Kindai

- Morning Musume’s 37th single is “Pepper Keibu”.
Takahashi Ai: It’s a cover of the debut song of the band Pink Lady that everyone knows. I think it’s a great honor to be able to cover a song which is so famous that you can dance and sing it even though you weren’t even born at the time it was released. Even though it’s a cover, we want to keep on loving it as much as our own songs.
Kusumi Koharu: The two Pink Lady members are idols who made history. Covering a song of such a band is something amazing, so we’ll try to sing it as well as possible in order to meet the expectations.
Niigaki Risa: Without breaking the image of Pink Lady’s “Pepper Keibu”, we perform “Pepper Keibu” in a fresh and cheerful way that’s typical for Morning Musume. We hope you’ll enjoy the mix of nostalgy and freshness.
- What’s the connection between Morning Musume and Pink Lady?
Takahashi: We once performed together on “Music Fair”. We got to sing “Nagisa no Sindbad”, “UFO” and other songs together and they danced together with us in “The Peace”.
Kamei Eri: When I think about it now, it was like a dream…
Takahashi: That’s why, I think it was fate. Arbitrarily. (lol)
- What are the characteristics of Morning Musume’s “Pepper Keibu”?
Michishige Sayumi: There’s no interlude in the original, but there’s one in Morning Musume’s version and it’s quite intense.
Tanaka Reina: When I was thinking that since it’s a cover, the dance will be probably the same and we won’t dance much, a Morning Musume part was added there.
Mitsui Aika: It caught us off guard. (lol)
Junjun: It’s very powerful and Morning Musume-like.
Linlin: The costumes are different too. Pink Lady had pink, we have green ones. So we’re “Green Girls”. (lol)
- The b-side “Romance” is a cover of Iwasaki Hiromi-san’s song.
Kamei: I love that song. My mom often sings it, so I had heard it many times already. But when I listened to Iwasaki-san’s original, I noticed that my mom was singing it totally wrong. (lol)
Mitsui: I think the lyrics are good e.g. ♪Iki ga kakaru hodo soba ni itte hoshii♪. They’re cute and sexy at the same time.
- “Pink Lady” makes you think of the Shouwa era. Since Shouwa = nostalgic, what kind of things made you feel nostalgic lately?
Takahashi: Since I’m from Fukui prefecture, I feel nostalgic when I meet other people from Fukui. I get happy talking about the town I’m from and get into a nostalgic mood.
Niigaki: The other day I went to a festival with Papa and Mama after a long while. When I heard the shouts of the old men during the Bon Festival dance, I felt very nostalgic.
Mitsui: When I was tidying up my room the other day, I found a lot of photos and presents from the time when I lived in Shiga. When I opened my datebook, there were many names of my friends written in it. It was very nostalgic.
Junjun: I watched an old DVD the other day. The DVD contained the first dance that was filmed of Linlin, Mitsui and me. Our dance was very bad and our faces were swollen too. We looked like dancing meat buns. (lol) I really think we’ve grown since then.
Linlin: I feel nostalgic when I eat Chinese meat buns. It makes me think of how I used to eat them for breakfast everyday in China.
Kamei: I used to have ballet lessons and I had the habit of always drinking a certain carbonated drink after them. But since I quit ballet, I haven’t been able to find that drink anywhere else, but they were selling it in the vending machine of this studio! The bottle was changed into aluminium, but it still had that extremely nostalgic taste. It made me remember my way home from ballet when I was in elementary school.
Michishige: I love eating pikes. But since summer is not the season for them, pikes cost a lot, right? They’ve become cheap only recently when autumn arrived and I could finally eat pikes. When I eat them I think “This taste is the best after all~” and remember the previous year. (lol)
Kusumi: As for me, I often feel nostalgic. It’s like everything in the past feels nostalgic to me. (lol)
Tanaka: I host a radio show (InterFM “FIVE STARS”) where I get to choose which songs to play. Lately I’ve been playing many nostalgic songs and while listening to them, I remember the time when I used to listen to that song. Memories get wrapped up in songs, right? It made me think that music is a good thing.
- “Morning Musume” makes you think of the Heisei era. Since Heisei = new, what kind of things made you feel that way lately?
Takahashi: Since recently, we can make banana juice at home. I thought that you can easily make it yourself if you have a mixer and it was another new discovery for me.
Kamei: I’ve always thought that I can’t eat macaron. An aversion without even trying. But when I did try it recently, I could eat it. A new discovery for me.
Tanaka: There are cards called Micro SD, right? I used to think that you read it like “Maikuro”, but a friend told me that you read it like “Mikuro” and I thought that it’s “Mikuro” all the time. But then I heard someone say it like “Maikuro SD card” and said “That’s Mikuro, you know?”, but I was totally wrong. (lol) Another thing I learned is that you say “Oh no! Fukitsu na yokan!” instead of “fuketsu na yokan“. (lol)
Kamei: And you even asked me “Eri, do you know this saying?” so full of confidence, that we all fell down when you said it wrong. (lol) We were shocked.
Linlin: I learned a new Japanese word. “zekku“. I want to use it a lot.
Mitsui: I’ll be raising a dog on my own. It’s a toy poodle and I chose it myself, signed the pet contract myself and bought a pet insurance myself. I did all that for the first time.
Michishige: I keep a diary everyday and recently started my 7th one.
Everyone: Amazing!
Michishige: It doesn’t get old writing in it at all. Everyday is fun.
Junjun: I’ve noticed that time seems to pass very quickly lately. When “Cinderella the musical” ended in August, I couldn’t believe how quickly the 3 weeks had passed. During the filming of the promotion video, I was surprised because it was evening before I even noticed it. The Beijing Olympic Games too, when I thought of watching it, it was already over. (lol)
Kusumi: I recently noticed that I’ve become taller again. Now I’m about 164cm tall. My goal is to reach 172cm, so I hope I’ll grow even more.
Niigaki: In “Cinderella the musical” I got to play the role of a gentleman-like prince for the first time and I had to wear 15cm high boots for that. The view from 15cm higher than usual was new for me. I normally have to look up to most members, but when we formed a ring during the musical, I was happy because I was sticking out. (lol) Since I’ve always wanted to become taller, it was like one of my dreams came true.

Item Reviewed: Kindai Description: Rating: 5 Reviewed By: Sakura District, Inc

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