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Group PassCode Official Artist Thread (2 Viewers)

Who is your bias?

  • Kaede

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • Yuna

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • Nao

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • Hinako

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • OT4

    Votes: 6 42.9%
  • Emily

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • Total voters
    14

Yachii

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PassCode is a Japanese alt-idol girl group formed in early 2013 as a normal cute idol group doing EDM/Bubblegum pop kind of music. The original lineup consisted of Kanzaki Reika, Sakurai Saki, Kazuki Kyoko, and Kurohara Yuri. Three of them left the group during their first year. During that time Minami Nao joined the group, and she along with Kurohara Yuri gave performances as a duo for a short time. In early 2014, with the addition of two new members, Takashima Kaede and Imada Yuna, they transitioned from typical idol music to electronic idolcore. For a brief period of time during 2015, with the incorporation of Ogami Hinako, it turned into a five members group; returning to a foursome when Kurohara Yuri abruptly left the group shortly after.

Facts:
  • Known for their energetic stage presence and ensuing wild live shows.
  • The girls make heavy use of autotune to give their voices a robotic sound.
  • Autotune is not used on a few songs to prove the girls can actually sing.
  • Even by Alt-Idol standards, PassCode mixes, mashes, and smashes genres with gleeful abandon. The girls themselves are often singing heavily autotuned J-Pop while the keyboardist (or backtrack) is playing chiptune technopop and the rest of the band are shredding hard rock or speed metal. Add to that mixture Yuna, who is almost a genre unto herself.
  • The group features harsh vocals, largely done by Yuna although Kaede can also do it. Nao also screams during live shows; but hers are not death screams.
  • For a very brief period in Summer 2015, after Hinako joined, PassCode became a five-girl group.
  • Since 2016, PassCode performs with a live backing band, and has done so consistently since then.
  • Often at live shows, the girls "flip the bird". Yuna started this tradition by getting a bit too into "Moon Phase" (while dropping an F-bomb). Hinako, the youngest member, then took up the gesture later in the show. The choreography for "rise in revolt" involves all four girls giving audiences the finger multiple times.
  • Just about every song the group has ever made has some English, especially post-Yuri.
  • The vast majority of PassCode's songs are originally titled in English, and a few songs that aren't are English words transcribed in katakana (「アスタリスク」 "Asterisk", 「オレンジ」 "Orange", 「ドリーム・メーカー」 "Dream Maker", 「カタルシス」 "Catharsis").
  • The song Ray was used in the To be Heroine anime opening.
  • The song STARRY SKY was used in the Meteorite Family drama opening.
  • The song 'Anything New' was used as the ending theme for TBS 'Super Soccer' in October and November 2020.

MEMBERS:
Nao:

Name: Minami Nao (南菜生)
Nickname: Nao (野菜),Yachii (やちい)
Color: Pink
Birthday: November 27, 1996 (age 25)
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Blood Type: B
Hobby: Watching live, writing sentences, observing people, Guitar
twitter account
instagram account

Facts:
  • Joined the group during their earliest stages to save it from disbandment.
  • Although there is currently no officially designated leader; Nao is the de facto leader. She does most of the talking during audience interaction, including "directing" the band, and her profile is listed first on each of the band's official portals.
  • She is not the oldest on the group, but she has been on PassCode for the longest time.
  • From 2017 she has suffered from depression relying sometimes on alcohol to regain some kind of control over herself. She reportedly has more or less resolved the issue by drawing strength from the fans.
  • She wears contact lenses.
  • She's a fan of Babymetal.
  • She loves sushi.
  • She has a dog called Mozuku.

Hinako:

Name: Ogami Hinako (大上陽奈子)
Nickname: Hinachan (ひなちゃん)
Birthday: June 22, 1998 (age 23)
Zodiac: Cancer
Blood Type: O
Hobby: Singing, Soft tennis, karate
twitter account
instagram account

Facts:
  • When she initially joined the group, she felt unwelcome.
  • She has a positive personality; smiling a lot.

Kaede:

Name: Takashima Kaede (高嶋楓)
Nickname: Kappi (かっぴ)
Color: Yellow
Birthday: December 25, 1993 (age 27)
Zodiac: Capricorn
Blood Type: O
Hobby: play at home. Look at beautiful women.
twitter account
instagram account

Facts:
  • Can do death screams quite well although not to Yuna's level.
  • She's a Blink.

Emily:

Name: Arima Emily (有馬 えみり)
Nickname: Emily (えみり)
Birthday: March 3, 1999
Blood Type: AB
Hobby: walk

Facts:
  • Current screamer.
  • She's a former Ladybaby member.



Former member:
Yuna:

Name: Imada Yuna (今田夢菜)
Nickname: Chiyuna (ちゆな)
Color: Blue
Birthday: December 17, 1994 (age 25)
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Blood Type: A
Hobby: Dance
twitter account
instagram account

Facts:
  • In charge of the harsh vocals. She's renowned for her death voice.
  • The earliest songs use someone else's voice for screaming and at early live shows she mimed to a backtrack.
  • Despite being in charge of the harsh vocals; she's quite the demure Girly Girl off-stage.
  • She has admitted in interviews she was uncomfortable with the screaming for a long time.
  • She's quite short; measuring 149cm (4'10⅝") tall.
  • She has stated in interviews that her English skill is poor. Yet she tends to have the most English in songs due to her death-screams.
  • She left PassCode on August 3, 2021 due to concerns about her emotional and physical health.



INTERVIEWS:








 
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Discography

prehistory:
[2013.05.26 ]LOVE LOVE HAPPYDAY [Indies Single]
[2013.05.26]Don't stop me NOW [Indies Single]
[2013.08.25] Lockon My Darling [Indies Single]

Alt-idol:
[2014.09.26] NEXTAGE [Indies Single]
[2014.10.01] ALL IS VANITY [Indies Album]
[2015.05.27] Now I Know [Indies Single]
[2015.11.25] Never Sleep Again [Indies Single]
[2016.05.25] VIRTUAL [Indies Album]
[2016.10.26] MISS UNLIMITED [Major Single]
[2017.04.19] bite the bullet [Major Single]
[2017.08.02] ZENITH [Major Album]
[2018.02.28] Locus [Special Album]
[2018.05.23] Ray [Major Single]
[2018.09.12] Tonight / Taking you out [Major Single]
[2018.12.19] PassCode 2016-2018 LIVE UNLIMITED [Live Album]
[2019.04.03] CLARITY [Major Album]
[2019.09.25] Atlas [Major Single]
[2020.05.20] Starry Sky [Major Single]
[2020.06.30] Mantra [Digital Cover]
[2020.10.28] Anything New [Digital Single]
[2020.12.23] STRIVE[Major Album]
[2021.11.10]Freely/FLAVOR OF BLUE [Major Single]


LOVE LOVE HAPPYDAY [Indies Single]
1632409575233.png


  1. LOVE LOVE HAPPYDAY

Don't stop me NOW [Indies Single]
1632409591743.png



  1. Don't stop me NOW

Lockon My Darling [Indies Single]
1632409603925.png



  1. Lockon My Darling

NEXTAGE [Indies Single]



  1. Nextage
  2. Shake it up tonight

ALL IS VANITY [Indies Album]



  1. Toxic
  2. 激動プログレッシブ
  3. Kissの花束
  4. Club Kids Never Die
  5. XYZ
  6. Let the revelry begin
  7. over there
  8. アスタリスク
  9. Seize the day!!
  10. Link

Now I Know [type,A] [Indies Single]



  1. Now I Know
  2. Seek out the truth

Now I Know [type,B] [Indies Single]



  1. Now I Know
  2. オレンジ

Never Sleep Again [Indies Single]



  1. Never Sleep Again
  2. Rize!!

VIRTUAL [Indies Album]



  1. MOON PHASE
  2. AXIS
  3. Never Sleep Again
  4. ドリームメーカー
  5. NINJA BOMBER
  6. from here
  7. SIGNAL
  8. Now I Know
  9. Selfish Girl
  10. Nextage
  11. Don't leave me alone
  12. You made my day

MISS UNLIMITED [Limited Edition Major Single]



  1. MISS UNLIMITED
  2. TRACE
MISS UNLIMITED [Normal Edition Major Single]



  1. MISS UNLIMITED
  2. Cry Out

bite the bullet [Limited Edition Major Single]



  1. bite the bullet
  2. カタルシス
bite the bullet [Normal Edition Major Single]



  1. bite the bullet
  2. LOST

ZENITH [Major Album]



  1. Maze of mind
  2. bite the bullet
  3. all or nothing
  4. ONE STEP BEYOND
  5. Scarlet night
  6. TRACE
  7. Same to you
  8. カタルシス
  9. rise in revolt
  10. Insanity
  11. MISS UNLIMITED
  12. Voice

Locus [Special Album]



  1. Toxic
  2. Axis
  3. Nextage
  4. 激動プログレッシブ
  5. Never Sleep Again
  6. Now I Know
  7. Kissの花束
  8. Club Kids Never Die
  9. Seize the day!!
  10. Parallel

Ray [Limited Edition Major Single]
33265



  1. Ray
  2. Trickster
Ray [Normal Edition Major Single]
33266



  1. Ray
  2. Until The Dawn

Tonight / Taking you out [Major Single]
Taking You Out Single.jpg



  1. Tonight
  2. Taking You Out

Clarity [Major Album]
33159



  1. Projection
  2. Dive Into The Light
  3. Ray
  4. 4
  5. Taking You Out
  6. The Day With Nothing
  7. Horoscope
  8. It's You
  9. In The Rain
  10. Trickster
  11. Tonight
  12. Will
  13. 一か八か


Atlas [Normal Edition Major Single]
1583429250180.png



  1. Atlas
  2. Future's Near By
Atlas [Limited Edition Major Single]
1583430162479.png



  1. Atlas
  2. Golden Fire


Starry Sky [Normal Edition Major Single]
1593367248123.png



  1. Starry Sky
  2. Tramonto
Starry Sky [Limited Edition Major Single]
1593367309279.png



  1. Starry Sky
  2. Seize Approaching BRAND NEW ERA


Mantra [Digital Cover]
mantra cover.jpg



  1. Mantra

Anything New [Digital Cover]
anything new cover.jpg



  1. Anything New

STRIVE [Normal Edition Major Album]
1632404892748.png



  1. SPARK IGNITION
  2. Majestic
  3. Shedding tears
  4. Seize Approaching BRAND NEW ERA
  5. Yin-Yang
  6. ATLAS
  7. Stealth Haze
  8. STARRY SKY
  9. Anything New -PrayInTheSky Edit-
  10. yours
  11. GOLDEN FIRE
  12. Remnants of my youth

STRIVE [Limited Edition Major Album]
1632404910869.png


  1. SPARK IGNITION
  2. Majestic
  3. Shedding tears
  4. Seize Approaching BRAND NEW ERA
  5. Yin-Yang
  6. ATLAS
  7. Stealth Haze
  8. STARRY SKY
  9. Anything New -PrayInTheSky Edit-
  10. yours
  11. GOLDEN FIRE
  12. Remnants of my youth
  13. -DVD- PassCode Documentary & Interview 2020, Music Video & Behind The Scene


Freely / FLAVOR OF BLUE[Major Single]
freely-flavor-of-blue-cover.jpg


  1. Freely
  2. FLAVOR OF BLUE

Latest MV

 
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They definitely have evolved. This is their oldest mv on youtube.
Asterisk, their first rock song.




This is their most recent one; unfortunately it's a short version.




It's good to see they have left their kawaii roots behind; focusing on giving powerful performances.
 
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Yuna is one of the most amazing screamers that I have ever listened.



In this video, the youtuber calls her "little girl". I think they refer to her short stature. Yuna is a grown woman.
 

Yachii

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JUNE 2016
In this interview, the girls tell us about how close we were from not having any PassCode.


((Original - Translated by Phillter, translator’s notes and clarifications in [ ]))

PassCode: Four girls restarting via “VIRTUAL”​

PassCode’s 2nd album is finished. This album has many songs that relate to the first album, “ALL IS VANITY”: It’s possible to say that the contents of [this album] connect both past and present PassCode. The girls are carrying this album on an all-country tour, “PassCode VIRTUAL TOUR 2016”, which starts on July 2nd and have the Tour Final welcomed at Zepp DiverCity TOKYO on August 8th.

To commemorate the sale of this album, Natalie Music carried out an interview with the 4 members [of PassCode]. We openly discussed the group from formation to today, the sudden withdrawal of a member, and their mental states during those times. I want to draw attention to their new order, their new album, their respective risks, and their whole-country tour.

Data Collation / Transcription: 古川朋久, Photos: 塚原孝顕​

At first, every member wanted to quit.

── 3years have passed since the formation of PassCode. To start with, the newly-formed PassCode’s basis is not the concept of “loud rock” works of right now, they were all entirely idoly cute songs.

Nao Minami [南菜生] Yeah, they were. We were the kind of normal idol group you could find anywhere.

──People who have only recently become fans can’t really believe it huh. (laughs)

Minami Our image is completely different I think.

──Minami, you felt like you joined in the middle of the group?

Minami Yes. I joined when the group had been doing activites for about 2 months since it’s start.

──Saying that, you were thinking that you wanted to do the idol-like activities that the PassCode at that time was doing?

Minami Actually, the truth is I didn’t have a desire to do idol stuff. I’m not suited for that kind of cutesy stuff at all. (laughs) If I had to say, I went to see bands a lot, I went to see some idols as well, but if you were to ask me what I think is how you do it [get into idoling], I have absolutely no clue. I was approached by management and ignored it for a long time, but I heard the reason that there wasn’t enough people [members], and I ended up wanting to save them... So, from there I entered, that’s the whole story.

──Like a rescuer?

Minami At first it felt like that. I thought, “I can’t do this”, but because there was the feeling that if I kept thinking that way the group would disappear, I thought “What can I lend to them?” When I recognized that, I ended up joining.

──But in the end the early members quit one by one, correct?

Minami Yeah, it went like that. But as members were leaving I didn’t really think much of it. It was like, “Oh, wait, really?” (laughs) I thought I wanted to quit too, but if I quit, the fans would probably be so sad. They supported me, so there would be no excuse [if I quit]. At the time, I had no desire to go higher, there were only thoughts of “I need to continue doing this for now,” it wasn’t a positive feeling or anything.

──So, more than continuing to do it for yourself, you were doing it for the fans.

Minami At the time it was like that, yeah. I didn’t want to show resentment to the people that had supported me. Even if there was that thought, all of the remaining members felt like they wanted to quit I think. The state of affairs when we were together was like, we would about who would quit next, or probe each other [about that] continued for a while. So, with relation to the group, it wasn’t a good situation.

Idol’s actually pretty good, isn’t it.

──In the end only you and Yu-ri Kurohara were left, and for a while you continued to perform shows as just the two of you. Then in 2014 [Kaede] Takashima and [Yuna] Imada joined. Along with this timing, the concept of the group also changed into the form of the PassCode of today.

Minami The songs and the visual style were included [in that], and everything changed. With 2 people joining, with the idol-like songs we had done up to that point, it had an appearance like at the start, but as far as songs were concerned, “Asterisk” came about. When we [heard about it, we] thought, “Wait. What? What the hell is this song?!” The song’s producer, [平地孝次, Koji Hirachi], explained to us, “From now on this is the kind of song we will be doing.” At the time, (Imada) Yuna-chan and (Takashima) Kaede-chan entered [the group] thinking they would be doing cute idol songs, so I wondered if it was going to be OK. (laughs)

Yuna Imada [今田夢菜] Yeah, that was totally the intention! (laughs) I was doing cute-idol activities when I was in high school. To that, I thought, “Idol really fits me, haha!” So after that I thought that I wanted to do idoling, but when I had a talk with PassCode [management] things weren’t going well, so I wasn’t sure. I decided to enter with the feeling of “If it’s cute idol stuff I can probably do it.” But, well, when I went to a PassCode lesson [rehearsal], Mr. Hirachi told me, “Yuna-chan, can you shout for me please?” I could kind of imagine what he was asking for, but because doing the impossible is impossible [a saying with the feeling that no one would ask you to do something you can’t do], at first it was the rule to say, “Yes, sir!”

── A complete 180 to way you wanted to do it, huh?

Imada Totally! At that time I felt like I really wanted to quit! (laughs)

Minami (I) was fearful of if [she] would quit.

Imada It was too different from what I thought.

Minami You were like, “I want to act more cute!”, “I’m everyone’s younger sister!” (laughs)

Imada I really didn’t think it would become like this.

──Takashima, what’s your story about coming to PassCode?

Kaede Takashima [高島楓] I like idols so I’ve seen them before, and at the time I heard talk that they were looking for a kid who wanted to be an idol. I still had school at the time, but I didn’t really go to class and I would lounge around at home. When I was talked to [about becoming an idol], I thought I would do it with a light-hearted feeling. It’s not like I had thought about anything like it at all before. It was like, “I’ve got free time, so I’ll do it.”

──So, you wanted something to be enthusiastic about?

Takashima Yeah, that’s it. Because everyone was going to school and not hanging out with me. (laughs)

Minami At the time, Mr. Hirachi said about Kaede-chan “That girl...I really have no idea if she wants to be an idol.” (laughs)

Takashima No matter what was said to me, I was always saying, “I’ll do it! I can do it!” or, “Yes!”

──But you did everything completely to this point?

Takashima I’m the kind of person, even today, that doesn’t really continue things. School, anything else, I don’t really continue it, so if I lost interest in PassCode it was like, “Well, I’ll just quit I guess.” (laughs)

Minami That was close!

Takashima Yuna-chan and I only ever talked about “When should we quit?” (laughs)

Imada On the train home I would be like, “I wanna quit!”

Takashima There were more practices and we were getting really tired of it. I’m not good at exercising and stuff.

──It basically didn’t fit you at all. (laughs)

Takashima It was really tiresome.

Minami It became a 4 person setup, and before our first live performance we were practicing every day, even going so far as living together. We’d stay the night at the office, dancing from morning until evening.

Takashima But that living together and practicing the whole day, it was tough but it was also good. Like, “Idol’s actually pretty good, isn’t it?” Well, but I guess after that practice was also hard, so I still thought I should quit. (laughs)

Minami It’s gonna be a terrible conversation when fans read this you guys...(laughs)

Like a house without supports

──Minami, did you notice that the 2 girls thought they wanted to quit?

Minami Nope, the reality is that at the time we weren’t that close. I didn’t really know what they were thinking about. But they somehow conveyed that they wanted to quit.

Takashima We didn’t really have that deep of conversations or anything.

Imada There was a bit of a wall during the time with ex-members and new members.

Minami There wasn’t a feeling of wanting to hang out together on the surface. (laughs)

── There wasn’t the feeling of asking them, “Are you thinking you want to quit?” or anything?

Minami I was scared so I couldn’t ask! (laughs) Those two were older than me, the older girls. There wasn’t the feeling then like there is now where I can ask them about anything.

Imada So you perservered, right?

Minami It became so that I didn’t know what I should do...I felt like if they quit and the group broke up, there was nothing I could do about it.

──After the coming of the new system, it was a new start, but the period of instability for the group was continuing, wasn’t it?

Minami Yeah, it totally was. It takes a lot of time for a clear bond to be born among group members. Anyway, if you asked around to the members, it looked like it was over. I thought PassCode would end, and that I couldn’t do anything. There was absolutely no contact with [Yu-ri] Kurohara. There especially was the feeling that no one had a good relationship with each other. I thought the diagram of PassCode at that time was like 1 pair of people and another pair of people.

Imada It felt like a house without supports. A really loose feeling.

The things we had been doing were wrong

──In the middle of that long-running situation, songs were being made at a high pace, weren’t they?

Imada That was also really rough because we had to make up the whole pretense!

Minami Only the members thought about the appearance of the songs on the first album “ALL IS VANITY”. So we also had to create the appearance of the songs, and memorize them, and because I had no idea what the [other] members were thinking about, I got really irritated. But because I couldn’t put voice to that [lit. “Couldn’t do the words to my mouth”] everyone’s attitude worsened, and the atmosphere became heated.

Takashima I wanted to go home.

──If this were a normal group, then having new songs would be a happy occasion, but it wasn’t an atmosphere you could be joyous in, was it?

Imada Time was short and no one was really going along with it...

──”When will peace and tranquility visit this group?” was the worry. (laughs)

Imada The heated [feelings] continued. It was that way until about when our One-Man [solo concert] was.

Minami Yeah. After our One-Man was over, everyone’s feelings changed a lot.

Imada I didn’t think that many Hackers (name for fans of PassCode) would come [to see us]. We got up on stage and were immediately surprised.

Minami As soon as the curtain was opened, I was deeply moved.

Takashima Like, “Wow, this many people came to support us?”

Imada Until that point there was never the feeling that live performances were fun. I hated screaming. But we had to say that live shows were fun while we were there, didn’t we? I also hated that feeling of lying.

──That whole time sounds pretty depressing.

Imada I found myself thinking, ”Is this what concerts feel like?” But at the One-Man we saw the hall become an amazing spectacle. It was the first time we were able to have a feeling like, “Wouldn’t you say this is fun?!” It’s like the things we had been doing were wrong.

Takashima I also thought at the time that I wanted PassCode to continue.

I completely knew that I wouldn’t be accepted

──From the beginning of 2015 you started to be acknowledged not just by the idol world, but also slowly by fans of bands as well. Did you ever have the feeling that your fanbase was growing?

Minami At that time, even at sales meets, there were lots of people that would say, “I don’t like idol, but I came.” Even though they weren’t idol fans, people were still coming to like us. It was astonishing.

──Then, PassCode debuted at the TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL [TIF] 2015 in August of that year. On that stage you debuted a new member, [Hinako] Oogami.

Hinako Oogami [大上陽奈子, last name pronounced “OH-gah-me”] I finally appeared on stage! (laughs)

──Oogami, what is your story of how you entered PassCode?

Oogami In March of 2015 I performed together on stage with [Yu-ri] Kurohara, and it was there that I started receiving inviations from PassCode’s management.

Minami Those people have already quit, but without consulting with us at the time [management] decided to arbitrarily add a new member. (laughs)

Oogami From the start I admired idol groups. I wanted to become an idol from when I was little.

Minami Like, when she was in middle school she had an audition for Morning Musume.

Oogami I failed the Morning Musume audition though, so I started doing solo idol work in middle school. I would perform at about 2 live events a month. But even while I was doing those activities, I admired idol groups. Therefore, as soon as I had a conversation [with PassCode management] I wanted to join, but when I watched PassCode music videos and the like, I thought, “This is different than what I thought it would be!” (laughs)

──It wasn’t even a bit like Morning Musume, right?

Oogami Right. “But..idol is supposed to be more shining and cute...”

Takashima PassCode is cute!

Everyone Haha! (laughs)

Oogami But PassCode was singing songs like no one else was, and contrary [to my previous thoughts] I thought it was interesting, and I wanted to join. So, talks continued from when I was shown the second One-Man show. I linked up with everyone at the end of July, about one week before TIF.

──Wow, there was no time until your debut!

Minami Yeah! Because of that it was like I should only learn [lit. match] the songs that would be performed at TIF.

Imada To start with, just before Hina-chan joined we were told, “A new member will be joining.” It was a feeling like, “what kind of arbitrary decision is this?!” Moreover, even though it was our first TIF and we’ve wanted to appear on stage there for so long, they had the assumption that we could debut a new member...I thought, “This can’t be happening.”

──Like you alluded to, when Oogami joined, there was not even a warm welcome from the members at the time...

Takashima At the time, Yu-kyan (Kurohara) embraced an atmosphere of “Let’s do our best.” So the 4 of us kept our chins up [lit. looked upwards]。Even still, I wondered if the sudden addition of a member would cause the good mood to collapse.

Oogami The atmosphere that was portrayed to me from the first greetings told me that I wouldn’t be welcomed. (laughs)

Everyone Haha! (laughs)

Imada That must have been scary! Sorry about that [lit. We did a bad thing]...

Takashima I wanted to greet you with a smile but my face didn’t move. (laughs)

Oogami From that point on until the days that we had practice, because of the uneasiness there was nothing I could do. I completely knew that I wouldn’t be accepted.

We wanted to do our best as THIS foursome

──You greeted your performance at “TIF” with that situation, what did you do?

Minami I don’t recall. I do remember that we got on stage with a complex feeling.

Imada Places where we had to stand and stuff had completely changed, I totally remember that.

Oogami I’m really sorry.

Minami It’s not Hina-chan’s fault, but even though we thought, “at last we were performing at TIF,” it was like people had come just to see the new member. Of course we were happy, but it was a depressing feeling the whole time.

Oogami Everyone did lessons together with me, so about from the time when TIF was over I thought I was slowly being accepted. (laughs)

Minami Hina-chan talked positively to us!

[Note: Kaede uses a lot of Kansai slang here, my apologies for any mistranslations]
Takashima Moreover, we weren’t really able to ignore that feeling. It was like, if one of us said, “My feet hurt. They are rubbing in my shoes,” we would all go buy socks together. I didn’t have a good feeling about it, I worried about it.

Imada Truly, in the middle of performances and stuff I always worried about Hina-chan.

Minami I was concerned about her physical strength, she made faces like she was going to die the whole time! (laughs)

Imada Therefore there was a feeling like [she was] already accepted. We just hadn’t noticed [our own decision] yet.

──The atmosphere slowly became one of acceptance concerning Oogami then? But, with that timing, original member [Yu-ri] Kurohara truly retired.

Minami While on tour, when we were waiting on the Bullet Train we were told by staff that, “Today, Kurohara will not be coming.”

Imada It was like, ”She’s saying she won’t be coming today. Not because she is in poor health, she is just not coming.” At the time we had practiced the singing parts and the formations for the event that she was not performing on stage [in our shows], but it was still too sudden. There were plans for versions of songs for the 4 of us to do without Yu-kyan at a performance, so in the middle of the Bullet Train we frantically memorized and arranged something for the performance.

──I’m guessing that there was a feeling from everyone of, “What? She’s not coming? What do you mean?”

Imada Exactly, like, “What are we gonna do?”

Oogami We came close to crying...

Minami About 2 days before that, the 5 of us were like, “Let’s all do our best together,” and had just cried while we all talked together!

Imada From there we completely broke contact with her. Right after that we were going to go perform in Okinawa and had made plans for Yu-kyan’s birthday party. But we couldn’t just stop [the show], so we had no choice other than to announce officially that she was in poor physical health. We were really sorry for fans of Yu-kyan that had gathered to see her, we could only say, “We’re really, truly sorry.” But, that live show went really well.

──You were able to perform OK with just the 4 of you?

Minami When we performed “Orange”, no one said a thing, but tears were flowing, like, “bwah!” We wanted to do our best as THIS foursome, and I had a feeling we made a promise there to come together as one.

Oogami I also thought this group is best [like this].

Imada I thought, “Thank goodness Hina-chan joined the group.” It wasn’t because we needed just anyone as another member, but because it was Hina-chan it was good.

Oogami I didn’t stop grinning.

Imada Well, I didn’t think THAT far. (laughs)

We wanted to sell out our Tour Final show

──Various things happened in a short period of time. The best version of PassCode finally came about. Many Hackers were also saying that, in their opinion, this group of 4 was the best, correct?

Oogami We were told that a lot, yes.

Minami It was coming to really fit. Live shows with this group of 4 were really fun. Nothing more than that.

──Then, your first all-country tour started. (Reference: 「この4人でもっと上へ」PassCode、決意の 初単独ツアー開幕)。The starting of the tour was just after Kurohara removed herself, but you were pretty excited, yes?

Minami During the very first song my contact flew out and I couldn’t see at all! (laughs) That was really terrible. But everyone was saying it was fun, and that they thought the performance was great.

──You cut a great starting day in your home of Osaka, and from there toured at Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Sapporo, with the Tour Final being at Akasaka BLITZ on January 2nd, 2016. (Reference:PassCode、熱狂の初ツアーに幕「もっといい景色見せる」) Tons of people gathered together for the New Years [show], But how was it for you all?

Imada It was vexing for us.

Minami Yeah, we wanted to sell out our Tour Final show.

Oogami It was awesome that so many people came to see us, chose us even though it was New Years [the most major holiday in Japan, our eqivalent in size and importance would be Christmas], but it was really disappointing to us...It wasn’t even that everyone didn’t come, we just wanted more people [than there were] to come see us .

──You were all confident in your performance, so you had the strong feeling of wanting more people to come see you, correct?

Minami I think it’s extravagent, but we thought that since we got bigger we wanted more people to come attentively watch us. Our charm is our live shows, therefore we wanted people who were interested to move their legs! I thought the Akasaka BLITZ performance was a time for people who came to like us to take advantage [of the opportunity to see us], so not being buried [in fans] was disappointing. But from then on our awareness changed. Everyone had a feeling of staying positive [lit. “Keeping their eyes aimed upward”].

“VIRTUAL” is our restart.

──Your second album, “VIRTUAL”, was completed. Just based on the high praise of the first album, “ALL IS VANITY”, you must have some pressures, yes?

Minami We feel a ton of pressure. However, it’s really an exception. Both albums are packed full of PassCode songs, so we want people to listen to both of them.

──The significance of comparing the past PassCode and the PassCode of today is interesting, isn’t it?

Minami Yeah, because the meaning [of the comparison being significant] also fits with our restart.

──I have a feeling that the current PassCode is condensing it’s strengths [lit. “Good areas”]. By the way, what is the album’s theme?

Minami Mr. Hirachi has said that it is “ALL IS VANITY 2.” There is a bit of a link there, for example the first song “MOON PHASE” is made to be like “ALL IS VANITY”’s “Toxic”. It’s also like there are lyrics that link to some other songs.

Imada ”NINJA BOMBER” was made with a similar melody line.

──In ”NINJA BOMBER”’s MV, everyone becomes ninjas, fight against enemies, and it finishes with a comical air.

Oogami Filming took a really long time.

Minami It took 3 days to shoot. For PassCode MVs, because all of the staff at the office make even the little things themselves, the fact that all of the shots are all made by them is a strength of ours.

Imada We’ve kinda made a lot of MVs, because if you ask Mr. Hirachi he’ll say, “People that sell make a ton of MVs!” (laughs)

──In the middle of all of these aggressive songs, the song “Dream Maker” is totally like an idol song.

Imada ”Dream Maker” is so much fun! There are still shouts in the middle, but I really like the cute-feeling songs.

──It is Oogami’s first album, that must be really emotionally moving to you.

Oogami I really love the album “ALL IS VANITY”, but listening to the source, of course there isn’t my voice in there, so it’s a little lonely. We hear from a lot of fans, “Quickly, we want to hear songs Hina-chan’s voice!”, so we want them to listen to “VIRTUAL” quickly.

Aiming to sell out the Tour Final

──There are still some songs that have not been shown at live shows. Among those, the final song of the album, “You made my day” is a short work, but it feels like it is full of lyrics about the current mental state [of the group].

Minami Our songs have a lot of English lyrics, but we are almost never given translations in Japanese. But, Japanese lyrics were also sent along with “You made my day”.

Imada I don’t really know much English, but reading the Japanese lyrics while listening to the song, the root [lit. genes] came. Hina-chan has always been in charge of stand-in lyrics, but it’s a song you can peacefully fall asleep to. (laughs) You listen, and the feeling is good, there are various thoughts and it is packed full of our feelings.

Minami It would be great if at the end of the live performances everyone could sing the big chorus [together].

Takashima So, all you Hackers, memorize the lyrics please! (laughs)

──Starting in July your 5 city all-country tour will start. It’s a tour to carry the album of course, but what is your goal with the tour?

Imada More than being an “Akasaka BLITZ revenge”, we want to go break through and go beyond the walls that are there right now.

Minami There are quite a few people in the Higashimei area know of us and have told us that they like us, but outside fo that there is still a ways to go we think. Therefore, it’s just 5 cities, but we want go outside of this area in such a way as to bring a climax and force [to the areas we will visit].

──The Tour Final will happen at Zepp DiverCity on August 8th. The whole set will be with a band, and [people] are looking forward to this challenge.

Oogami I wonder what kind of feeling will it have!

Takashima The anticipation and anxiety are about half and half I would say.

Minami It’s a huge challenge. We aim to sell out the Tour Final! We will be performing so that even people coming to see us for the first time will be satisfied, so we want people that are on the fence about [lit. “puzzling over”] coming to absolutely come see us! Our big challenge’s first step will be on 8/8. We totally want to become the idols that people will boast about by saying, “I was there at PassCode’s live show on 8/8/2016!” Please come witness us!

Takashima I think as the tour elapses I want us to improve [lit. “level up”]. It’s not just a performance, it’s a physical feeling. Now, I’m not thinking that I want to quit, there is no feeling but that I want to go higher, so please be at ease. (laughs)

Oogami We now want to do our best with all our strength. It’s not a multi-group performance, it’s a One-Man, so we’ll be able to deliver both the more aggressive songs and the ballads. We want to make it a satisfying tour [for the audience].

Imada There are 4 tour stops until [the show on] 8/8, but we want the people who see us at every stop to spread the impression that it was fun. To that, I want many people to gather on 8/8, to sing with a lot of feeling, and become bigger! (laughs)

Minami Bigger...? (laughs) Well, I want it to come into existence that there is no border between bands and idols. I want it to become such that there aren’t fans of bands or fans of idols, but just fans. I want to aim for a “PassCode” genre.

──Maybe we’ll see that happen at the Tour Final.

Imada Maybe!

Minami I want everyone to see it with their own eyes.


 
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