Setting their paws on international stages and broadening their turf…
With the string of large-scaled ‘anthems’ focusing strongly on ‘communicating’, and keeping a steady watch on larger audiences, the wolves ignite the hearts around the world!
Interviewed and written by: Ryosuke Arakane
Sailing on new winds
The newest album from MAN WITH A MISSION, “The World's On Fire” has finally arrived. 2 years from their 3rd album, “Tales of Purefly”, the band has totally refreshed their surroundings, and with a stepped-up song-making capacity, the album has turned out to be a piece that has undergone seasons in a richer and deeper manner than ever. Ever since their last album, the band has handled a North American tour as well as 2 tours across Europe, and such experiences seems to have become valuable assets of the band. We sat down with Jean-Ken Johnny (guitar/vocals/rap) to hear about how he recalls the path until the release of this latest.
“At the second tour of Europe, we had the honor of touring with Rise Against as the supporting act for them,” explains Johnny. “They’re very popular overseas, and seeing them play live before our very own eyes only reaffirmed how great they are as a band. It clearly showed that as long as you have a strong foundation, you get to be loved and accepted around the globe.”
And in between performing at that Europe tour, the pack also managed to cram into their schedule, their very first performance at the [Download Festival 2015] in UK, one of the largest rock festivals in the country. I was there luckily to witness their performance, and it was a sheer thrill to see the claps of the audience naturally arising already from their second song of the day, “distance”, and by the time they were at their last song, “FLY AGAIN”, the crowds were already going wild with fists in the air, just like in Japan.
Johnny explains, “It was our very first time to take part in that festival, so I think we can say we made a good start. It was so encouraging to see there were fans who already knew us in the audience. But at the same time, we strongly felt the need for us to be more active in actually going to places and deliver music to people, with our very own feet. Ever since the last album, we have actively been on the international roads performing live overseas, and what we’ve gained through those experiences were given special emphasis during the production of this album. We wanted to inject our music with those essences with thoughts of attracting more listeners of our music, especially from overseas, not limiting to Japan.”
And true to those words, this latest album produced with an eye to music listeners around the world has a look more than a bit different from the previous album that rather fell under the category of a concept album. The fact that Don Gilmore, known for producing big names such as Avril Lavigne or Linkin Park, was welcomed on board as producer for two of the songs on their maxi-single, “Seven Deadly Sins”, their 4th release that recorded the band’s highest rank at 2nd of the Oricon charts (Japanese big-name music ranking charts) played a significant role in the band taking on this new approach.
“Every single song in this latest album was made with us sailing on new winds,” he says looking back on the production process. “The two songs “Seven Deadly Sins” and“Dive” we did with Don Gilmore as the starting point for our new approach reflects that in a pretty recognizable fashion.”
True enough, the singing and renditions in the said two songs (that are also recorded in the album,) are finely honed and the tracks are given larger landscapes to their tunes. On this album, added to Don Gilmore, the band invited another producer, the up-and-coming Shaun Lopez, and with this addition, the band went through a further tectonic deformation.
Johnny explains, “I think, by having this dual-producers’ structure, we have grown further, musically too. In terms of the actual production, it was a repetition of re-orchestrating of the tracks. Until then, we were used to recording what we had on the demos as they were without trimming anything off. But this time, having the two producers from overseas with us, we worked on each and every process very carefully, even from the demo-making, one by one. It was a first-ever attempt for us to work on the production by entering into discussions with the producer(s) even from when the song wasn’t in place yet.”
To communicate what they want to ‘communicate’
Compared to their previous recordings, this latest album takes a more simple and direct approach. Overall, it is lean and streamlined, lavishly lining up powerful melodies with an enhanced capacity for appeal.
“What both Don Gilmore and Shaun Lopez told us,” explains Johnny, “was that ‘it would be meaningless unless whatever we wanted to communicate was delivered in a clear-cut fashion’. Added to that, we were given the advice that there were ways to lay out message(s) in a more direct and powerful manner. While the elements we had adopted out of choice were not wrong, they also may have the potential of cancelling out the message that we originally wanted to convey. So, through these, I think we’ve become much better at sorting out what-needs-to-be-done-and-how in order to convey our thoughts much more clearly.”
The title track, in particular, can be considered a track to have infinitely neared the band’s ideal, -a deep and majestic piece that graciously cocoons the listeners.
“I always had this desire inside me to make an ‘anthem’ song. Seems to me that any mega rock band always has an ‘anthem’-scale song or two that are listened to routinely and ubiquitously. Rather than wanting to become a mega band ourselves, it was more about becoming a band that has the ability to write such songs. And in order to make that happen, you need to have this convincing universality. The very words that came up with those thoughts were [The World's On Fire]. They happened to be so fitting to the theme of the album, so even from the lyrics’ point of view, I guess we can call it a song that ‘made a perfect base hit’.”
And this very song “The World's On Fire” has the band throwing out the question, [Will we find the answer on this road?] Even though positioned back to back with unrest or anxiety, these words that eventually look toward the direction of hope is actually equivalent to the theme that runs throughout the whole of the album.
“That’s true,” Johnny agrees. “More than romance or friendship, I think that feelings of anxiety or frustration are easier to empathize with. That thought also lies within my philosophy. Even though I am grateful to where I am now, the sense of being depleted or the desire to aim for higher is still with me. And this sense of depletion is something I think can also be a message that everyone can share with empathy. I think that having the anxiety was the very essence that generated the feeling to want to sing about hope come forth stronger.”
On par with the message in the lyrics, the album also lines up quality tracks that also seek universality. Though amongst them, one track, “Mirror Mirror” has a different shine to it. The industrial-ish arrangements that seem to have swerved off the main track gave me fresh sense of amazement.
“That’s the track we co-wrote with Shaun Lopez. There was a time he came to see our show, and seeing us play a song that was so delightful and least expected from anything that has a look of a wolf, he was like ‘I never expected you’d play songs like that’. He mentioned how songs which he originally had in mind that were darkish and had a futuristic feel to it may also work with us. So, that’s how we decided to venture making that kind of song.”
“The World’s On Fire” is a piece produced on solid sound-making and extensive spirit to challenge the new. Not limited to Japan, it is unanswerably a masterpiece bound to serve as the definitive strike that ignites the hearts of music fans around the world.
