INTERVIEW

"0-9 is very interesting because it is a field of freedom where we can do anything."
"As long as there are people who understand and listen to our music, we keep on evolving."

"What is life?" The lyrics are philosophical and the sound is dynamic and emotionally compelling.They respect each other and work on music together having fun - Why don't you try 0-9's music style?

Please introduce yourself.

Nice to meet you who meet me for the first time, hello to others. This is me. I am in charge of lyrics for 0-9 although I feel I've been writing about complaint in life rather than lyrics and let Vocaloids sing it, I'm afraid.

Nice to meet you, readers! My name is OPA. I used to work as OPAOPA long time ago but it sounded dull, so I changed my name to OPA. There is no special meaning in my name.

About music production, I am very SONAR man. It has become a part of me because I've been using it since Cakewalk so I can't change my machine. I think I will keep on using SONAR for good. It may be unimportant but SONAR can be used on MA surprisingly. I'd give SONAR a perfect score if it could edit movies more easily…

Oh, sorry about unimportant thing which is not related to composing at all D:

Go on, next! lol

How have you started working together as 0-9(o-nine)?

Probably, it was when I found OPA's website and asked him "write music for me!" so eagerly. Then I wrote lyrics for his completed work, and after that, "Bokyaku Shinju(Oblivion Suicide)" was born.

I think we decided our name when we made "Hitogenomu(human genome)" as third MEIKO's song of ours. I think we obviously wanted to continue making music being two of us, probably. It was like "shall we name ourselves for future?" lol

What do you think about each other?

Like Johnny's boys? I don't know because I've never seen him…

You'll be surprised, but I've never seen him. However, the places we used to live in were close and I feel affinities to him.

And surprise, surprise! Before we met on the Internet, Asaki No'9 used to work part-time at a gas station which was right by the company I used to work for. And we may have met each other there without realizing because I used to use the gas station to fill my gas tank of my car for commuting. Of course, I don't remember his face or anything about him. But I feel some kind of link between us!

In some cases lyrics come first and in other cases melodies come first when making songs. What is 0-9's production style of songwriting like?

Not absolutely, but lyrics come first usually. First, rough lyrics are written and I add melodies, then we move toward accomplishment changing the composition of the lyrics or adjusting the ending of the word.

The chorus part of "Hitogenomu" was made literally being lead by the lyrics.

I usually write free verse in first and hand it to OPA asking for "something like this". Then we roughly decide the category and organization of the song, OPA composes temporary melodies and I write lyrics making the numbers of characters fit the melodies. Lastly, OPA composes and arranges to finish the song. Something like that, I personally think.

"If you should die tomorrow, what would you like to do today?
(Extract from "Bokyaku Shinju")"

Of course! I'd like to write music which remains after tomorrow! I want to declare that, but it is important to know what time of tomorrow lol.

If I should die around 23:00 tomorrow, I'd play with a little bird, my pet, I think.

On the contrary, I'd rather do nothing. I'd make a choice like that.

Please tell us what your new work "Utsukushiki Taisha (Beautiful Metabolism)" is like.

Personally, 0-9 is very interesting because it is a field of freedom where we can do anything. We had been working on different genres of music but found that we'd never done "Japanese-style". The melodies sound like that, but the lyrics are more important:

"The reason why you don't have the memories of the previous life is because you are given the fear of death"

"The reason why you don't have the predictions for the next life is because you are given the hope for life"

These phrases represent the song, I think. I feel they have got a precise sense of 0-9's style and I got extremely excited when I read the phrases for the first time! To wrap up, I think this work is "philosophy" as well.

I wrote the lyrics as straightforward as you can understand if you read, so please try reading them carefully. Also I am planning to release a short story about it so please read it accordingly.
>> click here for the Short Story

Please tell us what you tried for "0-9's Japanese Style".

One of my policies is "creating 'stringency' regardless of the style of music". Not to mention rock or danceable music, I've been trying hard to deliver 'stringency' toward listeners' souls even if I work on ballad.

I produced the new stuff being aware of 'stringency' to avoid being categorized just as "Japanese-style", so I'd be pleased if you could understand my intention!

By the way, it's not related to "Japanese-style" at all, "lead guitar" couldn't resist being quiet and it stepped forward in the last interlude. I hope you'll find it a small mischief and smile lol.

What has inspired you to write such lyrics?

I couldn't get the phrase "utsukushiki taisha (Beautiful Metabolism)" out of my head for a long time. I spent days without caring about it in the beginning, but I started putting the words down on my note everytime they came upon. While I repeated it for some times, the words became the lyrics, you know.

Why do you keep on using MEIKO?

I don't mean to stick to MEIKO, but her voice suits the image of 0-9 very well and the important thing is that she can describe the image of our lyrics with her powerful voice quality.

To be honest, I thought I may have made a mistake when I bought MEIKO just for fun before Vocaloid became popular, but now I'm getting used to it and having a kind of attachment to MEIKO.

If I describe MEIKO's existence for us using surprisingly cool words, she is "-(hyphen)" between 0 and 9. A hyphen connects my initial letter "0" and Asaki No'9's last letter "9". It's MEIKO, I think.

Well… I was too arrogant, weren't I? Sorry, please forget about it lol.

Please tell us your future plan.

"Bokyaku Shinju" is included in SEGA's "ProjectDIVA extend" as a rhythm game so please try it if you're interested!

Also we are going to publish a short story, "Utsukushiki Taisha". If you read it after listening to the song once, then listen to it again. You may be able to enjoy it twice as much feeling different!

I'm afraid that it may be personal advertisement… My first novel as Asaki No'9 is to be published! The title is "Seizougyo to Dotoku no Jukai (an extensive forest of industry and ethic)". It will be published in November but you can make advanced reservations so check it out!

Finally, please give us a message.

We have already started discussing about what we should do for MEIKO's anniversary in 2012 with a pinch of joke. The number of our release might become fewer, but instead, we've been working on more substantial pieces in our way, without regret. As long as there are people who understand and listen to our music, we keep on evolving. I think I will continue to write nonsensical lyrics, but we appreciate your support for us. Don't throw us away! lol

It may be too early to announce, but I am going to write a hard and rock tune. It's my own decision, though. lol

I'm going to practice guitar hard so don't miss it!

Thank you, OPA and Asaki No'9!

0-9

Composition charge OPA and songwriter Asaki dual unit.

OPA

Most famous Vocaloid songs : Bokyaku Shinju

Operational environment : SONAR X1

Asaki No'9

Most famous Vocaloid songs : Bokyaku ShinjuSea of trees of the morality etc.

Operational environment : Note?

0-9's songs information
SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW 0-9