Murayama Miu interview from BUBKA June 2023 edition

Q: What did you do most often as a child?

Murayama: I used to draw a lot.

Q: What kind of drawings did you often create?

Murayama: I used to go to the zoo with my family, sit on a bench and paint different animals.

Q: What animal did you enjoy drawing the most?

Murayama: Giraffes. Coloring a giraffe is difficult, isn’t it? Hippos and elephants are mostly grey, while giraffes are yellow and have spots... I really enjoyed mixing various colours and adding different shadows to them.

Q: Did you also paint when you were outside the zoo? 

Murayama: Yes, I did. But if you must know, I didn't paint while at the aquarium.

Q: Is that so?

Murayama: Truth be told, I am not good at either watching nor eating sea creatures. I also find myself thinking that if the aquarium tank breaks and water flows out, I might die. But the other day, Yamashita Shizuki and I went to the aquarium together.

Q: So you did go in the end (laughs).

Murayama: Yamashita wanted to overcome her fear of sharks. I stuck to the wall that was farthest away from the tank while she was sticking close to the tank, so it was like we were both going off on our own (laughs).

Q: I see (laughs). Did you like being by yourself when you were little?

Murayama: Not really, I was happy when I had friends around me. I remember that when I was about four years old, the girl who was my closest friend told me, 'Miu-chan, I'm done with you!'.

Q: Did your friendship with that girl end?

Murayama: No, actually, we're still good friends! At the time, I didn't know what it meant to really say 'no', so I just smiled and said 'Sure!' (laughs). When I got home, I told my mother, 'My friend told me that we're done! ♪' and she was completely stunned.

Q: In your speech during the Omotenashikai, you said that you grew up in a very protective family, right?

Murayama: It seems like they like me that much (laughs).

Q: (laughs) When did you start dancing? 

Murayama: I did when I was in primary and in junior high school. But in actuality, I wasn't very good at it.

Q: You know, I think Murayama-san's dancing is amazing now.

Murayama: It's not quite like that. I don't have a well-defined technique, and I'm not drawn to it whenever I watch videos of myself dancing.

Q: Do you like to dance?

Murayama: I love it (bluntly).

Q: How did you first come across Sakurazaka46 or Keyakizaka46 and which songs of theirs influenced you?

Murayama: I don't remember the first time I discovered them, but I do remember having gone to the handshake event when they released 'Kaze ni Fukarete Mo'. I especially liked 'Hiraishin' and 'Eccentric'.

Q: What do you like about Keyakizaka46?

Murayama: I like the fact that each one of the members has a lone wolf-like spirit. I think part of me longed for a group of strong women.

Q: It's also surprising that, bearing that in mind, you're a Masumoto Kira oshi. 

Murayama: That's right (laughs). In Keyakizaka46, my oshimen was Suzumoto Miyu-san, so this was actually the first time I was attracted to a mood-maker like Masumoto-san. When I actually met her, I went like 'Wow~'!

Q: What do you mean by 'Wow~' (laughs)?

Murayama: When Masumoto-san started talking to me, I was really happy to see that she was exactly the way I imagined her to be.

Q: Why did you decide to audition for Sakurazaka46?

Murayama: I had never thought about auditioning for the Joint Sakamichi Audition or for other groups from the Sakamichi series, and as a fan I was just looking forward to seeing exactly which kind of girls would get in. But I was particularly impressed by the CM for the Sakurazaka46 third generation audition and decided to apply.

Q: Did you have any desire to change, was that what pushed you to audition?

Murayama: Maybe that was part of it, I think. I really didn't like school, and I didn't find doing the same thing every day particularly pleasant.

Q: What did you typically do at school?

Murayama: I read books or... I always had one sweet potato with me and ate it by the window of my classroom.

Q: Do you still maintain your habit of eating sweet potatoes, even after joining Sakurazaka46? 

Murayama: I used to share what I'd eat with the members, sharing it with my phone, so I often sent pictures of sweet potatoes. If there were any potatoes in any of the members' lunch, everyone would share them with me.

Q: Did your mother support your decision to audition? 

Murayama: She's okay with it and supports me now, but when I told her I'd be auditioning, she was furious.

Q: How angry were your parents?

Murayama: She told me to sit still, and she was angry at me for more than three hours, well past the day being over. My mother is a stylist, and she knows it's a difficult industry to be in, so in the past, she had told me, 'You cannot enter the entertainment industry.'. I wasn't interested in the entertainment industry back then, so I agreed with her, but when I found myself wanting to join Sakurazaka46, I shut out what my mother had said. In the end, when she realised I wouldn't listen to her, she said, 'Sakurazaka46 is fine. This is the first and last time.' and gave me permission.

Q: How did you feel standing in front of your fans at the Omotenashikai? 

Murayama: Frankly, I was surprised that I could see so many faces from the stage. I could see both their happy faces and their crying faces, and I felt like I was creating the concert together with them.

Q: Which song left the biggest impression on you during the concert? 

Murayama: I was most impressed by 'Sakurazaka no Uta', actually. It's the song that the senior members sing at the end of each concert, and when I'm asked what Sakurazaka46 is, I think of this song. I was aware that I was only a third generation member, but singing 'Sakurazaka no Uta' made me feel like I was truly a member of Sakurazaka46. The girls around me were also moved, so every time our eyes met, I thought to myself 'Oh!'. And I was reminded and became aware, once again, that I was now a member of Sakurazaka46.

Q: Murayama-san, you cried, didn't you?

Murayama: I did cry in the end (laughs).

Q: What kind of idol do you want to be, Murayama-san?

Murayama: I'm not good at verbalizing things, in short, I have a limited vocabulary for it. But when people ask me, 'What do you think of this song?', I initially wanted to keep the answer to myself. However, I don't want to only keep it to myself anymore. I want to convey what I can't put into words through my performance. I still need to improve my technique, but I think that the more I get into the mood of the song, the more I can convey the message of it, so I really want to improve my expressive ability.

Q: You say your vocabulary is limited, but you certainly have an interesting perspective and a great sense of sensibility!

Murayama: I am happy to receive compliments on my sensibility, but I don't like being called a 'strange person'. I am not some strange character, but instead, I'm a normal person, and I would be really happy if people acknowledged that.

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Raw: anon

Translation: onekisei

QC: tmi