A revival of Junichi Inagaki's "When the Christmas Carol Comes"! Swagcky interview video released

■The 25th edition of “Newtro” is “When it’s a Christmas Carol” × Swagcky!

“When It’s a Christmas Carol” x Swagcky (Arrangement: Hiplin/Illustration: Tamiura) has been completed as the 25th installment of “Newtro,” a “revival” music project that reconstructs famous Japanese songs. An interview video of Swagcky has been released.

Swagcky is a singer-songwriter from Shonan. With diverse roots including black music and pop, he was discovered by Hiplin, a talented singer-songwriter from Osaka, in 2020 and began producing music under the name MASAZAYN. In 2022, he changed his stage name to Swagcky and debuted with the single “Yudachi” in May of the same year. The demo sound source “Furidashi” became a hot topic on TikTok, with the total number of music plays exceeding 4.6 million.

In the interview, we take a deep dive into the reasons why he chose “When it’s a Christmas Carol” (Junichi Inagaki, 1992) and how Swagcky’s originality was built while reconstructing the song. The content shows respect for Junichi Inagaki and his songs.

■Swagcky interview
Q.Why did you choose Junichi Inagaki’s “Christmas Carol Koro wa”?
Swagcky:For me, there aren’t many songs that stand out to me that are easy to understand, so if I’m going to do it during this time of year, I’d like to do a song that’s related to that season. I think there’s a song “When it’s a Christmas Carol” has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs, and when it comes to other Christmas songs, I listen to a lot of foreign songs. But after I started playing music, I started listening to popular songs. Until then, I had mainly listened to black music from overseas, but when I decided to pursue a career in music, I started listening to Japanese music, and even though I was listening to pop songs, this one was one of the most representative Christmas songs. I’m thinking that maybe Moreover, I respect her as a vocalist, and I think that “When It’s a Christmas Carol” is good, including her singing style and expressiveness that I would like to imitate. Not to mention the song selection.
Q. Points we focused on during the rebuilding process
Swagcky：At first, we thought it would be good to do something danceable, and as an added bonus, Mr. Hiplin, who arranged the music for this time, said that Van Halen, who has been enjoying a recent revival, or something like that. Influenced by guitarists, the sound that dances while also giving off the feel of a guitar. It’s got a bit of a House vibe to it, but I don’t have any House songs myself, so this new version of me means I’m doing something I don’t normally do, and I’m also incorporating Hiplin’s guitar roots into House. I think that’s the arrangement this time.
After all, I think that vocals have their own characteristics depending on the era, such as when they sing with a weak attack on purpose, and then crescendo later on. I feel that the singer’s vibe comes out in that way, and that’s not the way I usually sing, but this time I wanted to do it with respect, so I kept that in mind. I don’t want to put too much emotion into the song, so I sang it with some emotion but relaxed my shoulders, and I think that’s where I was able to bring out my personality.