“I wrote every track around the theme of ‘dialogue’,” Ayase tells Apple Music about his EP, also titled dialogue. Best known as the composer behind J-pop duo YOASOBI, Ayase has delivered one hit after another, while showcasing his own vocals in covers of Vocaloid tracks he’s written for a range of artists. But his latest work reveals a stronger sense of resolve—confronting the realities of life that people would rather look away from. Ayase continues to handle all his own songwriting and arrangements, and the rapid-fire lyrics and bold melodic lines that define his style remain fully intact. On “うるさ” (“Urusa”), he pairs emotionally closed-off negativity with deliberately upbeat club sounds, while “bad therapy” uses irregular, disorienting production to satirise rigid, black-and-white ways of thinking. Then, on “dialogue”, he turns to vibrant guitar rock as he emotionally declares: “I’ve decided to keep singing forever.” “These songs capture the emotions and conflicts I felt through my dialogues with other people, with society and with myself,” he says. Here, he talks us through dialogue track by track. “PLANETS” “Floating in the vastness of space, lonely planets are drawn towards huge stars and endlessly circling around them. I wrote this song by telling myself, ‘That’s kind of like us, isn’t it?’ Blaming the universe for all the things I wanted to say, and all the things I couldn’t.” “うるさ” (“Urusa”) “I really hate negative words, and I wish kindness would come before arguments. So if I’m going to point out these problems, I want to do it through fun, playful music—with a huge buzzing bassline you can properly dance to.” “bad therapy” “I remember thinking [about people with uncritical mindsets], ‘You’re totally being brainwashed!’ and wanting them to snap out of it. So I deliberately made the song sound almost hypnotic.’” “火花” (“Hibana”) “I wrote this song the night I decided to get serious about my solo work. I faced up to the feelings I had been turning away from—it felt like sparks suddenly crackled across my skin.” “dialogue” “I don’t want to say [my formative years] were the best days of my life, but I’ve never wanted to forget them either. I want the person I am now, living in this moment, to stay with me just as strongly as the person I was back then—and to live on into the future.”