Translation of an interview posted to the Digimon Partners website on December 17, 2022 with singers AiM and Ayumi Miyazaki as well as music producer Shintarou Matsui regarding their cover versions of Frontier songs “Remaining Innocent” and “With The Will” released for Frontier‘s 20th anniversary.
Two of Digimon Frontier‘s key songs will be released on digital music storefronts on Christmas, December 25!
For the first time in 20 years, Kouji Wada-san’s ending and insert songs have been covered by AiM-san and Ayumi Miyazaki. They performed their versions of “Remaining Innocent” and “With The Will” for the first time at this year’s DigiFes 2022 event, and the fans received them quite enthusiastically. And now, starting from midnight on December 25, they’ll be distributed on digital music storefronts!
▼ Click here to purchase (from 12/25 12:00 AM) ▼
“Remaining Innocent” by AiM
“With The Will” by Ayumi Miyazaki
We at Digimon Partners have asked artists AiM-san and Ayumi Miyazaki-san, as well as music producer Shintarou Matsui-san, to participate in a Q&A with us about how they felt about performing these songs at DigiFes 2022 and what feelings they had as they did.
■ AiM-san
Singer and voice actress. On top of voicing Mimi Tachikawa in Digimon Adventure, she has also sung many songs for Digimon anime series, such as “I wish” and “keep on”.
Q: Please tell us how you felt when you sang Digimon Frontier songs at DigiFes 2022 and got to see fans’ reactions up front.
It seemed to really take them by surprise, and I was very happy. The atmosphere in the venue changed so much that I could tell even with my IEMs on, and it made me really want to get across my feelings to the audience even more.
Up until a few years ago, I’d refused to listen to any of Kouji Wada-san’s songs with any voice but his, so I was somewhat reluctant to sing it solo, but it really is a song I love a lot, so I’m very happy to get the honor of singing it, and I hope it’ll also make other people want to go back and listen to Wada-san’s voice again.
Q: Please tell us what you thought when you first heard the new arrangement of “Remaining Innocent”, as well if there was anything you were particular about when you actually sang it.
I think it’s a very lovely arrangement that keeps itself quite close to the original song yet also has a modern feel to it. I’m also very grateful that they added an extra intro to make it easier to sing live. I’d listened to Wada-san’s version of the song many times over, thinking about what kind of feelings he must have put into it.
Q: Please tell us about any interesting anecdotes about the recording, or about what feelings you sang the song with.
We were discussing whether to include the “Hey! ♪” from Wada-san’s original version of the song, the one from right after the first “No matter how far apart we are…”, but it seemed to be an ad-lib so we decided to hold back and not put it in, but since it was the first song at the DigiFes 2022 night show, I couldn’t stop myself from going “Hey! ♪” I was in the moment, and I really did want to say it.
If anyone was having trouble singing it because the key was too low for them, we’ve changed it for this arrangement, so I hope you can listen to it many times and sing it often. Please do listen to it and try comparing it with Wada-san’s version of “Remaining Innocent”.
■ Ayumi Miyazaki-san
Singer, as well as a songwriter, composer, and arranger. Has been involved with many Digimon anime songs, such as “brave heart” and “Break up!”. This new version of “With The Will” was arranged by himself.
Q: Please tell us how you felt when you sang Digimon Frontier songs at DigiFes 2022 and got to see fans’ reactions up front.
“FIRE!!”1 really did set the venue right on fire! While I was singing “The last element”1, even though they couldn’t actually yell2, I could hear everyone in the audience going “Yes!! ♪” with me. It really isn’t summer without DigiFes!
Q: Please tell us if there was anything you were particular about when you rearranged “With The Will”, or when you actually sang it.
I wanted to keep as much of the important standout points of the original song as I could, and I tried to dial down the digital feel of it a bit and make the guitar and strings more prominent. I also wanted my vocals to be carried a little better, so I made the instrumental to have somewhat of a heavier atmosphere.
Q: Please tell us about any interesting anecdotes about the recording, or about what feelings you sang the song with.
I’ve sung a lot of different Digimon songs at events like DIgiFes, but I didn’t have any memory of having sung “With The Will” before then, so I was able to do it with a very fresh feeling. During the recording and during the live show, I wanted to make it contrast with Kouji Wada’s more piercing feeling, so I sang it with a more condensed kind of passion. Singing a new version of a 20-year-old song was a lot of pressure, but I’m very grateful to have been given this opportunity.
■ Shintarou Matsui-san
Music producer. Continues to support the Digimon series with large numbers of songs ever since the broadcast of the original Digimon Adventure, and was also in charge of the live show portion at DigiFes.
Q: Please tell us how you felt after watching the performances of “Remaining Innocent” and “With The Will” at DigiFes 2022.
The 2022 event had very different setlists between the daytime show and the night show3, but both of these songs were at both shows, and they felt as if they were AiM-san and Miyazaki-san’s own original songs.
As I listened to them, I thought it was amazing how they could make the song be completely immersed in their styles instead of being just simple covers.
Q: Please tell us what was behind the decision to rearrange “Remaining Innocent” and “With The Will”, and if there were any parts you were particular about.
DigiFes 2022 was held on the year of Digimon Frontier‘s 20th anniversary, so while we were thinking about what to do about the setlist for the live portion, we thought it’d be good to produce new versions of the instrumentals and having AiM-san and Miyazaki-san cover them. We wanted to publish them on Christmas as a Christmas gift for our fans, so we deliberately held back the publishing date until Christmas rather than releasing it on the day of DigiFes 2022.
Digimon Frontier‘s first-half songs, meaning the opening, ending, and insert song, were handled by Kouji Wada-san, and other people had been in charge of the actual music production, but this time we asked Miyazaki-san to not only sing “With The Will” but also do the arrangement for it. As for “Remaining Innocent”, we brought on people who grew up in the original Digimon generation and were getting to work on their first piece of DiGiMONMUSiC. In essence, we produced them to have a modern-era sound while also not destroying what was in the original song.
Q: Please tell us about any interesting anecdotes about the recording, or about what feelings you sang the song with.
Although we had cover performances of Kouji Wada-san’s songs at previous DigiFes events, we’d never gone as far as to do actual studio recordings and releases for them.
This year, it’ll have been 7 years since Kouji Wada-san passed away, and I’d been wondering if we could do something for a while, so I feel like the timing working out for AiM-san and Miyazaki-san releasing covers right now feels like it was meant to happen.
DiGiMONMUSiC started off with “Butter-Fly” and “I wish”, but no matter which era of its music you listen to, it never feels like its strength has faded, and everyone’s continued to love these songs, so I hope you can use this as an opportunity to listen to and enjoy more DiGiMONMUSiC.
Thank you very much for treating us to these interesting stories!
▼ Click here to purchase (from 12/25 12:00 AM) ▼
“Remaining Innocent” by AiM
“With The Will” by Ayumi Miyazaki
Translator's notes
- Written “FIRE!” and “The Last element” in the original text. [↩] [↩]
- The DigiFes 2022 event had a restriction requiring audience members to keep silent during the show as a measure against COVID-19. [↩]
- DigiFes 2022 was the first DigiFes event to have different “daytime show” and “nighttime show” portions; both had live music performances, but the music lineup was different between them. [↩]