Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: Harajuku’s very own power model. After releasing her single “PONPONPON” all over the world in July, she made her major debut in August with the album Moshi Moshi Harajuku. Boasting tremendous popularity while still a high school girl, she became a Harajuku icon, but how will she do in the music scene? We dared to find out in her long-awaited first ever interview with this magazine.
Did you originally want to be a singer? I liked music, but I never seriously aimed to be a singer. I really love Perfume, though, so I did think about it as far as “If only they had a protegee audition, I’d totally enter!” (laughs)
Now you’ve made your debut with the help of Perfume producer Nakata Yasutaka-san (capsule). I was really extremely happy because I loved his music so much. Working as a model, I never thought I’d be produced by Nakata-san and make my debut as a singer that way. Even when my debut was first brought up to me — well, I was still in high school at the time — but all I thought was, “Why are these adults telling such mean lies?”
What was it like to work with Nakata-san? It was fun. Nakata-san is a really interesting person. He basically didn’t instruct me that much — it felt like, “Sing however you want.” It’s not like I’m very good at singing myself, though, so I worried that I should have more training or something. I really tried my hardest to sing well, but he suddenly told me to relax and sing more comfortably. When I sang naturally like he told me to and then listened to the finished product, my voice came out sounding cute and really suited the song. It was like, “I should’ve expected that from someone like Nakata-san!”
What impression did you have when you listened to the songs Nakata-san gave you for the first time? To be honest, I was surprised. I’d imagined that they might be like a more intensely blippy, clattering version of Perfume’s songs. Then they turned out to be like neither Perfume or MEG but a new feeling altogether. But the lyrics were a little obscure. There are parts of them that I understand, though.
Can you give an example? Like in “Pinpon ga Nannai,” I could relate to the ones that were sung about a girl’s feelings, but at first, I didn’t want to believe that a man was writing stuff like, “I’m making a stew for my boyfriend!” (laughs). Nakata-san really understands how women feel. Later, when I tried asking him how he writes lyrics like this, he said something like, “I’m too embarrassed to write them if I think of it as me, but if they’re for you, I can think of them as ‘Kyary’s songs,’ so it’s not really me — it’s more like I’m writing them inspired by you.”
How about the ones you don’t understand? Mostly “PONPONPON.” The chorus is fine, but I don’t understand what “pon pon way way♪” is supposed to mean (laughs). But I think that senselessness is nice. It’d make me happy if everyone who listened to it imagined it their own different ways.
The “PONPONPON” PV is more perplexing than its lyrics, however. The world of the PV is all CG, so there’s freedom in it. Shooting Kamehamehas and letting out colorful farts. Also, the whole thing is based on my image of the brain. When you think about various things and they all accumulate together, they become very confusing, or at least they do for me (laughs).
Something that interested me on this release was “Kyary no March” at the beginning. I thought it suited you perfectly. It’s super cute, isn’t it? After giving all of these songs a listen, this was the most upbeat one. At first, when Nakata-san asked me what kind of songs I wanted, I requested something with a cheerleader-y or circus-like feeling. I think maybe this song and “PONPONPON” were his answer to that.
You also challenged a cover of capsule’s classic “jelly” for this release. That was the biggest challenge. The very day I recorded this song, Nakata-san told me on the spot that we’d be doing a cover of “jelly,” so my reaction was like, “Huh? Can I really sing a classic like this!?” I seriously thought about going home, but I did my best and sang it. I didn’t want capsule fans to say my “jelly” was awful or anything like that. But it was really hard. The sexy feeling Kosshii-chan [capsule vocalist Koshijima Toshiko] has in the original matches the song, but I don’t have anything like that, so mine became cute instead of sexy. Maybe this “jelly” turned out to feel something like the border between childhood and adulthood.
You’re called a Harajuku-style model, and the title of your new release also references it, but what kind of image do you have in your mind when you hear the name “Harajuku”? Sort of glittering and individualistic. When it comes to music, I personally think of Nakata-san’s sound as being Harajuku-ish. It’s actually played a lot in shops in Harajuku, and the atmosphere is really fitting and everything.
Will you be staying active as an artist after this? Definitely. I think I’d like to put my focus on working as an artist. It’s not that I don’t like being a model, just that artists have the ability to express what they want to communicate to others. I want to share the wonder of fashion and music through my performances and PVs, and also, as I learn more from my upcoming live shows, I want to become an artist who can convey excitement to everyone!
<aside> 📎 Sugiyama Tadayuki for FLOOR net (October 2012)
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