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YOASOBI, the J-pop duo that turn creative writing into music, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and recently wrapped up its first dome concerts marking the occasion called cho-genjitsu (“Surreal”).

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Since leaping to prominence with its debut single “Yoru ni Kakeru” (“Into the Night”) in November 2019, YOASOBI has been blazing the trail of a new era in J-pop. In 2023, their song “Idol” featured as the opener for the anime series Oshi no Ko broke more records than any of its previous releases and became the pair’s biggest hit to date. On the various year-end Billboard Japan round-ups for that year, “Idol” topped five song charts including the all-genre Japan Hot 100, and the duo also achieved its dream of topping the coveted Artist 100 list. In September of that same year, “Yoru ni Kakeru” became the first song in the history of the Japan charts to reach a billion streams, and the hitmakers are advancing a phenomenal career that could literally be called “surreal.”

Billboard Japan spoke with the two members of YOASOBI —composer Ayase and singer ikura — as they contemplate their stances and prepare to move on to a new phase after five years of rapid progress. They shared their current feelings as they celebrate this milestone and the creative process of this year’s releases “UNDEAD” and “On the Stage” (Japanese title: “Butai ni Tatte”), both of which showcase the duo’s positive next step.

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YOASOBI formed on Oct. 1, 2019 and recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Tell us how you feel now that you’ve reached this milestone.

ikura: It only recently started to sink in as we held meetings for the dome concerts and organized lots of events to celebrate our fifth anniversary. When we started YOASOBI, I never thought it would become such a big part of my life. It all sort of slid into my current life, so I guess you could say it went by quickly, but… In terms of density, it’s been like ten years’ worth of experience packed into five because so much has happened.

It feels like “five years already” while also being “only five years yet.”

ikura: But the five-year mark is a really big one. I guess we’ve broken out of the newcomer bracket. [Laughs] We were thinking of celebrating our fifth anniversary as a new beginning, so we’re also determined to keep growing even more from here.

How about you, Ayase?

Ayase: To be honest, it doesn’t feel too different from our third and fourth anniversaries, but this year, everything we do including the songs we put out and the promotion has been based on the fifth anniversary. It’s kind of a nice round number so I’ve been able to renew my enthusiasm and feel like, “Let’s restart YOASOBI from here.”

So your activities this year are part of the fifth anniversary project?

Ayase: Yes. I mean that in a positive way. Last year, lots of people in Japan and around the world listened to “Idol,” and thankfully, we became the No. 1 artist of the year on Billboard Japan’s Artist 100 ranking. We were able to achieve our goal in Japan, and now we’re working on our fifth anniversary projects with a really fresh feeling. The public might not be too concerned about such things, but for us, being recognized like that was important.

Like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders?

Ayase: Yes, exactly. Up until our fourth year, we’d often do our best to respond to the things we were asked to do and work hard to achieve good results. From our fifth year onwards, we’ve been trying to organize what we want to do and how we want to be seen, how we want to develop YOASOBI from now on, and what YOASOBI means to us in the first place. It’s a year where we begin anew after re-evaluating these things.

You both have often said that you didn’t think the project would last long at first, but now that you’ve reached your fifth anniversary, what do you think has been the driving force and motivation behind YOASOBI’s longevity?

Ayase: That a relationship of trust has been established between the two of us, the existence of our band and team, and of course the support of our fans was also a big factor. Also, I was conscious of things like the charts as a goal, so the fact that we often fell just one step short was big for me. There were times when I was like, “I give up” or “I don’t wanna write songs,” but there were goals that we could reach if we could hang on a bit longer. That was my hope and became my motivation. Even though we get along so well, I think that if we hadn’t achieved any of those goals, our spirits would have broken somewhere along the way.

Feeling like you were really making progress helped.

Ayase: It was only after the beginning of this year that those goals really started to scale up. It wasn’t about numbers this time, but something more vague like where I want YOASOBI’s place to be in society. This fifth year has given me a chance to re-evaluate, and that’s my motivation now.

How about you, ikura?

ikura: It’s hard to narrow it down to one thing because my motivation changed a lot from our first year to the fifth, but… I’d always dreamed of a music career like this, so in the first and second year of YOASOBI, my motivation was a combination of the joy of having a chance at last and feeling that I had to maintain that career and keep growing with the team. Every day was a new challenge that I’d never experienced before.

You were working as a singer-songwriter on your own since you were a student, after all.

ikura: Right. Then after three or four years as a duo, when we went on our arena tour [YOASOBI ARENA TOUR 2023 “Denkousekka” from April to June 2023], it felt like a lot of people had entrusted their dreams to the YOASOBI project, and that we were all moving together on a big spaceship. At first, I was feeling the pressure on my own, but my mindset shifted to the idea that I could put my dreams on board YOASOBI as one of the crew, and that everyone was in that same position, putting their thoughts on board. It was like I had a better idea of what I wanted to express in the group and of my stance in it. So the people who are engaged with us are also a big source of motivation.

The first song you released on this anniversary year was “UNDEAD.”

ikura: It was our first new song in a while.

Ayase: It was really tough. We were working on it while also preparing for first-time endeavors like our performances at Coachella and other shows in the U.S. We spent our days off in New York in the hotel, working on the song the whole time.

That does sound pretty rough.

Ayase: But as I said before, last year’s “Idol” gave me a sense of accomplishment, and now it feels like I’m able to write songs more freely. Of course, I put my feelings into them to make sure that as many people as possible will listen to them, but I’m also thinking about what kind of songs it would be good for YOASOBI to have from now on, as we’ll be doing more concerts in the future.

“UNDEAD” is being featured as the theme song for the anime Monogatari Series: Off & Monster Season. It’s based on the short short stories by [best-selling novelist] Nisio Isin called “Nadeko Past” and “Shinobu Future.” How did you interpret these stories?

Ayase: I’ve seen all of Monogatari Series, and I think one of the themes that Mr. Nisio is probably trying to get across is, “Live your life desperately aiming for happiness.” In fact, in “Owari Monogatari” there’s a line that goes, “It’s cowardly to not try to be happy.” I think the same thing, but it’s not easy to be forceful in song lyrics. But I figured I could say it if I enlisted help from Monogatari Series. As a narrative leading up to that point, I connected things from Nadeko’s past and Shinobu’s future from the original stories to write the lyrics.

You can’t change the past, but you can change who you are now. If you want to change the future, you have to change who you are now. The themes depicted in the original stories must have resonated with both of you now as you celebrate your fifth anniversary.

Ayase: This is pretty wild, but around January when I was working on this song in full swing, I was in exactly the same state as Shinobu Oshino in “Shinobu Future.” She’s been alive for hundreds of years and she’s fallen into a rut, and she feels like nothing brilliant will ever happen to her again and life isn’t fun because she doesn’t have any expectations for the future. That was me. Complete burnout.

I’d always wanted to top the year-end Artist 100, and we finished the year in a big way on Kohaku Uta Gassen, but I didn’t think I’d burn out there. Then our POP OUT Zepp tour started at the beginning of the year. It was a lot of fun of course and I learned a lot, but on the other hand, I was also thinking, “Am I really happy?” Like, if I were to write a song in the future that reaches even more people and that song breaks bigger records, would there be much of a difference in the sense of accomplishment I’ve felt already? But the time and effort I’d have to sacrifice for that would be immeasurable. And I’d also be getting older in the process, so I was like, “Is my life going to be OK like this?” 

In “Shinobu Future,” Shinobu Oshino is a former vampire who has lived for over 600 years. She’s become used to the “great, world-changing invention” and laments that she can no longer expect excitement or freshness from the future. The scale is different, of course, but it’s a feeling that anyone could face when they’re evolving.

Ayase: When I read that story at that time, I thought Mr. Nishio was reading my mind. The idea that “all you can do is to polish who you are now” really connected with me, and I’ve finally been able to get out of that negative state of mind over the past several months.

What are your thoughts on this, ikura?

ikura: Until about our fourth year, I just worked hard without thinking about anything else. But I suffered some major health problems around last summer, and after I recovered, I was also like, “What is my happiness?” Though I’m sure I’ve acquired and experienced a lot of things because I’ve devoted my whole life to music and given it my all.

Yes, if you care about your future self, you have to take care of yourself now, too.

ikura: While I have areas of expertise and roles that I’m entrusted with, I was taking on too much so I had to learn to give up in a positive sense and let other people handle stuff so that I could focus on doing what I can do. I felt that I won’t be able to keep at it unless I worked in a healthy way. So when I read the lyrics of “UNDEAD,” I was like, “That’s so true,” and it also felt like it was affirming my life and the way I’ve been working so hard.

“On the Stage” was written for NHK Sports Theme 2024. In the story it’s based on, the presence of a rival who strives together with you was symbolically depicted as well. As members of YOASOBI, is there anyone you could call your rival or someone who’s inspired you?

ikura: There aren’t any other artists that I consider in that way, but as long as we keep doing YOASOBI, I think Ayase and ikura will always have a kind of rivalry. So the first thing that comes to mind is Ayase and our team, including the band members and the staff.

Ayase: I agree. Rival might not be the exact way to put it, but I’m pretty sure we want to strut our stuff to each other. I think we both want to make the other appreciate us, so I guess it is close to being rivals. It’s not about solo work, but as motivation to keep going as YOASOBI.

ikura: They’ve entrusted me with their backs so I’m also responsible for that, too, so I want to fulfill my role well.

—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan