【Band Collab】 「Hana ni Natte | 花になって」 The Apothecary Diaries OP1【Vulkain feat. t , Farhan & Makoto】

► Download MP3 here : coming soon

Song: Hana ni Natte (花になって)

■ Original song: https://youtu.be/v-WcMQbXbKY?si=tTEZj-2fb54vlw13
■ Opening song from The Apothecary Diaries (2023)
■ Originally performed by: Ryokuoushoku Shakai (緑黄色社会)
■ Composer: Anami Shingo (穴見真吾)
■ Original singer: Nagaya Haruko (長屋晴子)
■ Arrange: Anami Shingo (穴見真吾) & Kawaguchi Keita (川口 圭太)

Cover credits:
■ Lead Vocals: Vulkain [@PyroVulkain] – / @VulkainMusic
■ Piano/keys: Farhan Sarasin / @frhntubeable (twitter.com/faaatsawmusic)
■ Guitar: Vulkain [@PyroVulkain] – / @VulkainMusic
■ Bass: t / @monooki11 (twitter.com/mono_oki9)
Bass cover: https://youtu.be/T9Dk1dZNyUs?si=llPdkn0Rpev0N37J
■ Drums: Nakamura Makoto (中村誠) / @makoto_nekodrum
Drum cover: https://youtu.be/NvxOruuZPj8?si=hn66HsBXNZSGtr9n

■ Mix & Master: Vulkain
■ Video edit: Vulkain

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Hey everyone !

First upload of 2024 so Happy new year but also and Happy Lunar New Year (Chúc Mừng Năm Mới & 新年快乐) !!
I hope you're all doing great, all fresh and still rockin' !!
Also hope it's not too late to wish you all luck, prosperity and good health.

My year started quite intensely already, full of exciting stuff, sometimes a bit too intense on my body and brain but overall okay.
I'm still trying to balance work, life, hobbies and friends as well as I can but that's quite a running theme in my life so nothing too new here hehehe

Talking about life, let's talk anime here (lol). Tbh I think the past 2 seasons were actually crowded with multiple great ones to watch
… JujuKa, Spy Family, Frieren, Dungeon Meshi (special mention to that one which is prob my favourite atm), Solo Leveling and also the Apothecary Diaries (or Kusuriya no Hitorigoto)
To summarize the latter, since this is the focus on today's video, it's about a poison and medicine enthusiast girl in old time China, who ends up becoming a food taster (to check if poisoned) in the Forbidden City.
The anime becomes somehow a bit of a detective one at times which got me thrilled. Aaaaaaand the song we have today is this anime's opening !

The song "Hana ni Natte" (Become a flower) is originally performed by the band Ryokuoushoku Shakai (or Ryukushaka) that you might have heard from Boku no Hero Academia Season4 ED2 "Shout Baby", or Dungeon Meshi's ED "Party".
This is a band I love a lot, especially due to their incredible singer Nagaya Haruko and her cristal clear headvoice, her powerful and yet super smooth and silky voice.
The range of emotions she channels in her singing is just a big yes to me and I feel this is something that misses a bit in the Jpop/Jrock landscape these days !

This time I wanted to cover it will a full band (as opposed to my previous collabs which instruments were mainly programmed).
I'm very glad and honored to be working with "The" Farhan Sarasin once again after such a long time (May 2022 with "Akuma no Ko"). Always pure pleasure to have him onboard.
On the drum and bass part, I was a bit shy at first since a good part of the drummers and bassists I used to work with (especially with CollaboDaisakusen) are no longer active.
Then I remembered I had watched plenty of drum covers and bass covers the past weeks/months. I had been follwing Makoto Nakamura (drummer from Japan) and also t (bassist from Japan as well) on Youtube for a few weeks.
They both happened to have released excellent covers of this song already so asking them for a collaboration was natural.
I can't thank them enough for accepting to be part of this project, for delivering such a great performance, perfect tracks and for being such pleasant people to work with !
tさん、誠さん、ありがとうございました !

Then the rest of the job for me was on the singing and guitar. Vocals were quite a challenge.
Singing a female range song without straining my vocal chords took quite some recording sessions and exercises to get used to the song and to give the "color" I wanted to give to my vocal performance.
The guitar part was quite easy to play, maybe with the exception of the final run, that required a bit of sweeping skills. Most of my focus was to make sure to get very tight rythem and perfect palm mutes on certain strumming parts.
I tried using a more aggressive and distorted tone compared to the original arrangement. For the guitar enthusiasts who'd be wondering, I'm using the Neural DSP – Archetype Rabea guitar amp sim, which offers a great and wide range of modern rock sounds!
Definitely recommend !

As usual the video took me also quite some time to edit … about 1 month, including footage recording (which requires my to move my entire living room each time hahah).
I'm very happy with how the whole project came out … I just hope you won't be too bothered by my face deforming as I belt on this song * anxiously giggles *
Still many projects to work on atm and then I need to get some time to compose again !
Hope you guys will enjoy this video ! Leave us some comment !
See you next time !!