ORLAND “LUV CONNECTION E.P.”
Interviewed and written by Daisuke Sawada
Stylish love connection served with a shot of urban glimmer. A groovy party led by synthesizers and a talk box with a bunch of versatile crew is now set in motion!
The reinterpretation of black contemporary sounds and 90’s R&B is a movement that’s been seen scattered through various contexts in the past few years, but ORLAND is one up-and-coming attention-drawing band responding to this movement from Nagoya. The band members of 3 synth players +1 drummer create a synth-pop amped with urban groove.
“We had a so-called “band” by the same members before ORLAND, mainly playing live instrumentation. But we realized that we were usually listening to club-type music like hip-hop and R&B, so we were like, let’s just change the name of our band and our musicality. That was how ORLAND came together.” (Yutaka Hirata, guitar/synthesizer/chorus)
Given that their past two EPs had English lyrics, their work had qualities comparable to western indie-pop, but what attracted their listeners most must’ve been the quality of their taste in melody and immaculate production. Along with their own album release, ORLAND took on mainstream jobs like remixing for the idol group Tokyo Girls' Style or writing a TV commercial song, and the 3rd EP “LUV CONNECTION EP” has been released after these extracurricular activities. For guest vocalists, the band welcomed four artists including the idol group Negicco whom ORLANDO did arrangements for in the past, Akio known for his work with Sugar's Campaign the pop duo, Kariya Seira, their associate from their record label, and Megumi Wata who created a sensational buzz with her music download. The colorful casting enhances and compliments the versatility of the band’s artistry.
“Through our live performances and song-writing, we have more artists that we’ve naturally gotten closer to or have gotten to love more than ever. Those are the artists we wanted to write for and who inspired us to write certain songs, and that was one of the big reasons why we made this EP. Seeing the lineup of our featured artists led us to see the ‘culture’ and ‘music scene’ we are in. I want our listeners to see where we used to stand, and where we’ve chosen to stand.” (Yuma Osako, vocals/talk box/synthesizer).
Another characteristic of this album is their usage of Japanese lyrics throughout the album. The only track without a guest vocalist, “Back in the Days” is the band’s first track ever to be sung in Japanese by the artist themselves. Although the band uses the talk box extensively, this track paints romantic scenery with fresh vocals.
“We’ve wanted to do a track with Japanese lyrics, so it was a great timing to take on the challenge. I didn’t want to mutter the lyrics with low reverberation and make an ‘ambient track’, and rather enunciated every word of the lyrics so it carries through. I really belted it out. That’s my current mindset.” (Osako)
Starting with the aforementioned New jack swing-ish mellow tune, the album also includes an exhilarating house track “Do-De-Da ~ Trimond Negimina ~” which shares the same vibe of the track Negicco would perform themselves, and the soulful “Trust Me!” to which the band invited Akio, who according to Osako is the “modern version of Yuji Oda!” (an iconic actor/singer), to sing, All five tracks are brimming with seductive groove as well as the magnificent presence of J-pop.
“We’ve been listening to a lot of 80’s and 90’s Kayōkyoku (showa era pop/a form of standard Japanese pop) so I think we were inspired by that. For this album we also created each song using the ‘characters’ and ‘images’ we had of our guest artists, - I think that also affected the album.” (Osako)
According to Yagi Minoru on drums, “(I think) the influence from Kiichi Yokoyama and Toshiki Kadomatsu whom we cover on our live shows (both singers from the 80’s and 90’s) has a lot to do with it too.” Their ability to incorporate the origins of those influences with an open mind really epitomizes ORLAND and their current mood. On the other hand, it could also be said that this band is not J-pop oriented. They simply dug deep into their interests and as a result of their pursuit, they created an extremely catchy album.
“From here on I’m not going stick to either Japanese or English lyrics. I think I’ll choose according to each track’s expression or how the message will transcend.” (Tomohiro Osawa, bass/chorus)
