Kalafina talks about her thoughts on live performances, from her acoustic live in winter to the Budokan for her 10th anniversary!

Kalafina is currently on a 12-city acoustic tour throughout Japan, with a Christmas Premium LIVE scheduled for late December 2017, and a 10th Anniversary LIVE at Nippon Budokan on January 23, 2017, the anniversary of their debut. They will be performing live energetically this winter. In this issue, we asked Wakana, Keiko, and Hikaru to talk about their thoughts on their live performances and behind-the-scenes stories from rehearsals and backstage!

What is an acoustic live performance for Kalafina?

─ ─ We are in the middle of "Kalafina Acoustic Tour 2017 - "+ONE" with Strings", so we are here today to talk about the live performance.

Keiko: That's a timely topic (laughs). I just came back from the Okayama concert.

─ I know it must be tough to travel around the country on tour, but isn't it also a lot of fun?

Keiko: The schedule is very tight, and all the members are very enthusiastic about the tour, but being able to travel around the country, seeing the scenery and eating delicious food is a great nourishment for the soul. This tour is especially nice because of the autumn leaves and autumn flavors; for Kalafina, this is actually the first tour that starts in autumn.

Wakana This was an acoustic tour based on the "9+ONE" tour in the spring of this year, so I felt like it was a different start to the tour. I wanted to share our harmony and the musicians' performance with the audience while having more fun. On the first day of the tour, I felt that I would like to firmly present Kalafina's music in this way.

Hikaru: In 2012, when we started performing acoustic live with a string quartet, piano, and our voices, it was difficult to get a sense of what it was like to sing with a band, because it was completely different from singing with a band. The more stages I perform, the more I am able to flexibly change my singing style based on the audience's reaction and the atmosphere of the venue.

Wakana As Hikaru just said, it is in acoustic live performances that we can directly express how we will sing today. For example, the three long tones at the end of a song are longer than usual, or the tone of the musicians is more intense than usual, etc. I think the difference in feeling on each day comes out more clearly than with the band sound.


Keiko: Hitoshi Konno on violin and Yasuhiro Sakurada on viola have been playing with the band for a long time and have been a part of Kalafina's music, but I feel that the sense of creating a live performance together is stronger during acoustic performances. The slightest discrepancy between the three of us singing and performing can easily reach the audience, so we always talk about musical matters with the other members of the band. We always talk about anything we notice while singing.

─ Kalafina's live performances are always very precise, but I feel that the acoustic set is even more so.

Keiko: I think it is very precise. With a total of eight people on stage, we try to feel each sound delicately, which requires a different level of concentration than when performing with a band.

─ Isn't that tension felt by the audience as well?

Keiko: Yes, I think so. Depending on the song, the audience was in a great state of excitement (laughs).

Hikaru There are many people who listen to the songs with their hands sweating (laughs).

Wakana They sit still and listen to the music, and I can see from the stage that they are concentrating as if they are trying to catch the invisible sounds with their eyes.

Keiko: It makes me happy to hear you like that. It shows that you really like the harmony of the three of us. The acoustic concert made us realize once again that we should improve our harmony even more.