[JO1] Nippon Housou News Online 220622

https://news.1242.com/article/368843

JO1, their new song ‘ALL HOURS’ is completely in English “We also checked the pronunciation remotely”

On the night of the 15th June (Wednesday), the radio program ‘JO1 All Night Nippon X’ (every Wednesday at 24~24:58 on Nippon Housou) aired in which Shiroiwa Ruki of the 11 member global boy group JO1 acts as the main personality. As the weekly changing personalities Yonashiro Sho and Kawashiri Ren appeared in this episode and they talked about the new song ‘ALL HOURS’.

The new song ‘ALL HOURS’ is JO1’s first song with all English lyrics. From a listener a mail came, asking “As all lyrics are in English, were there any points you had a hard time with or a point where you think ‘It’s awesome over here, please pay attention to it’?” and the three of them answered.

Sho: These lyrics are JO1’s first time challenging all English lyrics. Something difficult, sure enough it should be pronunciation, right?
Ren: That’s right~
Ruki: We divided ourselves into smaller groups and for the first time we checked our pronunciation remotely with people who speak English. It took quite some time, didn’t it?
Sho: Because it is something that goes out to the whole world, and we wanted to do the pronunciation properly, it was like this. In the beginning, we had study sessions from the morning on.
Ruki: But, it was good, wasn’t it?
Sho: Yes, it was good after all. We learned things we didn’t know before.
Ruki: Do you have a point where you think “It’s awesome over here, please pay attention to it”?
Ren: I have! In the lyrics there is the word Elevatin’ and if you would read it normally it would be “ereveitin”, but native speakers say it rather like “erevei…”, they tune down the sound in the middle. I was taught that this sounds a little more like a native speaker.
Ruki: Right. There are various patterns to try, like pronouncing it like a native, or saying it Japanese-like on purpose. Out of all those options for pronunciation, we chose the one we felt was the coolest one. It was interesting.

They revealed that they spent a lot of time and carefully added life to lyrics, including in their morning English study sessions.

Furthermore, JO1’s performance leader Kawashiri had been in charge of the choreography for ‘ALL HOURS’. Shiroiwa and Yonashiro commented on it “I like the movement here!” and “This time there are a lot of sexy movements, right?”, to which Kawashiri listened with satisfaction.