SHOXX vol. 172 part. 4 REITA
Reita
It has been five days since the live in Yokohama Arena, (this interview was held on May 16th), if you were to express the live in a word what would you say?
It was fun! I wasn’t in good condition, but I did my best.
I’m afraid you couldn’t feel the scale of such a big venue and the overwhelming presence of more than 10 thousand people…..
Well, I was OK when I was playing on the stage! I took medicine and had lots of adrenalin in me, so I even forgot that I had a fever. So I could enjoy it. I couldn’t see the fans at the back well, and they just seemed like beans, but I knew they enjoyed themselves too, so I thought it didn’t matter whether I could see their faces or not. And we didn’t change what we did too much; using the set list from our four lives in live houses just before the Arena live.
But in the live house tour, the venues were quite small in capacity, which was a big difference from the end of year hall tour.
Well, in live houses, fans responded quickly, and they seemed easy to listen to my bad pronunciation in MC because the distance was not that far.(laugh) Meguro Rokumeikan, where I heard it was too small for our instruments and materials, seemed unexpectedly large when I actually stood on the stage. Oh, and at the end of our last song [DISCHARGE], the electricity cut out.
And in the second day in Takatababa Arena, the synchronized sounds stopped.
The humidity from the people caused that. When we played in Rokumeikan, I heard drops were dripping from the lighting on the ceiling. I really like ghastly dangers and being in a lawless zone, that’s the reason why I like playing in live houses. That’s why I went to Yokohama Arena….. Before the live of Yokohama Arena, I had a bad feeling and checked my temperature, and found it was more than 38℃!, and thought “Oh, my god!”. At that time I thought “I’ll sleep so I’ll get better.”, but I awoke up every hour because I felt hot, and I couldn’t sleep at all……it was horrible. It was too bad to play the live like that, so I took medicine, then I became better and I talked normally before the live.
In such a bad condition, how did you feel when the curtain of Yokohama Arena dropped and the live started?
When the audience burst into cheers, I had goose bumps. At the same time, my heat went away. And it was so impressive to see more than 10 thousand people was jumping to the main melodies of the first song [Filth in the beauty]. I think fans learnt how to enjoy the live space during the hall tour. I tried to get to know the distance from the audience and the feelings of the sounds desperately, and became excited at around the 2nd and 3rd songs.
That venue wasn’t built originally to play lives, so I think there were many problems about the sound.
Yes. I couldn’t hear the low sounds, and the tuning seemed wrong even if they were fine. Well, Rokumeikan where we played a few days before didn’t even have monitors, so we became able to play anywhere.
In such a big venue, didn’t you plan to move around more or to move forward more?
The people at the edge of the stage had to look upward to see us which seemed a little difficult, so I tried to turn my face to them, but I’m OK to play in the back of the stage and to be seen sometimes. And is there really any big difference if I go to the front a little bit? I felt like I was already standing in the front of the stage, so I didn’t care about whether I would go to the front or not.
Yes, you didn’t seem pressured about being in such a big venue at all. You seemed used to it.
Well, I felt like I put a stamp on the place of Yokohama Arena.(laugh) And I had a fever, so I felt like “I just hope to play this well!”. I just thought I would do my best for 3 hours then it was OK to burn out after that.
Humans get an enormous strength from severe conditions.
I asked Kai to call “One, two, three, four!” in the song [Ride with the ROCKERS], because I couldn’t talk because of a fever. But I changed that just before the live, telling him “I’ll do it.”.(laugh)
That was why the rhythm section was so good that day, so I was really moved.
Well, I really had many things to say there. As a human, we have a lot of things that we experience, I think? I wanted to say when you feel down we will be next to you. But I’m poor at speaking, and I don’t have a head to say nice stuff and I often loose my way in what I’m saying, so what I can do is stir up the audience.
You are quiet, that’s why your words coming out from you once in a while are so meaningful, Reita. For example, your words “Follow us forever.” in Shibuya O-West.
Oh yes , I said that. I want to do what I like forever. We have confidence to make them enjoy our music as long as we are the GazettE, so we just hope that they follow us forever. When we played in Yokohama Arena, I really thought we have good fans. Yesterday, we checked the live images and found fans who appeared in the image had very good smiles on their faces! Even they were so far from us. When I saw them, I felt really comforted by it.
On that day, there was no screen, so members’ expressions almost couldn’t be seen. However the power of the tug-of war between five members and fans was enormous.
There might be fans who said they couldn’t see, but I felt different about how to release their power to see real us than to see a screen. A live should be done by our hearts and minds. Of course technique is important, but the most important thing is our minds. So I played to reach our minds as much as possible.
In this tour, what you got was the importance of the mind, Reita?
Yes. Lives are the most pleasant, and it’s basically the same beyond genres and venues. If they aren’t fun, they are meaningless, and the most important thing in lives are our minds. Our technique is better by practicing in a studio, but for your minds to grow you have to do lives. And I heard stories during the tour, stories about fans who died, or who are staying in hospitals. As we have more fans, we hear about fans who are in various environments, so I thought I should have power to reach to the guys who can’t come to our lives. Well, they can come to our live for free from the heaven, so I want them to come to see us at any time.
That’s really nice. As the purpose for playing in lives grows your mind, your long tour from July will be a perfect opportunity to do this.
When the schedule was projected on the screen at the end of our live, I lost my spirit a little bit. It seemed for me like ‘the next round of hell!’ at that time.(laugh) But summer is a good season for lives. Last year we did only 3 lives including the German live, so I want to do many lives this year. To control my health condition is more important. I don’t know how I will be if we play the songs of our new album in such a hard schedule! I think my neck would become thicker, and all of my body would become thicker too.(laugh)
About your new album [STACKED RUBBISH] which will be released on July 4th, all of other members said “It would be breathtaking work.”.
Yes. It will be an album which never lets us rest and puts us through a series of growth spurts. Almost all the songs are heavy and hard, which seem like bad adults, well they look just like us.
So you have to build up your strength, so as not to be beaten by playing such songs. I want to see you, Reita, throwing your picks cheerfully after you finish your live.
You won’t see that! The moment when the last sound finishes, the live is finished for me. So I leave the stage quickly, that is my policy.
I see!
For now, there will be two kinds of tours, halls and standing, so I’m expecting to hear how people feel about the difference between them. I have confidence that I can make them feel the same. Anyway, I think that it is going to be a fun summer.
Translated By Noriko (Non-Non) Takeuchi