Wanting to create "awe-inspiring moments"! How RINA trains her mind and body
RINA is part of SCANDAL, the all-girl band capturing attention all over the globe. At the age of 30, she has embraced her changing self and moved forward during both good times and bad. As an artist and human being, how does she train her mind and body in order to live lithely?
Building a strong, lithe body that'll allow her to continue playing the drums to her heart's content
SCANDAL is celebrating their 16th anniversary this year. RINA has devoted more than half of her life so far to the drums as a musician. Focusing on live performances, she has played tough performances not only in Japan but also overseas. How does RINA prepare her mind for when she goes on stage?
"One hour before we go on, the band members spend time in space for only us, and we ask that no one else enter the dressing room. We've always done that. Right before we go on stage, I'm so on edge that even I think it's funny (laughs). As the drummer I'm the first to go on stage, and in that moment the audience goes, 'Wah!', elevating the mood all at once. I think that's the most exciting moment before we play any music. Nothing has started, but we want people to experience awe-inspiring moments that'll make you go, 'This is insane!' That's why I think it's necessary to have that much concentration and feelings. I might use my stamina the most before appear on stage (laughs)."
"Playing the drums is a whole-body workout." That's why her rule with food is to "eat what I want to eat."
"If you continue to tour or play festivals, your metabolism will increase and you'll be more likely to lose weight as well as use a lot of stamina. But the most important thing for me is to stay healthy and be able to play the drums. That is why I make sure to eat my favorite foods and live a life that makes me feel good."
Keeping in mind how each body has its own beauty to it, she doesn't diet nor have dietary restrictions.
"What I'm aiming for is to have a body that I can move around flexibly for a long time. Wanting to do training at my own pace while communicating with my instructor is why I started going to Pilates again. My recent routine has been to go once or twice a week."
Moving her body is an opportunity to bring herself to the positive side
She has continued doing Pilates and seems to be feeling a change within herself.
"Pilates can reset your mind and body, and I think the studio is a place where you can bring yourself to the positive side. My instructor also energizes me. Having someone whom I can talk with about my body is a source of relief on a daily basis, and training is also a "good luck charm" for when I play the drums, which I think is very therapeutic."
RINA, who takes part in a wide range of activities such as child-rearing support/womens' support, is mentally strong, but she says she's actually "the type to have ups and downs mentally."
"Sometimes I feel really down, and sometimes I don't know how to get rid of my negative feelings. When that happens, what helps me to get back to being positive is to move my body. However, I think I'm currently showing myself in a negative state to our audience. I make both good times and bad times look natural. Of course, I think there are limits to that, but I really want to be a musician who has a very human side to them."
What changed due to her having a herniated disk
RINA says once more, "I feel that it's important to know my body." In fact, she had a herniated disk when she was 25 years old. It had just been 10 years since she first started playing the drums.
"For a long time I continued to have pain I had never experienced before. Even after a month it didn't go away. I went to the hospital several times, but they told me that it was fatigue or sciatica... Eventually, my right buttock became numb, and that numbness stretched from there to my fingertips. It got worse and worse. I was diagnosed with having a herniated disk via an exam at a large hospital, and things finally got easier. Things like, 'That's why it hurt so much. So let's think about how to fix this.'"
Aiming for recovery, she was able to visit several hospitals and meet with good doctors. For a year and half she decided to continue doing rehab while taking medicine.
"My mental health was pretty shaky then (*bitter smile). I was really scared because I would go on stage while worrying if I could play a concert the entire way through. Up to then, I really wanted to be at 100% for my performances. But as I talked to my doctors and continued to do rehab, I started to think, 'If I can do my best for that day, then that would be great!' When I'd do everything I could on a moment-to-moment basis, I'd be like, 'I was able to play a good concert today!', and the number of things that I gained ground with increased."
When asked what happened after she recovered, she said that she now has a habit of sitting up straight as if protecting her lower back. With Pilates, she practices using her backbone softly and continues to do so in everyday life.
"I hope to use my body better so that I can continue to be pain-free for a long time. I've come to understand how to deal with my body, and I think that makes me feel better."
Taking the next step by complimenting herself for her hard work
Having time to prepare her body and mind is "something that's really good for me right now." Changes in herself also seem to inspire her performances.
"I think that 'softness' has come out in our music as well. When we debuted, we were acknowledged as having 'an awesome gap between us being four girls and putting on aggressive performances.' That was what was best for us, but we have more ways of expressing ourselves than that. I hope that we can make music that we'll be able to perform for a long time with various tastes."
It's been 16 years since she started playing the drums on her 15th birthday. She has always spent time doing activities connected to her line of work such as learning French for overseas tours, but recently she's also wanted to cherish her "me time" that's not directly related to anything.
"Before, I used to be the type that was like, 'I don't want to take a rest!' and did a lot of things with a pretty packed schedule. That's exactly why I think that I've completed my phase of 'continuing to run at max speed.' Now, I can praise myself and be like, 'You've come a long way!' I make sure to get some rest and have more me time. I hope to continue expressing my tastes in music and my work pace by thinking about ways to make changes and to keep doing this for a long time."
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). RINA then says that the next one is in Dallas on the 26th. HARU says that they have some time between the two concerts. RINA talks about the previous time they were there and drove quite a bit from the airport to get to the city, and the cityscape was very much like the scenes of Mexico that you would see in movies. MAMI says that their previous tour also concluded in Dallas. They had eaten steak and then dropped by a convenience store afterwards. She says that there were really big guys standing in front of the store and they found it a little scary, but when they left the store the guys talked to them and apparently they were huge TOMO fans. They all laugh at this. A staffer asks if it was a coincidence, and they all say in unison that it was. HARU mentions that the band had also gone to eat some popsicles before the show at this cute place.