oritsu_luv | Interview with SPEED from yorimo.co.jp (Reply)

On August 5th, the popular group SPEED will release their new album, "SPEEDLAND -The Premium Best Re Tracks-" from Avex Entertainment. It's being pined down as a greatest hits album, but it's an ambitious album, with all the songs rearranged, and all vocals rerecorded, and it could be called a new work of the originals. In the 1990s, SPEED built an era with their singing far beyond what one would expect of teenagers, and their breathtaking dance. Now in their twenties, they've grown up, and they talk about their new album, and their tour which will begin in September.

Their new album "SPEEDLAND -The Premium Best Re Tracks-" includes songs such as their 1996 debut song "Body & Soul", and their 1997 hit "White Love". The songs have been daringly rearranged, and all vovals have been rerecored. The album contains the current evolution of SPEED, whose members are now in their twenties. How did the members feel about the concept of this album?

Hiroko: I was shocked at first. It meant covering our own songs, and rerecording all those vocals is something that takes a lot of energy, regardless of whether what you make surpassing the original. When I heard that we'd do it all again, I was really shocked. I thought it was a big hurdle to get over.

Eriko: I was surprised too. We'd be singing the songs we recorded in our teen, how would they sound in our twenties? To be honest, I couldn't picture it. But as we started recording them, I rethought SPEED and my place it in it, and I gradually regained my sense of it all.

All the tracks are hit songs. Some of the songs sold over 20,000 copies. You can really see just how unstoppable the group was in the mid-nineties. But when it comes to rearranging hit songs, any artist would worry about how they'd jive with public's image of the songs. So did the members of SPEED.

Hitoe: That's true. We we wanted to put in all of our singles. We listed all the songs that the people who've been supporting us all this time really love, and chose from them.

Eriko: In a way, the arrangement was a real challenge.

Takako: We gave the arrangers various ideas ourselves, but we worried a lot about whether it was okay to change songs that really had a place in people's hearts. So while some songs changed a lot, other songs are arranged very faithfully to the originals. I feel like we were able to calm it down to a good level.

Hiro: We changed what we could change, and left what we couldn't. While we made it, we had a lot of discussions with Ijichi (Masahiro), who helped us pull it all together. We said things like, "What do you think?" and "Like this." It felt like we were making an entirely new album. But at the same time, we made it in a different way than ever before.

As a result all the songs have been transformed. "Long Way Home" is even more black music than before, and has a strong groove. On the other hand, "Breakin' Out to the Morning"'s originally strong beat was emphasized even further, changing into a passionate dance number.

Eriko: In terms of both the singing style and the arrangement, "Long Way Home" feels like a totally different song. It was rearranged by someone who used to sing backup during our tours, who completely understood our groove. The fact that it could be turned into this was really refreshing. SPEED started out with gospel, so it's not like we didn't have a connection with black music, but this is the first time we've had a song with this kind of groove.

Hitoe: I was surprised at how "Breaking out to the morning" turned out too. During the recording, we all talked about how we'd love to do a tour this year. And when we finished this song, I thought, "This is the kind of life per formance I'd like to do."

Takako: We started making this album at the end of last year, and some songs changed as we went along. Hiroko and Eriko said later on that they wanted to re-record the vocals again for "Body & Soul", and it came out really cool.

During the process of making the album, the members were vocal about their opinions. They were able to do things that weren't possible in their teens, when they lacked musical knowledge and experience. One could call this the results of having all done solo work, released music and getting a lot more experience. The results proved this.

Eriko: We had that discussion a lot, about how now we can do things we couldn't do in our teens.

Hiroko: We were able to give all kinds of idea, like saying "We could use this style of singing, too.", and of course there were things that Ijichi-san wasn't going to budge on. When we started out, we were kind of feeling our way through things, but by the end, the atmosphere was like "So why don't we try it this way?" "Sounds good." We'd never had an environment like that before, so that was a new experience.

They've also got more life experience. Eriko is a mother. As a result, they're able to read between the lines of the lyrics in ways they couldn't at as teenagers. They're more skilled at expressing themselves through their vocals, and the songs have taken on a new depth.

Eriko: Back then, I thought I understood it, but when I look at the lyrics of songs like "Body & Soul" now, I feel like, "Should I really have been saying such cheeky stuff back then?"

Hiroko: I end sing in a more relaxed way now. In the past, when I sung the high parts in "White Love", my singing style and my expression was really direct. But now I'm older and more experienced, so I'm more mature. I think that's helped me be able to sing in a lot of different ways.

One point of interest is the fact that Takako and Hitoe do the background vocals in almost ever song. This is also a result of the solo work they did after the group broke up.

Hitoe: It was difficult because we didn't just sing one like for the choruses, we layered them. Layering vocals wasn't an approach I'd done before. "Wake Me Up!" has become a house track, and it really is a song that cheers you up, so I was really rocking out when I recorded the chorus work.

With the release close at hand, how do you feel about the finished product?

Takako: If you have the albums the originals are on, and you listen to them both, you'll see they've become completely different songs. They really feel new.

Hitoe: There are all types of songs on the album, so I think a lot of different people can enjoy it.