After releasing her first indie album Switch in the summer of 2008 and going on to reach #1 on the iTunes dance chart in its digital pre-release period, the singer-songwriter immi achieved her major debut with the single “WONDER EP” in July 2009. In May of this year, she released her single “Sign of Love,” the opening theme song of the anime House of Five Leaves, which aired on Fuji TV’s Noitamina programming block. Now, on June 16th, she’s released her long-awaited second album, Spiral.
It’s been a little under two years since the independent release of your first album Switch in September 2008. Did you have any specific image in mind when creating your latest album Spiral?
Nothing in particular, I think (laughs). But each track had a specific feel, and I collected those together one by one. To be precise, there was no one concept that I decided at the outset, but as it came together, things came into view for me that put into perspective what kind of album it was going to be. When I look back on it, the process behind the album wasn’t really about doing one thing now or something else next time, but more like, “If I die, I can be at peace with this” (laughs) — it strongly feels like something I made with the intent to explore everything I could only do right now to the fullest.
When did you begin production on the album?
Right after I released the EP “Alice,” I guess around September.
Which song was made first?
The oldest track is “Swimmer,” a song I’ve had around since my indie days. I’d perform it live sometimes, but I could never quite find the right timing to put it on a single. I included it on this album for the first time.
On the other hand, how about the songs you made most recently?
When it was time to drop the first single, I had four songs — “FIGHT BACK,” “Sign of Love,” “circle – square – triangle” and “sora to i” — made in advance, plus “Swimmer,” which I’d been holding on to for some time, and the singles I’d already released. The rest of the tracks were finished towards the end. But there were quite a lot of songs I worked on simultaneously, just getting the choruses laid down all at once. Once they were all finished, the complete picture of the album came into view somehow. It was just polishing one thing at a time.
Were there any tracks you recorded alongside the ones included on this album that didn’t make the cut?
There were about four songs. But maybe there were only so few because I don’t keep any songs stockpiled (laughs). Rather than finishing the whole track, I have a lot of songs that I’ve gotten about halfway through, set aside like “hmm, I guess I’ll leave this one for another day” and then forgotten about (laughs). I’m not the type to write a lot when it comes to the number of songs.
Why did you make the album title “Spiral”?
It has a lot of different meanings to it, but part of it is related to “Secret Place” as the first track. The song is based on the idea of nature and going deep inside the forest, but the sound is entirely digital, and that kind of contrast is everywhere throughout the album as a whole. I’ve always liked to write about realistic human relationships and emotions, and most of my lyrics have to do with emotional or spiritual things. I want to express something very human while retaining an electronic sound, so thinking about human beings, I made the connection to DNA, and the form that that takes is a “spiral.” As I wrote the lyrics, it also came up in conversation that the image of something being really chaotic — not immediately leading to an answer, but just turning in circles and climbing — is like me (laughs). And it’s a bit of a stretch, but there are five songs on the album that begin with the letter S. Come to think of it, my previous album Switch starts with an S, too (laughs).
When you put it like that, your next album will also…
I’ll have to make the next one start with an S as well. Like I’ll need to flip to “S” in the dictionary and figure it out from there (laughs).
What do you mean by turning in circles being like you?
I can stay quiet forever without giving any response, and even at home, I spend hours at a time just thinking (laughs).
Did you decide the tracklist easily?
Yes. I thought about it objectively as I listened, but I came to a decision quickly, because I knew what I wanted to bring out first. The first three songs are important to me even when I listen to other people’s albums.