Wink Up 2009 January - TORA
Wink Up 2009 Vol 15 - TORA
【What got me started on Rock = PANTERA】
Without knowing about the genre rock, when i heard about Pantera, i was like "Waaa! what is this amazing feeling!", and started liking them. I learned about Pantera from TV. Since i often watch MTV. After that, it was like "So this genre is known as Rock!". When I'm in junior year 6 or middle school year 1, western metal music was a trend out there and various bands released albums during that time. So i was simply riding on the wave (laughs). I probably only listen to western rock. For JRock, I've come to listen to X-Japan or Luna Sea as recommended by my seniors. I liked the guitar and came in contact with it before i knew about Rock though.
[small fyi: if u listen to Pantera's song Cowboys From Hell, you'll realize that in High Collar naru Rondo, Tora's solo guitar part is very heavily influenced by this song. Main composer for High Collar seems to be Saga though.
【Music that influenced me during my school days = X-Japan】
In kindergarten or lower years of junior school, i often went on family trips so I remembered the songs from Inoue Yosui, Hamada Yougo etc when they played them from the car (laughs). In middle school, i started liking Pantera, Marilyn Manson, Metallica etc. In high school, around me people were listening to YamaArashi [Japanese rap metal band], The Mad Capsule Markets [japanese band] etc, but I was often listening to X-Japan or Luna Sea, and came to listen to mainly visual kei songs. The first live i went to was Animetal [japanese metal band that covers songs from anime]. I went to Akasaka Blitz to watch their live when i was in middle school. It was amazing! Their performance was really really amazing that i was so touched that i returned to watch again. Now looking back, it was a good thing that i watched that as my first live.
【Music that I'm listening to recently = Alice Nine】
CD i bought recently are Dragonforce, Slipknot, Bullet For my Valentine etc. I guess i really like hardcore or metal type (laughs) But i don't really repeatedly listen to a single artist. Summer has been all tour shows, after the tour, it's the song composing period, so i guess the music that i've been listening to most often is Alice Nine (laughs). But, my way of listening to music has changed from the past. In the past i only listened to what i like, but since working in the music industry, i have started to expand the genres i listen to. So when i'm home, MTV is always switched on. In this way, i get more motivation and new discoveries.