“VA” TSUTAYA NOV. 2013 THE GAZETTE INTERVIEW

 

When our five personalities come together, irregularities emerge. It’s exactly those irregularities that we wanted to emphasize
–This time, you decided on the name of the album a long time ago.
RUKI: Yeah, the title came early. There were important things we came to realize while doing the DIVISION tour. On that tour, we started to think about what kind of band we should be, in what way we should proceed with everything, and all that led to what we’re doing now. I guess it came from around the end of the tour. It made us think about a lot of things. First, it’s something that I thought of in connection with the final for DIVISION tour, LIVE TOUR12-13 [DIVISION] GROAN OF DIPLOSOMIA FINAL MELT at Saitama Super Arena.
–Since “MELT” is a word that has the meaning of melting/dissolving or collapsing, right. And from there, “BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY” came around.
RUKI: Yeah. At first, we thought of making it just “DEFORMITY,” which was something that came from around MELT. Following that thread, we thought about how the next album and tour would go. DEFORMITY is what we consider us to be. And from there, I thought of the expression “beautiful deformity.” It’s supposed to be something like, beautifully disconnected. I thought that’s like the five of us. When our five personalities come together, irregularities are born. It’s exactly those irregularities that we wanted to emphasize.
–Is this also connected with the cover art? It seems like there’s a number of animals overlapped in there.
RUKI: I thought the animals on the cover should really stand out. And also, I had the idea to put the animals on the cover from a pretty long time ago. I interchanged that with the other theme we have this time, “the irregularities of five personalities.”
–In this album there are songs made by each member, so is that also part of the theme?
RUKI: Yes. That’s one of the things it hinged on.
Kai: At the time of turning the songs in for the first time, Ruki proposed, “This time let’s absolutely put in songs by each member.” Then he told us about the meaning of the title and the way the artwork would go. He showed us the ideas that he wanted to link with that all written down on paper. It was clear that it was a completely different way of going about things.
–That’s unusual. Usually, it seems like you have a clear concept and the song creation is then also directed towards that. But you’re saying that this time, the album is a result of songs collected together? And so does that mean that at first you didn’t quite know what it would end up like?
RUKI: Yes. We didn’t know what it would end up like at all.
–Usually you create songs that are appropriate for the concept, and of course you’re creating while having what fits the Gazette in mind, but this time the composing has also been relatively free, right?
RUKI: Yeah. But, at the time of handing in the first songs, it felt like it always did, like each of us had brought songs that felt like they were made with the GazettE in mind.
Kai: That’s true for me, at least. I composed while having in mind “something really great we did as the GazettE.”
Aoi: I guess since I make songs imagining what they will be like when RUKI’s voice is added in the end, without really being conscious of it, they naturally end up being songs that suit the GazettE.
Uruha: After all, they are songs that will be played as the GazettE, so subconsciously you did think about it.
–How often did you hold a song-selection meeting?
Kai: This time it was 4 times. Throughout those, things gradually started to take shape.
Aoi: Since we had to put in songs by all of us, it went like: the ones who already had songs accepted, would get out of the song-selection meetings and start working on finishing their songs.
RUKI: We ended up in a situation where we had to meet every week to hand in songs. We did song-selection meetings at the same time as pre-production.
Uruha: In other words, if there aren’t a lot of song-selection meetings, then precision is not achieved. This is a peculiarity our band has. There can’t just be one. Usually it comes down to about 2 song-selection meetings, but this time we had four a week, which completely changed the course of everything, and we were able to properly find common ground. That’s something that was very different from other albums.
–I got a feeling that this album will be easy to listen to and to get into for the people who hear you for the first time too, and I feel like the main reason for this are REDO, LAST HEAVEN, and TO DAZZLING DARKNESS, which stand out as medium-tempo songs.
Aoi: Yeah. Lately, the GazettE has been conspicuous with the heavy stuff, but we’re also a band that will make you give your full attention to songs like that. That’s also something we really want to show everyone.
–During your DIVISION tour, you arranged those kind of songs in the middle.
RUKI: Yeah. I guess the way we want to present them this time comes from that experience. REDO and LAST HEAVEN are together, but we put TO THE DAZZLING DARKNESS in the second half. We considered the balance of how it would all flow.
Uruha: It was the proper ratio.
Kai: By the way, REDO was composed by me, LAST HEAVEN by RUKI, and TO DAZZLING DARKNESS by Uruha.
–REDO is an unusual song. You hadn’t had a medium-tempo song that had so much brightness in it so far. I think it has the impression of transcending the barriers of the rock genre, or makes you think, “they’re able to make this kind of song too!”
Kai: I’m glad to hear that. The way I thought about it is, not exactly a complete change, but a song I made while having progress in mind.
–I think REDO is a very new style for the GazettE, but the romantic guitar phrase that’s in it fits the GazettE.
Uruha: Yeah. It was something we hadn’t done so far. I envisioned a guitar phrase that would be easy to listen to as a song, and played it very neatly.
–The way guitars are presented in LAST HEAVEN is the same. Very fresh, and I was very drawn to it. As if in the profound presentation of the acoustic and electric guitars, I felt the gravity of the band that’s had 11 year behind them.
Ruki: Ahahaha. That just suddenly sounded like an old guy said it (laugh). That’s a good point for this song!
Aoi: I think that’s because it was a challenge to present guitars in this way. Because so far, we’ve been trying to make it good by matching tones here and there. But this time, we did the opposite and pared down the timbre in general. As a musical phrase, it’s bluesy, but it also feels a bit enka-ish, and I think that’s what makes it special (laugh).
Uruha: The guitar turned out quite elegant.
–It has a really good feeling. And in regards to the flow, it feels like the A-side ends with LAST HEAVEN and the B-side starts from the 8th song, LOSS.
Aoi: I guess so. We wanted the whole album to flow like a single live would, so that point would also be the middle point of a live.
–By the way, who composed the rest of the songs?
Kai: MALFORMED BOX, INSIDE BEAST, and UNTIL IT BURNS OUT were composed by RUKI, DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER by Aoi, FADELESS by Ruki, LOSS and THE STUPID TINY INSECT by Uruha, IN BLOSSOM by Aoi, Karasu by Reita, Kuroku sunda sora to zangai to kataba by Ruki, and CODA by Uruha.
Ruki: To us, it feels like all of them really bring forth each of our personalities. THE STUPID TINY INSECT is very Uruha-like.
–For fans, this song will be the one that makes them think, “This is what I’ve been waiting for!”
Uruha: I’m happy you think so. TO DAZZLING DARKNESS has yet a different feeling to it, but I’m happy that both of them are in the album and give off their own particular nuance.
–CODA is something completely new.
Uruha: This is not a song per se, but it should be taken as an SE.
–DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER is a heavy, industrial song. It felt like it has western elements, and like it’s yet another new direction.
Aoi: Yeah. TOXIC and DIVISION did have a lot of electronic elements, like dub-step elements, which was something that I didn’t have in my musical roots and I think this is a personal change that came from that. So far I rejected them all like, “I don’t get those kinda genres,” but by taking them in my own way I managed to understand them. It’s easy to just reject something by saying you don’t understand it, but I wanted to properly and really understand them in my own way, and this song is a form of response to that.
–Then that’s why it feels so fresh.
Aoi: Compared to that, IN BLOSSOM is a song that came to me very naturally. I made this song while we were on tour in Yamagata, so it’s a product of Yamagata (laugh).
–Karasu, which begins with bass, is a song that has a punkish element, which is another new nuance.
Aoi: According to Reita, the theme was funk.
REITA: Yep (laugh). At the song-selection meeting, we’d already decided on everyone’s songs, and it was just me and Kai left. We were at our fourth meeting and the songs that we already settled on had their place in the song order, so I got the duty to make the song that comes either before LAST HEAVEN or Kuroku sunda sora to zangai to kataba (laugh). And, at first I was in charge of the song before LAST HEAVEN, which was supposed to be a catchy one, and naturally I did my best to make a song that had a hook and brought it, but it didn’t pass at all. Everyone kept calling the song I brought “Burglar” as a temporary title, since I ended up bringing a kind of song that had a stealthy bass phrase (laugh). I also wanted to make one that sounds like a popular song. But, since that was aiming for too much, I thought what if I just make a song that starts with bass more naturally, and then this song was born.
–For bass, it’s a very different approach from the compositions on DIVISION that had dub-step elements in it, isn’t it?
REITA: It is. This time, I have a strong sense that I’ve been “able to play bass.” In the last album, it seemed like it was just a one part of the low tones, and this time I felt like I could really take it on and have fun playing it.
–I see. There’s a lot of variation in the songs this time. Speaking of both the impression of the album and the variation of the songs, it’s not that much like TOXIC and DIVISION, but closer to albums before DIM, so STACKED RUBBISH and NIL.
RUKI: Yeah. It’s certainly like that. We didn’t have an ideal image in mind when we started, so at the time when it was finished, it seemed really fresh. When I listened to it myself, it felt really new. And also easy to listen to. Being that this one isn’t a concept album, the way we present everything at lives will also probably change from the way we were doing it so far. On this tour that starts in November, the experiences we got on the overseas tour where we did lives in one go, will turn into a new way to enchant you, so I really want you to look forward to it.
 

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