chilldspot dropped its third album, entitled handmade Wednesday (Sept. 24). The three-member band from Japan signed with the Chinese label MODERN SKY last year, stepping up its presence in the region. With headlining concerts and festival slots fueling a steady rise in recognition and popularity, chilldspot’s stage is expanding further than ever before.
At the same time, the departure of a member proved a pivotal moment, shaping chilldspot into an even tougher, more tightly knit collective. Brimming with a variety of sounds and uplifting words, handmade stands as proof of the band’s growth. Billboard Japan spoke with the three members — Hiyune, Ryozan, and Kozaki — about the journey that led to this album in this latest interview.
chilldspot’s live shows have been growing in scale, and you’ve even played overseas festivals, expanding your activities in ways you probably hadn’t quite imagined. How does that feel?
Hiyune (vocals & guitar): Being in Japan, it almost feels unreal, but seeing tickets for our Beijing solo show sell out instantly, and playing festivals where, of course, we’re not the only draw, yet the stages have grown to hold thousands of people… I don’t know the exact numbers, but when we’re there, we really feel that people are listening.
Is the audience’s energy and way of getting into the music different from Japan?
Ryozan (guitar): Completely different.
Kozaki (bass): Yeah, totally.
Ryozan: What surprised me was how everyone joins in for big sing-alongs.
Hiyune: Like with “Neon wo keshite” — everyone singing along. And it’s so relaxed. Whether they know the song or not, if the music’s fun, they’re totally into it.
Kozaki: It feels like they’re expressing their emotions directly, in a really honest way.
Alongside those changes, since last year’s EP “echowaves,” each member’s creativity has been coming through more than ever. I imagine that’s what led to this album. How has that affected the way roles are divided within the band, or the way you think about your contributions?
Ryozan: The members have become more actively involved in songwriting. Until now, Hiyune handled the initial creation from scratch, but now the two of us also contribute at that stage. It feels like the workload is distributed well, and each of us is able to collaborate smoothly to create the music together.
As a result, the album spans a wide range of genres, making handmade a truly colorful work from start to finish. The opening track, “Unbound,” even kicks off with an unexpected rap from Kozaki.
Hiyune: That’s true. [Laughs]
Kozaki: I’d never rapped at all before, and only added it to the demo three days before recording, so that was my first time doing it. I never imagined it would actually be used. I’d planned for Hiyune to do the rap and thought of myself as more of a placeholder, so I remember panicking when it ended up being me. But I’m really glad I did it.
Because the album starts off like that, it really feels free from start to finish, and the tracks showcase each of the three members’ personalities and what you wanted to do. I’d like to hear about the songs each of you worked on — Kozaki, how about you?
Kozaki: This time, I worked on a ton of tracks — “midori,” “moonlit,” “Freidol,” “middle” …
Ryozan: “Unbound” too, right?
Kozaki: Yeah. There’s a playful feel to how this album was made. I just kept thinking, “I want to add this sound,” and that ended up producing these really distinctive tracks without much struggle. For “moonlit,” I wrote all the melodies and lyrics myself, and hearing the members add their parts during recording was the first time I really felt that kind of excitement. It made me happy. I was blown away by Hiyune’s expressive singing, and noticed things like how Ryozan pays attention to certain details when playing guitar. This album really made me see all the best parts of my bandmates.
Where do you think your personal tastes and style really come through in the album, Kozaki?
Kozaki: I’d say “moonlit.” I was involved in everything — the melody, the instrumentation — and even directed the vocals during recording. It’s a track I was able to make exactly the way I wanted, and put a lot of love into it.
How about you, Ryozan?
Ryozan: The highlight of a song I worked on would be the chorus of “dusk,” which is in English. I don’t really speak English, so it was incredibly hard. I had to ask people on our team who know English, and even their acquaintances, to check it for me. It was difficult, but I think it turned into a good song.
Up until now, the band has mainly taken the shape of working from songs Hiyune wrote and building on them together. But recently, you’ve been trying other approaches. How did you feel about that shift?
Hiyune: To be honest, I wasn’t someone who wanted to be limited to just a band from the start. I had enough drive to take on any form as long as it meant I could make it. And of course, being human, I also have that self-satisfaction that comes from being able to fulfill my desire for recognition. So even during the recording process, I told the other two, “I’m on board with this, but there are parts of me that haven’t quite caught up emotionally.”
Basically, I did have some reservations about having to take a step back. But seeing how much they’d accomplished, and the high quality of their work, I felt it was definitely worth putting out there. So in that sense, I asked for their assistance while still contributing in my own way. I think that’s how I began to adjust to the change.
In a way, stepping back a bit helped me understand some of their struggles too. It also opened up conversations like, “Writing songs is tough,” or “Lyrics are really hard,” and ultimately, I feel like it led to some really good growth for the band.
As someone expressing yourself through music, that kind of conflict is inevitable. Until now, the band has been the place where you could express what you wanted to sing about. So of course, there’s a challenge when other perspectives start to enter that space, even though they’re your bandmates. Like you just said, accepting that might actually be the biggest change on this album. On one hand, it’s true that Ryozan and Kozaki’s creativity has awakened, but at the same time, the fact that you, Hiyune, were able to embrace that change is what really made it possible.
Hiyune: Being able to talk openly about those things with the members was huge. It felt like the most honest conversations we’ve ever had as a band, and because the other two were willing to respond to that, it gradually started to make sense to me. We transitioned peacefully, which feels pretty mature of us. After all, we’re only at the age where it’s like our first year out in the working world.
I get what you’re saying. When you have three people together, that’s already a kind of society. Each of you has a role and a responsibility, and it feels like chilldspot has become a social group — working together to keep the organization running smoothly and helping it grow.
Hiyune: That’s so true. Since we were all doing stuff with the goal of making chilldspot better, it felt like we could approach it with a clean, straightforward mindset, like, “Let’s do our best.”
Ryozan: We’ve really grown up, haven’t we?
It feels like a necessity that an album like this would carry the title handmade — a simple name with a sense of warmth. Of course, chilldspot’s work has always felt handmade in its own way, but…
Hiyune: Yes. Before, it felt more like each of us was doing patchwork in different spots on the same large piece of fabric. But this time, it was more like all of us were stitching a single patchwork together on the piece of cloth.
So in that sense, it really is an album made as a collective, as a band.
Hiyune: Yeah, that’s how I see it, too.
—This interview by Tomohiro Ogawa first appeared on Billboard Japan
