Koyanagi: Your label 「her」 has finally been established, and your new lives will start. First, I'd like to ask you about this past year and what you felt, or what changed after releasing your latest album 『HONEY』 and touring in support of it.



HARUNA: Because I turned 30 last year, that was a huge topic for me. It was a year I wanted to level up as a human, and more than that I wanted to level up as a band member and as a band's vocalist.





Koyanagi: Was that change in age a big one? I have a feeling it probably wasn't, though.



HARUNA: Yeaーh. But age really was the trigger for it. I spent it frankly saying what I thought, and wanting to find something that's like the person I am during our live shows. I realized that it was necessary in order to become an even cooler band, and that I needed to break the image I had within me of the vocalist "HARUNA of SCANDAL" once. It was okay to be myself even more, and that I didn't need to overly pretend to be cool. I thought that that'd be easier to do from here on―rather, that I'd fall even more in love with the band. Also, it feels like it's easier to live with. I feel like those 10 years were ones where I was trying my best to hide my faults. But, it's okay that they've already been bared, and it's okay to be bad at things. Still, I'm trying to do my best (laughs).





Koyanagi: I see. What about for you, RINA?



RINA: The band feels like the most enjoyable thing I'm currently doing, and that I've truly been able to continue doing something that I love. Last year was one where our music and the four of us were closely linked together. We were delighted that we were able to make an album like 『HONEY』 that surpassed our own abilities. We once again discovered that we are people whose personal lives and creativity are more connected than they thought. So, we wanted to see and absorb things more greedily, and we wanted to have both good and bad things happen to us. We wanted feel all sorts of things every day. We finally felt that way at the end of the year. It was a profound year where about three years' worth of happenings occured. 2018 was a huge year for us. Although it might have been a year that we could call "exhausting" if we didn't have this sort of job, we ultimately had an intense year as musicians who stand on stages - and we were glad for that.





Koyanagi: In other words, you were able to output varied experiences.



RINA: Yes, which is why we're able to have fun making things now. Even though we always have fun doing it, we're able to write at a nice pace during this period of time in particular.





Koyanagi: What about you, TOMOMI?



TOMOMI: I moved places in 2018. The windows got bigger, and a lot of light comes in (laughs). Along with that, I was able to put plants all around, so I've started to wake up in the morning. Until now I would sleep until the afternoon and live my life as if I was waking up in the morning. By doing that, I inevitably would often think about the band from morning until night, and would often arbitrarily think about negative things. It was like I couldn't do anything interesting that had depth to it. But, after all, by living together with the sun, I came to think about things that have depth to them.





Koyanagi: What things did you think about?



TOMOMI: Like, we need to be a fun band (laughs).





Koyanagi: Hahaha!



MAMI: Moving was the right thing to do (laughs).



TOMOMI: It really isn't good if humans and plants don't live together with the sun (laughs). It's like I'm storing nutrients now.





Koyanagi: It's inadvertenly essential (laughs). What about you, MAMI?



MAMI: I think it was a year I was even more absorbed in the band. We properly forged our solo live shows—rather, we raised them up ourselves. But, it was also a year where we were itching to perform at festivals and events. Personally, I went out a lot that year. I would discover things like food festivals, or handmade festival-like events where cloth and yarn were gathered, and I would go out to them. How should I say it—I think it was a year of good preparation. There may have been less opportunities to see everyone in public in a sense, but it felt like the band was constantly active. I feel that we were busy in a good way (laughs).





Koyanagi: It may have been a year you reconsidered how SCANDAL, who had many strategies to move outward during these 10 years, should go about things, and what kind of band you should be. The idea that came up was to launch a new label. What was the trigger for that?



HARUNA: The trigger was a distinct conversation we had with our current label staff, who said, "Why don't we do this together?" At that time we weren't sure what direction the band should go in next, and it was when we hit the 10-year mark of being a major label band. If this was the end of our first chapter, then after it would be the start of our second chapter. We only had a vague feeling that we wanted to do something, and at that time we wanted to do something in order to be able to continue on for a long time, but we didn't know what that thing was. It was at that time when we had that conversation about a private record label, and with that we started to move things along.





Koyanagi: Before that, did you ever feel that a private label would be a good fit for you? Was voicing it what solidified your mindset?



RINA: It wasn't something we knew from the start. However, when we were making 『HONEY』, it felt like our want to be renewed was at its peak, and it felt like the all-girl band called SCANDAL gave us the answer. We started thinking about how we should start something new from here on, and how we can stay cool after all of us are over 30 years old.





Koyanagi: Yeah.



RINA: It felt like we also had a haziness we had been holding, and we've now reached one thing. So, for better or worse we've smashed this sense of accomplishment. It might have been connected to making our own label, re-debuting from scratch, and making music from scratch. We want to make music together with people who think our music and way of life are interesting and cool.





Koyanagi: But it felt like, "Why didn't I think of this!?", didn't it?



MAMI: When we explain the band known as SCANDAL, I think it's an element that's very easy to explain. We really are a band that needs all kinds of explanations. Something easy to put out, like, "This is SCANDAL." We decided on our course of action, and we feel excited to start from here again.



TOMOMI: I actually was worried as soon as we talked about it. For me, I had a love for our previous label that we had spent 10 years with, and I had never thought about leaving them because they were comrades who built up the band called SCANDAL together with us. I hadn't thought I'd experience that. However, the feeling of excitement I get when we talk about the future with our current label staff―rather, I felt that I had a feeling of premonition, and that I was able to take a step towards wanting us to debut again.





Koyanagi: You certainly have courage.



MAMI: Because we really wanted to have a change. That want was strong.



TOMOMI: Yeah, that was before we talked about the label.



HARUNA: It's because something beyond the sense of accomplishment with making 『HONEY』 was absolutely necessary. However, it was not found by ourselves alone.





Koyanagi: Yes, I certainly see that there was a sense that you got things done, but conversely, if you didn't have the idea of making a new label, you wouldn't have known how you could express your new selves.



RINA: No matter what songs we'd write, it was like we were doing part two of the songs we already had. We were also irritated because we couldn't write songs we were completely satisfied with. There was a time when we forced them into shape. But, when we announced our label to everyone, it felt like everything was opening all at once. We then came to think that we'd be able to do more and more new things, and that this was the correct answer.