[MAGAZINE] Tsurubo Shion (JO1) x Ishihara Shinya (Saucy Dog) - ar Magazine (January 2023) (Part 2)

[dreamweavernyx]

And here's the rest of the article!

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Conflict, unique to a group, and become one of its charms

T: How do you align your intended directions for your music within the group? For JO1, there’s 11 of us, so there’s times when we’ll take our time and talk it over. I’ve realised that it’s not easy to split up a single song.

I: I get that. We’ve got fewer than 11 members, but 3 people is a terrifying number of people to have, you know~. It usually ends up being me versus the other two members. (dry laugh)

T: What happens then?

I: When we can’t come to an agreement, we’ll just go with the majority. The activities we do in the music industry are all really enjoyable, but when my views don’t align with that of the other members then that’s when it gets rough, I think.

T: But I believe that all of you would share the same intention to make good music, so is there a method you use to overcome that (rough patch)?

I: When we can’t come together, we try to leave it alone for a bit, I guess. I can get what the others are trying to do, and I think that’s important if you’re going to be hashing out your own opinions over a long period of time. Is there someone within JO1 who helps to bring everyone together?

T: Our main vocalist, (Kono) Junki-kun often helps to collate everyone’s views together.

I: Not everything will 100% go your way, but I think the good thing about a group is that everyone’s individual views get reflected.

T: Yes! The reaction born from that is also something that helps us. I’d like to keep improving ourselves more and more!

Their methods of “slightly” recharging themselves

T: Ishihara-san, how do you unwind? For me, when I have the time, I’ll play games to refresh; that’s my standard method.

I: Games are great, aren’t they? I was playing “Biohazard” for a period, but games are addictive so you end up sinking lots of time into them, and then you end up not touching your work. (sweats) So that’s why I watch anime instead! Each episode lasts a fixed amount of time, so I’ll brush my teeth or eat a meal while watching; it’s easy to gauge the time spent, which I like.

T: That’s true, games tend to be a time sink. Ishihara-san, do you go out on your days off?

I: Recently, I’ve expanded on my hobbies and areas of interest. I’ll go out to eat meals with my guy friends, and sometimes they’ll come along to pick furniture for my new place! Also, I’ve recently picked up kickboxing. I was told, “someone like you could go pro in 3 months”, and I got carried away by that so I started. (laughs)

T: How active! Recently saunas have been pretty trendy; Ishihara-san, do you go for them? For me, I’m terrible with warm environments, so I’ve never really hopped onto the sauna bandwagon. (sweats) It gets hard to breathe, and I’ll tend to just leave immediately.

I: I quite like saunas! I go on my own, and also with friends. For friends who’ve never gone before, I’ll gift them with a sauna mat and then go together with them, so that they’ve got no (good) reason to turn me down. (smirks)

T: You have a method of refreshing yourself both at home and outdoors, I see. Precisely because you make music at home, a way to change the atmosphere gets even more essential.

Music, hot springs, swimming?! What would they do together?

T: You’ve taught me so many things today; thank you very much for the learning opportunity. If the chance ever arises, I’d love to do something together with you again.

I: We should do something together, so as not to waste the chance, huh. Next time, I can bring my other members along and we can sing some of our songs.

T: Oh man, oh man! I’m not usually the type of guy to get nervous, but just the sheer thought of singing in front of someone I admire is more than enough to make me feel faint. (panics) But if something like that were ever to happen, I would be insanely happy!

I: I wonder what we’d sing with you. Personally, our new song “Kaibutsu-tachi yo”, which is the theme song for the movie “SCROLL”, is the best song we’ve ever done, so I’d love to have you sing that.

T: All of your songs are great, but I see that’s your number one favourite! I’ve got to practice like crazy before I sing next to Ishihara-san. (sweats)

I: I’d also like to go to a hot spring with you. I’ve recently found somewhere in Iwate that has a giant open-air hot spring and a great wintery landscape.

T: Woah~! A hot spring sounds great, too! I love them too. Do you swim?!

I: I can’t swim, you know~. When I was young, everyone was learning swimming but only I sucked at it. Because of that I came to dislike it, and I started skipping out on swimming lessons… These days, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to learn to swim. Tsurubo-kun, do you swim?

T: I started learning to swim at 3, so I can swim pretty well.

I: Well then, please teach me! Look at that, we’ve come up with all sorts of collaboration projects. (laughs)

T: I’m going to be so nervous until they become reality someday.

I: Tsurubo-kun, you’re even younger than my own younger brother, but you kind of resemble my younger brother when he hadn’t developed an attitude yet. (laughs) I thought that was pretty cute. I’m looking forward to working with you again.

T: Same here. I’m in your care! Thank you for this happy time today!

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Message from Shion

I’ll take on every request with my own brand of humour

Since we don’t have individual social media accounts, I make it a point to communicate all that I can every time we’re able to meet with our fans, so that our feelings can be conveyed well. For example, even when the fans give me difficult requests like “please marry me”, I try my best to reply with funny responses that’ll make them unconsciously want to respond with a witty retort. 😀 I’d like to continue repaying my debt of gratitude towards all of the fans who have been supporting us all this time.

Message from Shinya

I’d like to be sincere to my fans

I’m often asked by fans for a photo or autograph when I’m on my own. A large proportion of our fans are students, so it would be nice if the feelings that they have at such times can become a catalyst for them. I try my best to be sincere to them. I tend to be careful when I post on social media, where there are many eyes on us, but on my fanclub’s blog I tend to write more truly to myself. Please definitely enter our fanclub and support us through that.