Name: Sana Nagano
Occupation: Violinist, composer, improviser
Nationality: Japanese
Current release: Sana Nagano teams up with Leonor Falcón for Peach and Tomato, out August 1st 2023 via 577.

[Read our Leonor Falcón interview]

If you enjoyed this Sana Nagano interview and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.   



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I’d say everything inspires my creativity, depending on what my intuition leads me to at that moment. To me it’s very much about being receptive so that I can sense what feels natural to play or write at that moment.

I don’t think too much when I play and or write. It’s more like listening to the moment or to the subtle background of my mind, or going deeper inside of the violations of the world I perceive.

It can be similar to the headspace we get to when we meditate but without getting carried away too much because I still need to be functional enough to play and to write. It’s a really fun experience.
 
For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

In my case I don’t need concrete ideas or the idea of the finished works, but sometimes it’s fun to have those and to work my intuitions around them. I do my best not to go with my right or left ideas, but rather with the sense of getting attracted by the sound and the vibe of the ideas, situations, objects.

For example, my composition “the Tin Labyrinth” probably came from the feeling of uncomfortableness and uncertainty mixed with finding humor and quirkiness, beauty within that reality. Due to the song being a duet, I wanted the two parts to interact in dualistic ways as much as I could portray musically. When one line is busy, the other line is doing something different like being quiet or spacious and so on, so that the opposing parts could create interesting chemical reactions.

The balance between planning and chance, I don’t think too much about it. I just trust that the music comes the way it is naturally supposed to. So it’s more like taking chances is the basis of making music, and I plan and organize around it to properly deliver the chance music.
 
Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

A lot of the time I compose a few notes and play or listen to them being played for many times until I hear the next sounds in my ears. If I feel attracted to something that resembles what I’ve heard before, I try to research the source to get more inspirations around it.

For this album, I lightly studied the score and the sounds of Prokoifiev’s Sonatas for Two Violins, to see how he portrayed the two violins relating to each other.

I felt like the scores look like 3D art or two dancers dancing rather than just some notes on the papers because the way it was composed was so angular, intentional and multidimensional. When I have a sonic idea or a color I want, I roughly write it down first, then plan, edit and analyze around it to clean it up. It feels like sculpting and carving out the detailed finished product from a piece of rock or wood.
 
Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

To me, the key is about not rushing, not pressuring, not trying too hard. It never works when I try to control even a bit. I let the natural process dance and lead. It’s about having a quiet mind and enjoying the beauty of sounds.
 
What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It’s quite easy to start. I let a few sounds or melodies play internally, hum or play on an instrument, and write it down on a notation app or on a paper. Sometimes my attention decides to zoom into the sounds of the air conditioner, traffic, trains and find tiny notes and melodies, rhythms within those sounds.

I tend to feel musically inspired better when I let my attention go find what it wants to tune into, rather than telling it to pay attention to a certain thing.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

It emerges and progresses by itself. So I have to learn not to be in the way. My role is to support the natural process.

Once the composition is done, I play it with the band member/s to humanize, and shape it up if needed. The whole thing is a continuous emergence.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead?

I definitely follow what feels right at the moment as a basis of my creative process. And if it feels good, we throw in the stuff I and the band members and the people around want.

It’s not about being strict with one or a few ideas. It’s about carefully balancing everyone and everything involved.
 
Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Yes definitely. When I hear some sounds that feel like they should come next in the writing, I write them down quickly in my notation app or on a staff paper so that I remember.  And I listen to it back again and again to make sure it sounds good at that moment. I may modify it a little bit if needed.

Other people like band members and listeners may be involved in this process, too. It’s a precious process co-creating with what comes naturally.
 
There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I use my intuition the best way I can. I didn’t grow up in a religious or spiritual environment but I learnt to meditate as an adult and I love doing it.

I was always playing and listening to music as a kid and I used to space out while doing so. I feel like that spaced out headspace is similar to the place we get to when meditating or calming our mind.

Maybe that’s the place I tend to hear the sounds I feel like writing and playing.
 
Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

For me, I get a feeling or a gut sense when a composition or an improvisation is supposed to end. Often we feel it collectively as a band.

I try not to manually stretch or end things.
 
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Usually I write songs for a particular project, performance and / or recording. When I’m on it, I write and edit daily until it feels complete.

Then I bring it to the rehearsal where me and the band may adjust and polish up the forms, and we perform a few times to test them. We adjust the songs as needed until we feel good, then we bring it to the listeners to further activate the music. I love this process.
 
What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

It is very important to me. Production including mixing and mastering is a part of the creative process and the performance. I often listen to it again and again and enjoy discussing the details of the sounds with the band mates, the engineer and the friends who are interested.

I like to make music that I can share with people of all sorts, so I honor and consider everyone’s honest feedback. Not that I agree with them all the time but I feel like people’s energies and the fact that we carefully listen to it and to give feedback to each other in an open way, truly adds to the music we are creating.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I usually have many new projects at the same time so I don’t feel the emptiness much. Perhaps I feel tired after a good gig or a release, but still excited with new ideas.

I really love making music in all sorts of ways, constantly, all my life!
 
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
 
I love this question. I know that making a cup of coffee and other mundane things can be as creative and magical,  inspiring just like making or playing music. But I am also learning to respect my vibrations.

I’m ok making a cup or coffee but it’s not my perfect match. I feel a lot more satisfaction, aliveness and purposefulness doing music that I love than anything else.