Interview with hide and J
Text by: Yusuke Kato
Translation: w_b
A year and a half ago we managed to get hide and J together for an interview. This time, we were initially planning to all meet up over drinks towards the end of 97, hide, J and Imai Hisashi (Buck-Tick). Sadly, Imai-kun wasn't able to join us because of hide's late return to Japan.
hide: This sucks, I'm
always talking with Imai-kun but I never remember what about, you know?
Maybe your memory device is fried because you drink too much? *smiles*
hide: But the B-T team drinks! Excessively! Until finally, there
goes Imai-kun with a thud, right? But Acchan will be completely unaffected, the
sun will be coming up and I'll be dead tired and he'll go, "hide-kun,
let's go back to my place" *laughs*. And so I'll ask, no way, is he being
serious? And he'll go, "I am. Come on, hide-kun, let's go back to my
place" *laughs*. It's not like his place is some black hole into the
future and yet I'll somehow drink there until the next evening? It's
unbelievable.
J: Maybe so but I've had a look at the results, these guys run on
alcohol *laughs*. It's like their gasoline.
J, and when was your last
gasoline refill?
J: There hasn't been any. I've stopped drinking for good.
hide: Why?
J: The others don't really get why either but for a while I drank
pretty recklessly and when I'd wake up I'd regret everything, every single
time.
hide: That's half my life right there. Happens 99% of the time
after I drink. You'll never hear me say how wow, yesterday I had so much fun !
It's the bad stuff that'll stay with me the next day, even if I had a lot of
fun.
Then J, you've had enough?
J: Yes. I've thought this over and personally, I don't find that
too good. So, among my fans there are those girls who'll ask me to go drinking
with them, right? I get fed up after something like the third outing *laughs*.
hide: I'm sure I'd be put off after a single night *laughs*.
I'm not so certain myself
*smiles*. Moving on, have you listened to each other's new releases?
J: Rocket Dive is excellent. I love that song, to me it's the best
by far. I find hide-nii's (1)pop style explosive.
hide: Will you stop saying that? *laughs* Will you stop arguing
with me? *laughs*
Never! *laughs* J, if I
remember correctly, Damage was your favorite song until last year.
J: It was. But he didn't play it when I went to see him live. It
damaged me *laughs*.
hide: But when I sing it it's me who gets damamged *laughs*. All it
takes is this one song for me to have no voice left the next day *laughs*.
Is that why you didn't sing it
on the second of 2 Days?
hide: Yeah *smiles*. But I'm terrible about it. The keys go up so
gradually that I'm always trying to decide whether I can sing it or whether I
should wait. Then I won't have decided on anything in the end *laughs*. Instead
I'll tell everyone to assume that we'll be doing it and this whole big issue
will completely slip my mind *laughs*.
hide, recently you've been
more than a vocalist, you've also stepped into the world of bassists. Let's
hear about that from you *smiles*.
J: Hey, are you playing bass on all your songs?
hide: On about 7 this time. Probably because I find recording the
bass parts pretty easy? When they asked what kind of amp to get me I told them
to bring me the same one J has *laughs*.
J: Ahahahaha *laughs*!
J is your favorite bassist?
hide: If you're talking about the sound, then yes. A while back I
saw him play at the Yokohama Stadium and wow, he was cool!
And then you secretly copied
him *smiles*.
J: I don't think so *laughs*!
hide: You know, I might not copy his songs but sometimes I'll mute
the strings and I'll imitate him, within limits.
And what do you think of Luna
Sea's new release?
hide: I thought the bottom parts on Shine were strong.
J: Thank you.
hide: It's J's melodies. That's why I like him best in Wish, you
see, both in Wish and Rosier. I had no idea whether they were his or not but
that happens a lot.
Should you round up at all of
your favorite Luna Sea songs would a lot of them be written by J?
hide: Yes. They hit just the right note. That's why when I first
listened to the demo tape for his solo I found it very different from what I
had expected.
Did you expect the songs to
sound like Wish and Rosier?
hide: No, it's not about the style of his songs. When was it? Was
it the day J came to L.A. that he made me listen to his tape? Is that it? Did
we first meet up in L.A.?
J:Yeah yeah yeah.
hide: "I'll make you listen to my demo tape!" You dropped
in uninvited *laughs*.
J: Into my own room *laughs*.
You wrote your thoughts on the
demo on your homepage.
hide: I was too excited when I wrote about it. I was hooked. It hit
the perfect note. This might seem obvious to you but it's because I already
liked J's music in Luna Sea and the solo was 100% J.
J: I remember we weren't allowed to smoke in the studio I was
sharing with hide-nii. So we'd smoke right outside the entrance, it probably
looked like some high school students' get together *laughs*.
hide: Few of my foreign colleagues smoke but whenever me or some of
the japanese guys come we ask them out for one. We turn them all back into
smokers *laughs*.
Weren't you taken for a hooker
when you were smoking like that outside the studio? *laughs*
J: Did they ask you how much? *laughs*
hide: Yeah yeah yeah *laughs*.
J: Ahahahaha *laughs*.
J, I heard you suspended all
solo activity for a year and went back to Luna Sea.
J: I did.
In your case, hide, in the
past you have gone back to X after long periods of absence without putting your
own projects on hold, haven't you?
hide: Yes, I have.
And how did you feel about
that, at the time?
hide: How do you think I felt?
J: Has it been 8 years already for Luna Sea? We've come all this
way together. I've been around Inoran all these years since we were 13 or 14,
Sugizo and Shinya-kun come from the same area, so, whatever we did we were
always together. And so doing something without them seemed fresh just in
itself. Ultimately, if you spend all your time with the same woman, isn't it
inevitable that you'll start feeling smothered, no matter how much you love
her? I had been rolling along with Luna Sea for so long that I found doing the
solo positively refreshing. But this why I felt incredibly embarrassed when we
got together again *smiles*.
hide: Yup, yup *smiles*.
J:I felt as if my summer vacation had ended and the second semester had
begun. I don't know whether in the end it will have been for the better or for
the worse but none of us five had ever played outside the group and if we had
continued playing together I might not have had the chance to meet Scott or
Franz. (2) As for whatever that might mean for me now, I simply feel that I
don't have to limit myself anymore.
You feel that starting now you
can be yourself in whatever it is you undertake?
J: Yeah. Because I love music and that's one thing that hasn't
changed over time, whether it was then or now.
hide, haven't you said before
that as a guitarist you're free to act like a lunatic but for your solo you
have to somehow keep your cool because you're the one singing?
hide: Yup.
So what about you, J?
J: Oh yeah, that was driven home alright. I know about role
sharing, of course. What I do in Luna Sea is write music and play the bass, try
to make my parts sound the best they can and make sure to take care of my own
stuff. From there we go and work on things as Luna Sea the band but when it
came to my solo, I had to take care of everything and that really forced me to
step up. On the other hand, you can't question my dedication to Luna Sea. But I
kind of feel like my perspective is different for each project. So far I've
never compared them and you see, if I did then it'd seem like I was trying to
pick one over the other. But I wouldn't try to, I was following my heart for
Luna Sea and for my solo.
I take it then that you have
the same approach to music, whether you're with Luna Sea or your solo band?
J: Yes I do. Personally, I never approach music with the band's
name in mind. I only consider the things I've gone through or places shown to
me by hide-nii when I was in L.A. for my solo, or by other people, you know? Of
course, things were very different before I tried doing a solo. And because of
all this, I'm really interested to see what I'll be able to do with Luna Sea
this time.
It seems you've taken a liking
to L.A..
J: It's my favorite, out of all the countries I've been to so far.
Plus I've made friends with interesting people. I'm particularily biased
towards hide-nii's colleagues *smiles*.
Like attracts like *smiles*.
You found the band members for your solo tour in those circles?
J: I did. I asked hide-nii and I asked around among his friends.
hide: Scott even plays the drums in four of zilch's songs. Oh,
right before I came back I went to see the Space Age Cowboys and some band
called Soul (3) and Dave Grohl came.
J:Wow, really!?
hide: Yeah but Franz wasn't there.
J: Last time the Foo Fighters came to Japan I somehow ended up as
the night's coordinator *laughs*.
I heard the lineup has been
decided on for this summer's Mix LEMONeD Jelly.
J: I heard far from it *laughs*.
hide: I really don't want to start arguing *laughs*.
During last year's Mix LEMONeD
Jelly event a dream came true when you two played together.
J: Yeah, it did.
Then on the spur of the moment
hide joined in on J's live at the Akasaka Blitz.
hide: All I did was crash the show *laughs*. Cause I couldn't
remember the keys or the chords. I thought, New Rose? Ok! Ok! I've played that
a lot, I've done it how many times back when I used to play at the Rock Maykan?
I thought about it more and decided to do the whole song *laughs*. I was trying
to remember it once I went on stage when suddenly hey, how did that modulation
go? *laughs*
J: Ahahahaha *laughs*. Although, at the time I felt just as
incredibly moved as when I was back in L.A.. I really could feel the joy that
came from the music. During hide-nii's event as well, the girls who came to see
him looked so incredibly happy, it felt amazing.
So that's why you started that
exchange of cheers with the crowd at the end of your show? You seemed out of
your element *smiles*.
hide: No he wasn't. J, I mean he wants Luna Sea to be number 1. You
don't get what makes a number 1 in the rock world.
Of course you're not going to
leave it at that *smiles*.
hide: How should I put it, if you're going to be at the forefront
then it's good if you're sympathetic to people. I'm not talking about getting
people together with a project in mind, it's simply good if people are able to
feel empathy towards others while respecting their territory. And it's even
better if you have a vision.
J: No, wait, you've said enough. I mean, when you put it like that
you sound horribly stiff. And I know you're not and we haven't talked about
this recently but doesn't it feel like something we'd talk about over drinks,
you, me and Imai-san? What I mean is, that's what I really like, no matter
what's going on I like the atmosphere to be natural. I kind of feel like I'm
always looking for people like that. No matter what they do. I look for the
same in friends, even when I do lives I look for this type of girl among the
fans. People who'll think along the same lines as I do. That's what I always
look for.
hide: That's right. So when they listen to my music they'll get it
right away. And if I listen to their music I'll understand everything. Plus I
can tell them whatever I want to.
You'll both be busy touring
this summer.
hide: Should we synchronize our schedules?
J: Let's? *laughs* One day we'll be doing lives in different places
and the next we'll meet up halfway during the move *laughs*.
You'll be starting parties all
over the country *laughs*.
hide: I suspect I will~! *laughs*
J: Do you now! *laughs* The girls will be looking to join in on
these parties as well, you know. I wonder if they'll know what they'll be
getting themselves into should they come.
Notes: 1. J considered hide an
older brother. That's what the "nii" stands for. :)
2. Drummer Scott Garrett, formerly of The Cult, and guitarist Franz Stahl,
formerly of the Foo Fighters.
3. Ok, honestly, this could be either Soul or Seoul. I haven't found anything
on this band so if you know which it is, tell me? :)
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