Planning to interview Mike Wyzgowski (Shiro Sagisu's lyricist)

[FrDougal9000]

Hi there. Gosh, it's been nearly (checks) three years since I last posted on Evageeks. It's been a good while. I hope y'all are doing well.

I'm posting on here to say that I'm planning to interview Mike Wyzgowski, perhaps best known as the lyricist for Shiro Sagisu's English songs since 1996. He wrote the lyrics for "Komm Susser Tod" from EOE, various songs from Shin Eva including "Hand of Fate" and "Lost in the Memory", "Nothing Can Be Explained" from Bleach (which he also sang), many songs from the Shiro's Songbook series of albums, and all those action themes involving a choir that have been popping up in Sagisu's soundtracks since 2007.

I got into contact with Wyzgowski a couple of weeks ago through his Twitter account, which I stumbled across while trying to find information on an alt-rock album he made some time ago called Green Retriever. I asked if he was the same Mike Wyzgowski from the early 00s band Garlic, and when he said yes, we got to chatting for a small bit. I thanked him for his alt-rock music and he brought up that he was Sagisu's lyricist when he noticed I had some Eva stuff on my own Twitter profile.

This evening, I messaged him to ask if I could interview him about his work with Sagisu, for an article I'm planning to write for the animation blog Cartoon Milk (I've done a good few articles on there over the last two years: https://cartoonmilk.com/author/frdougal9000/). To my surprise and delight, he actually said yes! Not just that, but he said that while he can't promise this, he will try to send Sagisu any questions I have for him!

As this place was part of the genesis (natch) of my early Evangelion fandom, and because I know that there's been one or two posts/forums about Wyzgowski over the years, I wanted to ask if anyone on here has questions they'd like me to ask Wyzgowski - and perhaps Sagisu if that somehow happens.

I've got a good few questions written down for Wyzgowski about his work with Sagisu, so any more questions would be very much appreciated! I'll credit people in the article as well, as a sign of good faith.

Thanks for reading, and also hullo again!

[kuribo-04]

That's awesome!
I'd ask if Anno has any sort of input concerning lyrics, even if it's indirectly.
And regardless of the answer, if they are supposed to reflect themes of the film or create a mood (I'd guess it's more about the second option).

[dzzthink]

I'm quite interested in whether he believes that Japanese songs are naturally aligned with Japanese lyrics and that sometimes English just doesn't do it justice in terms of melody, pacing, and emotional context. The rhythm, pattern, and meanings inherent within the Japanese language are different from English, so it must be hard to come up with the English version with the same meaning. It's a very creative process and his work on the Eva series is commendable. I am also interested if he prefers simplifying the lyrics from the original so that the listener is not lost in the translation or does he try to adapt it in English using his own interpretation of the story of EVA and pack as much emotion and poetry as possible.

(On a side note, when I saw his name, I immediately thought of Monster's Inc's Mike Wazowski, does he get that a lot?)

[UrsusArctos]

Oh wow, this is awesome. I wish I'd seen this last week. If you're actively looking for people who seek questions to ask, you could PM cyharding and ask for it to be a front-page post (mention that I suggested this if you do so).

kuribo pretty much asked the questions I had in mind, although I would probably go a little further and ask "Did Anno or [i]anyone else]/i] involved in Evangelion's production have direct or indirect input on the lyrics?"

[cyharding]

Oh wow, this is awesome. I wish I'd seen this last week. If you're actively looking for people who seek questions to ask, you could PM cyharding and ask for it to be a front-page post (mention that I suggested this if you do so).

Or...(and hear me out on this one) I can read that post, and I can get everything set up in a couple of days. When would the interview with Mike be? That could give us a timetable to work on.

[FrDougal9000]

Or...(and hear me out on this one) I can read that post, and I can get everything set up in a couple of days. When would the interview with Mike be? That could give us a timetable to work on.

Hey there, I only just caught this now.

I'm not planning to do interview through audio or video; I'm planning on just sending him a word document and let him write answers to send back at some point. I have a list of questions drafted out already - 33 questions, with around 17 of those based on his work with Evangelion - but I wanna refine them before I get into contact with Mike and send them his way.

It's also worth mentioning that I'm going through various things in my personal life after a big upheaval, so I'm often quite busy and left too tired to even think of working on things. So apologies that I can't really say when this is going to happen.

[FelipeFritschF]

Good luck! Keep in mind, folks, Wyzgowkski also wrote many (if not all) English lyrics for the songs in the other three Rebuild movies as well.

Personally I'm interested in how he adapted, particularly, Komm Susser Tod and Everything You've Ever Dreamed from Anno's original lyrics in Japanese to English. Did he talk with Anno, did they discuss anything about the lyrics and their meaning? Or was this only through Sagisu, and if so, did he share any thoughts from Anno with him? How was the translation/adaptation process? Do the fans gloss over any meaning in them?

Of course, please do take your time.

[RussianRiz]

I would like to ask how was the process of adaptation of the lyrics of Komm Susser Tod and Everything You've Ever Dreamed to English and if he had any sort of contact with Arianne. If he did, how was his perception of her interpretation of the lyrics.

His musical/artistical influences for his Evangelion's works, specially for EoE.

Finally, how the change in moods we saw in Rebuild, more specifically in Shin Eva, impact the way he adapts and writes for the movies. If he chased new influences etc.

[FrDougal9000]

Hey there, folks!

Just wanted to post a quick update to say that I've finished putting together a draft of the questions list which I'm fairly satisfied with. I've managed to include most of the questions/topics I've gotten from folks on here and elsewhere (though I've reworded them for clarity's sake). I'm going to ask Wyzgowski tomorrow if I'm good to send them his way, and I'll let him answer the questions in his own time if it all checks out okay.

I've no idea how long it'll take for him to get back to me on this, so I'd say that unless something comes up which I need to immediately address to y'all, this will be as far as I can discuss things right now.

Thank you so much for your suggestions and questions, and I hope to let you all know what's happening in the near future. Until then, have a great day!

[FelipeFritschF]

I know it's been months but it just occurred to me that I should have asked this: Does he have any information on why EYED was not used either alongside or instead of KSD? Again, please do take your time for when you think you'll be able to talk to him.

[FrDougal9000]

Oh my god, I can't believe it's already been over three months since I last posted on here! Amazing how often time flies, like a clock through a window.

Sorry I haven't kept updating here, things have just been really busy on my end. However, I can at least provide some news on the interview.

I sent those questions to Mike and he answered most of them in full after a couple of weeks - though concisely answered, there's a fair bit of interesting info that I think will be pretty cool. I also decided to follow him up on his suggestion of asking some questions to Sagisu, mainly ones that Mike himself couldn't answer in much detail (like what happened to Everything You Ever Dreamed). Now that's mainly been the thing delaying any further progress on this interview, since Sagisu's plenty busy with work atm and I didn't want to ask Mike about it constantly. That said, it's been a month since we last talked about, so I might try to get into contact soon and see where things are.

[kuribo-04]

Super hyped.

[UrsusArctos]

Oh my god, I can't believe it's already been over three months since I last posted on here! Amazing how often time flies, like a clock through a window.

Indeed it does. Thank you so much for doing all this - I'm very curious to know what turned up in Mike's responses !

[Kireek]

Was there any update on this ? If not no matter.

[FelipeFritschF]

I'm curious too, but I'm sure he'll will return when he has the chance. Looking at the link he posted, he posted an article 20 days ago.

[FrDougal9000]

As it happens, I do have an update on things lol.

I'm planning to post the interview sometime during the week, before the end of October hopefully. However, it won't feature any answers from Sagisu since Mike hasn't gotten anything from it in that regard. Hopefully, he'll answer them one day and I can put that in a follow-up article or an addendum to the interview, but I've been sitting on this for frankly too long and I'd like to get it out there in the world.

Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the interview whenever it comes out. Look forward to it!

[FrDougal9000]

Howdy folks, I'm back with the important update.

The interview with Mike Wyzgowski is finally posted on the blog!

Here's the link to it: https://cartoonmilk.com/an-interview-with-mike-wyzgowski/

Massive thanks to kuribo094, dzzthink, FelipeFritschF, and Russian Riz for their questions, who along with everyone else who submitted questions, I used to come up with the final question list featured in the interview.

Not sure how to @ people apart from quoting them since I haven't used this forum much in donkey's years, uh but

Thank you so much for doing all this - I'm very curious to know what turned up in Mike's responses !

Or...(and hear me out on this one) I can read that post, and I can get everything set up in a couple of days. When would the interview with Mike be? That could give us a timetable to work on.

This is up now, apologies for the massive delay. You (as in cyharding lol) can post it on the main page if you'd like. I hope it'll be an interesting and insightful interview.

[kuribo-04]

Awesome! Just quickly glanced over it, gonna give it a deeper read later.
Seems very interesting and well made!

[FelipeFritschF]

Thank you!

[JoelcrNeto]

Thanks!