This song has actually been around for about 2 or 3 years, but the timing, and also translating the lyrics into Japanese didn't ever work out. The lyrics are pretty harsh, and as I was wondering what I should do, I was able to work in Suite Chic, and do a lot of the things I'd wanted to for a while, just the way I liked, without being hampered by by image. And I thought that my fans as well would be able to accept 'Put 'em up' easier if I released it not all of a sudden, but after having Suite Chic, where I did a lot of different things, as a cushion, and so I chose this timing to release it.

The first time I heard it, I could immediately see myself singing and dancing to it, and I wanted to sing it as soon as possible, but such it's such a cool song, I really wanted the lyrics to be done right, and it ended up taking some time. But it's been something that I'd wanted to do for a while.

Rather than asking people to make songs from my image I have inside myself, I wanted different people to bring out many different Amuro Namies. I think that if I hadn't worked with Suite Chic, the release of 'Put 'em up' would have been delayed a lot longer. I asked michico, who I worked with on Suite Chic to do the lyrics, because for me, the feel of the lyrics [of Put 'em up'], and the lyrics that michico-san writes in Japanese fit really well. It was a lot of fun to find a lot of different sides of myself through my works with so many different people, and to take a new look at myself through that, and then to show that to my fans. So I want to keep on working like that now, and it's a lot of fun.

I feel like with Suite Chic, I was able to show a lot of different things, and also that I got the closest to the kind of thing I want to be doing. And since this is a single I'm releasing after I've returned to Amuro Namie after that, I really didn't want to ruin that. Things that before I did with a feeling of 'I have to do it this way.' have now changed to 'I'm gonna do it this way.' I feel like now I've finally done something where I can choose with my own will and show it.

About Promotion Video

I think afterall, a promotion video is a piece of work in it's own right. You don't just listen, you watch and and enjoy it visually. It's pretty important.

In the beginning, I didn't dance that much and stuff. When I was still in a group, I danced all the time, but since I went solo, I didn't have any promotion videos where I danced at all. Then with 'Say the Word', I wanted to make a video where I was dancing, a Dance Promotion Video, and since then I always make a video where I'm dancing. I thought, 'I need to sell myself more as a singer who sings and dancing at the same time.' And I thought that I hadn't really seen a dance video that was really cool, so I guess I'll have to make one myself. So I make them everytime with the idea that maybe I can do it.

[The director of the promotion video, Ugichin] is pretty much a man of few words, so we didn't really communicate that much. Only he did have quite a few requests for me like, 'Do it this way', and so I always tried to do that.

I watched a lot of dancing promotion videos, and when I watched the videos of Double the dance scene were done very coolly. Even the details which would normally be cut were there, and the dance was shown really thoroughly. That made a big impression on me, and I thought, 'This is the kind of video that I want to make...' So I asked Ugichin-san if he would work with me, and he's been directing my videos since 'Uh Uh' and 'shine more'. he always shows the dance really well, and so in that sense the videos always turn out to be the kind of video I want to be making, and I really like them.

If we're talking about people who are just singers, there are so many people who are better than me, if we're talking about people who are just dancers, there are so many people who are better than me, but when you put the two together, rather than those people who are good singers, or those people who are good dances, when you put the two together...the only person who can do it this cooly is Amuro Namie. That's what I want to believe. So I can't forget either part.

About ballads

For me, dancing while singing lets me act cool, and hide my shyness, but I'm a bit embarressed singing ballads. But when I sing ballads at a concert, it feels really good, and I can really get into the world [of the song].

When I sing and dance I act really cool, but when I sing a ballad I pretty much go back to being a normal girl while I'm singing, and that's kind of embaressing and I also worry if the audiance will accept me like that that.

I think that I can coomunicate the lyrics most gently with ballads, and ballads are always when my feels are the brightest. I think that ballads are always something where I can really become one with the audiance. When I sing them at concerts, there's a really feeling of unity [between myself and the audiance]. I get even more nervous singing when everyone's fallen silent, but I really try to communicate the meaning of the lyrics, and there's people there listening to that, and if they're moved by it, then I'm moved as well. I feel like we all have the same feelings.

I guess you could say that [in Put 'em up] you have two really opposite songs becoming one single. It's kind of like, in the first song, I'm saying all this harsh stuff, and in the second, 'Here, be healed by this.'

It doesn't work if I think to much about it. If I get to wrapped up in how I have to be, or what I have to do, things gradually get worse and worse. If I don't think about anything, and start with a clean slate, in terms of what I have to do, a lot of different ideas come up, and I can think about things more openly.

When I was doing 'Suite Chic', Zeebra-san said to me, 'Amuro-chan, I want you to rap.', and I said 'Huh? I can't do that!', but he told me 'You can do it! Rap!', and so I said 'Uh, ok.'

About new single coming out in October

It's coming out then...I wonder if it really will? Maybe I won't be able to make it. I want to try something really new. Put out a really cool single that makes people say 'Huh? this is Amuro Namie!?' Well, I've got enough enthusiasm...

Translated by CLAUDIA