**Kanami: Spinning her life with the guitar**
Interviewer: Hiroo Nishizawa
Kanami, the guitarist, plays the lead role in Band-Maid’s songwriting.
Songs she writes by imagining the band playing them at servings are the one and only sound of technical hard rock with melodious approachability.
She talked with us straightforwardly about her challenges in their latest album and her passion for Band-Maid.
― I’ve heard you thought about [what life is and what living is](/r/BandMaid/comments/1g5q8z8/translation_saiki_and_kanami_on_kansai_tv/) when you were writing [*Forbidden tale*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiknA3mWivA), which is included in this album.
Kanami: At that time, I lost [a close relative of mine](/r/BandMaid/comments/1bsu2rs/comment/kxpddlj/) and I was feeling depressed.
I wondered what heaven was like, wondered about her life, which was much longer than the part I know, and wondered what kind of mission we fulfill and what we live for.
I tend to forget such thoughts if I don’t make them into songs, or rather I can only keep them as songs, so the ups and downs of life naturally became the theme of that song.
This is about me, but I’ve probably had good times and bad times.
But I’m here now, and I will be probably what I am.
I wanted to express that, so the song’s riffs are full of musical developments.
In the end, I created it with the image that whatever life I go through, I’ll be myself after all.
― It has [cheers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiknA3mWivA&t=139) in the middle.
What was your intention?
Kanami: Originally I had been asked by Saiki to have crowd noise in a song.
I thought that song would be able to meet her expectation.
I had been also asked to have lots of musical developments, so I thought it would be able to satisfy both of her requests.
― Kanami-san, what does Band-Maid mean to you?
Kanami: It’s literally my life.
I don’t feel like playing in a band other than Band-Maid now.
I don’t think I will ever meet greater people than them, so I even think of fading from the scene at the moment when Band-Maid stops.
I bet my life on it like that.
― However, I feel like you won’t be able to get out of a life with music.
Kanami: If Saiki says “Sorry, my throat is over”, I’ll be like “OK, let’s end”.
I strongly believe we must be these five of us.
I don’t know if any one of us will ever want to quit, but as I said, life has ups and downs, so that might happen.
I think if any one of us quits, it’s OK for me to end everything.
― You don’t know when the end will come, and that’s why you are doing your best with no regrets.
Kanami: Yes, that’s right.
You never know what will happen out there.
So, we do our best to do what we can do now and I hope you all will witness that.
I believe we do what we can do only now.
― Kanami-san, I feel like I understand why you pursue music so seriously.
Kanami: It’s so embarrassing to talk like this (laughs).
― As for *Epic Narratives*, what point did you pay particular attention to on it?
Kanami: I’ve talked a lot about this in the band interview, but I think *Bestie* was challenging to me as an arranger.
I basically created something from zero up until then, so it was my first time making 100 from something that’s already 1.
It was especially difficult to come up with a vocal melody, so the process of turning 1 into 100 was a challenge to me.
― Looking back on your past 10 years, which song was a turning point for you, if any?
Kanami: It’s [*H-G-K*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAFq8-Xnf_8), which is included in *Unseen World* (2021).
It was a challenging song to me as a guitarist.
It was extremely fast, and I was like “Oh snap, I can’t play this!”
Back then, I used to write melodies at a slower tempo than actual, but when I raised its tempo back to what I wanted to play at, it turned out to be extremely fast.
However, I completed it while thinking “I will do what I can’t do now”, so I think it has improved my guitar skills a lot.
Also, I used an orchestra in [*Sense*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWN6iOFjm9U), but I hadn’t been technically good at it, so I studied it from basics like “What is an orchestra?” and I also asked some people to teach me how to write it.
After that, I used the technique in other songs such as the strings in [*From now on*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ZSvmnkS00), so I suppose it was a turning point for me as a composer.
― Please tell us what you want to do with Band-Maid and your ambitions in the future.
Kanami: Personally, as a composer, I’d like to write songs for other musicians.
I’ve been thinking that for years, but I’d like to do such an activity when I have a little more time, because thankfully Band-Maid consume as many songs as I write.
As for Band-Maid, it would be great if we could play a return match against Budokan.
My parents want us to perform at Budokan, and our masters and princesses also say that loud, so I’d like to take them there.
Our Budokan show was canceled due to the COVID pandemic before, so my ambition is to play a return match against it.
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#bandmaid #kanami
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