I think it is really helpful to see the beauty in every situation. I guess it's being able to see it in unexpected places. If you're fed too much of an image of what beauty is then you might define it as a certain specific thing, but when you have your own idea of what it is, or your own feelings of what beauty is, then it becomes so wide and so indefinable.
Yukimi NaganoFor us, as artists, our goal isn't to forever try to play at the biggest venue ever. Our goal is to make music and keep pushing ourselves creatively, whether it gets attention or not. If we get to do that without being broke? That's our goal. And that may not mean that's going to result in us playing the biggest venue in the world.
Yukimi NaganoI think that kind of balance comes with the process of growing together as a band, the Little Dragon. We love to write, we love to create, we love to play live, and I think we love and appreciate what we have together. How that evolves, and how we balance it, is something that's come with time. At the start we were all like, "Tour tour tour. We just want to play. That's all we want to do."
Yukimi NaganoThere were choices that we've made as a Little Dragon, that we had to make at the time because we needed the money. I think everything has its context. It is way easier to say no to things now then it was five years ago, for sure. Back then we were grabbing at every opportunity we could just to sustain a name and let people know, "Hello, hello! We're here! Look at us!" It's really sort of taken its time and grown, and it's been a very step-by-step process.
Yukimi NaganoIt's not always a conscious thing - I've never been that artist to come to the recording session with a concept of an album; I am a lot more intuitive. I usually start with the music and try to catch a feeling, a gut feeling. And then you need to do interviews and explain yourself more, in words. But during the process it's really about the gut feeling, and it's hard to explain. You're trying to find those moods that make you feel something, I guess.
Yukimi NaganoWe've been fortunate enough to have a lot of people to ask us to be on their records - so many artists and musicians that we really respect and look up to. And it's been really special. But from our side, there's so much that we in the Little Dragon are still learning about ourselves writing-wise that I guess we haven't had that need.
Yukimi NaganoThere are times when we in Little Dragon write from scratch together, but everyone has their own lives, so it just seems to make sense when everyone starts an idea on their own and we sort of meet somewhere along the way. I'm at the studio all the time because I live there, but the guys will have different schedules. It's easier to start an idea with your own thoughts, rather than having to compromise from the start.
Yukimi Nagano