After going on a hiatus back in 2009, visual kei band metronome restarted their activities last year with a live at Zepp Tokyo on September 19th. Since then, the band has put out a new single and will be releasing their new album, CONTINUE, via KING RECORDS on March 15th. JaME interviews the band about their reunion, new album, upcoming activities and more.
Hello metronome! Thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. What made you decide to restart activities as metronome in 2016? Who initiated the reunion?
Fukusuke: We also thank you for the opportunity to have this interview. We are metronome. The occasion to restart activities appeared when Riu was invited to an event held by his former office. All of us met up for the first time since stopping activities and the question of whether we would play metronome’s song during that event came up. After a consultation with all members, we decided, “We can’t play a song just like that. If we do it, we have to do it like it should be done.” So that’s how we restarted the band.
Now that you have reunited after many years apart, has the way you work together or make music changed?
Fukusuke: As a lot of time has passed, we interact with one another in a mature manner and relations between members are good. When it comes to composing, the new songs on our new album, except for track 11 (because this is cover of a song composed by Guru Guru Eigakan), were written by each of our own members and each member who wrote a new song worked on the mixing by himself as well. But the process of recording changed considerably. We finished everything by only exchanging data via the internet. Riu: We are able to easily contact one another via LINE, for example. Although we don’t meet, we probably have better communication than before.
Why did you choose the song Kairisei douitsujinbutsu as the leading track for your comeback single? Is there a message you wanted to convey with that song?
Fukusuke: Since I thought it’s a good thing if a song is cool, poppy and catchy, we wrote this particular song to transmit such thoughts to people who will listen to us for the first time and of course people who will listen to us after a long time. Sharaku: When we described to Riu what we wanted our band’s image to be like if metronome were to continue activities, he came up with the perfect song. This song perfectly matched the description, so we thought we could do nothing else but use it as the leading track.
You will be releasing a new album titled CONTINUE on March 15th. What can we expect from it? Are there any particular sounds or themes that dominate the release?
Fukusuke: It’s about continuing our activities as metronome — restarting activities and again performing the music we have. It’s like the "CONTINUE" button in games. Time has passed since the era of Famicom or arcade games, and the theme of this album is how humans try to connect with the reality of present games. Riu: Every time you listen to sounds that have been created with great care, you can feel as if you're discovering something new. The new album is exciting in this way. Sharaku: I didn’t realize it during the creation process, but when it was ready, I thought, wow, this album now has the latest modern sound.
How has the recording process for the new album been so far? Any interesting behind-the-scenes story you can tell us?
Riu: We have finished mixing the new album and we will finish mastering it the day after tomorrow. Fukusuke: It will be a rather personal story as we don’t meet up, but I was searching for sounds for this composition and I found something good. However, when I used it, it totally didn’t match the atmosphere, so I finished the composition without using it in the end. I wasted two days even though we didn’t have time … Sharaku: I was going out only to sing, so I surprisingly have no stories …
What are your favourite lyrics from the new album?
Fukusuke: It’s “kenkou kibou yankee fuka” (I hope to be healthy but don't like bad boys). You don’t really have an opportunity to say that, so it’s cool to say that during the chorus. Riu: I thought Zanpai jinsei (Life of crushing failures) has fierce words. I like the words of this song since I could connect their story with the stories of Tokyo Romantica and Sen’nen sekai, both of which are songs also written by me. Sharaku: I think people will laugh hard at “boku mo egao de ouen suru yo” (I also support you with my smile) from Boku boshuuchuu, right?
Please tell us about your latest outfits and hairstyles.
Fukusuke: We asked for help the same designer who designed our previous outfits, but our concept this time is the fusion of parachute shirts and bondage. When it comes to hairstyles and make-up, we used red this time. Riu: This time, my hair is styled more like a two-dimensional character’s hairstyle. Sharaku: I have been blonde many times up till now, but I wanted to make my anime-likeness more visible and made my hair yellow this time.
While metronome was on hiatus, Sharaku toured Europe with GalapagosS and Fukusuke also travelled to Canada and Europe with his solo project ADAPTER。. Do you have any plans to take metronome overseas? If so, where?
Fukusuke: We will appear on the stage of ANIME NORTH 2017 in Toronto, Canada on May 27th. We will go there for the first time as metronome, so we can’t wait for it. We want people overseas to enjoy the world created by us. Riu: I’m really excited for this because I want many people to know about metronome after our comeback. The experience each person gets from our lives is unique and personal, so we will be happy if people overseas also enjoyed them. Sharaku: We are curious about what kind of response we will get.
What's next for metronome?
Fukusuke: During the commemorative tour after releasing our new album CONTINUE, the one-man tour Gendai MONO/POLY was decided as follows:
■2017.3.25 Sendai CLUB JUNK BOX
■2017.4.9 Nagoya Electric Lady Land
■2017.4.16 Shinsaibashi BIGCAT
■2017.4.21 Fukuoka DRUM Be-1
■2017.4.23 Okayama CRAZYMAMA KINGD0M
■2017.4.29 TSUTAYA O-EAST
And after that the live in Canada:
■2017.5.27 Toronto (Appearance at ANIME NORTH 2017)
■2017.6.01 Shibuya O-WEST - RIU BIRTHDAY-
To wrap up our interview, please leave a message for JaME readers.
Sharaku: Sound, visuals, voice — whichever you see or hear, our band will be unique. Please, check us out by all means. Fukusuke: To those reading this interview until here, please, come and experience our live with your own bodies. I think you will be able to feel the metronome world, which can’t be explained with words. We are waiting for you. Thank you very much. Riu: We deeply believe in our new album CONTINUE, so give it a try too. If you saw its music video and liked it, you should definitely listen to the album. Thank you.
JaME would like to thank metronome and KING RECORDS for this interview opportunity.
The music video for Tsuyokute NEW GAME, a track on CONTINUE, can be watched below:
