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oritsu_luvCongratulations on your 10th anniversary! I’m sure they’ve been a 10 years so full of things to talk about that you could never get through it all, but what kind of a 10 years has this been for all of you?
NANA: I know it’s cliché, but they really went by so quickly. Looking back, it’s like, ‘We did that, and we did that too, didin’t we?’. Only, since we’ve got more memories than before we all talk about them more, and it’s a lot of fun.
LINA: It really did go quickly. But being able to have been together and have so many different experiences has really become something to treasure. I feel like every single thing we did for work was connected to the next day and that’s how we got here, and I think we’ve really grown.
REINA: I feel basically the same. All of a sudden it’s been 10 years. Looking back, we did so much each year, but when I hear the words ’10 years’, I think, ‘I’ve been together with everyone for a really long time!’ Because if you include our time as the Super Monkey’s it’s been over 10 years. I can’t really believe it.
I was also surprised that it was MAX’s 10th anniversary. It’s also been 3 years since Aki-san joined MAX.
AKI: Time goes so quickly!
How have those 3 years been for you, Aki-san?
AKI: They went by so quickly! I mean, I feel like three years ago were only yesterday. There were so many things that I was experiencing for the first time, and so much happened. I think they were a very full three years.
How did it feel to be suddenly be part of MAX, a group already known by everyone?
AKI: At first it didn’t feel real at all. I mean, it’s something that usually could never happen, right? So for the first year or so, if I didn’t ask myself ‘I’m in MAX now, right?’ I couldn’t grasp my situation. But as the days go by, I gradually become a part of MAX myself, and that’s how I want to be. I want to get even closer to the other three, those feelings get stronger every day.
To continue, I’d like to ask each of you which of your activities as MAX left the biggest impression on you so far.
REINA: Our first concert at the Budokan. The moment that they told us we were going to be in the Budokan. We’d release our album the year before and it had become a million seller. So we were all cheering together in the rehearsal room, (she laughs) and talking about how we hoped we could have concerts next year. A little while later when we were at the office, the President said, like it was nothing, ‘You’ll be doing the Budokan, you know!’. So at first we were like, ‘Huh? What?’, ‘You’re always joking!’. (she laughs) But we found out that the schedule was actually decided, and thought, ‘Can we really do it? Isn’t it too soon?’ I was so surprised, I still remember that moment really clearly.
And how was your first time standing in the Budokan?
REINA: I was nervous. I was so incredibly nervous. (she laughs)
NANA: Because our first concert as MAX was in the Budokan. And at the time, there were no other groups like us, so we had nothing to model ourselves after, we were completely in the dark, like ‘Where do we stand and what kind of thing do we talk about from that stage? And with four of us!’ (she laughs) We were doing so many things for the first time, so it really left an impression, but I was so nervous I can’t even remember every single thing that happened. I was completely absorbed in it. But the base we created then is connected to where we are now, so it’s one of our most precious memories, so the Budokan always comes up when we all talk about our memories as MAX.
What else is there, besides that?
LINA: Besides that? Other than concerts….I guess our movies. (she laughs)
AKI: I saw them! I saw them!!
LINA: We filmed a movie around when our third single ‘TORA TORA TORA’ came out. We’d released two singles before that but no one really knew who MAX was, and it was something we tried right when people were starting to know about MAX through ‘TORA TORA TORA’, so I remember it really well. Plus, we’d never studied anything but singing and dance up till then, and all of a sudden they were like, ‘You’re doing a movie’, and it was called ‘Ladies MAX’! (she laughs) And when we said, ‘What? Yankees!?’ we were told, ‘Well, if you just act that way, you’ll look like Yankees.’ (she laughs) We filmed the whole thing in only a week. Only, it felt like you got to see another side of the members of MAX that was different than singing and dancing, so that was a lot of fun.
REINA: And then, we were told that we’d introduce the movie, and we were worried that no one might come. And when we got there, there was about 5 or 6 fans that always came to see us, but there was a huge line in front of another people and we said , ‘Ooh, wouldn’t it be nice to have all those people! But we do have some fans who came, so let’s do out best!’ Then when we entered the venue, we realized that the line we’d thought was for another building was actually people who had come to see us, and I got goose bumps! We had been scheduled to do it twice, but suddenly it was increased to three times, and that made me really happy!
Speaking of which, who was the one who got the most into their role at the time? The one who seemed like they might get the acting bug?
NANA: I had always loved acting and wanted to do it, but since my first acting experience was a female gang members, it was actually hard. They said, ‘Just be yourself’, but I’ve never been in a gang! (she laughs) But it was fun.
REINA: But our roles as Yankees did have an effect on us, so even when I answered the phone in private, I’d be like ‘What!?’ (she laughs)
So that was the period when you used the most bad words. (he laughs)
LINA: They were bad. (she laughs) and our manners were bad too. (she laughs)
NANA: Later we did a dorama too. But in that we played people with psychic powers. (she laughs) For some reason we can never get normal roles.
What was it that left the most impression on you, Aki-san?
AKI: The first concert as MAX was really moving. To be able to perform in front of all those people. It’d always been a dream of mine. I thought, ‘I can’t believe they gave me so many parts to sing! Wow!’ Also, this is the very room that they told me, ‘We’re thinking of putting you in MAX.’ That might be the thing that I remember the most. I was like, ‘Say that again! What did you say just now?’
Didn’t you have any hint that it might happen?
AKI: Well, I did get a phone call all of a sudden telling to come down to the office right away. (she laughs)
It was a big turning point for MAX when Aki joined. What did you feel like then?
NANA: It was pretty hard! We really treasure the four members that had been together for some long. And we also thought that when what we had made together was suddenly changed, the fans wouldn’t accept it. Because there were a lot of people who said that besides just the singing and dancing, they really loved the strong bonds that the four of us had, and we didn’t want to betray those people, but talking about it many times, we came to realize that there were a lot of things we’d have to accept if we wanted to continue, and that was a battle, and we had to fight hard. And we also had time to take a look at ourselves individually and I think that was when we really grew mentally, really quickly after we became new. That’s when I first thought, ‘We’ve got to act like grown ups.’ We grasped it all slowly and gradually, but the period after we first became new, I fought with myself a lot. Because we needed to take care of Aki-chan properly, but there were also our old fans to think of, so I was in a dilemma about that.
LINA: It was difficult figuring out how to deal with my own feelings, and keep my condition up. Because something has happened that we’d never imagined. If we had imagined it, then we could have dealt with our feelings and responded to the situation, but the thunder came down so suddenly. (she laughs) We couldn’t read the situation, or comprehend it, just worry, ‘How in the world are we supposed to keep going?’
So did you ever think about breaking up?
NANA: It did come up.
REINA: Whether we added a new member or decided to break up, we wanted to make the choice that we all felt was right. Even if that choice was ‘We’re not MAX if it’s not the four of us, so let’s break up.’ But in the end, our feelings, and the feelings of our staff were, ‘We want to keep doing MAX.’, so that’s what we chose. So the three of us started talking together a lot more then about how ‘MAX’ would be now, and how to get our feelings across to the fans who had supported us up until then, and about how our old positions would change when Aki-chan joined. I was the type to say ‘Yeah!’ (she laughs) Like, ‘Let’s do this right!’. So I think that as we talked like that we gradually were able to get through things, to say, ‘Let’s be like this.’
You’ve reached this 10 year anniversary because you overcame that, but what do you yourself think is the reason you were able to overcome that and reach you 10th year?
NANA: Having our fans. When we thought about breaking up, there were so many fans to say they wanted us to keep going, and reading their letters and posts on the internet, we realized that with so many people telling us how much MAX meant to them, we couldn’t get rid of MAX just because it was good for us. It was because there were still people who said things like that, that we were able to feel that we should keep going until all those people were gone.
That gives you so much strength, being able to think that.
NANA: That’s right. Because we were able to think that, we were able to get through it. That’s why we make sure of each others feelings through concerts like this. Because even if we think, ‘It might be over’, we do a concert and if people are really moved, or say ‘Today was so much fun!’ we are able to feel, ‘We’ve got to do another one!’
All of you are growing everyday. Now, I heard how it was when Aki-san first joined, but do the three of you remember how you felt 10 years ago when MAX first started?
NANA, LINA, REINA: We really didn’t think about anything. (they laugh)
NANA: When I think of the beginning, it amazes me that we’ve come to give so much love to MAX, I mean, (she laughs) we were just going along with things back then.
LINA: We were! (she laughs)
NANA: It was a project, you see. They had the song first, and Avex really wanted to release ‘Koisuru Velfarre Dance ~ Saturday Night~’, and they’d been looking for girls who could sing it, and the needle pointed to us, who had been the Super Monkey’s at the time. We were like, ‘Huh? Us?’ (she laughs(
LINA: So it was supposed to be over after that one song.
NANA: At the time, we thought we’d always be the Super Monkey’s. (she laughs)
LINA: Also, there were a lot of other suggestions when they chose the name ‘MAX”, so we were worried about that. Like ‘Harem’ or ‘Lady Madonna’ or ‘The Buzz’. (she laughs)
NANA: And the song was playful, and we’d thought up the dance ourselves, just playing around and video taped it and taken it to the office so it started out with us just having fun and playing around, so we never thought that we’d keep doing it.
So why did things take off after that?
REINA: At the time, we were working as the Super Monkey’s as well, and had been told, ‘Be cute when you’re MAX’ , so we were just doing that (she laughs), and when we got ‘TORA TORA TORA’ we started to have more work as MAX. And I think that’s when we started to think of it not as a project but as an actual group.
NANA: And as we did more work we started to get our own ideas of how we wanted to do things.
REINA: But – and this is something we can only talk about now – we’d been told, ‘If ‘TORA TORA TORA’ doesn’t sell, we’re sending you back to Okinawa.’, (she laughs) so we all decided to try our hardest.
LINA: We were frantic, really, like, ‘We don’t want to go home! Please let us stay!’
And then this year, you had a party for your 10th anniversary, right?
NANA: It was quite a pary. (she laughs) All of our staff came, even people who had worked with us during our debut, and they’d made a video of our debut until now, and they played it.
LINA: And as a surprise a friend had contacted Reina’s family and had our parents write letters since it was our 10th anniversary, and they read they like it was a tv show or something. (she laughs)
REINA: And we all cried then.
NANA: And then Li-chan started the old cake throwing. (she laughs)
LINA: And I got in trouble. (she laughs)
(he laughs) But it sounds like it was an unforgettable ‘10th anniversary party’.
LINA: We were so happy! So many staff members came, and I really felt that it’s because we’re supported by all these wonderful people that we’ve made it this far. And I feel that way about the other members too.
NANA: I was so glad to have done it.
And you were so happy you threw cake. (he laughs)
NANA: We were!
LINA: I guess we’re still not adults. (she laughs)
REINA: As far as that goes anyway. (she laughs)
So I’d like to talk about what you’ve been doing this year now. You opened the year with a Count Down Concert, right?
LINA: We were singing ‘Issho ni…’ for the encore, and it started snowing!
AKI: The timing was great!
REINA: And more people came to see us than we’d imagined, so that made us really happy.
NANA: We like to be outside. Performing outside we’ll so good. I feel like I can sing better than usual if I’m singing in the midst of natural, like under the night sky, or in the snow!
LINA: But it’s just a feeling. (she laughs) But we really like to end, and to start, with a concert. Because we love performing.
Speaking of concerts, you gave a hotel concert tour this spring. What kind of tour was that?
NANA: We had said, ‘We’d like to show an adult side we haven’t done yet.’
LINA: Finally. (she laughs)
NAN: Finally. (she laughs). And since it was in a hotel we wanted to make it feel like showtime. So, we kept an adult feeling, and split it into Act one, and Act two. We wanted to surprise everyone, and started it with like a mini theatre. But we had thought it was so cool, but the fans who’d watched us for 10 years started to laugh! Maybe it was because we made it sort of like a parody, but we had made a video like and old black and white French movie, and we all mannish, dressed up as men, playing men, and some people laughed at that opening. So were standing by, feeling cool, so it was like, ‘Huh?’ (she laughs)
LINA: It shook our composure a little. (she laughs)
REINA: We said, ‘Why are they laughing?’ (she laughs)
NANA: But on the survey people filled out after the concert was over, a lot of people said things like, ‘It was better than the hall tour I went to before!’, so that made us really happy. After all, if you do a lot of concerts, they aren’t as fresh as the first time, and people get used to see what we’re doing, so their first time everyone says ‘That was great!’ but it’s hard to get them to say ‘That was great!’ about their tenth concert, so we were happy that they said that. We had only half the staff of a hall tour, so when people said, ‘It moved me just as much as a hall tour!’, we realized ‘We can put on concerts that make people think ‘You can’t get bored, they have so many new ideas, it was great!’, so we got a lot out of it.
What kind of concerts would you like to do next?
REINA: We want to a 10th anniversary live. We haven’t done a fan club sort of ‘10th anniversary!’ thing, so I’d like to do that this year.
LINA: We have to do what we say we will. ‘We’ll do one’!
REINA: We’re going to do one!
ALL: (laugh)
Got it! (he laughs) I’ll look forward to it. So, besides the hotel concert tour, you also appeared in an event called ‘SUPER EUROGROOVE PARTY’ at Velfarre the other day. How was that?
NANA: Everyone went crazier than we anticipated. It was amazing.
LINA: We were a bit bowled over. (she laughed) But we did our best not to get lost in all that. But it was a sensation we hadn’t felt in a while. It’d been a long time since we’d done a concert with Eurobeat, or even sang Eurobeat. But it felt like our memories were coming back, looking back like, ‘This is what it used to be like.’
NANA: But I do think that it might be interesting, because MAX sings so many different types of songs, to, for example, have a concert that was all Eurobeat, or a concert to hammer out the future MAX, to split them up like that. Apart from a tour.
With the number of songs you’ve got you could really do anything you wanted. So, I heard you performed your new song, ‘Nirai Kanai’ at ‘SUPER EUROGROOVE PARTY’, how was it singing that live?
LINA: It felt good. It feels good singing it live, and it felt really good recording it too. ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a song that feels good no matter where we sing it. I think it’s partially because it has some Okinawan sound to it, and that’s something we’re used to hearing. Like, it makes our Okinawan blood sing. (she laughs)
So, what were your reactions the first time you heard ‘Nirai Kanai’?
REINA: It was actually the last song we were given when we were choosing the song for this single. And, at first there’d been an idea of, ‘Since it’s your 10th anniversary, how about going back to your origins and doing Eurobeat?’ But at first we had rhought, ‘But, Eurobeat….?’, and out of all the songs that had been gathered, most of them were too hot, or to hyper, songs that just weren’t the current MAX, and we actually tried recording a few songs, but none of them felt right to us, and ‘Nirai Kanai’ was the last song we were given with ‘This is Ryukyu Eurobeat’. We were like, ‘What? If you had this song, why didn’t you give it to us in the beginning?’ (she laughs) We decided that there would completely be a point for us to do this song, and that’s why we chose it.
But when I first heard just the words ‘Ryukyu Eurobeat’, I thought, ‘What are they talking about?’
ALL; (laugh)
LINA: We thought that too at first (she laughs) but once we heard it, we thought, ‘We really want to sing this!’. It was fresh and new too.
It certainly is. It’s also a song that feels better the more you listen to it. I feel like it blows away all my worries.
AKI: It’s a song that just makes you smile when you sing it.
Do you mind if I ask what ‘Nirai Kanai’ means?
NANA: It means, ‘Utopia’. The ancient Okinawans imagined that there might be a paradise on the other side of the ocean, and then called it ‘Nirai Kanai’. We wrote the lyrics about our image of a ‘utopia’. The lyrics came from the idea that ‘As long as you have the people you love with you, anywhere can become Utopia, you can make paradise anywhere.’
Is it a different feeling to sing songs what you yourselves have written the lyrics to?
REINA: The emotion we give to each word is different when we write our own lyrics than when we’re given them. I feel like what we want to say gets across more.
LINA: When we write the lyrics, the words come out of our mouths easily, and we can remember them quickly. There’s a different weight to each word.
NANA: And our passion for wanting a lot of people to hear the song changes too. Because we worked so hard to write them, we really want a lot of people to hear them.
REINA: We wrote the lyrics to ‘Never gonna stop it’ too, but the worldview of those years is completely different now than 5 years ago, and each of us wrote lyrics for it and we all looked at each other’s and thought, ‘Our lyrics have grown too.’ Like, ‘Oh, we’ve grown up!’. (she laughs)
LINA: It might be because the theme is completely different, but last time I feel like we were greedier. But now we’ve become softer and gentler.
NANA: When we write lyrics all together like this I feel like they get filtered with all these things that we wouldn’t understand if we just talked about them normally, so it’s interesting! I want to do it again.
So are you going to write lyrics yourselves again?
REINA: We would like to.
NANA: Also, for our fanclub concerts and things like that we’ve made a few songs, so I’d like to make a CD with songs that we’ve written the words and melodies too for people to hear.
I’ll look forward to it! Also, ‘Nirai Kanai’ is the CM song Orion Beer, and it’s the best matched tie up I’ve seen in a while!
ALL: (laugh)
REINA: It really is!
LINA: We’re so happy! Orion Beer is something that has been close to us ever since we lived in Okinawan.
So the slogan for the summer needs to be ‘With an Orion Beer in one hand, choose ‘Nirai Kanai’. (he laughs)
LINA: That’s good! (she laughs)
Now, I’d also like to talk about the coupling songs to the new single. The second track is ‘Someday’ what is this song about?
NANA: We talked a lot with the director about wanting to really hammer our the present ‘MAX’ with this one CD. So, ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a very gentle song, so with ‘Someday’ we wanted to put the direction that MAX may go now into the lyrics for the second song, wrapping up the 10 years.
LINA: We wrote the lyrics to be comparing our fans to a lover, mixing our feelings towards our fans, and romance.
NANA: The song is pretty melodious, it doesn’t have the hardness of most Eurobeat.
And, I was surprised by the third track, ‘TORA TORA TORA 2005’.
NANA: Before we decided on ‘Nirai Kanai’ as the single, we heard that the teenagers now are really into ‘Tora Tora Tora’, so we were told, ‘Why not do a 2005 version then?’ But the song came out completely differently than when we sang it before, so it was a surprise!
LINA: It’s really powered up, and become very wild.
REINA: Back then, it was pretty cute, but the first time I heard this 2005 version, I felt dizzy. (she laughs)
NANA: It might be best to listen to it when you’re really pumped. (she laughs)
So MAX’s summer has begin with the 3 tracked ‘Nirai Kanai’, what kind of summer will it be?
LINA: We’ve got a lot of plans to go all over the country with ‘Nirai Kanai’, so I think we’ll have lots of opportunities to see our fans this summer. We haven’t gotten to see them in a while, so I hope we can have more and more communication with our fans with ‘Nirai Kanai’.
I know you want everyone to go crazy this summer with ‘Nirai Kanai’, but do each of you members have and idea of a certain type of song you’d like to do next?
REINA: Sometime that I’v wanted to do for a while, is…since there are four of us, I’d like to do a song with really pretty, gentle chorus work.
LINA: I’d like to do a really cool R&B song, since it’s been so long, something that has a showy feel, a song that we could design to look really cool as well.
AKI: I’ve always wanted to do something really hard, like rock with all of us using standing mics.
NANA: I really love Bossa Nova, so I’d like to do a song that made you feel the summer song and the wind, with the four of us sitting in chairs, and putting in the chorus work ourselves, a song that our fans could sing with us.
LINA: If we put together some individual songs like that that fit each of our own individual personalities, I think that the construction of the concerts would gradually change too, so I’d love to have some of those kind of songs as well.
I’ll look forward to it! And be expecting big things! So, lastly, please give a message to the readers.
NANA: As we said earlier, we’re planning to go all over with ‘Nirai Kanai’ this summer, so please come and see us live, and have fun together!
AKI: ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a song that you can enjoy anywhere, so please have fun this summer with ‘Nirai kanai’.
LINA: When I’m with everyone in MAX, all kinds of possibilies come alive, the things I want to do, and I can do grow, so I think we’ll be able to keep on showing you a new MAX. Please look forward to it!
REINA: We wrote the lyrics this time, so please focus on those, and have a great summer with the sound and lyrics of ‘Nirai Kanai’!
NANA: I know it’s cliché, but they really went by so quickly. Looking back, it’s like, ‘We did that, and we did that too, didin’t we?’. Only, since we’ve got more memories than before we all talk about them more, and it’s a lot of fun.
LINA: It really did go quickly. But being able to have been together and have so many different experiences has really become something to treasure. I feel like every single thing we did for work was connected to the next day and that’s how we got here, and I think we’ve really grown.
REINA: I feel basically the same. All of a sudden it’s been 10 years. Looking back, we did so much each year, but when I hear the words ’10 years’, I think, ‘I’ve been together with everyone for a really long time!’ Because if you include our time as the Super Monkey’s it’s been over 10 years. I can’t really believe it.
I was also surprised that it was MAX’s 10th anniversary. It’s also been 3 years since Aki-san joined MAX.
AKI: Time goes so quickly!
How have those 3 years been for you, Aki-san?
AKI: They went by so quickly! I mean, I feel like three years ago were only yesterday. There were so many things that I was experiencing for the first time, and so much happened. I think they were a very full three years.
How did it feel to be suddenly be part of MAX, a group already known by everyone?
AKI: At first it didn’t feel real at all. I mean, it’s something that usually could never happen, right? So for the first year or so, if I didn’t ask myself ‘I’m in MAX now, right?’ I couldn’t grasp my situation. But as the days go by, I gradually become a part of MAX myself, and that’s how I want to be. I want to get even closer to the other three, those feelings get stronger every day.
To continue, I’d like to ask each of you which of your activities as MAX left the biggest impression on you so far.
REINA: Our first concert at the Budokan. The moment that they told us we were going to be in the Budokan. We’d release our album the year before and it had become a million seller. So we were all cheering together in the rehearsal room, (she laughs) and talking about how we hoped we could have concerts next year. A little while later when we were at the office, the President said, like it was nothing, ‘You’ll be doing the Budokan, you know!’. So at first we were like, ‘Huh? What?’, ‘You’re always joking!’. (she laughs) But we found out that the schedule was actually decided, and thought, ‘Can we really do it? Isn’t it too soon?’ I was so surprised, I still remember that moment really clearly.
And how was your first time standing in the Budokan?
REINA: I was nervous. I was so incredibly nervous. (she laughs)
NANA: Because our first concert as MAX was in the Budokan. And at the time, there were no other groups like us, so we had nothing to model ourselves after, we were completely in the dark, like ‘Where do we stand and what kind of thing do we talk about from that stage? And with four of us!’ (she laughs) We were doing so many things for the first time, so it really left an impression, but I was so nervous I can’t even remember every single thing that happened. I was completely absorbed in it. But the base we created then is connected to where we are now, so it’s one of our most precious memories, so the Budokan always comes up when we all talk about our memories as MAX.
What else is there, besides that?
LINA: Besides that? Other than concerts….I guess our movies. (she laughs)
AKI: I saw them! I saw them!!
LINA: We filmed a movie around when our third single ‘TORA TORA TORA’ came out. We’d released two singles before that but no one really knew who MAX was, and it was something we tried right when people were starting to know about MAX through ‘TORA TORA TORA’, so I remember it really well. Plus, we’d never studied anything but singing and dance up till then, and all of a sudden they were like, ‘You’re doing a movie’, and it was called ‘Ladies MAX’! (she laughs) And when we said, ‘What? Yankees!?’ we were told, ‘Well, if you just act that way, you’ll look like Yankees.’ (she laughs) We filmed the whole thing in only a week. Only, it felt like you got to see another side of the members of MAX that was different than singing and dancing, so that was a lot of fun.
REINA: And then, we were told that we’d introduce the movie, and we were worried that no one might come. And when we got there, there was about 5 or 6 fans that always came to see us, but there was a huge line in front of another people and we said , ‘Ooh, wouldn’t it be nice to have all those people! But we do have some fans who came, so let’s do out best!’ Then when we entered the venue, we realized that the line we’d thought was for another building was actually people who had come to see us, and I got goose bumps! We had been scheduled to do it twice, but suddenly it was increased to three times, and that made me really happy!
Speaking of which, who was the one who got the most into their role at the time? The one who seemed like they might get the acting bug?
NANA: I had always loved acting and wanted to do it, but since my first acting experience was a female gang members, it was actually hard. They said, ‘Just be yourself’, but I’ve never been in a gang! (she laughs) But it was fun.
REINA: But our roles as Yankees did have an effect on us, so even when I answered the phone in private, I’d be like ‘What!?’ (she laughs)
So that was the period when you used the most bad words. (he laughs)
LINA: They were bad. (she laughs) and our manners were bad too. (she laughs)
NANA: Later we did a dorama too. But in that we played people with psychic powers. (she laughs) For some reason we can never get normal roles.
What was it that left the most impression on you, Aki-san?
AKI: The first concert as MAX was really moving. To be able to perform in front of all those people. It’d always been a dream of mine. I thought, ‘I can’t believe they gave me so many parts to sing! Wow!’ Also, this is the very room that they told me, ‘We’re thinking of putting you in MAX.’ That might be the thing that I remember the most. I was like, ‘Say that again! What did you say just now?’
Didn’t you have any hint that it might happen?
AKI: Well, I did get a phone call all of a sudden telling to come down to the office right away. (she laughs)
It was a big turning point for MAX when Aki joined. What did you feel like then?
NANA: It was pretty hard! We really treasure the four members that had been together for some long. And we also thought that when what we had made together was suddenly changed, the fans wouldn’t accept it. Because there were a lot of people who said that besides just the singing and dancing, they really loved the strong bonds that the four of us had, and we didn’t want to betray those people, but talking about it many times, we came to realize that there were a lot of things we’d have to accept if we wanted to continue, and that was a battle, and we had to fight hard. And we also had time to take a look at ourselves individually and I think that was when we really grew mentally, really quickly after we became new. That’s when I first thought, ‘We’ve got to act like grown ups.’ We grasped it all slowly and gradually, but the period after we first became new, I fought with myself a lot. Because we needed to take care of Aki-chan properly, but there were also our old fans to think of, so I was in a dilemma about that.
LINA: It was difficult figuring out how to deal with my own feelings, and keep my condition up. Because something has happened that we’d never imagined. If we had imagined it, then we could have dealt with our feelings and responded to the situation, but the thunder came down so suddenly. (she laughs) We couldn’t read the situation, or comprehend it, just worry, ‘How in the world are we supposed to keep going?’
So did you ever think about breaking up?
NANA: It did come up.
REINA: Whether we added a new member or decided to break up, we wanted to make the choice that we all felt was right. Even if that choice was ‘We’re not MAX if it’s not the four of us, so let’s break up.’ But in the end, our feelings, and the feelings of our staff were, ‘We want to keep doing MAX.’, so that’s what we chose. So the three of us started talking together a lot more then about how ‘MAX’ would be now, and how to get our feelings across to the fans who had supported us up until then, and about how our old positions would change when Aki-chan joined. I was the type to say ‘Yeah!’ (she laughs) Like, ‘Let’s do this right!’. So I think that as we talked like that we gradually were able to get through things, to say, ‘Let’s be like this.’
You’ve reached this 10 year anniversary because you overcame that, but what do you yourself think is the reason you were able to overcome that and reach you 10th year?
NANA: Having our fans. When we thought about breaking up, there were so many fans to say they wanted us to keep going, and reading their letters and posts on the internet, we realized that with so many people telling us how much MAX meant to them, we couldn’t get rid of MAX just because it was good for us. It was because there were still people who said things like that, that we were able to feel that we should keep going until all those people were gone.
That gives you so much strength, being able to think that.
NANA: That’s right. Because we were able to think that, we were able to get through it. That’s why we make sure of each others feelings through concerts like this. Because even if we think, ‘It might be over’, we do a concert and if people are really moved, or say ‘Today was so much fun!’ we are able to feel, ‘We’ve got to do another one!’
All of you are growing everyday. Now, I heard how it was when Aki-san first joined, but do the three of you remember how you felt 10 years ago when MAX first started?
NANA, LINA, REINA: We really didn’t think about anything. (they laugh)
NANA: When I think of the beginning, it amazes me that we’ve come to give so much love to MAX, I mean, (she laughs) we were just going along with things back then.
LINA: We were! (she laughs)
NANA: It was a project, you see. They had the song first, and Avex really wanted to release ‘Koisuru Velfarre Dance ~ Saturday Night~’, and they’d been looking for girls who could sing it, and the needle pointed to us, who had been the Super Monkey’s at the time. We were like, ‘Huh? Us?’ (she laughs(
LINA: So it was supposed to be over after that one song.
NANA: At the time, we thought we’d always be the Super Monkey’s. (she laughs)
LINA: Also, there were a lot of other suggestions when they chose the name ‘MAX”, so we were worried about that. Like ‘Harem’ or ‘Lady Madonna’ or ‘The Buzz’. (she laughs)
NANA: And the song was playful, and we’d thought up the dance ourselves, just playing around and video taped it and taken it to the office so it started out with us just having fun and playing around, so we never thought that we’d keep doing it.
So why did things take off after that?
REINA: At the time, we were working as the Super Monkey’s as well, and had been told, ‘Be cute when you’re MAX’ , so we were just doing that (she laughs), and when we got ‘TORA TORA TORA’ we started to have more work as MAX. And I think that’s when we started to think of it not as a project but as an actual group.
NANA: And as we did more work we started to get our own ideas of how we wanted to do things.
REINA: But – and this is something we can only talk about now – we’d been told, ‘If ‘TORA TORA TORA’ doesn’t sell, we’re sending you back to Okinawa.’, (she laughs) so we all decided to try our hardest.
LINA: We were frantic, really, like, ‘We don’t want to go home! Please let us stay!’
And then this year, you had a party for your 10th anniversary, right?
NANA: It was quite a pary. (she laughs) All of our staff came, even people who had worked with us during our debut, and they’d made a video of our debut until now, and they played it.
LINA: And as a surprise a friend had contacted Reina’s family and had our parents write letters since it was our 10th anniversary, and they read they like it was a tv show or something. (she laughs)
REINA: And we all cried then.
NANA: And then Li-chan started the old cake throwing. (she laughs)
LINA: And I got in trouble. (she laughs)
(he laughs) But it sounds like it was an unforgettable ‘10th anniversary party’.
LINA: We were so happy! So many staff members came, and I really felt that it’s because we’re supported by all these wonderful people that we’ve made it this far. And I feel that way about the other members too.
NANA: I was so glad to have done it.
And you were so happy you threw cake. (he laughs)
NANA: We were!
LINA: I guess we’re still not adults. (she laughs)
REINA: As far as that goes anyway. (she laughs)
So I’d like to talk about what you’ve been doing this year now. You opened the year with a Count Down Concert, right?
LINA: We were singing ‘Issho ni…’ for the encore, and it started snowing!
AKI: The timing was great!
REINA: And more people came to see us than we’d imagined, so that made us really happy.
NANA: We like to be outside. Performing outside we’ll so good. I feel like I can sing better than usual if I’m singing in the midst of natural, like under the night sky, or in the snow!
LINA: But it’s just a feeling. (she laughs) But we really like to end, and to start, with a concert. Because we love performing.
Speaking of concerts, you gave a hotel concert tour this spring. What kind of tour was that?
NANA: We had said, ‘We’d like to show an adult side we haven’t done yet.’
LINA: Finally. (she laughs)
NAN: Finally. (she laughs). And since it was in a hotel we wanted to make it feel like showtime. So, we kept an adult feeling, and split it into Act one, and Act two. We wanted to surprise everyone, and started it with like a mini theatre. But we had thought it was so cool, but the fans who’d watched us for 10 years started to laugh! Maybe it was because we made it sort of like a parody, but we had made a video like and old black and white French movie, and we all mannish, dressed up as men, playing men, and some people laughed at that opening. So were standing by, feeling cool, so it was like, ‘Huh?’ (she laughs)
LINA: It shook our composure a little. (she laughs)
REINA: We said, ‘Why are they laughing?’ (she laughs)
NANA: But on the survey people filled out after the concert was over, a lot of people said things like, ‘It was better than the hall tour I went to before!’, so that made us really happy. After all, if you do a lot of concerts, they aren’t as fresh as the first time, and people get used to see what we’re doing, so their first time everyone says ‘That was great!’ but it’s hard to get them to say ‘That was great!’ about their tenth concert, so we were happy that they said that. We had only half the staff of a hall tour, so when people said, ‘It moved me just as much as a hall tour!’, we realized ‘We can put on concerts that make people think ‘You can’t get bored, they have so many new ideas, it was great!’, so we got a lot out of it.
What kind of concerts would you like to do next?
REINA: We want to a 10th anniversary live. We haven’t done a fan club sort of ‘10th anniversary!’ thing, so I’d like to do that this year.
LINA: We have to do what we say we will. ‘We’ll do one’!
REINA: We’re going to do one!
ALL: (laugh)
Got it! (he laughs) I’ll look forward to it. So, besides the hotel concert tour, you also appeared in an event called ‘SUPER EUROGROOVE PARTY’ at Velfarre the other day. How was that?
NANA: Everyone went crazier than we anticipated. It was amazing.
LINA: We were a bit bowled over. (she laughed) But we did our best not to get lost in all that. But it was a sensation we hadn’t felt in a while. It’d been a long time since we’d done a concert with Eurobeat, or even sang Eurobeat. But it felt like our memories were coming back, looking back like, ‘This is what it used to be like.’
NANA: But I do think that it might be interesting, because MAX sings so many different types of songs, to, for example, have a concert that was all Eurobeat, or a concert to hammer out the future MAX, to split them up like that. Apart from a tour.
With the number of songs you’ve got you could really do anything you wanted. So, I heard you performed your new song, ‘Nirai Kanai’ at ‘SUPER EUROGROOVE PARTY’, how was it singing that live?
LINA: It felt good. It feels good singing it live, and it felt really good recording it too. ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a song that feels good no matter where we sing it. I think it’s partially because it has some Okinawan sound to it, and that’s something we’re used to hearing. Like, it makes our Okinawan blood sing. (she laughs)
So, what were your reactions the first time you heard ‘Nirai Kanai’?
REINA: It was actually the last song we were given when we were choosing the song for this single. And, at first there’d been an idea of, ‘Since it’s your 10th anniversary, how about going back to your origins and doing Eurobeat?’ But at first we had rhought, ‘But, Eurobeat….?’, and out of all the songs that had been gathered, most of them were too hot, or to hyper, songs that just weren’t the current MAX, and we actually tried recording a few songs, but none of them felt right to us, and ‘Nirai Kanai’ was the last song we were given with ‘This is Ryukyu Eurobeat’. We were like, ‘What? If you had this song, why didn’t you give it to us in the beginning?’ (she laughs) We decided that there would completely be a point for us to do this song, and that’s why we chose it.
But when I first heard just the words ‘Ryukyu Eurobeat’, I thought, ‘What are they talking about?’
ALL; (laugh)
LINA: We thought that too at first (she laughs) but once we heard it, we thought, ‘We really want to sing this!’. It was fresh and new too.
It certainly is. It’s also a song that feels better the more you listen to it. I feel like it blows away all my worries.
AKI: It’s a song that just makes you smile when you sing it.
Do you mind if I ask what ‘Nirai Kanai’ means?
NANA: It means, ‘Utopia’. The ancient Okinawans imagined that there might be a paradise on the other side of the ocean, and then called it ‘Nirai Kanai’. We wrote the lyrics about our image of a ‘utopia’. The lyrics came from the idea that ‘As long as you have the people you love with you, anywhere can become Utopia, you can make paradise anywhere.’
Is it a different feeling to sing songs what you yourselves have written the lyrics to?
REINA: The emotion we give to each word is different when we write our own lyrics than when we’re given them. I feel like what we want to say gets across more.
LINA: When we write the lyrics, the words come out of our mouths easily, and we can remember them quickly. There’s a different weight to each word.
NANA: And our passion for wanting a lot of people to hear the song changes too. Because we worked so hard to write them, we really want a lot of people to hear them.
REINA: We wrote the lyrics to ‘Never gonna stop it’ too, but the worldview of those years is completely different now than 5 years ago, and each of us wrote lyrics for it and we all looked at each other’s and thought, ‘Our lyrics have grown too.’ Like, ‘Oh, we’ve grown up!’. (she laughs)
LINA: It might be because the theme is completely different, but last time I feel like we were greedier. But now we’ve become softer and gentler.
NANA: When we write lyrics all together like this I feel like they get filtered with all these things that we wouldn’t understand if we just talked about them normally, so it’s interesting! I want to do it again.
So are you going to write lyrics yourselves again?
REINA: We would like to.
NANA: Also, for our fanclub concerts and things like that we’ve made a few songs, so I’d like to make a CD with songs that we’ve written the words and melodies too for people to hear.
I’ll look forward to it! Also, ‘Nirai Kanai’ is the CM song Orion Beer, and it’s the best matched tie up I’ve seen in a while!
ALL: (laugh)
REINA: It really is!
LINA: We’re so happy! Orion Beer is something that has been close to us ever since we lived in Okinawan.
So the slogan for the summer needs to be ‘With an Orion Beer in one hand, choose ‘Nirai Kanai’. (he laughs)
LINA: That’s good! (she laughs)
Now, I’d also like to talk about the coupling songs to the new single. The second track is ‘Someday’ what is this song about?
NANA: We talked a lot with the director about wanting to really hammer our the present ‘MAX’ with this one CD. So, ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a very gentle song, so with ‘Someday’ we wanted to put the direction that MAX may go now into the lyrics for the second song, wrapping up the 10 years.
LINA: We wrote the lyrics to be comparing our fans to a lover, mixing our feelings towards our fans, and romance.
NANA: The song is pretty melodious, it doesn’t have the hardness of most Eurobeat.
And, I was surprised by the third track, ‘TORA TORA TORA 2005’.
NANA: Before we decided on ‘Nirai Kanai’ as the single, we heard that the teenagers now are really into ‘Tora Tora Tora’, so we were told, ‘Why not do a 2005 version then?’ But the song came out completely differently than when we sang it before, so it was a surprise!
LINA: It’s really powered up, and become very wild.
REINA: Back then, it was pretty cute, but the first time I heard this 2005 version, I felt dizzy. (she laughs)
NANA: It might be best to listen to it when you’re really pumped. (she laughs)
So MAX’s summer has begin with the 3 tracked ‘Nirai Kanai’, what kind of summer will it be?
LINA: We’ve got a lot of plans to go all over the country with ‘Nirai Kanai’, so I think we’ll have lots of opportunities to see our fans this summer. We haven’t gotten to see them in a while, so I hope we can have more and more communication with our fans with ‘Nirai Kanai’.
I know you want everyone to go crazy this summer with ‘Nirai Kanai’, but do each of you members have and idea of a certain type of song you’d like to do next?
REINA: Sometime that I’v wanted to do for a while, is…since there are four of us, I’d like to do a song with really pretty, gentle chorus work.
LINA: I’d like to do a really cool R&B song, since it’s been so long, something that has a showy feel, a song that we could design to look really cool as well.
AKI: I’ve always wanted to do something really hard, like rock with all of us using standing mics.
NANA: I really love Bossa Nova, so I’d like to do a song that made you feel the summer song and the wind, with the four of us sitting in chairs, and putting in the chorus work ourselves, a song that our fans could sing with us.
LINA: If we put together some individual songs like that that fit each of our own individual personalities, I think that the construction of the concerts would gradually change too, so I’d love to have some of those kind of songs as well.
I’ll look forward to it! And be expecting big things! So, lastly, please give a message to the readers.
NANA: As we said earlier, we’re planning to go all over with ‘Nirai Kanai’ this summer, so please come and see us live, and have fun together!
AKI: ‘Nirai Kanai’ is a song that you can enjoy anywhere, so please have fun this summer with ‘Nirai kanai’.
LINA: When I’m with everyone in MAX, all kinds of possibilies come alive, the things I want to do, and I can do grow, so I think we’ll be able to keep on showing you a new MAX. Please look forward to it!
REINA: We wrote the lyrics this time, so please focus on those, and have a great summer with the sound and lyrics of ‘Nirai Kanai’!
