YONAGI is a pop duo based in Tokyo.
Formed in 2023 by high-school classmates kotaro (vocals) and tosei (production), the duo releases distinctive songs that combine pleasing, hip-hop-influenced sounds with smoothly blended vocals.
Their second EP 『明け方5時の海岸通り』, positioned as a continuation of the story begun on 『1 room journey』, explores the “cycle of time and memory,” depicting scenes after daybreak and subtle shifts in emotion.
To mark the new release, we spoke with the duo about their musical roots, the carefully calculated work behind their production, and their future ambitions involving “space.”
From a High-School Band Club to Becoming YONAGI at Their Nakano Production Base
——First, could you tell us how YONAGI came together? Your biography describes you as two high-school classmates who formed a Tokyo-based duo in 2023. How did it actually begin?
tosei: It wasn't really a case of saying, “Let's form a group,” was it? It just happened naturally. We originally met through a friend in our high-school band club.
kotaro: At first, we were in separate bands.
tosei: kotaro was already making music, while I was a beginner—an amateur, really.
——kotaro, what sort of music were you making?
kotaro: I bought Vocaloid and used it to make music. I started with computer-based production, making purely instrumental tracks. Around the time I entered high school, I thought I'd try making something with my own singing on it, too.
——Had you played any instruments before you started producing on a computer?
kotaro: When I was around the second year of elementary school, I got a keyboard as a Christmas present. I used its lesson functions to play pieces by Debussy (ドビュッシー) and things like that.
Then, in my third or fourth year, there was something like a choir competition, and I volunteered to play the accompaniment.
That made me think music was interesting and that I wanted to create it. I started making music around junior high, then decided to add vocals in high school… That's how it developed.
——Have you known each other since your first year of high school? Were you in the same class?
tosei: No, we were never in the same class. It was really just the club. We had a mutual friend.
tosei: The club had fixed bands, but I didn't join in April. Someone invited me to join partway through, and when I did, his band was there.
——But you weren't planning to make music together at that point?
tosei: That's right. With COVID and everything, we couldn't play in bands at all.
But I became interested in writing original songs, and the two of us started working on a computer together.
We carried on casually like that, and around 2023 it started to take the shape of, “Shall we put a song out?”
——What prompted that change in mindset in 2023?
kotaro: Maybe it was because we'd finished a song. It was complete, and we thought, “This is pretty good.”
tosei: Also, a friend from my university had a soundproofed space in Nakano. It wasn't exactly a recording studio, but we still get to work there now. I think having somewhere we could record with good sound made a big difference, too.
Finding that place coincided with finishing the song. I think that was what made us feel we could do this as artists.
What Makes YONAGI Sound Like YONAGI: The Boundary Between Hip-Hop and J-POP
——Listening to your music, I hear elements of hip-hop and alternative R&B. Do you consciously work within those genres, or did this style emerge from making what you like?
tosei: I'd say it's closer to being conscious of it. There are constraints. We could end up with a song that makes us think, “This isn't YONAGI.”
——I'm really curious about what makes something “not YONAGI.”
kotaro: It's not about being outlandish at all costs. It's hip-hop, but it can't be too much hip-hop, if that makes sense. We make sure to bring in elements of Japanese pop and the familiarity of J-POP.
tosei: Rather than everything being sonically intense, we want to show a slightly alternative approach through things like a Japanese poetic sensibility.
Part of that comes from liking artists such as Frank Ocean (フランク・オーシャン). But it's certainly not R&B, and being J-POP is one thing that's part of it.
——How do you approach making a song?
tosei: Basically, I make a demo beat and send it over, then have him develop the arrangement a little or put vocals on it.
Then I work on the beat again and refine it. It really is something the two of us make together.
A Guitar Phrase and 『明け方5時の海岸通り』, an Idea That Came on the Subway
——Let's talk about the new EP, 『明け方5時の海岸通り』. What led you to make this release?
tosei: We already had a demo of the song 「明け方5時の海岸通り」. Then we came up with 「i likeが尽きぬ毎日を」, which had a similar atmosphere.
I thought these were songs that could belong to the same release, so I started working toward that. During the process, I realized we could sample a phrase from 「明け方5時の海岸通り」.
——What gave you the idea for the words 「明け方5時の海岸通り」?
kotaro: First, I was sent a beat with a guitar phrase. At the time, I often programmed a melody in the DAW before anything else.
I'd listen to it on the train and keep it on a loop, wondering if I could find lyrics that fit. What fit was 「明け方5時の海岸通り」.
——Did it come to you while you were on the train?
kotaro: On the subway, yes. I was standing in a moderately crowded carriage, with no scenery to look at. It was precisely because I couldn't see any scenery that it came to me in my imagination.
kotaro: We already had a concept of something that felt like morning, or like the coast. But after adding the melody and listening back, 「明け方5時の海岸通り」 was what fit best.
——I see. So rather than writing it while actually looking at the sea, those words came from an imagined world or an inner landscape.
kotaro: That's right. For listeners, too, we approach it less as “Look at this scene” and more as something that can sit alongside their own scenery.
I like the feeling of sound mixing with my own emotions. Rather than pulling you along or giving you a push, it's more like dissolving into the space around you.
——The lyrics refer to 「君」, or “you.” Do you have a specific person in mind when you write?
kotaro: I think probably every YONAGI song has lyrics addressed to someone, but I don't think it's usually a specific person.
It might be family, a partner, a friend—someone important to you. Because it's abstract, there's a part of it that we leave up to the listener.
Keys Around the Circle of Fifths: Musical Devices That Make Time and Memory “Cycle”
——The theme of this EP is the “cycle of time and memory.” How did you arrive at its structure?
tosei: The first songs we finished were tracks one, four and five.
When we looked at the keys of those three songs on the circle of fifths, we realized that adding the keys of tracks two and three could make the whole EP cycle.
——What do you mean by “cycle”?
tosei: Track one, 「明け方5時の海岸通り」, and track five, 「記憶は溶けて」, are both in E major, because the fifth track samples the first.
Track four, 「i likeが尽きぬ毎日を」, is in D♭ major. When we looked at those three keys on the circle of fifths, we realized that putting songs in G and B♭ between them would let us go all the way around at regular intervals: E→G→B♭→D♭→E.
From there, we wrote the second track in G and the third in B♭, making a structure that cycles through the EP as a whole.
——Wow! I hadn't realized there was such a carefully constructed device behind it.
tosei: Because we were conscious of that conceptual side, we struggled with it. G was difficult (laughs). Trying to reach high notes in a male vocal range puts you right on the edge of falsetto, and it was hard to come up with guitar phrases, too.
But that's often how we work: we set those kinds of constraints first, then do our best to bring in what we know.
Lyrical Flow and the Catharsis Created by Contrasting Scales
——The rhymes in the chorus of 「明け方5時の海岸通り」 feel really good.
kotaro: For a chorus, I start by thinking about rhyme: 「明け方」 and 「欠けた月」, for example. Once I've decided on one phrase, I build it up around rhymes. That creates about 80% of the constraints, and then I work hard to fit in what I want to say.
tosei: In the 「僕が一人 君も一人」 part, only the first 「僕が一人、君も一人」 rises from lower down. After that, the chorus stays up high. It's the same melody, but it takes on a different character.
kotaro: Because of that relationship, those two parts had to contrast as phrases.
——It's interesting that, even though you construct it so logically, the result is so lyrical and stirs up such indistinct emotions.
kotaro: Exactly. I think it's interesting because we make something so elusive in such a logical way.
The second track, 「曇り空に吸い込まれるように」, and the third, 「レイジーサンデーモーニング」, also grew out of the chorus melodies and the way the words sound.
With 「レイジーモーニング」, four characters weren't enough, so we thought we'd make it 「サンデー」 instead—something like that (laughs). We understand what feels good through the sounds and fit the words into that.
Where YONAGI Is Now, and Their Future Ambitions
——YONAGI's songs are easy to listen to. As you look to strengthen what makes you sound like YONAGI, is there anything you want to try?
tosei: Our current songs are easy to listen to, but I don't think they have hooks that are quite that strong yet. Frank Ocean is pleasing to listen to as well, but what makes his music sound so unmistakably like Frank Ocean?
Going forward, we want to try sounds and arrangements we haven't used before and bring out more of what makes YONAGI sound like YONAGI.
——Do you have any live shows planned?
kotaro: Live shows… Well, I don't really want to do that many (laughs).
tosei: If we do one, we'd want some kind of concept, something different from simply playing at a regular live music venue. That could involve spatial audio, and since kotaro is studying architecture, I hope we can ultimately combine it with something to do with “space.”
Rather than making it our goal to play ZEPP, it's about continuing to think about whether there's a “different experience” we could create on the scale of ZEPP. That's our goal as YONAGI.
——I see. So instead of an easily understood goal of standing on a particular stage, you want to create an experience only YONAGI can offer.
tosei: That's right. With our label, ALTENCE Records, too, we want to establish our own way of working as a team and use it to present something new.
Something accessible to a broad audience that can still offer alternative experiences and sensibilities. We want to stay open and flexible as people while keeping a solid core to our music. That's what we want to protect.
RELEASE
YONAGI『明け方5時の海岸通り』
Release Date: 2026.7.22 (Wed.)
Format: Digital EP
Label: ALTENCE Records
Release URL: https://altence.jp/release/5am
Tracklist:
明け方5時の海岸通り
曇り空に吸い込まれるように
レイジーサンデーモーニング
i likeが尽きぬ毎日を
記憶は溶けて
ARTIST
YONAGI
A Tokyo-based pop duo formed in 2023 by high-school classmates kotaro (vocals) and tosei (production).
Their distinctive songs combine pleasing, hip-hop-influenced sounds with smoothly blended vocals.
