Interview with Luna Haruna on her 3rd album "LUNARIUM" - a full-length album filled with her thoughts and feelings over the past 5 years

Luna Haruna is releasing her 3rd album "LUNARIUM", her first album in about 2 years, and has continued her energetic activities this year with the release of her collaboration EP "SxW EP" in February and a commemorative live concert in May. This time, it is a theatrical piece that represents the culmination of five years of activity, while at the same time showing a new path. What kind of thoughts and feelings did she accumulate in the process of creating this work, and how does she stand here today? We asked her to talk about it, looking back at the image she had envisioned for herself at the time of her debut.

Third album after the 5th anniversary live concert expressing all the thoughts and feelings she wanted to convey

─ ─ In May, you held a live concert "HARUNA Luna LIVE 2017 "5th Anniversary Fes."♡with you♡" to celebrate the 5th anniversary of your debut, what was that experience like?

Haruna: I think it was a live concert where I could express all the feelings and gratitude I have felt and wanted to convey for the past five years, both in words and in song. Various memories came back to me and I even got a little teary at times. It was a time that reminded me of the Anime Song Grand Prix, my pre-debut days, and many other things. Unlike a normal one-man show, we had guests, so I was busy with the arrangements, and my emotions were all over the place (laughs). (Laughs) I think it turned out to be a very good live performance. Including this live concert, I could not have done anything by myself and could not have celebrated the 5th anniversary, so I would like to continue to cherish the connections with other people.

─ ─ And now you have released your 3rd album "LUNARIUM", you just released "SxW EP" in February, and in the meantime you released "Stella Breeze", you must have been very busy.

Haruna: This year, I've been working on the album in between the 5th anniversary live and the "Stella Breeze" release event, so there were days when I recorded two songs. That made it possible for me to concentrate and put all my thoughts into it at once.

─ What direction did you decide to take with "LUNARIUM"?

Haruna: The album title "LUNARIUM" was chosen because it was our 5th anniversary and I had a lot of opportunities to look back on myself, so I added the name "Luna" and also "RIUM" for aquarium or planetarium because I wanted to express the album as a theater or an aquarium. In particular, "Beautiful Sentiment" is a song that expresses the world view of the album.


──This song has a fast pace and strings. This is the kind of feeling you like, isn't it, Haruna?

Haruna: Yes. I like it very much! (laughs). I sang this song in pre-production a long time ago, but I really liked the fantastic, fast-moving feeling of it, so I had the lyrics rewritten for inclusion on this album. It sounds as if you can go to another world just by listening to it, and I am very attracted to the way it tickles my imagination. I felt the drive to move forward from a closed world in this song, and I thought that if the lyrics, which are typical of "LUNARIUM," were added to it, the song would be better understood by many more people. Including this song, there are four songs by Kohei Tsunami on this album. I have sung many of his songs since his pre-debut song "Slight Fever Moon" until now. What is amazing about Mr. Tsunami is that his worldview is so diverse that it is hard to believe that it is written by the same person. I am inspired by that, and I want to sing songs that respond to that inspiration.

───Now, please tell us about the new songs on this album. What kind of song is "MONSTER"?

Haruna: There have been cute and pop songs by Runa Haruna in the past, but cute and rock songs have been rare, so this is something new.

─ How did you express both cute and rock?

Haruna: There is nothing cute about me (laughs).

(laughs) ──No, no, that's not true.

HARUNA (laughs). But I don't think so, and I make up for it entirely through my imagination. I try to imagine how a cute girl would behave, and I try to mix in strong words while acting out different parts of myself. I like the way you express yourself in rock music, singing in a languid way. I really like the way you sing in a languid way. The combination of a cute girl shouting "Miserable" and such is the interesting part of this song.

─ ─ "NAKED HEART" has much more mature lyrics. How did you sing this song?

Haruna: "Kyoso Refrain" from our first album was very popular at live performances, so I wanted to make a follow-up to that song. Kyoso~" was written with a visualkei sound in mind, and the song includes a laugh at the end. The lyrics of "NAKED HEART" have a mature tone, which is also something I don't have, so I sang the lyrics with my imagination to make up for it. When I sing, I often become someone other than myself, which is also fun. It is not an ideal image of myself, but I think about how I would think if such a person existed.

─ Was there pressure to follow up on your own already popular songs?

Haruna: It is indeed very difficult to surpass a popular song, but it is not the same thing by any means, so it is very exciting to create something new. I think listeners will receive something new, even if it is in a similar direction.


─ ─ "Purple Love (Solo Version)" is a solo version of the song you sang with Rika Mayama on the "SxW EP," and you also changed the lyrics.

Haruna: I think the song I sang with Rika is a form of "Purple Love" that only the two of us can express, but the song I sang alone this time expresses the life-size version of Haruna Runa. It sounds completely different.

─ ─ What does the lyric "Love is purple" mean?

Haruna: It's the color of my favorite character. (laughs). Rika-chan and I love Ichimatsu from "Osomatsu-san" and his image color is purple. Rika-chan and I originally had a conversation about otaku talk, and this lyric was written based on our words that came up during the discussion. The lyrics "I've collected so many sacred dream collections that the floor of the temple seems to be falling out under the weight of love" is a real episode for me (laughs). I collected so many thin books and goods that the floor caved in, so it really is a lyric that is typical of us (laughs).