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SPY x Family Number: WhiteThe animated film, starring beloved characters from the popular manga and anime series, has been an instant hit at the Japanese box office since its release on December 22. Japanese hitmaker Gen Hoshino composed the closing theme song for the film, as he did for the TV series, and the new song “Why” is the title track of his latest single.
The 42-year-old artist’s new project, which also features “Life,” the theme song for this year’s World Athletics Championships and the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, as another title track, includes a set for popular Japanese comedy duo Audrey at the Tokyo Dome campaign, as well as the instrumental track “Beyond the Sequence” in a television commercial in which he appeared. The J-pop superstar reflected on his headspace experience in 2023 in an interview with Billboard Japan. details the making of the tracks on the new single.
“Why” is the ending song SPY x Family Number: White. How did you feel when you were asked to write this song?
Gen Hoshino: First of all, I think it’s interesting that the ending theme was announced on the day the movie was released. I wrote “Comedy” (ending theme) Spy×Family Season 1) had 2000s hip-hop in mind, so when I was asked to do the theme for the movie, I wanted to make sure the feel of the music was fundamentally connected. For “Why,” I went back even further and combined an early ’90s R&B/hip-hop beat with a late ’80s R&B mid-ballad as the song’s soundscape.
R&B and hip-hop from the late ’80s to early ’90s form your musical roots, don’t they?
Literally, they were the music of my youth. Oh, but I guess the late ’80s can be considered part of my roots. A lot of the anime theme songs I listened to as a kid were heavily influenced by Western music, and I want to do something similar now.Take “Romantic Upper Leaf” as an example dragon ball for example. The opening song is energetic and easy for kids to understand, but the ending theme suddenly turns into an adult love song that leaves you suddenly confused. But that longing stays with you, and when you grow up, you understand what the lyrics are saying. Something like that.
I grew up listening to jazz and R&B from the same era because my parents listened to them, so they were like the same type of music in my head. A lot of ’90s hip-hop songs borrowed from ’80s R&B, and I wanted to make a song with that connection. That’s why the “why” came about in the first place.
The lyrics of “Why” propose the premise that “people will eventually disappear” and raise the question of “why we still try to create more memories.” Can you elaborate on this topic?
The soundscape is a throwback to the 80’s and 90’s, I decided to depict in the lyrics what happens after the “comedy”, the sound of it is inspired by the 2000’s. Since the movie is about travel, I went on a trip myself. I went to Kanazawa alone, and I felt like I gained a lot from the time I spent at the DT Suzuki Museum and the time I spent walking around the city.
I’ve been feeling very depressed this year. I didn’t feel any hope or positive feelings at all. When I think about it, I think it’s probably a backlash, a reaction to three years of the pandemic and how hard I’ve been working so hard during that time.
Now that the restrictions imposed by the pandemic have been lifted this year, the mental fatigue of the past three years may have begun again.
I was in a state of “nothingness”, and no matter what I wrote, it just felt wrong. After my trip to Kanazawa, I decided to write a song without considering the combination. The first thing that came to my mind was the A-melo (first verse) of “Why”. It felt really right, and from that moment on, my current situation – my own troubles and trials, things I wanted to overcome – became associated with the film. People will eventually die. If we think about it in terms of thousands or tens of thousands of years, human society will definitely collapse. When you think about it like that, no matter what anyone left behind or what they did, it all means nothing. But why was I so moved by the sunset I saw in Kanazawa? Why do I find the water ripples at the DT Suzuki Museum interesting? Why do people take photos when traveling?These ideas lead to characters Spy×FamilyThree people and one dog, each with their own traumas, and a family together.
“Life” feels like it has the power to lift the listener physically and mentally, and I also felt a connection to “Why.”
In fact, I had no intention of connecting them at all. (Laughs) I originally thought the lyrics of “Why” would be lighter, but I thought about it a lot when I wrote it. I didn’t originally plan on releasing these two songs as singles, so they just happened to tie together when I finished them.
Musically, I hear you have the gospel in your heart. The song contains as much of the elemental power of human performance and singing as the primal sounds of drums and saxophone.
The physical sound is conveyed in a direct way. That, and I also really enjoy music programming and editing. Until my early thirties, I was more interested in the body and used to think it was better to have someone (perform music), even with mistakes and errors. Later I became attracted to programming and synthesizers. Programming music definitely creates an energy. For the drums, Shun Ishiwaka played the program I programmed. The display of humans trying to imitate and surpass machines is moving. It is a mixture of human and machine qualities.
The “so Sad so happy” clip from this year’s SUMMER SONIC BEACH STAGE, curated by Gen Hoshino, will be streamed on Twitch’s Amazon Music Japan channel. Jacob Collier, Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest), Camilo and UMI performed at the event. Looking back now, what are your thoughts on this project?
The first half of this year, I was staying at home all day long, writing songs and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden I went outside and it was really hot. (Laughs) I managed to get through it and it’s a great memory from this summer. I feel so grateful to be able to do whatever I want to do on the SUMMER SONIC stage. I’d met everyone before, except Camilo. I invited my friends so the show that day was connected in that sense and it must have looked different than a typical festival. They all gave great performances, so it was really touching.
—An interview with Tomoyuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan
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