Left to right: Shintaro (dr.), Yuumori (vox/gt), Riku (bass)
Pic credit: ナタリ
Gen from Nagoya-based pop-punk band, 04 Limited Sazabys, hosts Monday’s radio segment on The King’s Place. Today he’s joined by two members from Oita rock band, Six Lounge: Yuumori Yamaguchi (vocals/guitar), and Shintaro Nagamatsu (drums/main lyricist). Learn about their favorite celebrities, influential musicians, their history, their writing process, and more~
Keep reading or click below to skip to your favorite section~👇
Song list ♪
#1 “EVERGREEN“- Six Lounge (from their new album FANFARE)
A sweet love ballad with violins that elevate the emotional delivery in the chorus. After the song, Gen melts at Yuumori’s vocal skill, saying “Why the hell is your voice so good??”
#2 「初恋」/(Hatsukoi)/ “First Love”- AIKO
Yuumori chooses the song out of his love for AIKO. Gen then shares that before he sings at concerts, he sings her song “Boyfriend”.He claims that the pitch makes it a good song for warm-up practice.
#3 “Psycho Killer”- Talking Heads
Shintaro went to a concert where a local Japanese band called “Sister Pole” (not sure about spelling…) did a cover of Psycho Killer. He was really impressed.
#4 “You Got Me Rocking”- The Rolling Stones
A classic hard rock song that inspired Six Lounge’s name. It’s also probably fair to say that you can hear The Rolling Stone’s influence in Six Lounge’s songs.
#5 “Hello”- 04 Limited Sazabys
A pop-punk song about ‘waking up’ from the mundanity of society…I think. It questions “What is all this for?” and ends in a kind of ideal world. So I think the “hello” is the speaker saying “hello” to a better, more positive world.
Intro
Did you know that 9/25 is Housewife Appreciation Day?
Gen follows the theme by starting the show by talking about what he appreciates about his mom, which is her youthfulness. Yuumori says that what he appreciates most about his wife is that she drinks more than anyone. Last, Shintaro says that what he appreciates most about his mom is that she kisses people when she’s drunk.
When I first heard about Shintaro’s mom, I just laughed, but after finding out that Shintaro also gets a bit wild when he drinks, I deduced that it must be hereditary. What a fun family~ I’d love to see the two of them drinking in the same room.
Fan Messages:
The first message comes from mochimochinayui
“Gen, Six Lounge, hello~ I always enjoy listening in~ I usually go to concerts by myself, but sometimes I go with my mom. This time we had decided to go to Budokan together, so I reserved a hotel. Since I saw a hotel as just a place to sleep, I didn’t really care where it was. However, my mom insisted that we stay at a place with breakfast. Hotels with breakfast tend to be a bit more expensive. Since I’d already reserved a place, I wasn’t sure what to do…
Guys, when you decide on a hotel, what’s something that you absolutely need?”
As the three of them discuss their preferences, we learn that Gen definitely doesn’t like germs. Then again, being so accustomed to travel, it may not be a bad thing to be so careful about cleanliness. When he enters a hotel, he tries to ‘wash out’ the presence of the previous resident by flushing the toilet and running the plumbing. I initially wanted to counter by saying “They clean the rooms, Gen”, but I mean…
We know.
Yuumori, on the other hand, is pickier about the bed. He doesn’t like beds that are too soft, or too hard. It was pretty funny to hear how Gen and Yuumori were very reminiscent of Goldilocks when discussing their shared mattress preferences. Gen literally says “I hate beds that are too soft, but it’s also annoying if they’re too hard. Where it’s so hard you can actually feel where the spring is!!!”
Shintaro is extremely particular about water pressure, not that I can blame him. When I go to the public bath and the shower is stabbing me, it’s never a good time.
The next question comes from mika
Hello~ Recently, Gen mentioned that he was charmed by this cute Shiba dog in his neighborhood. There’s also a cute dog in our neighborhood~ Just as you did, I was so charmed by the dog that I touched the dog without asking. The dog was okay, but the owner looked a bit irritated. Is there anything that you’re really into?
The word the listener uses is ‘Oshiiteiru’. おしっている (oshii-te-iru) is a new term expressing being really into something, kind of in a nerdy way. For example, buying all the merchandise of your favorite idol. It comes from the religious word “oh-shi”(推し) which means something like “worship”. The nuance is similar to how English speakers say “I ship it!”
This entire segment reveals a new side to Shintaro, and even Yuumori sounds a bit surprised by how much Shintaro loves a particular idol. Do you know the idol group Sakurazaka46? They’re part of the AKB48 family–or the “Sakamichi Series”. He’s a big fan of Keya Kizaka, but before you go rushing to send him merchandise, it sounds like he’s got most of that covered. Maybe.
He reveals that he has a penlight and clear files. For all we know, his room may be absolutely full of merchandise.
‘THE ULTIMATE YON-TAC’
A question is posed and the listeners guess how the hosts would answer. After discussing the question and deciding the answer, they reveal whether the listener is correct or not. If correct, that listener gets a signed gift.
Question: If you were Momotaro, what animal would you add to your group of a dog, monkey, and pheasant bird?
1. Cat
2. Rabbit
3. Turtle
4. Pig
As Yuumori reads out each of the options, Gen suddenly turns the attention away from the question of ‘which animal FRIEND’ you would choose to, what animal they would eat. Somehow. Perhaps he was hungry that day? It was quite random, but honestly, as someone who also enjoys dark humor, I appreciated Gen disrupting the atmosphere just for the sake of it. It IS rather fun~
Anyway, what do you think they chose?
Answer:
Turtle.
After being stuck between a rabbit and a pig, Shintaro chimes in that a turtle is the only one that’s a sea animal. Gen realizes that with a turtle, they’d have all the elements covered: a dog is best on land (I had to guess this one because I couldn’t catch their reasoning, although I’m also not sure they said it. Rather. implied that the usefulness of a dog was obvious), a monkey is good for surviving the jungle, a pheasant can cover the air, and a turtle can help you in the water.
So, were you correct? The listener was~
Before the commercial break, Gen usually asks the guests to share a secret. Yuumori decides to share a quite interesting fact:
The glasses he wears sometimes are fake 😲
Gen’s Room
The corner where Gen asks his own questions to the guests.
“Nowhere is easier to live than Oita”
-Yuumori
Given that they’re all musicians, a lot of Gen’s questions were about their band history, their writing process, and thoughts about moving out of Oita.
Six Lounge originated from Oita and Gen asks if they’ve ever considered leaving. While Yuumori doesn’t sound entirely against the idea, the two of them sound quite happy with their quiet life in Oita.
Given how they’ve gotten quite popular since their major debut in 2017, Gen asks if the Oita crowds get particularly wild. However, since Six Lounge have been living there since birth, the locals only see them as neighbors and don’t have any big reaction. Even so, I’m sure Oita is proud to have such talented musicians. ♪
-The Writing Process-
It wasn’t stated in this interview, but I’ve heard that the three of them write separately, and then come together at the end. Shintaro elaborates more on this by explaining how he writes the lyrics. He first opens his notebook to get all the ideas down and then uses his laptop to organize them.
Yuumori adds the melody. I couldn’t catch much about how he goes about it, but it sounds like he kind of just writes what comes to him. Considering how the three of them write independently, Gen asks whether they ever clash over how a song should be. Luckily, it turns out that they haven’t.
In fact, the only time Yuumori had a particular request was in regards to their punk song, “SPEED”. He had asked to be able to say “Speed!” at the beginning of the song.
It makes sense that they’d trust each other so much, though. They’ve been together for ten years! (They started when they were just freshman in high school!!)
-The History-
Do you know how they came up with the name Six Lounge? I honestly always thought it was because they were born in 1996–minus Riku, who is a year younger. However, it turns out that the ‘lounge’ came from The Rolling Stone’s album Voodoo Lounge, and the “six” came from the fact that they didn’t know how to say “sixteen” in English–which was how old they were at the time!
And actually, the Six Lounge shirt I have incorporates the Voodoo Lounge album cover art!
While I consider myself quite a big fan of Six Lounge, I was surprised by how much I learned from today’s episode. I’d say that Shintaro’s love for Keya Kizaka was the highlight for me, but I can’t judge: I love idols, too. It’s hard to resist how fun their songs and costumes are. So if you happen to catch Shintaro dancing at the next Sakurazaka show, be sure to dance along~ ♪
Did anything surprise you about the segment? Was it that ‘Six Lounge’ came from The Rolling Stone’s album name Voodoo Lounge? Or that Six Lounge started when they were just sixteen? Or was it that they chose a turtle instead of a cat?
that foreign music blog🌎 
Leave a comment