Iri Interview - 6th Album - "Each and Every Song is Extremely Personal"

 

Iri’s 6th full album, Private, has released. 
 
With tags with Yaffle, ESME MORI, Kenmochi Hidefumi (Wednesday Campanella), and even edbl (ed Black) who has become a big presence in the South London beat music scene and Kazuki Isogai (SANABAGUN), there have been many track makers and producers who have collaborated on this album. 
 
Music containing elements of current club music and a strong groovy sound are here present in this current work but from the latter half until the end, the line up of tracks reveals iri’s true essence through a subtracted sound production and the real emotion contained in the album’s title ‘Private’ (referring to private life) comes to the surface. Iri talks about the changes that took place within herself since the previous release neon, and the core of how that came to affect the creation of this.

I really want to express my true self

---‘Private’ is constructed in a way that from the groovy and poppy first half through to the middle, it musically changes heading toward the latter half and flows into a pure, raw state I think. To say more, the catchier the music is, the more earnest the lyrics are giving it a raw, compelling feeling. Also, when I finished listening, I understood the feeling the title ‘Private’ portrays. As a whole, this is a very raw album, I thought. I wonder what your thoughts are on this, iri? 

As I’ve generally been making albums at a pace of 1 a year, my mentality has ups and downs according to the seasons. From the colder seasons up until spring I’m in a calm state, and then as summer approaches I start to want to make more up tempo, bright songs that you can dance to, right? And this time I tried to take on a few challenges. I tried to make songs with artists from abroad, and I wanted to make a slightly different type of song with Yaffle to the ones that we had made together before. Because of that, we ended up with a different result from what we’ve had before. 

---You collaborated with Yaffle on the song DRAMA, what was the production process like? 

It was the same as with Matenrou on neon, the other songs on the album Yaffle mostly put together the tracks and the chords which became the framework and then my lyrics would be put on top and polished a bit. That kind of progression is quite typical. But this time, we tried creating the song based upon the chords I played myself on the keyboard. For example, rhythm (a single from the May 2019 release) Yaffle had arranged the tune I had created on guitar but on DRAMA, I had switched out the guitar for a keyboard and had created a chord progression going along with what I felt, I then shared the song that I had put over the top of that with Yaffle who put it all together. That was the way I had always wanted to create a song. 

---What was the reason for that? 

I’m always grateful for the way Yaffle takes leadership and creates music and he does it is such an exciting way, but I really felt that I wanted to express my own essence as iri this time. 

I wanted to make a sound that was easy to listen to as a whole 

---Go Back was co-produced with edbl and Kazuki Isogai, was making a track with track makers and producers from abroad another thing you’ve always wanted to do? 

That’s right. But it’s more like the artists that I wanted to produce with were those from abroad. 

---Last year, edbl and Kazuki Isogai released their album ‘The edbl x Kazuki Sessions’ but was it that you were introduced to both Isogai and edbl by your supporting live band members? 

Actually, I didn’t know that they had made something together. In the middle of talking to Kazuki about various things, we had a conversation like ‘edbl is great right?’ ‘Actually, we’re making songs together y’know’ ‘Oh wow, I wonder if I can join in?’. From that, they reached out. That was about 3 years ago now, I think? I’ve also wanted to recommend edbl’s songs on the radio. On my off days, I often listen to him and think he’s great! So when Kazuki told me they were working together, I was jealous! (laughs) 

---It was fate! 
 
That’s right. I think we were connected by a strange bond. 

---I think the sound production is spot on, without excess or lack and it has a deep chill, floaty sensation and an amorous vibe. The guitar solo in the outro is also very effective. 

It has a great feel, right? I’ve always really liked edbl’s easy to listen to, but varied and lively sound. I got to listen to the demo that edbl and Kazuki made before with the message ‘Let us know if there’s something in here that you like’. From those, I picked a track that I liked and I got to visit the studio that Kazuki often uses and we added things like the guitar parts. Finally, edbl put it all together. 

- This track performs the role of the intermediary point for the album, I think. The way that you make albums, there is a constant conscious effort to the balance of the so-called current club music, beat music and such beats and songs guided by the guitar chords you play. What was your approach to this album? 

I think that there is a perception that the raw punchy songs you can dance to are iri’s lead songs. This time, I had a strong desire to make a sound that was easy to listen to as a whole. It has a more familiar, everyday feeling and instead of the lyrics being raw and real emotions, I wanted to try putting more spectacle into them and worked with that idea. 

-The lyrics are certainly written full of rich, imagery, but I still think that there is still that raw emotion penned throughout. 

Well, that can’t be helped, I guess! (laughs) 

---That’s exactly why I thought ‘Private’ was titled as such. 

The title, Private itself comes from the final song ‘Private’ which was made with Aso but when writing the lyrics for the track that Aso sent me, the word ‘private’ just came to mind somehow and I thought it was great. Every time I say the same, but in the time taken to make this record there have been lots of things that I’ve felt in everyday life and in my private life, and as I’m approaching the final year of my twenties, I’ve made a lot of discoveries and personal values have changed. These realisations and changes are less a part of my activities as an artist, but more parts of my private life. 

I’ve been able to open up again in many ways. 

---Would you be able to tell us a bit more about these realisations and changes? 

I’ve begun to think ‘Oh, whatever’ to things that used to bother me up until now. (laughs) 
In a good way, I’ve stopped thinking too much about things, I think. Everyone says this, right? ‘In your thirties, you get over a lot of things.’ What that is exactly I’m still not sure of, but I feel like I am heading this way. 

 

---Sorry to be so persistent (laughs), but could you give us an example of something you’d been bothered by up until now? 

It’s the same in making music but, I’ve always been the type of person that really cares about my everyday human relations. How do I put this... If I’m really honest, beginning with the song Season that heads this album, every song here has parts that are extremely open about my private life, this includes the title ‘private’, too. 

---Yes. 

So, if I speak to much about this album, I think I may been seen as someone who is honestly troubled. (laughs) I really don’t like interviews that are like worry counselling, so I wonder if I can pass this by saying ‘That’s private, so I can’t say’. (laughs) 

---I see! (laughs) 

To put it into words like that is quite embarassing, right? But I feel like this is the story of how I was able to begin opening up in myself again in many ways.  

---So, through the making of this album, you were able to begin to get over things? 

I’m not sure if I’m really getting over these things yet but I feel that I was changing as I was writing these songs. Many strangely positive words came up in Season (laughs). I felt like I grew a little. 

---I feel like it’s definitely been hard for you to talk about this album here.  But on the other hand, you could say that your songs have conveyed a lot. 

That’s right. If my songs conveyed them then, I am fine with that. But it’s nothing that I need to say in an interview (laughs).   

It became this good, melancholic spice. 

---So, to ask from a slightly different angle, how do you think you were able to so vividly project your private feelings and scenery to your songs to this extent? 

Those gloomy feelings that I hadn’t compartmentalised were feelings that I think everyone has experience before, I thought. But I thought a lot about how to capture those feelings in a positive way... To put it bluntly, it came from the type of gloomy feeling when you pass someone by. To suddenly not be able to see someone that you’ve always been close with, a way of thinking you always thought was good but suddenly the point of view changes. I’ve had that quite a lot. In the time since the last album, I’d been frequently worrying about these kinds of things. But in life, these types of misses are frequent and once you’re able to meet the people who’ve passed us by, this gloomy feeling becomes a sort of spice, right?  It’s the type of album that conveys the positive thoughts I’ve had toward these things. 

---As you say, beginning with Season, but Roll and STARLIGHT too, we’re swept up by the really hectic and changing situation but of course, just before in Season, you were singing ‘it seems like this world isn’t that bad after all’ and in Roll, you sing ‘If you ride the music, you will be saved’. I thought it was a song about someone who, whilst confused, understands that there is a seed of hope. 

Thank you 

---Those words over the top of the uplifting Season and STARLIGHT and the Jersey Club beats from Kenmochi Hidefumi featured in Roll are definitely memorable. 

I think it happened naturally. Like we were led by the music. If I was singing along to my own compositions, I don’t think we would have been able to include such lyrics. It’s because we had such an upbeat sound that we were able to put such vivid lyrics over the top, I believe. 

I went into this strange mode during neon

---I’m changing the trajectory of the conversation a bit but, when you listen to your previous albums, does it remind you of the person you were at that time. 

Yes, I do remember. To give an example Sparkle (4th Album released in March 2020) was the time I was most bouncy. As the title suggests. (laughs) 

 

---As expected, the album’s title is a representation of who you were at the time in parts, right? 

That’s probably true. At the time of Sparkle, I felt truly invincible. I feel that I was gaudy at the time, very showy. With the album before that, Shade (3rd Album released March 2019) I remember a lot. It was made during the colder months and was quite down-hearted, I thought. 

---How about the previous neon?

I laugh when I think about neon now (laughs). We went into a strange mode during that time. When I read back at the things I said during the interview then, there are parts I’m embarassed by and can’t help but laugh. I was oddly sour. I think I was more big-headed than stoic. (laughs)

---It feels strange that that was just a year and a few months ago.

I think so. Yesterday at a different interview, I was told by the interviewer that during neon’s release I had said something like ‘Right now, I’m in the cocoon phase’. That’s so embarrassing but I just said ‘Yeah, I definitely said that.’ 

---What was the cause in you going from that mode into the phase for this album?

I wonder... What was it? 

- Are you influenced by your live performances?

I think I am, yes. When a new album is released, we go around on tour and then we have burned out by the end of that. The moment we wrap up the tour, I have digested everything, I think.

 

I want to get my drivers' license

---The period between Sparkle and neon was during COVID and so to be able to get back to doing concerts as before must be quite big, right? It surely must be special feeling to be able to hear the crowd singing back at you again during this tour (iri Hall Tour 2023 “PRIVATE”). 

I think so. A while back, I performed with SIRUP in Osaka (March 2023 ‘Grooving Night’) and the crowd sung along quite a lot. I thought ‘Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this’. SIRUP too said ‘This is moving, I feel like I could cry’. So I wonder what it will be like when we start the Hall Tour in May. 

---You have the upcoming tour too, but on the creative side, are there any new challenges that you want to try that come to mind? 

Truthfully, the feeling of wanting to make more music never leaves me. I think there was the effect of COVID too but of course If I continue to always make music, there will end up being all output and not enough input. There’s the danger of the world that I see becoming narrower and narrower. I think that I need more input to avoid that as best I can. I want to go abroad and meet people who I’ve never met before, I think. Also, and this is a personal one, I want to take my driver's licence. 

---Ahh, that’s unexpected. You didn’t have that before?

That’s right, If I’m being honest. (laughs) I think that my lyrics may change when I’m the one who is driving. I often hear from musicians who like cars that during the time they spend driving, they think about a lot of things, sing a various songs, and it brings forth time to input. That sounds great to me. In any case I want to get more excited. There have been lots of times where I’ve had to turn down  friends invitation to hang out but recently, I’ve been trying to make an active decision to get out. 

 

---With your thirties in sight, your mindset is simply opening up? 

Yes, I feel that way. Although I think I’m not too concerned about my age, it’s the same with cars and going abroad. Either way, before I output anymore, I want a year to increase my input time. I think it would be great to have had many experiences by the time I reach my thirties. 

Original post: iriインタビュー｜「1曲1曲があまりにもプライベートすぎる」6thアルバム - 音楽ナタリー 特集・インタビュー (natalie.mu)

 Translated by Ronnie Dickson