Interview】Marei Uchida's live "take you take me BUDOKAN! is now available on Blu-ray and DVD!

On January 1, 2019, her first Nippon Budokan solo live "UCHIDA MAAYA New Year LIVE 2019 "take you take me BUDOKAN! " on January 1, 2019. Including encores, a total of 25 songs were performed, and the live was released as a Blu-ray & DVD. Since it was a New Year's live, the setlist was the most powerful and exciting one yet, with a lot of different ideas from the usual. We spoke with her as she continues to push forward in 2019.

We tried to make the setlist as exciting as possible.

─ ─ This time, we went to talk to her about the Blu-ray & DVD "UCHIDA MAAYA New Year LIVE 2019 take you take me BUDOKAN! I'd like to ask you a lot of questions. I would like to ask you many questions, but first of all, I would like to talk about the setlist of the day. The band members said that the setlist was like a big wave.

Uchida: It was a climax from the beginning. It was our first time to perform at the Budokan, and since it was the first day of the New Year, the staff who worked with us on the setlist were conscious of the excitement of the event, and we realized that there was no time to catch our breath. It was a lot of work, but let's just go with it," he said. On such a happy day, we shouldn't stop. I was determined to do it even if it meant pushing myself too hard.

─ So the set was a great success for both you and the staff.

Uchida: It was very exciting!　I was wondering how far the excitement would go, and I thought I would be sweating on the day of the concert.

───There was even a double encore, with a total of 25 songs. It was like we sang a lot. The first thing that surprised me when I saw the live was how quickly the members were introduced.

Uchida They did it on the second song, "take you take me BANDWAGON," so it was pretty early (laughs).

──That made me feel that I was going to work together with the band to create a live performance.

Uchida: I have a stance of relying on my fans and band members where I can. I am aware that I am able to accomplish what I cannot do alone by trusting everyone, and the cooler the band members are, the more I am lifted up, so I think it was right to introduce the band members at the beginning. I would be happy if the audience could see that we are not just a backing band, but that we are all enjoying the live performance.

─ ─ When did you start preparing for the Budokan live concert?

Uchida: Around January 2018, I started to make moves, saying many times to people around me that I wanted to do a Budokan live concert. The Uchida Marei team works hard with me to do what I want to do, but I was surprised when they said, "We've come up with a schedule that says January 1, 2019." I was surprised (laugh).

(laughs) ─ It was the first day of the year, you know (laughs).

Uchida: I was a bit intimidated (in terms of schedule), but I thought, "If I can do it, let's do it. Then the live concert was announced, tickets went on sale, and gradually the atmosphere of "we are really going to do it" grew, and I was very nervous the whole time. On a tour, the content gets more refined as the show goes on. But this time, it was a one-time event, and we only had one month of rehearsals in December. I was under a lot of pressure because I had other work to do and was not in an environment where I could concentrate only on singing. I think I spent the whole winter of last year thinking about how I could perform at the Budokan in the best possible condition. Also, every year in winter, my condition drops because the baseball season is over (laughs).

─ ─ It's the off-season, so I have to be on a high (laughs).

Uchida And we had a fan club event at the end of October last year, so we couldn't start preparing for the Budokan until we got over that. We had a lot of time before the concert, so we were not in the mode of taking our time to prepare for the concert, and it was not until November that we decided on the concept of the stage.

─ So the basic concept of the set of the ship, with you as the captain, was not decided until November?

Uchida: Yes.

Uchida Yes, and that's how you were able to have such a large set built in time for January 1.

Uchida Yes, it is amazing, isn't it? Thanks to the excellent Marei team. And since December is my birthday month and Christmas is also in December, the countdown begins in my mind every year, so I was more restless than usual at the end of last year.


─ ─ The 25th is Christmas, the 27th is your birthday, and the 1st is at the Budokan, so you have a full schedule of events.

Uchida For me, 2018 ended with the Budokan concert, which felt more like December 32 than January 1. On top of that, I was scheduled to go to France the next day to shoot a photo book ("étoile" to be released on March 21, 2019), so I felt like I was in a work mode all the time and the year-end and New Year holidays were a flurry of activities. It was a busy time for me, but I have no regrets at all because the Budokan live concert was a perfect showcase of my work in 2018.

I think it was a wonderful live performance.

Uchida: When I looked at the video of the live performance again, I thought it was surprisingly calm (laughs).

───The live performance started with a New Year's performance.

Uchida The koto piece "Haru no Umi" (Sea of Spring) was the musical accompaniment (laughs). It was a bit of a play on words, but it was a unique New Year's performance that will probably never happen again. The band members said they had done countdown live shows on New Year's Eve, but this was the first time for them to do one on New Year's Day.

───There were a lot of arrangements, but everything went smoothly, and I thought it was as expected.

Uchida: There were definitely a lot of commitments. In one of the songs, we had to go up and down the four-story-high stage stairs, and I almost wondered, "When did we have to go up and down and to what height? The fight scene with the LED poi was also very difficult because of the complicated set-up of the fight. I often use a poi in my live performances, but the Budokan was the first time I turned it by myself. There were so many things I had to learn that I felt like my head was going to explode, but I think I enjoyed the hurdles being raised in that way.

─ ─ The poi is a very effective prop for live performances, as the LED afterimages make floral patterns and letters appear in the space.

Uchida: The poi performance brought flowers to the stage. I also had the poi participate in the second live performance we did at the Yoyogi Daiichi Gymnasium, and I loved it.

─ ─ In "Crossfire," we also did the customary tee batting.

Uchida: I would like to improve my batting accuracy. I would like to release the ball by myself and knock, rather than using a tee. I think that would allow the ball to fly the furthest. This is an issue for the next round!