Interview] 15th anniversary of his career as an artist. Hige Driver has released an album of ani-songs he has created, "Hige Kore! is released!

As a lyricist and sound creator, Hige Driver is responsible for numerous ani-songs. This year, he celebrated the 15th anniversary of his writing career, and released a work best album of his own ani-songs, "Hige Kore! will be released. While specializing in psychedelic electronic pop sounds, the album also features a wide variety of voice actors and artists who sing in each song. While tracing the trajectory of HigeDriver, the album is also a pop album worth listening to!

My first musical influences were J-POP, such as Spitz and Mystil.

─ ─ Congratulations on the 15th anniversary of your career as a writer and on the release of your album of ani-songs written by yourself, "Hige-kore! Congratulations on your 15th anniversary as a writer and on the release of your album "Hige Kore!

Hige Driver Thank you very much. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to release an album of my own compositions, as it is not often that a composer's album is released. This album is a compilation of songs from KADOKAWA's anime, but even so, I felt the history of how many works they have done.

─ ─ The ending theme for the TV anime "Kikaku Shoujo wa Kakunai ni Hattaranai" ("Kikaku Shoujo wa Hurtunai"), "Kairae! Snow Moon Flower" as the ending theme for the TV anime "Kikkaku Shoujo wa Hateful. Among the songs from various works, the one with the most songs was the TV anime "NEW GAME!

Hige Driver: I wrote quite a few songs for "NEW GAME! I was involved in this work not too long after I entered the world of animation songs, and since the main characters are new employees at a game company, I felt a lot of sympathy for them. In particular, the sixth song, "Continue...? which is the sixth track, is a song that I still have strong feelings for. Of course, since it is a character song, it expresses the feelings of Aoba Ryokaze (CV: Yuuki Takada), who sings it, but it also reflects my own feelings, and I am glad that I was able to create this song at this time.

The jacket illustration for "Hige Kore! jacket illustration was drawn by Shotaro Tokuno, the author of "NEW GAME!

HigeDriver: I drew a girl, since the songs on this album are all sung by women, while incorporating my blonde hair, glasses, and hat. I also added a fake mustache to the picture because of the name "Bearded Driver. The badge on the hat is an 8-bit drawing of the heroine of each work, and was the idea of Mr. Tokunoh. The cute badges accentuate the illustrations and make them look great.


─ I thought the jacket was a perfect representation of the pop album's content and HigeDriver's image. Before going into the contents of the album, could you tell us about your musical history?

HigeDriver I am from Yamaguchi Prefecture, and when I was a child, the Internet had not yet developed, so my information source was either TV or radio. I started listening to J-pop music and the first CD I bought was "Robinson" by Spitz, which was a big hit at the time.

Robinson" was a hit in 1995.

Hige Driver From there, I started listening to Spitz, Mr. Children, and other J-POP, and it was in the second year of junior high school that I started playing a musical instrument. I borrowed a guitar that my older brother had bought and started practicing on it. At the time, Yuzu's debut song "Natsuiro" was being pushed hard on the radio, and since it was an acoustic guitar duo, I easily thought that I could do this kind of music, too (laughs), and started writing original songs.

─ So you started out writing songs with an acoustic guitar? Were you also a fan of anime and game music back then?

Hige Driver: I have loved anime and video games since I was a student, and I have many memorable songs, but I was not strongly influenced by them musically. My basic music was J-POP. Later, when I started making ani-songs, I listened to the songs I liked in the past and realized how well they had been perfected as ani-songs.

───What happened after that?

Hige Driver When I became a university student and went to Fukuoka, times changed and this time came the boom of youth punk and melo-core. I joined a light music club and thought about forming a professional punk band, but there was no one around me who wanted to go pro. I wondered what to do, so I looked into other avenues, and what I found was songwriting using a computer. I thought I could do this by myself, so I started making psychedelic music under the name "Beard Driver. It was right around the time that Nico Nico Douga and YouTube were becoming popular and crowded with Vocaloid songs, and I saw the potential of the Internet as well.


───After graduating from university, you worked as a freelancer for a while, didn't you?

Beard Driver Yes, that's right. While working as a freelancer, I worked as a bearded driver in Fukuoka. I felt bad to my parents for paying for my college, but when I asked them if I could be free for about three years to try my hand at music, they agreed rather readily. On the contrary, they told me to do my best.