After achieving their big break and appearing for in-demand sets resulting in restricted admission at Summer Sonic and Countdown Japan last year, techno-pop unit Perfume released “Baby cruising Love / Macaroni,” their first single of 2008, on January 16th. The girls answered our questions about the release as well as their upcoming activities in 2008.
―― Your new single “Baby cruising Love” has a different atmosphere from the songs you’ve released in the past. Kashiyuka: Perfume has had a lot of bright and near-futuristic songs overflowing with energy and high spirits before now, but this song is mid-tempo and turned out to have a wintry and girlish image. Since it isn’t directly about romance, I think people will be able to hear it not just as a love song but one that represents life itself. When you listen until the end, it has a feeling that grips your heart and makes you wistful. A~chan: The word “love” has never been in any of our song titles before now, so there might also be some people who are surprised by that. But I think maybe combining “love” with “cruising” gives it some Perfume-ness. Nocchi: The effects on our voices are weaker than they usually are in our songs, so you can hear our natural voices to an extent. I think that might make it an easy song to sing at karaoke.
―― Parts of the lyrics felt very girlish as well. A~chan: That’s right. It isn’t necessarily a song for girls, but there’s a pink tone to our single covers, and the PV uses cute costumes and stuff like that. I think it has girliness coming out from every angle. Kashiyuka: In the past, even if we put out a cute song, our costumes would have a different image from that as if to intentionally throw off people’s expectations, but now they show off that cuteness more straightforwardly. The fluffy fur-like parts of the costumes feel more idol-y than the stuff we’ve worn before (laughs).
―― You must be looking forward to seeing the fans’ response. A~chan: Recently, more and more music lovers have started to like Perfume. If they liked the cool sound Perfume has had all this time, I wonder how they’ll feel about this single? Perfume is known for showing off a cool atmosphere, but cute songs like this are a part of Perfume as well, so I’d be happy if they could enjoy it.
―― How was Nakata Yasutaka-san’s sound production this time? Kashiyuka: It felt like a return to the starting point and origins of techno. The effects and use of sounds all sounded like old techno to me. It’s like he’s handling each pure sound with care. A~chan: Maybe he’s been doing too much and found himself gravitating towards something simple instead? (laughs)
―― In a previous interview, Nakata-san said he hopes for Perfume to take on a variety of different challenges. Nocchi: Nakata-san himself is the one taking on those challenges, so we’re only following along with that (laughs).
―― You’ve recently started to perform in larger venues, and your popularity is very much on the rise. A~chan: Lately, there have been so many big happenings unlike anything we’ve experienced before, and even though it’s such a truly amazing place to be in for us, I feel like I don’t fully understand how incredible it all is yet. I start to wonder if it’s all right for me to go on doing this while I’m feeling like that, but on the other hand, I know it won’t help anything if I overthink it and become too serious about it. Nocchi: There are more people seeing us for the first time than ever before. When we did Liquidroom, the audience was cautiously excited and feeling everything out at the beginning of the concert, but by the end, we’d formed a sense of unity with everyone and that made me happy. If we can perform in a bigger venue, maybe we can savor an even bigger emotional response. I’m happily anticipating that. Kashiyuka: I’m really happy that we’ve been acquiring so many new fans without destroying the style Perfume has kept until now. Nothing fundamental has changed. A~chan: But the catering in our waiting rooms has increased (laughs). Nocchi: That’s true. And we’ve gotten to wear slightly nicer costumes now (laughs).
―― I see (laughs). You also have a one-man live at Shibuya-AX scheduled for February 12th. Nocchi: I’ve gone to see lots of concerts at AX, so it felt like a dream within a dream for me. I’m really excited to perform in a place like that. A~chan: I had the opportunity to see SHAKALABBITS live there in the past, and their energy as a band was great and left an impression on me. I was in eighth or ninth grade when I saw their concert, so it’s unbelievable to me to think we’ve gotten to the point where we can stand on that same stage… And the stage is super big — we’re gonna have to work hard! Kashiyuka: The stage is wide, so it looks like the audience will be able to see us well from every corner. Our performances are packed full of little details down to the movements of our steps, so I hope they’ll watch that closely and remember our dances!
―― I imagine you’ll continue to perform in even bigger halls and venues in the future. Where would you like to give a performance after this? A~chan: I want to try a concert at Budokan someday! Kashiyuka: Me too. I’d also like to do Makuhari Messe. Three days or something would be impossible for us, so we’ll just start off with a one-day show (laughs).
―― Lastly, what are your aspirations for 2008? Kashiyuka: Personally, I want to be able to wake up in the morning by myself. I have both work and school, so lately I’ve been too busy to get enough sleep, but I want to work harder so that I don’t have to rely on my mom. Nocchi: We received so much help and support from our fans and staff last year, so I’d like to take this year to pay that back in lots of different ways. I want to keep working energetically so we can announce more and more new plans our fans will be happy about. A~chan: In 2008, I hope we can have more involvement in our releases and start to voice our own opinions. But we’re the type who fall short when people have expectations for us (laughs), so I hope they’ll continue to look over us unchanged from before.
<aside> 📎 Kamiya Koichi for @pia (January 17, 2008)
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