Japan’s Ryokuoushoku Shakai Talk Ambitious New Single ‘Hana ni Natte’: Interview

Billboard Japan caught up with the members of J-pop rock band Ryokuoushoku Shakai for its Monthly Feature interview series highlighting artists and works of note. Formed in 2012, the four-member group with a goal to “become a household name” has gained massive support from a wide range of listeners for its solid pop sound and the variety of their songs made possible by having all the members involved in songwriting.

Ryokushaka, as the band is called by fans, recently dropped a new track being featured as the opener for the anime series The Apothecary Diaries called “Hana ni Natte,” which the members say is the “most difficult” song to play in their catalog. The four members — Haruko Nagaya (vocals & guitar), peppe (keyboards), Issei Kobayashi (guitar) and Shingo Anami (bass) — spoke about their latest release that enhances the graceful and glamorous world tinged with precarious malice and intrigue depicted in the anime, while also looking back on the band’s journey this past year and shared their future plans.

The anime series The Apothecary Diaries is a story about Maomao, a young woman assigned as food tester in the inner palace who solves difficult cases that occur in the royal court. How did everyone react to being tapped to write the opener for this work?

Haruko Nagaya: I’d already been reading the manga adaptation of the original novel and loved it. So I was surprised when we were asked to do it and was immediately like, “I want to do it!” I first discovered the manga when it appeared at the top of a comic app. It caught my attention because I could sense the historical background of the story just by looking at the cover. When I previewed it, I thought Maomao’s multifaceted character was really charming, too. At first, I expected it to have a rom-com element to it from the style of the artwork, but it isn’t like that at all. The thrilling storyline drew me in and I found myself captivated by it.

Were there any requests from the producers of the anime regarding the music?

Nagaya: Since the work deals with poison and because Maomao is an unprecedented kind of protagonist, something like addictiveness was a theme.

You wrote the music, Shingo. What inspired your composition?

Shingo Anami: I kind of felt that a melancholy melody would suit the song. When I was trying to come up with something while playing the guitar, the piano phrase at the end came to mind, and I expanded it from there. When I read the manga, I got a kind of “continental (China)” feel from the vast landscape, so the clapping in the intro was inspired by that. Also, I think Maomao’s stance towards medicine and the way she gets carried away pursuing what she loves is linked to the drive of this song.

Haruko wrote the lyrics. Could you share some of the process with us?

Nagaya: When I heard the music, I felt that it was solidly addictive and had a well-honed vibe. The melody is different from anything we’ve ever done before and also has a playful feel to it. Those aspects linked to the protagonist Maomao in my view. We’d also been given the keyword “self-love” as a theme for the lyrics, so I considered how to connect it to the characters. I think we imagine main characters (of manga and anime) to be cheerful or brave and such, but Maomao is the complete opposite. I find her facial expressions interesting as well. Even when she smiles, it’s in an eerie way but it’s charming. So I wrote the lyrics around the theme of self-love and wanting people to love you as you are.

And the arrangement is by Shingo and producer Keita Kawaguchi.

Anami: I had this heavy rock sound in mind when I first arranged it, and Mr. Kawaguchi improved upon it. He added some fast guitar riffs, for example. The most distinctive parts were the traditional Chinese instruments, like the erhu and gongs, that appear mainly in the “B-melo” section. I hadn’t considered such instruments at all, so they changed the impression of the song a lot.

peppe: The piano is pretty much the same structure as in the demo. The original version was so good that I didn’t think it was necessary to add my own color to it this time. But it was hard to practice. Like, the phrases were the kind that people who constantly play the piano wouldn’t come up with. It was experimental and fun, though.

What about the guitar?

Kobayashi: When I first heard the demo, I was like, “Don’t blame me if I can’t play this live.” [Laughs] But Mr. Kawaguchi is also a guitarist and he can probably play it with ease. In any case, I had to be able to play it before the recording, so I practiced sweep picking for the first time in my life.

How was the vocal recording?

Nagaya: When I write songs, I sing the lyrics as I go along, and don’t think I would have come up with that catchy fall in the chorus where I sing, “Hana ni natte.” Also, I wanted to sing powerfully, but not be too loud. For example, the A-melo part has interjections alongside a melody with distinctive tempo, but the B-melo is slow and silky, then the chorus brings up the pace again. Each block of the song has a completely different expression, so I tried to be aware of the difference in nuance when I sang it. The song was like sports day at school.

You’ve been making great strides in recent years, like headlining a show at the prestigious Nippon Budokan last September and performing on the historic year-end music program on the national broadcaster NHK, Kohaku Uta Gassen, for the first time. Could you tell us how you feel about where you currently are in your career?

Nagaya: We’d always been aspiring to perform in those places, so it feels like we’ve achieved our dreams. But I don’t think the way people see us has changed a whole lot because of that. In a way, the fact that we reached our ten-year milestone and fulfilled our dreams of performing at the Budokan and on Kohaku kind of lifted a weight off our shoulders. That’s why we were able to take on ambitious works like pink blue and “Hana ni Natte.”

In September you dropped “Summertime Cinderella,” the theme of the drama series Manatsu no Cinderella, broadcast on Fuji Television’s popular “getsu-ku” (Monday nights at nine) slot. The track has been charting on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since its release. This single is what you could categorize as mainstream J-pop.

Anami: When we were making pink blue, we discussed whether or not to make the title track the lead single. We’d just been tapped to do the drama series and knew we’d definitely do something classic for that collaboration, so we figured it’d be okay to have fun with the album. That’s how we planned our project, trying to find a balance.

The fact that “Summertime Cinderella,” a song you wrote with the intention of doing something classic, is being widely heard must have given you all confidence since you’ve always said the band’s goal was to become a household name.

Nagaya: When we were asked to do it, I felt a lot of pressure. The song would be featured on the popular “getsu-ku” series being aired over summer vacation, meaning a lot of people would watch it. Furthermore, I’d never written a mainstream love song like that before. Plus, we were working on the pink blue album. So I was really worried about so many things when writing that song and wasn’t in a mindset of being confident about it or anything like that. I kept wondering if what I was doing was right. Now that it’s out there and many people have listened to it, I do have a sense of accomplishment, but it also kind of struck home how there still are acts that sell more records than us.

Kobayashi: Nagaya and I co-wrote the lyrics for “Summertime Cinderella,” but this time we discussed the content with the producers of the drama series while writing it, so it doesn’t feel like we delivered 100 percent of ourselves. To me it feels a lot like the song itself took us along its journey.

Nagaya: But tie-ins tend to be like that, you know? They’re hard in some ways because you’re making them together (with the clients). For the pink blue album we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. I was worried about whether people would accept it, but surprisingly, we had people tell us they liked that kind of music, too. So pursuing what we want to do is something we can try more, but it’s also not enough. After making “Summertime Cinderella,” it felt like music with that kind of catchy style and easy-to-understand lyrics is something people want, and I think it actually also suits our band’s style. It’d be best if we could strike a balance between the two.

peppe: That could be the way to keep the band going for a long time, to keep making music while enjoying what we do.

Nagaya: I mean, we originally formed the band to write songs we wanted to play. But we also love mainstream J-pop, so we want to keep exploring that kind of music as well. I don’t think we’ve fully given everything we’ve got. There has to be a kind of J-pop that suits us. I hope we can establish that as well. Ryokuoushoku Shakai’s J-pop.