RUKI’S INTERVIEW, ONGAKU TO HITO SEPT. 2012

 

Sometimes you get interviews purely about music and business, sometimes you get interviews like this one. Ruki remarks on this very thing here. It’s a rather candid interview. They talk a little about DIVISION and the lyrics, then move on to Ruki’s detached point of view and sources of it from his childhood. The photoshoot aptly illustrates both the theme of DIVISION and Ruki’s own personality.

Interviewer: Higuchi Yasuyuki

―This is your first interview in a while.
“It is? Ah, right. Because we didn’t have any singles”
―the GazettE won’t release any more singles?
“No, that’s not it. But after we released TOXIC, somehow we didn’t feel like releasing any”
―You said so during the previous interview. Like, ‘Next, we’ll release an album all of a sudden, without singles’.
“I did? That’s great. But it’s just that TOXIC was so huge. So after releasing such an album, what would we be able to express with just a single? That’s sort of how we felt. Like, 'It’s impossible.’”
―Why was it impossible?
“For example, when producing a work, the highest sense of accomplishment and satisfaction is releasing an album, so it’s like, after that, can we get the same sort of satisfaction with a single? So, we wondered what to do and the next plan was to release two mini albums. But from that it became so that we’d rather just do an album”
―It’s simple. So, this year in January at Yokohama Arena you announced the album and the title.
“We’d already decided to make it a two-disc album then. The content was yet to come”
―That’s why it got named DIVISION.
“Yeah. So first came the name. We worked from there on”
―What sort of concept is in the two discs?
“First we had the image of 'Us up until now’ and 'We from now on’, however, in the end, one disc was the GazettE as easily imagined by everyone, and the other disc as the sound we’ve accomplished throughout our 10 years. Which one the GazettE is, is largely divided into those two parts.
―What about the content of the songs? I thought the two discs had relative consistency.
"Hm, how to put it. The first disc has content with a story line, and the second has plenty of fairly emotional stuff. But wholly, it’s the problems of today. 2012 topics, and my state of mind about them form the basis of it.
―So there certainly aren’t happy songs. From the spectrum of emotions, you could say it’s overwhelmingly 'anger’.
"But it’s not spouting anger. It’s very detached. A cold anger”
―Exactly. Although you’re angry at the reality and situations in 2012, you’re never frank about it. How is it that you’re so detached?
“For example, concerning the song Hedoro, since I understand that not everyone is telling lies all the time, the lyrics are from an objective point of view about taboos and people not touching upon such subjects, and I guess there a lot of songs where such a sense of distance is quite established”
―I think this clearly concerns the nuclear plant but here you are looking at such a reality with an extremely detached point of view.
“That’s right. A year has passed since the earthquake, and it seems things have changed since then. Haven’t we begun to see a lot of things about Japan since then? Hidden things are starting to crumble. That’s also ridiculous, but that’s the way it is” (T/N: he means that it’s ridiculous that it took something like that earthquake to make things surface)
―Or should you say that we’re closer to knowing the truth now.
“But there’s also the thing that 'humans are that way by nature’. And, 'it’s not something that only now came out’. And it’s not limited to Japan, I think people have always been that way. That sort of viewpoint is strong in this album. The future sure looks hopeless. There might be a bit of hope but it sure isn’t bright.”
―Exactly. So, let’s end the album conversation here, and continue on to delve more into Ruki-kun’s way of thinking.
“Right, here we are (laugh)”
―It’s clear from our conversation up to now but it seems you always have this extremely detached point of view.
“I do. I guess I never get worked up”
―What sort of rock musician are you if you don’t get worked up (laugh).
“Hahahaha. But aren’t Japanese people like that in general? We also don’t have change occurring like overseas. So the thing with the nuclear plant, isn’t it originally a problem from long ago”
―Before good and bad, you end up thinking like that.
“But in Japan, ever since the atomic bomb was dropped, we’ve been having problems with it right? And I think that……it’s too late for that. And when watching the news, too, I keep going "look, as I thought” when things exposed aren’t even subtle"
―Well, even if you get angry you end up looking like an idiot.
“Yeah. I’m the type that by nature tries to look at the other side of everything. The reverse side is worrisome. That’s been becoming clear last year and this year.”
―But, when you were a kid, in the process of falling for music, it seems you ventured into a befitting fever even though you were detached.
“At first it was Sex Pistols, then LUNA SEA in the same way but whatever it is, it’s an antithesis of a clear-cut society, you know? I was attracted to that sort of thing from the start.”
―But being attracted to antisocial matter, you’re usually supposed to be resentful and grievous.
“How about that. I think it’s right at that time that I became detached.
―You don’t like displaying your emotions?
"No, perhaps that’s actually easy. When it comes to that, isn’t it tiresome complaining that much all the time?”
―That sounds a bit like something a lethargic person would say (laugh).
“It does? (laugh)”
―But if you were lethargic you wouldn’t be able to be in the band like this, and do all the amazing things up until now. So…I’m taking freedom here with an analysis, but it might be that you have strong self control.“
"Yeah…I guess I don’t really act on my emotions”
―But I think if we were to look behind the surface, the breadth of your emotions would be great. In other words, if you broke the dam, emotions would come endlessly pouring out.
“Yeah……”
―If not, then you wouldn’t have come to like LUNA SEA this much.
“Hahaha”
―In other words, when something is important to you, you keep on being absorbed only in things concerning that.
“That’s right. But other than that I’m like in sleep mode”
―What are you, a computer (laugh)
“But I might really be like that. Like……There are times when I wilfully separate myself. For example, when people accept us warmly, and when people have the same sort of sensibility, then I’ll get psyched and talk about anything. This interview is also that way, however, the difference between people whom I can talk to like this and with whom I can’t is quite dramatic. As soon as I think that, 'Ah, I can’t talk to that person about anything other than shallow things’, plain business talk begins. If it doesn’t then there’ll be no manuscript, right? That sort of thing”
―That’s also your cold anger, isn’t it. But about that, maybe in a way, it also feels like they wouldn’t know what to do with your passion.
“Is that so?”
―I think you’re a person who turns that part of you containing passion and ceaseless emotion towards things and people that you hold dear. You can’t falsify that.
“Yes……I think you have a point”
―Moreover, you don’t like being angry at people or hurting them by giving in to anger and sadness.
“That’s true. But somehow it’s always been like that. And I’ve also been enamoured by violent and delinquent stuff, but in the end it was nothing but being drawn to the antithesis of society”
―In the end, I think you are also the sort of person who strongly feels about the things he cares about. Doesn’t that come from Ruki-kun’s home environment?
“No……In essence, my home environment wasn’t good”
―How so?
“Because my parents were……extremely strict”
―They were what you might call Spartan?
“Half-assed Spartan (laugh). They didn’t let me out if I didn’t study, that sort. And it’s not that I would usually reluctantly study when they told me. I was the type that still wouldn’t study. In short, I didn’t become the child my parents tried to raise. I was always rebelling……I guess in the end I could do nothing but suppress my emotions. Of course, they didn’t get angry just because I didn’t study. For such reasons, I became extremely detached at home”
―So those are Ruki-kun’s roots.
“For example, I wasn’t rebelling like, 'What use is it to study’. I didn’t even have those feelings. I didn’t feel anything. Couldn’t see anything”
―Sounds the same as being dead.
“It is like being dead. But, at that time, I encountered bands that left an impact. Only they could get me, cold as I was, to become passionate. Anyhow, Sid Vicious was the first whom I came across, and since then it was all Sid over my room. It was like I wanted to completely turn into him. But because I was controlling myself in front of my parents, when I’d go to school I’d put up my hair, and when I was returning I’d put it back. Maybe I was strange back then”
―Seems the emotions you held back were poured into that all at once.
“Yeah, maybe”
―You fostered that detached point of view when you were a kid, but it seems that even now it is a big part of you.
“I guess that’s how it turned out……well, it showed up here and there in the lyrics this time, too……Recently I wonder a lot about how I am. You could say that I’m detached and I guess I’d say so too but that’s something I can’t change and I think the balance of that composure and passion is my personality.”
―Well, I think that being troubled with such things is the mark of a very innocent person.
“Hm……how so?”
―You have something you care greatly for. Because you don’t want to lose that, you get detached and you get passionate. That may be bothersome, and then you’re unable to be that self-aware.
“……I’m not sure I understand what you mean”
―Really? To put it another way, it’s like being self-important due to great selfishness.
“Ah, I think so, too. It’s selfishness. Because it’s not that I’d do something for the band. The idea is that I always do what I want to do. I do think it’s great selfishness. I don’t want to do anything but the things I want. I’m still like a kid when it comes to that”
―Yeah, but it’s better if you say innocent than like a kid.
“Of course! (laugh)”
―When I was doing research (for the article), I thought that you’d be this troublesome guy, but you don’t give off a bad feeling at all. You’re more like a boy.
“I see……that’s it. Since I don’t do that much self-analysis, I wouldn’t have known”
―Though, when you’re releasing an album like this and you’re putting what’s inside of you into lyrics, and we’re having such a conversation here, you steadily find out things about yourself that you didn’t know.
“Well, it seems so”
―If you try going further out, you’ll end up seeing more of yourself. Maybe you don’t have much self-awareness now, but maybe you do want to know more about yourself.
“Is that so?”
―If you didn’t, then I don’t know why you guys would want to perform at Rising Sun (Rock Festival in Ezo 2012).
“Ahahahahahahahaha! What sort of place is Rising?”
―Super out of your element. the GazettE going up on Ishikari Heiya stage……I can’t imagine it (laugh).
“Hahahaha”
―But you have a reason for doing it, right?
“Yeah! Because we’re out of place by nature” (T/N: they use the same word 'away’ for this. Usually the word is used for away teams in sport. So I translated it 'out of element/place’)
―In this way, I think that it’ll steadily become something you’re aware of. Of yourself. Since at the time when you started the band, you weren’t aware of it.
“Exactly”
―Here’s a moment when I realize that even if you merely wanted to become LUNA SEA, you’re not RYUICHI.
“Mhmm”
―It seems that, in hindsight, this album has become a product that made you learn more about yourself.
“Yeah. Somehow……when I’m looking at lyrics I wrote recently, I’m able to remember the feelings I had when I wrote them, and revive them. Like 'Ah, that’, 'that’s how it was’. Things that leave a mark like that are already like a journal, like a chronology of myself. Therefore……I keep thinking, 'I wonder what will become of me from now on’. My detached point of view is also in there.”

______
I have no idea what Ruki being in touch with his feelings has to do with the Rising Sun festival, lol. Is it a touchy-feely festival? Or is it that they’ll be out of place and therefore find out things about themselves through the lens of unfamiliarity?
Tbh I feel like they were drinking during this interview and at that point were more like blah blah blah~

I hope there aren’t any mistakes, and I also left the crazy-ass punctuation of the article as it was, except for the quotation marks. I also did not translate the Editor’s file and the small informative intro because they were all written by the interviewer and are his opinions and also because I’m lazy.

 Zdroj:https://heresiarchy.tumblr.com/