Ok, so I wanted to translate this article but it was very hard and I got frustrated and dropped this project to work on other things instead. But since by now nobody translated it I thought I might as well post the part that I finished. So here goes:

Alice Nine has reached its 9th Anniversary Year and releases 3 consecutive singles in 3 months. And now we shall have a look at the first one, “Daybreak”.

“Daybreak” is Alice Nine’s new hallmark. The name means “Dawn” and now we shall reveal how it has been created and were able to see where they stand. Having carried out band activities for 8 years, though this work is reflecting the past it certainly projects the image of Alice Nine as a band that made progress. We talked to Shou (vocals) and Tora (guitar) about “Daybreak”, the song that they said describes their current state of affairs and the coupling song “Himitsu” which suggests a new challenge.

It’s the first single release since December 2011’s “Niji no Yuki”. In February 2012 you released album “9” but you haven’t had any releases for more than a year. How did you spend this one year without any releases?

Tora: With “9” we desperately toured for a whole year so it has been a year centered on concerts.

Shou: Among the bands that we saw when we were kids there were many bands that would release an album and then spend about a year touring. This time the tour has been divided from #1 to #4 according to concepts and we were thinking that it would be good if the album can be represented well yet all the while wanting to release a new CD soon. (laugh) We endured it for a whole year.

So within this 1 year you’ve accumulated quite a few songs?

Shou: You could say we were planning to have a release around this time, in the middle of touring it wasn’t clear which song we were going to use, we even had a song selection meeting but…

Tora: In the end you can say it was useless.

Shou: It was like: “What do we choose? What are we aiming for?”

Tora: The next day I felt like creating a new song but by the time that the actual CD comes out we get tired of the song s we wrote. So when we agreed that the people who write songs should write fresh tracks.

When was it decided that “Daybreak” shall be chosen?

Tora: Around last autumn.

So how many songs did you come up with at that meeting?

Shou: We had about 14 songs, then we narrowed it to 5. I added vocals to these 5 songs and then we listened to them, compared and made the decision together with the producer, Hiraide-san. Personally I find the melody of the chorus is pleasant to sing and I felt that I wanted to sing this song so the moment it was chosen I was like “Yay!”

How does Alice Nine decide on the song for the single? Do you decide on the theme and the image or just gather the songs that you all have written? Which one is it?

Tora: Often we just gather the songs that we have written and choose from them. But if among the band members someone says: “I want to do this!” we often go along with it. “If you say that let’s go with this!”

Shou: Originally everyone’s musicianship is different so nothing is pre-determined. Everyone brings the things they want to do and then de decide based on the genre and timing. But I guess you could say that singles is Alice Nine’s hallmark. If we wanted people to simply listen to the music we could just release albums. I don’t think people would get the wrong idea by listening to a dozen of our songs. However, by releasing a song (as a single)I think it becomes a tool in that when you listen to it it brings out Alice Nine’s strengths and if you it moves you it makes you want to go to a concert or listen to the album. So at the song selection meeting we narrowed it down to 5 songs and then steadily listened to adult opinions. A song chosen in this way has a lot more weight. So when the people around are touched by the songs that the members like then we know we can release them. Songs that are chosen this way have emotional attachment.

Daybreak is a song Tora-san wrote. What kind of theme was it meant to have when it was produced?

Tora: It’s a song that was created from melody but if you ask me about the theme it would be bad to say that there’s no theme. I’m a guitarist so my specialty is to create songs out of guitar phrases. The method where after creating the melody line I think what kind of song I want to create from this is not really my favourite way or my specialty but rather something I wanted to try. I always write songs and I came to the idea that I don’t want to create songs while relying on guitar. In terms of band sound I wanted to try putting the guitar as a side dish, I felt that I wanted to challenge this.
Credit: graphicabyss (с)