Psychic Lover talks about their 15 years of singing ani-songs and special effects songs, their footsteps to date, and their thoughts on their best album and self-cover album!

The rock unit "Psychic Lover" is known for their many theme songs for anime such as "Saiki Kusuo no Ψ難" and "Card Fight! Vanguard," and special effects dramas such as "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger" and "Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

In 2018, they celebrated the 15th anniversary of their debut and released a best album "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary BEST ~PSYCHIC MANIA~" and a self-cover album "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary Re- recording Tracks ~CRUSH & BUILD~" was released.

Akiba Research Institute asked them about their 15-year history and their thoughts on the new album. How was Psychic Rubber born and what do they think about now that they have become an indispensable presence in the world of anime and special effects?

The path of music, which they once gave up, was reconnected at "Anipala Ongakukan"!

--Congratulations on the 15th anniversary of your major label debut! In this issue, we will look back on the history of the band since its debut and also introduce the recently released 15th anniversary best album "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary BEST ~PSYCHIC MANIA~" and self-cover album "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary Re- recording Tracks ~CRUSH & BUILD~". First of all, please tell us how Psychic Lover was formed.

YOFFY Psychic Lover started out as a solo project of mine around 1998.
At the time, names like Blind Melon and The Smashing Pumpkins were cool, and I named it "Psychic Lover" because it sounded "cosmic, heroic, and rock 'n' roll.
After that, we wanted to make it a band style, so the number of members increased, and at one point there were six members at the peak of the band.

IMAJO Well, I joined the band that YOFFY was originally in later.

YOFFY It was around October 2001 that we became the two members (which is our current style).
I had been sending demo recordings to record companies since I was in the band, but in the latter half of 2001, there was a period when I lost my passion for music for a moment.
At the time, there were only a handful of active male solo vocalists, such as Ken Hirai, and I felt that I had nowhere to go in the current music scene. I thought to myself, "I have nowhere to go in today's music scene." When I broke up the band, I was contacted by the producer of "Anipala Music Hall," a program on Kids' Station.

(Editor's note: "Anipala Ongakukan" ...... is an anime song music program that aired on Kids Station from 2001 to 2017. Psychic Lover was a regular performer until January 2014)

Hironobu Kageyama and Masaaki Endo appeared on "Anipara Ongaku Kan," and I think the producer had the ambition of "debuting a new ani-song unit from the program" among those seniors.　I was told of such an opportunity, so I invited IMAJO to join us again.

--IMAJO: Did you feel any uneasiness about the new unit of two members as the new Psychic Lover from the band structure?

IMAJO I had been playing in many bands before, but I was hardly playing in any other bands at that time. It was a transitional time for the band, as members were raising families and finding jobs. ......

YOFFY Everyone was feeling a bit stagnant. Then I told IMAJO, "You can be on TV" (laughs).

IMAJO To begin with, it had been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to "put out a CD with myself on the cover," so I thought that would be a good idea (laughs).
In 2002, it was also decided that we would debut with the theme song for the animated TV series "Super Robot Transformers: The Legend of Micron. That's right.
So I remember recording "TRANSFORMER -Dream Again" in 2001, right after my regular appearance in "Anipala Music Hall.

YOFFY The "Transformers" series was an anime produced in Japan, but "Micron Legend" was dubbed overseas in 2002 and broadcast in Japan in 2003, which was a mysterious back-import system (laughs).
In 2002, the complete packet of the animated TV series "Transformers: The Legend of Micron" was completed, including the theme song that we sang, and it was exported overseas. Of course, it was a different theme song overseas. ...... At the time, there seemed to be a rule that you had to deliver a complete packet like that.

--In other words, "TRANSFORMER -Dream Again" and the TV animation "Super Robot Transformers: The Legend of Micron" were completed in 2002, but they were not broadcast in Japan until 2003, after the overseas broadcast. Naturally, the release of "TRANSFORMER -Dream Again" would also be in 2003. ......

YOFFY So, in 2002, we appeared on "Anipala Music Hall" as a "mysterious duo". At that time, we couldn't even say, "We will debut next year.

--So, you two were anime fans until then?

YOFFY I was just a regular band member who watched anime. I used to come home from my part-time job and watch anime that was on around 6 pm. I watched "Akazukin Chacha," "Wataru: The Hero of Magic" and "Revolutionary Girl Utena," and I really liked Masami Okui's "Rinbu-Revolution" (the theme song of "Revolutionary Girl Utena").

IMAJO I watched anime as much as anyone else. When I was in elementary school, I watched "Dragon Ball" and "City Hunter" as much as I could, and when I grew up, I watched "Hanada Shonenshi" and cried (laughs).

YOFFY Also, we are of the Sunrise robot anime generation. Even when we were a band, we would play songs that were supposed to be fictional anime songs.

--When we debuted with "TRANSFORMER -Dream Again", we had a hard time reconciling "our musicality" with "anime song-like" characteristics. YOFFY Did you have much difficulty in reconciling your own musicality and the "anime song" style?

YOFFY At the time, our musical style was swing-beat hard rock, but we decided to stop going that route and go back to the mindset we had when we were high school students who loved metal music.
At the time, anime theme songs were mostly tie-ups, and there weren't many anime songs with a band sound that was in the genes of MAKE-UP's "Pegasus Fantasy" or Hironobu Kageyama.

--At that time, record companies saw anime theme songs as a place to promote new artists, and it was not uncommon for songs that had little to do with the work to be used as anime theme songs.

YOFFY My friend who is an ani-song fanatic taught me about anime songs, and I used to listen to maniacal anime songs, like the theme song for the OVA "Ryusei Kiki Gakusaber" (laughs). I thought those songs were cool, so when I heard about "Micron Legend," I thought, "I'm going to bury my bones in the anison world from now on.

Decaranger," which changed my life.

--Since then, Psychic Lover has continued to be active in the field of anime songs and special effects, and now, on the occasion of the release of their 15th anniversary best album "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary BEST ~PSYCHIC MANIA~", they have decided to look back over the past 15 years. Looking back over the past 15 years, what songs were turning points for you?

YOFFY The first song that was a turning point for me was "Tokussho Sentai Dekaranger".
This was the first time for me to sing a song written by a composer or lyricist.
Until then, I had written songs in keys that I was comfortable singing, so I was worried about whether I would be able to make it as a singer. In addition, Isao Sasaki sang the ED for "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger," so I wondered how I could express Psychic Lover in that context.
So I came up with ideas for the chorus "Get Up Dekaranger," and we did our best to make the song our own color.
I also remember that we were constantly holding events every weekend at that time.

IMAJO At that time, there were many special effects shows and we participated in them every weekend. We had matching suits made for us and the Decaranger, and we would stand on stage wearing them.
Since we had two or three sites a day and no time to change, we would ride the bullet train dressed like that (laughs).

YOFFY It was tough going to the countryside and appearing on a wide daytime TV show before going to an event.

--I guess you must have realized that you had become a big seller.

YOFFY We had a lot of free time in 2003 when we made our debut (laughs). (laughs) Other than our own live performances, we didn't have any official anime events.
I think it was after we started performing in "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger" that we started to be seen as "an artist who also performs at events.

--At that time, there were not many festivals featuring anime song artists.

YOFFY There was only "Anime Japan Fes.

IMAJO I was very grateful for the tokusatsu events because they helped everyone get to know Psychic Lover. I think that the phenomenon of fathers and mothers becoming passionate about tokusatsu was also happening around this time.
In addition, "Tokuso Sentai Dekaranger" was a work that brought me closer to people. I am still friends with the actors of "Dekaranger," and I played support guitar for Ayumi Miyazaki, who composed the music, at his live performances. We are also going to do an acoustic live show together.

--YOFFY: Following "Tokussho Sentai Dekaranger" and "Take My Soul Forever" from the anime "Ring ni Kakero 1," you will continue to perform both anime songs and special effects songs in the future.

YOFFY I wrote "TAKE MY SOUL FOREVER" with the feeling that I wanted to "beat MAKE-UP.
Both of these works were released in 2004, and at the time it was unprecedented to be working on an anime song at the same time as doing a theme song for a Sentai TV series. （It was difficult to do an ani-song while doing a sentai theme song (due to the events and other commitments).
But, after some discussions with the record companies, they decided to do both, and I was very lucky to be able to do both.

--YOFFY So how has Psychic Lover changed over the past 15 years?

YOFFY I remember that in the beginning, it was very difficult to sing anime theme songs for more than two hours at a one-man live concert. We didn't have any medium tempo songs that we could sing in the middle of the show like normal J-pop artists.
I didn't know where to relax, and I thought, "This is a tough road I have chosen.

IMAJO Even now, I still sing while huffing and puffing after every song (laughs).

YOFFY In the beginning, I didn't know what I was doing and sang in the key of my limit, but I think the way I use my throat has changed a lot in the past 15 years. When I made my debut, the quality of my voice was pretty unstable.

IMAJO Psychic Lover has a fan club, and recently I went on a bus tour with the fans for the first time. On the bus on the way back, we watched a video of a live performance from 2001, and it made me laugh. From our own perspective, we thought we had been doing the same thing for 15 years, but 15 years ago, both YOFFY and I were moving a lot.
So I guess the only thing that has changed is that we don't move so much anymore.

Everyone (laughs).

IMAJO Also, 15 years ago, I used to make a face like that! (Laughs) I still try my best to make a smug face, but back then I felt like I was standing on stage without fear. Seeing that, I was laughing hysterically with my fans.

--YOFFY: In the past 15 years, the range of your music has broadened, hasn't it?

YOFFY When Psychic Lover is asked to sing the theme song for an anime, people often expect us to do a "Sentai Mono Psychic Lover. However, I think we have done our best to convince the client by throwing a different pitch back at them.
For example, we have worked on "Cardfight! Vanguard" and "Rewrite" were offered by people who were probably fans of Sentai, but we responded with music that had a completely different taste, and they said, "This is good, too! I think we were accepted by fans of anime and games as well.

--I think that the song "XTC" from the anime "Witchblade" has an image of mature rock music.

YOFFY (The TV anime was aired late at night and was a sexy work, so I wrote a song that appealed to my nighttime friends at .......

IMAJO What do you mean by "friends of the night" (laughs)?

YOFFY I wanted to have both a Sunday morning face like Sentai Mono and a night face. The mature rock line was also what I originally wanted to do, so I brought that flavor to "Rewrite" as well.

--What did you talk about in terms of song selection and composition for "PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary BEST ~PSYCHIC MANIA~," which has 32 songs in total?

YOFFY: The song selections were voted on by the members concerned. It was a process of eliminating the songs to be included in the album with a sense of resignation.

IMAJO We also released "Psychic Lover IV -BEST-" as a best album on our 10th anniversary, so we had to take that into consideration when making our selections.

YOFFY So we chose 32 songs, and it was very difficult to decide the order of the songs. I arranged the songs as if I were going to hold a 2-day live concert with these 32 songs.
I could have chosen "chronological order," but I thought that wouldn't have worked. When I listen to the recordings I made in the early days, I still have regrets and regrets. That is why we decided to release a self-cover album along with the best of the best.

A self-cover album that aims for both roughness and tenderness

--PSYCHIC LOVER 15th Anniversary Re-recording Tracks ~CRUSH & BUILD~" is a selfcover album of your early songs and masterpieces.

YOFFY I think musicians have a desire to perform songs from their debut with today's techniques. That is why we chose songs from the early days and popular songs and re-recorded them.
However, I had a hard time singing the English version (of the special track). (Laughs) Still, by singing in English, I hope that people in English-speaking countries that I couldn't reach before will listen to the song.
To begin with, my initial impulse was to challenge the language barrier because my first love was Western hard rock music. I wanted to take the challenge one step further than I am now.

--Did you have any difficulties in the process of re-recording the song?

IMAJO: It's not acceptable (in re-recording) to play anything less than what you did in the past.
However, the tempo of the performance from 15 years ago was faster than what I had originally intended, but it was strangely energetic and cool. It was difficult to keep that kind of rough-hewn vigor while also carefully crafting some parts.
The other thing was to make the listener think, "This is different from the original song! I changed the phrasing and arrangement of the guitar solo quite a bit. The sound has also been improved, so when you compare them, you can tell that they are completely different.

--Looking back over the past 15 years, have you had any doubts or slumps?

YOFFY There are a lot of hesitations (laughs).
I mean, I really didn't have any work in my debut year, so I did various things, such as teaching music at a vocational school and producing music for an indie drama CD featuring voice actors. But through those experiences, I learned the tricks of self-production and studio work, and I feel like I laid the foundation for my current work as a songwriter.
In addition, I think I am very lucky to be able to sing anime songs.
For normal artists, new songs are first performed live to the audience. But with ani-songs, the first step is the animation, so songs that don't fit the animation are rejected, and you have to start with the production side in mind. So, once the music is decided, there is no hesitation (about the music).

--I know this is a bit of a rush, but I would like to share with you Psychic Lover's 15-year history. Finally, do you have a message for our readers?

IMAJO I think there are a lot of people who know about Psychic Lover on a subconscious level, but I hope you will come to our live shows. We are having a lot of fun at our live shows!

YOFFY Although it costs a lot of money, I hope you will purchase both the best album and the self-cover album.
I think the past 15 years have been 15 years of building our own Psychic Lover style to death. The results and the process are contained in these two albums. I would be happy if you can feel that when you listen to these albums.
And please have them see Psychic Lover's present progress at the live performance and sing along with us!

--Thank you very much for your time today!

(Interview and text by Michi Sugahara)