Mano Erina Special Interview For SONG FOR THE DATE Single

The single “Song for the DATE” has been released on June 27. Ken Iizuka, known as the director of the film “Arakawa Under the Bridge” directed the music video for the song. The shooting was held on May 7 and 8 at the ruins in the Kanto area. The video tried to capture Erina Mano trying to grow up to be more than an idol. It shows her two faces in symbolic and impressive style; one is wearing white clothes and anther is black. The video with a dark air seemed to express her conflict, suffering and 　hesitation to break out of her shell and become new person.
But Erina Mano appeared to be her usual self waiting for her turn in the bus off the camera. We visited her in the evening of the second day of the shooting when the shooting was almost finished. She welcomed us with her famous smile. She must have been exhausted from shooting all day from the early morning but didn’t show that at all.

Press (P) : Please tell us about the new single “Song for the DATE”.
Mano (M) : At first the song sounded like a “Youth song” because the words like “schoolyard” and “desk” reminded me of school. But as I sang the song again and again, I realized it had a different message.Suddenly the scene from the tour final in Osaka last year came to me. I was singing “My Days for You”. I couldn’t sing overwhelmed by emotions in the end. Then fans sang for me. That scene clearly came up in my mind. The line “You hummed that song out of the blue/Voice from someone hummed together to the same melody/The melody united your hearts” seemed to perfectly describe how I felt then. I thought, “This is a youth song but in the chorus it can be singing about ties between fans and me.”
P: The shooting for the music video must have been hard.
M: The schedule has been really tight in these 2 days. On the first day we shot from 6 in the morning until half past 8 in the evening in Shinjuku. I had to start making up my face from 3 in the morning on the following day. I woke up at 2a.m. I wasn’t sure it was day or night. But I’m really happy it didn’t rain in these 2 days! That was all I wished for. Director Iiduka and I couldn’t make only these 2 days for each other. It was kind of a bet.
P: What was the concept of the video?
M: He didn’t explain that clearly but I imagine he tried to portray past Mano in white and present Mano in black, who don’t know how to live and which way to choose.When she needed a clue from the past, white Mano came to see her from the past. White Mano was smiling but showed serious face at some point as though moving away from her. She seemed to want to say “Move just forward!”I thought she wanted to say “Past experiences are of course important, but don’t let them make you hesitate to follow your instinct when choosing your ways.” Her serious face seemed to be trying to stay apart from present Mano.
P: Has the director Ken Iiduka given you any advice on acting?
M: He didn’t say much. He said “When doing White, you can make your faces in “Smiling” and “Serious” faces. But when you do Black, don’t make too much faces.” When I lip-synched in black in different patterns, he told me to “move more freely and in bigger action”.
P: How do you think about the music video?
M: It feels like more than a music video. It can be said a movie itself. Usually the song and the images expressed the world of the lyrics together. But this time he didn’t care about that at all. He tried to create totally different image. It was kind of a short movie. Because of the way he shot me, I can see myself singing and acting at the same time in the movie. I really like it.

Source:
kawaii-girl.jp
Translation by HK