Another translation for today! This is the interview Kuu-chan did recently for the newspaper Sport Shimbun. I will post the first part of the translation.
Once again, I am not fluent in Japanese, so I might be wrong sometimes. If you see a mistake, feel free to mention it in the comments! Thank you for your support!

You can find the full interview in Japanese here


Koda Kumi, from erotic-cool to mama-cool

Singer Kumi Koda (35) 's new album' DNA 'will be released on August 22nd. This is the second album of this year following "AND" in February. "As it is mentioned in the title, this album has been created from my DNA, I want you to listen to my music once, to see it evolving in a good way." Koda Kumi is associated with the "erotic cool" boom in Japan and won the Japan Record Award 5 years after her debut, but "It was all I could do to drive Koda Kumi back then." There was apparent misunderstanding and pressure to continue to be at the top, she said "the feeling of aiming at being a woman, or a cool mother, is clear." She also talked about three retirement crises and family talks.

This album DNA will be the second album released this year, but there is a different message put in each one. “AND is about pursuing music. Normally I want to listen to a wide variety of genres in various ways, so I made catchy pop songs, but the main reason behind making this album is for live performance at fan club events. DNA and AND have the letters order reversed. It's going to be the 20th anniversary of my debut in two years. While reflecting about this, I thought, "What are the roots that I have built?" Beginning with popular songs, I can not remove ballads, sexy dance, American pops, RandB too. Because the inner me is rock music, I want to put it in. I put music that can feel makes the DNA of Koda Kumi. Especially "CHANCES ALL", which carries the message I want to say the most, I want everyone to listen to it. "

This time, she also worked on the lyrics and production of some songs. She got married to Kenji03 (member of rock band BACK-ON) in 2011 and gave birth to their first child the following year. She doesn’t seem to feel the pressure of work too hard.

"I am married now and my child is 6 years old. There are lots of things I have to do, such as taking care of my family or housekeeping when I am at home. However, when I’m told ‘It will take 2.5 hours by Shinkansen, or 1 and a half hour” this is when the lyrics comes to me with a burst. I noticed recently that this happens when I’m stuck in a confined space. While listening to the lyrics and listening to nearly 200 songs on the demo tape during the shinkansen trip, I listened to lyrics and songs that will be mainly the next studio work rather than songs that are meant to be sung live during the tour."

Q: What are the tricks for songwriting?

A: "I write down the word I was interested in for a while, but in this case I decided the theme of the song first, then while listening to that song, I choose the words that feel the most relevant to the song. If I don’t feel like writing the song, I will leave it to the song writer. My husband told me, “you can write so smoothly”. My husband thinks a lot with his brain, but I think sensitivity is also important. I am the type to often fall in love, in my twenties I often felt “liking” or “love”. It has changed since I have a family with more and more human love.

This year marks 18 years since her debut. There has been times when she was losing herself.

"About three years ago, when I went to visit a temple in Kawasaki, I was stopped by Mr. Yasushi" come here". He said, "Why did you get so rounded up/calm? I liked when you looked happy in the past. ". This person didn’t know me as Koda Kumi the singer, it was a complete pass. Whether you take the plus or the minus, or leave it alone, it is up to you however, I was told that, inside myself, I guessed exactly right. I accepted myself properly as "Koda Kumi, if you do this you are hopeless".

This is when you became calm (round).

“Once I asked myself, would it be better to become calmer/round. If you are doing it for a long time you will get wisdom in many ways. Even if your staff is doing their best, if you forcibly make impossible, it will be hopeless or something.
A lot of small compromises were piled up. I do not want to be disliked. I am getting older and steadier and becoming weaker .... Koda Kumi is a lion, while Kumiko Koda is a rabbit. I am very lonely. (…)

She started receiving recognition from the public 5 years after her debut. "Erotic cute" became a buzzword and she became the top star at that moment…

"I could not keep up with it. Also when girls with the same hairstyle and fashion came out, saying "Koda Kumi is amazing" like .... I have a place desperate to catch up with the buzz from behind.
Because I am not the type to check on the internet etc. on my own, so I asked the staff "Now, in the world how is Koda Kumi perceived?’, and then "I see. Well then I will try to do something like this ". Basically, I want people to think that I am cool, I still have not changed about that. Even if I have a family I want people to think “I want to become such a mother/woman”. That goal has not changed for a long time. "

Koda Kumi’s career looks like it was carried by favorable winds since her debut. However, she said she had thought of retiring three times in her life.

The first time:

“Before my debut, at 20 years old, I went singing until 2 o'clock in the morning in live houses When going to Gunma and Ibaraki with my manager by car, I was singing at the customers 's favorite place and thought "What am I doing? I did not become a singer to do such things.”
I didn’t think that I wanted to sing even if nobody buys my music, rather I wanted to give courage to people, so since I wanted to see this world, I do not need to sing if I can not see it. When "real Emotion" became the theme song of "Final Fantasy" in the third year, I was told that "there is no artist that can get such big tie-ups and still cannot sell". So, if I still could not sell properly, I would prepare for retirement, that my voice was not being accepted in this world."

The second time:

"It is when I made inappropriate remarks on the radio. While my intention was to do an interesting talk, I hurt people because of the vocabulary I used and my lack of knowledge. Even though it is my work to use words carefully to create lyrics, I though this time it will be impossible to be forgiven. I was crying all the time at home.
People also left and there was no other time in my life when I thought that I wanted to die as much as I did back then.
When I came back there was nothing with evil intent, but if there was bad intention, Koda Kumi will stop. I became scared of speaking on TV since then, even one word. Whatever I said, I thought there would be some kind of misunderstanding ... "

To be continued….