[Radio] Kaito Aiko no Mado café (2020/12/13)

Broadcast: 2020/12/13 on TOKYO FM
Original Name: YKK AP presents 皆藤愛子の窓café ～窓辺でcafé time～

Part 1 of 2.

Highlights:

Soma likes to make snacks to go along with drinks, like deep-fried eggplant in broth.
On Sundays when he has the day off, he’ll simmer things for 2 hours instead of using the pressure cooker. He feels oddly at ease when he’s absorbed in chopping ingredients and simmering them.
Simmering takes time, but in this busy society, he thinks it’s a luxury to be able to relax like that on his days off.

Soma likes learning new things, so he’s always curious about a lot of things.
Since “in bloom” was being released in winter, he wanted to write wintery lyrics. While he was thinking, he realized he hadn’t seen any fireworks that year at all. He likes seasonal things and wondered if there was such a thing as fireworks in winter, and found out that there was a company that makes fireworks designed for the winter air, with a very Japanese-style aesthetic.
He actually bought the fireworks, and he hasn’t used them yet, but he thought the idea of winter fireworks was very emotional, so he wrote the song “Saigo no Hanabi” (Last Fireworks) for his album.
He wonders if there are a lot of other things that can be nice in seasons other than what you associate them with.

The brunchtime song that Soma requested was “Scarlet” by Spitz.
When he writes lyrics, he’s inspired by Spitz’s Kusano Masamune’s respectful, cherishing use of the Japanese language.

A lot of Soma’s songs have a decadent or “end of the world” motif, and after 2 years of that, he thought he might’ve overdone it.
He happened to be reading Dazai Osamu’s story Roman Dourou which is about a group of siblings writing a relay story, and one of them says, “Stories always end with the prince and princess getting together and living happily ever after, but what I really want to know is what happens after that.”
Soma completely agreed, and started imagining what kind of life would come after the end of the world.
The “in bloom” title evokes the imagery of plants sprouting after the end of the world.

People are divided on “Petrichor”—some think it’s upbeat and cute, while others think it’s really scary, which is exactly what Soma hoped for.
(He talks some more about it but it’s all stuff he’s said in interviews)