ANTIQUE CAFÉ ARTICLE FROM SHOXX (NOVEMBER 2006)

---Now, why don’t we try looking back at “Gaya de Nyappi” calmly?

TERUKI: Looking at the video again recently, I really think I was freaking out.

MIKU: Well, your face was really stiff.

TERUKI: I was trying to do it calmly so I wouldn’t be carried away by the emotions of the situation,

but my heart rate was so fast that all the songs sounded slow.

MIKU: I was tense at the time too, but I was no match for the sheer number of concert-goers.

That live concert was a good opportunity to get Antique Café’s name out to more people, so there was the pressure of telling those who never come to concerts that AnCafe is a good band. My body wouldn’t do what I told it to.

KANON: I couldn’t hear much over the screaming.

MIKU: Canon-san isn’t that popular.

ALL: (laughing)

TERAKI: Anyway, next is Bou-kun.

BOU: What?! It’s done? (laugh)

CANON: You know how it is. I’m normally all twitching and totally uncool. I was hoping I would pull it off without freaking out this time, so I had a little peek, and my twitching might have been gone, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at the audience.

----You were focused on the music.

CANON: Yes.

TERUKI: Oh, I was happy because our sound had gotten cleaner.

BOU: The cheering was crazy when we started out with “Iitomo Seinen-tai”. They got so excited I went nuts.

TERUKI: Yeah, yeah.

----Bou-kun in particular seemed to be going off on a tangent.

BOU: Did I ever! My on-off switch was busted.

TERUKI: There’s no such thing as pressure to him.

----After all, he has a lot of rebound.

BOU: (scream) Is that what it was?!

----That was quite a rock-full concert.

MIKU: Oh, I put out rock-ness too. The outdoor thing effectively worked out.

----The “Smile Ichiban Onna” you demo’ed there left an impression along with the blue skies.

TERUKI: We haven’t demo’ed a new song before its release since “Tekesuta Kousen.” 

It’s our theory to perform a song in concert when the basic sound is there.

MIKU: The audience doesn’t know what kind of rhythm to expect, so we try to think of how we can entertain them best,

and we really racked our brains out. But everyone is so happy to be able to hear it before its release.

TERUKI: Which means it all depends on the strength of the performance.

----Sound-wise, it’s a 90’s dance tune, right?

TERUKI: For sure.

MIKU: We think that An Café is becoming more established as Dance Rock.

----Because Four-beat Dance Rock has increased.

MIKU: “Tekesuta Kousen” was the one to become the nucleus of An-Café-likeness the best from last year’s trilogy, and next “Maple Gunman” was born, and when “Bonds ~Kizuna~” was done, we thought “This is it alright!”

TERUKI: We’ve been talking about making it into another style this time around, a “Uchikomi-Kei” ever since “Bonds ~Kizuna~.” I’ve left the dance up to Canon-san the entire time, so I thought I’d tryi to make it myself.

CANON: Teru Dance.

----Teruki’s cheerful songs are starting to become tamer.

TERUKI: You’re right. Last year at this time, there still wasn’t a single cheerful song in the bunch. (laugh)

MIKU: The Canon Dance has an attacking melody, while the Teru Dance has a catchy melody.

----Incidentally, what about the Bou Dance?

TERUKI: It’s “half.”

----Oh, so it’s a “baggy” style. (laugh)

TERUKI: The Bou Dance goes One, Two, Bang! You can hear the Bang! in the Three month release series.

----If that’s the case, what kind of base did Canon-kun lay down for the Teru Dance?

CANON: At first I left it to what felt good and plodded along (a four-beat rhythm), but I felt that was too static, so I tried shortening the phrases a little. A feel-good melody for a feel-good rhythm. And I tried singing along a little myself.

TERUKI: Canon-san really made a wonderful root this time. It’s incredible to be able to put out good feeling with a root.

CANON: Ya think?!

BOU: Guitar-wise, it’s okay to have a jerky Canon Dance, but I thought this would probably be better not jerky.

PAGE 2:

I thought “what the?”, and the solo and ending were at least like my turn. The rest was a simple, yet singing guitar!

TERUKI: It was such a passionate, moving melody, that I made him a request “Bou-kun, not that way! Let’s try it this way!”

BOU: The “this way” was kind of tricky, but I learned a lot thanks to that.

----Did the lyrics inspire the song?

MIKU: That’s right.  We thought we’d widen our perspective from the point of quiet simplicity of Teruki’s original piece of music with “Ii Onna”.

----I also thought that “Ii Onna” was the turning point.

MIKU: (laugh) We really wanted the audience to sing along there. We didn’t know if we should write touching lyrics.

----Apparently men were singing along with the “na” of “ii onna”.

MIKU: Yeah. The results from the voice training are in!

----That’s why An-Café decided that girls are beautiful when they smile.

TERUKI: Yes. I love people with beautiful smiles.

CANON: Girls that don’t smile are really cute when they occasionally do smile.

TERUKI: Are you referring to yourself?

CANON: Not at all! (laugh)

----By the way, what do smiles mean to you guys?

PAGE THREE:

 CANON: I have the answer here! Smiles are a cure-all.

----Meaning what exactly?

CANON: Ummm, ummm, they can chase away feelings of depression. What’s your take on smiles, Teruki-san?

TERUKI: Smiles are something… I want. I can do my very best out of the desire to see that special someone smile.

I feel they’re something you have to earn.

----That sounds pretty good.

BOU: To smile is to love!

MIKU: You got that out of nowhere. (laugh)

BOU: Eek! Eek! No, I didn’t! (laugh) You know how your heart races when you see a gorgeous smile?

-----All right, Miku-kun. Make your decision.

MIKU: Smiles are the sun.

ALL: Ooh!

MIKU: The sun is the source of everything, right? Because it’s something that shines on anyone and anything.

CANON: It lights up the path to our destiny! You won’t get anywhere looking like doom and gloom.

TERUKI: Like you can talk.

----(laugh) Canon-kun, regain your honor with “Super Rabbit”! It starts with base.

TERUKI: Oh! You mean the “vvvving, gyaaa”, right?

----So, is this the Moon Watching song?

MIKU: Moon Watching song? (laugh)

CANON: It’s unusual for this kind of playfulness to be in a Teruki song.

TERUKI: Playfulness can always be added after preproduction.

----You’re saying that it got its playfulness from somewhere else and not from you?

TERUKI: It was a very straight song in the beginning. There were a lot of changes in the rhythm,

so maybe that’s why it was so easy to play with.

----The rhythm team is banging and boinging.

CANON: Melody A in particular. But it wasn’t perfectly aligned to the drums, so I had to give it a lot of attention.

----It shows depth.

TERUKI: That’s true. It was definitely like the bottom.

----Bou-kun is in his element.

BOU: I played the guitar so rabbit-like, I should have glued a pair of rabbit ears on it!

MIKU: The rhythm of the lyrics were jumping all over the place, so it really was like a rabbit.

This rabbit, however, is a bit of a crafty character.

CANON: Yeah. He’ll leave the turtle behind.

TERUKI: He doesn’t exactly have a choice, you know. It’s a race.

BOU: Ugh… (laugh)

----The story I imagined was that the main character who is a boy has a particular favorite girl in mind,

but he’ll take any girl he can grab at a mixer in the meantime, but he’ll still lust after the original girl.

MIKU: (giggle) I see… The story I had envisioned was that he would secretly hook up with her

girlfriends when she wasn’t looking.

CANON: I don’t get it.

----I get it. Her girlfriends are offering him their “carrot glaces”.

MIKU: You got it! Isn’t it upbeat?

----Scary! What if it was reversed? If she were to do that…

MIKU: It would be unforgivable. I’d hunt her down.

TERUKI: With an old matchlock like in the old Japanese fables. (laugh) Actually, I don’t agree.

Don’t make me sound like them!

CANON: If it were me and she took off somewhere, I’m the type who’d shoot her down.

ALL: (mass laughter)

----(laugh) So, what kind of “One, Two, Bang!” can we expect in the future?

MIKU: We will continue to evolve around the dance rock theme! Our concert on December 24^th at the

Shibuya Civic Hall will definitely be a blast!