[OWV] TOWNWORK 220727

https://townwork.net/magazine/job/workstyle/131552/?vos=dtwnsnss1614717

Interview with Honda Kosuke & Nakagawa Katsunari (OWV) - “Believing in ourselves and following through it guides us to the OWV image we envision”

The boy group OWV, formed by 4 former trainees of a popular audition program, have released their 6th single “Time Jackerz”. We interviewed the members Honda Kosuke-san and Nakagawa Katsunari-san about secret stories from the music video filming, their song recommendations, as well as about their part time job experiences and what they have in mind regarding their work.

“Time Jackerz” is an essential song for the future “OWV”

What kind of songs are on your 6th single “Time Jackerz”?
Katsunari: The overall concept is “Live”. Because we often had the chance to hold concerts and we appeared at a lot of events last year, we made “Time Jackerz” with the wish that the people coming to the venue would “simply enjoy this single as well”. The coupling song “Summer Days” expresses summer in OWV’s own way and “Alright” is a song that suits the twilight in summer. The whole single has a clear composition and development and I think it is a thrilling release.

Please tell us your impression of “Time Jackerz” when you first heard it.
Kosuke: It was actually quite some time ago when we first heard it, but back then I felt “It is going to be an essential song for the future OWV”. And now, the time has finally come to release it. It has a new sound feeling and you can immediately imagine how we perform it on stage. This is the part I am the most excited about.

Was there something hard or you struggled with during the recording?
Katsunari: While the key is not that high, as it is a dance tune and has a steady 16th note rhythm, I kept in mind to add some accent to the Japanese rap parts so It will not become boring. I thought a lot about how I should express the song by singing my parts, recording them and then listening to those.
Kosuke: When I am singing the phrase “Here is the Danger Zone” alone, there is a melody that only appears at this part, so I was quite worried about which tone I should use.
Katsunari: Both Honda-kun’s and my parts contain rap, but we studied this part in our own ways and coordinated the recording, so it is a part I’m quite attached to.
Kosuke: It might be the song we have discussed the most. We had the feeling that we wanted to release it at a challenging point for OWV, so it took longer than before to bring our singing together.

A 3kg jacket and leather. Struggling with the outfits at the MV filming

The MV with its cool and futuristic look is impressive, but please tell us an episode from the filming.
Kosuke: The costume I was wearing for the outdoor scenes had a pair of super stylish jeans with a string-like strap connecting to both knees. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t open my legs further than shoulder width, so this was a struggle. The jacket also weighed about 3kg…
Katsunari: 3kg is a lot (laughs). It is like the weights they use in “Dragon Ball”.
Kosuke: Yes! It was the hardest to dance while wearing an outfit like Piccolo.
Katsunari: Tops and bottoms of our main outfit are made of leather. It made me sweat the most out of the group and I could even be in the Top 5 of Japan…
Kosuke: Top 5 is high. I guess I am usually at the 2050th place?
Katsunari: With a population of more than 100 million people, the 2050th place is in the upper ranking (laughs). It was the filming with the most dancing ever. Dancing in leather made me sweat like Niagara Falls.
Kosuke: Your punchline is a bit of a bummer (laughs). You didn't land it properly so it sank.
Katsunari: It fell into the waterfall (laughs).

In reference to the title track, what time do you cherish the most?
Katsunari: For me it is the time when I take a bath. No matter how exhausted I am, I love to get into the bathtub every day and use different bath salts depending on my mood.
Kosuke: You really do it every day?
Katsunari: Yes, every day.
Kosuke: Even when you are super tired and get back home at 5 am? Even then you take a bath?
Katsunari: What’s with that talk (laughs).
Kosuke: I value the time I spend alone. When I am with other people, I end up thinking about something, so it is vital for me to have time to eat dinner alone, go to the cinema or just relax.
Katsunari: I envy that you can do things on your own, Honda-kun.
Kosuke: If you happen to spot me… Please don’t talk to me (laughs).

Living together with stink bugs had been hard, but encountering my friends was precious (Nakagawa)

I heard you had several part-time jobs in the past, so could you please tell us about those?
Katsunari: I have worked in a cafe, in a one Michelin star sushi restaurant, at a moving company and in a resort. The most memorable experience was the one at the resort. Back then I was living in the Hyogo prefecture and me and my friends were talking about saving some money and as I heard you could make a lot of money there, I decided to work at a ski report in the Niigata Prefecture. I stayed there for a month, but in the dorm stink bugs frequently appeared.
Kosuke: Just by imagining it… (laughs bitterly)
Katsunari: I lived with stink bugs for a month and even worse, as it was off-season, there was barely any work and I returned home having earned less money than if I had worked a part time job in my hometown, which left me with mixed feelings (laughs). But it was fun that people from various regions came there together and I made a lot of new friends, and in addition I could snowboard as much as I wanted, so I am glad that I went.
Kosuke: Let me try to sum my part time jobs up. In a cafe, at a karaoke place, at an izakaya, in a call center, at a pizza store, at a pasta shop, at an exclusive restaurant, at a bar, I was an event staff… I did quite a lot. At the call center, there was the quota of selling two contracts during the six hour shift, but my low voice is apparently not suitable for this kind of job, so there had been days where I couldn’t even sell one contract. My boss told me “Honda-kun, you can stop an hour earlier today” and I spent that one hour listening to a recording of 5 hours of me calling people while my seniors instructed me how I should do it. When I listened to recordings, I felt, Indeed no one would buy something from this voice (laughs bitterly).
Katsunari: How did you sound like?
Kosuke: “Hello, we currently have this campaign and….” (reenacts). It made me realize that there are jobs in this society that I am not suited for, and it was a good lesson for my life. I think people who continue to do this job are amazing.

If you have a dream you want to realize, you should say it out loud (Honda)

More than two years have passed since the group formation, but is there something you value in your work?
Kosuke: I have a clear image of OWV in mind, so that I won’t stray from that, I keep that principle in mind while looking for fitting content that the fans will enjoy.
Katsunari: For me it is to believe and stick to my own decisions. There are many cases in which OWV is involved in the direction and selection of the songs, so I believe that if we don’t believe in ourselves, we won’t do the right thing. There might be moments in the future when I think “This was the wrong choice”. However, I think this is also a part of the fertile ground that OWV was built on.

You two made your first step towards your dream by challenging an audition program, but please give advice to the younger generation who are also struggling on a daily basis.
Kosuke: I want to tell them “Say it out loud”. I think if you have something you want to do, you should tell it to the people around you, so that you can get information about it from and you can also get the courage that you are not struggling all alone. For example, even if it is a dream that others would laugh about, you can be more serious about it yourself by declaring it openly and because I believe there is such a thing as words can alter the reality, you should say the dream you want to realize out loud.
Katsunari: I think you should not forget to enjoy it no matter what job you are doing. Regardless of whether you do a job like us, be a student or work in a company, if you spend the same amount of time doing something, you will get more out of it if you enjoy it than if you don’t do so. There might be times when it is hard and tough for you, but I think it would be better to do it while finding something you enjoy in it. I think that curiosity and having a good time becomes the power to do your best, so I try to enjoy everything I do.