Neo Genesis #40 Gazette - All-Member Interview [Translation 2/2]
Sorry, LJ refused to take the whole post!
Here's part two!
Uruha [Our leader had gotten really violent!]
Kai [What? Me?]
Uruha [(laughs) Our leader was, well…Concerning the destinations of the tour, our event manager was asked to prepared various tasty things at each point for us. When he didn’t care much about that, though, he got into trouble.]
Kai [That was not the reason…]
Uruha [So you didn’t throw that plate?]
- Please let’s not come up with false accusations! (laughs) But anyway, speaking of the different regions, I am sure you were able to enjoy the meals in the various locations.
Kai [We often ate at the venue, though. During this tour, there had been quite a bit of preparation at the venue. More often, actually, than we had been eating out.]
Aoi [Oh, where was it, that we ate Yakisoba?]
Uruha [Aah! You mean those mixed by hand?]
- Yakisoba mixed with the hands? What’s that?
Uruha [(laughs) Where was it? They do exist and they are famous. Fuji-something…]
Reita [Ah, I know. Wasn’t that in Yamanashi?]
- Ah, you mean Fujimiya Yakisoba? That’s pretty much Shizuoka, but Yamanashi is close.
Uruha [I don’t know where it really was…It was basically Yakisoba put into something like a small plastic bag, you would put in the sauce and then knead it thoroughly and then eat it like that. (laughs)]
Ruki [That scene really left an impact…]
Uruha [I thought it was extremely delicious. (laughs)]
Kai [However, somehow…whenever there was a live that day, I couldn’t bring myself to eat. I really didn’t know why, though. Before the live I hardly ate anything, but as soon as the show was over, the appetite was kicking in.]
- It was probably the tension, as we discussed before. That came probably from the situation before the live, as you weren’t putting much interest in eating.
Ruki [I don’t think the tension was strong to that extend…The real tension was just coming in right before the show, probably…Until the playing of the SE (intro for the show), it was still in the normal proportion and then, when the curtain would fall it was like [Bang!] It’s that moment of switching to [Yay, let’s go!]]
Uruha [However…when we form a circle, it is already rather tiring in itself…]
Reita [Aah…you mean that half-rising position…]
Uruha [My hips would start hurting. (laughs)]
- The fans certainly can’t imagine that in spite of doing such hard and exhausting lives, these scenes would unfold. (laughs)
Reita [It’s because we’re old men…(laughs)]
- If we continue this, we would probably crush a lot of dreams, so let’s change the subject. (laughs) During this tour there had been a lot of new songs, which had been presented (to the audience), but what song would leave the strongest impression on you in particular?
Uruha [Something with a deep impact… This tour was certainly made to let people see and listen to all of the songs, therefore in my case each song on its own has left an impression on me. We’d go on with songs that have these elements; they wouldn’t grow flat like that. Therefore, even those songs, which were easy to relate to, left a deep impression…For me [DIM SCENE] hat this kind of open feeling in that sense. When arranging the melody of the song, it is sort of pulling along as the image is changing. As we put this together in the very end, the full extend of the song could eventually be seen.]
- on the very first live, that song had been in the middle of the setlist, but for the rest of the tour it was always set at the end.
Uruha [Yes, as it came into that position, the vastness of it could eventually be felt. To have this song facing the end at last, I think, that it is showing the magnificence of Gazette really well.]
Kai [For me [DIM SCENE] has this kind of feeling for me, too…We played [Guren] during this tour as well, and I came to think again, that it is a really great song. Even though we had played it even before we added the instrumental song [Shikyuu] to it, there is a lot of feeling to it. It had been a finished track as itself, when released as a single, but during this tour with the arrangement like that, it was yet again a different and new form to let it be heard, it seems.]
Reita [For me it would be [Headache Man]. The first time we played it was at Shibuya AX on March 25th. At that time, we had it done for the first time with the feeling of celebrating the release of the new single. Now, when having done this for the tour all over again… Well, it was definitely exhausting! It is an aggressive song from the very beginning, there is very little time to catch your breath, during the bridge and the chorus. (laughs) And then going straight back from that to being so aggressive is really tiring.. However, I really like that. It’s like cracking a whip. (laughs)]
- The excitement boiling up during that song is really nothing ordinary. The shaking of the audience seats is incredible.
Reita [At the beginning of the song I am also spinning my head, therefore I can’t really see, what the fans are doing themselves. However, during the bridge of the chorus I am facing forward and can see it pretty well…Certainly, that is a brilliant deed (laughs), absolutely cool!]
Ruki [For me it is [13 Stairs [-1]], because I think until now, we didn’t have a song quite like that, which is good. For me to have a song like that to play during lives has always been a wish of mine. It’s not pushing straight forward right away, it is rather calm, yet heavy, which I think is good. Not all of it is completely aggressive as it is, with that rhythm. It is something with a very strong image, especially, when we did this at the very first live in Toda, it was just like that. With the LEDs we used it became even more stylish, yet, it still has this smell of mud to it on the contrary, which is nonetheless a cool feeling.]
Aoi [I think it is really good how even the new songs are so familiar, and they really are. All the songs everyone has named are included (in that sense) Still, although the old songs are old, I feel it is not like they are actually losing their color… [Cockroach] is really a song from so many years ago with that certain mood to it, yet it is still working hard for us. (laughs) Somehow, it is…like unnoticed it has installed itself permanently, and it is still growing with us, isn’t it?]
- With the new [rookie]-songs and the (older) [veteran]-songs, it is like weaving up to a good feeling. As you are still giving your best with the older songs, I think it is making the fans, which are with you for longer, very happy, too…The most memorable thing for those fans was probably the MC directed at them where you [could call each other idiots]. (laughs) I think it’s great that you actually use the word [idiot] to praise each other.
Ruki [(laughs) You think so?]
- Yes. (laughs) It’s also those words [The good things between us and you all is that we trust each other.] One could really feel the depth of the trusting relationship in that. It is a good situation.
Uruha [For me…it’s a strong feeling like friendship, somehow.]
- Like friends where is doesn’t matter what you say.
Reita [But sometimes I really think one should be a little bit more careful with what is said! (laughs)]
Aoi [Really so! After all we are still older than most and they should pay us a little respect as such!]
-(laughs) But actually, I think only like that, lives with that high a level of enthusiasm are actually possible. Only when people trust each other and are willing to bare themselves like that, there can be lives to the proverbial idiotic extent - in a good way of course.
Ruki [The response is, well…The things we do is what each of us is just doing at a certain momentum (laughs). However, honestly…there is this mood. We could actually put a much larger space between us. We could get a lot more into that [Band vs. Fan] thing, and if we got a little more of that distance, it might be a little more relaxed… But we came to live with this feeling as it is, from the very beginning, with the fans are still excited. Pretty sticky even. (laughs) It seems however, that this certain mood is actually a good thing; not to think about this kind of [distance].]
Aoi [Ruki-san is such a good person…when he talks about his thoughts like that during his MCs.]
Uruha [(laughs) He is talking for us, and if he didn’t bring across what we are thinking, we’d be in trouble.]
Aoi [Sometimes though, when it is something essential, he’s skipping between [us] and [me]…Then we feel like [But we think the same!]]
Ruki [(laughs) I’m sorry! I’m sorry about that… Well, it’s OK, though. I’m saying [us] in between, too. Also, when I’m writing [I], just read it as [Gaze] (laughs).]
- (laughs) So, that is a consensus between all the band members, certainly. With that, you have come to create this really hot and exciting tour of this time, and I would be grateful if you could sum it up once again.
Ruki [What I was thinking was… if it is only 20 live performances, this feeling of having done something great, has not yet kicked in. It seems we are still in the middle of it. Also there was this one live which had been put off due to myself…(on August 31st Ruki’s physical condition had been so bad, that the live at Fukuoka Sun Palace had to be postponed.)]
Uruha [In many ways, this tour really had something to it, it seems.]
Ruki [The peculiarity was extreme! We really just couldn’t keep hitting the lives like we usually did. That was something which I had said from before the tour already, though. We would changed many things, I said. Really those words weren’t a lie at all with this tour. To have a very heavy song as our first track in the arrangement was something within me, that I really couldn’t abandon. With [The Invisible Wall] I already had the feeling that it would be the first song (of a set). The first song really was supposed to be like a [BANG]. And because I was thinking that, I had really accomplished that with that song, I could do the live shows just like that.]
- Wasn’t it very positive that you actually took this new approach to this challenge? I mean, how things have been shown and how the margin turned out.
Ruki [I think there are pros and cons, though. I was wondering whether the mood wasn’t just only lukewarm, or was is all much heavier than I thought, was it not…the response of people had been very widespread during this tours, but that was what I had been worried about.]
Aoi [Well, still…I think you have only said that at the very beginning.]
Ruki [Probably. From that it had actually been too heavy just as always and so exhausting.]
Uruha [Yes. Really exhausting.]
Ruki [But I really, really like that about it. This was quite a nice sensation for me during this tour.]
Kai [In that sense, there is actually something this makes me think about…Eventually, in the end, it has become the live which make me realize all of this. I want to continue playing live and on the other hand, I have to play lives to continue…It is like the conversation we just had, the response to this is a very individual but playing live, we are a band. While going through a lot of trial and error phases we continue as we do, with good things, with new things and showing those…]
Reita [(Like during the Tonnoruzu-show, with the voice imitation of Mr. Ishibashi, he said: ) Shut up, IDIOT!(which has everyone burst into laughter)]
- That was way too sudden, I was surprised…Why did you do it right now?
Reita [Well…Somehow the atmosphere had gotten way too heavy, I thought. (laughs)]
Aoi [Anyway, it did not sound like that (show) at all!]
Reita [But I just felt like it……. (laughs)]
- (laughs) As the punishment for busting the atmosphere like that…Reita-kun has to sum it up nicely now. So please go ahead.
Ruki [Certainly! We cannot have this end with [Shut up, IDIOT!]]
Reita [No…(laughs) As we came along all these different places, the people who came to see us also increased, which we came to realize there. They are all like [friends]. to repeat Uruha-san’s words. From here on with the next lives we would like to continue to get along well with everyone, so we can create even better lives, I think…This year it has come a little bit more to the end, nonetheless, continuing from here, I thank you for the support!]
The End Part 1