There is something special about driving through your hometown that makes the past feel a little closer than it actually is, and maybe it is a familiar street, an old shop you haven’t thought about in years, or a song that suddenly reminds you of somebody you used to know; that’s where Japanese three-piece karanoah have capture that feeling on their new single, which is a nostalgic rock song about memories, growing older and the impossible temptation to revisit moments that have already passed.
The track marks a return to a more straightforward rock sound for vocalist and guitarist Yudai, bassist Tatsuki and drummer Kazuki, as they bring together intimate storytelling and the kind of soaring melodies that make you want to turn the car stereo up. Even though the song begins quietly, almost like somebody remembering a story they haven’t told in years, it gradually builds into a full-band rush of guitars, drums and emotion.
The song’s imagery is wonderfully specific: heavy rain falling against the windows, condensation gathering on the glass, the glow of a vending machine and an old CD playing from the passenger seat of Yudai’s sister’s car.
“A car feels like a time machine. Of course you can’t actually go back, but it can feel like you really have,” Yudai explains about the idea for the song. “Driving through your hometown, the town you lived in, a road full of memories, you remember feelings from back then that you hadn’t even remembered, the scenery, even the smell. It feels like you can go back to that moment, just for a second. I wanted to make a song that takes all of it, the emotions and the memories, and moves forward.”
What’s particularly interesting is that the three-piece never quite explain who Yudai is trying to meet in the song, as it could be somebody he misses, somebody he once loved, or perhaps even a younger version of himself who still exists somewhere in those memories. That ambiguity gives the song an emotional openness, allowing myself and you, the fellow listener, to fill in the gaps with your very own experiences.
