Hirata Shoichiro — in the past ten years, this man has been one of the constant mainstays of Hello! Project music. Morning Musume’s “Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatterun da yo!” and “Renai Hunter,” °C-ute’s “Kiss me Aishiteru,” “Crazy Kanzen na Otona” and “Aitai Aitai Aitai na,” Berryz Koubou’s “Asian Celebration,” “Aa, Yo ga Akeru” and “WANT!,” ZYX’s “Shiroi TOKYO,” DEF.DIVA’s “Suki Sugite Baka Mitai“… He has been involved with over 100 Hello! Project works. Considering how much his exquisite arrangements of edgy dance music and kayou-influenced pop seem to be loved by fans, one doesn’t know what to expect him to be like. But in this interview, his words proved him to be nothing if not a man full of humility!

— Jumping right into it: I want to start by asking what you found a difficult song to work on?

Hirata: Most of the time I just get to do what I like with my arrangements, but I’d say “Piriri to Yukou!” (Berryz Koubou) was a tough one just because they specifically wanted the song to feature sanshin. I had to think about the beat I wanted to give it, so I’d listen to lots of ska for inspiration. Well, truth be told, since this was just around the time when I was first starting out, it’d be more accurate to say every song felt difficult to do at the time. I enjoyed doing the remixes though — something like Gomattou’s “SHALL WE LOVE? (Cool groove mix)” was just great fun for me, making that 2-step remix.

— Meanwhile, a song like Morning Musume’s “Pyoko Pyoko Ultra!” was actually quite heavy on the dance music influences.

Hirata: I got word from the office that they would appreciate it if it did, yes. You know how these days people love songs with high BPM’s, right? Songs that it’s easy for fans to shout “oi, oi!” to. And I mean really high BPM’s — up there in the 170’s and 180’s. Even the average Hello! Project song around the time was pushing 150, so this was actually a period of serious struggle for me — I felt like I was starting to run all out of ideas. (laughs)

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