1st Album "PALOMAR KNOT" Interview [breakin' holiday]

Preface: After a long interim, I'm finally back with a translation! I have some other things in my backlog, and yet others still prepped for translating. I'm hoping things regarding work will calm down enough that I can get to all of them in a timely manner. Thank you for your patience, and please enjoy!

1st ALBUM "PALOMAR KNOT" INTERVIEW

Announcing breakin' holiday's first album, "PALOMAR KNOT"¹, this fall!

Q: At last, the first album, "PALOMAR KNOT", will release this fall. Lead song Kaibutsu has only just been heard and expectations have grown; what kind of creation do you think the album will be?

KAJI: If you've been making an album for a long time, you always want the work to be not biased, so first of all, the album is likely to express influence from various genres. It should be enjoyable because it's so broad.

Juri: Some songs can get very intense, and there are also ballads, so I guess this volume is like breakin' holiday's business card²!

Aggy: It has a good feeling if you listen to the whole volume from the prologue, like a book. KAJI was super excited about the song order.

Q: Attention to the song order of the album is also a real charm!

Sakai: It's a work that can envelope a live house in heat! Even when I am just listening to the songs, the livehouse comes to my mind and I get fired up.

Q: There are also songs compiled by Sakai, but with what kind of sense did you produce them?

Sakai: For this album, I wrote the words and music for 2 songs. Both songs are written for all the fans before us at lives. First, BULLSHIT is a song laying bare everything in the heat of a livehouse and dancing together. As you are is a song expressing the idea that as long as everyone is there, we feel we cannot lose to anyone, nor will we hinder anyone!

Q: The feeling of not losing feels very breakin' holiday. I'm looking forward to where that's expressed on the album!

Evolving breakin' holiday. As for future plans…

Q: From the announcement of the MV³ to that of the album, there must be all sorts in the second half of the year, but please let us know if there are any plans for the future!

KAJI: To be honest, I don't know even about the immediate future (laughs), but I think we're standing on the right track, and we may have something sudden in November (laughs).

Q: Sudden! I'm excited already (laughs)⁴!

Sakai: There are members whose birthdays we haven't celebrated yet, so naturally we want to celebrate them at lives⁵.

Q: Are there still two⁶? After this it's your birthdays! I'm looking forward to it!

KAJI: From now we'll steadily hammer out, and various things will change starting with the album announcement. I wish we could do an instore, too (laughs).

Q: Various changes? I want to see breakin' holiday's evolution hereafter!

Juri: Once they have been decided, we will propose live and release schedules. We will tell you soon.

A final word to the readers.

Sakai: Thank you for your support. Although I have the image that many of breakin' holiday's fans are adults, at lives those same adults shout and dance in ecstasy and when I see that, I feel really fired up. Let's be happy together.

KAJI: Everyone concerned with breakin' holiday members, I love you all. I sincerely love all the fans. Please anticipate from now.

Aggy: Thank you for reading. Just take a peek at us. It'd be nice if you could actually make it there at that time⁷. I don't want to waste anything.

Juri: Thanks to everyone's support, we were able to put out this album. Thank you. From now on, I want to perform in a larger venue, and I want lots of people to see breakin' holiday. I'm happy that the fans continue to follow us without change as we work together as a band.

One-by-one Corner

Juri

① Which is your favourite song?

LILITH⁸, because it's the first song we made as breakin' holiday.

② Please tell us about your singing, performance, etc. this time.

After first listening to the lyrics and melody, I think I'm free to make my own interpretation. This time, rather than singing while entering some world, I sang with the goal of leaving it to where the song wants to go.

③ At what point do you hear "Juri" on the album?

The singing style on the song called Adonatho⁹ in the A and B melodies. The reducing power in the latter half of ICE's C melody. The way I sang "hibike"¹⁰ in the lyrics of Kaibutsu.

④ At what point do you hear "Sakai Hiroaki" on the album?

When he plays the guitar solo in Kaibutsu! I cry.

⑤ At what point do you hear "Aggy" on the album?

Kaibutsu's C melody phrase. Even within a changing phrase, I thought it was particularly good.

⑥ At what point do you hear "KAJI" on the album?

I think the drumming in As you are has a very interesting phrase. He said himself that it's difficult, even though he wrote it.

⑦ A secret episode from the production of lead song Kaibutsu's PV.

At the time of shooting Juri version with monster makeup¹¹; it was the first time in my life to film with white contacts. There was a rainy scene in the latter half with that makeup, but during shooting some of the rain got in my eyes and I tried desperately hard to make sure they didn't fall out. So it also feels like the image included some of that struggle… But, the result was all right (lol).

KAJI

① Which is your favourite song?

BEFORE DAWN or Adonatho.

② Please tell us about your singing, performance, etc. this time.

I'm not fastidious about drums¹². I play how I like.

③ At what point do you hear "Juri" on the album?

I think the contrast between his clean vocals and shouts is excellent.

④ At what point do you hear "Sakai Hiroaki" on the album?

Arpeggios¹³ set in various places.

⑤ At what point do you hear "Aggy" on the album?

A solid rock base that supports the band's foundation.

⑥ At what point do you hear "KAJI" on the album?

A lot of trouble? (laughs)

⑦ A secret episode from the production of lead song Kaibutsu's PV.

No one was late.

Hiroaki Sakai

① Which is your favourite song?

Kaibutsu

② Please tell us about your singing, performance, etc. this time.

Although I'm particular about riffs and arpeggios, I want you to listen to the broad world of arpeggios!

③ At what point do you hear "Juri" on the album?

The hook of As you are. If it's not Juri, this beautiful world can't be expressed.

④ At what point do you hear "Sakai Hiroaki" on the album?

Kaibutsu's guitar solo. The clean guitar in FANTASIA's A melody. It's seriously good.

⑤ At what point do you hear "Aggy" on the album?

Aggy's groove of full down picking¹⁴ in 444 is terrific.

⑥ At what point do you hear "KAJI" on the album?

Kaibutsu. Full drumming¹⁵ at that tempo is insane.

⑦ A secret episode from the production of lead song Kaibutsu's PV.

Although I made a mistake about the filming day, I realised it the day before. On the day, while I was out of it from sleeping in, I got a hair cut. Juri suddenly got soaked, so I had to go buy underwear in a hurry (lol).

Aggy¹⁶

① Which is your favourite song?

444

② Please tell us about your singing, performance, etc. this time.

It's solid.

③ At what point do you hear "Juri" on the album?

You can see a glimpse of psychotic playfulness.

④ At what point do you hear "Sakai Hiroaki" on the album?

Sakai's presence makes me feel like we're not leaning too heavily on metal, with a basic essence of rock.

⑤ At what point do you hear "Aggy" on the album?

Refined.

⑥ At what point do you hear "KAJI" on the album?

Firmly Chinese-y.

⑦ A secret episode from the production of lead song Kaibutsu's PV.

I chased after the director, hehe.

***

Source: A limited bonus flyer given to fans who went to KAJI's birthday live on October 7, 2019, and the Pre-release live on October 19, 2019.

Translator's Notes

¹Release date was originally set for October 30, 2019 but was pushed back to November 26, 2019 due to production time. You can buy it here at their online shop in regular or limited edition.

²In Japanese culture, business cards are very important documents; usually exchanged at a first-time meeting. Juri has said before that the first single LILITH serves as the band's business card.

³Music Video for Kaibutsu, the 30-second teaser for which was originally posted via their Official YouTube at midnight on August 7, 2019.

⁴The Japanese used here (楽しみにかまえておきます！)was unusual, although it doesn't affect the English at all.

⁵Starting with Sakai Hiroaki's birthday, the band has had a birthday live event for each member on or near the date of their birthday.

⁶At the time of this interview, KAJI's birthday live (October 7, although his birthday is October 3), and Sakai Hiroaki's (June 25, the same day as his birthday) had already been held. However, plans for Aggy (birthday: December 13), and Juri (birthday: April 6)'s birthday lives were not yet announced.

⁷Given the context, I can only imagine Aggy means to encourage folks to come see them perform.

⁸Title track from their first single, released May 23, 2018. You can buy the digital copies of track 1 LILITH, and track 2 YUMMY from their official shop.

⁹This word literally doesn't exist. In Japanese the title is written as アドナト (Adonato), but I've taken some artistic liberty with the "Aggynese".

¹⁰The last "word" of the song's lyrics. It's a very pretty, clean shout.

¹¹Reference images can be found at this and this tweet, or the Kaibutsu MV.

¹²KAJI's talking about perfectionism. He's not a perfectionist in how he approaches drumming.

¹³A type of broken chord where notes are played/sung in a rising or descending order.

¹⁴A technique where the plectrum (pick) is moved only downward, rather than using upstrokes.

¹⁵Full drumming itself isn't a technique, but what Sakai means here is, I think, utilising the full kit at such high speed rather than an individual piece.

¹⁶Aggy's use of Japanese in this section is strange, and comes off a little childish (in the silly sense). I tried to keep that same tone as best as possible in English.