Mashiro Ayano's 1st album "WHITE PLACE" is the culmination of 2 years of work and is themed "Encounter with the Unknown

Two years have passed since her debut. Mashiro Ayano is finally releasing her first album. The album includes not only the four singles she has released so far, but also all of her representative numbers, making it a best-of album for a first album. The album also includes many new songs for which she aggressively challenged herself to express herself in new ways.

The image of her in the dazzling crystals on the jacket and in the main visual is of her flapping her wings into the unknown. It is a powerful work filled with both her past progress and future possibilities.

WHITE PLACE" is the culmination of two years since her debut.

─ ─ Congratulations on the completion of your 1st album "WHITE PLACE.

Ayano: Thank you very much, I think it is the culmination of two years. Since my debut, I have experienced many things and met many fans, and I made this album with the determination to further polish what I have gained from these experiences and show them to you.

─ I thought it was very typical of Mashiro to include the word "WHITE" in the album title.

Ayano: I titled the album "WHITE PLACE" in the hope that it would become a place in the hearts of my fans who support me and me. Some of you have been supporting us since before our debut, and some of you may have become familiar with us through our latest single "Lotus Pain," so I think this album will serve as a business card for all of you, no matter what stage you started at, so that you can experience Mashiro Ayano's music in its entirety.

───It also includes your pre-debut song "Setsuna Chronicle," but this time you re-recorded the vocals, didn't you?

Ayano: Yes. It was also included in the concept album "early days" released in January of this year, but I think the impression is different from that version. Many people have requested to hear "Setsuna Chronicle" at live performances, so I re-recorded the vocals as if I were singing it on stage.

─ ─ Indeed, I felt that the vocals in the new version have more energy.

Ayano: I am happy because I think I have become more lively. Over the past two years, I have learned which microphone suits me best, and I recorded this version using the microphone I like the best at a studio in Hokkaido, which I am always grateful for. Fumio Yasuda and I have been working on "Setsuna Chronicle" together, and we often talk about how it could be better if we did it this way. I think we were able to give form to that.

White is becoming an important color for me.

───All of the single songs are included in the album, plus six new songs from the album. I would like to talk mainly about the new songs this time. First up is the third song, "Spiral Garden. The lyrics were written by Mashiro himself, and the music was composed and arranged by Masahiro Mizoguchi.

Ayano: Mr. Mizoguchi is the composer of our second single "vanilla sky," and I asked him to write an up-tempo song that would look great live. I have sung up-tempo songs in the past, but I think this song has a sharp sound that is different from any of them.

─ How did you like the lyrics?

Ayano: I decided to write about a tragedy in which the protagonist is burdened with sin and is unable to escape from a negative cycle. The protagonist is trapped in a false garden inside a box, where there is a merry-go-round. In my mind, I had this sad image of a merry-go-round, where once you get on it, you are alone all the way around without being able to get close to anything in front of you or behind you. I compared it to a negative spiral.

───The song is up-tempo, but the lyrics have a dark worldview, don't they?

Ayano: Yes, they do. Many of the previous songs had lyrics about finding a ray of hope in the midst of sadness, so it was a new challenge for me to make the song tragic from beginning to end.

───There is a lyric "white darkness," which I thought was typical of Masiro, who has always used the word "white" or "white" in impressive ways.

Ayano: I thought it would be easier to imagine the scene if I included words that describe colors. I dared to use the color white even though it is dark, because I wanted to create the image of consciousness fading away. The main character eats the forbidden fruit and falls into the white darkness. I have no experience of fainting (laugh), but I wrote this song while imagining what it would be like.

─ ─ The sixth to eighth songs are new songs, and the sixth song, "shinkiro," was written, composed, and arranged by Naohisa Taniguchi.

Ayano: Mr. Taniguchi is the one who directed my recording sessions in Tokyo, and we know each other well, so it was easy for me to capture the image of the song. The development of the song was dramatic, with a clear story of two people alone in the world, not knowing if the other person is a good person or a bad person, an angel or a devil, but walking together in an unknown world like a mirage. I set the main character as a girl in my mind, and I was conscious of singing as that girl.

───Until the very end, the identity of the other person is shrouded in mystery, isn't it?

Ayano: That's right. But I thought that the girl might like that person. I sang the song while imagining that if the two of them were alone in the world, they would naturally be attracted to each other, even if he is a bad person.

─ ─ "shinkiro" also has the lyric "white world," and I wondered if Taniguchi-san was drawing on Mashiro-san's worldview.

Ayano: I thought so too. When I have someone other than myself write the lyrics, everyone uses various kinds of white. It is not that I am particular about white in every song, but as a result, I feel that white is an important color for me.

─ The seventh song, "misty way," was written by Yuichi Murata with lyrics by Mashiro.

Ayano: The melody and arrangement reminded me of winter, so I wrote the lyrics to the song so that people would listen to it while associating it with the scenery of Hokkaido and the cold season. misty way" translates to "misty road," and here it means a battle with oneself. If you can like yourself, you can be kind to those around you, you can broaden your horizons, and I hope there is some magic in that. The atmosphere of the song is a bit cute.

─ ─ The vocals are also bright and cute, aren't they?

Ayano: I lowered the age setting of the song a bit (laughs). (Laughs.) The song is about a girl who honestly expresses her feelings, so I hope that everyone can relate to it.