Q: What do you find most fascinating about the human body, or the function of the brain?
A: I’d like to learn more about the process and organization of information (the mechanics behind memory), considering the sheer amount and pace in which we’re exposed to information. Seems like there must be a lot of things that the brain just doesn’t record. Forgetting things that are supposed to be vital, remembering seemingly trivial things. How am I making that distinction for myself, between the things that are important and the things that are unimportant?

Q: Hikaru-Paisan! What’s your next album like?
A: There’s no way in hell I’m gonna be able to make something like this again.

Q: The moment you complete an album, what sort of feelings do you have??
A: Up until now, when I get the sample CD in my hands and go “Oooo I really finished!!,” I have this mix of sheer joy and relief. But this time, from the evening I finished recording all of the vocals, I cried.

Q: Your first post-hiatus original album, can we expect a lead single with a music video starring yourself?
A: Shiver and wait

Q: When you’re trying to express an image you have, do you have any tips for how to best share that?
A: The only thing that separates you from someone else is your flesh and bone, so if you have a firm grasp on an image, I’d say you should be able to express it. When I’m making music, there are a lot of times where I have to describe music in the form of words, so I’ll say things like “Something a bit more wet,” or “A sound that’s more ‘zarazara’ (Note: Japanese onomatopoeia, something rough like sandpaper),” or “I like how the tension in the cord here hurts,” using feelings to express what I’m imagining.

Q: When you’re child-rearing and think, “Ahh I can’t do it anymore!,” how do you change your mood?
A: I hold my baby and put on music I like and dance like crazy.

Q: I have a 4 month year old that I’m raising. I’m thinking it must be fun for someone such as yourself who has a lot of (musical) talent. As a parent now, I’m playing my child good music, but as a child, for how long and what sort of music were you listening to?
A: I don’t think music and the arts are the only things that constitute talent.

Q: For you Hikki, what do you think is life?
A: I think life is just an image, and the only thing that is certain is the way you live your life today.

Q: Out of all of the songs you’ve made, what’s your most favorite song and lyrical phrase?
A: “Shiawase toka fukou datona / Kihonnteki ni machigatta conceputo / Oiwai da, osooshiki da / Yukkuri segosu nichiyou no asa da” (“Nichiyou no Asa,” ULTRA BLUE)
“Things like happiness and unhappiness / are frankly incorrect concepts / It’s a celebration, it’s a funeral / It’s a relaxed and lazy Sunday morning” (“Sunday Morning,” ULTRA BLUE)

Q: Today in a lecture on the study of “Hope,” your words “The opposite of despair is humor” were brought up. So a question: For you, how would you answer the question “The opposite of despair is ???”?
A: The opposite of despair might actually also be despair. I feel like in between might exist things like hope.

Q: My daughter always asks me to read her the same picture book every night, and to be honest I’m getting bored of it and my delivery is becoming more and more blunt… What should I do…
A: Reading something bluntly isn’t fun for you, so for me I read it in a way that’s fun for myself, changing the color of my voice, or playing around with the spaces in-between. I also read it each time thinking “This could be the last time I read this child a picture book.” I guess that’s kind of dark… but it could be true.

Q: Do you have any poems that you like that you reread over and over? Also, what about favorite poets?
A: Lately, I haven’t had much interest in novels or short stories, and have only been reading poems. When all is said and done, nothing has surpassed the sheer impact of Miyazawa Kenji’s “Haru to shura mental sketch modified”

Q: Being social has become a burden and I’m afraid that I’ll just start losing all of my friends. What should I do?
A: Friends that are a burden to be social with, you probably don’t need em, no?

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