Time flies. I realized that more than 6 months have passed since my last blog entry. To all my “mates” who have been waiting to hear from me, apologies for such a long silence, and thank you so much for your patience. Today, I’d like to do a thorough review of 2009. (and I’m going to prove to you that it was worth the wait!)
Our 2009 kicked off with “LOOVEE GROOVY SHOW Vol.15” on Jan 23, when 2 of our original members resigned from the band.
To be honest, I’ve been quite devastated with our recurring member change, which happened every time we released a new album or single. So I was actually saying: “If there’s going to be any more member change on our next release, LOOVEE will end” (hey, I was half serious!)
And there was indeed a member change in January.
Actually, it all started from my frustration towards a specific member for her attitude and performance in the band (back then, I was only wishing to unlock her motivation and create a feeling of enthusiasm). However, she resigned in the end as she supposedly could not identify her raison d’etre in LOOVEE.
As 2 members were leaving us, we had a meeting between the come-outers and the remaining members. The meeting only lasted a brief 10 minutes or so. This is because we’ve long believed in the Japanese proverb: “Do not refuse who comes, do not run after who goes”. This is because ultimately, it all depends on the individual’s decision on what he / she will do, because only that person can decide for his or her own life (though today, we don’t welcome everybody who comes!)
After the talk session was over, I said to P-s, Epa, and Grappa, half jokingly: “As promised, shall we get disbanded?”
That’s when the 3 guys raised their hands in a somewhat comical manner, and said “If you’re disbanding, let’s form a band together!”. To me, the scene was a perfect comedy. I mean, I had no real intentions to end the project that I started myself, but the guys’ sense of humour really touched my heart. I admit that I almost cried (though I did not and will never cry in front of them!).
For 6 months after that day, LOOVEE did not conduct any SHOW BOX stages, which is the longest record of us not doing any live performances.
I mean, it was too painful for us not being able to perform our old songs that were loved by our “mates”.
That is why we needed to focus our mind on creating new songs. We had to go back to square one and explore our sound with the original 4 members. This is when we wrote songs including: “Chou (Butterfly)”, “Tokyo Highway Dancin’”, and “Tsuki no Warutsu (Moon Waltz)”.
It took us a lot of courage to unlearn what we’ve acquired in the past 5 years and change our style of making music, but that was precisely what we needed to do at this stage.
With our new songs, we finally broke our silence and did our first SHOW BOX in 6 months. This was indeed our first overseas performance called “Flip Side 2009 [A LOOVEELY WEEKEND] ”, which took place in Esplanade Outdoor Theatre, Singapore.
In a total of 6 stages over 3 days, we attracted a crowd of more than 3,000 spectators (we call them “mates”). We proved to ourselves that LOOVEE, in spite of the many twist and turns, has nevertheless taken the correct path each and every time we faced any challenges or hardships.
We love Singapore.
We put up our very best performance in Singapore out of all the SHOW BOX we’ve done until then. Our hunger to perform on stage was satiated, and the fact that we managed to perform earnestly in front of an international audience of differing races and languages, was such an inspiring experience. Yay! LOOVEE has made a true comeback!
After coming back from Singapore, we gave birth to new songs like “JOY!” and “Cocoa” which manifest our musical evolution.
But our story doesn’t quite end here.
LOOVEE’s 2009 will be completed only after the upcoming “Horebore Kokon Sono ni (Horebore Kokon Part 2)”, which will be taking place on the New Year’s Eve.
Let’s enjoy the thrilling evening together where we’ll be playing the largest number of songs over the longest performance time.
Finally, I want to share with you my most favourite phrase from “It’s Only A Paper Moon”;
It's a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be, But it wouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me.
* “Banum and Bailey” is the biggest circus in USA.
Stage performances may just be one of the many kinds of entertainment. But I feel that the moment we believe in it, it will become a marvelous truth (= “reality”).
In 2010, we’ll keep our distance from SHOW BOX, where the most vibrant, beautiful, fun, and crazy things took place.
But that is not a sad thing at all.
If we were to compare ourselves with a bakery, we want to bring our main focus now to the “bread”.
You may say: “Hey, that means you’ll be taking on a different stance from the past. Is everything going to be alright?”
My answer to you is: “No worries at all! Everything will work out just fine”
Why do I sound so confident? Well, that’s because you and us LOOVEE are great friends who have established a strong bond between each other – we’re all brilliant, glorious chefs of a great bakery!
posted by Yutty at 20:54|
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