Since they first swept the world with their electric collaboration in 2019, YOASOBI has consistently conspired with genius. Each song by the duo takes inspiration from a short story, creating their mantra of “novels into music,” and fuses producer Ayase’s masterful electro-pop productions with vocalist ikura’s powerful intonations. Now an undeniable influence in amplifying J-pop in the global music scene, YOASOBI returns with THE BOOK for, the final volume of THE BOOK series. The album teems with the various worlds they’ve explored over the past three years, featuring several anime OSTs, a track inspired by the stories of 1,000 teenagers in Japan, and their latest collaboration with Overwatch on the single “Orion.”
Ahead of their Never Ending Stories tour, Anime Trending had the honor of speaking to YOASOBI about their newest album, the emotional beats behind their recent creative endeavors, and their ever-evolving musical journey.
Seven years into YOASOBI, how would you say the way you work together has evolved?
ikura: The overall shape of it, the structure, hasn’t really changed. There’s a story or a novel that Ayase turns into music, writing the lyrics, composing, and arranging, all of that. Then I receive that song, and we record my vocals together to complete it. That process itself hasn’t really changed.
Ayase: The process is always the same, but at the same time, ikura is 25 years old now, and it’s been a while since we’ve met each other. That kind of personal growth is something that we’re experiencing. So in various ways, outside of just making music too — maybe in work settings as well — I think we’ve both grown.
YOASOBI’s concept is turning “novels into music.” Would you consider these songs an adaptation of the novel or an emotional interpretation of how the novel makes you feel? Both? Neither?
Ayase: It’s both, really. We always get inspiration from the worlds of the original stories, and we want to convey that world, the characters, and the emotions of the story properly. Of course, we also want to convey the content of the novel.
But say there’s a huge twist at the end of the story. If we were to give it away in the song, that wouldn’t be as fun, right? In that case, maybe we wouldn’t include everything. So it’s like dissecting a story: absorbing it into myself and then rebuilding it through my music. That’s probably the closest way I can describe how I approach making music.
I noticed that for the various anime OSTs you’ve done, even if an anime is based on a manga, you create songs inspired by a short story and not necessarily just the manga itself. What is the reason behind sticking to prose as your main musical inspiration?
Ayase: Actually, in terms of the framework of YOASOBI, we’ve never used anime or manga itself as the source material. Everything has been based on novels, on text. Sometimes it’s letters or feelings we’ve received from fans. We’ve had stories written for us too, and sometimes that story has a manga or anime behind it. But still, the source material for us has always been the text, the words.
Music is, of course, sound, so the information comes in through your ears. A novel, meanwhile, is something you see with your eyes and read as words, with no pictures or other visual elements. Both are art forms you take in through a limited number of senses, and I think that’s exactly why they stir your imagination so much, and why imagining things can become such an interesting experience when translating words into music. I think that’s one of the reasons our music has such a strong affinity with novels.
Courtesy of YOASOBI
ikura, the way you play with your vocals when performing with YOASOBI is different from when you perform your personal music under “Lilas,” which feels more languid and flowy. What kind of headspace do you enter when recording for YOASOBI compared to when you tackle your personal ventures?
ikura: When I put vocals on a YOASOBI song, there’s always the concept of turning an original story into music. As the vocalist ikura, I’m singing to express the world of that source material, so I sing based on the background of the original work, or the feelings of the protagonist within that song. I’m always trying to search for the best vocal approach to express the world of that particular song.
On the other hand, as the solo singer-songwriter Lilas Ikuta, my life is the source material — my own everyday life, my own experiences, things like that. I make songs and sing from those places. So the mindset of what I’m basing the vocals on is completely different. From there, when I’m singing solo, I search for the best vocal tone and nuance for the world that each song has become. And with YOASOBI too, after staying close to that world, I search for the best vocal color and nuance.
THE BOOK 3 features several songs like “IDOL” and “Yusha” that have a lot of firm, chanting background vocals, while THE BOOK for, has songs with more harmonious, even gospel-like, ensembles, like in “HEART BEAT” and “PLAYERS.” Could you speak to this evolution of your production and what the surrounding vocals represent for you?
Ayase: We have an early song called “Gunjo,” and that also uses a chorus approach that’s quite close to something like “HEART BEAT” or “PLAYERS.” So it’s not exactly something we’re trying for the first time. But it’s true that lately, I do tend to want to put in choir parts more often. I can’t really say what drives that fondness. Maybe I’m feeling lonely [laughs], or maybe I want to feel moved by my own production.
At the end of the day, I want to be the person who’s most moved by my own songs. When I think, “I want to be moved,” and I want to put the energy of a lot of people into the song, I often end up arriving at a choir. It feels very natural.
Does it feel different when you are singing with or hearing that many people, ikura?
ikura: Yes. The human voice is unique among all these different musical sounds in that it’s an instrument attached to the body. The voice is something that makes you feel its life force, so when human voices overlap to become a big choir, I really feel the power that they have. I think it’s very natural for your heart to be moved, for your heart to tremble during those sections. I feel it in the choir parts of those songs, and also of course at live shows. When we become one with the audience in the venue, and everyone sings together in these big voices, like a huge chorus — the energy is really incredible. That’s something I always feel as I experience more live performances.
I also believe that the choir is a strong element of music culture. There have been so many different traditional forms of music passed down since long ago, with the choir being one of them. The fact that it still remains a key part of our musical tradition after all this time shows that people believe in the power that humans themselves have. Whenever we perform with a big choir, I feel empowered to sing with it.
“Orion” English Version cover
“Orion,” your collaboration song with Overwatch and the newest track off your album, has just been released! Could you introduce the song and the process behind making and recording it?
Ayase: The story [“The Fall of a Sparrow” by E.C. Myers] was exclusively written for this collaboration, so I read it over and over again, along with other related Overwatch materials. This song is about the relationship between the characters Genji, Hanzo, and Kiriko, so I really thought deeply about their relationship and tried to absorb it all to find the best and coolest way to represent their bond sonically.
It’s really great! I love the star-sparkling effect of the instrumentals in the song.
Ayase: That’s what I was going for in that part, what I wanted the listener to feel. So it’s great that you felt that from listening to the music, thank you!
For Ayase, are there any lines from the short stories that inspired THE BOOK for, that have stuck with you over the past three years? And for ikura, is there a particular lyric that really resonates with you from this album?
Ayase: I can’t give you an exact line because there are so many of them. But one short story I can think of is the one for the song “UNDEAD.” I mean, the fact that the original short story was written for us by NISIOISIN-sensei, author of the Monogatari series, already makes it a treasure to me. But there are just too many golden lines in that one. Like, how could I ever choose just one phrase?
I also felt like that collaboration was destiny, to be involved with NISIOISIN-sensei’s work through the form of music. At the time of that collaboration, I was at that point in my life where YOASOBI had just had a big hit with “IDOL,” and I was feeling a little stagnant. There were goals I’d wanted to achieve with the band as well as with myself, and once those had been achieved to a certain extent, I felt burnt out in a lot of ways. I was starting to ask myself questions like, “What is happiness, really?” or “Am I actually happy right now?”
With questions like what happiness is, what it means for people to live, what life is, what it means to be alive — the person who could state those things so directly, so powerfully, was NISIOISIN-sensei. So I’m really glad that I was able to write “UNDEAD” at that time. I found so many words in the story that I needed at that moment in my life.
ikura: For me, if I focus on what I felt most recently, I think it would be a lyric from the newest song, “Orion.” There’s a line in the bridge that says:
“You’ve carried this weight alone, all by yourself, I can tell / And through every path / Hey, don’t you ever forget / That wherever you are / There’s gonna be somebody who is always wishing you well.”
I received the demo for that song, and when I listened to it, the words, the lyrics, and the melody were just so gentle that they sank into my heart so deeply, to the point where I found myself crying alone to it in the early morning. When I first heard it, I really felt that when I eventually sang it, I absolutely couldn’t let that warmth I felt slip away. I remember practicing the song while aiming for one of the gentlest, warmest voices I’ve ever used for a YOASOBI song.
The song follows the story of the original novel that became the basis for “Orion,” and it includes words born from the relationship between Genji, Hanzo, and Kiriko, told from Kiriko’s point of view. In choosing those words to weave the story into our music, I felt that Ayase captured not only Kiriko’s feelings but also the feelings that each of the three has for one another. I sang it with the hope that the inspiration we received from this work, the words Ayase wove, and what I delivered as the singer would all reach people’s ears, and that listeners might think, “Oh, I can receive words like that too.” I wanted those words to become a message of encouragement, something that can gently push someone forward.
YOASOBI’s North America tour dates
Your songs take inspiration from novels, but you’ve also discussed in the past how visual expression also inspires you, including fashion. If you could choose a fashion garment or accessory to represent this album, what would you choose?
Ayase: My first instinct is to say earrings, because of the sparkling shooting stars on the album cover. Hmm, what else? Since THE BOOK series is coming to a close, this is a milestone work in a way, but it doesn’t mean our activities as a duo are ending — it’s actually almost like we’re standing at the starting line all over again, getting ready to evolve even more. So I’ll choose shoes to represent where we are right now. Shoes that look like you could run fast in them. Purple shoes.
ikura: I’ll choose a ring, in the sense that this album represents a circle, a loop. Across all the different original stories and all the different worlds in this album, there are several that touch on the bonds between people. So in the spirit of that everlasting connection, yes, I think it feels like a ring.
You’re about to perform at two music festivals and then go straight into your Never Ending Stories tour. What are you most looking forward to showing your fans during this tour?
Ayase: “Orion” is something we’ve never performed live before, so we’re really looking forward to that. There are also so many songs we’ve never performed in the U.S. before, so we’re definitely excited for people to see those.
For our solo shows, we’re planning and creating a pretty elaborate stage. There are a lot of elements of the production that will be first-time challenges for us too, so we’re really looking forward to that. I think the people who come to the shows will get to experience a lot of surprises and excitement.
This is the last installation of THE BOOK albums. What message do you hope to leave with your listeners as you graduate from this series?
ikura: Though THE BOOK series is coming to a close, this is just a chapter of our continued journey; we’ll continue to turn stories into music as we always have. But by naming this album “for,” we not only wanted to include that concept of “novels into music” but also hoped that the music would overlap with different moments in your own everyday life, and that it could become the story of your own life. Our lives are embedded here too. So with this fourth work, I hope people can feel that idea of the “story” even more deeply.
Moving forward, we also want to take a fresh look at what “story” means to us and examine the kind of framework YOASOBI has built up till now, to continue expressing ourselves in all different ways and push beyond the expectations people have of us. We hope you look forward to it.
Special thanks to Sacks & Co. for facilitating this interview and to Miyuki Watanabe for translation and interpretation. THE BOOK for, is available to listen to now on streaming platforms. Tickets for YOASOBI’s Never Ending Stories tour are available here. You can follow YOASOBI on Instagram.
