The “real” from Mukai Taichi. His new album “PURE” and his evolving self during 2018. Interview part 1

Interview-en | 2018.12.28 2018.12.28

文： Asahi　写：遥南碧　

Shifting from expressing “self” to conveying to “others”
Collaboration with closely admired figures
2018 - the year devoted to performing and producing - and the future

It’s been one year since his previous album “BLUE” was released. Mukai Taichi has been vigorously active at the front line of music scene through many concert appearances and collaborations with numerous artists. Mukai Taichi has become an essential figure when it comes to discussing 2018 music scenes. We interviewed him to uncover his intentions for making the new album. Through the interview we also got to hear about Mukai Taichi’s recollection of his artist career during 2018 and his best track of the year. There will be part 1&2.

Taichi Mukai Profile

Shifting from expressing “self” to conveying to “others”

ーLet’s talk about “PURE”, the newly released album first. How was the concept for the album title born?

Taichi：

I had only released albums on CDs and everything else was through digital releases. Releasing an album has become an important opportunity for me to reevaluate myself in regards to what kind of singer I want to be at the time of the release and how I want to live in the future.

Until “BLUE”, the desire to sing just about myself and things I wanted to do was strong. However, through concerts and other music events, the awareness that I was singing for others gradually grew strongly in me.

I started to contemplate what I wanted to convey and what music I wanted to pursue and began to base my production on these thoughts. For this album I intended to sing my “now” in a truly realistic way which was one of the factors that led me to title this album “PURE”.

All the lyrics are based on my actual experiences. I turned things I felt and things I wanted to convey to my audience into the lyrics just the way they were. I wanted the concept of this album to be a re-acknowledgment that I am simply a singer singing to others.

ーDuring our interview for “BLUE” I felt your strong will to express yourself; however, I could see that your direction had shifted to delivering love and gratitude for others from the following EP “LOVE”. What caused you to go through this concept shift?

Taichi：

Through concerts I saw my audience grow in number and through SNS and fan letters I received voices like “Your music cheered me up!” for songs that I didn’t even mean to work that way. I started to feel that lifting up people’s spirits while singing about myself was the mission that I should be pursuing as an expressionist. That’s when I started to be more conscious of what I wanted to sing for others. The presence of fans is huge.

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