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bmsgTranslated and summarized from SKY-HI's interview series with Nikkei, "Be myself, for ourselves"
Original interview, 124th installment from April 3, 2025
The reason for including Apartment B (no dancing, Day 1) and ATS’s Pandora Special Showcase (no singing, Day 2) in D.U.N.K. Chapter 3 this time is that boss wants to do something new every time. Dance and vocal collaborations have changed significantly so he thought he needed to do something new
- D.U.N.K. Chapter 1 was in March 2023, collaborations between dance+vocal groups were unheard of in Japan at the time, in that sense what they needed to do was rewarding and simple. After D.U.N.K. Chapter 1, “collaborations that cross boundaries” spread across various TV programs. It happened a lot faster than he expected and now projects like this have become oversaturated. Since he is the one that brought this up, he thinks it’s not enough to just collaborate, they need to do something that has meaning – that’s why he felt they should do something like the Apartment B stage in D.U.N.K.
- He thinks the energies used for singing and dancing are slightly different. He wanted to make something that participating artists would find “fun” since everyone was putting in a fair amount of effort into this, and he feels he accomplished that.
Among the dance+vocal groups that appeared in D.U.N.K., some of the members are highly sensitive to music rather than purely singing+dancing, they love music, dance, and singing as an art form and how they express themselves. Boss hopes that the Apartment B stage allows these people to express something musically. He gave the example of Kokoro (PSYCHIC FEVER) and Manato’s performance, which he thought was meaningful.
Boss also gave the example of ATS’s Pandora showcase, which even for people in the dance scene is a meaningful stage. There was Ryuhei’s collab with Tokyo Ge Ge Ge, but he thought Shota showed everyone what the dance scene was about with his Pandora Showcase. Boss went to see Shota’s Pandora live in 2024 and he had a lot of fun there. He felt a lot of potential for the Pandora Showcase stage to grow from here onwards.
The most important thing is whether everyone has fun, but with the plethora of dance+vocal collabs, at this point of D.U.N.K. boss thinks they need to do things that only they can do at D.U.N.K. and D.U.N.K.’s branding. While all of this is good, it will disappear the moment they stop refining it. D.U.N.K. is fun but it is tough as a producer. In this sense, D.U.N.K. is a project of self-sacrifice for him. It’s a project birthed from his strong desire to support the dance+vocal scene and for people pursuing dance+vocal. Rather than an event for people who “love” dance+vocals, he thinks it has to be meaningful for those who aspire to be a part of it.
He’s grateful if even one person who participated says it was great or it was fun, but he also feels pressure. He is aware of the impact he is making on the [dance+vocal] scene with D.U.N.K., but the moment one building the culture starts to act out of self-interest – it’s over. So he’s careful when managing things and keeping everything in balance.
Boss was happy to see Kaito really happy, and he thought Kaito was someone who was really honest – about dance, about music, improving himself. He also thought Kaito is different from “the perfect idol” embodied by Yamada Ryosuke and Nakajima Kento. Kaito approaches music in the way BMSG idealizes and recommends. Kaito is also at a point in his career where the situation of his group has changed and he has some power to make decisions. Boss finds the way he expresses “what should I do from now on” as very pure. It made boss think once again that he wants to be in the company / presence of dance+vocal members who can choose, have the power to make decisions in what they want to do and how they want to do it
Boss was surprised when he was in the studio together with Kaito. Kaito has some great vocal aspects and is able to do difficult / technical things with ease, but missing some basics. He introduced Kaito to a vocal trainer and he learned that Kaito has been taking vocal lessons regularly and making improvements two months after D.U.N.K. It made boss thinks that being honest is what leads people to grow the most, if you’re honest it helps you to MC naturally in a way that’s easy to understand and he thinks that’s wonderful
Nicholas (&TEAM) is quiet, he’s different from Kaito in personality, but faces music earnestly as well. There are many other people like that in each group
People like Kaito who have ideas on what they want to do can be criticised by fans, “Did you not like your previous activities?”, boss says Kaito might have been told this and it reminds boss of his own past. In boss’s time as AAA there was less understanding and fewer opportunities for him to express himself so people said whatever they wanted at him. What was especially hard was when it came from fans who he thought were on his side – it took a toll on him emotionally.
Boss wants Kaito to continue to do the things that are true to himself, since he’s not the type to assert himself like boss. Still perhaps presumptuously, he wants to support Kaito if there’s anything he can help him with, as someone who is older. It’s why he spoke on Kaito’s behalf during the MC of D.U.N.K., how Kaito is serious about music, being an idol, and finding a form of expression that is unique to him and his talents. While boss was speaking, he found himself thinking 3 times what Kaito’s feelings toward the other three members of Number_i were, but he held back because boss thought it wasn’t his place to say.
- On Day 2, Kaito spoke about how much he loves them. It made boss wonder if there was a kind of emotional hand-off between them during that MC.
Boss felt like he has been waiting a long time to perform with Juri (SixTONES). They’ve kept in touch over the years and Juri is turning 30 this year. He thought it would be great if Juri could have a chance to show everything he’s done but also something extra. Plus one of the joys of being an artist is a surprise appearance, no matter how long an artist’s career is, there’s nothing more fun than being a surprise guest, so he’s glad Juri got to experience that
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
Original interview, 124th installment from April 3, 2025
The reason for including Apartment B (no dancing, Day 1) and ATS’s Pandora Special Showcase (no singing, Day 2) in D.U.N.K. Chapter 3 this time is that boss wants to do something new every time. Dance and vocal collaborations have changed significantly so he thought he needed to do something new
- D.U.N.K. Chapter 1 was in March 2023, collaborations between dance+vocal groups were unheard of in Japan at the time, in that sense what they needed to do was rewarding and simple. After D.U.N.K. Chapter 1, “collaborations that cross boundaries” spread across various TV programs. It happened a lot faster than he expected and now projects like this have become oversaturated. Since he is the one that brought this up, he thinks it’s not enough to just collaborate, they need to do something that has meaning – that’s why he felt they should do something like the Apartment B stage in D.U.N.K.
- He thinks the energies used for singing and dancing are slightly different. He wanted to make something that participating artists would find “fun” since everyone was putting in a fair amount of effort into this, and he feels he accomplished that.
Among the dance+vocal groups that appeared in D.U.N.K., some of the members are highly sensitive to music rather than purely singing+dancing, they love music, dance, and singing as an art form and how they express themselves. Boss hopes that the Apartment B stage allows these people to express something musically. He gave the example of Kokoro (PSYCHIC FEVER) and Manato’s performance, which he thought was meaningful.
Boss also gave the example of ATS’s Pandora showcase, which even for people in the dance scene is a meaningful stage. There was Ryuhei’s collab with Tokyo Ge Ge Ge, but he thought Shota showed everyone what the dance scene was about with his Pandora Showcase. Boss went to see Shota’s Pandora live in 2024 and he had a lot of fun there. He felt a lot of potential for the Pandora Showcase stage to grow from here onwards.
The most important thing is whether everyone has fun, but with the plethora of dance+vocal collabs, at this point of D.U.N.K. boss thinks they need to do things that only they can do at D.U.N.K. and D.U.N.K.’s branding. While all of this is good, it will disappear the moment they stop refining it. D.U.N.K. is fun but it is tough as a producer. In this sense, D.U.N.K. is a project of self-sacrifice for him. It’s a project birthed from his strong desire to support the dance+vocal scene and for people pursuing dance+vocal. Rather than an event for people who “love” dance+vocals, he thinks it has to be meaningful for those who aspire to be a part of it.
He’s grateful if even one person who participated says it was great or it was fun, but he also feels pressure. He is aware of the impact he is making on the [dance+vocal] scene with D.U.N.K., but the moment one building the culture starts to act out of self-interest – it’s over. So he’s careful when managing things and keeping everything in balance.
Boss was happy to see Kaito really happy, and he thought Kaito was someone who was really honest – about dance, about music, improving himself. He also thought Kaito is different from “the perfect idol” embodied by Yamada Ryosuke and Nakajima Kento. Kaito approaches music in the way BMSG idealizes and recommends. Kaito is also at a point in his career where the situation of his group has changed and he has some power to make decisions. Boss finds the way he expresses “what should I do from now on” as very pure. It made boss think once again that he wants to be in the company / presence of dance+vocal members who can choose, have the power to make decisions in what they want to do and how they want to do it
Boss was surprised when he was in the studio together with Kaito. Kaito has some great vocal aspects and is able to do difficult / technical things with ease, but missing some basics. He introduced Kaito to a vocal trainer and he learned that Kaito has been taking vocal lessons regularly and making improvements two months after D.U.N.K. It made boss thinks that being honest is what leads people to grow the most, if you’re honest it helps you to MC naturally in a way that’s easy to understand and he thinks that’s wonderful
Nicholas (&TEAM) is quiet, he’s different from Kaito in personality, but faces music earnestly as well. There are many other people like that in each group
People like Kaito who have ideas on what they want to do can be criticised by fans, “Did you not like your previous activities?”, boss says Kaito might have been told this and it reminds boss of his own past. In boss’s time as AAA there was less understanding and fewer opportunities for him to express himself so people said whatever they wanted at him. What was especially hard was when it came from fans who he thought were on his side – it took a toll on him emotionally.
Boss wants Kaito to continue to do the things that are true to himself, since he’s not the type to assert himself like boss. Still perhaps presumptuously, he wants to support Kaito if there’s anything he can help him with, as someone who is older. It’s why he spoke on Kaito’s behalf during the MC of D.U.N.K., how Kaito is serious about music, being an idol, and finding a form of expression that is unique to him and his talents. While boss was speaking, he found himself thinking 3 times what Kaito’s feelings toward the other three members of Number_i were, but he held back because boss thought it wasn’t his place to say.
- On Day 2, Kaito spoke about how much he loves them. It made boss wonder if there was a kind of emotional hand-off between them during that MC.
Boss felt like he has been waiting a long time to perform with Juri (SixTONES). They’ve kept in touch over the years and Juri is turning 30 this year. He thought it would be great if Juri could have a chance to show everything he’s done but also something extra. Plus one of the joys of being an artist is a surprise appearance, no matter how long an artist’s career is, there’s nothing more fun than being a surprise guest, so he’s glad Juri got to experience that
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
