We’re very honored to finally release our special interview with Language! The band consists of Kaori (Vocal), Yosuke Kakegawa (Guitar/Computer) and Naoyuki Honzama (Bass/Computer). You may know them from their earlier music, but also from “Ouroboros Festival” song in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. As our very own Johnny sat down with Language, they discussed: Who are Language, what’s up with their new music and how did working on Lightning Returns feel.

Meanwhile reading this interview, I highly recommend pressing play from the Red Single player, which is located in the sidebar! 

Johnny: What does ”Language” mean?

We named our band “Language” because it’s something essential to communicate
with someone including yourself inside even if it’s unspoken or unwritten. We like this idea. (Yosuke)

Johnny: How did you end up working together?

We met each other through recording projects in which three of us were involved a decade ago, then worked together on a few one-off programmes. And we finally decided to form the band in 2009. (Kaori)

Johnny: What do you try to reach with your music in general? What’s your message?

We would like people to feel our music first, rather than interpret what we meant. (Kaori)

It would be nice if we could share our feelings or impression about this world with our listeners, since we all are on the same train. I feel there should be admiration rather than just a message in the song. It”s like a feeling “I can’t believe that we are living in this world”. (Yosuke)

THE RGB SERIES

This Spring, Language is releasing brand new music from the RGB Series. The first part of the series, the Red Single, is out now worldwide, and you can buy it from here. More new music is coming as soon as this month, so let’s talk about what’s coming and what kind of release the RGB Series actually is! 

Johnny: So, what’s the concept of the RGB Series?

It’s a series of three digital single releases which consists of Red Single, Green Single and Blue Single, six tracks in total. (Yosuke)

Johnny: What’s the new direction?

Maybe it’s a sort of rebound from our previous album, to start using more synthesizers? (Kaori)

On the RGB Series, we wanted to feature classic synthesizer sounds from late 70’s and 80’s fused into modern tracks. Particular synth sounds have been attracting us lately, so we have planned to release some singles to present our intuition immediately via some download sites. (Yosuke)

Johnny: How do Red, Green and Blue singles differ from each other?

The tracks on the Red Single concern some sort of literary-ish matters, like “existence”, and the Green Single is more about smaller feelings in everyday life. We are still working on the Blue one at the moment. (Yosuke)

Johnny: Talking about Red Single, can you explain more about Silencia and Soft Moment? What are they about?

There could be two mysterious feelings when you experience the uncertainty of reality. One could be the confusion in Silencia and the other one could be the pleasure in Soft Moment. The lyrics were set like quotations from a journal written by an unknown person. (Yosuke)

Johnny: What’s the biggest difference between your past work (Magure and Northern Lights, for example) and RGB Series?

The biggest difference is that the RGB series is a project based on releasing singles, which is a first for us. But it might not be as different from our past albums as we initially thought because we planned to release them three months in a row. It feels like we are working on an EP or a mini album, contents-wise. Since it is the first time we are doing these download-only releases, it obviously affects us more. Releasing singles at a fast pace should be a good aspect as well. (Yosuke)

Johnny: Has your past work taught you anything that helped when creating the RGB Series?

Yes, we think the RGB series is an extension of our past works, contextually. Though, we want to keep being open-minded for new things at the same time. (Yosuke)

Johnny: What are you future plans with the RGB Series? Touring? New music videos?

We are planning to make the live recording movies of Green and Blue single as well and playing some gigs to promote the tracks on RGB Series in May and June. (Yosuke)

LANGUAGE AND LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII

Last year, Language collaborated with Mitsuto Suzuki on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack. Together they created a song called “Ouroboros Festival”. Let’s take a look behind the scenes and how did the recording and production sessions go!

Johnny: How did you and Mitsuto Suzuki end up working together?

We have known each other for a long time. He was my first musician friend at the music production company, where I, he, and Yosuke belonged. (Naoyuki)

Johnny: How did you feel, working together on that project?

It was exciting! We visited his office and watched the highly confidential movie, which was still in production, to catch up with the project. (Naoyuki)

Johnny: How did the production and recording of the song go?

We worked as remixer, but Language is a band, so we tried to add our own taste to the track, including Kaori’s vocal and its melody lines, which Mitsuto expected as well. We played and recorded southern Asian percussions as well, because he asked us if we could blend an ethnic atmosphere into our music when he came over to our studio. After we had recorded the final track, which was the vocal part, we went out to celebrate it together. (Naoyuki)

Johnny: Did it differ from your own music production?

Yes in a way, and it was fun and refreshing to collaborate with other musicians we like. (Yosuke)

Johnny: Would you like to be featured in the upcoming Final Fantasy games?

Yes, we would. (Naoyuki)

Why not? I would be excited to sing in the track for beautiful visuals like this time.
It’s kind of a rare experience, too. I was so glad when I watched the result. (Kaori)

Johnny: Thank you so much for the interview, Language! As a closing, do you have any regards you would like to send for our readers?

We’ve received lots of warm messages from the readers of Square Portal thanks to the opportunity we had to work on Lightning Returns. Thank you guys so much! And thank you so much, Johnny at Square Portal, for your strong support! It would be wonderful, if you guys enjoyed our music in the game and hopefully our own releases as well! (Kaori)

Domo arigato! (All)