Billboard Japan Women in Music Interview

Kazuharu Igarashi

Billboard Japan spoke with singer-songwriter Ai Higuchi for its “Women in Music” interview series featuring female players in Japan’s entertainment industry. The WIM initiative in Japan began last year to honor artists, producers, and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work. The first 30 interviews in this series were published in Japan as part of the “Billboard Japan Presents” collection by writer Rio Hirai.

Higuchi has enjoyed great popularity over the past year, delivering his music to a wide range of listeners through the opening and ending themes of numerous movies and TV shows, as well as commercial songs.The 34-year-old artist is all about staying true to her honest feelings when it comes to songwriting, and has just released her fifth album. unfinished battlefield On January 24th, he revealed his stance on what he considers his professional mission and the feelings of hesitation he is currently facing.

Please tell us about your latest album. unfinished battlefield.

It’s a bright album that feels like a collection of singles, with many tie-in songs. Since releasing “Devil’s Child” as the ending theme in January 2022, Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 2 Thanks to the anime series, the range of people who listen to my music has expanded tremendously. I enjoy the opportunity to write music for films and other projects, and have received requests for songs that will help people feel upbeat as they leave the theater. In short, this album is a collection of songs that don’t put the listener in a pessimistic mood, but instead put them into a calm mindset.

What do you think about the increase in new listeners?

At first I was really happy, but at a certain point I felt pressure and it was hard for me for a while. I grew up as the eldest daughter among siblings, so I have a strong sense of responsibility to balance things with others, and I have a strong desire to get things done properly. We worked hard to meet expectations starting in 2022.

Even though the song is aimed at a wide range of people, I get the impression that it carefully conveys the true voice of women. What do you keep in mind when producing music?

At the very least, I’m careful not to use strong words or force my views on others. Personally, I have a hard time interacting with people who use strong language or express anger. My weakness is that I don’t make enemies, but I think there are many people who think the same way, so I want to be careful about that.

When I read the lyrics, I can see that you, too, have contradictory feelings, but you express them very carefully. So when you were writing, you consciously tried not to use strong words.

I think when forming an opinion about something, you should try to find your own answer. Having someone else’s ideas imposed on me doesn’t have a good effect on the listener or me as a songwriter. So, my stance is to simply present the options and let the listeners make their own choices. I try not to give too many answers.

I also want to avoid imposing ideas on how women should be in this interview. The reason we have collected so many women’s voices is because we aim to make diverse opinions visible. If you ask 30 people the same question, you will get 30 different answers. The next question is one I’ve been asking you throughout the series. Does being a woman influence what you do now?

Well, I don’t know because I’ve never been a man…but I’m lucky that I’ve never been disrespected because I’m a woman. I have a hard face, so I might not be touched too much. However, I feel that it is difficult to invite important people in the industry to talk about work over meals, and I think that if I were a man, it might have been easier to interact with such people without hesitation. I was thinking. I thought about it a lot. “Going out to eat one-on-one with a man” can be interpreted in other ways, and it can be a hassle and you may end up giving up on it. So, we are inconvenienced by the fact that most of the upper echelons are men.

Why do you think there are so few female managers in the Japanese music industry?

I think the reality is that women leave the industry when they become mothers. Even if she returns to work, I think raising children will get in the way of her career advancement. If you look around you, there are a lot of women in their 50s who are building their careers and it’s really tough. I think this shows that they had to be tough in order to survive in an environment full of men.

What do you need to be careful about in order to remain active as a female singer for a long time?

I’m careful not to write songs that sound like “fast food.” I want to write songs that I can sing for the rest of my life.

When did you start thinking that way?

I always thought so. I’m really bad at following trends and I’m not good at changing my mind quickly. I’ve always thought about my own point of view when creating songs, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. I think the result was a song that you can listen to even years from now.

drama series such as First love Zarari and Ikiruto, Shinu, Chichioya, etc. The work for which I wrote the ending theme depicts various types of women, and my independent project “Ufufu Project”* has also collected the voices of many women. Have you found any themes you want to write about through these projects?

(*Higuchiai’s independent project launched at the end of 2019. It also publishes a magazine with interviews and essays and operates a culture salon.)

I want to shine a light on young people who don’t normally think about being in the spotlight, and write songs about that feeling. I always wanted them to know that life can be a song. If people who live normal lives and work normally give up, things that need to change will not change.

For example, this is what my mother told me: She quit her job when her first child was born. She said, “At that time, it was normal, so I didn’t even question[her decision to quit her job].” People who think that what happens in their lives are no big deal will never change.

I think that by writing songs based on what I heard in interviews, I have created a very good cycle in which the way people think and behave changes when they hear it. Was that what you were aiming for from the beginning of the “Ufufu Project”?

yes. She created the Ufufu Project magazine when she was 30 years old, and at the time she was dealing with her own loneliness. While many of my friends and colleagues were starting families, I was trying to live alone as a singer-songwriter without getting married or having children. As I thought about this, I felt my heart being shaken by the loneliness within me. I wanted to hear different people’s opinions because no one could show me the way.

Did listening to other people make you feel less lonely?

Four years have passed since then, and I no longer feel so lonely. I’ve been lucky enough to continue my career, and I’ve come to realize that I’m a work-dependent type of person. So when you stop feeling lonely, you might start thinking about useless things. [Laughs]

If I do that, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of inspiration for new music.

Actually, you can’t sing about useless things. People are attracted to things that have energy, so if something is too lifeless, I feel like it’s irrelevant. We must extract vitality from waste.

This is related to what I said earlier, but I think there are many people in this world who become exhausted when faced with strong words, or who give up because they think they don’t deserve to be in the spotlight. For those people, I feel like songs that sing about loneliness and emptiness can be a savior. Do you feel like you are empowering others by writing and singing songs?

Well, I feel like I exclude a lot of things when I write songs in the first place. For example, when you sing “I want to walk hand in hand with you,” people without arms are excluded, right? If the “partner” of a love song by a male protagonist is clearly a woman, then it’s not a story about homosexuality, nor is it a story about people who don’t fall in love in the first place. I’m aware that I’m cutting out a lot of things and writing songs for the majority of people, but that’s scary. So I have to come to terms with that feeling, which for me is more of a negative than trying to empower people. I’m writing about my own feelings, so I can’t create something that will reach everyone. As long as I am in the majority in that I am a woman in body and soul and a straight man, I have to cut out the minority in order to write about my feelings.

When did you start seeing things that way?

Probably in the last few years. As more and more movements focus on the rights of minorities, I have started to notice this and think about it. At the beginning of the interview, I said that I don’t like people who use strong words or express anger, but I also believe that there are many things that have changed for the better because of people who use strong words. I understand. Since you can be angry and express your anger with words, I would also like to express my gratitude to those who were angry with me for a valid reason. However, when I’m feeling energetic, these expressions can be encouraging, but when I’m not feeling energetic, I get scared.

So for you, someone who can use clear, strong language is like a double-edged sword in that it’s encouraging, but sometimes a little hard to accept.

You find yourself thinking, “I don’t feel that strongly about this or that, so I don’t like myself.” Maybe I don’t feel too bad about it, it’s just that I can’t be like that. So I feel like I have a responsibility to take the first step and then maybe three flights of stairs. I would like to ask someone to help me from there until about the 100th step. In other words, I leave the leadership to someone else and follow from behind, saying, “Let’s climb together, even if it’s slowly, and someday we’ll aim for the top.”

—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) was first published on Billboard Japan