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"WORKING
FOR VACATION" - click for lyrics
Yuka: "I'm proudest of the weird beat. There are two different tempos at once. The melody in the chorus is inspired by Indian music. Miho's singing is amazing." Miho: "And it's true, the heart beats 72 times in a minute." |
| "SPOON"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "We recorded this on the Super Relax EP but we loved it and wanted to perfect it. I've never worked so obsessively on anything. There were 10 versions." Miho: "There are so many drum tracks....it's an engineer-killer." Yuka: "They needed lots of Advil during the mixing." |
| "FLOWERS"
- click for lyrics I want certain words more than a thousand flowers. Yuka: "There's no way you can't get these lyrics. It's very Miho." |
| "THE
LINT OF LOVE"
- click for lyrics Miho: "I got the idea from my stepmother. She gave me a lint-removal machine." Yuka: "It was all very spontaneous - Sebastian played a fuzz bass and that gave me the heavy metal idea. John Medeski and Josh Roseman jammed out in E and I sampled them and used them in this arrangement - it turned out great." Miho: "This is like a Parliament song where everyone gets to sing, and it's a lot of fun." |
| "MOONCHILD"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "Miho came with the musical ideas, which were these sophisticated Brazilian chords." Miho: "The title came from my friend's name. She died when she was 19, so I was thinking about that. When Yuka put her music to it, it somehow became more beautiful." |
| "SCI-FI
WASABI" - click for lyrics Miho: "I was riding my bicycle everyday, and meeting bike messengers in New York - they're really nice people! It's fun, but serious. Being here is tough; it's a hard city. I was also into video games, which was a lot of the inspiration." Yuka: "Every step we made has been harder. Like Super Mario, every stage you clear, the harder it gets!" |
| "CLOUDS"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "It's a collaboration with Zak (engineer) and Yumiko Ohno of Buffalo Daughter. " Miho: "I was watching the clouds, and I could see two layers moving in different directions. Everybody has a different perspective, but if we make something together, it can be beautiful. Nature knows this more than humans do." |
| "SPEECHLESS"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "There was this sliding door in the studio, which gave us the idea that there should be a slamming door in the song, since she's singing about leaving this guy.. Timo played the door Miho: "This is a song for girls. Girl power!"." |
| "KING
OF SILENCE"
- click for lyrics Miho: "This is typical of the songwriting of many of our songs - I write the lyrics and Yuka writes the music completely separate - but these fit together perfectly. It's a magic we've experienced a lot." Yuka: "I love the horns on this song. And Miho's improv at the end is amazing." |
| "BLUE
TRAIN" - click for lyrics Miho: "We had to express our heavy metal side." |
| "SUNDAY"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "There's a lot of tracks on this one. There's five-part harmony - we've never done anything like that before. It has a strong hip-hop beat but transforms into an emotional waltz section." Miho: "Everybody has something special on Sunday, but this is a story about one girl who is lonely on a Sunday." Yuka: "Have you ever felt lonely even when you're in a crowd? It's sort of a universal feeling - there's a gap between you and the world. I think everybody understands it. It's a very personal song to us. This is just a hint. Listen carefully to the lyrics." |
| "STONE"
- click for lyrics Yuka: "This is another song where Miho came in with chords - she's playing guitar on it. It's the only bossa nova on the album." Miho: "It's a friendship song between two women. It's a present for Yuka." |
| "BACKSEAT"
(bonus track) Yuka: "I love the choir in the middle. Timo, Sean and Miho worked really hard on it." Miho: "We should thank Earth, Wind & Fire." |
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