The GazettE - Garish Room 20 (December 2013) - Ruki's interview (on the World Tour)
This year, between August and September, the shows of the Festival and the World Tour took place, and it represents a major breakthrough into the foreign scene. Before the World tour, a first meeting took place in August, in Russia’s Festival - the KUBANA FESTIVAL.
RUKI : About Russia, I remember when we were in the midst of rehearsals and we were seen running together with all the equipment, from managers to cleaning staff (Laugh ). At that moment I thought: “How great to play in a band.” The place was located near the sea, so the atmosphere looked like the one in the Inazuma Rock Festival*. However, there was an amazing amount of dust ! It was really fun, even if no matter if we played or not, the Mosh** didn’t stop (Laugh).
*Inazuma Rock Festival : A Festival in which GazettE participated on September 18th, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr7iebnlAi8
Mosh** : It’s a sort of brutal dance from punk, hardcore punk and metal. People leave a large gap between them and throw themselves on top of each other.
They should have in mind: "This group can feel the heat!" (Laugh). Then, from September began your World Tour, and his first stop was Mexico, then Central and South America.
RUKI : Well, there was a terrible accident... I remember it! It was in Brazil, our last stop in South America, one day before leaving, the passport and other documents of a guy of our staff was stolen.
Oh- oh, I just feel as if you returned to South America. Did you have to face something else ?
RUKI : Yes, there was bad weather (Laugh )
Speaking of South America, I immediately remembered the Western artists who appeared on the video of Brazil and Argentina.
RUKI : All that matters is that there was an absolutely amazing atmosphere.
Seriously ? For example, at one time, only the audience began to sing the name of the band, on the melody of a riff.
RUKI : This doesn’t happen as if it was natural, we didn’t have this ( Laugh). But voices of the spectators were so strong that sometimes I couldn’t hear myself in the monitors. Although I use them with headphones, their voices were still blocking the sound, It was a kind of a shame. How I can I say… I couldn’t say : "I hear nothing! " (Laugh)
Did you feel a great enthusiasm out?
RUKI: In Central and South America, fans were waiting for us at the airport, and they started screaming non-stop. No doubt it was nice, but it was a little scary. After going from one country to another one, you spend a lot of time on the plane, you are exhausted by these flights, and barely arrived you find yourself in front of this violence. It greatly affected my mood .(Bitter laugh)
Did they go to the hotel where you were staying?
RUKI: They went. I had the imprudence to photograph a small corner of my room and to put the photo on Instagram, but it’s amazing how fans guessed which hotel it was with such a small detail. It was only a small fragment of the room!
Wow, everything was calculated... On the other hand, did you encountered difficulties with countries that don’t speak English?
RUKI: People in South America, with whom we had contacts were very friendly, concerning the language barrier and communication, we didn’t have problems.
And what do you think about the public’s reaction? Which song was better received ?
RUKI: For me it’s UNTITLED. In addition to be a ballad, I think it sounded great. And maybe Filth in the Beauty was very popular abroad.
I see. A long trip is part of a concert, so I want to ask you, what did you do during travels ?
RUKI: On the plane, I only watched movies until I fall asleep. However, I only watch those I've already seen at least once (Laugh). Because there are no subtitles. When I watch without being distracted, I began to understand what is said.
The second part of the tour took place in Europe, and travels were mostly by bus. How did you spend your time this time?
RUKI: I slept in the bus until we stop. If there was a place for meetings, then we talked about this or that. But if it was a long travel for about 16 hours, I could spend time chatting 6 hours straight. However, there was still 10 hours (bitter grimace). Because of the 16-hours trip, it’s the physical condition that mainly suffered.
Yes (Bitter laugh). Moving from one country to another, were you able to adapt to food?
RUKI : Absolutely not. I guess I felt a lot of stress. It’s not my habit to taste the local cuisine. For example, speaking of Mexico, its most famous dish is tacos, right? However, it’s not related to the main food?
It fits in a certain category (Laugh)
RUKI: It doesn’t belong to this category ( Laugh). In Mexico, Argentina and Brazil dishes mainly consist in meat, and I couldn’t bear it.
So it's better to eat McDonalds all the time ?
RUKI: Actually, no ( Laugh). They asked me to be patient with the burgers. But in reality, there was nothing except the bread there, and if you stop there it would only be to choose snacks. Well, I gradually lost my appetite. Maybe for me it’s the most painful part in a foreign tour. Even in Europe, once I wanted to try the sausages, the next day I was fed up. In Germany, they are strangely large and even if they are like this, you want to try it at least once. The next day, we asked what they had for lunch and the guys answered "the same as yesterday,” I refused and opted for the Italian food or anything else.
I wouldn’t thought it before, but you are terribly sensitive.
RUKI : Yes, a little. Probably due to the fact that every day I asked, “Well, was it decided for the meal?” (Laugh) .
That’s why you rarely travel abroad? So you thought you could deal with the local cuisine.
RUKI: With the fact of traveling, you can make a preliminary study and you feel that it’s easier. You go to places recommended by other Japanese who already went there. But if I go on tour, and something push me, I am easily overtaken from start to finish.
So when all this ends, fatigue suddenly falls on you.
RUKI : It’s not really like that. Therefore, I had to be careful during the tour. However, realizing the difficulties we encountered during our trip, I definitely want to do another World Tour. Like in Russia, I was poisoned because of the water... (Bitter laugh) I had a terribly stomach-ache, and when I returned home, I had fever. And in August I constantly had the idea of September running in my mind (Laugh). Between South America and Europe, we returned home, but two days later we had to leave early in the morning - at 5 :00 - to continue our tour. And then we flew by correspondance, we changed our plane at 9:00, then at 14 :00 ... (Laugh) We were in the air for almost 24 hours. Before leaving, I put winter clothes in my suitcase, it’s cold in Europe. Contrary to the weather forecasts, it was never more than 5 ° C in Finland.
Wow ! it means that you tried the Finnish conditions in their entirety. Before leaving for Europe, did you physical condition restor?
RUKI : Upon returning home, I recovered, but hardly gone I fall ill. To go on holiday abroad, it’s practically impossible for me.
Because of cold symptoms?
RUKI : First, there is no hot water. Bus travels involve the need to take a shower right in the dressing room of the concert hall, and often without hot water, so it was just about to wash the head. With sweaty body and in this state, it’s very easy to catch a cold.
Harsh conditions ... The last time you went in Europe was 6 years ago. Did your experience change compared to the last time?
RUKI: The mood was close to the one we had when we went there for the first time, and in general you can’t compare, for me everything seemed unreal. If we compare, I can say that the decor of the room was close to the Japanese one. But apart from that, the atmosphere of the public, I mean in South America, is different from Japan. This isn’t the kind of things you can be easy compare and also if Japan’s fans come in the concert hall they are immediately recognized.
I remember foreign artists who come to Japan, they unanimously affirm: "Japanese fans really listen to the song, fans are amazing.”
RUKI : Yes, I agree with that. Durong Japanese concerts you can feel a range of feelings due to the harmony of the natives. And when you talk to the public, he listens to you carefully. Compared to foreign concerts, whenever I went there there were still too many incomprehensible things to me. After some time, when the heat of passion got together after a long wait, finally I was able to give a correct assessment of what happened. In the end, now we give each concert as if it was the last, and to be able to understand this, it’s necessary to travel around the world several times. At the same time, I realized that the Japanese concert halls are damn practical. For example, in Europe, the stage floor is resilient, and because of this, the lower sounds seem strange. Or the audio output doesn’t perform well and for some reason doesn’t sound strong and give an annoying feeling of interference in the electrical communication. I kept thinking, "What exactly is this interference?” or "Something is wrong with the sound output.", although in the video nothing of this is noticeable... In general, these are our problems.
That’s to say, even if there was no real problem, you didn’t find that the present conditions were satisfactory?
RUKI : Yes. In any case, it was inevitable. For example : to park the vehicle. Same for the lighting, each time the equipment was different so we had to come very early in the morning to adjust everything. We couldn’t even have a headache.
Moreover, in Europe, immediately after the concert, you had to load the bus and leave.
RUKI : When we got to the next town in the morning , my body wasn’t fully awake yet and I wanted to sleep. However, if at that time you take the luxury of sleeping too much, then it’s very difficult to get into action. It was a torture. Also, I can’t sleep if its noisy.
And as the cycle is repeated, you feel more and more nervous.
RUKI : Terribly nervous (Bitter laugh), really. So, during the second part of the tour, I drank alcohol, while usually I don’t drink... I only drank wine. If I didn’t have drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to be standing (Laugh). This indicates my strong digestion of alcohol. Continuing our tour for a month, I'd just denied anything (Laugh). Well, anyway, it was a good lesson. For example, what I need to take with me. I only took with me the snacks Baby Star Ramen. (These are kind of dried ramens, salted, with differents tastes like chicken, barbecue… a bit like chips for us)
Yes, in the case you wanted to chew something (Laugh).
RUKI : Yes , it was surprising that throughout the trip I ate soft caramels. Take some drinks with us was impossible, so we had nothing except Cola... Although this time it was expected, unlike the last time the biggest problem was the lack of drinking water.
The next time you’ll necessarily take miso soup with ramens or rice cooked in a vacuum package.
RUKI: Yes, I am ready to take with me a bag of rice. And we are still suffering from time difference. With the staff, we all slept tight in the bus, nobody complained aloud, but were probably all on edge.
Back in Japan, what did you like to do first ?
RUKI : Eating Natto ! (it’s a traditional fermented soybean food). The first thing I ate was Natto with rice. I missed Japanese food so I ate it only for two days (Laugh). In the same way, I could have eaten the most austere food.
On this point, you probably feel you Japanese?
RUKI: Yeah. Moreover, I thought “How good it is to be in Japan.” I think it's great. It’s excellent and you can walk at night without fear. So once again I felt good doing the tour in Japan, and I wondered how I could be sad here.
So, the next time, you refuse to lose yourself a larger scale. When this magazine comes out, the national tour will be at its peak. And apparently, the setlist will be full of new songs.
RUKI: Not only, but we increased the number of songs in the main part. We are still in the process of developing the menu, and I can say it, just thinking about which old songs could be on the setlist... Even now I think at the beginning to make blocks of songs, but it maybe that we won’t include some songs in every concerts. Songs will also change as we go along. It would be good to decide as a base one setlist that fits the most for the public. I believe that a individual focus single would allow fans to really enjoy the next tour.
credit: http://haruurara-kazan.tumblr.com for her russian translation
http://thegazetteparaguay.blogspot.fr/ for their spanish translation
I am sorry if some sentences seem weird or mean nothing, but sometimes the spanish sentence I translated was meaningless, so... It's difficult! and it's the translation of a translation of a translation... I wanted to watch the original text in Japanese to understand better, but I can't find it. =/
Sorry if I made mistakes in my translation. If you have any suggestion, don't hesitate to tell me!
Credit me if repost please! It's my work and it took time.
RUKI : About Russia, I remember when we were in the midst of rehearsals and we were seen running together with all the equipment, from managers to cleaning staff (Laugh ). At that moment I thought: “How great to play in a band.” The place was located near the sea, so the atmosphere looked like the one in the Inazuma Rock Festival*. However, there was an amazing amount of dust ! It was really fun, even if no matter if we played or not, the Mosh** didn’t stop (Laugh).
*Inazuma Rock Festival : A Festival in which GazettE participated on September 18th, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr7iebnlAi8
Mosh** : It’s a sort of brutal dance from punk, hardcore punk and metal. People leave a large gap between them and throw themselves on top of each other.
They should have in mind: "This group can feel the heat!" (Laugh). Then, from September began your World Tour, and his first stop was Mexico, then Central and South America.
RUKI : Well, there was a terrible accident... I remember it! It was in Brazil, our last stop in South America, one day before leaving, the passport and other documents of a guy of our staff was stolen.
Oh- oh, I just feel as if you returned to South America. Did you have to face something else ?
RUKI : Yes, there was bad weather (Laugh )
Speaking of South America, I immediately remembered the Western artists who appeared on the video of Brazil and Argentina.
RUKI : All that matters is that there was an absolutely amazing atmosphere.
Seriously ? For example, at one time, only the audience began to sing the name of the band, on the melody of a riff.
RUKI : This doesn’t happen as if it was natural, we didn’t have this ( Laugh). But voices of the spectators were so strong that sometimes I couldn’t hear myself in the monitors. Although I use them with headphones, their voices were still blocking the sound, It was a kind of a shame. How I can I say… I couldn’t say : "I hear nothing! " (Laugh)
Did you feel a great enthusiasm out?
RUKI: In Central and South America, fans were waiting for us at the airport, and they started screaming non-stop. No doubt it was nice, but it was a little scary. After going from one country to another one, you spend a lot of time on the plane, you are exhausted by these flights, and barely arrived you find yourself in front of this violence. It greatly affected my mood .(Bitter laugh)
Did they go to the hotel where you were staying?
RUKI: They went. I had the imprudence to photograph a small corner of my room and to put the photo on Instagram, but it’s amazing how fans guessed which hotel it was with such a small detail. It was only a small fragment of the room!
Wow, everything was calculated... On the other hand, did you encountered difficulties with countries that don’t speak English?
RUKI: People in South America, with whom we had contacts were very friendly, concerning the language barrier and communication, we didn’t have problems.
And what do you think about the public’s reaction? Which song was better received ?
RUKI: For me it’s UNTITLED. In addition to be a ballad, I think it sounded great. And maybe Filth in the Beauty was very popular abroad.
I see. A long trip is part of a concert, so I want to ask you, what did you do during travels ?
RUKI: On the plane, I only watched movies until I fall asleep. However, I only watch those I've already seen at least once (Laugh). Because there are no subtitles. When I watch without being distracted, I began to understand what is said.
The second part of the tour took place in Europe, and travels were mostly by bus. How did you spend your time this time?
RUKI: I slept in the bus until we stop. If there was a place for meetings, then we talked about this or that. But if it was a long travel for about 16 hours, I could spend time chatting 6 hours straight. However, there was still 10 hours (bitter grimace). Because of the 16-hours trip, it’s the physical condition that mainly suffered.
Yes (Bitter laugh). Moving from one country to another, were you able to adapt to food?
RUKI : Absolutely not. I guess I felt a lot of stress. It’s not my habit to taste the local cuisine. For example, speaking of Mexico, its most famous dish is tacos, right? However, it’s not related to the main food?
It fits in a certain category (Laugh)
RUKI: It doesn’t belong to this category ( Laugh). In Mexico, Argentina and Brazil dishes mainly consist in meat, and I couldn’t bear it.
So it's better to eat McDonalds all the time ?
RUKI: Actually, no ( Laugh). They asked me to be patient with the burgers. But in reality, there was nothing except the bread there, and if you stop there it would only be to choose snacks. Well, I gradually lost my appetite. Maybe for me it’s the most painful part in a foreign tour. Even in Europe, once I wanted to try the sausages, the next day I was fed up. In Germany, they are strangely large and even if they are like this, you want to try it at least once. The next day, we asked what they had for lunch and the guys answered "the same as yesterday,” I refused and opted for the Italian food or anything else.
I wouldn’t thought it before, but you are terribly sensitive.
RUKI : Yes, a little. Probably due to the fact that every day I asked, “Well, was it decided for the meal?” (Laugh) .
That’s why you rarely travel abroad? So you thought you could deal with the local cuisine.
RUKI: With the fact of traveling, you can make a preliminary study and you feel that it’s easier. You go to places recommended by other Japanese who already went there. But if I go on tour, and something push me, I am easily overtaken from start to finish.
So when all this ends, fatigue suddenly falls on you.
RUKI : It’s not really like that. Therefore, I had to be careful during the tour. However, realizing the difficulties we encountered during our trip, I definitely want to do another World Tour. Like in Russia, I was poisoned because of the water... (Bitter laugh) I had a terribly stomach-ache, and when I returned home, I had fever. And in August I constantly had the idea of September running in my mind (Laugh). Between South America and Europe, we returned home, but two days later we had to leave early in the morning - at 5 :00 - to continue our tour. And then we flew by correspondance, we changed our plane at 9:00, then at 14 :00 ... (Laugh) We were in the air for almost 24 hours. Before leaving, I put winter clothes in my suitcase, it’s cold in Europe. Contrary to the weather forecasts, it was never more than 5 ° C in Finland.
Wow ! it means that you tried the Finnish conditions in their entirety. Before leaving for Europe, did you physical condition restor?
RUKI : Upon returning home, I recovered, but hardly gone I fall ill. To go on holiday abroad, it’s practically impossible for me.
Because of cold symptoms?
RUKI : First, there is no hot water. Bus travels involve the need to take a shower right in the dressing room of the concert hall, and often without hot water, so it was just about to wash the head. With sweaty body and in this state, it’s very easy to catch a cold.
Harsh conditions ... The last time you went in Europe was 6 years ago. Did your experience change compared to the last time?
RUKI: The mood was close to the one we had when we went there for the first time, and in general you can’t compare, for me everything seemed unreal. If we compare, I can say that the decor of the room was close to the Japanese one. But apart from that, the atmosphere of the public, I mean in South America, is different from Japan. This isn’t the kind of things you can be easy compare and also if Japan’s fans come in the concert hall they are immediately recognized.
I remember foreign artists who come to Japan, they unanimously affirm: "Japanese fans really listen to the song, fans are amazing.”
RUKI : Yes, I agree with that. Durong Japanese concerts you can feel a range of feelings due to the harmony of the natives. And when you talk to the public, he listens to you carefully. Compared to foreign concerts, whenever I went there there were still too many incomprehensible things to me. After some time, when the heat of passion got together after a long wait, finally I was able to give a correct assessment of what happened. In the end, now we give each concert as if it was the last, and to be able to understand this, it’s necessary to travel around the world several times. At the same time, I realized that the Japanese concert halls are damn practical. For example, in Europe, the stage floor is resilient, and because of this, the lower sounds seem strange. Or the audio output doesn’t perform well and for some reason doesn’t sound strong and give an annoying feeling of interference in the electrical communication. I kept thinking, "What exactly is this interference?” or "Something is wrong with the sound output.", although in the video nothing of this is noticeable... In general, these are our problems.
That’s to say, even if there was no real problem, you didn’t find that the present conditions were satisfactory?
RUKI : Yes. In any case, it was inevitable. For example : to park the vehicle. Same for the lighting, each time the equipment was different so we had to come very early in the morning to adjust everything. We couldn’t even have a headache.
Moreover, in Europe, immediately after the concert, you had to load the bus and leave.
RUKI : When we got to the next town in the morning , my body wasn’t fully awake yet and I wanted to sleep. However, if at that time you take the luxury of sleeping too much, then it’s very difficult to get into action. It was a torture. Also, I can’t sleep if its noisy.
And as the cycle is repeated, you feel more and more nervous.
RUKI : Terribly nervous (Bitter laugh), really. So, during the second part of the tour, I drank alcohol, while usually I don’t drink... I only drank wine. If I didn’t have drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to be standing (Laugh). This indicates my strong digestion of alcohol. Continuing our tour for a month, I'd just denied anything (Laugh). Well, anyway, it was a good lesson. For example, what I need to take with me. I only took with me the snacks Baby Star Ramen. (These are kind of dried ramens, salted, with differents tastes like chicken, barbecue… a bit like chips for us)
Yes, in the case you wanted to chew something (Laugh).
RUKI : Yes , it was surprising that throughout the trip I ate soft caramels. Take some drinks with us was impossible, so we had nothing except Cola... Although this time it was expected, unlike the last time the biggest problem was the lack of drinking water.
The next time you’ll necessarily take miso soup with ramens or rice cooked in a vacuum package.
RUKI: Yes, I am ready to take with me a bag of rice. And we are still suffering from time difference. With the staff, we all slept tight in the bus, nobody complained aloud, but were probably all on edge.
Back in Japan, what did you like to do first ?
RUKI : Eating Natto ! (it’s a traditional fermented soybean food). The first thing I ate was Natto with rice. I missed Japanese food so I ate it only for two days (Laugh). In the same way, I could have eaten the most austere food.
On this point, you probably feel you Japanese?
RUKI: Yeah. Moreover, I thought “How good it is to be in Japan.” I think it's great. It’s excellent and you can walk at night without fear. So once again I felt good doing the tour in Japan, and I wondered how I could be sad here.
So, the next time, you refuse to lose yourself a larger scale. When this magazine comes out, the national tour will be at its peak. And apparently, the setlist will be full of new songs.
RUKI: Not only, but we increased the number of songs in the main part. We are still in the process of developing the menu, and I can say it, just thinking about which old songs could be on the setlist... Even now I think at the beginning to make blocks of songs, but it maybe that we won’t include some songs in every concerts. Songs will also change as we go along. It would be good to decide as a base one setlist that fits the most for the public. I believe that a individual focus single would allow fans to really enjoy the next tour.
credit: http://haruurara-kazan.tumblr.com for her russian translation
http://thegazetteparaguay.blogspot.fr/ for their spanish translation
I am sorry if some sentences seem weird or mean nothing, but sometimes the spanish sentence I translated was meaningless, so... It's difficult! and it's the translation of a translation of a translation... I wanted to watch the original text in Japanese to understand better, but I can't find it. =/
Sorry if I made mistakes in my translation. If you have any suggestion, don't hesitate to tell me!
Credit me if repost please! It's my work and it took time.