[ORβIT] Web The Television 210827

https://thetv.jp/news/detail/1048008/

Appearance of JUNE & TOMO from the Japanese-Korean group ORβIT. “ORβIT is an easy to relate group” (Interview)

Formed in February 2020, ORβIT is a boys group made of 4 Japanese and 3 Korean members. Besides the members currently split between Japan and South Korea, they are active as one group, ORβIT, crossing the ocean.
Last year in November they released their 1st album “OO”. The recording and the MV shooting happened in Japan and Korea respectively which made a different kind of effort than normally necessary, but from the song and lyrics writing to the cover and goods design, the members put a lot of thought into the production. We spoke with them about the source of their creativity and the bonds between them that connects them tightly besides being separated.

The recordings while being separated between Japan and Korea were conquered by remote directions.

From the formation of ORβIT until now, it was more often that you were active while the Japanese and Korean members were separated, but how was it when you look back to your one and half year musical activities?
JUNE: The period in which we can’t meet the Korean members has become long and we also wondered if there is anything good about being seperated? But there is not a single good thing. After all, we need to be together. Even if we say the same thing, the way you say it can be interpreted in a completely different way. Especially in our case, we also have linguistic problems.
TOMO: Basically, our performances and songs are produced in Korea, so I think it would have been easier to achieve a better balance if everyone could have recorded in Korea. During the recording, our leader HEECHO-san directed us the whole time while being connected via the internet, but I feel like we could have produced a better piece if we had been together.
JUNE: He directs us remotely, but conveying the details is hard.
TOMO: I think there are emotions that you can only understand when you see the facial expressions or hear the tone of the voices directly, so not being able to do that was the hardest thing. The whole time it was like that.

From the formation until now, have you seen any changes in each other?
JUNE: We got used (to each other). We got used to us, but…
TOMO: Each day we are always together, so we might not directly see how we changed.
JUNE: Maybe it’s that I started to listen to music outside of my preferences. Listening to various demo songs, even when I was doubtful of it, I listened to the songs that the others liked later again and started to notice their qualities. However I might be just easy to influence (laughs). But listening to those might have broadened my horizon. TOMO likes R&B, so I started to listen to R&B, too.
TOMO: Each member’s music preferences are different, aren’t they? Yet, when we make new songs, we don’t put too much emphasis on our own preferences, instead we think about what kind of music we should do as a group to make people happy and on the contrary if we we pay too much attention on this, we would feel that the music wasn’t our own, so we keep in mind that to be too rigid or too fixed in our ways. We all have our own personalities, or rather we all might have our own abilities to ascertain and understand the songs that we sing. I think in order to write the songs we might have started to talk about this. Maybe that’s why my ears could have been trained.
JUNE: I think we never heavily fought over the part distribution. But there might be stuff I don’t know (laughs)
TOMO: Of course there had been parts that were changed in the middle of the recording like you try to sing it and (someone says) “It will be better for the balance of the whole song if another person does it”. Not everything is predetermined, we don't have anything that has to be like this, so we record it with a rough feeling.

It’s not “because we are the same age”, we just click with each other.

Do you have a role model or someone you aim to be like?
JUNE: It’s ZICO-san. ZICO-san has lived in Japan in the past. When I saw the video of him eating with his best friends after returning to Korea from Japan, I recognised one of them and, surprise, it was my cousin (laughs). The house where ZICO-san lived in Japan, is pretty close to my home. I would love to meet him one day and talk about it. He can also rap and write songs and he is the coolest. There is a lot I can learn from him.
TOMO: The music I’ve listened to a lot until now is R&B and I came to like music by listening to songs from foreign artists, but there is no one I thought of as a role model. Because I can’t do the same thing as those people and I am myself and there is no meaning if I don’t make the music that only I can do. For example, even if I did a cover of someone's song, I think it won’t be the same song and that you can’t compare them. My center point is R&B, but I also want to do all kinds of other songs and I hope that everyone listens to the songs I sing with my voice, so I don’t have a specific role model.
JUNE: Of course. It’s just for reference. Even if you, for example, imitate someone, you can’t imitate them perfectly (laughs).

Please tell us about your positions in the group and each one’s strengths.
TOMO: I’m not in charge of cleaning (laughs).
JUNE: We all take turns in that.
TOMO: Also cooking, because everyone can cook.
JUNE: Surprising, right? (laughs) I think we are two people who don’t really have a position or role. SHUNYA, however, does by far the most.
TOMO: Especially for designs or goods it’s SHUNYA. We can do it quite freely. In JUNE’s case, it’s a bit of a cliche to say that he is in charge of rapping, but he pretty much writes all the lyrics. For example, he may write a rap fitting to the track of the song or he might just write the rap but not the whole song. When lyrics are written for any song, it’s always JUNE.
JUNE: The rap is usually the base, but I rewrite it afterwards. Even when it’s a rap, it has a certain pitch, so it’s often that it becomes something completely different from the original rap. I feel more satisfied if I can rap in my own words, and when I do it, the speed and pitch change from the original. All ORβIT members have experience in songwriting, so that’s our strength. TOMO’s role is that when it comes to talking about the songs, he is the one who says the most. He is also very particular about it. Of course, in a good way (laughs).
TOMO: Also, JUNE might often have the role of the mediator. For example, when the demo had English lyrics, JUNE is the one who understands it. When it is just demo songs, there are times when we want to know the contents of the lyrics, so we ask JUNE “what does it say?” and JUNE will do it for us.
JUNE: Mostly though (laughs)
TOMO: Furthermore, when we write lyrics, there are also times when we write english lyrics, JUNE will check if they make sense.
JUNE: Actually, in secret I google it (laughs).
TOMO: We also google it, but we want to be sure of it and the way of searching for it is different depending if you have knowledge (of English) or not.
JUNE: Because I also have times (when I think) “It might be this, but does it really fit?”

You two are born in the same year, but what kind of existence are you for each other?
JUNE: Our vibes might be similar. Like the atmosphere.
TOMO: The temper. In ORβIT we don’t really care about everyone’s age. That’s why rather because we are the same age it’s that we click with each other as people. It’s often that we game together until night.
JUNE: As for TOMO, I feel he is just normally a funny guy.
TOMO: I used to be shy of strangers in the past. I stopped that myself, so now I’m not like that anymore. Because I felt it’s not good to be shy around strangers. Not just for fulfilling my dreams, but also to move forward in my life, I overcame my shyness. But in the beginning, I was shy. Even towards JUNE I used polite speech the whole time.
JUNE: That’s true, there isn’t anything good about being shy. I was also shy in the past and even now when I meet strangers in private, I can’t start talking to them, but when working, it’s better to know each other quickly, so I don’t show my shyness there.

What I noticed during the first fanmeeting, “Our job is to sing and deliver”

On July 3rd, ORβIT’s first online fan meeting took place. Was there anything hard in the process of preparing for it or during it?
TOMO: It was the first time that I experienced how hectic it is to get dressed and prepare while doing it. This time, together with a band we did acoustic versions, but there were also live performances and we don’t do it by ourselves, so we kept in mind to sing it with the feeling that we are one with the people behind us. Hence, it didn’t feel like we were just singing.
JUNE: It was the first time to perform while being backed by a band. I think the live band feeling would have been conveyed better if there had been an audience before us. This is a little said, but I think we were able to show that we had fun.
TOMO: One thing that is unique to online is that there is no external sound which I personally found very difficult. Because it’s online, you don’t have to play the sound in the studio. So, when I was singing, I had to check the sound coming from the ear monitors. But then somehow I wondered what everyone else was hearing… There was no response from the audience and my ears heard this, but I was anxious about what everyone else was hearing. During JUNE’s turn was there any external sound?
JUNE: I asked for external sounds during the rehearsal. I felt I was just chattering to myself when there was no external sound, so I asked the sound engineer. But I was told it’s bad when it’s too loud, so he made sounds that were about the right amount of noise.

The leader HEECHO-san mentioned that “The timing was because we were committed to go offline”, but what did you feel when the fan meeting ended even though it was online?
JUNE: I was relieved that it was over, but I was more worried about whether it was alright. Because it was our first event, I hoped that we had done it well. We haven’t experienced everyone’s response directly. It was that when there is an actual audience, you understand their response, but when there is none it’s hard to understand.
TOMO: To be honest, we felt that it would have been the best to meet everyone directly and do our first first live with an audience, so the event was postponed until July, but we also felt that we had to do what we could under these circumstances. Our work is to bring our music to everyone, so online or otherwise it’s better to do it than not to do anything. This is our nature. I thought it’s the thing we should do. Also, when we saw everyone’s response to the fanmeeting, I felt glad about doing it, and there is no regret. Even when it wasn’t directly, it simply makes me happy that they heard our songs.

Right now it’s a situation where the chances are rare to perform in front of fans, but what do you do to keep your motivation and confidence?
TOMO: We can’t meet directly, but we were able to see the faces of the fans during online events, so when we saw their faces, talked and they told us their thoughts about our songs, I got energy from it. I was just happy that they were taking part in the online events, so everything they said made me the happiest. Or rather, I am happy and grateful for the situation and environment itself. It’s not something to expect, so each day my gratitude continues. Moreover, I really like the process of songwriting, so the time I’m involved with music is also my motivation.
JUNE: Thankfully, I don’t have a lot of free days, so I feel like I’m dealing with my day by day schedules. Right now, the work in front of me piles up and the thankfulness for having work is my motivation.
TOMO: As expected, this interview is one of those. When we heard that this interview is going to be published, it was a moment when we were glad that we worked hard and we felt that there were people watching us somewhere. We are working hard to be able to make good things and hope to be invited again.

On September 25th (Saturday) and 26th (Sunday) your first online live “With” is scheduled to take place. What do you want to show at this live show?
TN: It was announced later that the live shows were moved to October 9th and 10th, because of the possibility that all 7 members can be together at one place.
JUNE: It’s our first live, so we hope to deliver our most cool selves. For this we are practicing hard right now, so please look forward to it!
TOMO: We haven’t talked deeply about it yet, but we are advancing on the preparation for these days. The members and staff became one and we are in the middle of talking about the production and the set up. After all, a live is not just listening to the music, but also seeing it with your eyes and hearing it with your ears, so we hope to create something interesting as an image. Right now, every day in my head I enjoy thinking about what kind of live we will do. Because I think everything we are doing right now is connected to the preparation of the live shows.

Lastly, please give us a message to the readers.
TOMO: We have been involved in the production of our songs and there are also songs that were mainly choreographed by YUGO and SHUNYA who are not here, and we are proud to be a group where each member shows his individuality. Of course, music is our axis, but there are also beautiful designs made by SHUNYA. We are a group made of different personalities, but we are a group that is mysteriously united. Our own feelings are put into the music we created, so please just listen to our songs once!
JUNE: All members are rich in individuality and everyone is my pace, but we are expressing our current feelings through the music we create, so I feel we are a group that is easy to support and relate to. We are still at the stage of learning and growing, so I hope we will become a group that can go up with everyone together while enjoying this process together. We hope to continue to challenge various things and broaden our horizons.