[Translation] the GazettE Guitar Book - Team Interview (Part 3)
Read Part 02 here
Third installment! This was EXTREMELY mind boggling - Uruha's way of phrasing drove me insane. Thanks to lady_sb again for proofreading!
-- Hmm what to do huh. Whether you are an adult or not, it is also sometimes decided by your surroundings too. To always play while carrying the feeling of (overcoming) obstacles and trouble, there are many artistes like that are being called the best, who are in such a state as well.
U: It's difficult right, this matter. Because of being thought as a great player from the environment around you, you also become a great player for the first time. But, for people who are the same type as me, no matter how much you are praised, if you cannot agree with it yourself you will never feel at ease. On the other hand, if you think too much on your own, you become depressed and stop trying to be useful - I dislike that as well. In the end, you have to find that balance well within yourself.
A: In this matter, maybe that's where I'm totally opposite of Uruha. When I fail, I don't really let it bother me. Although when I managed to do something, I'll think 'woohoo!' (laugh). But, it can't be helped that we are troubled by such matters right? Because of it, one decides clearly to practice hard so as to be able to do (a certain thing) the next time. And then you bring the guitar home, practice on it at home. I also feel this way.
-- I am intrigued by the differences between your characters and yet you two are able to work well together. Following this flow, the GazettE then went through several mini albums, and a full album "DISORDER", there is the impression that with "NIL" there was an immense increase in skill. There was also the feeling that the both of you also had alot of things you wanted to do, and with all your might packed it all in.
U: It isn’t because our awareness changed for that matter. At that time, because we crammed everything that we thought was the craze at that point of time into the album. “DISORDER” was certainly such a piece of work. Then, while holding on to (a dissatisfaction with) “DISORDER”, we put out “NIL” next because of this. “NIL” to me, gives me the impression where it was the album where I held no prejudice or bias. “DISORDER” we were really biased in our worldview. With a strong punk taste, and yet the people doing it themselves were actually visual kei, it was such an album. Regardless, there were also places where I wanted to make it emotional. However, with this difficult situation, in “DISORDER” we also sometimes did it in such a way it had a side which was too ingrained (in our bias). To put it in a good way, it didn’t have a sense of unity? It was such a piece of work.
A: For me, certainly how I’ve currently become “the GazettE-like”, I think this took shape from “NIL” onwards. Before then, most of the time I was arranging (my guitar phrases) to match what Ruki had composed, and because from “NIL” onwards this changed. During “DISORDER”, although I was also making songs, it is “NIL” that left the greatest impression. From then on, you can say I started to feel that I was finally doing music? Before then, although I felt that I was following the band, it was during that time that I came to feel that we’re making things together.
U: In the view of the band, this matter (the creation of NIL) was certainly huge for us, right? Aoi got into the PC faster than any of us, and also on his own showed his side of taking on the role of a composer. From there, it became Aoi’s turning point, and his consciousness also changed, I think. From that period onwards, in the perspective of the band’s guitarist, his viewpoint was also changing.
A: I think during that period of time before arriving at this stage, I started to feel this feeling of not wanting to rely on people somewhere in me. This feeling started to gradually become bigger, and in “NIL” it just burst open.
U: Searching for my own place, the momentum of the time when I found it, the “Aoi” then had it. In that “Aoi”, everyone got provoked. When a member in the band approached that particular time, the whole band’s level at once increased as well. In that light, I think I want such things to happen often.
A: Is that so? I didn’t think it was such a big thing for everyone (laugh).
U: Ahaha. After that, because from that time onwards we started to do pre-production… we also started putting out the album with a good effect.
-- Not restricted to “NIL” but, both you do play the acoustic guitar actively.
A: From the start I liked the acoustic guitar; I’ve always wanted to play the acoustic guitar in the band. Because of this, whenever I listen to a melody, in my head it is always ringing in the way it does when it’s played on an acoustic guitar.
U: For me, it was after I got the influence from other bands. During lives, when I saw the acoustic guitar being set on a stand and played, I thought, “I see”. In this case, the both of us can use both the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar in one song. In a twin-guitar team when both use acoustic guitars at the same time, the atmosphere changes completely. I thought I really wanted the GazettE to make use of this.
-- For people who are not good with the acoustic they hate it completely, but there wasn’t such thing (for you guys) huh?
U: There wasn’t. Whatever it was, I wanted to do it. However, I didn’t have the money so I hadn’t gotten an acoustic guitar into my hands, that was the issue (laugh). Therefore I didn’t play it in the beginning.
-- With the both of you liking the acoustic guitar, it also became a huge part of the GazettE’s forte. Continuing “NIL”, in the album “STACKED RUBBISH” the guitar ensemble also saw more and more adjustments and organisation.
A: That’s right. Before this generally we were each working in our different ways, but with this album we wanted to do it unison.
U: During this time, it can be said we laid the groundwork for a single mind? Instead of the perspective of the personalities of both guitarists, we became able to consider a musical composition together, this started from “STACKED RUBBISH”.
A: Yup. We started to select carefully in what kind of way we wanted to strengthen the impression of the melodies. Because of this, if we needed to bring out the feeling of closeness more than the feeling of twin-guitars, this feeling of closeness, we had to play in unison, if there was a need to jumble the melody up a little we would also do it. This is how our approach changed.
U: However, when we started to match up closely, because of our mutual differences in playing-habits (in guitar-playing). You see, before I achieved it within myself, the topic of it being different or not had already started to come up. Because it had happened unconsciously, before I was even told, I had already done things without noticing. To reach this stage, we had to keep going back and checking our music. With this, before deciding to make use of our differences in playing-habits or not, we decided to talk about it.
A: We talked about this in considerable detail right?
U: Yeah. Anyway, the thing about us coming together and creating the sound as one. For this, we didn’t think it was that difficult.
-- As the matter of playing-habits can be troublesome, there are bands where one person plays the backing, but you guys don’t do this. Moreover, in “STACKED RUBBISH” the guitar sound took a big change. There was a huge drop in terms of gain*, was there frequent use of the single coil** pick-up?
A: As I’d said earlier on, “the guitar sound is very flimsy/thin, what’s the reason for this?” - We always had this problem. When we were pondering over this, I thought, it’s different from just going with deepening the sound and distorting it right? At that time, we were still at the stage of searching for an answer. Therefore, we tried to drop the gain as much as could to see how it goes.
U: The real feeling of the chords, just by distorting it, it wouldn’t come out right? I started to think, to make use of the feeling of the chords, it is not related to the depth of it is it?
*T/N: gain refers to the measure of ability in terms of the amplifier’s volume and power.
**T/N: a type of pick-up. Wikipedia page here.
-- Is that so? So the two of you spoke about this?
U: We did.
A: Even when only one person drops their distortion, while the other person distorts with all his might, we couldn’t reach what we were aiming for. With that, we started to think “what is it?” (laugh).
U: We discussed, dropped the distortion and tried to do it a little simpler. In “Filth in the beauty”, which was released before “STACKED RUBBISH”, I used humbucker, but when we recorded “REGRET” I tried using the P-90. “STACKED RUBBISH” started to become tied to this (method) too. However I couldn’t see (this matter) objectively or something. I was already playing with a subjective impression. “This is deep. However, it’s because it’s the P-90” - with that kind of feeling (laugh).
A: Me too (laugh). In short, we had pre-conceptions.
U: Although half of me had doubts too. There were also parts where I thought “isn’t this a bit different” (laugh). Now when I hear it, it’s really crisp huh (laugh).
to be continued... part04