() is a song by Japanese band Sakanaction. Initially used as a 2013 jingle for the yobikō Tōshin High School, the song was recorded in full a year later. It was released on October 29, 2014, as a double A-side single with the song "Hasu no Hana".
Background and development
Sakanaction's singles for their album Documentaly (2011), "Identity" (2010), "Rookie" (2011) and "Bach no Senritsu o Yoru ni Kiita Sei Desu" (2011), were featured in commercials for the yobikō Tōshin High School. The commercials utilized songs Sakanaction had personally wanted to release as singles, and were not written expressly for the commercials. This was unlike "Yoru no Odoriko" (2012), a single by the band which had been specifically commissioned by Mode Gakuen for a commercial.
In March 2013, Sakanaction released their sixth studio album Sakanaction. The album was a result of the band's vocalist and songwriter Ichiro Yamaguchi feeling a new resolution to create music that would resonate with a general pop music audience. The album debuted at number one on Oricon's weekly albums chart, after selling 83,000 copies. This was a record for the band, both in terms of the number of copies that they had sold in one week of a release, as well as the fact that they had never reached number one on an Oricon chart before. The release is currently the band's most successful album, in terms of physical copies sold.
After the release of Sakanaction, Yamaguchi wanted to take an extended break, however because of the strongly positive response that the band had for the album, he felt that he needed to keep on releasing music. Soon after the band finished touring, Yamaguchi worked on a jingle for Tōshin High School, a song that would grow to become "Sayonara wa Emotion". Yamaguchi felt exhausted from the tour and was only able to develop the song's chorus. The chorus was used by Tōshin High School for their commercials, which began airing in September 2013. While Yamaguchi continued to work on "Sayonara wa Emotion", he was contacted to write a song for the film Judge!, which became the song "Eureka".
Originally, Yamaguchi intended for "Sayonara wa Emotion" and "Eureka" to be released as a double A-side single, however suffered writer's block and exhaustion, and could not finish "Sayonara wa Emotion". In its place, the band recorded "Good-Bye", an improvised composition that used musical techniques that he personally wanted to explore. "Good-Bye" / "Eureka" was released in January 2014, and reached number two on Oricon's weekly singles chart. Immediately after the single's release, the band embarked on their Sakanaquarium 2014 Sakanatribe tour, a 22 date Japanese tour featuring performances at Zepp live houses and two dates at the Tokyo Dome City Hall, between January and March 2014. Footage from one of their performances at the Tokyo Dome City Hall was released as a video album on July 30.
Writing and inspiration
The band first recorded "Sayonara wa Emotion" because of Tōshin High School's request for a song for their commercials in 2013. The band envisioned it as a song to perform at festivals, such as they had done with "Identity" (2010) and "Aoi" (2013). After making two verses and a chorus for the commercial, the band shelved the song, as Yamaguchi had become sick of creating emo rock style songs. The initial take of the song was a halftone lower, used different verses and had different lyrics. The song at this demo stage was given the demo title .
Yamaguchi attempted to keep working on the song after submitting it for the commercial, but suffered from writer's block, and instead worked on the songs "Eureka" and "Good-Bye". The song was revisited when the band was contacted to write a song for the film Close Range Love (2014), called "Hasu no Hana". The band discussed releasing "Hasu no Hana" and "Sayonara wa Emotion" as a single with their management at Victor Entertainment, who agreed to the idea. The song was entirely rearranged and re-recorded for its 2014 release, based around only the initial version's chorus, with the original verses removed in favor of new ones. Instead of the synth sounds present in the band's other music and the commercial version of the song, Yamaguchi wanted "Sayonara wa Emotion" to have a live rock band sound. Yamaguchi felt that by recording the song in this manner, it had lost its summer music festival-like vibe. During the recording process, Yamaguchi incorporated a wide dynamic range, having felt influenced by listening to jazz and neo soul musicians Robert Glasper and Taylor McFerrin.