When it comes to Hello! Project singles, no one has arranged more than Suzuki Daichi Hideyuki. Morning Musume’s “Do it! Now” and “Resonant Blue,” Matsuura Aya’s “The Bigaku” and “Kiseki no Kaoru Dance“… Countless of signature songs have been arranged by him. But what to him constitutes a perfect arrangement?

— What sort of music did you personally like early in your life?

Suzuki: I lived right through that biggest band boom — I loved bands like BOØWY and Blue Hearts and I played in a rock band myself. But I also found myself quite liking idol music along the lines of Tokyo Performance Doll and such. Nakayama Miho, too… I loved all the kayou kyoku type stuff. I played guitar in the band I was in, but I originally started out with programming back in junior high, thanks to the influence of TM NETWORK.

— I can’t imagine there having been too many junior high schoolers playing around with music programming in the late 80’s. (laughs)

Suzuki: Probably not, no. (laughs) I loved computers and I was into computer programming, too, so it was easy to get into music and the hardware side of things through that. So then I went out and bought myself a sequencer. With programming you had to input written music which would then output into actual sound… that’s how I got started. It was only later that I picked up the guitar and started playing in bands.

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Beginning with his keyboard contributions on “Ai no Tane,” Kono Shin has since gone on to leave behind a number of notable works, including Morning Musume’s “Manatsu no Kousen” and “I WISH,” Melon Kinenbi’s “Kokuhaku Kinenbi,” and ZYX’s “Iku ZYX! FLY HIGH.” Having worked on a great number of arrangements, he describes his work with Hello! Project in particular as having been “considerably free.” How exactly did these Kono works come to be?

— The first work you did in relation to Hello! Project was playing the keyboards on “Ai no Tane.” How did that happen?

Kono: I was playing in a band called SPANK HAPPY at the time. (Note: the band’s lineup consisted of Hara Midori, Kikuchi Naruyoshi and Kono Shin. They have since disbanded.) Our company at the time was working with this band called COSA NOSTRA (a band led by Sakurai Tetsutarou). Through that connection, I would often play keyboards on Sakurai’s works, so when he was called in to compose and arrange Morning Musume’s “Ai no Tane,” he asked me to play keyboards on it. The musicians who played on “Ai no Tane” were mostly all close acquaintances of his. Another thing is, I had already been a supporting member for Moritaka Chisato so I wasn’t even that far removed from Up-Front. That was a big reason as to why I later became an arranger for Hello! Project.

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Immediately after “Ai no Tane” and “Morning Coffee” came the song that really changed Morning Musume’s image: the brilliant “Summer Night Town.” It was followed by a song that earned the group their first Kouhaku appearance, “Daite HOLD ON ME!,” as well as the elegant “Memory Seishun no Hikari.” One man who greatly contributed to the arrangements of this “cool style” of early Morning Musume was Maejima Yasuaki. Having been a member of bands like SPICK & SPAN and Orquesta de la Luz — as well as a long-serving band leader for Moritaka Chisato in the 90’s — what kinds of things surprised this veteran of music in his work with Tsunku♂?

— Could you tell us about how you first came to be involved with Hello! Project?

Maejima: I was very much indebted to Seto Yukio, Moritaka Chisato’s producer. Seto had previously arranged a song or two for Sharan Q, and that’s how he’d gotten acquainted with Tsunku♂ and the rest of the band. Before long, the project for Morning Musume’s debut was underway and Seto called me along.

— I still remember the first time I heard “Summer Night Town” — it was like the perfect night-time kayou kyoku song. Did it already sound that way on Tsunku♂’s original demo?

Maejima: If I remember correctly, I received a very basic, programmed demo of the song. It wasn’t yet quite like how it eventually turned out, but the melody and overall harmonies were already there, meaning I didn’t have to give it a huge makeover or anything. I just stayed faithful to the demo I’d received… I think. I don’t really remember the specifics.

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