Following the theme music, ‘Paint’ for the current season of hit anime series One Piece, Japanese four-piece rock band I Don’t Like Mondays. released a brand-new single ‘Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete’ on YouTube for fans to enjoy. This coming-of-age love song is a perfect way to kick off March break (in certain parts of the world), and it’s centered on the kinetic rock sound it inherits from their track used in the cartoon.
It poetically spotlights an innocent young man’s pure heart among the arrival of spring and the budding seeds of love. Another highlight is a chanted choral section in the middle that symbolizes the band’s hope that the day will come soon when the live music industry recovers to full health, and we can all sing together once more.
I Don’t Like Mondays
‘Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete’
YU (vocals)
“I wanted to write a love song that traces the innocent and pure feelings of youth, which I try not to forget even as an adult, and I chose to express this tale of boyhood against a backdrop of spring, the season of new beginnings. I truly cannot wait for the day when we can sing this song live together with everyone.”
CHOJI (guitar)
“I aimed to play this song with a combination of strength and delicacy, like the wind. This is our first song in a while to have a guitar solo. In order to avoid the solo becoming too overbearing, I played an arpeggio while creating a tone that felt just right, made by combining a chorus effect together with an effect pedal called a POG. The guitar line is even deeper than on our last song, ‘PAINT’, and I hope you will try to recreate it yourself. The chorus has a difficult melody line, too, but I hope you’ll sound cool when you sing along.”
KENJI (bass)
“With all the restrictions at live music venues these past two years or so, the overwhelming amount of extra time we have all spent at home, and even the changes in the way we listen to music now, I wanted to create songs that will connect with your heart even more deeply when you listen to them alone. Our new song ‘Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete’ is about our heartfelt wish that we can all join together soon for a live experience, sing together and become one. I hope that the future will bring an even better environment where we can enjoy the wonderful sensation of singing together.”
SHUKI (drums)
“In 2022, which we began with the release of ‘PAINT’, we are paying extra special attention to creating music with a band sound, a live sound, with the hope that the live music scene can recover even more than last year. The song includes a section that everyone can sing along with, and we tried to find a sound that carries a sense of speed and clarity without sounding too fresh; and as a result, we ended up sprinkling YU’s vocal part with some digital processing. It’s a song packed with contradictory elements, such as analog and digital sounds, live instruments and sequencers, innocence and dirt, quietness and explosion, and so on. I hope you will listen to it over and over, and enjoy the playful musical approach.”