Hello! Project’s new girl group, Dream Morning Musume, made up of 10 former members (Old Girl or OG) of Morning Musume, will be releasing their first album, “DoriMusu。①“, on April 20th, and the women’s magazine Josei Jishin was able to conduct interviews with some of the members.

In this first post, we bring a partial translation of the interview with Dream Morning Musume’s Yoshizawa Hitomi, who was the fourth leader of Morning Musume:


Q: …Has recording [for "DoriMusu。①"] already ended?
It’s finished. This album will contain hits from (our) Morning Musume days, a cover…of the Morning Musume songs released after our graduation, as well as two new songs.

Q: That means for this album, each OG had to record a song after learning it for the first time?
Yes. But I knew most of the recent songs, so there were barely any songs I had to newly learn.

Q: How many songs were retaken? (Newly recorded for the album.)
In total 7 songs, and for me, 4 songs.

Q: How did you feel when you heard that, “We’re making DoriMusu”?
…When I heard that we were doing a tour, I thought, “It’ll be fun, but the process leading up to it will be difficult~”.



Q: What parts were difficult?
Everyone has their own activities, so things like “Will our schedules match?”, “What are we doing about the dance lesson”, and “Who’s going to be the teacher?”

Q: Will the dance will be close to the original? Or will it be a more mature sort of dance?
I’m not sure yet. But probably, the original songs will be done with the original [dance]… It doesn’t feel that new to sing old songs with OG… My body is already used to it, so the movement comes naturally.

Q: Wow! So you haven’t forgotten the choreography.
When the music comes on, my body moves. My body remembers.

Q: In that case, it seems like everyone can start the tour without trouble.
It’s just that, members have changed several times, the dance teachers have also changed, and we’ve done several different formation, so I’ve gradually added my own twist to [the dance]. I have to change that back to the original choreography, and there’s a lot of places where it’s like ‘I did it more like this, right?’. I want to return to a beginner’s state of mind and dance the choreography from back then.

Q: What kind of things do you talk about with members, as the tour is approaching?
…It’s like a class reunion, and we talk about stories from the past and then say, “It was fun~” and “Alright, let’s go again! Morning Musume!”

Q: Who’s the most excited?
Definitely the 1st generation members Ne-san (Nakazawa Yuko), Kaorin (Iida Kaori), and Abe-san (Abe Natsumi). They have a strong love and a sense of “this is what we bulit up” for Morning Musume.

Q: How do you want old fans to listen to the new album?
I think it’ll be great if they can think “Oh, how nostalgic” when they here songs like “LOVE Machine” and “Renai Revolution“. Time-wise, I think a lot of fans from back then have kids who will be hearing these songs for the first time…I’ll be very happy if they can get to know Dream Morning Musume.

Q: How do you want your fans to enjoy the stage (performances)?
I definitely want them to dance along. I think the fans who came to see us back then are more interested in the younger kids in currently in Hello!Project. So, I want them to jump and dance like before. For many songs, there’s cheers (of member names) … that gets passed down generation by generation (as members graduate) . It’ll be great if they could use the original cheers to cheer us on.

Q: There’s no leader in Dorimusu, so who’s going to be in the center?
Everyone has a unique personality, so it’s probably going to be a scramble for the center position. For every song, there will be a competition for the center.

Q: Is singing and dancing on stage still fun?
Yes. I’m most experience in live (performances), so I’m looking forward to doing lives. I want to enjoy it with a good level of nervousness.

Q: Do you still get nervous with your senpais?
Now that we’re adults, when we go eat together, I can say things like “That time, Ne-san was really scary.” Just recently, I laughed after watching Kaorin dance seriously during rehearsal, but if this was in the past, I wouldn’t have been able to. Of course even now, I’ll support the senpais, but the distance has shortened. This time, there’s a 7th generation member, Kusumi Koharu, so I’m in the middle management position.

Q: What’s your most memorable moment as a member of Morning Musume?
When I first entered, I didn’t have any composure and I spent days where I didn’t have time to sleep. After I got used to it a bit, during “The Peace!” days, when we performed across the country, that would be my most memorable time. I can’t remember where we went, but I remember what we did clearly. Also, something changed within me after I became leader.

Q: What changed about you the most?
I started to think that I wanted to act and say convincing things to pull everyone together. Until then, I had older sisters (in the group) so I could do as I pleased. I was the leader for two and a half years, but I was the captain of the futsal team before then, so I felt relatively at ease becoming the leader.

Q: Please, do a world tour with Dream Morning Musume!
Well. When I go abraod, there are a lot of overseas fans who say, “I’m a fan from the Morning Musume days”, so if there’s an opportunity, I would definitely want to do it.

source : tokyohive