capsule FLASH BACK interview for @TOWER.JP

reporter: Fujii Michirou
publisher: @TOWER.JP (Tower Records online offshoot)
published: December 5, 2007

More melodious! More unrivaled rhythms! Etching these qualities into their sound, they’ve conquered the dance floor. Letting loose with an intense individuality unique even among the other works on the contemode label, so much that it could even be called art, capsule’s latest album has predicted the principles and methods that will guide them going forward. Not limited to one genre or category, but always treading first into uncharted territory, perhaps this will even come to be known as a milestone marker for the scene as a whole.

Your new album FLASH BACK has been released after an astoundingly quick span of around ten months, and it’s rooted in a full-throttle 4/4 electro sound. What’s the concept?
I had an image in mind, but it was nothing specific. If there was any concept, it was something I should do with capsule in terms of representing the value of music not made on request.

I had the impression that your last album Sugarless GiRL was groovy dance music crafted with the solid bones of pop in its vocals and melodies. Is there any reason why you’ve found yourself in that mode?
I’ve consistently intended to make pop music, and this album is no different. But up until our last album, I think I’d been conscious of common musical structures found in conventional pop music and kayokyoku [pre-1990s Japanese popular music] when I worked, and over that process, I started to see that capsule has a lot of fans who genuinely love music and take our songs in as a whole no matter whether or not I do that. So for this album I didn’t focus on kayokyoku or club music at all. I just took what I thought was cool as I went through my day-to-day life and it turned out to have this sound.

What is the basic definition of pop music as you think of it?
Not something with the air of being popular, but something with the power to be popular. Something fresh with an interesting set of values that unconsciously makes you want to listen to it. And something that’s constantly being updated. So what people call pop right now is what used to be pop. But it’s actually really difficult to make that look appealing. It takes worrying, getting excited, and feeling goosebumps come up in response to your own work, and that’s something I think about all the time.

In the time since your last album, your solo work, including the productions you’ve done for Suzuki Ami, MEG and Perfume, has made a big splash. Does any of that have an influence on capsule?
The only person who passes judgment on capsule is me, which makes it almost like myself in a sense. But if I only had capsule, I’d have to make everything I want to do understood through that alone, and it’d be difficult to communicate without including things I actually don’t really want to do. Since I can distribute those parts elsewhere, I think that has a significant influence.

With this album, capsule has successfully defined a brand new standard of pop music. What are you aiming for next?
I’d like to take back the true value of pop music, and I want to do that through something I think is good. Ultimately, any kind of music can be put into some category, but I want to keep making music that goes beyond that and that I can judge as cool. But I’m not aiming to make something that reflects the times — it just turns out that way on its own. That’s why I think it isn’t really a big deal even if I fail. Whether I succeed or I fail, the work I’ve done stays the same.