Hands
アンダーグラウンド
ふたり
コスモループ
LOCAL CONNECT
A five-person rock band from Nagaokakyo, Kyoto. Formed a predecessor band in high school. On February 20, 2015, renamed LOCAL CONNECT with the current drummer Natsuki. It is active nationwide, valuing the connection between people.
Superb harmony of twin vocals woven by ISATO, a transparent high-tone voice with transparency, and Daiki, who emits a muddy heat.
A melody that shines among the most orthodox rock bands. A sound that is both beautiful and powerful where sprint and transparency coexist.
Interview
2019.6.21
Q.Could you tell us how the band was formed?
The front four of us here
were originally in a band together
when were classmates in high school.
It was as classmates
that we formed our previous band
But around the time we changed our name
we ended up without a drummer.
So as we were wondering if we knew anyone
if there was anyone around that we could rely on
we called out to Natsuki who was our junior
And the band known as LOCAL CONNECT was born.
Q.Please tell me the personality of each member.
Something I really like about him is that he's reckless.
He can also be a bit clumsy
but that much hardly matters.
The way he recklessly pulls the rest of us members along with him
is something that I really love
so I want to mention it any chance I get.
He holds an attention to detail that I personally don't have.
He's methodical
he notices all sorts of things other people normally don't.
I'm always forgetting things or losing things
and he always tells me off for it like he should.
I've got this impression of him as a real person of action.
Whenever we reach some kind of standstill
he's the one who suggests the first step forward.
I think that's becoming the key to making this band work.
Maki is pure.
He'll eat up anything you say
like he has a strong sense of curiosity
He really gets into what the other members talk about
and considers what they're saying really deeply.
He listens to everyone with such interest
that he himself won't end up speaking.
He has such a deep sense of humanity
and is strongly empathetic
and I'm sure everyone here will agree with me 100%.
Regardless of whether someone is older or younger than him
ISATO will always be friendly and think of their feelings when he speaks to them.
I feel like he's saved me too at a point
and if the members have any worries then ISATO is there to hear us out
and I think that side of him is wonderful.
Q.Tell us about the one-man tour in July.
We in LOCAL CONNECT
will be doing a one-man tour meaning solo live shows.
But it's not just that we're doing one-man shows
this independently planned "connect year"
right from the start we've put a lot of care
into planning this all on our own
and so for a pretty long span over 2019
we're starting with a one-man acoustic show
then next we're playing shows in Tokyo and Osaka with another band
and from there we start our one-man tour.
Obviously we have our original fans
But I'm sure that there are plenty of other
people who now know about us through them.
People who learn about us from our one-man shows
and get curious about us as well
especially since we're doing one-man shows for such a long stretch of time
and it's turning into this "connect year 2019" compilation
even if it's just one more person
we absolutely want them to come along to this one-man tour.
We're doing 4 main spots across the country
but we want to put everything into these shows
so please please come and experience a LOCAL CONNECT
live show for yourself on this one-man tour.
I'd like to introduce our new song.
This is the first new song we've released in 2019
so with that please listen: "Hands".
released our digital single
Underground/Sailing on the the 6th of May.
As for why we opted to release
it as a digital single
I'd like Natsuki to talk
about that a bit more
At a fundamental level
We've decided for 2019
that we in LOCAL CONNECT
want to do all things
we've always wanted try
so of those things we want to do
a digital single release was one of them.
This applies to our song Hands that
we released in February too
but to try to just go
with the source sound
without making discs
and to see just how much
of a reaction that has
as well as because
we wanted to use a digital release
to reach people all across
the country as soon as possible
we opted to try for a direct
source sound digital single release.
This is that knack for action
we were talking about last week.
Q.Tell us about Underground Sailing
With Underground Sailing
we've released two songs
Daiki
what was writing these songs like?
The point of traffic of these two songs
I accidentally said traffic cots
Let me have another take
at talking about recording these two songs
With Underground Sailing
we've released two songs
what kind of songs did they turn out as?
The common kyotsu point
between these two songs
Is that they're both
about the strength to move forward
For Underground
I think there are often times where
you try and try with all you have
and still can't reach
what you're after
but it's nice to think that
without feeling broken by that
taking another step forward will give
youthe strength you need to keep moving.
I wrote the lyrics right
in line with that train of thought.
Sailing is a song I wrote
together with Natsuki
It was the first time
we wrote together hey?
It's the first song
we've written together
we secluded ourselves in the same room
and wrote the song like
how about that?
and like this!
As for the lyrics
Daiki is listed in the credits
for the lyrics on this one
But I just put into words
the kind of vibe and contents
that I thought Natsuki wanted
to make the song about
so in writing the lyrics
and in it being the first song
we've made together
it's like a wedding
it's turned into a real
auspicious song.
That sounds so dumb.
But it's so fun to perform live
It's a song you can
imagine being performed hey.
Rather than it being feeling filled
I think it's like
the kind of song
where you can take those gloomy
feelings within yourself
and let them all out at once at the live show.
So please come along to a show
and let's all go yeah yeah woh woh together.
Hope to see you there.
Q.Please give us a behind the scenes story of the recording.
Behind the scenes story?
VR
Surely there's a good one.
At the spot where we record
there's VR hooked up in the space
where we sort of take breaks.
When ISATO was recording
we told him to put
it on and record
as if he’s performing at Tokyo Dome
then we took a picture of
him looking like that
and Shuma put a comment on it
and uploaded it to Twitter
like that's the only real memory
I have of VR
being related to the recording?
Everyone was playing video games.
Next thing I knew
they'd brought it into the vocal booth
after all when you're singing
when you're recording
what you're imagining is
the most important thing right?
What kind of form I’m singing in
whether that’s imagining a live show
or playing at a festival
I was able to see it very clearly.
I recommend VR.
I was able to imagine
everything really richly
and record this song
so that was really great.
Not to be abrupt
but we'd like you to listen to a song
from that digital single
we released on May 6th
so without further ado here's
Underground from LOCAL CONNECT.
We've already spoken about Underground and Sailing but this time we'd like to talk about their music videos. Q. Tell us about the Underground and Sailing music videos
First let's start with the video for Underground.
What kind of work did it end up becoming? Isn't the scenery just gorgeous? We had this image of soaring out
from a dark place
and we found a location that was like
it had been reproduced as is from that image
and on the day of shooting
the weather really came out for us.
Came out for us?
We were blessed yeah.
What does 'the weather came out for us' mean?
Your dumbass is showing.
Again I thought that we might
be a band where being outside suits us.
We've had a lot of music videos
where we've been indoors up until now
I thought it was great that this one
turned out in line
with the feelings we had when we wrote the song.
Yeah that's wonderful.
Speaking as someone who wrote the song
it really matched the image we had in mind.
It was cold though.
It was cold and the wind was rough too. But of course for Underground like
I think there's lots of people who'll watch
it after listening to us talk about it here I think there are a lot of parts
that really link up with the song so please enjoy.
The video for Sailing was pretty incredible.
We tried something different for it hey?
What did we try?
Say it yourself.
What we tried for the first time Was throwing
a free one-man live for fans that we also filmed
for the music video. Let's get a great group of fans
to come along and film them all really getting
into the music then edit it all together
real nice that's the vibe we were going for.
Will you challenge that again?
What details do you think we did well? Talk about what we did in your own words. For what we tried for the first time this time we got all the fans involved in the filming
for Sailing and had everyone have fun
swinging their towels around in a way that fit the mood of the song an we ended up with a fun music video. That's the sort of thing we tried to challenge.
Up until now people swinging their
towels to our music isn't something we've had. You remember the way it looked? It was crazy.
We did it so many times speaking as a kind of
behind the scenes story originally we did
Sailing twice and thought that if we did it
one more time we could get a really
great take of it So for the encore
I said let's do Sailing one more time and it was just so fun I want to do it again.
In the end we heard from the people operating
the cameras that the third time was the craziest like everyone had broken their limits which was lovely praise to receive.
We haven't really broken any limits but that image of us enjoying ourselves
from the bottom of our hearts really matches the song. Everyone please check out the music video for Sailing.
With that time for the song we'll introduce you to this week.
We'd like you to give our ballad track a listen. So without further ado here's Futari from LOCAL CONNECT.
Q.How do you pass the time before your live shows?
So this time
we'll go from the topic of what we do before our live shows
like the ways we spend our time before shows
but the main thing that comes to mind when we're asked this
is that myself and Natsuki are probably the only ones
who really pay any mind to this.
Yeah probably.
We're probably the ones who care about this the most
and the way that Natsuki spends this time.
Recently for half a year or so
I've been going through like radio exercises.
I relax my body
also I get nervous
so I try not to focus on that.
It's not like the show is starting now
or like how was this song
more that so I can basically distract myself from a number of things
and not pay attention to them
I kill time by looking at my phone or reading manga.
That's something that really differs from person to person hey?
Conversely I'm different to Natsuki
in that before the show I totally focus on it.
I totally enter my own world
and make a huddle with everyone.
There I can sort of let loose a bit
and when we're getting fired up there
there may be someone thinking about like
how the mic stand has fallen over or whatever
but it's exactly because there's that dynamic that
I'm the opposite of Natsuki
and am the type that focuses on the show beforehand
Because I'm singing the songs
I want everyone to join me in more than just one
but there was talk about how these are really effective
so more than just before the live on the stage in rehearsals
while thinking about just how much I can loosen up my body
I take a lot of care to go through stretches.
I jump a lot
and thoroughly stretch until I'm dripping in sweat
and just spend this time exercising
this is especially because I'm the band's vocalist
so if there are any vocalists out there listening
I think you should definitely give this a shot.
Q.What about the fun times and the hardships you've faced as a band?
How do you feel Shuma?
I'm weak mentally
so as hard times and fun times come half and half
to make those hard times half as rough
and those fun times twice as fun like
I think it's incredible how everyone can
work together to make that happen.
So for Maki.
For the happy things of course
there are all kinds of bands involved
so it's not just about going on tour and going to different places
but being able to get close and make friends with those people
there are more happy things than hardships.
For rough times there's the production periods
or finding the rhythm between band life and daily life
but that's about it.
There aren't really any hardships being in this band.
It's really just the scheduling
that can be a bit rough physically.
Talking about songwriting
basically Daiki's the main songwriter
but recently
with everyone involved
it's fun when everyone does it together.
Everyone brings their own qualities and flavors to it
and we can do it while thinking it through
so in doing so together we can pour ourselves into each of our songs
which I think makes it really worthwhile.
No matter what we do
there's always going to be great times and hard times
But I'm really happy we're in a place right now where there are
so many more happy moments.
Q.Tell us your goals for the band.
I would love to tell everyone listening all about
that goal of LOCAL CONNECT as a band.
In no uncertain terms our goal
is a one-man live show at Osaka-Jo Hall.
It's a bit of a big goal
and it's not somewhere we can reach just yet
but certainly to stand on that stage is an aspiration we hold.
We want all kinds of people to hear us.
I'd say we're the kind of band
that really suits a large stage
so to make that reality a certainty
I want to take steady steps from the small things
to progress towards that reality.
Everyone we're counting on your support.
It feels lonely to say so but this is our last week here.
Therefore this is our last song introduction
so for this final song
this is likely the one we've been doing the longest.
It's a really important song to us
as we as LOCAL CONNECT have been
singing this song for so so long
so we'd like to close out by having you all listen to that song.
Thank you everyone.
So with that please listen to this last song
Cosmo Loop by LOCAL CONNECT.