cure interview vol. 3
I found a translation of an interview in Cure on an iphone app. And since it was a free app I figure it's okay to share. Some of the translations are a little funky sometimes, but it's an interesting read. It's right after Takaki joined and, for the most part, about "BLOOD."
******************************
DEATHGAZE Interview from Cure Vol. 3
The things to evolve, protect and the blood that runs through my body…
Today, new member Takaki on guitar is officialy in DEATHGZE!! The latest single released on November 18th “BLOOD” expresses their real feelings by showing what to evolve and the things to protect. They just keep evolving and that makes them hotter and hotter.
Interview: Wakana Takahashi
Photos: Akio Yokoyama
--On November 21st when this issue of Cure magazine is released, Takaki officially joined DEATHGAZE. It is now official, but Takaki has been helping the band since this summer and he was even on stage with them.
Ai: Yes. Especially when he was with us for the tour, we spent the whole time together. We realized that he really matches us, so we were treating him just like any DEATHGAZE member. We were thinking that Takaki can be one of us sooner or later, so it was very natural. We just didn’t want to rush the decision.
--How do you feel about this, Takaki?
Takaki: There are still some songs that I have not memorized yet, so I just try my best to practice for now…
Ai: You’re too serious!
Takaki: That’s the only thing I could say to myself.
Ai: Don’t you feel happy at all?
Takaki: Of course.
--In the previous interview, you said you were the one who called Kousuke first, right?
Takaki: Correct. I wasn’t familiar with DEATHGAZE that much, but when I listened to it, I thought they were pretty cool. I’d never seen their performance either.
Ai: When Kousuke joined, he was like that too. So that reminds me of Kousuke.
Kousuke: During the tour we are together most of the time. I come over to his room and we go look Yakitori restaurants.
Naoki: We are good. Takaki is not a person to get crazy or excited that often. So this is actually good for the band. I don’t really like loud people. So it is great.
Kousuke: I think I’m really loud, right? Are you okay??
Naoki: I’m okay.
Ai: I’m louder, but…?
Naoki: No problem!!
All: LoL.
Ai: After all, Takaki wasn’t someone who listens to only this genre or DEATHGAZE. He likes all kinds of stuff and he still thinks that DEATHGAZE is cool, so honestly I’m happy that he felt that way. I f he had a concrete image for DEATHGAZE, just inside of the box, I don’t think it would go well. I think he is really flexible.
--You have been performing with them on stage for a few months. How do you like the stage?
Takaki: It’s good! I was really nervous at first and I didn’t know what to do, but I was getting the atmosphere and everything, so now I’m really getting along with them. That good atmosphere appears on stage too.
Ai: I understand that when someone joins the band that’s already there, they feel stressed, but Takaki has been doing really great. He is already in the meetings and everything, so I feel like as we move forward we can really do this together.
--DEATHGAZE is the opening article in this issue and Takaki joined, so I’m going to ask you this. What do you guys think about DEATHGAZE?
Ai: That question is tough, I’ve never thought about anything like that and there is nothing like “We have to be this way” for DEATHGAZE. Of course there is something ideal…
Naoki: I think we can do anything we want to do in this band. But if you ask me what this band is like, I can’t explain well. lol
Kousuke: Well, hmmm… Personally, I think this band has no tricks or anything like that. There is not many things for this band to do, but we always try so hard to throw the best straight ball. That’s DEATHGAZE.
Ai: People always tell us that we try so hard but we think it’s pretty simple. It is strange to know that the songs that people say we try hard but in fact it’s just normal for us. We all like music in any way. With all those costumes and make-up, we all have our ideal play for each part. If we try our best for each of our parts, it just gets better and better and that’s how we should be.
Naoki: I’m happy that I’m in the band.
--You mentioned about appearance and make-up. How was the make-up at first?
Naoki: It was fake blood first, wasn’t it?
Ai: We just wanted to do something crazy. Maybe, something that’s not human, something like Ghosts or Frankenstein instead of just Visual Kei. We didn’t want to be categorized. We still keep doing that because we think it’s cool. If someone comes up and tells us “that kind of make-up is so old-fashioned” if we think it’s cool then I think it’s cool. If we think it’s old, we would quit by now. But even so, we came too far to quit… lol
All: lol.
Ai: We just have to convince the audience that this is DEATHGAZE.
--That is DEATHGAZE. Did you guys all agree to do this?
Ai: Yes. We all said let’s do this!
Naoki: It was the photo shoot when we first talked about this. And we said that we should just do this for the live shows.
Ai: Yeah yeah. To tell you the truth, we wanted to throw up during the live as a part of the performance, but obviously, we couldn’t do that.
All: lol.
Ai: We got yelled at for something we did. So we decided to do something for the appearance rather than actions. We are influenced by overseas artists rather than Japanese visual kei bands. We saw Nine Inch Nails did their performance with dirt on, and we all thought those foreign artists do crazy stuff and we loved it! So now we want to be number one in the universe!
Naoki: It’s been a while to hear you say that. I just wanted to take an action for that word.
Kousuke: That is really popular among younger bands of our friends. They say they want to copy that.
--Oh, that’s great, right?
Kousuke: I always say “NO WAY!” lol
Ai: There are many people who want to do it. The bands we tour together with sometimes ask us if they can do it. I allow them to do it, though.
--How about you, Takaki? You are already doing it, but…
Takaki: It’s okay, I guess.
All: lol.
Takaki: It’s different from other bands. People will know it’s DEATHGAZE it’s immediately obvious.
Ai: It is great to be different. I don’t want to do anything normal. That carries on and people get together for the same thoughts.
--It’s been a long time since you released anything until the latest single “BLOOD” right?
Ai: Not including anything limited at the live shows, it’s been a year and 8 months. Even if with the limited singles at the live shows, it’s been a year and 2 months.
--Right? Do you have anything that you cared about while you were making this song?
Ai: Well, if we make something we thought we could make it a hit, I think it’ll be a hit.
--What do you mean by “BLOOD?”
Ai: There were so many things that happened to us. Some member left and we were on a break. But we appreciate the fact that there are still a lot of listeners out there who are waiting for us for our shows. We are very happy that we can have a place to play and we even have a band. Usually, we have some words such as “soul” for the titles, but this time, we wanted to have something deeper, something that you actually know. When we think about the feeling for the members, our fans and anyone that has a connection to our band, we thought of “burning hot blood.” When we came together, it’ll be something great. So we chose “BLOOD” to express the connections between you and us.
--All four of you guys are playing in the video for this song but this is…crazy! I was surprised to see you guys are all bloody!
Kousuke: I was surprised too because that blood didn’t come off at all after filming.
All: Lol.
Ai: It didn’t come off for a few days.
--For that long??
Kousuke: It’s okay to have some stains, but I was really surprised that it didn’t come off at all.
Ai: Obviously, it is rally hard to express the burning of hot “BLOOD” running through the body, so we decided to show the “BLOOD” coming out from us. The song itself has the chemistry of all players getting together to go forward. So we thought it’ll be a good idea to film the scene with us facing each other.
--Did you paint blood all over your entire body?
Naoki: Yes, we did. I didn’t think we would paint the whole body.
All: lol.
Kousuke: Naoki looked like he was almost crying. That filming took a long time and when we looked at ourselves at the store on the way back, everyone was pink.
Naoki: We sure were strange.
--HAHAHA! Lol.
Kousuke: Everybody looked at us as if we had a disease. Lol. Some of them were whispering about us.
Ai: But when we watched the video, I’m glad we painted the whole body.
--How was the filming, Takaki?
Takaki: It was my first experience to film a video. I was nervous but I did it. Above all, my legs were sore.
--Your legs?
Ai: Video filming takes more than you think. You have to play seriously with full energy repeatedly, so I understand. Lol.But it was fun and we did our best. We looked sooo cool!
--How did you like the video when you actually watched it?
Takaki: It was so cool.
Naoki: What exactly did you think was cool?
Takaki: it was bloody.
Ai: That’s it?! Lol.
Kousuke: Of course, we were acting like we were cool while filming, but I think it’s usually like that at the studio as well. It was just as usual, of course, in a good way.
--I really liked the color of the video, too.
Ai: Considering the sound, we didn’t’ want to make it dark like the video for “abyss”. We wanted to show everyone who is really DEATHGAZE. The video images all came from the sound of the song. Even if you have a good video, you have to have a great song to go with it, right?
Kousuke: Exactly.
Ai: Riiiiight?
--The video comes with a CD, so we can enjoy it by actually seeing it as well. About the second song, “SICK”, Naoki made the music right?
Naoki: Yeeeees.
Ai: May I tell you my first impression?
--Please.
Ai: It’s slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!!
All: lol.
Ai: When you listen to the music alone, it sounds very slow. But magically, when we add all the sounds from us, it sounds normal. I think this is added to our DEATHGAZE color.
--Yeah? I didn’t think it was slow.
Naoki: That’s why it’s mysterious.
Kousuke: Even on stage, we don’t feel it.
--What inspired you when you were making this song?
Naoki: I wanted to make something cool, but I wanted to make something that represents me. And I made something simply cool and I had everyone listen to it.
Ai: I personally thought that “BLOOD” would be the main song for this CD and Naoki’s sound would match well for the second track. So I asked him if he had any ideas. Lol. Kousuke could, but personally it was Naoki. He said he had something so I asked him to bring it.
Naoki: After the vocal track was placed, who guessed it would be this good??
Kousuke: The melody completely changed the song. I would have never thought that that music became this song.
Ai: I already knew Naoki’s preferences for the melody, so we talked about leaving something for me to have any input I like, and some parts were from Naoki’s images. We spread the song not by destroying the music.
Naoki: That worked out better.
---I thought Ai-san is the only one that’d be able to make the lyrics for this song.
Ai: The guitar was aggressive and the melody for the chorus was outstanding. I tried to make the lyrics to somehow match with “BLOOD” but I was really depressed at that time.
--It seems like you often write the lyrics when you are depressed…
Ai: The new song makes me depressed. Lol But the song “SICK” is not a song about being sick. Basically, I always start from something below the line so the words are always going towards something bad. But when I asked myself if I always have to try to make something brighter while I can only make something depressing, that thought was just like this song. So I put it as it is.
--I certainly feel the depression in the song, but I also feel hope and the strong will. I think you can only do this.
Ai: This is the song about “there are lots of things that happen, but let’s move forward together with our burning hot blood running inside. There are times for all of us to be depressed, but let’s keep going before your depression grows too much. But what’s bad about being depressed?.” It’s something postive almost. I can’t just write some lies or fake thoughts, I always have to write something from my experiences or the members’ experiences. That way, I can be more connected to the song. I used to think that this can happen only to me, but there are other people out there that think the same way as I do too. So I think a lot of people understand what I’m saying.
Naoki: The songs we are doing now are much better than the songs from before. There were some parts that were cynical before.
Ai: I was in a cynical phase. Lol.
Naoki: I felt that strongly when we were doing the self-cover album. I like the newer songs better. So that means we are getting better.
Ai: We re-recorded both “BLOOD” and “SICK”, but they will be different on stage as well. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s fun.
--You guys have a lot of times that you have fun, but you don’t know what it is huh?
Ai: yes. I’m confident for something good without any particular reasons for it. If you ask me why. I would say it must be something from my experience before, but I find that can make me really confident.
--Towards the end of this year, there is an official release for Takaki as a member and there will be your first Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka one-man show. The title is “BLOODY ALL LOVERS.” Why did you choose this as a title?
Ai: It’s something that we give to lovers. It’s the end of the year and we have to wrap up for the year. We have Takaki as an official member and we are getting much better towards the next year and this will be the first step for the coming new year. Mentioning all that, I want to make this the best day of the year. We are not planning on something different, we just have to make it our best.
Kousuke: Our live performance is so much cooler recently. We are filled with confidence.
Naoki: I just want to have fun. If we have fun and the audience can have fun, then I will be satisfied!
Takaki: I feel the same way. The audience welcomes us so warmly every time, so I’m so thankful. I just want to have fun each time.
Kousuke: We’ll see you at the live shows and check-out the DEATHGAZE that has improved so much!!
******************************
DEATHGAZE Interview from Cure Vol. 3
The things to evolve, protect and the blood that runs through my body…
Today, new member Takaki on guitar is officialy in DEATHGZE!! The latest single released on November 18th “BLOOD” expresses their real feelings by showing what to evolve and the things to protect. They just keep evolving and that makes them hotter and hotter.
Interview: Wakana Takahashi
Photos: Akio Yokoyama
--On November 21st when this issue of Cure magazine is released, Takaki officially joined DEATHGAZE. It is now official, but Takaki has been helping the band since this summer and he was even on stage with them.
Ai: Yes. Especially when he was with us for the tour, we spent the whole time together. We realized that he really matches us, so we were treating him just like any DEATHGAZE member. We were thinking that Takaki can be one of us sooner or later, so it was very natural. We just didn’t want to rush the decision.
--How do you feel about this, Takaki?
Takaki: There are still some songs that I have not memorized yet, so I just try my best to practice for now…
Ai: You’re too serious!
Takaki: That’s the only thing I could say to myself.
Ai: Don’t you feel happy at all?
Takaki: Of course.
--In the previous interview, you said you were the one who called Kousuke first, right?
Takaki: Correct. I wasn’t familiar with DEATHGAZE that much, but when I listened to it, I thought they were pretty cool. I’d never seen their performance either.
Ai: When Kousuke joined, he was like that too. So that reminds me of Kousuke.
Kousuke: During the tour we are together most of the time. I come over to his room and we go look Yakitori restaurants.
Naoki: We are good. Takaki is not a person to get crazy or excited that often. So this is actually good for the band. I don’t really like loud people. So it is great.
Kousuke: I think I’m really loud, right? Are you okay??
Naoki: I’m okay.
Ai: I’m louder, but…?
Naoki: No problem!!
All: LoL.
Ai: After all, Takaki wasn’t someone who listens to only this genre or DEATHGAZE. He likes all kinds of stuff and he still thinks that DEATHGAZE is cool, so honestly I’m happy that he felt that way. I f he had a concrete image for DEATHGAZE, just inside of the box, I don’t think it would go well. I think he is really flexible.
--You have been performing with them on stage for a few months. How do you like the stage?
Takaki: It’s good! I was really nervous at first and I didn’t know what to do, but I was getting the atmosphere and everything, so now I’m really getting along with them. That good atmosphere appears on stage too.
Ai: I understand that when someone joins the band that’s already there, they feel stressed, but Takaki has been doing really great. He is already in the meetings and everything, so I feel like as we move forward we can really do this together.
--DEATHGAZE is the opening article in this issue and Takaki joined, so I’m going to ask you this. What do you guys think about DEATHGAZE?
Ai: That question is tough, I’ve never thought about anything like that and there is nothing like “We have to be this way” for DEATHGAZE. Of course there is something ideal…
Naoki: I think we can do anything we want to do in this band. But if you ask me what this band is like, I can’t explain well. lol
Kousuke: Well, hmmm… Personally, I think this band has no tricks or anything like that. There is not many things for this band to do, but we always try so hard to throw the best straight ball. That’s DEATHGAZE.
Ai: People always tell us that we try so hard but we think it’s pretty simple. It is strange to know that the songs that people say we try hard but in fact it’s just normal for us. We all like music in any way. With all those costumes and make-up, we all have our ideal play for each part. If we try our best for each of our parts, it just gets better and better and that’s how we should be.
Naoki: I’m happy that I’m in the band.
--You mentioned about appearance and make-up. How was the make-up at first?
Naoki: It was fake blood first, wasn’t it?
Ai: We just wanted to do something crazy. Maybe, something that’s not human, something like Ghosts or Frankenstein instead of just Visual Kei. We didn’t want to be categorized. We still keep doing that because we think it’s cool. If someone comes up and tells us “that kind of make-up is so old-fashioned” if we think it’s cool then I think it’s cool. If we think it’s old, we would quit by now. But even so, we came too far to quit… lol
All: lol.
Ai: We just have to convince the audience that this is DEATHGAZE.
--That is DEATHGAZE. Did you guys all agree to do this?
Ai: Yes. We all said let’s do this!
Naoki: It was the photo shoot when we first talked about this. And we said that we should just do this for the live shows.
Ai: Yeah yeah. To tell you the truth, we wanted to throw up during the live as a part of the performance, but obviously, we couldn’t do that.
All: lol.
Ai: We got yelled at for something we did. So we decided to do something for the appearance rather than actions. We are influenced by overseas artists rather than Japanese visual kei bands. We saw Nine Inch Nails did their performance with dirt on, and we all thought those foreign artists do crazy stuff and we loved it! So now we want to be number one in the universe!
Naoki: It’s been a while to hear you say that. I just wanted to take an action for that word.
Kousuke: That is really popular among younger bands of our friends. They say they want to copy that.
--Oh, that’s great, right?
Kousuke: I always say “NO WAY!” lol
Ai: There are many people who want to do it. The bands we tour together with sometimes ask us if they can do it. I allow them to do it, though.
--How about you, Takaki? You are already doing it, but…
Takaki: It’s okay, I guess.
All: lol.
Takaki: It’s different from other bands. People will know it’s DEATHGAZE it’s immediately obvious.
Ai: It is great to be different. I don’t want to do anything normal. That carries on and people get together for the same thoughts.
--It’s been a long time since you released anything until the latest single “BLOOD” right?
Ai: Not including anything limited at the live shows, it’s been a year and 8 months. Even if with the limited singles at the live shows, it’s been a year and 2 months.
--Right? Do you have anything that you cared about while you were making this song?
Ai: Well, if we make something we thought we could make it a hit, I think it’ll be a hit.
--What do you mean by “BLOOD?”
Ai: There were so many things that happened to us. Some member left and we were on a break. But we appreciate the fact that there are still a lot of listeners out there who are waiting for us for our shows. We are very happy that we can have a place to play and we even have a band. Usually, we have some words such as “soul” for the titles, but this time, we wanted to have something deeper, something that you actually know. When we think about the feeling for the members, our fans and anyone that has a connection to our band, we thought of “burning hot blood.” When we came together, it’ll be something great. So we chose “BLOOD” to express the connections between you and us.
--All four of you guys are playing in the video for this song but this is…crazy! I was surprised to see you guys are all bloody!
Kousuke: I was surprised too because that blood didn’t come off at all after filming.
All: Lol.
Ai: It didn’t come off for a few days.
--For that long??
Kousuke: It’s okay to have some stains, but I was really surprised that it didn’t come off at all.
Ai: Obviously, it is rally hard to express the burning of hot “BLOOD” running through the body, so we decided to show the “BLOOD” coming out from us. The song itself has the chemistry of all players getting together to go forward. So we thought it’ll be a good idea to film the scene with us facing each other.
--Did you paint blood all over your entire body?
Naoki: Yes, we did. I didn’t think we would paint the whole body.
All: lol.
Kousuke: Naoki looked like he was almost crying. That filming took a long time and when we looked at ourselves at the store on the way back, everyone was pink.
Naoki: We sure were strange.
--HAHAHA! Lol.
Kousuke: Everybody looked at us as if we had a disease. Lol. Some of them were whispering about us.
Ai: But when we watched the video, I’m glad we painted the whole body.
--How was the filming, Takaki?
Takaki: It was my first experience to film a video. I was nervous but I did it. Above all, my legs were sore.
--Your legs?
Ai: Video filming takes more than you think. You have to play seriously with full energy repeatedly, so I understand. Lol.But it was fun and we did our best. We looked sooo cool!
--How did you like the video when you actually watched it?
Takaki: It was so cool.
Naoki: What exactly did you think was cool?
Takaki: it was bloody.
Ai: That’s it?! Lol.
Kousuke: Of course, we were acting like we were cool while filming, but I think it’s usually like that at the studio as well. It was just as usual, of course, in a good way.
--I really liked the color of the video, too.
Ai: Considering the sound, we didn’t’ want to make it dark like the video for “abyss”. We wanted to show everyone who is really DEATHGAZE. The video images all came from the sound of the song. Even if you have a good video, you have to have a great song to go with it, right?
Kousuke: Exactly.
Ai: Riiiiight?
--The video comes with a CD, so we can enjoy it by actually seeing it as well. About the second song, “SICK”, Naoki made the music right?
Naoki: Yeeeees.
Ai: May I tell you my first impression?
--Please.
Ai: It’s slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!!
All: lol.
Ai: When you listen to the music alone, it sounds very slow. But magically, when we add all the sounds from us, it sounds normal. I think this is added to our DEATHGAZE color.
--Yeah? I didn’t think it was slow.
Naoki: That’s why it’s mysterious.
Kousuke: Even on stage, we don’t feel it.
--What inspired you when you were making this song?
Naoki: I wanted to make something cool, but I wanted to make something that represents me. And I made something simply cool and I had everyone listen to it.
Ai: I personally thought that “BLOOD” would be the main song for this CD and Naoki’s sound would match well for the second track. So I asked him if he had any ideas. Lol. Kousuke could, but personally it was Naoki. He said he had something so I asked him to bring it.
Naoki: After the vocal track was placed, who guessed it would be this good??
Kousuke: The melody completely changed the song. I would have never thought that that music became this song.
Ai: I already knew Naoki’s preferences for the melody, so we talked about leaving something for me to have any input I like, and some parts were from Naoki’s images. We spread the song not by destroying the music.
Naoki: That worked out better.
---I thought Ai-san is the only one that’d be able to make the lyrics for this song.
Ai: The guitar was aggressive and the melody for the chorus was outstanding. I tried to make the lyrics to somehow match with “BLOOD” but I was really depressed at that time.
--It seems like you often write the lyrics when you are depressed…
Ai: The new song makes me depressed. Lol But the song “SICK” is not a song about being sick. Basically, I always start from something below the line so the words are always going towards something bad. But when I asked myself if I always have to try to make something brighter while I can only make something depressing, that thought was just like this song. So I put it as it is.
--I certainly feel the depression in the song, but I also feel hope and the strong will. I think you can only do this.
Ai: This is the song about “there are lots of things that happen, but let’s move forward together with our burning hot blood running inside. There are times for all of us to be depressed, but let’s keep going before your depression grows too much. But what’s bad about being depressed?.” It’s something postive almost. I can’t just write some lies or fake thoughts, I always have to write something from my experiences or the members’ experiences. That way, I can be more connected to the song. I used to think that this can happen only to me, but there are other people out there that think the same way as I do too. So I think a lot of people understand what I’m saying.
Naoki: The songs we are doing now are much better than the songs from before. There were some parts that were cynical before.
Ai: I was in a cynical phase. Lol.
Naoki: I felt that strongly when we were doing the self-cover album. I like the newer songs better. So that means we are getting better.
Ai: We re-recorded both “BLOOD” and “SICK”, but they will be different on stage as well. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s fun.
--You guys have a lot of times that you have fun, but you don’t know what it is huh?
Ai: yes. I’m confident for something good without any particular reasons for it. If you ask me why. I would say it must be something from my experience before, but I find that can make me really confident.
--Towards the end of this year, there is an official release for Takaki as a member and there will be your first Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka one-man show. The title is “BLOODY ALL LOVERS.” Why did you choose this as a title?
Ai: It’s something that we give to lovers. It’s the end of the year and we have to wrap up for the year. We have Takaki as an official member and we are getting much better towards the next year and this will be the first step for the coming new year. Mentioning all that, I want to make this the best day of the year. We are not planning on something different, we just have to make it our best.
Kousuke: Our live performance is so much cooler recently. We are filled with confidence.
Naoki: I just want to have fun. If we have fun and the audience can have fun, then I will be satisfied!
Takaki: I feel the same way. The audience welcomes us so warmly every time, so I’m so thankful. I just want to have fun each time.
Kousuke: We’ll see you at the live shows and check-out the DEATHGAZE that has improved so much!!