Behind the Scenes of Creating "Kikuo Miku 7": Light Stories

It took three years to make, but I feel like I created about five songs in just one month. That's just the way it goes. That's just the way it is.

This is a light production record that does not touch on the too-sensitive parts.

**Articles written in Japanese on pixiv FANBOX are automatically translated into English, and only minimal parts are revised.

There may be some mistranslations, but please forgive me.**

Overall:

Although it's called "Kikuo Miku," about half of the album is actually focused on Qi Xuan.

As Kikuo has long been associated with Miku, I personally took great care in this exciting adventure. However, it seems to have been accepted without too much surprise, so maybe I did it right...?

Qi Xuan is a Vocaloid that uses AI and next-generation technology. I put a lot of effort into creating a unique tuning for her, so I think Kikuo is probably the only one who can make songs like this. Boom!

Individual:

"Twins at the carousel" is a duet song with Qi Xuan on the left and Hatsune Miku on the right.

If you look for it, you'll find that this kind of tune is like Carousel Music, or a dedicated song for a merry-go-round. I love it.

This song was created quickly from a dream I had, and was left untouched for about six months. But it fit perfectly, so I completed it.

I have some rough songs that come to me in my dreams, which I make without thinking too much about them. The melody naturally comes out. I can't think too much in my dreams.

"Good kid and a fox spirit" is the lead song. It's the one I had the least confidence in for this album. But it seems that songs like this are the ones that end up being accepted. It's strange, isn't it? I wonder why.

I wanted to try making a Japanese-style song once. YO-KAI DISCO had a big influence on it.

"Mizumizu Yuuyu" is a water-themed song that I love.

I played the sound of splashing water like a drum, but it's a shy one that gets buried under other sounds if you layer them too much. I wanted to make sure the splashing water could be heard clearly, so I piled up a mountain of sounds that were eventually scrapped.

The sound effects before the chorus were made to be like Splatoon, but surprisingly, no one has mentioned it yet. I guess it's just like that.

"Not found, not found," it's the song with the shortest production period. However, early KikuoMiku songs were generally made in that kind of period, so it might sound old-fashioned.

I lacked confidence in the lyrics and melody and left it for about a year, or rather, let it mature.

I feel like there's no correlation between confidence and the quality of the song. It's strange, isn't it?

"My Time Kikuo Cover" is a rare cover song. I came up with it when I was listening to it in my car. It's like the main theme of a game called OMORI that I really love. OMOCAT, the creator of the game, said that they liked me, and even the composer bo en came to my house from the UK. Can you believe that dream-like experience...?

"Frog Dance" was created after I came up with it while talking about ethnic music on a Discord server and learning about gamelan. Gamelan is an Indonesian ethnic music that has two major schools, Bali (party feeling) and Java (aristocratic feeling), with a third school called Sundanese (commoner feeling). Its characteristic is that it's cute and pop. It's so good. I love it and analyzed it thoroughly. I tried to digest it in my own style and finished it, doing this and that, and ended up with this.

"Voices of Svaahaa" I spent too much time on it. I spent too much time on it that it was featured on NHK (Famous Public Broadcasting)

"In the Deep Forest." The sound that rings in the melody in the development from 0:20 is added with a voice changer for a child voice against the toy piano sound. It's a whimsical idea to make the instrument itself sound like a child. It's right, isn't it? The bass pizzicato that comes in at 2:50 is good, isn't it? You like this kind of thing, don't you? I know.

"Hate, Hate, Hate, but..." I made it when I was listening to Giga-P's music a lot. After listening to Ado's "踊" and Reol's "第六感", I thought, "I want to make that kind of cool dance pop-based music!" I made it while listening and comparing it on the production screen, but why did it end up like this? I analyze it, but I can't make it as planned. That's the typical Kikuo. It's strange, isn't it? Is that how it is?

"Knife, Knife, Knife." I made it when I was listening to Mikito-P's "Roki" a lot. I tried to make Hatsune Miku sing it in a flashy way. It felt good.

"Astral Travel." It's like the first Hatsune Miku song to end with this kind of cute dance pop. It's a song that's perfect for the ending for some reason. Hatsune Miku's Chinese library is said to have a bad reputation, but it's amazing...

Although it may not be immediately apparent, it is actually made up of a complex composition that includes harmonies sung by 17 Hatsune Miku voices and a barrage of incomprehensible chords. A masterful remixer attempted to tackle this song, but regretted it as it proved to be much more complicated than anticipated.

One of the chords, G/F add11(add4), almost cannot be found on Google, which might be a new invention, secretly. And then there are blackadder chords, which are just like bitter elements.

Overall, I think it turned out to be a great album, even if I say so myself.

Due to inventory management, the CD will be produced and sold until early April. It tends to become a collector's item, so it's worth buying. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Let's end with some advertising.

Global: https://asmart.jp/en/shop/kikuo

Japan: https://asmart.jp/shop/kikuo