This interview was originally published in Japanese on spice.eplus.jp. Translated by VK Chronicle.

NIGHTMARE Interview

NIGHTMARE released their 34th single “極夜行” (Kyokuyakou). The title track “極夜行” features lyrics co-written by the band for the first time—a collaboration between 咲人 (Gt), RUKA (Dr), and YOMI (Vo)—with composition by 咲人. It’s a dark rock number that captures the essence of NIGHTMARE. The B-side “EoM” was composed by 柩 with lyrics by YOMI, while “Resolve,” included on the standard edition only, was written and composed by Ni～ya. The result is a single with all five members credited, making it an essential work for understanding NIGHTMARE today. We spoke with them about each song’s creative process and their individual playing philosophies.

Q: Your 34th single “極夜行” has 咲人 on composition and 咲人, RUKA, and YOMI collaborating on lyrics. The B-side “EoM” was composed by 柩 with lyrics by YOMI, and the standard edition exclusive “Resolve” was written and composed by Ni～ya. So all five band members are credited on this single. What kind of discussion happened within the band leading up to this latest release?

咲人 (Gt): We didn’t really have any particular discussion about it. It’s the same as always—everyone makes what they want to make and brings it to the table. Plus, “EoM” and “Resolve” weren’t exactly new compositions for this single. They’d actually been finished quite a while ago.

Q: So it sounds like the title track “極夜行” was decided last. Was there a reason for that?

咲人: I actually had a different composition originally. But considering the previous single’s title track was “Reach for,” I personally felt this wasn’t quite right. So I asked if I could write one more song, and that’s how “極夜行” came about.

Q: I see. “極夜行” really does feel like it has the cool, powerful band sound that anyone would recognize as NIGHTMARE. How did everyone feel when you first heard it from 咲人?

YOMI (Vo): I immediately thought it was very much NIGHTMARE-like, and I figured our fans would probably love this kind of thing.

柩 (Gt): Even at the demo stage, it already had this presence where you could tell it would definitely be the title track. Like, even if it went on an album, this would probably be the lead song. It had that kind of powerful aura to it.

Ni～ya (Ba): I thought it was genuinely cool from the first listen. Especially that guitar riff at the beginning—I absolutely love that kind of thing. I was like, “There it is!” (laughs).

RUKA (Dr): I literally trembled when I heard it.

Ni～ya: Was that because the song was just that good??

RUKA: More like, from a drums perspective, I was thinking, “This is gonna be pretty busy…” (wry smile).

咲人: I always try to leave some room for the performance. But this time we were pressed for time, so I probably just got carried away and over-programmed it. We didn’t have the leeway to really refine it properly (laughs).

Q: That said, I think all that extra has actually worked out well and contributes to the song’s momentum.

咲人: I hope so.

Q: Earlier RUKA said he “trembled,” but can you walk us through the process from the original to this final version? Did you stick pretty faithfully to the original drum pattern?

RUKA: No, I did make changes. On a practical level, I modified some parts that I’m not that good at and replaced them with things I can handle better. But I do want to preserve what was given to me, so I try to keep as much of the original pattern as possible while making adjustments.

Q: In terms of the overall band sound balance, was there anything you specifically focused on regarding drum tuning or sound design?

RUKA: Not really. And honestly, when it comes to mixing, I basically don’t make a lot of specific requests about my drum sound on other people’s compositions. With songs I’m writing myself, I might say something, but otherwise not.

Q: This might be a small detail, but there’s that moment at the end of “極夜行” where the cymbal sound resonates as an echo. I personally thought that was really effective.

咲人: Ah, where 柩’s guitar and the cymbal sound linger?

RUKA: That’s just what naturally happens if you play it normally. From my perspective, it’s so obvious that I wouldn’t even think about it that way.

咲人: If we edited that resonance out and just stopped it abruptly, it’d actually feel unnatural.

Q: Right. As a listener, I felt that by not cutting it off, there’s a realness to the band sound that really resonates.

RUKA: Maybe that form just suited this song best.

Q: Ni～ya, what was your playing focus for “極夜行”?

Ni～ya: Playwise, I stuck tight to the drums. Like, whatever RUKA plays, I play along—totally in sync, completely locked in.

Q: You can really feel that give-and-take in the rhythm. Now, regarding the guitar ensemble, I imagine 咲人 had some idea of this when composing, but what kind of exchange happened between you and 柩 to reach the final version?

咲人: We worked things out during pre-production with the string section, but there weren’t really any dramatic changes. We each have our own quirks and habits, so we tried to make use of those while keeping things fairly free.

Q: 柩, what did you focus on for your guitar work on “極夜行”?

柩: The phrases and arrangement were already structured in 咲人’s demo, so it was mostly about the finer nuances and bringing out that gritty feel I like. The biggest difference from how I usually work was the pick, actually. When I played it with my usual pick during recording, something felt off. So I tried using the triangular bass pick that Ni～ya uses, and it was like, “That’s it!” 咲人 also said the tone was more stable with that pick.

咲人: Yeah, that definitely worked better for this song.

Ni～ya: It’s one of the onigiri-shaped picks, but a bit pointier.

Q: Have you experimented like this before?

柩: Never. It just happened that I wasn’t feeling it with my usual pick, and Ni～ya’s pick was sitting on the table right in front of me, so I thought, “What if I tried this?”

Ni～ya: He suddenly asked, “Can I borrow this pick?” (laughs), so I was like, “Sure, go for it!”

柩: I got three of them to take home that day. I might use that pick again in the future, so I’ve been playing around with it at home sometimes too.

Q: Bass picks are probably thicker and larger than guitar picks, so the edge probably comes through more clearly in the tone.

Ni～ya: Well, there are different bass picks with different thicknesses too.

咲人: Including differences in material, it probably just works better with the way 柩 plays. Better than teardrop shapes and such.

柩: Ni～ya’s pick has a real sense of stability when you grip it. That feeling was really fresh for me. Though I should mention, I only used it for the A-section. For the chorus riffs and stuff, I went back to my regular pick.

Q: The guitar solo section is particularly dramatic and really stands out.

咲人: Is it dramatic? I had it in the demo too, but I actually changed the phrase in recording. I was going back and forth on what to do, so I ended up recording that solo last.

Q: Last meaning after the vocals?

咲人: Yeah, these days I pretty much always add guitar last. Everything else stays as a rough guitar track, and sometimes nobody’s even heard the final guitar before the song is finished. That way I can fill in whatever’s missing at the end. Like, I can see where everyone’s going and think, “What if I went this direction instead?” It’s a method that works for me.

Q: By the way, what was your mental image when playing that solo phrase?

咲人: This time I wanted it to have a kind of wavy, undulating feel, so I pulled out one of my old guitars. I had it custom-ordered from ESP in Sendai when I was around 19.

Q: How did it feel playing that guitar again after such a long time?

咲人: I noticed the tonal quality of the wood was different from the guitars I’ve been using lately. There’s probably individual variation, and I’m not sure if the wood’s stabilized over time, but yeah.

Q: Aging effects might be at play here. I’ve heard that vintage guitars can actually resonate better over time due to cellulose crystallization and changes in moisture content in the wood.

咲人: Right, so the wood losing its moisture content and changing—that might be a factor. But beyond that, the guitar itself has different specs from the one I’ve been using as my main, so when I picked it up again, I was like, “This has its own charm too.”

Q: Either way, it’s great that you got good tones for recording. Now, circling back to what we touched on earlier—for “極夜行,” the three of you—咲人, RUKA, and YOMI—collaborated on lyrics. Can you walk us through how those lyrics came together?

咲人: The three of us really worked together on them (laughs). Basically, when recording rough vocals and checking keys, since singing “la la la” is tough on YOMI, I first just wrote out some kind of rough, inconsistent draft lyrics. Then I went to the two of them and said, “I want to keep some of this, but I need your help.”

RUKA: But 咲人 acts like the rough lyrics weren’t done, when they actually were pretty complete. So we just confirmed the overall theme and what lyrics he wanted to keep, then went from there with rewrites. Though honestly, saying “all three of us wrote this” is tricky phrasing—it’s not like there’s a clear “this part is from this person.” That’s something we kind of want to keep vague.

Q: So what was the overall theme?

咲人: It’s about the end of a relationship, kind of.

Q: That’s pretty serious material. And it’s interesting that the band name itself—a word symbolic of NIGHTMARE—appears here as “a bad dream.” That’s distinctive.

咲人: I really don’t think any other band can use that word with more credibility than us. But at the same time, I don’t want people to be like, “Here we go again!” We actually have an NG word list and deliberately try to avoid certain words. But sometimes there’s just no alternative we can find. I think this was one of those cases.

Q: That NG word list—I’m very curious about that.

咲人: Well, the two big ones are “light” and “world.”

Q: Avoiding those two sounds like high difficulty!

咲人: They’re both so easy to use.

Ni～ya: They’re like universal terms (laughs).

柩: Wait, didn’t 咲人 say before that he doesn’t like using “reaching out” either?

咲人: Yeah, I don’t want to use it. I try to avoid “spreading arms” too. But… on “Reach for,” I ended up writing “reaching hands to the sky,” “reaching for stars,” that kind of thing (laughs). Fundamentally, I want to approach things in a way where if I write something, it feels fresh. I’m not saying I’ll never use those words, but it’s a tricky judgment call.

Q: YOMI, what kind of elements or words did you want to include for “極夜行”?

YOMI: I had some suggestions for the first half of the song, and RUKA ultimately brought it all together. But you know there’s a falsetto in the chorus? I wanted the lyrics in that part to be easy to sing, so we adjusted that part.

Q: And indeed, the falsetto is woven in very effectively in “極夜行,” and the key setting seems to be carefully worked out.

YOMI: We actually tried a version with chest voice for that part too, but 咲人 felt the falsetto fit the image better, so that’s how we ended up here.

Q: What did you focus on as a vocalist in terms of expression and emotional delivery?

YOMI: In the early demo stage, there was actually more anger in it. But as 咲人 and I were recording together, we talked about maybe toning down the roughness a bit. So we emphasized sadness more instead.

Q: That’s really interesting—咲人 said the theme was “the end of a relationship,” but apparently it started with an angry element.

咲人: It was really more about the singing style. I didn’t consciously think of it as angry. My image was more like after something ends, the protagonist just stands there kind of blankly. I figured YOMI would be singing like kind of dazed in front of the microphone stand. But when we actually recorded it, YOMI would slip into this rolled-r thing pretty quickly (laughs). I just said, “Nah, we can’t do that.”

Q: How did the title “極夜行” come about? It almost reads like a novel title.

RUKA: We actually struggled with the title. The image was like going to a place that’s always dark, so we called it “極夜行.” But then there’s actually a novel with that exact same title. But you know what, it’s fine. It just happened to be the same (laughs).

Q: I see. And this is a question for all three songs—does this release have an overall unified theme?

RUKA: Huh? No, there’s no unified theme across the three songs.

Q: That’s surprising. The reason I ask is because “極夜行” opens with “the murky sky,” “EoM” begins with “the weather shifting violently,” and “Resolve” has the line “grey-colored sky.” All three have bad weather, so I thought maybe there was something intentional there.

Ni～ya: Oh wow, that’s true (laughs).

柩: I never noticed that.

Q: I really thought it was symbolic of something.

Ni～ya: I wonder why. Maybe it was just the season when everyone was writing lyrics?

Read the original Japanese interview on spice.eplus.jp