I wondered if there was any point in making music at a time like this.
I think the first song in particular is an expression of your hesitation and feelings.
PUNPEE:I got sick for about a month. I think it was fatigue, but suddenly I started getting a fever at night and I thought, "Maybe I have corona?" I was wondering if I had corona. But I had to make it through that period, so I continued to get up around 6 pm and work until 10 am, but maybe that lifestyle wasn't so good. I even drank alcohol, which I normally don't drink. I'm totally fine now. Well, my mood at the time might be reflected in my songs.
When was that month roughly?
PUNPEE:From about the end of March to the end of April. That's the time of the morona. It wasn't a corona, but I was mentally in a state of intuition. Since my house is a studio, I don't see many people at all. That in itself is no different from before, but during the period of self-restraint, I began to feel very lonely. I might have been under the illusion that "I can only stay here forever. I might have been under the illusion that I could only stay here forever. However, there were some joyful moments in the midst of that. I think those things gave me the energy to create. (*Travis Scott held a virtual concert on the "Fortnite" multiplayer game, which was witnessed by 12.3 million people.) It made me realize that even in times like this, I can have fun. It's like thinking out of the box. Of course, I might have planned this before.
That event was certainly groundbreaking, wasn't it? Returning to the music, the lyrics of the first song "Nobody's Kingdom" and "I wish this were a dream" describe a dystopian scene that is linked to the reality of the situation. This kind of decadent vision is also sung in songs such as "Last Man Standing" (*included in the compilation album "LIFE LOVES THE DISTANCE").
PUNPEE:I work alone all the time, so I think about certain things. I think, "There's no need to get so serious. I think, "It doesn't have to be this serious," but then these fantasies grow and I end up writing it.
I see that there is an English narration at the beginning of the film. What kind of content is that?
PUNPEE:That's Corona-related audio. The rest is just friends' kids and self-restraint and this and that. It's like, "This is going to be a good experience, let's not forget about it.
So it is a real-time record.
PUNPEE:I wanted to keep it as a sentiment. It is strange to say that I wanted to preserve it, but that is how I naturally felt.
The lyric, "I can only feel my music when I can afford it," is also a straightforward statement at this time, isn't it?
PUNPEE:Yes. But I think there are a lot of people who are thinking about this. I think this is an eternal question: "What is the point of making music at a time like this? I think this is an eternal question. Even though I have not taken a political stance, I am suddenly faced with a situation where I have to think about it, and I am put in that kind of position.
PUNPEE-san, do you yourself have moments when you think you were saved by the music made by others?
PUNPEE:I sometimes think, as I did with the Travis Scott event I mentioned earlier, that I was saved in the end when I look back on it later. On the other hand, there are times when I feel like, "I don't want to listen to this now. Usually, when I watch a zombie movie, I think, "Wow, this is really bad.... I don't want the world to be like this. But it's fiction, and our world is fine..." But recently, when I was watching a movie about love, I thought, "In this world, everyone is meeting each other so much, and talking so close together. In this world, you can't do that. In this world, you can't do that. It was like the other side of the screen and this side were reversed. At that time, I thought, "Wow, I don't want to watch this now. There were times when I couldn't watch movies that I used to be able to laugh at.
The second song, "GIZMO (Future Foundation)," is the gizmo from "Gremlins"?
PUNPEE:That's right. I'm still trying to sort out what to do with that song... I want to escape to the VR world and escape, but in the end it's the same here, so the real world is like VR. I'm singing about how if everywhere you go is the same, you have no choice but to change.
I think the desire to escape to a virtual reality or some other world is also a theme that is unique to the current situation.
PUNPEE:I have always wanted to escape reality in the world of entertainment, but in the end, no matter where I go, I cannot escape from the real world, and it is not one of virtual reality. So, I think throughout the entire process, I have been wondering how to deal with that. I am still very confused about that.
If VR technology evolves further, it is possible that people will become more immersed in the virtual world than they are now.
PUNPEE:Our generation knows the time when there was no Internet, but I think the younger generation will have a completely different sensation. If VR technology advances in the future, I think the generation born after that will have a slightly different sense of immersion and immunity. In both good and bad ways.
I see that you are talking about VR, deep learning (*a method of machine learning in which a computer learns human behavior), and other so-called new technologies in this EP.
PUNPEE:I also simply like futuristic things. Recently, I think the deep-fake synthesis technology (*advanced image synthesis made possible by AI) is really dangerous. The quality is completely different from what it was when I saw it for the first time two or three years ago. I recently saw a video in which Jim Carrey and Jack Nicholson's faces were switched, and I couldn't tell that it was a composite at all. It only takes a couple of years for that to happen. Well, I think such technology has both negative and positive aspects. I also saw an audio version of deep learning. Obama singing Jay-Z's "99 Problems". That was just terrifying.... I also pioneered the "I'll sell you PUNPEE's audio data! Let them sing anything!" I wonder if it would be profitable (laughs). I definitely don't want to do that.
Hahaha! The third song, "Dream Chaser feat. KREVA" is a song about being proud to be an artist. KREVA is a guest performer on this song.
PUNPEE:This song is rather straightforward. KREVA is someone I cannot avoid. KREVA was a regular performer at the first event I attended in 2003. When I think about it now, there were many people at that event. We were called "Itabashi Recording Club," and others such as SONOMI, Goro Kumai, and DORIAN were also there. At that time, KREVA was already a major artist. It seems that time has passed since then. I have been wondering if there would be a link at some point, and I think it is now. It was 5lack that first knocked me on my ass. I think it was last year, and he said, "Why not do it now? He said something like that.
And that's when PUNPEE made the offer.
PUNPEE:That's right. Before writing the song, I went to KREVA's studio to talk with him, and we talked for about 4 hours about the hip-hop he has been listening to recently, the sampling material he has used, and his equipment. I thought he was probably thinking about music and equipment like this all the time. He seems like a mutant in a good way. And he works extremely fast. I sent him a rough track, and about two days later, he sent me back a rough track. And it was already perfect.
I think the song "Running Out of Night" with Mr. STUTS is a song for the straight hip-hop scene, though through a metaphor. I felt a similar nuance from this song. I thought they threw a direct pitch.
PUNPEE:Sure, if you listen to this song on its own, it might be straightforward; I think if you listen to it in the vein of the EP, it's a bit neutralized. However, I'm a little more enthusiastic than usual.
The line "No drummer can beat the drums" is the best punch line of the EP.
PUNPEE:We were talking about how the drums are no good...you know, the R&B claps of the early 2000s....dry. It's dry. I like that feeling. It's different from the trap snare. We had a lot of fun talking about that, so I thought it would be a good idea to write lyrics that refer to drums.
And the beat of Nottz's work is also in tune with the nuances of the lyrics.
PUNPEE:It's a nostalgic feeling of the old days. I'll always love beats like this after all.
Operation : Doomsday Love, the fourth track, is a love song based on the dystopian worldview I mentioned earlier.
PUNPEE:The lyrics were written before the current situation. I thought, "Is it okay to say this now? But in the end, I didn't rewrite the lyrics and left them as they were.
On the other hand, that's why it sounds real and not fictional. The worldview is the same, but the way another beat is inserted in the middle of the song makes me think that writing a love song is not a simple thing to do.
PUNPEE:Hahaha. I was once told, "You have a complicated setting for everything you write." That may be a quirk, but I guess that's just me. I think I have a fresh perspective when it comes to love song lyrics.
The fifth track, "Wonder Wall feat. 5lack," is the last track on the EP, and the words of the title also appear lyrically in PSG's "It's OK.
PUNPEE:Of course, it comes from "Wonderwall" by Oasis, but I think it refers to facial expressions. In my song, it simply means a wall. It is a song about brothers, and when I lived at home, the room next to mine was my brother's. Wonderwall" is about a thin wall. Maybe it's just me, but I sneeze when I think of pornography.
Hahahahahahaha! Tangent!
PUNPEE:When you hear sneezing on the other side of the wall, you think, "Hmm?" I wonder if they're thinking...like.... Memories of thin walls.
Ha ha ha. They are strange brothers, aren't they? How did you two brothers come to collaborate on a song together at this time?
PUNPEE:Well...we had never thought of doing a song together in the first place. But I guess the music made us do it, or maybe it just came naturally after listening to the beats. I feel like it was a natural progression.
I thought the content of this song was very realistic and not just a beautiful story about siblings, and when I heard 5lack's lyric line, "You switch the story" or "The credit goes to your pocket." How did you feel as a brother when you heard those lines?
PUNPEE:The first thing my brother said to me about this song was, "Don't make it a beautiful memory song." My brother often tells me, "You talk too much."
I'm sorry. Well, I guess different standpoints have different ways of receiving things.
PUNPEE:But since it actually looks that way, I guess it is. I have no objection at all.
I was also impressed by the way you included such a funniness of the brothers, but also summarized it with the line "I could buy a Million Jewelry, but I can't buy this relationship" at the end of the verse. Now, 4 of the 5 tracks on this album are by PUNPEE himself, and I wanted to ask you about your recent mode as a trackmaker.
PUNPEE:This piece was intended to be a live performance, so I felt like I created it with how it would sound at a live performance in mind. Surprisingly, I have never made tracks with such an order in mind, so this was a new experience for me. This was the first time you used a copyright-free sample pack. It seems that sometimes I use samples from other famous artists, but I think I'm using something that no one else is using at the moment. I also contacted people who make type beats and play guitar via Instagram and asked them if they could make loops for me that are not on the market. It was a bit pricey, but I wanted something as unique as possible. That may have been a challenge this time.
I have been studying English for a while now in order to read foreign comics, and it is helping me in unexpected ways, such as using plug-ins for equipment that has not been translated yet in Japan, and communicating in English about samples and jackets. I have updated my beats this time around in terms of mixing and devices, but I don't feel like I'm trying to incorporate new genres. I feel that it is more current to make old-type beats look interesting with music videos and other interlocking movements. Or someone creates a meme. Of course there are good and bad things about that.
And this time, Shojiro Watanabe participated in the mixing of the entire EP. Was this a connection with your collaboration with Gen Hoshino on the song "Sarashimono"?
PUNPEE:That's right. I also engineered Mr. Hoshino's album "POP VIRUS," and I really liked the texture of his voice, so I asked him to do it this time. I guess you could say that his voice sounds interesting. The way he expresses his voice is very raw. It's like they are separated and you can listen to them gently. As I mentioned earlier, I've recently come to understand the goodness of lightly seasoned soup. I felt that Shojiro's work had that original broth quality, so I think it worked well with that.
