ROCK & READ #030 girugamesh - Satoshi Interview [Translation 3/3]
It's DONE!!!!
OMG, after such a long time I FINALLY finished this interview!
I am so sorry, that it took me forever. Ever since our office moved I don't have time anymore to sit down in the morning and translate. It's a pity. I work longer now, too, so everything gets delayed... (-o-) On top, frankly speaking, I was just not in the mood....but at the same time, this unfinished interview kept nagging in the back of my head.
AND!!!!!! Since Ruki's R&R interview ill be released I want to finish Satoshi-mesh's before starting that one. I can't start a new one with havong an unfinished one in the case of two long projects...
I hope you enjoy this, still. ^^;
ROCK & READ #030 girugamesh - Satoshi Interview
-- During the live performance, when your bangs fall into your face, it is hard to grasp the expression, which I think is a pity.
Satoshi [Aaah, well the bangs are actually pretty fixed, but they do fall eventually, because of the sweat. Actually I had them cut just a little recently. They are growing like beasts. (laughs)]
-- Huh, why's that? (laughs)
Satoshi [I think the rate my bangs grow is the fastest in the world. (laughs) It's as if they grow a centimeter from the time I go to bed to the time I wake up again. They really grow like that! (laughs) I cut them like once in three days.]
-- Ok, now, then let's return again to that one turning point, which was this year (2010) in January, when you played at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST. The number of people you mobilized had increased, but was this a live where you could come close to your ideals?
Satoshi [(Shinkiba STUDIO COAST) is a live house I have come to see a number of performances at and at events we had been playing on the stage set up outside the hall, too. We have always thought that we would like to perform on this one main stage some time. Yet, even though it was great that we eventually had been able to play this live on that stage, it was still the beginning of the tour on that day, wasn't it?]
-- The tour then officially began a month later and it was also the very first live, after you had been releasing you latest album.
Satoshi [For that reason the pressure about starting this tour at COAST from the very first day, could be felt strongly among all band members. We have been rehearsing a lot prior to that (concert).]
-- Have you done the rehearsal at the studio with the heat at full power and in sauna-suits as well? It's incredible to do this with the feeling of a real performance in that aspect.
Satoshi [We did. Since we couldn't really progress with the usual rehearsal, we thought about trying to create more of the live-feeling. However, the same studio is also used by other friends in bands who have done that, so we imitated their doing. Even though the room itself had already 30 degree Celsius, the heater was still turned on...]
-- That must have been so extremely hot!
Satoshi [It's just hot. Through and through humid heat. However, it is still less compared to "Rout 14" (Note: Live house in Chiba prefecture where girugamesh played a lot.) There the heat is really unimaginable. Anyway, so while sweating quite a bit, we adjusted the set list to the (upcoming live) and practiced the whole set about six times.]
-- Uuuwaah! You must have lost some weight there!
Satoshi [You actually do lose weight there. However, even though we had done our rehearsal like that, there are live houses that are even hotter than that. COAST was OK, but just lately we have been playing in Matsuyama, and despite being pretty cold outside, it was so hot inside that the walls were dripping with moist. But we could do it.]
-- So, since you rehearsed for the COAST performance that much, were you able to relax then?
Satoshi [Even though we rehearsed properly, we were not able to relax at all. (wry smile) For a solo performance, that had been the biggest scale we did at that time, it was the first day of the tour, there was recording for TV and mentally it was really exhausting. We have done the big venues only always for a tour final and partially we were kind of feeling ourselves towards COAST. Either way, for the development of the band, it was a very good experience...Still, I think that, with the things we have done at COAST that time, the tour final that is coming up, will be even better.]
-- Last year you played at SHIBUYA-AX for the first time, which was the final to a really long tour and there the sensation of the live was yet different from that, right?
Satoshi [It was. It was like everything from the tour was coming together at the end. It was extremely moving how we really seemed to have reached something great. The biggest difference was that COAST was just not the tour final as that.]
-- I am sure you watched the live video after the performance and in respect to that, have there been parts about the performance which you reconsidered and reflected upon?
Satoshi [There were so many things (wry smile) The value of that experience is just not high enough! It shouldn't matter what venue the live is played at, or whether it is the first day or the tour final: There has to be the emotional strength for either of those. Also, from the second half on, my voice was strained. With my mind and my throat like that, there was no protection from this deeply emotional sensation.]
-- How do you usually take care of your voice?
Satoshi [At the moment I can't fit actual voice training into my schedule, so in conclusion it's often karaoke. I do this for training my vocal expression though, so I purposefully head to karaoke on my own. (laughs) However, I think that I rather have a problem with the mental side of it all...]
-- What would that be exactly, this problem?
Satoshi [To put it simply, I am easily getting nervous. Of course mostly I am not that nervous, however, before the lives, I can't shake of this nervousness fully. At the time of (the) COAST (performance) I couldn't get rid of it at all. I asked a Sempai of mine for advice and he was like "Isn't everyone nervous? Isn't it good to be this excited?" (laughs)]
-- Who could have been the person, to say such a thing?
Satoshi [It was actually MUCC's T-san. (wry smile)]
-- So do you think you really need something to prevent this nervousness?
Satoshi [During the time, when I still thought that being angry was cool, I looked at the audience from above. However, as we have come to be more on each other's eyelevel, I seem to be more nervous. Should I return to what I have been doing back then? (laughs)]
-- That's no good, isn't it? (wry smile)
Satoshi [It is. Before a live there are a number of things I am thinking about, like how many thousand people are at the venue that day. And with that, I then think about how I can overcome the nervousness. On an everyday basis, we are not a particularly nervous band, though. (wry smile)]
-- I would like to change the topic from here and would like to ask you about how the other three band members have change in this course of this year and a half. I think there are things that changed greatly along with things that didn't change at all. What do you think?
Satoshi [With whom should I start...maybe with our band leader ShuU. He is the root of this band and his thinking is reflected in the band the most. Apart from myself, I think he is the one that changed most. He is certainly the one person, who has until now created the core of the band. To go more into detail, ShuU is the one who thinks about the staging and the things that reach past the way of processing the making of music. He is the master behind it. Of course we others also think about it and share our opinions, but mainly our leader is focusing on it.]
-- Does this include the mood towards the fans from back then, too?
Satoshi [No that came about just naturally at that time. (bitter laugh) However, we did more and more lives, we released [MUSIC], the singles [ALIVE] and [BORDER]...starting with that and the shaping of the whole atmosphere, he told us that he would like to change the image we had until then. With that intention, the outfits changed, too.]
-- This was because ShuU-kun wanted to change all of that?
Satoshi [It was . That was the time, when he actually took over the lead and when we started facing outside of that (previous image). Along, there seemed to have been a change on the inside as well.]
-- Until that time, did he, like Satoshi-kun, have this inner, locked in part as well?
Satoshi [I think so. Certainly, he thought to, that being scary and angry was cool, too.]
-- I see. However, ShuU is making a rather sociable impression. Even so there was this locked in part of his.
Satoshi [Ah, but not like I was. He is certainly the smartest person in this band.]
-- This has hardly to do anything with being smart, though. (laughs)
Satoshi [Ahahahahaha! Well, ShuU-san has experiences as a roadie and he has always kept the relationship and the diplomatic connections to people. I think that with a mind set to seeing them in any case some time, he has the strongest mental ability. For that reason, he will protect our own music, when it needs be. When he needs to attack, he will at once attack...that's what he's like.]
-- This kind of "attacking", was that the blow that came after [MUSIC] until today?
Satoshi [It was. This is certainly what it is like.]
-- So next, who are we going to talk about?
Satoshi [How about the two years younger Ryo? When it comes to music making, he is the heart of it. When he says something is good, then it is good; when he says something is bad, it is bad and there is almost no opposition possible to that. (laughs) Honestly, he brings in the ideas for the music from watching out during his everyday life and incorporates them. He is someone with a very particular inner self about that. When ShuU starts thinking about the timing to release a girugamesh single or album, he starts thinking about the image of that song. These roles in this process have never changed, yet the making of the songs has changed.]
-- Eventually they have become catchier.
Satoshi [Within these one to two years, it has changed, but as girugamesh, we still have our routs at the heaviness of music, while we challenged a number of new things and incorporated them. I think it is thanks to his intriguing mind and curiosity. This is something we really depend on and I wish that we can keep marching on with that!]
-- I do understand that, but it seems to be a rather humble way of saying that.
Satoshi [Well, usually we don't say things like that. (laughs)]
-- Did he change character-wise, too?
Satoshi [He has become gentler. Lately he seems to worry about me just a little. Ahahahaha.]
-- You mean as in Satoshi as the vocalist?
Satoshi [Yes. Back in the days he would say things like "You don't hit the right key here" or "If you can't hit it here, then that's not going to be cool", but now he is thinking about the keys more properly. (laughs) As of late, he is really paying attention to what the nuances and melodies are, which I would like to sing, which is a big change to earlier. Thanks to that, the processing has also become much smoother.]
-- The perfectionist eventually became more flexible. That's good, isn't it?
Satoshi [Yes. Previously, the influence towards the songs, to bring them close to the shape they have been written in, was very strong. This was also leading to that they were mixed in self direction. He came to listen to the opinions of a lot more people. From there, he then came to think about the things the other three of us would like to do and what is important individually to keep alive in the songs.]
-- OK, then how about guitarist Nii-san? The impression is really strong, that he is an interesting person.
Satoshi [Ah, I certainly think so!]
-- I think he is the first guitarist I have seen striking "winning poses" after he has played a guitar-solo much like "I did it well!". (laughs)
Satoshi [Hehehe (laughs) That is certainly interesting, isn't it.]
-- At COAST he somehow did sit-ups on stage, too.
Satoshi [Well, I think that Nii-san is actually the person that has changed the least probably. Well, rather than unchanged, he has become more “severe”. (laughs)]
-- (laughs) When you say "severe", which part of him would that be?
Satoshi [Somehow, he has excessively build up his own pace with things. (laughs) But I think it's good. The other three of us, are very considerate of out surroundings and don't do things at our own pace usually. That he has that much of his own style is very important.]
-- So a person like Nii-san would keep the neutral balance within the band probably.
Satoshi [Yes. Therefore I always look at him feeling : "It's OK for you to be like that!" It is interesting to have such a person in the band, therefore I think it is totally fine.]
-- I understand that. It will forever be his pace, right?
Satoshi [I think so. That's something that is extremely sticking to him.]
-- Previously he has said, that he dislikes guitar solos. Yet, while stubbornly avoiding these solos generally, he is playing them during the lives. I think he is probably striking the winning poses thereafter, with the feeling of "If I do it anyway, I can!!"
Satoshi [Yes, yes! He really hates guitar solos, even though he is the guitarist. However, ever since we have been overseas, we have come to incorporate guitar solos. It really needs about as much as a "punch" like going overseas, or else he would not have been able to break down this stubbornness. (laughs) Next it will take to go into the universe, before he has it broken down again. As he continues to walk his own path, I think he pulls up his own iron guard again, if people keep saying things to him. Therefore, it's more like: "Please just keep moving forward."]
-- However, when listening to your story, you really get to understand, how you as band members are really getting along well with each other.
Satoshi [At the time, when we formed, I thought that at some point we might be breaking apart, however, since we began, we have made it up until here already. Even though I thought that "we are going to hate each other sometime probably", I feel like it's OK since we have made it this far. Certainly there are number of points were people start disliking each other in a band. Touring, song making, cash. I think there are a number of bands that bitterly break over chances like that.]
-- Going on tour earnestly, releasing four albums you probably have passed the dangerous point already.
Satoshi [We do. When I am away from everyone, I start feeling lonely already. (laughs) I am the only one in the band who doesn't smoke, and the staff always asks, if I would like a room on the non-smoking floor during the tour, but I really don't like being on a different floor from everyone else. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to just go out in the corridor and have fun with the others, just by the chance of being called up on.]
-- So the four of you are perfectly harmonizing.
Satoshi [Yes. On the opposite, by the atmosphere of things, we easily understand if either of us would like to be alone for a while. Usually there is no stress at all, when we are together. It's totally fine even if Nii-san is going at his own pace no matter what. (laughs) Really, Nii-san is an incredible person. On any DVD released until now, there are a number of episodes of that. (laughs) However, neither of us is getting angry easily and we are used to things by now. He is really a very free person as that.]
-- With girugamesh at that, where lies your aim this year from this point to the future?
Satoshi [Nothing specific has been decided yet. Apart from the performance at COAST, many people think that we are taking over an even bigger place, but we are still contemplating these things. Yet, we would like to make this a touring year and perform a lot as a goal. We are currently on tour as well, yet with respect to the "CRAZY TOUR", we would like to spend this year with the current style. Shedding yet another skin, I think we would like to find another side of girugamesh again and hope people won't miss it. The bigger goal, the point of arrival is what we are going to find during the lives. We then face it and keep continuing into that direction.]
-- During the lives, too, you are keeping up a steady stance, without showing that much greed, are you? However, for the final of this tour you could surely pull off something that is bigger than "Rout 14". Yet, you would like to do this somewhere in your home prefecture, right?
Satoshi [It's really a small place, but nothing can shake our love for home. I think we are a band that will hold their home prefecture dear at heart forever. I like that warms of the bands that are caring a lot about the place they have grown up in.]
-- You seem to be going to tour around the smaller live houses for the summer tour this year. (Note: SUMMER TOUR 2010 starting on July 2nd at Harajuku Astro Hall)
Satoshi [There are a number of places we have played at in the past and we feel like returning to them with it. It's also held with the meaning of doing an "encore tour" this time.]
-- I think this is not the schedule of a band heading upwards, but you have sincere intentions, with it right?
Satoshi [Yes. To speak earnestly, the purpose behind the lives girugamesh is doing, is to reach Budokan for a solo performance. Yet, before we reach this stage, we want to thoroughly clear the things we can do. So, without neglecting the small live houses, we would like to build things up consistently.]
-- Are there specifically new plans for upcoming songs? I think there are still margins to attack in Pop.
Satoshi [Yes there are. We are making songs together, yet, the release of the songs from here is still undecided. They will be a lot cooler though. I hope everyone will be expecting a lot with this outlook.]
Fin
So NEXT will be R&R 033 Ruki's personal interview! (30,000 Kana and Kanji ahead! As a comparison, Satoshi's and Mizuki's were 20,000 signs!!!)
OMG, after such a long time I FINALLY finished this interview!
I am so sorry, that it took me forever. Ever since our office moved I don't have time anymore to sit down in the morning and translate. It's a pity. I work longer now, too, so everything gets delayed... (-o-) On top, frankly speaking, I was just not in the mood....but at the same time, this unfinished interview kept nagging in the back of my head.
AND!!!!!! Since Ruki's R&R interview ill be released I want to finish Satoshi-mesh's before starting that one. I can't start a new one with havong an unfinished one in the case of two long projects...
I hope you enjoy this, still. ^^;
ROCK & READ #030 girugamesh - Satoshi Interview
-- During the live performance, when your bangs fall into your face, it is hard to grasp the expression, which I think is a pity.
Satoshi [Aaah, well the bangs are actually pretty fixed, but they do fall eventually, because of the sweat. Actually I had them cut just a little recently. They are growing like beasts. (laughs)]
-- Huh, why's that? (laughs)
Satoshi [I think the rate my bangs grow is the fastest in the world. (laughs) It's as if they grow a centimeter from the time I go to bed to the time I wake up again. They really grow like that! (laughs) I cut them like once in three days.]
-- Ok, now, then let's return again to that one turning point, which was this year (2010) in January, when you played at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST. The number of people you mobilized had increased, but was this a live where you could come close to your ideals?
Satoshi [(Shinkiba STUDIO COAST) is a live house I have come to see a number of performances at and at events we had been playing on the stage set up outside the hall, too. We have always thought that we would like to perform on this one main stage some time. Yet, even though it was great that we eventually had been able to play this live on that stage, it was still the beginning of the tour on that day, wasn't it?]
-- The tour then officially began a month later and it was also the very first live, after you had been releasing you latest album.
Satoshi [For that reason the pressure about starting this tour at COAST from the very first day, could be felt strongly among all band members. We have been rehearsing a lot prior to that (concert).]
-- Have you done the rehearsal at the studio with the heat at full power and in sauna-suits as well? It's incredible to do this with the feeling of a real performance in that aspect.
Satoshi [We did. Since we couldn't really progress with the usual rehearsal, we thought about trying to create more of the live-feeling. However, the same studio is also used by other friends in bands who have done that, so we imitated their doing. Even though the room itself had already 30 degree Celsius, the heater was still turned on...]
-- That must have been so extremely hot!
Satoshi [It's just hot. Through and through humid heat. However, it is still less compared to "Rout 14" (Note: Live house in Chiba prefecture where girugamesh played a lot.) There the heat is really unimaginable. Anyway, so while sweating quite a bit, we adjusted the set list to the (upcoming live) and practiced the whole set about six times.]
-- Uuuwaah! You must have lost some weight there!
Satoshi [You actually do lose weight there. However, even though we had done our rehearsal like that, there are live houses that are even hotter than that. COAST was OK, but just lately we have been playing in Matsuyama, and despite being pretty cold outside, it was so hot inside that the walls were dripping with moist. But we could do it.]
-- So, since you rehearsed for the COAST performance that much, were you able to relax then?
Satoshi [Even though we rehearsed properly, we were not able to relax at all. (wry smile) For a solo performance, that had been the biggest scale we did at that time, it was the first day of the tour, there was recording for TV and mentally it was really exhausting. We have done the big venues only always for a tour final and partially we were kind of feeling ourselves towards COAST. Either way, for the development of the band, it was a very good experience...Still, I think that, with the things we have done at COAST that time, the tour final that is coming up, will be even better.]
-- Last year you played at SHIBUYA-AX for the first time, which was the final to a really long tour and there the sensation of the live was yet different from that, right?
Satoshi [It was. It was like everything from the tour was coming together at the end. It was extremely moving how we really seemed to have reached something great. The biggest difference was that COAST was just not the tour final as that.]
-- I am sure you watched the live video after the performance and in respect to that, have there been parts about the performance which you reconsidered and reflected upon?
Satoshi [There were so many things (wry smile) The value of that experience is just not high enough! It shouldn't matter what venue the live is played at, or whether it is the first day or the tour final: There has to be the emotional strength for either of those. Also, from the second half on, my voice was strained. With my mind and my throat like that, there was no protection from this deeply emotional sensation.]
-- How do you usually take care of your voice?
Satoshi [At the moment I can't fit actual voice training into my schedule, so in conclusion it's often karaoke. I do this for training my vocal expression though, so I purposefully head to karaoke on my own. (laughs) However, I think that I rather have a problem with the mental side of it all...]
-- What would that be exactly, this problem?
Satoshi [To put it simply, I am easily getting nervous. Of course mostly I am not that nervous, however, before the lives, I can't shake of this nervousness fully. At the time of (the) COAST (performance) I couldn't get rid of it at all. I asked a Sempai of mine for advice and he was like "Isn't everyone nervous? Isn't it good to be this excited?" (laughs)]
-- Who could have been the person, to say such a thing?
Satoshi [It was actually MUCC's T-san. (wry smile)]
-- So do you think you really need something to prevent this nervousness?
Satoshi [During the time, when I still thought that being angry was cool, I looked at the audience from above. However, as we have come to be more on each other's eyelevel, I seem to be more nervous. Should I return to what I have been doing back then? (laughs)]
-- That's no good, isn't it? (wry smile)
Satoshi [It is. Before a live there are a number of things I am thinking about, like how many thousand people are at the venue that day. And with that, I then think about how I can overcome the nervousness. On an everyday basis, we are not a particularly nervous band, though. (wry smile)]
-- I would like to change the topic from here and would like to ask you about how the other three band members have change in this course of this year and a half. I think there are things that changed greatly along with things that didn't change at all. What do you think?
Satoshi [With whom should I start...maybe with our band leader ShuU. He is the root of this band and his thinking is reflected in the band the most. Apart from myself, I think he is the one that changed most. He is certainly the one person, who has until now created the core of the band. To go more into detail, ShuU is the one who thinks about the staging and the things that reach past the way of processing the making of music. He is the master behind it. Of course we others also think about it and share our opinions, but mainly our leader is focusing on it.]
-- Does this include the mood towards the fans from back then, too?
Satoshi [No that came about just naturally at that time. (bitter laugh) However, we did more and more lives, we released [MUSIC], the singles [ALIVE] and [BORDER]...starting with that and the shaping of the whole atmosphere, he told us that he would like to change the image we had until then. With that intention, the outfits changed, too.]
-- This was because ShuU-kun wanted to change all of that?
Satoshi [It was . That was the time, when he actually took over the lead and when we started facing outside of that (previous image). Along, there seemed to have been a change on the inside as well.]
-- Until that time, did he, like Satoshi-kun, have this inner, locked in part as well?
Satoshi [I think so. Certainly, he thought to, that being scary and angry was cool, too.]
-- I see. However, ShuU is making a rather sociable impression. Even so there was this locked in part of his.
Satoshi [Ah, but not like I was. He is certainly the smartest person in this band.]
-- This has hardly to do anything with being smart, though. (laughs)
Satoshi [Ahahahahaha! Well, ShuU-san has experiences as a roadie and he has always kept the relationship and the diplomatic connections to people. I think that with a mind set to seeing them in any case some time, he has the strongest mental ability. For that reason, he will protect our own music, when it needs be. When he needs to attack, he will at once attack...that's what he's like.]
-- This kind of "attacking", was that the blow that came after [MUSIC] until today?
Satoshi [It was. This is certainly what it is like.]
-- So next, who are we going to talk about?
Satoshi [How about the two years younger Ryo? When it comes to music making, he is the heart of it. When he says something is good, then it is good; when he says something is bad, it is bad and there is almost no opposition possible to that. (laughs) Honestly, he brings in the ideas for the music from watching out during his everyday life and incorporates them. He is someone with a very particular inner self about that. When ShuU starts thinking about the timing to release a girugamesh single or album, he starts thinking about the image of that song. These roles in this process have never changed, yet the making of the songs has changed.]
-- Eventually they have become catchier.
Satoshi [Within these one to two years, it has changed, but as girugamesh, we still have our routs at the heaviness of music, while we challenged a number of new things and incorporated them. I think it is thanks to his intriguing mind and curiosity. This is something we really depend on and I wish that we can keep marching on with that!]
-- I do understand that, but it seems to be a rather humble way of saying that.
Satoshi [Well, usually we don't say things like that. (laughs)]
-- Did he change character-wise, too?
Satoshi [He has become gentler. Lately he seems to worry about me just a little. Ahahahaha.]
-- You mean as in Satoshi as the vocalist?
Satoshi [Yes. Back in the days he would say things like "You don't hit the right key here" or "If you can't hit it here, then that's not going to be cool", but now he is thinking about the keys more properly. (laughs) As of late, he is really paying attention to what the nuances and melodies are, which I would like to sing, which is a big change to earlier. Thanks to that, the processing has also become much smoother.]
-- The perfectionist eventually became more flexible. That's good, isn't it?
Satoshi [Yes. Previously, the influence towards the songs, to bring them close to the shape they have been written in, was very strong. This was also leading to that they were mixed in self direction. He came to listen to the opinions of a lot more people. From there, he then came to think about the things the other three of us would like to do and what is important individually to keep alive in the songs.]
-- OK, then how about guitarist Nii-san? The impression is really strong, that he is an interesting person.
Satoshi [Ah, I certainly think so!]
-- I think he is the first guitarist I have seen striking "winning poses" after he has played a guitar-solo much like "I did it well!". (laughs)
Satoshi [Hehehe (laughs) That is certainly interesting, isn't it.]
-- At COAST he somehow did sit-ups on stage, too.
Satoshi [Well, I think that Nii-san is actually the person that has changed the least probably. Well, rather than unchanged, he has become more “severe”. (laughs)]
-- (laughs) When you say "severe", which part of him would that be?
Satoshi [Somehow, he has excessively build up his own pace with things. (laughs) But I think it's good. The other three of us, are very considerate of out surroundings and don't do things at our own pace usually. That he has that much of his own style is very important.]
-- So a person like Nii-san would keep the neutral balance within the band probably.
Satoshi [Yes. Therefore I always look at him feeling : "It's OK for you to be like that!" It is interesting to have such a person in the band, therefore I think it is totally fine.]
-- I understand that. It will forever be his pace, right?
Satoshi [I think so. That's something that is extremely sticking to him.]
-- Previously he has said, that he dislikes guitar solos. Yet, while stubbornly avoiding these solos generally, he is playing them during the lives. I think he is probably striking the winning poses thereafter, with the feeling of "If I do it anyway, I can!!"
Satoshi [Yes, yes! He really hates guitar solos, even though he is the guitarist. However, ever since we have been overseas, we have come to incorporate guitar solos. It really needs about as much as a "punch" like going overseas, or else he would not have been able to break down this stubbornness. (laughs) Next it will take to go into the universe, before he has it broken down again. As he continues to walk his own path, I think he pulls up his own iron guard again, if people keep saying things to him. Therefore, it's more like: "Please just keep moving forward."]
-- However, when listening to your story, you really get to understand, how you as band members are really getting along well with each other.
Satoshi [At the time, when we formed, I thought that at some point we might be breaking apart, however, since we began, we have made it up until here already. Even though I thought that "we are going to hate each other sometime probably", I feel like it's OK since we have made it this far. Certainly there are number of points were people start disliking each other in a band. Touring, song making, cash. I think there are a number of bands that bitterly break over chances like that.]
-- Going on tour earnestly, releasing four albums you probably have passed the dangerous point already.
Satoshi [We do. When I am away from everyone, I start feeling lonely already. (laughs) I am the only one in the band who doesn't smoke, and the staff always asks, if I would like a room on the non-smoking floor during the tour, but I really don't like being on a different floor from everyone else. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to just go out in the corridor and have fun with the others, just by the chance of being called up on.]
-- So the four of you are perfectly harmonizing.
Satoshi [Yes. On the opposite, by the atmosphere of things, we easily understand if either of us would like to be alone for a while. Usually there is no stress at all, when we are together. It's totally fine even if Nii-san is going at his own pace no matter what. (laughs) Really, Nii-san is an incredible person. On any DVD released until now, there are a number of episodes of that. (laughs) However, neither of us is getting angry easily and we are used to things by now. He is really a very free person as that.]
-- With girugamesh at that, where lies your aim this year from this point to the future?
Satoshi [Nothing specific has been decided yet. Apart from the performance at COAST, many people think that we are taking over an even bigger place, but we are still contemplating these things. Yet, we would like to make this a touring year and perform a lot as a goal. We are currently on tour as well, yet with respect to the "CRAZY TOUR", we would like to spend this year with the current style. Shedding yet another skin, I think we would like to find another side of girugamesh again and hope people won't miss it. The bigger goal, the point of arrival is what we are going to find during the lives. We then face it and keep continuing into that direction.]
-- During the lives, too, you are keeping up a steady stance, without showing that much greed, are you? However, for the final of this tour you could surely pull off something that is bigger than "Rout 14". Yet, you would like to do this somewhere in your home prefecture, right?
Satoshi [It's really a small place, but nothing can shake our love for home. I think we are a band that will hold their home prefecture dear at heart forever. I like that warms of the bands that are caring a lot about the place they have grown up in.]
-- You seem to be going to tour around the smaller live houses for the summer tour this year. (Note: SUMMER TOUR 2010 starting on July 2nd at Harajuku Astro Hall)
Satoshi [There are a number of places we have played at in the past and we feel like returning to them with it. It's also held with the meaning of doing an "encore tour" this time.]
-- I think this is not the schedule of a band heading upwards, but you have sincere intentions, with it right?
Satoshi [Yes. To speak earnestly, the purpose behind the lives girugamesh is doing, is to reach Budokan for a solo performance. Yet, before we reach this stage, we want to thoroughly clear the things we can do. So, without neglecting the small live houses, we would like to build things up consistently.]
-- Are there specifically new plans for upcoming songs? I think there are still margins to attack in Pop.
Satoshi [Yes there are. We are making songs together, yet, the release of the songs from here is still undecided. They will be a lot cooler though. I hope everyone will be expecting a lot with this outlook.]
Fin
So NEXT will be R&R 033 Ruki's personal interview! (30,000 Kana and Kanji ahead! As a comparison, Satoshi's and Mizuki's were 20,000 signs!!!)