I was going to interview Shizen Project, at Ayaka's request- but then I found I'd already interviewed her. But she was sweet enough to send me the request and get my contact info for MSN, so I couldn't resist. Instead we did a sort of 'What's new with Shizen' meeting-thing.
LOL we actually kept talking over each other, which was kind of funny, but I got a lot of info and it was cool to chat one-on-one with the Shizen's leader. (Note: Because we talked over each other, I had to move some replies around, so it wouldn't be confusing) Sorry this is so long~
AYA: Okay for starters, why don't you pick something new that has happened recently in Shizen and tell me about it.
AYAKA: We gained 9 new members. Our new trainees- they will help us other if we need to be covered in songs. They will also do songs themselves, I haven't started that out yet because we are currently recruiting two more. The second thing is we are working on a concert that we plan on being released in winter 2011.
We have got six new splinter groups covering old H!P stuffs. Like Country Musume, Coconuts Musume and Melon Kinenbi. We haven't started them yet but the cast is up.
AYA: So many projects are having auditions lately!! It's exciting, lol. Are all 9 members trainees? Have you thought any about what kinds of songs you'd like them to sing? A Shizen Concert!? YAY! It's a little bit away, but just the thought of it fills me with glee. Do you have names for the splinter groups yet?
AYAKA: Since it have been so long since you interviewed me, I can also tell you we got 11 new gen.4 members. Joined on July 31st. Yes, all 9 members are trainees and they will sing in groups- like, they'll sing small group songs and are going to be in new group everytime they sing a new song.
So W, Minimoni, S/mileage, KiraPika, GAM and other small stuffs. All our groups have a name of things in the nature, because of the name 'shizen' that means nature. The first one is Hanabira that covers Tanpopo. Then it is Mitsurin covering Country Musume, Nanairo Sui covering v-u-den, Takazora that covers Melon Kinenbi, Coconuts Musume group is Soyokaze Musume, and Nagareboshi covering Milky Way.
No trainees are in these groups or the units only in their own group. OH WAIT I forgot a detail- Trainees are covering and singing and when we think they are ready they will graduate to form a new generation (full members).
AYA: Anything else new going on? Are you doing anything special for Christmas?
AYAKA: I haven't thought of that but since I am soon done with the coding for the concert and we are going to mix it in December, I don't think we'll get time to make a special thing for christmas. We've got a name of the concert it's called Shizen! Project 2011 WINTER Fuyu no Tanoshimi ~Shizen!Champloo~
We are trying to make the members more active because in the meantime we are not that active, the leaders and I want us to be. So we are working together and planning on how to do it, we have a leader discussion on the board.
AYA: Aww I like it!! (the concert name) Are you going to pull random tracks from different concerts, or are you going to fully cover a concert track list? Like a full C-ute concert, or a full Wonderful Hearts concert, etc
That's awesome! With school and work & such, I'm sure activeness can be a struggle. Goodness knows, my work makes me a slow blogger quite often. A lot of projects go under because of it, so I'm glad that y'all are fighting it! I really like listening to y'all's singing!
AYAKA: A full concert. I am a bit...I don't know what it's called but I have seen three posts on your blog from projects doing the same concert. But we are doing a full concert track list...Hello Project 2009 SUMMER Kakumei Gannen Hello Champloo!
AYA: Cool, I was just curious~ I wish you the best of luck with it, and will try and keep an eye out for it! So; new members, trainees, concert, new groups...is that about all for the Shizen news? OH question! Your profile mentions AKB48, but you've mainly done H!P. Do you have plans for any AKB48 dubs?
AYAKA: Yes, we have a AKB48 group called SPD48. We've only got 5 members for it so I don't know what to do with it. Um...news. Let me think. We opened a korean group, I am still doing the coding for our first single. I HOPE to get it done by (the end of) October if my members give lines on time haha.
AYA: You could try and cover the subunits of AKB48? They have some really good songs that are underdubbed. WHAT? A Korean group?! Yay~ My birthday is in October *winkwink* I like it when projects go outside of H!P, or whatever their focus is. It's fun to try different things.
AYAKA: I know about the subunits, but you know, I wanted something big. Like AKB is big and I thought it would be good with a big group. But I am afraid of copyright, don't wanna loose ShizenProjectDubs. I like it too. I personally think H!P is very much dubbed and I think other groups need some dubbing-spotlight.
AYA: A lot of projects use images that show who is singing when, but no video. To try and protect themselves. That could work, eh? H!P is dubbed a lot!! And that's not bad, but it's the same songs and groups over and over. Other groups should get some spotlight indeed!
AYAKA: Yeah! I did that on the Aishite Aishite Ato Ippun video. You know, I've got Photoshop CS2 but no mixing software. So It's pretty useless.
AYA: Uh-huh, I remember :'3 Going back to the activeness, are your members pretty active in the forums?
AYAKA: To be honest NO! You know some of them (or mostly all I think) are checking it but not all are posting. I have some that posts alot, like Kaki. She is on about 6 times a day, she is the spambot. No, not everyone is active. We are working on it!
I'm trying to put in games and other stuffs. Angeru [KisetsuProject] gave me a tips about starting fanfiction about the project, but since my english skills and writing skills are near 0 I don't think it would work. But the leaders and I are working on it.
AYA: I used to be such a forum person, but now I rarely take part in them. Games are always a fun way to keep busy in the forums~ OH Angeru, that sweetheart. That was really nice of her. I adore fanfiction, but it's not for everyone. Where are you from? Even if nothing comes of it, it's nice that you and other projects can bounce ideas off each other!
AYAKA: I'm from Sweden. My mum is from Japan but we moved here due to my dad is swedish and he got a job here. Why aren't you on forums anymore? I remembered you on hana pro's old forum. What happened?
AYA: Sweden! I've been to a few places in the East, but never there. And don't worry about your English, I fail at all languages lol. Even before I got into dubbing, I used to live on forums. I'm talking years ago (when this gal was a little teenybopper). I tend to move from one thing to another. Something will hold my interest for a year, maybe more.
Then I find something else I like. But I don't think that will happen with dubbing. I went through a Gaia phase (5-6 years) and a fanfiction reading/writing stage. But now it's all dubbing for me~ Blogging takes up too much of my time and I though I often lurk in forums, I don't post much.
...Okay I'd better cut this off, it's getting long LOL.
What a lovely interview <3 I was their 100th subscriber XD
ReplyDeleteMe and Ayaka have been chatting a lot on MSN lately :)
and I'm a lovely sweetheart XD