Bitter, and Sweet. note #03 Important Worldview

This is Yamakura Bossa.
Thank you for reading!
This time, I would like to talk about the worldview that I hold dear.
I choose my words and sounds carefully so that this perspective is reflected in the atmosphere and lyrics of the music I create, so I would be happy if you could listen to my music again after reading this.

Bitter, and Sweet.

I wrote it in the title as well.
Bitter, and Sweet.
Literally translated, it means "bitter and sweet." It is a phrase that describes a flavor, but when do you find this "Bitter, and Sweet." feeling coming back to you?

As I mentioned in my self-introduction before, I love coffee so much that I even worked at a coffee shop, so whenever I drink a delicious dark roast coffee, this deep, flavorful sensation always welcomes me. I haven't eaten them recently, but I think slightly burnt Mitarashi dango (skewered rice dumplings with sweet soy glaze) also have this feeling.

Coffee starts bitter and fades out sweet.
Mitarashi dango starts sweet and fades out bitter.
That is the image I have.

I create music, and I always make sure to be conscious of these"bitter elements and sweet elements" within a single song. Just as the amount of seasoning changes depending on the dish you want to make, I adjust the "bitter elements and sweet elements" depending on the worldview of the song I want to finish.

For me,
musically,"bitter elements" are the intensity of the bass, the distortion of the electric guitar (the sharp, screeching sound quality), the power of the vocals, and the straightforward expression of the lyrics.
Musically,"sweet elements" are the number of types of instruments used, the soothing sound quality that is pleasant to the ears, ambiguous expressions, and the breathing or vocal nuances that cannot be converted into musical notes.
I feel like I can put it that way.

Hard and soft, yin and yang—I think there are similarities in nuance to these.
But since I love eating, drinking, and sleeping, I'll go with Bitter, and Sweet. ←

Sensibilities cultivated during my coffee shop days

In the first place, before I started my music career, there was a training session on "About Blend Coffee" at the coffee shop's internal seminar, and encountering the philosophy of creating a single flavor by utilizing the existence of individual components was a very significant event that had a huge influence on me.
The coffee shop where I worked had nine types of original blend coffees with different flavors, and all of them were coffees with clearly distinct characters.


That's nine types for just one cup of coffee
Coffee with different flavors depending on the production area is roasted to the degree where its potential is unleashed, and then the flavor is created from the finished product through the balance of the blend. It is a masterpiece that is only completed after going through a mind-boggling process, almost like weaving a textile; that is "blend coffee."

Each of these nine types of coffee had a name like a movie title, and the first rule was to stay true to that concept.
The second rule was to change the blend appropriately because the condition of the beans from the same production area changes depending on the year.
The third rule was to taste the finished product repeatedly to verify whether the customer could hold onto that image until they finished drinking it.
By repeating these steps, we always prepared delicious coffee.

What I felt during that time was
that neither the "bitter elements" nor the "sweet elements" should ever reach zero.
It means they are a pair of existences necessary to bring out each other's strengths.
I think the salt used in sweets to bring out the sweetness is the same thing.
I create pop music, but to be pop, I am careful about these elements when making music:
・Accessibility of the lyrics and a composition prioritized for the melody

・A sense of scale created with a rock band arrangement to deliver a definite sense of exhilaration
・A sense of playfulness by occasionally setting up solo parts for each instrument so that the music does not drag on
I would be very happy if it reached someone just by listening to it once, but I believe that the goal as art is fulfilled in a sense just by having people listen to the music.

"Feeling," and "understanding." You don't have to force yourself to express it.

Sometimes, after finishing a meal, people say,
"That was delicious! I can't explain it well, though."
And after listening to music, they say,
"I don't really get it, but it's cool!"

Aren't those very grateful comments?

I think this might be a harmful effect of the fact that individuals can now express themselves on social media, but I think there is a psychology at work that says, "The receiver must convey that impression to the other person."
There are cases where you are so moved that you can't find the words, but I am talking about it as a reaction when something has reached a passing grade as a performance.
My honest opinion regarding that is

Thank you for listening. That alone makes me very happy.

It boils down to this.
It's not that I don't want to hear feedback, but I try not to ask too much because asking "How was it?" seems like it would create pressure.

Conversely, I often see people at wine bars who try to force themselves to put it into words and end up saying nonsensical things.
Like, "It has a scent like..."
I was also in the coffee business, so I used to taste various things and record tasting notes to study how to express flavors.
But if you put that forward as a presentation,I think it might rob the other person of their own free ideas.If art can only be enjoyed if it is explained in words, then it becomes
not art, but just rhetoric.

"Putting your impressions into words is not a matter of etiquette."

Receive it, taste it, and let it end quietly.
The world is just spinning, and I'm happy to be alive.
I hope that if I can provide that kind of quiet and certain sense of fulfillment through music, that is what I am being careful about.

Of course, there are times when I have my music friends listen to new songs for the purpose of having them listen to demo tracks and brushing them up, but if those music friends also just finish listening to a song and say "Nice!", there is nothing better than that.
People who honestly criticize it by saying "This song is a bit subtle" are also very valuable to me as a creator, and since I also have a goal of making a song that everyone agrees is good, I want to be greedy in pursuing that.
And so, that was the worldview I hold dear,
Bitter, and Sweet.

To everyone who read until the end, thank you very much.
Will we meet next on note, or at a live house?
Let's meet again.

Yamakura Bossa

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