bmsg | Aile The Shota – Rolling Stone Interview (2023.12.12)

Rolling Stone interviewed Aile The Shota following the release of his latest EP, "Epilogue"

The following is a summary of what they discussed!

Note: It's not a complete transcription as I skipped over some parts of the interview.

Original interview here!

Shota's collabs & features are more feeling and timing than strategic planning

claquepot (Uncle Taiki's twin) reached out to Shota end of last month about the song they're doing

GANMI and Sam is Ohm was simply, he really wanted to collab with them. While "DAWN" with MATZ was something he wanted as a weapon for his one-man set list.

Shota also simply wants to liven up the scene with other artists. With him as the center piece crossing over to other artists he can also control what he can do and where he wants to go.

the current vibe with other artists of his age / generation isn't really a strong sense of rivalry, such as "ohh i won't lose to this person / that person" but more a "i'm a key person of __" instead. There are some artists who are conscious of where they're at and are pretty disciplined about it, but his impression overall is that no one is looking at another artist as a rival.

Shota thinks it's because of the balance between Yohji Igarashi and Aile The Shota that Pandora reached as many people as it did. It is with "Pandora" that Shota can say he's a "JPOP STAR"

Shota has never gotten someone saying "your songs are easy [to sing] at karaoke!" (side note: his songs are not easy to sing at karaoke lol)

Shota's catchy: A synthesis of the Jpop he listens to, followed by his own judgement. He may take DTC and RnB to formulate something catchy of his own. That's why he thinks his songs resonate with people in a "It's new but also nostalgic in a way!"

Shota's textbook (of people) in dance: #1, GANMI; #2 JP THE WAVY

while thinking of a fourth song that was intended for the E EP, after "Pandora" and "JPOP STAR", Shota wanted to include "No Frontier". During his one-man he was often singing "No Frontier" after JPOP STAR. By the time his one-man in July finished, he was considering "No Frontier" as the lead song.

when working with KNOTT on "Epilogue" they were thinking of an evolved version of IMA. After spending 2 days with KNOTT the song was born.

Epilogue was a song Shota was conscious of writing to the person [who is listening], not saying other songs are different but it was a song he hopes could help someone when they need it.

creative team, photographers, make-up and hair stylists are the same team of people that worked on AINNOCENCE. So Shota+team were conscious of the contrast between A and E EP jackets (white = blank canvas / no colors for A EP; black = taken in a lot of colors for E EP). Used the same chair and same clothing brand (just different colour)

Hope you found Shota's thoughts on his latest album interesting!

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!

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