Kimura Kaela "Mamireru" Exclusive Interview Translation

Source: Oricon

Bad to “be covered” by important things

--In the liner notes for your new single “Mamireru,” you specifically request listeners to read the title with an accent on the “ma.”

Kaela: I want them to pronounce it like “parareru” [“parallel”]. The world of the internet, the world of my emotions, the world of emotions for others... There are a lot of parallel worlds, and the image here is of all those feelings people don’t share or try to get rid of, collected into a “Mamireru World.” That might be a little hard to understand because it’s just a feeling I tried to attach to the song, but that’s more or less the idea. (laugh)

--(laugh) What are you trying to say with the lyrics?

K: There are a lot of weird rumors circulating on the internet right now, and the number of people hurt by it is growing. There are too many threats, and there are a lot of troubling problems. You can’t tell the truth from the lies, you can’t tell what’s worthwhile or important, and you don’t even know what to say. I thought that if I referred to this with the word “congestion,” then people would get a bad impression of “being covered” [“mamirete iku”] by a congestion of important things. I don’t want my feelings and my existence to be covered up by important stuff. It’s because we are smothered by those things that I think we need to place importance on a human connection.

--In the song, you sing about searching for your downcast love, wanting them to come back to you.

K: I think that a person takes stress from their environment, and when they start to doubt the worth of their existence they can’t even call out for help. At times like that, I have to start expressing my feelings toward that person through different treatment and behavior. I want people to notice when those close to them are downcast and sighing. I’d want to find those people, hold them tight, and never let them go if I could. But I don’t know everyone in the world, and it’s not like I can directly do something for them all, so their family, friends, lovers... I want everyone close to those people to know their feelings from their expressions, treatment, and behavior. I want everyone close to those people to jump in and understand what they’re going through, no matter what the situation.

I wanted a cover with punch

--On the jacket of the single, you’re completely dyed pink - hair, face, neck, arms, everything - and covered up in a pink world.

K: Ever since I decided to do this single, I’ve wanted to be covered up by a pink world. And, well, when the single was done, I made “Mamireru” [“covered”] the title. I thought it suited it to a T, and it let me keep my pink world. (laugh)

--It seems very “Kaela” to dye your entire body pink with CG, but it must have been very difficult to actually make it work.

K: It was even harder than I imagined (laugh), but it was something I wanted to do so I really enjoyed myself. It was the first time in a while that I’d had a good time.

--So you had an attitude like “Let’s do this!”

K: I didn’t really think about it, I just wanted to try it out and make a cover with punch. I want to do things that make people think, “What on Earth is she doing?” (laugh)

(Interview: Nagahori Atsuo)