Interview] Third EP "narrow" is a collection of songs unique to winter. There are only possibilities in the world created by Tomori Kusunoki!

As a singer-songwriter who writes her own lyrics and music, Tomori Kusunoki has a strong presence among voice actors. Despite the bright and natural expression that the 21-year-old usually shows, she has been releasing works that give the impression of her greatness as an expressive artist.
Her latest EP "narrow" is now available. Including the title track "narrow," the EP features a total of four tracks, and as a "piece that makes you feel winter," the songs on this EP are mainly gentle and warm. On December 22, her birthday, and Christmas Eve, the 24th, she will be holding her first live performances for an audience after her major label debut. Please come and witness this young talent!

The EP is a collection of wintery songs, including the title track "narrow"!

This interview follows your 2nd EP "Forced Shutdown". It's been about 6 months, how was that time for you?

Kusunoki: My voice acting work has become quite fulfilling, and I have been able to take on many different roles. Acting is becoming someone other than myself, so I am able to think in a way that I had never thought of before. I also feel that my exposure to the worldviews of various works has enriched what I want to do, and the songs that I create are gradually changing as well.

─ I imagine that the stimulation your mind receives while playing a role is quite significant.

Kusunoki: Like profiling, the more I analyze the character's feelings, thought processes, and behavior patterns, the easier it becomes to play the role, so I feel that my own way of thinking changes as I have more experiences like that.

─ So you are the type of person who analyzes the character carefully before recording.

Kusunoki: I try not to set my acting patterns too much on what the character is thinking or why he/she said what he/she said. The play will change depending on how the co-stars come across, and I tend to solidify the character's way of thinking, or just the core of that person, and come up with whatever comes to mind on the set.

─ ─ If you understand the essence of the character, you can naturally create a performance that suits that person. I am sure that acting and songwriting are closely connected in your mind, but are you the type of person who usually writes songs?

Kusunoki: For this EP, I didn't have time to write songs, I was busy with my schedule, and I started writing songs after the events for the 2nd EP were over, so I started working on the 3rd EP right away. I just needed a little more time to input my ideas (laughs).

───The third EP, "narrow," was produced in the midst of a busy schedule. I felt the wintery atmosphere in all four songs. But, as you said, you wrote the songs mainly during the summer, right?

Kusunoki: I wrote the songs while remembering what winter was like. I wrote the songs while remembering what it was like in winter. But if I had to choose between summer and winter, I like winter better, and it is easier to write songs about it.

─ What do you like about winter?

Kusunoki: First of all, my birthday is on December 22, and right after that, there are many events like Christmas and New Year's. I am not good at cold weather, but I like the cold weather. I like the smells unique to winter, the clothes everyone is wearing, the glittering lights of the city, the deep roasted Christmas blend of coffee that makes me feel at home, and many of my favorite winter songs. I think it is a season that stimulates the senses in many ways, and that makes it easier to put into song.

─ In what order did you write the four songs?

Kusunoki: "Taruhi" was the first, followed by "Fierce Fire" at about the same time, then "Narrow", and finally "Yorimichi".

─ ─ "Taruhi" was also the first video uploaded on YouTube, wasn't it?

Kusunoki: After the lyric video for "Taruhi," the music video (MV) for "narrow," and the lyric video for "Yorimichi," we finally released the lyric video for "Fierce Fire.

Please tell us more about each song.

The story of "arrow" is connected to the songs we have written so far.

───First of all, the title track "narrow" is a warm and wintery song. I thought it was a warm and wintery song.

Kusunoki: Of the four songs on this album, I think this one is the most wintery. In the lyrics, I was able to describe specific scenes by picturing winter scenes in my mind, and in the sound, it has a wintery feel, so I focused on making it easy to listen to.

─ ─ The title "narrow" is a word that does not appear in the lyrics.

Kusunoki: The word "narrow sky" appears in the lyrics, and I took it from there. The main character of this song is a kid who is performing on the street in Tokyo. I thought "narrow sky" was a symbol of Tokyo, so I named the song "narrow" in that sense. This song also tells the story of the encounter between the main characters of "Romaron" and "The World I See, The World You See," both of which were included in the first EP, and I chose "narrow" to represent the narrowness of the world, or rather, a chance encounter in a corner of the city.

─ So the story is connected to the previous songs. It is a very interesting experiment.

Kusunoki: Actually, this EP is a device to make the characters of the previous songs meet each other and to delve deeper into their stories. I'm thinking of adopting such a method of creation in the future.

─ ─ How did you come up with this method?

Kusunoki: I came up with the idea when I started planning "Tomori Kusunoki Story Live "LOOM-ROOM #725 -ignore-", which is also included in the limited first pressing. It was a live performance alternating between reading and singing, and it was an attempt to let the audience enjoy the storyline of the lyrics more by complementing the worldview of the lyrics through the reading. Based on this, I began to think that the audience would enjoy the songs more if the stories of the songs were connected to each other.

─ I think this is true of your lyrics in general, but since the descriptions are not too specific, the listeners can freely expand their imagination, which is very comfortable for them.

Kusunoki: Thank you very much. When I write lyrics with drama, I don't want to write clearly that such-and-such person and such-and-such person existed, or that such-and-such thing happened. I myself am not good at lyrics that give a clear-cut answer, and I feel distant when I listen to them.

─ ─ Even if there is a concrete description in the lyrics, there should be a blank space that makes people wonder what this means. In other words, even if there is a specific description in the lyrics, there is a blank space that makes you wonder what it means. In the case of "arrow," the abstract words are followed by a concrete action, "the gesture of taking off the earphones, which you showed me many times," and I was listening to it, wondering what it meant.

Kusunoki: This represents the movement of the audience who came to see my street live performance. I usually walk down the street listening to my favorite music with earphones, but when I saw someone performing in Shinjuku, I was curious and took off my earphones. I thought it must be very nice for the people who are performing on the street to have pedestrians stop and take off their earphones like that. And I hope that someday my music will be the music that is played through their earphones.

─ ─ Someday you will make your CD debut and have a hit.

Kusunoki: Yes. The phrase "You showed me many times how to take off the earphones" appears twice in the lyrics. The first time, I was happy that you took off the earphones, and the second time, I tried my best so that I would not have to see you take off the earphones anymore. I tried to write the main character's growth or the change in his way of thinking differently.

─ I see. So you expressed this change in the main character's way of thinking.

Kusunoki That's right. I was careful not to be too specific about the main character's feelings, and tried to express them in such a way that the reader could somehow think, "Is this what I mean? I tried not to be too specific about the main character's feelings. It is ideal for me to write lyrics like this that somehow catch the listener's attention. It is interesting to read the various insights from the listeners and discover how they interpreted the lyrics. The listeners' interpretations often give me hints for the next song, which makes me feel like "thank you, everyone" (laughs).