Arashi Summer Tour 2006 pamphlet translation part 5

SHO SAKURAI
The song in this years album, "Cool&Soul". I'm glad that i was able to write a all-rap song "of Arashi", "in Arashi's Album", which is about Arashi sang by Arashi themselves. I'm happy its out in public like this.....somehow i feel settled.
I Like EXPRESSION
Sakurai takes his time to think deeply to reply any interview. He pick his words carefully to express his emotions and thoughts. 
His sincere attitude, and the phrases that are picked out of million words, shows how much he loves "expressing himself by words".
Other than interviews, Sakurai play with words to write the lyrics of Arashi's rap, which he has been charge of since day one. 
"I write the lyrics with words that come out from myself" - like he speaks, Sakurai's rap lyrics are filled with originality. 
You will feel Sakurai's love towards words during this interview. 
Since his youth Sakurai has been attracted to words, writing too many pages for homework, and now he shows interest in "choice of words....which holds a deeper meaning." He shows interest towards copywriters and comments of politicians, looking for "hidden" meaning behind the words. And yet his desire to "express" himself goes on........
I Like to express myself with words. Now i have interest in choice of words that holds a deeper meaning.
What i liked since i was small ? Then maybe.....words. I didn't want to write when i was in elementary school....around 11years old or 12years old. It was because, when i start writing, i can't stop (lol) The homework only requires 2pages of written work....but i keep on going for 6, 7pages......and by the time im done, im exausted. So i didn't want to write.....but i guess i liked writing and expressing myself with words, and thats why i wrote too much. My grade for japanese was always good. I had a friend who could only get C's for japanese, but i helped him study for exams, and he got his first A after that.....so i guess i liked writing and grammer (lol) But its not always a good thing to like words and expression when im doing "this" kind of job. During interviews.....i pick my words carefully....and i take my time. So i can't stand it when the writer/editor changes the words i use......I pick the best words to describe my emotions at the time.....so when its changed, it might mean something completly different.....and worst times, i sound like im being very offensive. Because i've experienced that, i have some fear towards replying to interviews. Since i became Arashi, i've answered millions of interviews, and i've checked whats actually printed on paper....So i have to be careful of what kind of words i use. And thats hard. Can i change the topic ? I recently felt that what i want to do, is a copywriter. Although its impossible....well not totally impossible. I want to challenge expressing one topic in say....10 words. I just thought of that during make up, right now (lol) I'm not sure why, but i want to challege doing something like a copywriter. I guess its similar to my fasination to "words". When im with my friends ? I never pick words when im around with my friends. Because....i talk using rahter....rough words (lol) Around people i open my heart to, i don't talk politely. I guess its because i don't need to pick my words or to be careful of what i say. 
When im picking the words i use for rap lyrics, i like to use positive words in a negative connotation and vise versa. I like to play around with words like that. Expressions like that are used a lot in the rap lyrics of "cool&soul", the song in the new album. For example, the phrase matsujun sang "mamori too su yatsura dato iwakutsuki...." (trans: they are the ones who protect whatsoever) and the word "iwakutsuki", is normally used with a negative connotation right ? thats why i dared to use it as a good meaning. just by saying those five words, people will think "those guys are so protective of their comrades to a point where people will take in negatively". I like playing with words like this. I used to rhyme words one by one, like "kitto daijyobu" its used in "~baby" "~goteinei" "~meirei" but one word only. But now i've notived that words itself carry rhythms, and you can use them with out rhyming the words one by one. I started breaking down words, and find rhythms between words. For example the phrase "sora ni twilight".....theres the vowel "a" and "i" three times, so i make rhythm with it. I've been analysing words a lot to write rap. When i first started writing rap, i used to always bring a memopad with me, and if i find some interesting words on advertisements and stuff, i will write it down. But usually, i never use those words. So now, i just use the words that come out from my self after i listen to the song. Words, rhythm, expession.....i love them all. This may sound absurd, but i've always loved to read about politics. And i love to see what the cabinet ministers say in their official comments. When you see the explanation of their comments, there write stuff like "they are trying to restraint the opposition pary" or "they have started to compromise to the...". The words they spoke were only few sentences long, but there is so much meaning in it, and so much is stuffed in that short sentences. So im very interested in how they manage to do that. I've learned to express my own feeling with my words, and im roughly satisfied with it, but i want to challenge on expressing something that has a little bit more depth to it. I've always wondered how they do it, so i would like to do it my self. Some of those ministers are so good with the choice of words, and im impressed. Despite the fact that i write rap lyrics, i think we have to consider the importance of "words" and "expressions" because our words are listened/read by a lot of people. I don't want words to turn offensive, so i have to pivk words carefully whether or not im using them as my lyrics. 

Someone will stand infront....and the rest supporting that. Thats what i want to do during this years stage. 
I feel like the view towards Arashi has changed greatly during this year. Especially me. And i think everyone "grew" in someway. You have a lot of responsibility and attainment following that for your solo work. So, i feel like all five of us have their own "area" they are responcible for, and we are the "head" of those areas. And when nino was gone, i felt like arashi grew even more. You know that three legged thing that makes ur video camera stand straight ? I think arashi is like that...except we are five legged. Even if we only have four legs, we can still stand on our own. But with the five of us, we are more stable. So when nino was gone, all we could do was do our best without him, but when he came back, i realized how important it was to be with the five of us. When nino came back from the states, i believe Arashi had more confidence in themselves.....and summer came at the best timing. Having done our solo work, we can come together again to spend our time with the five of us during the summer. 
I feel i haven't done a concert in a long time, probably because i did my solo concert at the beginning of this year. So i look foward to it more than others. You know how the album has each members featured songs? I love it. It's like how boxing is done.....The boxer is in the ring by him self, but everyone else will be watching around the ring, and between each round someone will come up to support him by giving water.....(lol) I like this kind of support, so rather then just plain solo, i want it to be solo-ish. I want someone to be infront, but the other four will also be supporting. I think this is new for arashi since we were totally on our own for solo's, and when we were with the five, we were treated equally. So i hope this new strategy.......where someone will stand infront, and the rest supporting that, will work this year. I want to show that both the solo works and the work as "arashi" are successful. When we have solo work, it just seems like that one person is going on TV or being on a movie, but that success is supported by the hard of work of the other four. And thats always the case. Something really small....like emails of "congratulation for your first day of butai" or if someone stays late for movie shooting emails like "where you filming late yesterday?" will just cheer you up. It's those small things that support you. Those daily life of ours, will relate to the album, and will show during the performance of the concert. And i can't say anything further because we are still in the middle of discussion of the concert. 
When i was writing the lyrics of "cool&soul" for the album, i felt really glad that i can write a song about arashi in arashi's album which will be sang by arashi themselves. I felt relieved. I was able to express my feelings.........so maybe thats why im relieved. But it took me a long time to write the lyrics for "cool&soul". I had to think until right before the recording.........but when i started writing....i couldn't stop (lol) And thats how i wrote the lyrics. In the lyrics, i expressed my confidence & proud feeling towards arashi and the kind of music arashi has been doing. I think my feeling towards arashi will be the same with the rest of them, so i guess i was able to write the lyrics as "arashi" not as "sakurai sho". I've always wanted to write a song about Arashi and Arashi's music. But i didn't want to make it as my production. If i make the song as a individual, the song will end up being "mine" not "arashi's". And I didn't want to use the same words for my songs and the songs for Arashi's album. So i could never start writing until this time. And i gues this was the best timing to write a song like this. In "cool&soul" theres a lyric that says "soshite korekara dainisyou" (trans: and the curtain rises for the second chapter..). Last year, i would have said that the second chapter was the year 2005, when we produced a album with solo songs. But this year, i feel like the year 2006 is the second chapter for arashi's music. Everyone is sining almost every part of the album, and therefore, this year is arashi's second chapter. 
Also..........to my fans.......I've said this over and over, but during my solo concert, i was so pleased with my audience. (lol) I was like "wow....my girls are exellent!"....their call&response, atmosphere, everything ! I was truly surpised by how exellent my fans are (lol) So right now, im looking foward to see how "exellent" arashi fans are. So what i want to say is....let's have fun together! oh, and one thing i remember from last year's concert is that there were a lot of people crying during "subarashiki sekai". I'm not sure why they were crying, but if we were able to touch someone's heart by our concert, im very glad. So this year, we'll be trying to make the audience feel happy and fun, and also we will try to send a message to people who comes to the concert.

comment: im really sorry if the lyrics part doesn't make sense at all.....i don't even know what the hell sho-kun is trying to say....and im pure japanese (lol) i wonder why....not enough studying ? (lol) 
it was so scary translating sakuraisan's interview because he seemed mad how people change his words............well, i basically changed ALL his words.......to another language (lol) gomenne sho-chan! (lol) 
and again, im very sorry for the messed up lyric translation.....im not making any sense (lol) Just try to ignore it (lol)