The feeling of love is strong at the end.
Ishii:When we held a pop-up event recently, we had a T-shirt that was so cool that we had the largest stock of it in our inventory. I'm wearing it right now. It's called "Turtle Head," and I like the super tacky look of it. I thought it was going to be a hit, but it only sold two copies, which I thought was a lie.
All:(Laughter).
Shirakawa:Did you get the mindset of, "The people around me don't get it?
Ishii:I was like, "Can you make a better dress than this one? I was so excited that I was like, "Next time, can you make clothes that exceed this? I was at the level of "Can you make a better dress than this? So I settled on the idea that only I could understand the fun.
KEN:But you're getting carried away, aren't you?
Ishii:I'm really into it, but there's another reason why I'm in agony. I wonder if it is really clothes, or if I am being too obsessive. I am not really a nerd. I don't have a single favorite item at the moment, and I am torn between various options. At the moment, clothes are the best tool for me to express myself, so I like making them.
KEN:It's good that you are self-aware that you are not a nerd. When I was 18 or 19, I wanted to be my ideal self, so I wanted to be this way, but unfortunately I was not. As I got older, I was able to look at myself objectively, and I was able to separate the things that I wanted to be from the things that I actually am.
Ishii:I wanted to be a nerdy person. I think it's really cool, and I think craftsmen and that kind of thing are cool, too. But I'm different, but that's my personality, and I'm okay with that.
KEN:It's good that you already know that. At the time, I wanted to be like this, and when I was a college student, I was so into music that I really listened to nothing but hip-hop. Even when I would watch a song show that looked back on history, I couldn't understand any of the hits from 2000 to 2005. There was a guy on Twitter once who was getting slammed by adults who said, "Hip-hop is great, so that's all you need to listen to. From an adult's point of view, that's "narrow-minded," but that's really what I was thinking at the time. I thought hip-hop was great and I didn't have time to listen to other music.
Shirakawa:I totally understand.
KEN:When I graduated from college or became a professional myself, I decided to listen to a variety of music properly, and there was a lot of good music to listen to. But whether or not I spent four years of college listening to music in a crazy, genre-specific way, and whether or not I had confidence in that or not, it makes a difference beyond that. I'm glad I got involved in that culture, both narrowly and deeply. Adults rationally say, "There are so many different kinds of music," or "There is a lineage of history," but maybe it's more important to know what you are comfortable with. I think that feelings of comfort and liking are stronger at the end of the day. If you feel that it's not the clothes, it's good to look at various things.
KEN:As a label owner, I see artists other than myself, and those who do well usually have a lot of fun. People who love rapping very much often win in the end, even if it takes them a long time to do so. The reason for this is that the amount of time spent by those who do it because they have to and those who do it because they want to are incomparable. The latter are comfortable, so they do things on their own without being told to do them. It is very important to find a comfortable moment, and those who find it are happy. So, if it is more fun to see various things than to force yourself to do them, or if it is interesting to broaden your antennae and come into contact with new things, you should do that. You can do that better than someone who can't. Because that's a weapon.
Ishii:Was there ever a time when things were a bit shaky?
KEN:I love the moment when I'm rapping, so I create a lot, and I've released 11 albums, and my peers ask me, "How can you write so many songs? I go home and turn on Netflix and write songs at the same time. The busier I get, the more I do that. I do label work, and I do TV and stuff, so I don't have as much time as I used to be able to take for production. I come home and say, "Yay, I have time to myself, I'm going to write a song.
Shirakawa:Is songwriting something you do for fun, like part of a hobby, rather than as a job?
KEN:I think so. When I leave the house, there's nothing different between weekdays and holidays. Maybe I feel that way because I worked as an office worker, but the feeling of opening the front door when leaving the house on a day off, when going to play music, and when going to work are usually completely different. But now it's the same all the time. Whether it's work, going out with friends for a drink, or going out with the family for a holiday, I'm doing it all with almost the same intensity.
Ishii:Do you ever get bored?
KEN:If you look at it in detail, on a micro level, there are things. When you are writing a song, you may not be able to come up with the phrase you want. Even if you think you have a cool song and try to record it, you already know it when you are singing it. I know it before it's done, but I have to finish it, and it's not cool at all," I think to myself in the booth. But basically, I do it because I like it, so I don't feel like I'm being forced to do it. I think the fact that I am able to do it in a good way to some extent is a big part of it.
