The remaining of this interview is translated by non-other than uchihamel 大先生 from YL.



Say thanks to uchihamel for the translation ;)

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8

uchihamel: Italics

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I was told “Should you lose interest in music someday and neglect it, I will be asking for that back” when I received my guitar.

… At the beginning, back in the past when people randomly stopped or just walked by, I was nervous, and didn’t know what was what. However, halfway through I began to calm down and sing more smoothly. Should the performer of the street live be nervous, people who would stop to listen will end up not stopping, thus with the thought of creating a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere in mind, I managed to calm myself down. Then, it was like one person would stop to listen a while, and then maybe another person would stop too. That was how it was like. There were people listening every now and then, and at times people who also performed street lives would chat a little with me when they pass by on their way home, like “Oh you’re doing a live today?”

# Did you feel that you were taking a step closer to your dream of doing music if you continued performing lives like that?

YUI: At that time I was simply thinking of the present, I just thought of improving my guitar playing skills.

# So this means that you had no serious thoughts on wanting to debut?

YUI: That’s right. I was not thinking about that yet. When I was just beginning music, I went to an audition that the people at the music school recommended me, and talks about debut began. I was simply doing things which I liked hence when it developed into talks of debut I was very surprised.

# That audition was Sony’s SD Audition right?

YUI: Yes, that’s right.

# It is an audition where many musicians make their debut, did you not think of anything related to that?

YUI: Not at all at first. Up till then I was not aiming to debut, but it was more like there happened to be an audition, and I went as part of the music school. At the audition I sang cheerfully as I usually did. As the talks went on should I say, rather only towards the end did the actual feeling and realization of debuting dawn upon me. I began to think about more things. During that time, I took an airplane for the first time and came to Tokyo for the first time too. The people at the music school were worried about me so they accompanied me. My thoughts were like ‘there are many people here after all’, ‘the buildings are really tall’ as I walked around looking upwards. And if you carried a lot of luggage with you, scouts would approach you. Though since I had this sort of image in my mind, I was not too surprised in a way like “So this is what Tokyo is like!” But as expected, going to an entirely unfamiliar place and meeting people you don’t know was a little unnerving. I went to this hall where there were a lot of people from the record company, and a final assessment was held. I got permission to perform in my usual style and sat cross-legged while playing the guitar. Although I was instructed to perform 2 songs, I sang a bit of a third song. I did the songs the way I did during my street lives. That is why instead of expecting some kind of response from the audience, I treated them as if they were casual listeners who stopped by to listen to my performance. Since I was really nervous, I recalled how I did my street lives, and decided to perform in the same way. Memories of how amazing Bianco looked when I first saw them surfaced, and I wanted to reproduce that same feeling in my performance. Instead of 2 songs, I did 2½ songs. The song “I know” was a song which I composed a little while back, and since it was a song full of hope, I wanted for them to listen to it, hence I sang just a teeny bit of it. But as I was kind of afraid that they might be annoyed at me for singing more than 2 songs, I quickly left the place after that before I got told off or something (lol). I left without making eye contact with anyone.


Picture credits to Reset.

# When and how did talks of debut take on a more concrete form?

YUI: There wasn’t exactly a detailed notification that I was going to debut. Rather, after discussions with the record company, I began to do a lot of compositions. So it was like I sort of saw that coming.

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Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 10