Billboard JAPAN interviewed Official HIGE DANdism for the latest edition of its “MONTHLY FEATURE” series, highlighting today’s leading artists and works. The four-man band recently released Rejoice , its first album in almost three years.
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Starting with their breakout 2019 release “Pretender,” they have created countless hits, become a beloved band throughout the country. Their October 2022 release “Subtitle” was an especially big success, claiming the No. 1 spot on five of Billboard JAPAN’s charts for the first half of 2023, such as the “JAPAN Hot 100” chart. Rejoice , their new album, contains a total of 14 songs, including “Subtitle” and “Mixed Nuts,” the opening theme of the SPYxFAMILY anime.
Billboard Japan spoke to all four members of the band about what led to the creation of this new album and the growing support they’re enjoying from overseas fans.
When did you first start working on the overall image and concept of your new album?
Satoshi Fujihara: When we finished our last album, Editorial , we were talking about making our next album a more joyful one. The last album had shined a spotlight on deep-down feelings and melancholy about the future, we wanted to change the mood and go in a happier direction next.
How have the past three years, since your last album, been for you, as a band?
Fujihara: Our fan base has been growing since 2019. When we started out, I thought I might find that uncomfortable, but over the past three years, I’ve become comfortable with the fact that I live a kind of unusual life, in a good sense. A very blessed life. At the same time, it’s also felt like we’ve been able to expand our potential, always striving to create even better music, but not in a stoic way — instead, we’ve been able to do that while having fun. It’s been an extremely fruitful and pleasant three years.
Daisuke Ozasa: I think over these years we’ve become more confident in the music we like, our own individual character, and the kind of music that has shaped us through the years. I think that all comes out through the music on the album.
Masaki Matsuura: The discussions we had while creating the new album were relaxed and at ease. I think that was a sign of just how much we grew over those three years.
Makoto Narazaki: Of course, I want to get better, and I want to record good songs. But in the past, I felt like I had to hold myself up to a really high standard, while now I feel like I can just be myself. I think that the whole group’s atmosphere has changed in the same way. It feels more open, with more room to breathe. There’s this sense of “Why don’t we just try to have fun with everything we do?”
I’m sure you put a lot of care into the arrangements of the songs on the album, and how the songs develop, but you’re saying that one of your driving forces was a more simple sense of “It might be fun if we did this” or “It could be interesting if we did that”?
Fujihara: Exactly. Without that, it would just be a copy-and-paste job. I think that approach of arranging songs is a more natural style for us.
I think one of the things that makes Official HIGE DANdism’s music so appealing is that it goes in directions that the listener isn’t expecting. Your songs take on all kinds of musical challenges.
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Narazaki: One of the biggest and most prominent examples of that is the structure of our songs, but we’re also taking on new challenges with our tone and in other areas which maybe listeners won’t notice. Songs are more fun if there’s some playfulness to them, and it’s great to listen to a completed song and be like, “that sounds really cool.” When you can do that, there’s the potential for doing it with different concepts, as well, which presents its own new challenges. I find that really satisfying.
Which are each of your favorite songs on the album?
Narazaki: For me, it’s probably “TATTOO.” We all got together in the studio, started up the DAW, and we were looking at the demo data on Satoshi’s computer, talking about how we wanted the song to sound. The demo had these vintage synth and keyboard sounds. It may just be me, but I find those kinds of sounds cheesy but at the same time kind of cool. Like, they put me at ease when I hear them, or they strike my fancy at the time. They’re timely, in an odd way. That’s why I like “TATTOO.” “Nichijo” and “Get Back To Jinsei” have a similar feel. If you think of each song as a stew, then it’s like they’re different stews but they have similar spices. They have that same sense of place in time, that same kind of nostalgic flavor. After working on them, when we worked on the other songs (on the album), I got that same sense of cool cheesiness and that same nostalgic feeling.
Fujihara: For me, it’s “Sharon.” In terms of musical theory, what we’re doing is a little fiddly, but the end result is incredibly natural. I’m very happy with how it came out. Now, we’re rehearsing it in preparation for live shows, and the power of the band really comes across. In a way, it’s a very dependable song — I can feel comfortable giving myself up to the music, which makes it one of my favorites.
Ozasa: I like “B-Side Blues.” It’s the first song that the whole band has recorded in a single take in about five years. The whole album isn’t exactly packed with notes, but this one has even fewer notes than most, so the feeling of each of our performances comes across very vividly. It’s also a beautiful song for bringing the album to a close. The word Rejoice has this image of profound, powerful joy. The album starts off with extremely energetic songs, like “Get Back To Jinsei.” But as the album progresses, the joy it expresses comes closer to home. Little by little, it becomes more personal, more about the things we value in our own lives. The album ends with “B-side Blues,” which truly expresses this personal joy.
Matsuura: Of all the songs on the album, the process of recording the drums took the longest for “Mixed Nuts,” so it left the strongest impression on me. It has a lot of jazz elements, and the tempo is fast, making it a hard song to play. I don’t have a jazz background, so I had someone who used to play jazz show me the ropes. There were a lot of cases like that, where I was studying new things, and when I’ve jammed with other musicians, sometimes they’ll ask how I played my part on “Mixed Nuts,” or they’ll say they think it’s a really interesting song. It’s the kind of song that spurs a lot of talk as a drummer, and was a ton of fun to play.
I expect you’ve been hearing from overseas audiences, too. Tell us about what their reaction has been like.
Fujihara: Yes, we’re getting a lot of messages on social media from overseas fans, in languages we can’t read, asking us to come to their countries and perform. It’s a strange feeling, but also a wonderful one. We did once play in Korea, a long time ago. There were only like three people in the audience. That makes all the feedback we’re getting from overseas audiences now feel that much stranger.
On Billboard JAPAN’s Global Charts, songs like “Pretender” are also very popular in Korea. They’re ranking highly in various countries throughout Asia.
Fujihara: Every time we hear a fan saying they’re waiting for us to play a show in their country, it makes us want to go there and perform even more. We haven’t done any overseas shows since that show in Korea, but lately we’ve been talking about how it would be nice to perform overseas sometime in the near future.
— This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared on Billboard Japan
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