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SCANDAL: Conflicts they had wearing school uniforms & their current feelings 「Music, fashion, hair/makeup--we're a band that does it all」
All-girl band SCANDAL celebrated their tenth anniversary in August 2016. The girls who have established their standing as a fashionable and cool "all-girl band" had a catchy major debut as 「black-haired, school uniform-wearing high school girls who were in a band」. As they've continued to run during these ten years, there was a moment they decided to do away with their school uniforms. For this interview, Modelpress concentrated on the all-girl band SCANDAL, centering on their visual aspects rather than music.
SCANDAL formed in 2006 with four female middle and high school students of a Osakan dance & vocal school and started from playing street lives. They had their major label debut in 2008, held a successful live at the Nippon Budokan in 2012 as the fastest all-girl band to do so at the time, held an overseas tour in 2015, etc. They have grown into an all-girl band that represents both Japan and overseas.
◆An "uncool" coolness; perks of being an all-girl band
On 2017/02/15 they released their best album 「SCANDAL」 in commemoration of their tenth anniversary. Since the songs on it were chosen by fan votes, you could say that this best album is packed perfectly. Their promo pictures too are awesomely cool.
Stylish vintage fashion, dynamic posing, retro-ish photos...the "uncool" coolnes of these girls are markedly reflected in them.
―Your promo pictures this time are very cool.
RINA: Thank you very much. Since we're girls, we all love fashion and makeup. This time we wanted to visualize each of our tastes--MAMI has on fashionable gang-like fashion, HARUNA has on leopard print. It's a photo that contains freedom and a funkiness while incorporating trends. Looking at us, you get a very natural vibe from it.
―I think they become stylish photos when you hear it's your tenth year. It's great that you created such relaxed photos.
RINA: Yeah. It's like we're playing around while shooting.
TOMOMI: We've been doing shoots in a relaxed atmosphere for about 2-3 years now. Before, there were many times we'd hold our instruments and decide on a pose from there.
―It feels like it's been that way since 「Stamp!」.
RINA: We shot that in a dressing room during our world tour.
TOMOMI: They're like off-shots.
―There's a straightforward feeling with 「Take Me Out」.
MAMI: That was taken on roads we routinely walk down. The entire time we shot while walking down Shibuya Center Gai.
―These singles have more fashionable elements than the early days. What was the cue for the change?
RINA: As we're musicians who also enjoy fashion, I think it's one of the perks of being an all-girl band. That changed after we came to think that we could put even more of ourselves out on the table. In order to continue SCANDAL for a long time, we want to be a fun, visual band while evolving. So, we can do it now feeling that we can do things as we like.
◆We did away with our uniforms on a positive note
―On the other hand, in your early days you gave off the perfect impression of a female high schoolers' band with your black hair and school uniforms. How did you decide on that visual aspect?
RINA: Since we were middle and high schoolers back then, we had no money and couldn't really collectively buy outfits. What we had for "costumes" were our school uniforms, and we played live shows while wearing those uniforms. Record label and office staff who saw that told us, 「That has impact. That's interesting」. We made our debut carrying instruments while wearing blazers.
―The visual aspect of a 「female high schoolers' band」 left a strong impression after your debut. Then you did away with the school uniforms...
RINA: We did away with the uniforms with our 「LOVE SURVIVE」 single. There's a scene in the music video where we remove the uniforms and change into different outfits. It changed from around then.
―For SCANDAL, that was a moment you welcomed a transformation, wasn't it?
RINA: Yes. It made us think about the band's future. It wasn't a way to live each moment recklessly; we began to think about what kind of band we could be and what style would we have in five years. It turned into a discussion about all of the members wanting to continue on for ten years after our major debut, that it'd be hard to always keep wearing school uniforms, and that it'd be more fun if more of our personalities could show. We did away with our uniforms on a very positive note.
―So you did away with your uniforms on a positive note.
RINA: By being a band that wears school uniforms we've been told, 「You're not a rock band」 or 「You're idols」; we had conflicts like that. We always had feelings of regret, like, "Even though we face music in the same mindset as other musicians, why aren't we being invited to rock festivals?" So, we decided to make sure our music and personalities were understood and to wear clothes close to the casual clothes we like to wear.
―What kind of changes did you have by getting rid of your uniforms?
HARUNA: More girls came out to our lives.
MAMI: Yeah. At the same time we did away with the uniforms we did a complete change with our hairstyles and hair colors. There have been a huge increase in people who copy that and come out to our lives, as well as girls who send us those pictures through SNS.
RINA: There was in increase in people who are interested in our fashion. That made us really happy.
◆Visual and music involvement
―Hearing these stories, it feels that your visuals and music affect each other. In your ten years there have been transitions in visuals; how do you think about those points?
RINA: What kind of fashion, what kind of hair/makeup, and what kind of music should we do--I think we're a band that does it all. Things like, "I like this because this person wears these kinds of clothes and sings with these words"--even if you're not aware of it, fashion and music are connected.
MAMI: I think that there are many people right now who are getting into music via fashion rather than getting into fashion via music. For example, you look in a magazine and see a musician whose music you haven't listened to wearing cute clothes, you wonder who they are and check out their Instagram, and then you decide to check out their music.
―I see. Opportunities to discover artists are changing, aren't they? Does SCANDAL feel that way too?
HARUNA: Yeah.
RINA: We feel it.
MAMI: That's definitely RINA.
RINA: I have a personal Instagram account and also send out info about our apparel brand called 「Feedback!」, but among my followers there are girls who are interested in me and ask, 「What kind of cosmetics do you use?」 or 「What do you nails look like right now?」. So when there are people who actually listen to our music, you realize, "Ah, there are people who are connected to our listeners from here." Our lifestyles are also shown in our musicality as well, so I'm very happy that we send out stuff through SNS and that the people who have the same tastes as us come to listen to our songs.
―Girls are better at getting into things like this; it really is a perk of being an all-girl band.
◆「SCANDAL」 is the strongest best album
―For the release of your best album 「SCANDAL」, why did you have fan votes choose the songs?
RINA: The four of us couldn't decide on them alone, but we wanted to make a best album that could say, 「This is the strongest best album」 to those who haven't yet listened to our music. We wanted to create the best one together with our fans who like us and have listened to our songs up until now.
―In that sense, it's a perfect starting piece for the fans you mentioned earlier who got into you through fashion.
RINA: That's right.
―In the digest video you announce the top 10 most voted-for songs, but did the ranking go as predicted?
RINA: Yes, when the votes were tallied up and the results were ranked, we saw it and got the impression that songs that we often play live or fast-paced songs were set as the center. We were very happy since SCANDAL is a band that cherishes live shows.
HARUNA: The top voted song 「SCANDAL BABY」 was right where we expected it to be. Although it's originally a song that's on our 1st album, it's now a song that we always play live and that everyone sings along to loudly. It's grown as we played lives, and even people who don't really know our songs know about 「SCANDAL BABY」. It's awesome that it was chosen as ＃1.
―The album covers have a completely different design than anything you had before. What kind of concept is it?
RINA: After deciding to go with covers that we're not featured on, we thought about going with something that would be easy for anyone to pick up on. We liked TOMOMI's idea of with wanting to do great covers that wouldn't give you any preconceived notions and that'd make you want to pick it up.
TOMOMI: Yeah. We had artist Wataru Komachi draw them.
RINA: He produced these covers with our sole request of 「Please draw SCANDAL as the theme」. He drew several types beside these and they were all really cool. We lined them all up on a desk and were like, 「Which should we choose? We want to use all of them」. It was difficult which to go with.
MAMI: Wanting to make sure to use the other designs, we made them bonuses for a bunch of CD stores.
RINA: We made mugs with one of the cover candidates.
◆"One song" that makes dreams come true
―Among the Modelpress readers are many girls chasing after their dreams. Which song would you choose that could support them?
RINA: 「FREEDOM FIGHTERS」. Your teens are when you decide on careers/employment, and over and over you bump into points at which your life completely changes. There are times when you worry about what others think, choose a path just because it's stable that you don't want to do, and may make a choice different from your pure feelings. I think the most important things are to do plenty of what you want to do and to live how you want to live. That's why, like the lyrics 「There's something wrong with not being able to choose the future you want」, I'd be happy if, when you hear this, it makes you feel that it's okay you do what you want to and to live freely and enjoyably.
―That really resonates with me! All right, finally, what kind of band does SCANDAL want to be in 10, 20 years?
RINA: We want to be a band that can entertain you from different angles. We feel that those accompanying us will not only be those who like our music but also those who enjoy our fashion and personalities, so we'd be happy if we could become an even better band.
―Thank you very much.
https://mdpr.jp/interview/detail/1663628
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