Sunday 22 December 2013

AFA 2013: I ♥ ANISONG angela (Interview)




Atsuko and KATSU from angela
Photo Credits:  Project Harata

angela is one of the most popular Anisong bands in Japan, known for catchy theme/ending songs, such as "KINGS", the theme song of K. They made their debut in 2003, with "明日へのbrilliant road", the opening of Stellvia, and this year marks their 10th anniversary! Together with other Anisong artistes like T.M. Revolution and Elisa, angela performed in AFA'13 I ♥ ANISONG : Valvrave Night.

Read on to find out more about them in Project Harata's interview!

~Cheryl

angela

Photo Credits: angela's Official Website


Q: What made you decide to form a band together?

Atsuko: We both wanted to become musicians, but after going out to Tokyo, we had trouble finding band members. Since both of us were from Okayama, and knew each other from high school, we thought, “Let’s start a band together!” and that’s how we started.

Q: Could you share with us significant experiences you have gone through from entering the industry?

Atsuko: We started out as street performers, but under the Japanese law, it is illegal to perform on the streets. But, until the police came, we sang in front of train stations, and we were very happy when people bought our CDs. On some good days, we sold up to 100 CDs in one night. It was to the extent that we thought, “Hey, we could make a living out of selling CDs on the street!” *laugh*

Q: Your songs are really catchy and both of you compose not only the melody, but the lyrics yourselves. How do you normally get inspiration for your compositions?

KATSU:  Hmm, for some songs, inspiration naturally comes, but most of the time, we struggle to compose the songs… There are so many genres of Anisong artistes, so to stand out amongst these artistes, we struggle with composing a song which will convey the theme of the anime while leaving an impact on fans. Usually we compose through trial and error. For one anime song, we usually make 15 to 20 sample songs.

Photo Credits: AFA'13

Q: How long does it take to make a song?

KATSU: Hmm, for long ones, it takes about 2 months, for the faster ones, it takes about 2 weeks.

Q: What are some new songs that fans can look forward to in the future?

Atsuko: Right now, we have a lot of songs we want to write, but we don’t have a fixed plan for the future to be honest, but we will continue to write songs that we want to try out. In 10, 20 years, we look forward to what will happen and we hope to continue performing on stage in the future.

-Transcription/Translation/Commentary by Cheryl

-Layout/Pictures/Posting by Cheryl

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