Young Juvenile Youth - "Animation"
Text by Sachiko Toda
“What I’m thinking at a certain moment is probably not only my thought but also many others’ thoughts as well. So even though I’m writing about myself, I’m consequently writing about somebody else at the same time” says Yuki. Young Juvenile Youth (YJY) which consists of Yuki, the singer and JEMAPUR, the electronic artist, is releasing their first mini album “Animation.” The imposing and yet floating vocal plus elaborately planned and yet heartwarming tracks create electronic music that reminds us of a nostalgic and sweet fairy tale from long time ago.
Yuki started music activities by writing lyrics when she was a high school student in Canada. She then naturally began to compose songs. It was while she was in exploration for her own music, that she first got to know JEMAPUR in a video which a friend of hers showed her.
“His music sounded inorganic and solid, yet I found it somewhat organic and delicate inside. Everything he was doing seemed new to me, and I was really impressed.”
Current production works are built up by Yuki’s lyrics and vocals added to JEMAPUR’s demos or JEMAPUR creating tracks from Yuki’s melodies.
“I don’t listen to his demos too many times because I try to catch the structure by first impression and put the lyrics and vocals on the music. Sometimes he says ‘You gave me melodies that I could never imagine.’ Other times, he would return my acoustic guitar melodies to me in the form which is beyond my imagination, like changing the pitch of my melodies or playing my melodies backwards. Even without words, we can communicate via music, so I don’t need to think about it too deeply.”
The way she casually says that gives us a glimpse of the duo’s very unique way of communication. YJY’s music world is firmly built, but they leave the interpretation to the listeners.
“I think that the moment that each of the listeners senses, understands, and interprets the song through his/her filter, is when this format of ‘music’ gets complete as an ‘artwork.’
The title of this album comes from that idea. “When people listen to the album, I want to bring each listener something like ideas, impression, awareness, or changes. That’s why I named this album ‘Animate’ which means to ‘bring to life’.” In the lyrics of “Animation,” the title song, she wrote about a conversation with inner self.
“Having a conversation with the alter ego within yourself is something everybody does, isn’t it? But no matter how many alter egos exist inside of you, you look one person from the outside. And you can’t separate from yourself, plus, everything starts from yourself.”
As we can see on her comment at the beginning, Yuki is more a ‘person of expression’ than just a singer. She puts her inspiration in order by ‘concentration’ just like the way our brains put memories in order when we sleep.
“When I’m creating something, that creation time itself is my inspiration source. The moments I am innocently concentrating on making something, drawing, writing, sewing, or cooking, -those are the times I put things that have accumulated in my brain in order and absorb it into myself. Whatever I do, I think it’s better not to think too deeply about it.”
Whether she is thinking so much or not, Yuki possesses this mysterious ambiguity, and that is the very fascinating element that makes YJY’s music, woven together with JEMAPUR, hold us in total captivity.
