2017 was the year for the four members to act with a new structure. They have been performing new attractions through activities such as the TV anime, “THE REFLECTION”, the TV show, “Asakusa Bebi 9”, and concerts in other countries. “Quattro Formaggi” which is going to be held on December 26, 2017, is like the sum-up of this year’s activities. From four perspectives including “live”, “music piece”, “overseas expansion” and “bonds between the fans”, we looked more into the attractiveness of 9nine and their feelings toward the concert on December 26th.
The first part will be about 9nine’s concert. We focused on the new structure’s feature, self-producing.


9nine’s Four Fascinations #1 Self-produced Concert
9nineの4つの魅力 #1 セルフ・プロデュース・ライブ

To produce something very special, every music piece is different.
「特別感」をどこまでだせるか。そのために一曲ずつ演出にこだわっていく。

ーFrom solo concert on new year to solo concert at Nakano Sun Plaza, 2017 was the year for the four members to act with the new structure. Also, we heard that after the change, self-producing and styling became a standard, and most of the decisions on each concert depend heavily on the members’ ideas and opinions.

Nishiwaki:Self-producing and styling were meant for us to decide our concert’s direction and fascinate our fans. We’ve been doing it since the first stage performance for four of us at Tokyo Idol Festival.
We shaped our feelings that time, our audience’s feelings and our passion to create our own stage from the circumstances of 9nine back then. The scene when we huddled up at HOT STAGE on Tokyo Idol Festival 2016 is also a part of it.

ーHow do you specifically self-produce the concert?

Murata:We set the title, subtitle, and the theme by ourselves.

Satake:And we decide the set list and the highlight scenes of the songs such as “Kan-chan should perform a cappella here” or things like “it will be cooler with the sound of footsteps”. We decide everything including the sound effect, lighting, and the moves.

Yoshii:We brainstorm what we want to do such as “making four platforms” and “preparing shrine maiden costumes”. Then, we decide the order of priority and make them into a list.

Murata:We also check whether we can do all that within our budget.

Yoshii:For example, we decided that we definitely need stands for solo concert on new year because there was no screen, and people at the back can only see our face, not the full body.

Nishiwaki:Also, when looking from a different angle, songs sound different from what they usually do. We got this idea when we went to a concert of other artists. We thought that platforms allow us to express a variety of perspectives.

Yoshii:Each song has to be different to keep the audience from feeling bored, so we do like, first song should be the same as the original. Then the next song can be sung at the seats for audience, and the last one at the platform.

Satake:Every song has at least one thing that differentiate it from other songs.

Nishiwaki:The most important thing is how we can make the day a special one, so we put a great importance on how we can pull out the “special feeling”.
However, we do have a conflict because we think that some come to our live after listening to our CD or watching our PV, and they want to see the original performance. It’s very hard to adjust the arrangement of the songs when we want to make them special but not so different from the original ones.

Satake:We do the planning for goods now. We heard from some of the fans that there are no matched size for the t-shirts, so even though there might not be so many who will buy them, but we make 5 t-shorts that are sized differently just for them.

ーThe fans must be happy about that.

Nishiwaki:This time, the concert merchandise is produced by Kanchan as “Yoshii P”.

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Yoshii:Because the title of our live is “Quatrro Formaggi”, I designed pizza-related fancy merchandise.

Nioshiwaki:I thought I really want it!

Yoshii:My dream is to make a brand of 9nine. I thought producing and designing merchandise will connect me to that dream. Long t-shirts are easy for both men and women to put on, so with a fancy design, the t-shirts will be sold in pizza boxes. The number of the shirts will be limited, so you should get one, too! Haha!


The title of the concert was decided at 2 a.m. 9nine’s solo concert needs 3 months to create.
ライブタイトル決定は夜中の2時。3ヶ月かけてつくる9nineのワンマンライブ。

ーIf you are planning everything, so many meetings are needed to create one concert.

Nishiwaki:We have a lot of meetings before starting rehearsals.

Satake:First we decided the title at Bamiyan late at night.

Nishiwaki:Our concert at Nakano Sun Plaza was filled with a lot of stage effects, so this time, we decided the theme as a concert using what the four of us have, and then we thought of the title.

Yoshii:We always come up with many ideas for the title. When we decided “-Matsuri- and – Carnival-“, we had some other ideas like ”-Soba-and-Pasta-“ haha.

Nishiwaki:When we were thinking, we started talking about pizzas with four different kinds of cheese as toppings. We were like “We are team pizza!” (the name of 9nine’s group chat which comes from always eating pizza while talking about important things).

Satake:And Mr. Nagahama, the director of “THE REFLECTION”, compares us to Ninja Turtles, and we were like their favorite food is pizza, too!

Nishiwaki:It was so hard to decide just one from many ideas, so when we finally decided, it was 2 a.m.


To make a concert which can express the “aura” coming from inside, each member prepares their feeling toward the day of the concert.
内側から溢れる「オーラ」をみせられるようなライブを。ライブ当日まで、ひとりひとりの気持ちも、作り上げていく。

ーWhat kind of a concert is “Quattro Formaggi” going to be?

Nishiwaki:We want to show how we grew up and became one united group through this year as 9nine. We experienced something unique and special this year, so we want to put everything we’ve learned into the concert.
We want to see how we grew up ourselves.
To be honest, we are still struggling. When we say we put our best effort on performance, people will expect a lot from us, but we still have so many things to work on. However, on top of that, we met many people, experienced many things and we changed, so through the concert, we want to show that to our fans, and we want to realize that we’ve grown up.
To put everything we have into the concert, we will do whatever it takes until the day.
Usually we set the theme and stage effects in details, but this time, it’s closer to being natural.

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Yoshii:We want to deliver our feelings through the performance rather than showing dressed-up things. Compared to the new year concert, the stage effect will be very simple, and we want to show “aura” created by feelings inside us. As well as planning the concert, we want to shape our feelings toward it and hope that they will explode on the concert.

Murata:The concert itself is very simple in a good way. I think the concert on the new year and Nakano Sun Plaza were very colorful, but this one will be more like coloring the it from a plain nothing using our feelings and the atmosphere. So it’s hard to imagine how it will be like. Other concerts were based on what we wanted to do, so it was easy to imagine, but I think this one will change depending on our skills and performance.


From deciding stage effect, making sounds, producing good, setting singing parts to managing the schedule, 9nine themselves who know about them the most will design everything. Four personalities will create a harmony at the concert.
演出、音作り、グッズ制作から、歌割り、時にはスケジュール管理まで。9nineを一番良く知る、9nine自身がプロデュースを行う。パフォーマンス以外にも4人の個性が凝縮されたライブに。

ーOn which part do you want the fans to focus on through this concert?

Satrake:Mr. ABO, my DJ teacher, makes the music for every concert, and this time, I suggested some ideas and he included them in the music. We put our message into the sound, and made sound effects, imagining what the fans would feel. For the dancing part, we chose music that could make the best use of each member’s personality. I made the sound with Mr. ABO thinking of sounds like the one for Hiroro to move in a certain way or a sound which matches the lighting. With Mr. ABO’s help, we put our effort on something other than singing and dancing part, so please take a look at that, too!

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ーSo we can see each member’s performance with music created by Satake-san who knows about the members the most. Even the sound can be self-produced as Satake-san is doing DJ activities.

Nishiwaki:For me, it would be the part of boosting the mood. I really like to see people enjoy, so I am often responsible for stirring up. For this concert, the last part is pretty hard, so we need not only the fans to be excited but also ourselves to keep boosted up. I think that part is for me to work on, so I’ll do my best!

Yoshii:I like to sing, so I want to show something adding to the dancing part.

Nishiwaki:It might be hard for her to say. Haha. Our proud crystal voice Kan-chan will be on the spot! There was something we really wanted to do, so using that stage effect, Kan-chan will fly! It’s produced by me!

Yoshii:By self-producing, because we know each other well, we can have more suggestions and rely on each other. That lead us to be responsible for what we were relied on. With confidence, I would like to do my best!
The merchandise is produced by Yoshii P, so there will be a lot! Haha.

Murata:I’m responsible for the dance part, so I want to see the performance with a wider perspective. What comes the most to sense of sight is dancing, so we think of how we can unify the dance moves, arrange the positions and create a performance that can be enjoyed by looking at it.

Satake:Hiroro directs the dance moves of everyone and manages the song parts on her lap top.

9nine-official-AS-201712-05

Murata:After becoming the new structure, at first, the staff was managing the song parts, but sometimes they didn’t match the dance moves, and it wasn’t good for the whole performance. They told us that we can manage the song parts by ourselves, so that’s when I started to be in charge of them.
The amount of the data is unbelievable! My laptop became so heavy that my smartphone couldn’t take the backup.
I realized that 9nine now had more songs than ever.
I’m like a back manager of 9nine. Haha.
Now I take notes for the meetings and manage schedules for the rehearsals.

Yoshii:It’s true. She does like “We need to finish up until this date, so let’s count backward and work on this today.” We just follow her. Haha.


The call at the concert is “Honey!”. To the best concert!
ライブのかけ声は「ハニー!」最高にハードルをあげて、最高のライブへ!

ーAfter listening to all these stories, I really want to see it.

Satake:But four of us are the pizza, and the fans are the honey. Everyone is needed for the concert.

Murata:We’ve been sticking to that concept from the start, so it’s the unchanged theme. It’s reflected on the merchandise, too.

Nishiwaki:We should make the call honey! Everyone should say “Honey!!”

ーIn English, ”Honey” also means someone important.

Satake:Wow! That’s nice! Let’s do it!

Everyone:Yes!

Nishiwaki:We just decided. Haha. Please look forward to where we are going to use this call. During the concert, we’ll say “Honey!”, so please think of that as you!

ーIt’s getting more exciting! We can see how passionate you are from the tweets.

Murata:To be honest, we raised the bar too much. Haha. But it’s a match whether we can pass that bar, so we just have to do it!

Yoshii:I can’t imagine myself after the concert. Will I be crying or smiling? Feeling listless, relieved or fulfilled? What will happen?

Murata:I seriously think that I’ll be out of energy, and my soul will be gone after 26th. Haha.


9nine’s solo concert, “Quattro Formaggi” on December 26th will be not just about performance. While designing the concert, the four members use the most of their personality and support each other on the weakness. As the team 9nine, it will be a sum-up of self-producing.
The second part will also focus on the attractiveness of 9nine through the song produced by Trevor Horn, rapid overseas expansion and bonds between the fans. You’re going to love it!

Once again, 9nine Solo Live 『Quattro Formaggi』Interview : Part 2 is here!

9nine Solo Live 『Quattro Formaggi』Interview:Part 2 “Looking Back at This Year’s 9nine. Four Personalities Creating Brand New 9nine”


Event Information

9nine Live 2017 “Quattro Formaggi”
【Date】 December 26 2017 (Tue)
【Time】 Open 18:00  Start 19:00
【Place】 Zepp Tokyo
【Price】 Door 5,000yen w/o drink
【Special Site】http://www.lespros.co.jp/special/9nine/quattroformaggi/live/


Related links
9nine Official site : https://9nine-fan.lespros.co.jp/
9nine Official Twitter : https://twitter.com/lespros_9nine

Translated by KAYO

Author
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