Hi everyone, it’s your host Faithfulness, and today I have with me Shake My Days from Kyoto, Japan. Shake My Days is here to share more light about their musical journey while introducing their latest single, “Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday),” a dreamy and melancholic indie pop release inspired by the feeling of walking through a quiet city at night, suspended somewhere between memory and reality. Built around soft emotional vocals, nostalgic guitar textures, and muted blue-grey atmospheres, the song blends Japanese indie pop sensibilities with a cinematic alternative sound, creating an immersive listening experience that feels both intimate and expansive.
Welcome Shake My Days. Before we begin the conversation, here is what you need to know about this remarkable duo. Shake My Days is a Kyoto-based indie pop project that combines nostalgic Japanese guitar pop with dreamy cinematic textures, creating music that exists between everyday reality and emotional reflection. Drawing inspiration from indie pop, dream pop, alternative rock, and retro Japanese pop influences, the duo crafts songs that prioritize emotional nuance, atmospheric storytelling, and the quiet beauty hidden within ordinary moments. Rather than chasing mainstream trends, Shake My Days focuses on creating timeless music that allows listeners to find their own meaning within each song, resulting in a sound that feels deeply personal while remaining universally relatable.
“Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)” represents another step forward in the duo’s artistic evolution. Accompanied by a visually striking music video filled with tunnel scenes, blurred lights, and muted blue-grey imagery, the release expands beyond music into a complete cinematic experience. Already attracting attention from international audiences and publications including outlets in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the song captures the delicate balance between loneliness and warmth, memory and reality, youth and reflection. As we step into this conversation, one question remains: what happens when everyday emotions, fading city lights, and nostalgic memories are transformed into music that speaks beyond language itself?
Having this brief introduction, I’m sure new and current fans must be excited about our interview today.
INTERVIEW
Faithfulness: Shake My Days, your music finds meaning in moments many people overlook. When did you first realize those everyday emotions would become the heart of your sound?
Shake My Days:
I’ve always been deeply interested in lyrics. Even as a child, many of the songs I loved were those that captured subtle everyday scenes and emotions. When I discovered rock music around the age of fifteen, I became fascinated by sharp-edged message songs and dramatic storytelling. But after experiencing setbacks and struggles in my twenties, I found myself drawn once again to ordinary moments, quiet kindness, and the small emotions hidden within daily life. Gradually, those themes became the foundation of the songs I wanted to write, and I think they eventually became the core of what Shake My Days is today.
Faithfulness: Kyoto feels deeply connected to the atmosphere of your music. How has living and creating in that city shaped the way you see stories, emotions, and everyday moments?
Shake My Days:
Kyoto is actually a very small city. With a bicycle, you can easily travel between historic temples, business districts, busy downtown streets, rivers, bamboo forests, and quiet residential areas. At the same time, the changing seasons and the passage of time throughout the day are very tangible here. You can feel them through the wind, the rain, the snow, the flow of people, and even the way people dress. Because of that, it’s possible to tell the story of an entire year within a single album.
Faithfulness: Your music blends indie pop, dream pop, alternative rock, and nostalgic Japanese influences without feeling confined to any one genre. How did that sound develop naturally over time?
Shake My Days:
All of those influences come from the music I’ve listened to throughout my life. I’ve always been fascinated by how different genres are constructed, what elements they are made of, and why certain combinations of sounds move people emotionally. Whether I was simply a listener or later became a songwriter and producer, I’ve never stopped thinking about those questions. I think Shake My Days is the result of all those influences naturally blending together over time.
Faithfulness: International listeners have been discovering your music through blogs and media outlets across Europe and beyond. What has surprised you most about the way audiences from different cultures connect with your work?
Shake My Days:
Without a doubt, the biggest surprise was discovering that our music could connect with people even when we continued singing entirely in Japanese.
If I think about it logically, it shouldn’t be surprising. Japanese listeners have loved songs in English for generations, even when they didn’t fully understand every lyric. So there was no reason the opposite couldn’t also be true. But as creators, we still carried a certain doubt, wondering if we should switch to English to reach a wider audience.
Fortunately, Mitsuki has always felt most comfortable expressing herself in Japanese, so we never felt pressured to change our identity. Seeing listeners from Europe, Latin America, and beyond connect with our songs has given us confidence that emotions can travel much farther than language.
Faithfulness: Rather than chasing polished mainstream pop, your songs seem drawn to emotional nuance and quiet tension. What keeps you inspired by those subtler emotions that many artists often overlook?
Shake My Days:
One thing I’ve always wanted to create is timeless music. I don’t want to write songs that simply follow trends and feel outdated a few years later. I want to create songs that can continue to live with people for a long time.
I also think this is connected to the nature of the Japanese language. Japanese lyrics often leave more room for implication and interpretation. Because of that, I try to build a strong emotional foundation beneath each song while deliberately avoiding over-explaining things. By leaving space for the listener’s imagination, the song can become personal to each individual. In a way, my challenge as a songwriter is to express deeper emotions by saying less, not more.
Faithfulness: Your new single, “Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday),” feels suspended between memory and reality. Was there a particular moment, place, or feeling that first sparked the idea for this song?
Shake My Days:
The lead single, “Someday, Be Mine,” was completed first. That song captures the charming emotions that exist just before a romance begins, using major chords and a blues-inspired melody to create a positive atmosphere.
Because of that, I wanted its companion song to explore the opposite emotional direction. I started writing “Faded Blue” with the idea of expressing the unanswered pain and quiet frustration that can appear when a relationship comes to an end. Musically, I used minor chords and major seventh harmonies to create that emotional landscape.
Faithfulness: There is a beautiful balance between loneliness and warmth throughout the song. How did you approach expressing those seemingly opposite emotions within the same piece of music?
Shake My Days:
I’ve always been drawn to music that contains both light and shadow at the same time. Songs that are simply bright or simply sad have never interested me as much as songs that carry a sense of emotional depth and ambiguity.
From a songwriting perspective, I’ve always loved the sound of major seventh and minor seventh chords. To me, those harmonies naturally evoke images of twilight, late-night streets, and moments that exist somewhere between certainty and uncertainty.
I usually begin by creating the chord progression first, then I discover the title, and finally the lyrics and melody emerge together. Perhaps that’s why many of my songs naturally end up inhabiting those in-between emotional spaces.
Faithfulness: There is a beautiful balance between loneliness and warmth throughout the song. How did you approach expressing those seemingly opposite emotions within the same piece of music?
Shake My Days:
I think a large part of that comes from Mitsuki’s voice. She has a natural ability to sing with a slightly bluesy quality, and somehow that makes loneliness and warmth coexist within the same performance.
In many ways, Shake My Days began with her voice. The project was built around the emotional qualities she naturally brings to a song. Because of that, we’ve always tried to explore emotional complexity and subtlety in our music. As a songwriter, I try to create stories and melodies that allow those qualities in her voice to shine naturally.
Faithfulness: The guitar textures carry a strong sense of nostalgia without sounding trapped in the past. How did you shape the instrumental side of the song to feel both retro and modern?
Shake My Days:
My direct musical roots as a guitarist and songwriter come from the new wave, beat rock, and punk rock scenes of the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, some of my biggest guitar heroes are Keith Richards and Lindsey Buckingham.
I think the combination of those influences naturally creates a sound that feels nostalgic without being trapped in the past. I’m also constantly exposed to newer indie rock through Mitsuki, who introduces me to many contemporary artists. So the music of Shake My Days often becomes a conversation between different generations and different musical eras.
Faithfulness: The title itself, “Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday),” immediately creates a vivid emotional image. What does that phrase mean to you personally, and why was it the perfect title for this release?
Shake My Days:
When I was developing the lyrics and overall imagery for the song, I made a long list of words and phrases that reminded me of Britain and Europe. One of those ideas was the image of a gloomy, overcast sky.
While researching, I came across the expressions “blue-grey” and “faded blue.” Both perfectly captured the atmosphere I was searching for. I originally treated them as separate working titles, but as I continued writing the lyrics, I couldn’t choose between them. Eventually, I decided to combine both phrases into the final title.
For me, the title represents a color, a weather condition, and an emotional state all at once. It exists somewhere between beauty and sadness, which felt exactly right for this song.
Faithfulness: The accompanying video expands the song’s world through tunnels, blurred lights, and intimate close-up shots. How important was it for the visual storytelling to reflect the emotional landscape of the music?
Shake My Days:
The filming happened during cherry blossom season in Japan, when the trees were at their absolute peak. We felt it would be a shame not to capture that beauty.
The location we chose is one of Kyoto’s most famous historical sites and is designated as a National Treasure, which meant it would be impossible to film there during the daytime because of the crowds. So we started filming before sunrise.
That decision ended up giving the video its unique colors and atmosphere. The tunnel sequence was actually chosen on the spot after we arrived and thought, “This is the place.” It eventually became the central visual motif of the video.
Looking back, I feel incredibly fortunate. Everything came together in a way that perfectly matched the emotional world of the song. It almost feels like a gift from fate.
Faithfulness: Many listeners are drawn to songs because they remind them of a specific chapter in their lives. What kind of memories or emotions do you hope people find themselves revisiting while listening to this track?
Shake My Days:
Every Shake My Days song contains elements of nostalgia within the arrangement and sound design. That’s simply because I love that feeling myself.
The exact memories people connect with will naturally be different for everyone. But if this song encourages someone to reconnect with a bittersweet memory they’ve kept hidden away for years, I would consider that a success.
Faithfulness: This release has already begun attracting attention from overseas listeners and music blogs. Has seeing that early response changed the way you view the song now that it belongs to the audience as much as it belongs to you?
Shake My Days:
It has given me confidence in a particular way of expressing emotions.
One thing I’ve always believed is that it’s important not to explain too much. The challenge is knowing how much to leave unsaid. When your audience comes from different languages and cultural backgrounds, it’s easy to worry whether the message will still be understood.
The response to “Faded Blue” has reassured me that emotions can still be communicated without over-explaining them. In that sense, the song has given me a new reference point as a songwriter.
Faithfulness: Looking beyond this single, what aspects of your artistic identity do you feel you’re still discovering, and where do you hope that journey leads next?
Shake My Days:
There is quite a large age gap between Mitsuki and me. For my generation, tracing musical influences back to the 1960s and 1970s wasn’t especially difficult. For younger generations, however, even reaching artists like The Beatles can feel like a long journey.
I’d love for Shake My Days to become a bridge between generations. Just as bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones introduced us to blues, soul, and earlier traditions, I hope our music can encourage younger listeners and future creators to discover the great songs that came before us.
In many ways, that journey is continuing alongside Mitsuki’s own growth as an artist.
Faithfulness: Finally, when listeners hear “Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)” years from now, what feeling or image would make you happiest to know remained with them long after the song ended?
Shake My Days:
I would be very happy if someone said, “This was the first Japanese song I ever learned,” or “This song made me want to visit Kyoto.”
Music has the power to connect people to places, cultures, and memories they’ve never experienced before. If “Faded Blue” can become that kind of doorway for even a few listeners somewhere in the world, I think that would be the greatest reward for us.
CHECK OUT THE RELEASE OF ‘Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)’
HAVING LISTENED TO ‘Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)’, HERE ARE MY HONEST THOUGHTS
“Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)” is a beautifully crafted indie pop release that thrives on atmosphere, emotional subtlety, and cinematic storytelling. Through Mitsuki’s delicate and heartfelt vocal delivery, shimmering guitar textures, spacious production, and thoughtful songwriting, Shake My Days creates a listening experience that feels both nostalgic and deeply immersive. The song captures the quiet emotions that exist between memory and reality, balancing loneliness and warmth with remarkable elegance. Rather than relying on dramatic moments, it allows its emotional depth to unfold naturally, resulting in a reflective and memorable piece that lingers long after the music fades away.
~ Faithfulness (Dulaxi Team)
Finally, to our audience, I urge you to listen to “Faded Blue (Blue-Grey Thursday)”, add it to your playlist, and allow yourself to be carried into its beautifully cinematic world. On behalf of Dulaxi, I would like to thank you all for joining us today. Thank you everyone, and see you on our next interview.
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