It’s quite well-known that Roseburn Avenue’s influences are rather wide-ranging, and change practically from song to song. While Roseburn Avenue did start as a Roselia doujin circle, I believe we have hardly stayed within that box.

All Roseburn Avenue songs are ultimately co-written, first with Zach and myself working together on the music, and since our third song, I co-wrote the lyrics with Tessie. On the arrangement front, all of us who play instruments write our own respective parts after the demo is set in stone. Unlike most instances of co-songwriting, we haven’t quite had the opportunity to woodshed in the same room (or for that matter, over a single concall), but that doesn’t detract from the song coming together – and in fact, it gives us more time in between our busy schedules to polish and perfect the eventual parts that go into the final mix.

I’ll leave it to Zach and Tessie to discuss their songwriting strategies in their own words. As for me, the process has been surprisingly organic – albeit rooted in practical intuition. That’s to say that, when I add the initial vocal melodies and lyrics or otherwise re-arrange them, it’s got to be something that’s not just singable, but hopefully enjoyable to sing.

However, at the same time, there is quite a bit of give-and-take between songwriters; as I grew in my own songwriting, I also found myself trying to retain as much as was previously done by my co-songwriters. For “Beneath the Waves”, I initially faced some teething problems with working directly off “L’Éclat” wholesale, as I was thinking too fixatedly on elucidating a soaring, melodious vocal line, as well as shifting the chorus into half-time to create more movement instead of a consistent, driving backbeat. The initial chorus, as it turned out, lacked the power and momentum that the song deserved, and was completely reworked to its current form.

With our third song, “Tsubame”, more back-and-forth was therefore warranted between Zach and I – first starting with me programming the drums, Zach ironing out the chord progression upon which I wrote the initial arrangement, followed by Zach writing the initial vocal melodies before I rearranged them for Tessie to write the lyrics over.

As straightforward as that might have seemed, we took a number of unexpected turns: it was around this time where both folk and symphonic elements were heavily considered. My original plan at first was a larger-than-life, cinematic piece that would create the impression of flight; Zach suggested increasing the tempo, which I maintain to be an excellent decision.

Source: Revue Starlight Re:Live, “BanG Dream!” collab event

One thing that occurs in every song so far is that the live instrumentalists have, as much as possible, give-and-take in the lead role. In the second verse of “Beneath the Waves”, the guitars recede to allow for a harmonised bass line (as opposed to a root note), while the bridge brings out the keyboards in prominence.

“Tsubame” is written partly in Japanese; an idea of Tessie’s from the get-go. As I happen to be studying the language, this was an opportunity that I couldn’t resist. Tessie started out with the first cut of the lyrics (in both English and Japanese); on my part, I made further edits to flesh out the narrative of the song and fit the lyrics into the vocal melodies I had arranged. Alas, not everything fit: I eventually made some rewrites to the melodies to fit the lyrics, some parts originally in English were rewritten in Japanese as well, and Zach’s cousin corrected the Japanese used in the initial lyrics.

I tend to view my lyricism as a form of storytelling, one that blends the narrator’s reactions with the events that they are facing. “Remembering”, for instance, is a recitative between the dead leaving this life, and the living who remain to mourn. Given that we have multiple vocalists, I also felt “Tsubame” could be executed with each vocalist in a different “role” based on the timbre of our voices – although this isn’t something I want to do every song! Even so, this narrative approach to Roseburn Avenue’s lyricism has hitherto proven highly effective, especially given that Tessie also puts a substantial emphasis on storytelling in her own songwriting process. Which makes for evocative lyrics that endeavour to take the listener on not just a trip, but a journey.

At this point, we’ve got a couple more songs in the skunkworks, each with a new sound and a few tweaks to the manner in which we’re collaborating. I’ve got a few new ideas lying around as well. I for one believe that Roseburn Avenue is well on its way to establishing its own unique sonic identity, but at the same time, we are very much reluctant to write ourselves into a box.