Interview] The latest single "Fall in Love with Andante! contains only love songs, which is rare for angela!

Reincarnated as a villainous daughter with only the doomed flag of an Otome game in the TV anime "Otome Game.... X" (abbreviated as "Hamefura"), the opening theme "Andante ni Koishite! X" (abbreviated as "Hamefura") on July 7, 2021, a date associated with the star festival of Tanabata (the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the lunar calendar).
This is the second opening theme following "Otome no Root wa Hitotsu wa Hitoriwa" from the first season of "Hamefura" and is also the theme of the second season. This time, too, the song quotes Beethoven's famous piece and is full of angela's playful spirit.
Also included as a coupling is the new ending theme song for the radio show "angela no sparking! Both songs have the theme of love, which is a rare type of single for angela.
The talk show features a light-hearted and fun talk by atsuko, vocalist of angela, and KATSU, guitarist and arranger of angela!

The inspiration for the song came from a scene in a famous movie!

When I heard the song "Fall in Love with Andante! The first thing I thought when I heard the song "Andante ni Koi!　KATSU: Yes, there is a guitar in it.

KATSU: Yes, there is. But the guitar just plays the rhythm. The accordion and violin are the main instruments, and the violin is played like a folk instrument called a fiddle. Rather, there are no drums in it. The rhythm makes you feel as if there are drums even though there aren't. This song is completely different from the songs we have made in the past.

─ In other words, it is not made in the modern rock or pop music style.

KATSU That's right. The world of "Hamefura" (I've been reincarnated as a villainous young lady with nothing but a doomed flag in an Otome game...) ) has a medieval European style worldview, so I was conscious of not making modern music when I wrote the theme song.

─ ─ angela also sang the first season OP of "Hamefura", "Otome no Root wa One ha Nai Hatta! also sang the first season OP of "Hamefura. This one quotes classical music, but the keynote is a modern sound.

KATSU But "Otome no Root wa Hattai wa Hitoridana! is more twisted in terms of music, and this one is more orthodox.

KATSU──It doesn't have a modern sound, but it is an authentic song.

KATSU: "There is more than one route for a maiden! So, since I had already done the waltz and other music that was conscious of aristocratic balls and dropped them into the opening theme, I wondered what I should do this time. As I was thinking about it, I remembered a scene from the movie "Titanic.

─ That "Titanic" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet?

KATSU There is a scene in the third class cabin where the common people are having an Irish party, and Rose (Kate Winslet), who is from the upper class, joins them and learns about the generosity of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the common people. When I applied this to the world of "Hamefura," a very pleasant scene came to mind. For the opening theme of the second season, I decided to incorporate European folk music such as Irish dance and polka.

atsuko: The concept of this song that KATSU just explained did not come to me from the beginning. I was the main composer for "Andante ni Koishite! was mainly composed by me, but I wrote several songs before I got to this point, and none of them were very good (laughs). The production side of the anime asked for "fashionable music for stepping," but it was a bit abstract and I couldn't narrow down the focus, so I decided to write "Otome no Root ha Oneitaeru" (There's more than one route for a girl!). I was unable to narrow down the abstract focus of the request, and I had packed all the various elements of "Hamefura" at once in "Hamefura", so I ended up in a cul-de-sac. Then, Mr. KATSU came up with "Titanic. When I first heard it, I thought, "Why? (laughs).

KATSU: Simply, "Titanic" came from the phrase "music you can step to" (laughs).

ATSUKO When I heard the explanation, the key word "common" hit me. Catalina, the main character of "Hamefura," also lives an aristocratic life in the other world, but before she was reborn, she was just an ordinary Japanese girl, so I thought that introducing European folk music was a concept that fit the story. So I searched the Internet for Irish dance and polka and listened to them. I found the direction of this song from the fact that everyone seemed to be dancing happily together, following detailed steps.


───What kind of response did you feel when you were actually composing the song?

atsuko: Both the melody line and the structure of the song felt different from the songs we usually write. The bouncing rhythms made the music more detailed, which gave the song a sense of speed. The song starts with the intro, then the A-melody is sung, and then the intro + A-melody is repeated again, which is also a structure we have not seen before.

──If you are conscious of songs for dancing, such as Irish dance and polka, the structure also changes, doesn't it?

atsuko: The fine, fast rhythm is exactly the kind of fun for the common people, but I wanted to give it an aristocratic, elegant atmosphere, so it was difficult to find the right balance between the two.

─ ─ The aristocratic atmosphere of "There is more than one route for a maiden! You wanted to keep the aristocratic atmosphere that was present in "There is more than one route for an Otome!

atsuko Yes. As KATSU-san said at the beginning, the accordion and violins give the atmosphere of a village festival, and the heavy chorus adds a gorgeous element to it.

─ ─ The arrangement was done by KATSU, wasn't it?

KATSU: From the demo stage, there was a lot of European folk music in the music, so I arranged it accordingly.

───I would like to ask about the composition of the instruments.

KATSU The composition consists of an accordion and a string orchestra about the size of a chamber orchestra. The head of the violin section played a fiddle-like solo. Rhythm instruments are guitar and percussion. We did not use a drum set because it is a modern instrument, and we had a number of people play various percussion instruments.

atsuko A drum set is, in essence, many percussion instruments played by one drummer. In "Fall in Love with the Andante!" is a song that was written with an awareness of music from a time when that system did not yet exist, so we asked each drummer to play one of the various percussion instruments. In a sense, it was very extravagant to gather many drummers who could play the drums normally and have one drummer play each.