ROCK & READ #030 Sadie - Mizuki [Translation 1/3]
As promised: Mizuki's Interview from R&R, published on April 22nd. This is about one third of the whole thing and I will do my best to get the next parts done quickly!
Please stick to the rules and ENJOY!! ^^
Rock&Read #030 - 2010/04/22
Part 1
-- The shooting today was rather casual, wasn't it? Certainly different from the faces you are usually showing in magazines.
Mizuki [It's something that is not often done, so I hoped to show my usual self more this time. I hoped it to be rather rough.]
-- So is this how you usually go out shopping and such?
Mizuki [This is the first time I actually went to Omotesando (laughs) It was great, though. I kept looking around continuously.]
-- So, Sadie are an Osaka band, currently located in Osaka as well. However, you have been born in Shiga-Prefecture, haven't you?
Mizuki [Yes. Shiga is still in the middle of the Kansai region, yet the place (, where I grew up), was a good mix of nature, yet still with the feel of a city. Everything to buy was in walking distance, but when going into the opposite direction, you could also go fishing or collect huge insects. We would usually go outside and catch insets, too.]
-- Then, growing up in that area, what kind of kid have you been?
Mizuki [I was someone very shy and reserved. I wasn't very outgoing and kept everything to myself...very mature for my age. (laughs)]
-- Completely like you are now. (laughs)
Mizuki [Exactly! (laughs) I wasn't a very noticeable kid in class either and I had more female friends. And like the girls I didn't have many male friends.]
-- So rather than going out to play Baseball you rather played with dolls like Lica-chan...........
Mizuki [No, I didn't do that, though. (laughs) However, during free time, while the other boys would be running to the park to play soccer, I would be staying in the class room, talking with the girls. I would listen to them, who they liked and we'd do card games and such. Although most boys would do the same with DRANGON BALL cards, I'd rather collect Sailor Moon cards. (laughs) And then exchange those with the girls. The one I liked most was Sailor Venus. Minako-chan.]
-- So you were interested into it, to the point of liking the ladylike characters. You were into the ladylike things and liked girly stuff, right?
Mizuki [It's not that I have been raised like that in particular and I didn't like boys in that sense either. (laughs)...I did watch DRAGON BALL and other Anime as well, and I just liked what I liked...I wonder why it came down to Sailor Moon.]
-- And it certainly couldn't have been the influence of sisters, right?
Mizuki [No, because I only have two younger brothers. I am the first born boy in the family.]
-- In that case, haven't you been told to behave like a boy properly to be a role model because you were the elder brother?
Mizuki [Our parents weren't like that. Also, I would often go play with my younger brother whose age is closest to mine, and although we would also fight, there was not much of this "older brother" feeling. I am probably more of an older brother now than back then. Unexpectedly, I am livelier like that at home now.]
-- So it seems that you have been spending a gentle kind of youth. Have you been more of the indoor type, when it came to playing during your school time?
Mizuki [I did both. I would spend quite a bit of time playing games with our "super family computer" or the PlayStation, also with friends I'd invite over. However, I would also go and play with them at the game center. It was the time, when the J-League games where really popular and during 3rd grade of elementary school I would also join the soccer club in school. I'd practice after school and eventually I was in the position of a forward.]
-- That's surprising! With the talk we had until now and the revealed side of you, I'd think you had been the defender.
Mizuki [Certainly! (laughs) As a left-hander though, I'd be of bigger value like that. I was also pretty tall. However, even in soccer I wasn't really outstanding in the end.]
-- And how about studying in school?
Mizuki [Ah, not good at all. I was way in the middle field, maybe just a little above and eventually really average. So when I was called upon during the lessons, I was one of the kids that could never answer. I would start stuttering during the reading in language class and I couldn't speak in a very skilled way. I'd just turn completely red.]
-- So you didn't really like to standing in front of others then, right?
Mizuki [That's something I absolutely couldn't do. I hated things like singing or playing an instrument in class as well. The classmates from back then could have never imagined, that I am doing what I am doing now at that time, I think. Really, when they first learned about it (that I was in a band) they were really surprised.]
-- Like "That guy is in a band....????" (laughs) So what kind of music did you listen to as a kid?
Mizuki [I liked idols during elementary school. I like Amuro Namie or MAX, and not because I was an unusual character. It was basically the same as with Sailor Moon. (laughs) However, the one I liked most was SMAP. When my classmates would be choosing some Anime character, I'd choose Katori Shingo.]
-- So you wanted to become like Katori Shingo?
Mizuki [Yes, I wanted to be like that. I really liked him and I would practice dancing at home alone. With the sense of working really hard, I would record it secretly at home, too.]
-- You'd dance at home, but of course you'd never dance in front of anyone else, right?
Mizuki [Absolutely not! My friends didn't know about it either. Maybe eventually my parents would know. (laughs)]
-- So even as you admired Johnny's like that、you wouldn't be any more noticeable, once you graduated from elementary school?
Mizuki [No, not really. It just means that I wouldn't go out that much, and most of my friends were girls, too. This would really set me apart from the boys in middle school. It would go as far as that they'd ask, whether I was actually a girl.]
-- However, it was not like you were really aware of being set apart by being friends with girls, now, did you?
Mizuki [Absolutely not. In general I was pretty late with developing emotions concerning (girls). When looking at elementary-schoolers, that's certainly a time, when they'd start "dating". Still, even when I was in middle school, there were hardly any, if ever one couple "dating" all together. Even though there had been a person I liked, it didn't ever turn into anything really.]
-- What kind of girl was it?
Mizuki [Among the boys, she was certainly the second most popular girl. I was pretty good friends with her as well. In middle school, we were in the same class as well and she was the one who could talk the most, however, it stopped at just "liking" her. Would you call that a first love?]
-- Within your youth, it created only a pale memory, didn't it?
Mizuki [Very pale. Too weak actually...well, I couldn't really do anything.]
-- So did you do any kind of club activities during your time in middle school?
Mizuki [At the beginning, I started out like in elementary school with joining the soccer club. Somehow, I stopped liking that though, and stopped after the first year. It was not that I didn't get along with people or that I had been bullied or anything. Well, after that, I started riding horses.]
-- ...horse riding?
Mizuki [I really liked horses at that time. I would start out with a game about raising horses and then I would get into horse racing eventually. On Saturdays, my parents and I would be going to watch horse races in Kyoto. We’d sit in a place where we could see the goal well, which of course everyone would want to take, which is why we would get up at five in the morning and stand in line, watch about 12 races in 1 day and then return home. During second and third grade of middle school, that is how I would spend my days. At that time I really came to think that I would like to become a jockey.]
-- Really! Like the jockeys in horse racing?
Mizuki [Yes. However, to pass the entrance exams and be accepted to the jokey school, I absolutely would have to be able to ride a horse. Eventually I got into the JRA (Japanese Horse Racing Association), which had a number of stables for horses on the western Japanese side in Shiga-Prefecture, where I would join the horse riding club.]
-- However, riding a horse does cost a lot of money, doesn't it?
Mizuki [Usually that would be the case. For one month that would be some 100 thousand yen, really an activity for rich people. However, somehow at that place it would be only 10,000yen for one month and in exchange you would have to take care of the horse all by yourself. That means getting up at five, waking the horse, wash it, clean its place, take care of the hooves. And with all that done, from 9am on I could ride the horse for maybe 1 or 2 hours. After that you'd have to wash all the sweat of the horse and clean it, put it back into its stable. For that reason, usually only the sons of the teachers would want to become jockeys. The hierarchy, the differences between upper and lower class was pretty tough, too. It was a place, where people would send their children to get involved with horses for work and my mom would take me to the place every week and I would really give my best...but eventually, I wasn't able to take the exam.]
-- Why? Where you too tall for it?
Mizuki [When it came to my height, there had been no explicit limit. Back in the days there had been these limits, but now you can become a jockey even at 170 cm. Well, there are limits to body weight, though. So when I was about to take the exam during the summer of the third year in middle school, I couldn't get under that weight limit. I would ask my parents to take me to the public pool or to the gym and limit my food and all of that...but I wouldn't lose a single kilo......I would cry so much.]
-- To take the exams, under what weight would you have had to get at that time?
Mizuki [It was below 42 kilos]
-- Under 42 kilos, is even for girls very low!! That's pretty tough, especially when considering that your height is pretty much over the average.
Mizuki [It is. After all I am kinda tall and that part is heavy. Since I really wanted to become a jockey, the shock was pretty big. I was totally down for a number of weeks after that.]
-- Well, if you eventually had shed that one kilo, you might not be doing, what you are doing today, right?
Mizuki [Well, I still don't know whether I had been able to pass the exams or not. And even if I had passed the entrance exams, jockey schools are extremely strict. There are a lot of people who just quit within those 3 years. When I am thinking about it now, even if I had entered the school, I might have turned into a big frustration.]
-- So, are you still riding on horses these days?
Mizuki [No. I have probably forgotten all about it. With that situation, I haven't ridden on a horse since middle school, even though I might remember while doing so.]
-- I would really like you to show that some time somewhere. (laughs) However, since you had been planning on being a jockey, you probably didn't study much, did you?
Mizuki [Absolutely not! Since I couldn't take the entrance exam (to that school), uselessly, I wouldn't do anything and my grades also dropped pretty much. And while everyone around me would be preparing for the entrance exams, I would just be returning home and without thinking, just listen to CDs the whole time.]
-- So was this the time, when you really encountered music?
Mizuki [However, the entry to all of this was still SMAP. (laughs) At that time, I saw キムタク / KimuTaku (Kimura Takuya of SMAP) play "夜空ノムコウ / Yozora no mukou" all by himself on an acoustic guitar and I really came to think that I wanted to do that. It was the time, that I realized how having an instrument is so much cooler, also when I saw him play [セロリ / Celery] on the guitar before that. So, my dad got out his acoustic guitar for me and I would only practice the intro parts of those songs.]
-- And of course you wouldn't do that in front of others, right?
Mizuki [Of course I'd only do that at home! I wouldn't even let my parents hear it and just play in my room the whole time. Because of that, I'd only study for the entrance exams for about two weeks prior. For two weeks I would only study at home, even without going to school and "BANG", I passed. At school they told me, it would be absolutely impossible.]
-- WOW.............is really what I would like to say. However, after your dream of being a jockey had been crushed and you didn't even have the will to study, how come you put so much heart into studying for the entrance exams in the end and attend cram school?
Mizuki [My best friend from elementary and middle school, who had been in the soccer club with me, had asked me to go there with him. In our school, elementary and middle school, it was always the same faces. Basically the people coming into elementary school would also go to middle school together. There was hardly ever the situation that you'd experience meeting people you didn't know. Therefore, in the horse riding club, where there were only be kids I didn't know, I was hardly able to blend in. So since I had experienced that kind of thing, I knew that going to a different school all on my own, was completely impossible.]
-- I see. So that was the main reason, why you really wanted to go to the same school as your best friend, right?
Mizuki [Right. The teachers told me, that the school was at least two levels above my own level of skills, so they tried to persuade me to apply to a different school every day after school. I knew very well, that students from all over the country would be taking the exams and that they couldn't accept everyone. However, I also knew that it would be completely impossible to not go with that best friend of mine. I even threw that at my teacher that I could ever only go to that school. So then I wouldn't go to school for two weeks and just study at home the whole time like crazy.]
-- I was good, that you could catch up like that, right? In the end, it was the unwillingness to enter a school with only kids you didn't know, which would motivate you to study. It was really this extreme shyness. Did you dislike confronting others that much?
Mizuki [Basically, I wouldn't talk to people I wasn't used to. Also I could never start talking to people I wasn't used to. However, according to what my parents told me, it had been the complete opposite in pre-school. Apparently, I was a kid, who would greet about everyone around. Eventually that changed, when I entered elementary school, though.]
-- Why?
Mizuki [I don't remember anything from that time, so I don't know myself. As long as I remember, I had always been really shy and I hated presentations. Still, in 6th grade of elementary school, I would take part in some Sailor Moon play at the Culture Festival. However, the person responsible was a little unique and instead of doing it with the girls, he decided to do it with only boys. So with that, the teacher would pick some people and somehow I was among them. Maybe it was to get some laughs, around the board and he thought he needed to choose some boy that was a little more neutral to gender display.
-- Wasn't that kinda good? After all you liked Sailor Moon to the extent you'd collect trading cards. (laughs)
Mizuki [That was something completely different!! I pretty much didn't like it anymore. However, it was good that Sailor Mercury is more of a mature character, because Jupiter or Mars would have been absolutely impossible.]
-- Ok, let's get back to the previous topic. (laughs) After you had reached your desired goal and grew past your limits, wasn't it kinda difficult after you had entered the new school?
Mizuki [Totally! Since it was a specialized school, we'd have to take tests every morning. For example, on a sheet with 100 Kanji, we would be tested on 10 of those, where if you got less than 8 right, you would fail the test. And you would have to take the test repeatedly until you got all the answers right. Therefore, I really didn't have the time for any kind of activity outside; I even quit the soccer club within the first year. Studying was so time consuming that it even affected the club activities. Certainly, it was not possible to actually do something with other people. (laughs) Still, I am hanging out with the friends from that soccer club even now. So, while starting that school with that one best friend, we were eventually able to be friends with other people as well, though.]
-- Then after getting home, you would go back to playing guitar, then?
Mizuki [Yes, I would. As I had started to play guitar in middle school, I had come to be able to play a number of things by studying guitar tabs. Around that time, I would see GLAY or L'arc~en~ciel appearing on TV and would come to think that music was really cool. With that, I would get my first electric guitar during the first year of high school. For the entrance ceremony I would get the guitar from my grand-pa, I got a Fender and a telecaster - the same model as Sakurai-san from Mr. Children. (laughs)］
-- Sailor Moon was popular, SMAP was popular and you really seemed to be the type that would go with what was trendy.
Mizuki [I certainly liked the things that were in fashion. Well, for the time being I would play Laruku and GLAY at home, together with another friend from middle school, who was playing guitar as well. However, it still didn't cross my mind that I would like to form a band and such.]
-- When DID you eventually come up with the idea of wanting to play in a band then?
Mizuki [It was in high school, when my best friend would lend me a CD. He said "This is great, so listen to it", and handed me Dir en grey's album "GAUZE". However, at the beginning I didn't like it at all. I didn't like bands, which used that much make-up, nor did I like aggressive songs, so I couldn't listen to those. I started liking the more catchy songs, like [Yokan], though, so I would buy the band scores and practice......and before I noticed it, I got into the shouting songs as well. I also started liking the band as such as well.]
-- Mysterious, isn't?
Mizuki [Maybe I just understood the greatness of it in that order. Well, at the same time, Janne Da Arc and Pierrot would come into the ranking, as I borrowed their CDs at that time. Eventually I would go to see Dir en grey at the Osaka Kousei Nenkin Kaikan. I will not forget this and while all other boys went to school with low expectations for that day, the friend who lent me that CD and I would excuse ourselves early and go (to Osaka) by train. From that day.......it was just "ROCK ON".]
-- What was it that captivated you the most?
Mizuki [All of it. The performance, the perspective of music, seeing all of it raw like that was so completely different from listening to the CD, so much more shocking. It was then that I came to think [Bands are so cool!] and [I want to form a band myself.] From there, I wanted to get to know a lot more Visual-kei bands, and I started to like Duel le Quartz, which I got to know from the magazines. Certainly, one of the first things I saw was the pictures in the special issue of "BANDやろうぜ / BAND Yarouze (Let's form a BAND)". At that time I really thought that MIYAVI was extremely cool. The songs, which were on the CD attached to the magazine, were also great and I started collecting CDs, went to lives and eventually I would join the fan club. (laughs) When it comes to my name "美月/Mizuki", to tell the truth "美/Mi" is taken from MIYAVI-san's "Mi". When I am thinking about it now, I am not really sure anymore, why exactly it had to be "美/Mi". (laughs)]
-- Is it making things more complicated?
Mizuki [It does, it does! (laughs) After all, there a not too many Kanji that are read "mi". Then, to match something with the meaning of it "月/Tsuki" was kinda big, and I took that part from Raphael’s 華月/Kazuki. I liked Raphael and I listened to them, also it was around the time, when 華月/Kazuki passed away....which was quite a shock to me, too. And with that, I had decided that if I was to form a band, I would attach "月/tsuki" to my name. It was after that, that I would add "美/Mi" to it and from high school and that was the name I would stick to.]
tbc.
Please stick to the rules and ENJOY!! ^^
Rock&Read #030 - 2010/04/22
Part 1
-- The shooting today was rather casual, wasn't it? Certainly different from the faces you are usually showing in magazines.
Mizuki [It's something that is not often done, so I hoped to show my usual self more this time. I hoped it to be rather rough.]
-- So is this how you usually go out shopping and such?
Mizuki [This is the first time I actually went to Omotesando (laughs) It was great, though. I kept looking around continuously.]
-- So, Sadie are an Osaka band, currently located in Osaka as well. However, you have been born in Shiga-Prefecture, haven't you?
Mizuki [Yes. Shiga is still in the middle of the Kansai region, yet the place (, where I grew up), was a good mix of nature, yet still with the feel of a city. Everything to buy was in walking distance, but when going into the opposite direction, you could also go fishing or collect huge insects. We would usually go outside and catch insets, too.]
-- Then, growing up in that area, what kind of kid have you been?
Mizuki [I was someone very shy and reserved. I wasn't very outgoing and kept everything to myself...very mature for my age. (laughs)]
-- Completely like you are now. (laughs)
Mizuki [Exactly! (laughs) I wasn't a very noticeable kid in class either and I had more female friends. And like the girls I didn't have many male friends.]
-- So rather than going out to play Baseball you rather played with dolls like Lica-chan...........
Mizuki [No, I didn't do that, though. (laughs) However, during free time, while the other boys would be running to the park to play soccer, I would be staying in the class room, talking with the girls. I would listen to them, who they liked and we'd do card games and such. Although most boys would do the same with DRANGON BALL cards, I'd rather collect Sailor Moon cards. (laughs) And then exchange those with the girls. The one I liked most was Sailor Venus. Minako-chan.]
-- So you were interested into it, to the point of liking the ladylike characters. You were into the ladylike things and liked girly stuff, right?
Mizuki [It's not that I have been raised like that in particular and I didn't like boys in that sense either. (laughs)...I did watch DRAGON BALL and other Anime as well, and I just liked what I liked...I wonder why it came down to Sailor Moon.]
-- And it certainly couldn't have been the influence of sisters, right?
Mizuki [No, because I only have two younger brothers. I am the first born boy in the family.]
-- In that case, haven't you been told to behave like a boy properly to be a role model because you were the elder brother?
Mizuki [Our parents weren't like that. Also, I would often go play with my younger brother whose age is closest to mine, and although we would also fight, there was not much of this "older brother" feeling. I am probably more of an older brother now than back then. Unexpectedly, I am livelier like that at home now.]
-- So it seems that you have been spending a gentle kind of youth. Have you been more of the indoor type, when it came to playing during your school time?
Mizuki [I did both. I would spend quite a bit of time playing games with our "super family computer" or the PlayStation, also with friends I'd invite over. However, I would also go and play with them at the game center. It was the time, when the J-League games where really popular and during 3rd grade of elementary school I would also join the soccer club in school. I'd practice after school and eventually I was in the position of a forward.]
-- That's surprising! With the talk we had until now and the revealed side of you, I'd think you had been the defender.
Mizuki [Certainly! (laughs) As a left-hander though, I'd be of bigger value like that. I was also pretty tall. However, even in soccer I wasn't really outstanding in the end.]
-- And how about studying in school?
Mizuki [Ah, not good at all. I was way in the middle field, maybe just a little above and eventually really average. So when I was called upon during the lessons, I was one of the kids that could never answer. I would start stuttering during the reading in language class and I couldn't speak in a very skilled way. I'd just turn completely red.]
-- So you didn't really like to standing in front of others then, right?
Mizuki [That's something I absolutely couldn't do. I hated things like singing or playing an instrument in class as well. The classmates from back then could have never imagined, that I am doing what I am doing now at that time, I think. Really, when they first learned about it (that I was in a band) they were really surprised.]
-- Like "That guy is in a band....????" (laughs) So what kind of music did you listen to as a kid?
Mizuki [I liked idols during elementary school. I like Amuro Namie or MAX, and not because I was an unusual character. It was basically the same as with Sailor Moon. (laughs) However, the one I liked most was SMAP. When my classmates would be choosing some Anime character, I'd choose Katori Shingo.]
-- So you wanted to become like Katori Shingo?
Mizuki [Yes, I wanted to be like that. I really liked him and I would practice dancing at home alone. With the sense of working really hard, I would record it secretly at home, too.]
-- You'd dance at home, but of course you'd never dance in front of anyone else, right?
Mizuki [Absolutely not! My friends didn't know about it either. Maybe eventually my parents would know. (laughs)]
-- So even as you admired Johnny's like that、you wouldn't be any more noticeable, once you graduated from elementary school?
Mizuki [No, not really. It just means that I wouldn't go out that much, and most of my friends were girls, too. This would really set me apart from the boys in middle school. It would go as far as that they'd ask, whether I was actually a girl.]
-- However, it was not like you were really aware of being set apart by being friends with girls, now, did you?
Mizuki [Absolutely not. In general I was pretty late with developing emotions concerning (girls). When looking at elementary-schoolers, that's certainly a time, when they'd start "dating". Still, even when I was in middle school, there were hardly any, if ever one couple "dating" all together. Even though there had been a person I liked, it didn't ever turn into anything really.]
-- What kind of girl was it?
Mizuki [Among the boys, she was certainly the second most popular girl. I was pretty good friends with her as well. In middle school, we were in the same class as well and she was the one who could talk the most, however, it stopped at just "liking" her. Would you call that a first love?]
-- Within your youth, it created only a pale memory, didn't it?
Mizuki [Very pale. Too weak actually...well, I couldn't really do anything.]
-- So did you do any kind of club activities during your time in middle school?
Mizuki [At the beginning, I started out like in elementary school with joining the soccer club. Somehow, I stopped liking that though, and stopped after the first year. It was not that I didn't get along with people or that I had been bullied or anything. Well, after that, I started riding horses.]
-- ...horse riding?
Mizuki [I really liked horses at that time. I would start out with a game about raising horses and then I would get into horse racing eventually. On Saturdays, my parents and I would be going to watch horse races in Kyoto. We’d sit in a place where we could see the goal well, which of course everyone would want to take, which is why we would get up at five in the morning and stand in line, watch about 12 races in 1 day and then return home. During second and third grade of middle school, that is how I would spend my days. At that time I really came to think that I would like to become a jockey.]
-- Really! Like the jockeys in horse racing?
Mizuki [Yes. However, to pass the entrance exams and be accepted to the jokey school, I absolutely would have to be able to ride a horse. Eventually I got into the JRA (Japanese Horse Racing Association), which had a number of stables for horses on the western Japanese side in Shiga-Prefecture, where I would join the horse riding club.]
-- However, riding a horse does cost a lot of money, doesn't it?
Mizuki [Usually that would be the case. For one month that would be some 100 thousand yen, really an activity for rich people. However, somehow at that place it would be only 10,000yen for one month and in exchange you would have to take care of the horse all by yourself. That means getting up at five, waking the horse, wash it, clean its place, take care of the hooves. And with all that done, from 9am on I could ride the horse for maybe 1 or 2 hours. After that you'd have to wash all the sweat of the horse and clean it, put it back into its stable. For that reason, usually only the sons of the teachers would want to become jockeys. The hierarchy, the differences between upper and lower class was pretty tough, too. It was a place, where people would send their children to get involved with horses for work and my mom would take me to the place every week and I would really give my best...but eventually, I wasn't able to take the exam.]
-- Why? Where you too tall for it?
Mizuki [When it came to my height, there had been no explicit limit. Back in the days there had been these limits, but now you can become a jockey even at 170 cm. Well, there are limits to body weight, though. So when I was about to take the exam during the summer of the third year in middle school, I couldn't get under that weight limit. I would ask my parents to take me to the public pool or to the gym and limit my food and all of that...but I wouldn't lose a single kilo......I would cry so much.]
-- To take the exams, under what weight would you have had to get at that time?
Mizuki [It was below 42 kilos]
-- Under 42 kilos, is even for girls very low!! That's pretty tough, especially when considering that your height is pretty much over the average.
Mizuki [It is. After all I am kinda tall and that part is heavy. Since I really wanted to become a jockey, the shock was pretty big. I was totally down for a number of weeks after that.]
-- Well, if you eventually had shed that one kilo, you might not be doing, what you are doing today, right?
Mizuki [Well, I still don't know whether I had been able to pass the exams or not. And even if I had passed the entrance exams, jockey schools are extremely strict. There are a lot of people who just quit within those 3 years. When I am thinking about it now, even if I had entered the school, I might have turned into a big frustration.]
-- So, are you still riding on horses these days?
Mizuki [No. I have probably forgotten all about it. With that situation, I haven't ridden on a horse since middle school, even though I might remember while doing so.]
-- I would really like you to show that some time somewhere. (laughs) However, since you had been planning on being a jockey, you probably didn't study much, did you?
Mizuki [Absolutely not! Since I couldn't take the entrance exam (to that school), uselessly, I wouldn't do anything and my grades also dropped pretty much. And while everyone around me would be preparing for the entrance exams, I would just be returning home and without thinking, just listen to CDs the whole time.]
-- So was this the time, when you really encountered music?
Mizuki [However, the entry to all of this was still SMAP. (laughs) At that time, I saw キムタク / KimuTaku (Kimura Takuya of SMAP) play "夜空ノムコウ / Yozora no mukou" all by himself on an acoustic guitar and I really came to think that I wanted to do that. It was the time, that I realized how having an instrument is so much cooler, also when I saw him play [セロリ / Celery] on the guitar before that. So, my dad got out his acoustic guitar for me and I would only practice the intro parts of those songs.]
-- And of course you wouldn't do that in front of others, right?
Mizuki [Of course I'd only do that at home! I wouldn't even let my parents hear it and just play in my room the whole time. Because of that, I'd only study for the entrance exams for about two weeks prior. For two weeks I would only study at home, even without going to school and "BANG", I passed. At school they told me, it would be absolutely impossible.]
-- WOW.............is really what I would like to say. However, after your dream of being a jockey had been crushed and you didn't even have the will to study, how come you put so much heart into studying for the entrance exams in the end and attend cram school?
Mizuki [My best friend from elementary and middle school, who had been in the soccer club with me, had asked me to go there with him. In our school, elementary and middle school, it was always the same faces. Basically the people coming into elementary school would also go to middle school together. There was hardly ever the situation that you'd experience meeting people you didn't know. Therefore, in the horse riding club, where there were only be kids I didn't know, I was hardly able to blend in. So since I had experienced that kind of thing, I knew that going to a different school all on my own, was completely impossible.]
-- I see. So that was the main reason, why you really wanted to go to the same school as your best friend, right?
Mizuki [Right. The teachers told me, that the school was at least two levels above my own level of skills, so they tried to persuade me to apply to a different school every day after school. I knew very well, that students from all over the country would be taking the exams and that they couldn't accept everyone. However, I also knew that it would be completely impossible to not go with that best friend of mine. I even threw that at my teacher that I could ever only go to that school. So then I wouldn't go to school for two weeks and just study at home the whole time like crazy.]
-- I was good, that you could catch up like that, right? In the end, it was the unwillingness to enter a school with only kids you didn't know, which would motivate you to study. It was really this extreme shyness. Did you dislike confronting others that much?
Mizuki [Basically, I wouldn't talk to people I wasn't used to. Also I could never start talking to people I wasn't used to. However, according to what my parents told me, it had been the complete opposite in pre-school. Apparently, I was a kid, who would greet about everyone around. Eventually that changed, when I entered elementary school, though.]
-- Why?
Mizuki [I don't remember anything from that time, so I don't know myself. As long as I remember, I had always been really shy and I hated presentations. Still, in 6th grade of elementary school, I would take part in some Sailor Moon play at the Culture Festival. However, the person responsible was a little unique and instead of doing it with the girls, he decided to do it with only boys. So with that, the teacher would pick some people and somehow I was among them. Maybe it was to get some laughs, around the board and he thought he needed to choose some boy that was a little more neutral to gender display.
-- Wasn't that kinda good? After all you liked Sailor Moon to the extent you'd collect trading cards. (laughs)
Mizuki [That was something completely different!! I pretty much didn't like it anymore. However, it was good that Sailor Mercury is more of a mature character, because Jupiter or Mars would have been absolutely impossible.]
-- Ok, let's get back to the previous topic. (laughs) After you had reached your desired goal and grew past your limits, wasn't it kinda difficult after you had entered the new school?
Mizuki [Totally! Since it was a specialized school, we'd have to take tests every morning. For example, on a sheet with 100 Kanji, we would be tested on 10 of those, where if you got less than 8 right, you would fail the test. And you would have to take the test repeatedly until you got all the answers right. Therefore, I really didn't have the time for any kind of activity outside; I even quit the soccer club within the first year. Studying was so time consuming that it even affected the club activities. Certainly, it was not possible to actually do something with other people. (laughs) Still, I am hanging out with the friends from that soccer club even now. So, while starting that school with that one best friend, we were eventually able to be friends with other people as well, though.]
-- Then after getting home, you would go back to playing guitar, then?
Mizuki [Yes, I would. As I had started to play guitar in middle school, I had come to be able to play a number of things by studying guitar tabs. Around that time, I would see GLAY or L'arc~en~ciel appearing on TV and would come to think that music was really cool. With that, I would get my first electric guitar during the first year of high school. For the entrance ceremony I would get the guitar from my grand-pa, I got a Fender and a telecaster - the same model as Sakurai-san from Mr. Children. (laughs)］
-- Sailor Moon was popular, SMAP was popular and you really seemed to be the type that would go with what was trendy.
Mizuki [I certainly liked the things that were in fashion. Well, for the time being I would play Laruku and GLAY at home, together with another friend from middle school, who was playing guitar as well. However, it still didn't cross my mind that I would like to form a band and such.]
-- When DID you eventually come up with the idea of wanting to play in a band then?
Mizuki [It was in high school, when my best friend would lend me a CD. He said "This is great, so listen to it", and handed me Dir en grey's album "GAUZE". However, at the beginning I didn't like it at all. I didn't like bands, which used that much make-up, nor did I like aggressive songs, so I couldn't listen to those. I started liking the more catchy songs, like [Yokan], though, so I would buy the band scores and practice......and before I noticed it, I got into the shouting songs as well. I also started liking the band as such as well.]
-- Mysterious, isn't?
Mizuki [Maybe I just understood the greatness of it in that order. Well, at the same time, Janne Da Arc and Pierrot would come into the ranking, as I borrowed their CDs at that time. Eventually I would go to see Dir en grey at the Osaka Kousei Nenkin Kaikan. I will not forget this and while all other boys went to school with low expectations for that day, the friend who lent me that CD and I would excuse ourselves early and go (to Osaka) by train. From that day.......it was just "ROCK ON".]
-- What was it that captivated you the most?
Mizuki [All of it. The performance, the perspective of music, seeing all of it raw like that was so completely different from listening to the CD, so much more shocking. It was then that I came to think [Bands are so cool!] and [I want to form a band myself.] From there, I wanted to get to know a lot more Visual-kei bands, and I started to like Duel le Quartz, which I got to know from the magazines. Certainly, one of the first things I saw was the pictures in the special issue of "BANDやろうぜ / BAND Yarouze (Let's form a BAND)". At that time I really thought that MIYAVI was extremely cool. The songs, which were on the CD attached to the magazine, were also great and I started collecting CDs, went to lives and eventually I would join the fan club. (laughs) When it comes to my name "美月/Mizuki", to tell the truth "美/Mi" is taken from MIYAVI-san's "Mi". When I am thinking about it now, I am not really sure anymore, why exactly it had to be "美/Mi". (laughs)]
-- Is it making things more complicated?
Mizuki [It does, it does! (laughs) After all, there a not too many Kanji that are read "mi". Then, to match something with the meaning of it "月/Tsuki" was kinda big, and I took that part from Raphael’s 華月/Kazuki. I liked Raphael and I listened to them, also it was around the time, when 華月/Kazuki passed away....which was quite a shock to me, too. And with that, I had decided that if I was to form a band, I would attach "月/tsuki" to my name. It was after that, that I would add "美/Mi" to it and from high school and that was the name I would stick to.]
tbc.