Ayaka Hirahara is showing her new, mature side on her latest album, “LOVE” (Universal). The album features songs written by Japan’s leading singer-songwriters, including Miyuki Nakajima, Kazuo Zaitsu, Koji Tamaki and Hideaki Tokunaga, besides Hirahara herself.
Hirahara sings “Muscat” – music and lyrics by Tamaki – with amazing sensuality.
The singer pointed out that it has lines such as “Maruhadaka ni sareta” (I was laid bare) and “Watashi wa amai muscat” (I’m a sweet muscat).
“The lyrics could sound mellow, but not necessarily. It actually brought back memories of my childhood, the warm touches of my parents. The feelings were so precious, I couldn’t help crying,” she said.
While the scene is about two people about to make love, the song covers their whole story up to the day they meet each other.
Hirahara was 5 when she first met Tamaki backstage at an Anzenchitai concert, the rock band in which he sings lead vocals. Her father, saxophone player Makoto Hirahara, was performing with them at the time.
“I was a big fan,” she recalled of Tamaki. “I pretended to be asleep when he held me in his arms, because I was so shy.”
Tamaki told Hirahara he was very moved by the opportunity to write a song for the little girl who grew up to be a singer. The song is the fruit of this special relationship.
Most of the songs naturally have strong temperaments, considering the fact that they were offered by singer-songwriters. Yet Hirahara successfully turned them into easy-listening pop songs by showing her flexibility in interpreting them.
Hirahara sang Nakajima’s “Aria – Air -,” a powerful song that drives people forward, in an aggressive and straightforward way.
While Hirahara is perceived as a singer who gives impeccable performances, she is strongly aware that she “must not be complacent.”
A line in Nakajima’s song goes “Hitori de uta wa utaenai, uketomerarete umareru” (You can’t sing a song all alone. It comes into being when someone accepts it.) On her previous album, Hirahara also included the song “Don’t give it up,” which has the line, “There’s nothing more boring than being perfect.”
Hirahara admitted she used to work scrupulously, writing instructions to herself next to each syllable of the lyrics to sing them accurately. But she said she was able to allow emotion to carry her at times in this album.
“I felt relieved when I realised that perfection for me is not perfection for others. I think it would be more fun than picking on small details,” she said.
Hirahara is currently touring across the country, with stops at Kamakura Performing Arts Center in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on July 9 and Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on July 30 and 31. Visit www.camp-a-ya.com for more information.Speech
