we are actually.
HARUNA: We’d wish to carry on incorporating phrases stemming from our personal lives within the lyrics and never simply concerning the spirit of the band. Not solely what’s seen on the floor, but additionally the phrases that come out of our each day lives and interior selves. Having these issues because the band’s persona will give it depth.
RINA: We’ve been working for thus lengthy that the significance of stopping for as soon as hit residence when the pandemic hit. Round that point, I spotted that any lifestyle could be made into music. Perhaps as a result of we’ve been lively since we have been younger, it’s arduous for folks to see us as mature girls. Everybody nonetheless remembers their impression from once they first noticed us. That’s why we’re making an attempt to precise who we are actually in our phrases and music, and really feel that we’ll have the ability to get pleasure from being on this band much more sooner or later by staying true to ourselves.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan
