[MAGAZINE] Yonashiro Sho & Kawashiri Ren (JO1) - Stage Navi (Vol 68) feature (Part 2)

[dreamweavernyx]

And here's the cross-talk!

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Cross-talk

On 25 May, your second album “KIZUNA” was released. It’s now 2 years since your debut, and just like your album title, I think JO1’s bonds must have deepened among the members. What kinds of thoughts are packed into the album, this time?

Yonashiro: I think that we’ve been able to overcome all sorts of difficulties in the 2 years since our debut in 2022, thanks to us placing importance on the bonds we have. This might already be our third year, but to me it feels like this, now, is our starting point. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we weren’t able to be active like we wanted to, and we only managed to meet the JAMs (JO1’s fans), who have always supported us, at our first live-audience concert last year. From now on, I’d like for us to do many more concerts, and give back even more to all of the JAMs who have been supporting us. So that’s why, this time round “KIZUNA” (bonds) refers to our bonds with JAMs, and also our bonds with each other. Both those types of bonds are captured by this album.

Kawashiri: Of course, improving our singing and dancing is a must, but I felt that through the experience of our live-audience concert, we were able to deeply feel the presence of our connection with JAMs, and with each other. This is an album that consciously takes those “connections” into account. On the performance front, all 11 of us are of course in sync, but I think that you will be able to easily sense / understand how each of us try to establish our individuality while coming together as a group, or how our vibes match up with each other. I’d be happy if you could focus on that (for this album).

There are 7 new songs on the album, including the title track “With Us”, and also all 12 of the recorded songs from your 3rd to 5th singles. Please let us know your favourite songs (off the album).

Yonashiro: I really like the song “Touch!”. The melody is very light and buoyant, and I think that’s really great. I like how it’s the type of song that you could listen to over and over again.

Kawashiri: For me, I like all of the songs, but today I’m really feeling the song “ZERO”. Actually, JO1’s logo gets changed a little with every CD we put out, and this time it was designed around the motif of a gear wheel, you know. Gears will interlock with each other, and move in a circle, and it was designed with that kind of image in mind. That overlaps with the theme of “bonds” that I was talking about earlier, I think. In particular, there’s a line from the lyrics of “ZERO” that I really like, and it goes, “Our story, which stretches on to infinity / It’s been decided since the time we met / By the wheel that’s called ‘fate’”. The keyword “the wheel that’s called ‘fate’” really matches my mood today, so I’d say that my favourite song right now is “ZERO” (laughs).

Well then, between the two of you, what’s something that you thought really deepened your bond?

Yonashiro: I don’t think it can be said that our bond deepened due to any particular event. I’ve always talked frequently with Ren since we debuted. After we’d finish practice, Ren and (Kono) Junki would come to my room, and we’d talk for ages. We’d talk about the group, or our future, and somewhere amidst all those times we talked, our bonds had deepened before we’d even realised it, I think. We’ll often go out together on our off days, too. So to identify any particular event...

Kawashiri: ...There’s none in particular, is there (laughs). It might be surprising, but I do have the impression that we did speak with each other frequently even during the audition period. It’s because the both of us are the type of people who can actively speak to others / strike up a conversation. After becoming JO1, we’ve been in each other’s company countless times, too (laughs).

Yonashiro: But, actually, we didn’t really cross paths much during the auditions, did we.

Kawashiri: We were only on the same team right at the very end. So it probably started from there.

I think that there are probably many situations in which Yonashiro-san as the leader and Kawashiri-san and the dance leader come to be relied upon by the other members. Have you managed to have discussions with each other, that you can’t have with others?

Yonashiro: I’ve discussed so many things with Ren that I can’t even remember them now (wry laugh). There’s 11 members in JO1, so the things everyone wants to do will differ, as do our personalities, values, and ways of expressing ourselves, you know. Among all of that, Ren will teach us dance, and I’ll support everyone on the daily-life front, so I do think that we get to know their temperaments quite well. Among the group, the two of us are the oldest, so we’ve got a little more life experience than everyone else. So things that we regard as a given, the others might not find it so. At the start, well, it’s not exactly that we struggled with that, but we did talk a lot between the two of us about how different we found things to be.

Kawashiri: There’s no right answer in this line of work, isn’t there. It’s not like you need to win in a competition or anything. It’s not a job where you can say that you’ll definitely grow and develop if you train a certain way, so at the start I didn’t really know what kind of progress would be good for us to make. Given the circumstances at the time, we also couldn’t really have a clear vision of the future ahead of us, so I often spoke with Sho-kun and the other members about what we should do on our own.

Yonashiro: It’s precisely because of that that I think that the most important thing is to match up with how everyone feels. Things that I think we should do, there are times when the others don’t feel the same way about those, and just like Ren said earlier, there isn’t really a right answer, you know. Even the things that we do because we think they’re right, they may not actually be right. On top of that, when everyone gathers, you really can get to know all sorts of perspectives. That’s the kind of environment that will help us grow, so I feel that we should absolutely talk with each other then and there, as things arise.

Is there anything you’re putting your focus on doing in order to deepen your bonds with the other members?

Kawashiri: It’s a really minor thing, but it’s to say “good morning” and “you’ve worked hard today”. For us, we’re together up to 20 out of 24 hours each day, so the feeling of a “good morning” gets less and less striking, you know. So that’s why, I rely on the greeting of a “good morning” to gear up for the day. It’s a “good morning” to signal that we’re going to start working, and a “you’ve worked hard” to represent that everyone’s done their best for the day, and I’ll see them tomorrow – I try to make sure to say that for as long as I’m alive. I think it’s a given that you should greet those who you work with, or rather, that it’s only polite to say them; but for some of the members who’ve never worked before, and have never experienced the (working) world, they were a little confused at the start. They’d say stuff like, “why do you say ‘good morning’ even though it’s night-time?” Well, I did think that way at the start too, though (laughs). I make sure to say those types of greetings.

Yonashiro: I’m the oldest, and also the leader, so I take care to say my greetings in a loud voice. If I don’t say them, then the other members might think it’s okay not to say them either. It’s not that I do it with the intention of being an example to follow, but if I didn’t speak to our manager politely then it’s possible that the other members would also stop using polite speech, and I don’t want to become a poor example, so I make it a point to make sure I’m always perceived well at any time, even in our daily lives.

The two of you are the oldest among the members, so there are times when you might feel a little strain, aren’t there.

Kawashiri: I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but I’m the type to try and match the other person in terms of their vibe, or the things they expect of me. For example, if I think that they might like someone who’s lively, I’ll joke around a little and speak in a lively manner during the interview; and for more serious talks such as this one, I’ll talk about things I’ve been thinking about deep in my heart, stuff like that. Even with the members, if they feel like they’re having fun then I’ll join them and fool around, but conversely if they feel like they want to be left alone then I’ll quietly leave them be; so I always end up thinking about the other person. It’s not that I’m choosing to play a different role each time, but it’s more like I unconsciously switch around which side of myself to show. So thanks to that, I don’t really feel that I’ve really relaxed at any point in time. Part of it might also come from how I don’t want to make others feel uncomfortable with me.

Yonashiro: For me, right when we debuted, I thought that I really, really had to be very well put-together, you know.

Kawashiri: You worked so hard at it at the start, it really felt like you were trying too hard, huh (wry laugh).

Yonashiro: Yeah, and then I got tired out (laughs). But in this world, I’ve come to realise that just being polite, alone, is surprisingly not enough. This might just be my own opinion, but if you’re too polite then you’ll make the other person feel more distant from you. So recently I’ve been trying not to create so much distance with others, and treat everyone as though they’re my friends. Rather than exclusively talking about a single thing until the other people get bored, it’s more fun to just talk freely about something you’re interested in, and there are also people who prefer that kind of thing. Ah, but then I realised then that the parts of me I try to keep up as a façade will very quickly be found out.

The song “YOLO-konde”, which was released for streaming on 22 April ahead of the album, was JO1’s first collaboration song, being composed by Stray Kids’ 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin, HAN).

Yonashiro: It’s the first time we’ve had (another artist) provide a song for us, and I was really happy that we got to collaborate with Stray Kids-san in this way. They told us that they wanted to see JO1 perform and sing a song that they wrote, so for the lyrics, we thought about what were the things that we were capable of expressing, and created the lyrics with that in mind. Stray Kids-san were singing on the demo tape, and they sounded really good. The unique worldview and quality of Stray Kids-san, who have come this far making their own songs, really sank in, and I really acutely felt that this is also something that we as JO1 have to become capable of doing in the future.

Kawashiri: This time, the members focused on the atmosphere of a circus while writing the lyrics, and also I took charge of the choreography, asking the other members for their views while consciously keeping in mind to create something that you wouldn’t get bored of watching. If you could watch it, and also let me know all of your views, that would make me happy.