[English Translation]
callme - To shine
Interview & text by Taihei Kubota
Another aspect of the high school graduate trio, -with self-produced single they rise to a new brilliance - Koumi + Ruuna + Mimori = callme, callme right now!!!
callme was born as a spinoff unit from Dorothy Little Happy (Japanese quintet girl group). The trio consists of Koumi Hayasaka, Mimori Tominaga and Ruuna Akimoto, all who have graduated from high school this March. Their striking appearance was the first thing that captured my eyes.
Koumi: "We are dressed in '60s fashion. I love such stylish outfits and I'm happy my taste is reflected in the costume. We do our makeup like English model Twiggy, adding a highlight color under the eyebrows."
Ruuna: "We were talking about how short hair might be the trend this year, and thought that we wanted to do something we usually can't do in Dorothy Little Happy, so we decided to wear a short-hair wig."
Mimori: "We're happy to be able to demonstrate what we want to do, with a different mindset from the one we have for Dorothy."
The establishment to self-produce with Ruuna as a leader also aims to further expand the potential of the original group by encouraging the growth of young members. All the music, words and choreography were composed by themselves. And the one who composed all the music is:
Mimori: "I had long been learning the piano. Taking a cue from Hanako Oku (Japanese singer-songwriter), I became interested in writing music. And seeing many people easily put up their original songs on video sites made me realize 'writing a song might be a little more accessible than I thought'. I started to make a piano version of existing songs as well as a music box version using DTM. When I put together pieces of melody and sounds I had in mind, a staff member told me, 'those sounds are suitable for soul-ish arrangements.' Since then, I’ve decided that this would be the line when I compose for callme."
Koumi: "During the pre-production phase, we discussed what we wanted to do on this album while listening to one another's favorite music, including those of Maroon 5 and Mark Ronson."
Under such circumstances came out the title track of their debut single "To shine", a dance-pop tune starting with a swingy piano intro. Each of the 3 songs recorded on the single, including the groovy "Falling for you", gives a taste different from Dorothy's and the dance is also different than usual. The member who composed the choreography is:
Koumi: "My first full-fledged choreography job was for Yufu Mari (limited-time unit of Yufu Terashima and Mari Takahashi, both members of Dorothy~,) and then for Yufu's "Like a Virgin." As I love dancing and am the best dancer in the group, I was asked 'if I would like to try doing the choreography.' The single "To shine" has a taste of 60s to 70s in the music, so I did some research on soul or disco dancing which was popular at that time."
The lyrics were co-written by the three, including the coupling song "Once again"
Ruuna: "After listening to the demo music Mimorin (Mimori) created, we discussed the theme of the song and each member wrote lyrics based on the selected theme respectively. The theme this time was 'wanting to change,' which all of us had in mind. Being close to graduating from high school, we thought the time had come to bring out our attractions. It's like taking a step forward to becoming an adult, or the desire to move forward to a brilliant future in a confident way - that is expressed in the lyrics."
callme even witnessed the mastering being done, in pursuit of creating 'their own pieces' as a 'graduation work.' Their solo live show will be in April at O-EAST. But then, the 3 songs included in the single won’t be enough for the show, would they?
Mimori: "I'm writing new songs, so please look forward to hearing them. I found out this time that Koumi is good at rapping in English. It would be fun to see her whoop it up in a song consisting mostly of rap, while I also want to write a song that brings out Ruuna's beautiful singing voice."
