Interview] His Excellency Demon and Alika Takarano (ALI PROJECT). The beautiful voice of "Lost in Time and Space" is out of this world!

The TV anime "Hachioji, It's Not That! The opening theme "Lost in Time and Space" for the TV anime "Hachioji, That's Not It! The collaboration between the two strong personalities, His Excellency Demon and Alika Takarano (ALI PROJECT), has been realized. Composed by Demon, "Lost in Time" is a full-fledged Scandinavian metal song, with lyrics co-written by Demon. The lyrics, which were co-written by the two artists, are in keeping with the worldview of the work, while at the same time conveying a message to today's lost people.
An interview with both musicians is presented below!

Aiming for symphonic Scandinavian metal with a heavy chorus

─ ─ "A dream collaboration between the Devil and the Queen of Darkness," the manufacturer's materials said, and that is exactly what this collaboration is. Were the two of you familiar with each other?

Arica Takarano: Of course I knew of them. Besides, the violinist in our band is a big fan of "Saint Kammers II," and he was delighted with this collaboration.

Mr. Damon: In a project I was involved in seven or eight years ago, I had the opportunity to have a group of young women practice singing, and I was allowed to use ALI PROJECT's songs and listen to them intensively. In hindsight, I think it would have been better to have them sing an easier song (laughs).

Arica Takarano That was a pity for the girls (laughs).

Mr. Damon: Because of that background, when the idea of this collaboration came to me, I immediately thought, "This is interesting! I thought. However, we never met during the songwriting process, and the first time we met face-to-face was when I invited them to my concert tour last fall.

Arika Takarano: "It was a pleasure to finally meet you.

─ ─ When and how did the production of "Lost in Time and Space" begin?

Mr. Damon: The first time I was approached was at the end of the year before last. At first, Mr. Mikiya Katakura of ALI PROJECT was going to compose the music, and I was happy to hear that I would be able to sing his music, but I was a little disappointed that I was going to be in charge of composing the music (laughs).

Arika Takarano: The director asked me to make it Scandinavian metal, but at that time Mr. Katakura had a full schedule with album production, and also he was not familiar with that genre, so I decided that if we were going to go that route in earnest, it would be better to leave it to you, the expert. I was also not familiar with the genre.

Mr. Damon: I also received a request for "symphonic Scandinavian metal that starts with a heavy chorus," so I decided to start by looking over the animation material, write the melody, and leave the arranging to someone from the real world. So I asked my friend Anders Lidholm (Grand Illusion), a Swedish creator, to do the arrangement.

─ What kind of person is Anders Lidholm?

Demon: I met Anders when I asked him to do the arrangements for my "GIRLS'ROCK" series, a series of four cover albums by female artists, including the best of the best. My solo album "EXISTENCE," released in the 19th year of the Magical Calendar (2017), was also sound produced by Anders. He has been to Japan many times, but this time he took on sound production while in Sweden.

─ So the song "Lost in Time and Space" was composed in Japan and arranged in Sweden.

Mr. Damon Furthermore, the lead guitar was played by a Bosnian guitarist, so it was recorded in Bosnia.

─ ─ So it was a production that traveled around the world. What was your impression of the music created by His Excellency, Mr. ARICA?

Arica Takarano: I first heard it before the metal arrangement was added, and I thought it was a very catchy song.

Demon Sir, for many years I have based my musical activities on the appearance of a rock band, but since I am a vocalist, the melody is not the same as that created by a guitarist. Also, I listened to a lot of anime songs during my tentative childhood in the world, so when it comes to writing anime theme songs, I remember the atmosphere of that era. I was confident that Anders would make it into an authentic Scandinavian metal song, so I was able to make it as I wanted it to be.

─ ─ The lyrics were co-written by the two of you. How did you go about working on it?

Daemon: Once the melody was finished, I discussed it with Ms. Arica and we decided on the song assignments, and I wrote the lyrics for the parts that I would sing.

TakaranoArika: The parts that we sing together are left up to the client to decide.

Damon: The most interesting part of this production was the co-writing of the lyrics. I composed the lyrics to "Lost in Time and Space," so I wrote the lyrics first and sent them to Ms. Arica via e-mail, and she wrote the rest of the lyrics. We would both say to each other, "Oh, that's how it's done. Then, let's do this next one." We were both inspired by each other's ideas.

HORANO ARIKA: I liked the fact that His Excellency first decided on a rough division of roles and laid out the path for the lyrics.

Damon: I took on the part of expressing the emotions of the main character, who is male, and asked Ms. Arica to express the situation he was in and the message in the story.

Arika Takarano On top of that, when His Excellency responded with words that I would not normally use, it changed the way I saw and perceived the meaning of those words, and I felt it was fresh and new.

Mr. Damon Before we started production, I had some concerns in my mind that our personalities might clash with each other, but my fears were completely unfounded. It was all fun.

Alika Takarano: I, too, was anxiously awaiting the reply to my e-mail, wondering if I would receive a reply from His Excellency today. and I spent my days looking forward to the e-mail replies.

─ ─ It was like exchanging love letters (laughs).

(laughs) .

Arica Takarano: Yes, that's right (laughs).