"OSCA" is a song by Japanese rock band Tokyo Jihen, led by musician Ringo Sheena. It was released as the band's fourth single on July 11, 2007, as one of the two singles before the band's third album Variety (2007). It was the first and only single released by the band that did not feature writing by vocalist Sheena, instead created by the band's second guitarist, Ukigumo.
Background and development
Vocalist Ringo Sheena originally debuted as a solo musician in 1998, however decided to become a member of a band instead for her main musical activities, and debuted Tokyo Jihen in 2004. After their debut album Kyōiku, two of the original members of the band made decisions to leave, and were replaced by pianist Ichiyo Izawa and guitarist Ukigumo. The new line-up released the single "Shuraba", a song used as the theme song for the drama Ōoku: Hana no Ran., and the band's second album, Adult (2006). Adult, while featuring lyrics entirely written by Sheena and the band collaborating to arrange the songs, also featured "Himitsu", which was arranged solely by Izawa, and "Tegami", which was composed by Izawa and arranged by Sheena.
In late 2006 and 2007, Sheena briefly resumed solo activities in collaboration with Neko Saito, on Heisei Fūzoku (2007), a soundtrack album for the Mika Ninagawa film Sakuran. The "OSCA" single was first announced on May 17, 2007.
The Variety project for the band involved the band members other than Sheena amassing demo tapes, and the band making careful selections. For the project, Sheena worked as a vocalist and a lyricist. After the band's tour for Adult, Domestic! Just Can't Help It, finished on May 30, 2006, Sheena requested band members Ukigumo and Ichiyo Izawa write songs for the band's next studio album. While Sheena is the primary songwriter for her solo career and for Tokyo Jihen's first two albums, she occasionally goes through periods of not being able to write music.
During the single's release schedule, the Toshiba stake of Tokyo Jihen's label Toshiba EMI was bought out by the EMI group. The label was renamed EMI Music Japan on June 30, 2007.
Writing and production
"OSCA" was written in spring/autumn 2006, by band guitarist Ukigumo. Unlike previous songs written by band members such as "Gunjō Biyori" or "Tōmei Ningen", the song did not have lyrical input by Sheena. Ukigumo wanted to pull out new sides of Sheena not seen before in her musical releases. The title stems from the Italian O.S.C.A. brand of sports cars, as Ukigumo, a big fan of cars, wanted a song titled after one. He was further inspired by the character Oscar François de Jarjayes from the 1970s manga Rose of Versailles, liking the dramatic image linked to the name Oscar. Ukigumo wrote the lyrics about a womanizer. Unlike "Oiran" from Sheena's Heisei Fūzoku or "Mirror-ball" from Variety, "OSCA" did not change much conceptually since Ukigumo wrote the song. Ukigumo also did not think that the sound would become a single, however it was popular with the other band members, who voted on which of the Variety songs would become singles.
While written for Tokyo Jihen, the song was originally performed by Ukigumo as a member of his band Petrolz. It appears on Petrolz' extended play Karimen, released in April 2007 at live events. The band continued to perform "OSCA", as well as "Mirror-ball", at live events even after Tokyo Jihen's disbandment in 2012.
The Variety sessions was in pre-production while Sheena was promoting Heisei Fūzoku in February 2007. She felt that the recording session reminded her of recording her debut album Muzai Moratorium (1998), in that she was free from considering the commercial music market when producing the songs.
The two B-sides are both Izawa compositions, chosen from a collection of his demos. "Kaban no Nakami" was written after the band finished their Domestic! Just Can't Help It. tour in mid 2006, while "Pinocchio" was recorded in the last half of that year. "Pinocchio" was written and composed entirely by Izawa, while "Kaban no Nakami" featured lyrics written by Sheena, translated into English by Robbie Clark.