So I thought about it. “Well, how can I best serve the Word?” So I started speaking by changing the rhythm, changing the intonation, changing the tone a little bit. Then it worked out really well. However, at the time I thought that was just a starting point. After all, it was something I did to relieve tension during rehearsals. So it was just a whim, and I didn’t think it would last many years. If someone told me at that session, “A few years later, we’ll be doing the same thing on stage in Japan,” I’d probably be like, “Huh? No way.”
TDIt was a very impressive style. Even if it’s just a way of dealing with tension that just happened.
──Florence records your words on your smartphone, but how many of them are used in the lyrics?
FSGood question. It’s not a very efficient system, maybe around 10%.
–So it’s not used much in the lyrics.
FSIs that so. I wish I could use it more. But I guess I’m a bit of a ruthless editor. If there’s anything you don’t like, delete everything. If you’re an editor, you know what I mean, right? I don’t often think, “Oh, I wish things were more like this,” or “If I could do it all over again, I’d change it this way.” I want people to feel a great deal of pride in the words they use. So you end up being pretty ruthless, and you can’t be as efficient.
–Are you a perfectionist?
FSAh, maybe a bit like that. Because someone once told me, “Perfectionism is a kind of mental illness,” and as soon as I heard that, I thought, “Oh, that’s true.” But I consider myself to be somewhere between perfectionist and lazy. Right in the middle.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MASATO KAWAMURA
──What do you think about the band’s sound? Do you want your sound to be perfectly accurate?
TDIn a sense, I feel like I’m trying to be less precise.
NBI think it’s unfair that a drummer in a rhythm section like this should be expected to be tight (lol)
LMAh, that’s right (lol)
TDAs a guitarist, I definitely have a lot of freedom. But it makes the sound tighter. I’m playing a lot right now, and I think I’m playing the guitar more than I have in my 39 years of life. By playing live, the band’s sound becomes tighter.
LMWhen it comes to songwriting, we record while having a jam session. And the bassline that ends up on the record is often not the bassline that was completed during that jam. Probably about half or two-thirds of what I played during the session.
NBI spend a lot of time trying to become good at it. And when you get to a certain point, you start to take it apart, not that it’s bad, but that you take things away or play it differently on purpose. By doing this, you will be able to listen in many different ways. For us, it’s exciting to leave things unfinished.
