Seiji Kameda is here. The music for the film “The Liar and His Lover.”

favorite_borderLast updated:2016/8/22

Seiji Kameda is here. The music for the film “The Liar and His Lover.”

• Live Spot LugHirata Hiroyasu
  I’m Hiroyasu Hirata from Live Spot RAG. When I was 15, I was blown away by how cool music—especially rock—was, and I started playing guitar and formed a band. I’m from Kochi Prefecture, where there weren’t many live houses or concert venues, so there were few opportunities to experience live music. Back then, our sources of information were magazines, CDs, and even VHS tapes (!?). Still, I was captivated by the sparkle of music, and I spent my days enjoying guitar and music, mostly neglecting my studies. I moved to Kyoto for university and “graduated” from the light music club, so to speak (laugh). Until then, I mainly listened to Japanese rock and Western hard rock, but thanks to seniors and peers I learned there was so much more music in the world. Now I listen to anything that strikes me as good, regardless of genre. After graduating, I joined RAG. After about six years in the office and about ten years in the music studio, I now work at the long-established Live Spot RAG, which has been around for 39 years, mainly handling promotions. Being exposed to the “real music” performed by Japan’s top musicians and delivering it to our audience lets me feel the brilliance of music anew every day. I still play guitar and keep a band going casually, and in recent years I’ve even started singing—better late than never. I’ve fully become an old guy by now, but I hope we can continue to chase “what lies beyond the dreams I painted with music back then” together.

What is “Kanojo wa Uso o Aishisugiteru”?

Originally, it’s said to be a comic by the manga artist Kotomi Aoki.

As a classification, it belongs to shōjo manga.

This work is a live-action film remake of it.

An ambitious work that blends romance, the music industry, and band sound: while centering on the love story between Aki—former member of the popular band “Crude Play” and a genius sound creator who writes all of the band’s songs—and Riko, a high school girl who is a huge Crude Play fan and secretly possesses a natural, stunning singing voice, it intersperses behind-the-scenes glimpses of the music industry and live performance footage throughout.

In the scene of Aki and Riko’s first meeting, the line that appears at the beginning is, “Do you believe in love at first sight?” From there, the story begins to unfold.

The two protagonists

Aki (Cast: Takeru Satoh)

I’m not familiar with celebrities at all, but the up-and-coming young actor Takeru Satoh is the one playing the role.

Although he was the original bassist of Crude Play, he left the band at the time of their debut for a certain reason.

I will continue to be the person behind the scenes, as the sound creator responsible for all of the band’s songs from here on out.

Tired of continually making “disposable music” and growing irritable with everything, he meets Riko, and gradually he’s able to enjoy working on music again, like he did before his debut.

My trusty instrument is a Music Man StingRay.

Riko (Cast: Sakurako Ohara)

From a nationwide audition of 5,000 people, a newcomer actress named Sakurako Ohara was given a major break.

She’s the vocalist and acoustic guitarist in a three-member high school band. Though she’s an actress, her outstanding singing ability makes it no exaggeration to call her a true vocalist.

A girl with a character setup that makes her seem a bit airheaded, and that’s part of her charm.

They’re a huge fan of crude play and start dating Aki—who’s using a fake name—without realizing it’s the actual Aki.

She was later discovered by a producer who would become Aki's boss and debuted as the vocalist of MUSH&Co.

Appeal of the work 1: Performance scenes unique to movie theaters

At first, since it was a band-related movie with Seiji Kameda in charge of the music, I thought, “Maybe it will offer a live-like experience where we can enjoy the ‘Kameda sound’ booming through the theater speakers.”

But in a sense, I felt betrayed by this.

Well, of course—if you blast concert-hall volume in a movie theater, the neighboring screens would be seriously annoyed (lol).

However, being able to watch movie-quality performance scenes on a big screen is something only a theater can offer.

Overall, there weren’t that many performance scenes, so I feel like I would’ve enjoyed it more if they’d been a bit longer. That’s my personal impression.

Appeal of the Work 2: Items Featured in the Story

Since it's a music-related movie, many instruments and audio equipment appear.

Those details felt so realistic, and as a band member, it was a real hype-inducing moment.

For example, Aki's Stingray.

The first instrument Aki got when her father mistakenly bought it instead of a guitar for her 14th birthday (so 11 years ago, since she’s set as 25?).

About 11 years ago, I remember stingrays were definitely in fashion, and I wondered, could that be Mr. Kameda’s own bass?

Aki also uses the industry-standard Pro Tools for music production (couldn’t tell which version…), Riko’s vocal mic is a SHURE BETA 87A, the amp Riko’s band used on the street was a YAMAHA THR, and so on—there are “oh!”-worthy items scattered throughout that musicians will notice, and spotting those is part of the fun.

Appeal of the work 3: The friendship between Aki and Shun

Crude Play’s vocalist, Shun, is Akihito’s childhood friend and has been in a band with him since, what, middle school? High school?

Aki also turns to Shun for advice and to report things, and you can feel a deep friendship, such as when Aki comes over to his house to hang out.

It was also Shun who laid the foreshadowing for the end of the story.

I still keep in touch with my high school bandmates, and they’re dear friends with whom I feel a truly special bond. The way that feeling was expressed really resonated with me and moved me deeply.

Appeal of the Work 4: Convergence toward the finale—the Divine Comedy that holds the key

This really contains spoilers, so if you don’t want to read them, please stop here (lol).

Before watching, I thought the ending would be the reveal: “I was actually Aki from Crude Play.”

However, in a surprising turn of events, the true identity is revealed already in the middle (lol).

"So then, what kind of ending is waiting for us?" With that in mind, I watched from the latter half onward.

Toward the end of the work, as the story approaches its climax, everything converges on a single point.

In a detective novel, the scene where the mystery is solved is a crucial moment; depending on how it’s handled, it can greatly influence the work’s evaluation.

And in this work, the element that serves as the mystery to be solved is an unreleased song titled “R,” written by Aki.

The moment it played, I got goosebumps all over my body.

I was completely humbled before the great musician Seiji Kameda.

"Kameda loves sound way too much," I felt like shouting (lol).

Everyone in the theater must have thought, “The song that will determine the evaluation of this work is about to play.”

A song and lyrics that brilliantly live up to the attention. I hope you'll experience this moving feeling in the theater.

It's a little embarrassing to go in.

The customers are overwhelmingly female—mostly high school girls and younger women—so it can be a bit intimidating for band guys to go in. That said, I think it’s a work that band members can definitely enjoy.

How about taking your girlfriend on a date?

If you wait until a little past the scheduled showtime, the house lights will go down, so sneaking in at that moment is an option!

By the way, I totally stood out and felt pretty embarrassed, but the experience moved me even more than that♪