#gachikoi!

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Especia x BLU-SWING at GACHIKOI! Winter Breeze 2016 Photography: Jumpei Yamada

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Music Site GACHIKOI! Especia Major Debut “Primera” Special Solo Interview: Chika Sannomiya (Part ½)

These interviews were conducted with each member of Especia to commemorate their major debut release from the Osaka Horie girl-group, Primera on the 18th of February 2015. Just what efforts were exerted behind the shadows of Especia’s formation by the group’s comedic and self-professed “sexy member? Come closer to the smile of girl who laid the foundations of Especia, the ‘little-but-big’ Livestock-type member, Chika Sannomiya.

Original article published on Music Site GACHIKOI! (21 February 2015)

Translated by: @especia-va-bien​

Especia’s childhood: Chika Sannomiya

Could you please introduce yourself?

Chika: “Introduce myself?”

With the one that you usually do.

Chika: “Ah! Okay! I’m the Domestic-Livestock-type member Chika Sannomiya. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

It’s a pleasure to have you here. Chika, could you tell us what sort of child you were when you were younger?

Chika: “I was an active kid, but I was also very shy.”

Chihiro also said that she was shy too.

Chika: “I also have an older brother, so I was very tomboyish as a kid.”

Did you always play with your older brother?

Chika: “I got his toys as hand-me-downs. They were all boys’ toys like Godzilla action figures.”

Did you play Godzilla with him?

Chika: “I did. We played play fighting.”

That’s definitely a boyish way of playing.

Chika: “I guess so. But I eventually started playing girly things such as Licca-chan dolls and toys from Sylvanian Families with the girls in my neighbourhood…”

Which one did you like playing the most?

Chika: “I liked playing with Licca-chan dolls eventually. My friends and I used to bring our Barbie dolls along and make Licca-chan’s father have an affair with her (laughs). ”

What kind of kid were you at school?

Chika: “Just as I am now. I was a girl who boys were scared of.”

There usually was one girl like that at every school.

Chika: “Well, I did karate…”

Wait, what!?

Chika: “There are usually guys who make girls cry, right? I’d get pissed off that happened and I’d bash them up.”

(Laughs). How long did you do karate for?

Chika: “I trained quite seriously for about two years from Year 2 up until Year 3 in primary school. I had to stop sparring with the boys because of my physical development. I took it up again in high school… I also did theatre right before that. My parents were karate sensei who owned a dojo.”

So that’s why!

Chika: “My male cousin, his father, and my older brother are all karate sensei. We’re a family of martial artists. I grew up watching the people around me practice karate, so I wanted to try it out myself. I even invited my friends to have a try as well. But I stopped after I got my green belt.”

Which level is a green belt again?

Chika: “The highest is black, so it goes: black, brown, green. So green is the third level from the top. Though the colour of the belts are different depending on the dojo.”

I want ask more about your father later on… but he’s a really amazing father.

Chika: “(Laughs). He’s really made his rounds over on Twitter.”

He could be described as a “big daddy”.

Chika: “Are you for real?”

I wondered if you’re really a daddy’s girl or…

Chika: “I’m actually closer to my older brother. But I get along well with my father now… only after got over the point in puberty where you hated your parents.”

So you went through that?

Chika: “I did.”

What was so bad about him?

Chika: “I wonder what it was? I just hated being around him. Like, ‘Why are you even here?’. But that was only a short period of time if you compare it to other people.”

Do you still remember your karate skills?

Chika: “Some of it.”

Have you ever shown your karate form on stage at a concert?

Chika: “Not as Especia, but when I was in the light music club in high school, I did it once during the MC.”

“I saw these girls my age who were practising while drenched in sweat” -Chika Sannomiya right before joining Especia-

When did you start thinking about doing this sort of line of work?

Chika: “On my profile in my primary school graduation yearbook, I wrote down that I wanted to be an idol as my future dream. I guess that thought has been in my mind ever since then.”

Was there someone who you looked up to?

Chika: “I really liked Morning Musume. and Aya Matsuura. I loved Hello! Project so I used to play their tapes I recorded onto video… and dance along with them in front of my TV.

Then Especia happened right after that?

Chika: “Originally, I decided on becoming a beautician after graduating high school, but I suddenly wanted to become an actress right around summer vacation, more so than wanting to be a singer. I even went to Tokyo alone to take part in an audition. But then I had to think about whether I wanted to move and live on my own in Tokyo if I passed.”

As in leaving home?

Chika: “Yeah. But my parents were against it. ‘If that’s the case, then you should aim to be a beautician instead,’ was how they responded. I liked music because I was part of the light music club, so I couldn’t give up something as big as the entertainment industry. I became a full-time part-time worker for several years. I’d often take a look in audition magazines for anything that interested me. I saw an audition for Tsubasa Plus—our management company—and I passed. I was already working as an assistant at a hair salon at the time… so I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think I would pass at all. After dwelling upon it… I took it up as a challenge since you’re limited by your age being in the entertainment industry, so I quit my job. It’s almost been 4 years since I joined Tsubasa, I think. Especia was formed a while after that…”

Did you have an exact idea about what you wanted to do when you joined the talent agency?

Chika: “When I joined the agency, I received vocal coaching and guitar lessons. So I thought about being a performer who sings while playing their instrument. By chance, futsal soccer idols were the trend at the time.”

Like Gatas*? (*Ongaku Gatas were a futsal idol group from Hello! Project.)

Chika: “Yeah. Tsubasa had something like that of their own, so I was invited to join. I thought that something like this would be fine too, so I stopped my guitar lessons and took up dance lessons along with my vocal coaching.”

Do you’ve been doing idol-like things since then?

Chika: “Yes. But it was like as if I wasn’t taking dance lessons at all since I only had 2 classes a month. The group I was in only ever did covers, so we choreographed our dances ourselves. It wasn’t something as serious as Especia.”

You currently break-dance as Especia. Did you learn that straight after joining your agency?

Chika: “I only started to dance with seriousness when we started Especia.”

But you already had solo dances ever since the DULCE (1st EP) era.

Chika: “I was taught by HIROKI-sensei… (Especia’s choreographer).”

So it was like… you were trained to that?

Chika: “Yeah. I wasn’t able to dance from the start. It’s just that I had some experience dancing for my high school’s cultural festivals. One of the girls from dance club told me that I was pretty good at it at the time, so I often ended up being in the centre position for one of the songs. There was a time where I thought I had the potential, but I absolutely didn’t think I could dance.”

Also, I learnt about Decolog blogs today after interviewing everyone else…

Chika: “Ah! Decologs. Yeah.”

…I heard that you were an active charisma blogger.

Chika: “(Laughs). I put so much effort into it. I ended up being on ranking boards for bloggers in Hyogo Prefecture.”

Could you please tell me a little bit about what Decologs are?

Chika: “You know what blogs are right?”

Is it different to Ameba Blogs?

Chika: “It’s something more younger than Ameba… something that younger people… high school girls use quite a lot.”

mixi was pretty popular at the time, right?

Chika: “It was.”

So it’s different…?

Chika: “Yeah. It was a blogging platform so popular that every high schooler used it. There was a ranking board, you could access the blogs through Ameblo so you could give ‘peta*’  to other blogs, and you could even make friend requests. I was very diligent in updating it frequently and I made many friends. After a while I slowly climbed up the ranking boards (laughs).”

(*’Peta’ is similar to the poke feature on Facebook. It is used to acknowledge that you have read someone’s blog, or to seek their attention.)

You liked doing that sort of thing?

Chika: “Yeah. I was already with Tsubasa at that time, so I thought I had to do my best. I’ve felt like that ever since then.”

Especia came after that right? I found it interesting that you invited Monari and Chihiro to that audition.

Chika: “That’s right. I invited them through their blogs.”

Why did you decide to reach out to them?

Chika: “I was watching a documentary on AKB48 on Kin SMA (Nakai Masahiro no Kinyobi no SUMA-tachi e; a variety show hosted by Nakai from SMAP) by chance one evening. The members from my futsal idol group had just quit at the time, so I was the only one left. To be honest, I didn’t know whether to quit Tsubasa or not. But I had so much help from my parents who paid for my tuition. I felt that I hadn’t returned the favour yet and I didn’t like the thought of quitting if I didn’t really get anywhere. I watched that show right at the time I had all those thoughts. The girls who were around my age were pushing their bodies to their utmost limits, practising hard while drenched in sweat. I wanted to be able to push myself hard to that extent; I haven’t gotten that far yet. But I didn’t feel like I would suit going solo; I really wanted to do this with a group. It was at that time that I saw that audition… and I wondered if there were girls out there who wanted to do the same thing like me or if they didn’t know what to do with themselves. I saw those girls on the blogging site and thought about inviting the ones who seemed to have an interest in it… Then I found Monari’s Decolog and thought she would fit perfectly since she’s cute and she’s in Kansai. As for Chihiro, I found her in an Ameba ‘Gruppo’ group for people who wanted to be in the entertainment industry. I thought she’d be great too since she’s in Kansai as well, so I contacted her…”

How many people did you end up meeting?

Chika: “How much was it again? In the end, I was only able to meet and gather 6 people.”

Your ability to follow through with all of that is amazing.

Chika: “Even my group members tell me that I’m pretty hardworking, but I’m fine with it. I felt a huge shock when there was only one person in the audience for Especia’s first live performance. Like, I thought to myself that I had to get more people to come, so I used the private messaging system on Ameba and I sent out a lot of invitations. I sent out so many messages saying ‘If you’re interested, we’re having a performance, so please come and watch us’ to a lot of people in Kansai. I even kept track of who I’ve sent messages to by making up a table. People would hate me if I kept sending things more than once. I also wrote responses to replies from people… I made sure not to send any more to people who had no interest. Whenever someone would ask to be updated, I’d send them another message if we had an upcoming performance. That’s the sort of things I did.”

Both Monari and Chihiro said that a normal person would definitely feel suss about even considering taking those invitations seriously.

Chika: “(Laughs).”

That’s something you would do without thinking much about it.

Chika: “Exactly.”

Do you think you’re still like that now?

Chika: “I guess. I still update my Ameba blog regularly. There’s the option to give ‘peta’* right? You can give a maximum 500 peta each day. That’s what I do, I give peta to 500 people every day.”

When I saw your Twitter account when you first started Especia, I wondered ‘Just who is this girl, and why does she already have so many followers?’ I guess that answers that question.

Chika: “(Laughs). I also use Twitter faithfully.”

[especia-va-bien]

Especia | Usotsuki na Anela (with Japanese/English Lyrics)

Live at “GACHIKOI SUMMER OF LIVE 2015″, Shinjuku MARZ, 14 August 2015

(via ヴェクサシオン)

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Especia | BayBlues (with Japanese/English Lyrics)

Live at “GACHIKOI SUMMER OF LIVE 2015″, Shinjuku MARZ, 14 August 2015

(via ヴェクサシオン)

[especia-va-bien]

Music Site GACHIKOI! Especia Major Debut “Primera” Special Solo Interview: Haruka Tominaga (Part 1/2)

These interviews were conducted with each member of Especia to commemorate their major debut release from the Osaka Horie girl-group, “Primera” on the 2nd of February 2015. Haruka Tominaga has been leading the group as the lead vocalist and leader since its formation almost 3 years ago. This not-to-be-missed interview reflects upon Haruka’s views as a leader, a singer prior to their major debut, as well as looking forward into Especia’s future.

Original article published on Music Site GACHIKOI! (21 February 2015)

Translated by: especia-va-bien​

Especia’s childhood -Droopy-eyed-type member and leader Haruka Tominaga-

Please introduce yourself.

Haruka: “I am Especia’s leader and droopy-eyed-type member Haruka Tominaga. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The questions I have been asking everyone for this interview have all generally been the same. Could you please tell us about what sort of person you were as a child?

Haruka: “I was a selfish and self-indulgent kid; I only thought about myself. I loved to take things all to myself… oh, and I loved playing outdoors.”

I heard that you have a younger brother.

Haruka: “I have a younger brother.”

What is your relationship like with him?

Haruka: “We’re really close. I used to say that I’d marry him when I grew up. He’s a bit like my toy; I often get him to dress up in girls’ clothes. He’s really cute.”

What was school like for you?

Haruka: “Well, I really liked playing outdoors, but I was also pretty diligent with my studies at the same time. I never ever got full marks in my exams or assignments, but I’d always aim to get 100% when I studied for tests. I also liked reading. I remember being so enthralled with The Saga of Darren Shan and the Harry Potter series. I often played outdoors, but I also often stayed indoors and read books quietly.”

Did you have any friends?

Haruka: “I had friends. I lived in Tokyo from 1st to 2nd grade. I was, well, quite a popular kid at the time (laughs).”

(Laughs)

Haruka: “But I became a lot more shy after we moved. I had friends when I was in 3rd grade, but I wasn’t a popular kid.”

You said that you became more shy. Were you bullied because you were a new kid who transferred from Tokyo?

Haruka: “It wasn’t that I was bullied, but it was because I had lost all my friends in Tokyo who I was used to being around. I didn’t know anyone at school so I didn’t know whether I would do well at my new school. That’s how I started becoming shy.

Were you the type of person to join the student representative council?

Haruka: “No, I wasn’t in the SRC.”

But it sounded like you were a prominent figure in your school.

Haruka: “You could say that. I wasn’t on the next level below the SRC, but you could say that my I was part of the right arm of the school.”

“That’s what Shimizu-san told me.” -Haruka Tominaga, right before Especia-

So, when did you start thinking of wanting to get involved in musical activities like this?

Haruka: “I’ve always loved singing ever since I could remember. I was always singing, but it wasn’t until around high school when I started being so passionate about it… Perhaps I came to that realisation a bit too late. Until then I was engrossed with hanging out with my friends and being a part of my after school club activities…”

Which after school club were you a part of?

Haruka: “I was part of the volleyball club. I’ve been playing since I was in 4th grade. I was pretty involved with my club activities until around high school, because that’s when you usually have to start seriously thinking about your future and university entrance exams, right? I remembered that I really liked singing. I started thinking about being a singer when I saw a friend of a friend of mine, who’s a singer-songwriter, perform around Sannomiya and Kobe. I was amazed at how they were following their dreams, and I wanted to do the same.”

Was that linked with Especia?

Haruka: “Yes it is. It’s not a direct connection, but that singer-songwriter sung while playing the piano, so I wanted to do the same thing as well. I never thought I’d sing while dancing.”

Did you audition for many things because you wanted to achieve your dreams of becoming a singer?

Haruka: “I only auditioned for one thing. I applied for SOKUDEBI, which was an audition run by Tsubasa (Tsubasa Plus—Especia’s management agency) and a Kansai karaoke chain called Jankara… That was the only time. I passed the first round, and I fell through when I sang in front of Shimizu-san (Especia’s manager) in the second round. I applied a second time from the very beginning and I passed.”

How did you feel when you passed?

Haruka: “I couldn’t really grasp it at the time. Like I thought that I actually had what it takes. I wasn’t over-confident, but I knew it at the moment I passed. I felt confident the second time around, like I knew I could do this…”

Tell us what it was like from the time you passed the audition until the time you started your current activities

Haruka: “At first I didn’t know what I’d end up doing. I thought I’d end up writing songs and performing them with a piano. I was in my final year of high school studying for my university entrance exams for a year after I passed the audition. I had a routine of going to vocal training lessons while studying hard for my entrance exams. I also worked as an interviewer for the following year’s auditions along the side.”

Ah, I think I’ve seen that.

Haruka: “Yeah. I wasn’t a celebrity so I wondered if I could continue doing that line of work all while singing on the side. I couldn’t have imagined that I’d be a part of a girls’ group like Especia”

We don’t know if that name Especia existed already at that time, but how did you feel when you heard about it for the first time.

Haruka: “To tell you the truth, I really wanted to do this alone.”

Oh.

Haruka: “(Laughs). But I did think that it would be great to be part of a group. It was around the time that the AKB documentary aired on Nakai Masahiro no Kinyoubi no SUMA-tachi e. You probably heard it from Chika already, but I also watched that documentary. Chika asked me to audition with her after that. When we got together to rehearse, I realised that our methods of rehearsing were completely different. I’m the type to do things quite seriously; possibly so serious to the point that it’s not fun to watch. So perhaps at the time I thought everyone was just playing around. I thought that if they wanted to play around, then I wanted to be alone and just write my own songs earnestly. When I was told about Especia for the first time, I told them that I didn’t want to join.

Oh.

Haruka: “But I was persuaded to give it a try, so I decided to give it a shot since they considered me to begin with. When I started, I realised how much fun it was and I became obsessed.”

By the way, who was the one who pushed you to join?

Haruka: “It was Shimizu-san who told me to.”

So it was like “If Shimizu-san says so, then…”?

Haruka: “Exactly. He was the one who let me pass the audition in the first place. If he weren’t there, then I wouldn’t have been in this agency, nor would I have been given vocal coaching.”

“At first, it felt like a recital” -What type of group is Especia?-

Up until that point, you had an image of what an artist does, and what idols do. What was it like when you first gave it a try?

Haruka: “It honestly thought it felt like a recital, even though they were supposed to be concerts. I mean, I was really happy that I got to sing and it was fun and all, but I just didn’t know how it would turn out from then on. I wanted to be a singer-songwriter, just like Ai Otsuka. I didn’t know much about groups who sing and dance so I couldn’t envision how things would pan out. When I think about it, that time just felt like a bunch of recitals (laughs).”

When do you think Especia started to gain a reaction from the public?

Haruka: “Hmm… I wonder when? A reaction… I’d say it was probably recently.

Recently!?

Haruka: “Aw, I don’t know…! It’s not that it’s finally been recently, but it’s been genuinely enjoyable. There were things that I couldn’t do well before… well, there are still a lot I can’t do, so I’m pretty negative towards those things. When I compare myself to the other members, I can see that all of them have grown and improved so much, but I haven’t grown at all. I think about that kind of thing recently, well… that’s my problem.”

No, it’s fine. You can talk about that if you’d like.

Haruka: “The response to our 2nd anniversary Umeda CLUB QUATTRO concert made me finally realise how grateful I am that I’m a part of Especia. But until then, I was just running along desperately. I can’t in turn just make up for all of that from here on. I feel that I want to take the lead and make everyone enjoy themselves. Though, we’ve been helped a lot by our fans, the Pecisto, a lot. We’re still being helped by them even until now.”

Do you mean that looking back, you can say that’s all one point of reference?

Haruka: “Yes, that might be it. Yeah.”

“West Philly”: The song she wrote -The Especia song she likes and has plenty memories of-

Haruka, do you have a favourite song which you can recall a lot of nice memories of?

Haruka: “Umm… which one could I choose?”

It’s fine if you talk about several.

Haruka: “Really? Kirameki Seaside left a big impression on me. At first, the different halves of Especia sang different songs. We all didn’t sing all at together at once when we had songs to perform. It was like, we were divided so that some of us performed FunkyRock, while the others sang Kirameki Seaside.”

By “at first”, you meant when there were 10 of you?

Haruka: “Yes. Ever since then I kept singing Kirameki Seaside. I sang it from the time we didn’t have choreography yet. I have a lot of fond memories performing that song while sitting on a seat with Akane (Akane Sugimoto; left the group in October 2014). ”

Do you have any others?

Haruka: “…Is it alright if I jump straight to something more recent?

It’s definitely fine, even if you choose a song from Primera.

Haruka: “Well, West Philly was the very first song I wrote lyrics to, so I have a lot of fond memories with that one. I somehow put all my emotion into it when I sing it, so perhaps I end up over-doing it… West Philly sounds cool right from the intro. My impression of the song when I first heard it was that it was quite dark. I squeezed a lot of my bitter feelings into the lyrics. My mind became clear whenever we entered a highway tunnel; like, I felt the clarity to write the lyrics smoothly during those moments. I sing the outro and I have dance solo before that part. I also ad-lib alone at the end of the song. I feel like I put too much emotion during those parts, but I do it to the point where the audience doesn’t feel like I’m over doing it. It’s a song where I was able to put as much as I could.”

Were you told directly to write this song?

Haruka: “Actually everyone was. It was the same with Mount Up. Everyone wrote their own version but my one got picked. At first I wrote this to be from the perspective of a girl, but our vocal coach Rillsoul changed it to the perspective of a man. So parts of the song where it goes ‘secret girl’ were originally ‘secret man’.”

Were you also the one who put English lyrics in the song?

Haruka: “Most of the English phrases were by Rillsoul. (Looks at the lyrics) Umm… where is it. The short phrases like ‘What’s in my heart’ were written by me. But most of the English lyrics in the chorus were by Rillsoul.”

[especia-va-bien]

Erika Mori solo interview for Music Site GACHIKOI!