Tweedees—the band formed by singer Natsumi Kiyoura and composer/music producer Reiji Okii—has completed their second album, *The Second Time Around*. Having each built their own careers in the past, the duo initially embarked on their band activities by feeling their way through the process. Their second album serves as a vivid reflection of the changes that took place for the pair during the roughly one-year period following Tweedees' launch. In this interview, we sat down with the duo to discuss, in depth, the journey from the band's inception to the creation of the album, as well as the shifts in their mindsets along the way.
──Our previous interview took place immediately after you had completed your first album, and before you had even performed any live shows. At that time, you spoke with us while still in a state where you couldn't even imagine how the public would receive you.
Reiji Okii: That’s right.
──It was a launch preceded by over two years of trial and error—a period of meticulous preparation that even saw you change the band's name midway through. Now that you’ve actually gotten things moving, what has the experience felt like? What are your impressions?
Okii: When you stand on stage, you get direct feedback from the audience. Plus, there are the reactions you get on Twitter—something that didn't exist back in the old days. I imagine it’s the same for everyone, but you end up becoming a total "ego-surfing" fiend [searching for mentions of yourself online]! (Laughs) You find yourself constantly wondering: *How are people perceiving us? How are they listening to our music?* Contrary to my expectations, the people giving us the most positive reactions weren't the fans of my old band, Cymbals; rather, it was the new listeners—people who likely didn't know much about me beforehand—who responded most enthusiastically. That made me incredibly happy. I’d have people—kids who looked to be around high school age—reaching out to talk to me via Twitter. It really made me feel like, "Okay, we’re being embraced in exactly the right way for a brand-new band."
──That’s certainly true; looking at the demographic of your live audiences, the crowd generally seems younger than the generation that would have experienced Cymbals in real time.
Okii: Also, speaking for myself, it had been quite a while since I’d played this many live shows in such a concentrated period—doing a whole year's worth of gigs back-to-back like this. And as for *her* [Kiyoura], she had only performed live a handful of times during her solo career. I imagine that over the past year alone, you’ve already far surpassed the total number of live shows you performed prior to this.
Natsumi Kiyoura: Yeah. We definitely have.
Okii: Live performance is like a crucible—a melting pot for all sorts of thoughts and feelings: how we appear to others, what they think of us, and conversely, how we *want* to be seen and perceived... Because of that, we’ve made a great many discoveries on stage. I feel that our very way of being—how we exist as a unit—has fundamentally shifted for us compared to a year ago. We’ve really settled in.
── Settled in?
Okii: We started this project with the mindset that it would be a "second career" for both of us, built upon our respective past activities. Consequently, because we were standing on a foundation constructed from our previous work, our footing felt a bit shaky at first. But now, that old foundation has completely fallen away, and we’ve found a sense of stability—the confidence to stand firmly as Tweedees. I’d say that shift probably happened around the time of our joint show last autumn with Kitagawa (Katsutoshi / Round Table). That’s when I felt that sense of shakiness finally disappear.
Kiyoura: I know exactly what you mean. As we kept performing live, I noticed myself gradually becoming less sensitive to external pressures. At first, I was constantly worried about how the audience perceived us or what kind of reviews we’d get. But as we went through that process of trial and error on stage, little by little... well, I suppose you could say we grew accustomed to being Tweedees—we learned how to fully switch into that specific "mode."
── So, the Tweedees identity has really become second nature to you.
Okii: Exactly. Tweedees has become the absolute center of our daily lives now. Even on our days off, it’s all we ever think about.
── So, what was the most unexpected thing that happened?
Okii: That’s a great question. Let’s see... It would have to be during that joint show with Kitagawa I mentioned earlier; we performed a Cymbals song called "Okoreru Chiisana Chairoi Inu" (The Angry Little Brown Dog) as Tweedees. While there were certainly audience members who got excited out of a sense of nostalgia, I actually didn't find it particularly enjoyable myself. It wasn't a case of thinking, "Damn it, why are they getting so hyped up over my old songs?" Rather, when I was actually performing them, they just didn't feel authentic to the person I am now. I couldn't fully immerse myself in the music. In comparison, Tweedees’ songs feel like a perfect fit for me; they’re genuinely fun to play. "Okoeru..." [The Angry Little Brown Dog] was actually one of my favorite Cymbals tracks—and since the band broke up almost immediately after we released the album containing it (our 4th album, *Love You*, released in May 2003)—I’d always felt a lingering sense of, "What a waste." Even after Cymbals was no more, it remained at the very top of my list of songs I still wanted to perform. Yet, when I finally played it again, it turned out to be far less enjoyable than I’d expected.
──So, you had evolved—updated yourself, so to speak—even more than you yourself had realized?
Okii: That might be it, or perhaps the songs have simply lost some of their freshness over time. More than anything, though, I find the music I’m creating *right now* to be much more fun. I was actually quite surprised myself when I came to that realization. I’d always assumed that a truly "good song" would feel just as good to play no matter when you performed it.
──At that live show, when the audience was going wild for "The Angry Little Brown Dog," you—Ms. Kiyoura—called out to them: "I’m going to make you forget all about Cymbals! I’m going to make Tweedees an even better band—better than Cymbals, better than any other band out there!" I truly believe that moment marked a significant milestone—a historic page—in the story of Tweedees.
Kiyoura: Hmm... That particular concert actually leaves me with a lingering sense of regret. I said what I did because I genuinely felt that way at the time, but looking back, I feel like I shouldn't have just *said* it—I should have demonstrated it through my actual performance. I wanted to convey that conviction through my actions and attitude, but the thought that I—someone who hadn't quite reached that level of mastery yet—had the audacity to say something like that... well, just thinking about it makes me cringe and go, "Aaaargh!" [Laughs]
──I still think that single remark was a pivotal moment—the instant Tweedees truly came into its own, proving it was far more than just a "second-act" project.
Kiyoura: Oh, goodness... I’m absolutely mortified just thinking about it!
Translated from: https://natalie.mu/music/pp/tweedees02
