ORAL CIGARETTES Interview on ‘OVERNIGHT,’ the Opener of ‘Tougen Anki’

THE ORAL CIGARETTES has released a new song, “OVERNIGHT,” the opening theme of the TV anime Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood. The song’s message, which resonates with both the anime’s themes and the band itself, and its raging, breakneck beat make it a song that could only be created by THE ORAL CIGARETTES today, with its history in the scene. Behind the scenes, though, the band says the song has ties to “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” which helped raise the band’s profile.

Billboard JAPAN talked to the four members, who are aggressively pursuing their musical ideals, about the making of the song and about their messages to overseas listeners.

On July 11, you released your new song, “OVERNIGHT,” the opening theme to the anime Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood.

Takuya Yamanaka (vocals and guitar): The protagonist of Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood started out with a pure, powerful desire to become a Momotaro (a folk hero who fought ogres called “Oni”), but then he discovered that he was actually part Oni. Although he was unable to achieve his dream of becoming a Momotaro, he looked even deeper, at his own desire to follow his vision of justice, despite what others might say, and he decided to do that as an Oni. What’s important isn’t just pursuing your dreams, but how you take on those dreams and stay true to yourself. We wanted the song to really convey that message.

Were there parts of the story that resonated with you, personally?

Yamanaka: Yes. As the frontman of a band, when you transition over from being an indie to a major label band, you think a lot about your ideals and how to deal with them. When I first started getting interested in bands and music, my ideals were really pure, but that desire to go a certain way was so strong that I ended up losing sight of my own innate qualities. I was just thinking about how I wanted to be seen by other people. Over time, those ideals gradually became less pure. So I’ve experienced that first-hand, and it’s something I still struggle with a bit. With this song, it almost felt like I was directing the lyrics at myself, especially in the last chorus.

I’m sure it will remind a lot of fans of “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” the theme song to Noragami Aragoto. Was “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” something you thought about when you were creating “OVERNIGHT”?

Yamanaka: Everyone, from every side, was looking forward to us making something that would go above and beyond “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” And, of course, we wanted to move forward, too. We created a sound image that would have been impossible for us back when we made “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” We used other things, too, that we’ve learned over the past decade, such as music theory. We were like “Let’s let them have it, right from the start.”

And just as you’d intended, the song opens up with a bass line that’s just amazing.

Akira Akirakani (bass and chorus): I played using an effect pedal called a filter, and in our sound production, we gradually opened up that filter. Takuya said “the bass at the start is incredibly important,” and I wanted to really focus on the sound production, so we made some adjustments after the mixing, too.

Yamanaka: The whole process was a lot of fun. First, I made the demo, and then I told Shige (Suzuki), “I want to put in a lead guitar like this. Want to work on it together?” I remember having a lot of fun, like “I want to put in a scratch part here. What about cut-and-pasting it?”

Shigenobu Suzuki (guitar): I’m good at making guitar lines with a harsh edge, and I tried out a few different tones for this song. Yuki (Tsujimura) helped with the arrangement. If it had just been me on my own, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to go with that guitar tone, which was noisy but where you could also clearly hear the guitar phrases. Up to now, I’ve tended to just go with one effect pedal, like “Using this one gives it a dark feel,” but for this song I tried out a lot of different effects.

Akira: Like you said, part of the bass line was a self-homage to “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” The timing was perfect—this killer tune, the coolest we’ve ever made, that’s also part of a tie-up. It was like “boom!” So I wanted to use every trick and technique at my disposal.

How has your approach changed between 10 years ago and now?

Akira: I totally trust the other members of the band now. The four of us got together and wrote “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” in the studio, but “OVERNIGHT” was mainly written in this whirlwind of activity by Takuya and Shige. Back then, if someone had said “this guitar phrase is super important,” I probably would have said “hold on, I’ll come up with an even cooler phrase!” Now, it’s different. I’ve shifted to thinking about how I can play that phrase in the best way possible.

Masaya Nakanishi (drums): For the drums, too, when the demo was finished the song was already somewhat polished, so the direction of the drums was already clear. I took care not to mess up the atmosphere they’d created. For a drummer, the cooler a song is, the more you want to try different things. But I thought about how we’d be positioning the song in the future, and I realized that I wanted listeners to be able to focus on the singing. That’s why I figured it would be best not to go overboard with the drums. I held back a bit and played using a really natural approach. But I also sprinkled in some complicated things here and there, which I hope other drummers will notice.

I look forward to seeing how listeners react. You have a lot of overseas fans, too. In your day-to-day activities, are there many times when you encounter that side of your fanbase?

Yamanaka: So often. Our YouTube videos are full of comments from overseas listeners. We haven’t had many chances to play overseas, but I want our foreign fans to realize that we’re always reading their comments and we’re always thinking about them. I think a lot of people discovered us through “Kyouran Hey Kids!!” and I’ve seen it get covered a lot. It makes me so happy that even though the song has this distinctively Japanese melody and Japanese lyrics, it resonates with people from different cultures and they even go out and cover it. I think a lot of our overseas fans are anime fans, so if they hear “OVERNIGHT” and think, “That’s the opening to Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood, that’s so cool!” then we’ll be happy, too. We’ll do all we can to go play overseas, too!

Akira: Yeah, I want to play a show in maybe the US.

Yamanaka: My older brother’s lived in the US for a long time, and one day he was at the bar and the person next to him was like, “You’re Japanese? Do you know this artist?” And it turned out he was asking about THE ORAL CIGARETTES. My brother said he bragged, “Yeah, I’m this guy’s older brother” (laughs).

Suzuki: I’m sure the guy who asked was surprised, too (laughs). We get a lot of YouTube comments in Spanish, so I want to play in Latin America, too. I hear there are a lot of anime festivals in Latin America, and I know someone who has gone and played there, so I’ve heard that there are countries where people don’t just love Japanese music and anime, but the country itself. Everybody’s experiencing our own culture, so one day I’d like for us to actually go over there.

Nakanishi: I’ve learned about how wonderful different countries are since I’ve started traveling overseas. When I see these comments from overseas listeners, I feel very thankful. I’m like “Oh, we got a comment from someone in that country” or “Wow, they’re so far away, but they’re thinking about what we’re doing.” So of course I’d like to go play in the countries where our fans live, but I also think it would be meaningful to go to countries that aren’t that well known to share our music and our culture.

—This interview by Chinami Hachisuka first appeared on Billboard Japan