Yoasobi is an act of J-pop in small groups, the first single, “Yoru or Kakeu,” Japanese music ranking assaulted. The male duo-femestre has shaped an assignment of the artistic writing site online monogatary. com, and its exclusive concept is to produce music encouraged through the theme of the stories of the site.

Released in December 2019, “Yoru or Kakeu”, which can be translated more or less through “Racing in the Night” in English, is based on a new original Hoshino entitled “Thanatos no Yuwaku” (“Seduction of Thanatos”) that represents the operational romance between the first narrator, which continues in the first person.

“Yoru or Kakeu” took off for the first time on the short video platform of Tiktok and other social networks, leading the viral rating of the first 50 (Japan) of Spotify in January. The animated clip carried out through Nina AI, lately a student in the design department of the University of Tokyo Artes, has noticed more than 30 million times. The exclusive functionality in the song of singer Ikura downloaded on May 15 on the first Take channel of YouTube also noticed more than 20 million times.

The first single from the duo have become their first good fortune No. 1 in the Billboard Japan Hot 100, leading the graph on June 1 and remaining there for 3 consecutive weeks. Billboard Japan spoke with the members-hay, the composer and manufacturer who began publishing online music as supposedly “vocaloid manufacturer (vocalo-p)” in December 2018, and singer Ikura, a university student who also writes and translates his own music as Lilas Ikuta and requested members of musical influences, the procedure his road and more in this musical interview.

How did Yoasobi have at the origin?

Ayase: There is an online artistic writing site called Monogatary. com, and I won an offer from there to collaborate in a unit that creates encouraged music through original stories. Then, after having discussed things like the type of singer we are looking for and the direction of the music we were visiting, we discovered Ikura on Instagram, where he had downloaded component of his music, and molded our duo.

What are your musical influences?

Ayase: I grew up in classic J-pop artists such as Aiko, Sukima Switch, Kobukuro and Exile. These were main influences, so when I make my own music, be they songs or songs of Vocaloid for Yoasobi, I do not have the feeling of doing anything, namely, out of the ordinary and cite the most productive type of J -Pop.

Where are those influences the obvious maximum in Yoasobi songs?

Ayase: The functioning of the melody. In addition to J-Pop of the AUGHTS that I mentioned, I also pay attention to a large amount of classic J-Pop of the 80s and 90s, so I like the type of melodies that other Japanese people know. But I also need to follow global trends in terms of its global, and lately pay attention to many K-Pop in particular. Go to the way they make their pieces enlightening.

Ikura: I grew up in the United States up to 3 years and heard a lot of Western music from an early age. When in the number one school, I saw many systems in the Disney Channel and bought the sound bands to practice the song of the songs in English. I think the way I sing now has a lot to do with my delight at that time. In addition, my father loves folk music and taught me the guitar game. I heard a lot of folk and country music to my adolescence, so that easier songs are also my influences.

You have a separate musical career apart from Yoasobi-Ayase as “Vocal-P” and Ikura as a solo composer. Do you think your double race influences another in a tangible way?

Ayase: I make the demonstrations for Yoasobi that use vocaloid software, in fact, because I can be more avant -garde with my concepts when I write the melody. That is why they are incredibly complicated for a living singer to breathe while doing a song. But in the early stages of the concepts, there is another type of emotion compared to the writing of a song while doing a song, so it is anything I have seen because I am a vocal-p.

Ikura: Ayase can position notes anywhere and make songs that use any type of rhythm, and I am surprised in the reach of their concepts every time I hear a new song he wrote. But I will have to admit that there are portions that I find difficult, such as a note, jumps an eighth or that the rhythm is much faster than the music I do. So, I will have to continue improving those aspects.

Can you expand your musical writing procedure in stories?

Ayase: I think he will say that I start through the story of absolute reading. Except that I basically made up the music first and that I upload the lyrics later, so sometimes it puts the best portions of the situation at the moment and first the general style, such as rhythm and sound. This is almost an intuitive procedure for me. A little like play music in my head while I read the original story. I think the result is faithful to the paintings on which it is based.

“Thanatos no Yuuwaku” (“Seduction of Thanatos”) is a story that reflects the way he considers life and death. But the inspired song, “Yoru or Kakeu” (“Racing into the night”), has a type of behavior, with voices powerfully full of life, which move away from the serious tone of the story itself.

Ayase: I have an idea that if I had to write a dark melody to explicitly “Thanatos no Yuuwaku”, it would be unbearably dark, so I made it catchy and pop explicitly. I sought to explain to the horrifying who live in good appearance and kindness.

Ikura: I looked for the original work environment, so I kept my impartial voice, to melt the color of the track. I tried to convey the emotion of the protagonist with my voice.

On the other hand, his moment version, “Ano Yume Wo Nazotte” (“Trace of this dream”), expresses its sound in this type of concern to be on the heels of the head of love, according to the romantic story on which it was based. Was the procedure of this track of “Yoru or Kakeu”?

Ayase: Yes, certainly. Precognitive dreams are essential in the original story, and has fantasy elements, so I began to make an almost futuristic and slightly eccentric track, but that did not feel good. I To highlight the soft facet of romance and the type of hurry to be young. It is a directly exciting song, but the original story has an unforeseen and confusing turn, so this difference is also interesting.

What about your third version, “Harujion”?

Ayase: The story in which considerations were founded, a protagonist who has been abandoned and is in a funk, but in the end he begins to continue a dream. So I sought explicit the way they faced the front and began to climb. The story had many internal scenes, so I connected the symbol to get out of this room with the feeling of taking a new step ahead towards its dream.

In addition, the moment of release coincides with the 40 of the Coronavirus in Japan. I have an idea that other people would not be to feel the arrival of spring this year, so to convey a seasonal sensation through music, its goal was to create a spring sensation of everything that begins to open.

Ikura: Music took position with the progression of history, so I went to this. I sing it in a more fluid way compared to other Yoasobi numbers, which sing in a clearer and more rhythmic way. Also more the intensity of the bridge before the last choir at the end of this component to explain how the protagonist rises up and up.

“Yoru or Kakeu” began to buzz on social networks at the beginning of this year, and continued to become his first No. 1 in Billboard Japan Hot Hundred and stayed there for 3 consecutive weeks. The song has gained popularity at a speed. When did you feel for the first time that the tide turned?

Ayase: (due to the 40 of the Coronavirus), other people are now in favor of the things they appreciate at home, so the types of entertainment they need have changed. I think there is a greater opportunity that our music is heard. He began to take off in puts such as Tiktok and Twitter around February to March, which coincides with the beginning of the corporations invited to close, so I think we were lucky that the moment of social distancing brought us the opportunity.

Ikura: I think that one of Yoasobi’s genuine joys of music is the way other people can pass from side to another between original stories and clips to appreciate them together, so the fact that other people have more time to make a big difference.

What are the other inspirations in the life you think about your music?

Ayase: I look at a lot of anime during my loose time and write music just after moving a specific story. This is all that I have been doing for a long time: things like movies too, I am the guy who needs to do anything from my reaction to a specific art painting. An illustrator can explicit through drawings, and I do it through music. Every time I feel a strong emotion after watching anime and movies, I channel those emotions in my music.

It is very similar to what you are doing for Yoasobi.

Ayase: Yes, I suppose you can say that I have been doing the same for a long time. When I was about 16 or 17 years old, a member of the older organization told me: “It is a laugh to write songs pretending to be the protagonist of an anime and things, or believe what I would say to this character. He will make bigger than his reach. ” I followed his recommendation and gave me intelligent results. So, maybe it cuts me to make music this way.

Ikura: I also write a lot of my music after watching a movie, or after reading a book. I also like to look at the landscapes and encourage me through visual reference points such as the buildings and the color of the sky that I see when I do an exercise or that I walk to the outskirts, and I prevent the words from noticing in the place.

Finally, can you percentage of some of your next projects and what is for Yoasobi’s long career?

Ayase: lately we are busy running with a new song, and it’s going well. We intend to continue writing more songs and throwing an album, and when the stage allows it, we would also like to play live. At the moment, we have a lot of time to plan our strategy, so we will continue to make sure that we can provide a correct quality when the time comes.