ken: In elementary and middle school, you usually admire pro baseball players and idol singers. I was not like that at all, and I still haven't gotten anything to admire like that. But I'm drawn to the life I can make with my own time, when I feel like it. I can also only use money when I feel like it (laugh).
sakura: I'm always drawn to beings that have things that I don't. I'm also drawn to the beings that I turn to with a great power, when I'm about to realize my own ideals.
tetsu: I admire cool people that are near to me. When I was young it was the older guys in the neighbourhood, or my senpai in school. Since they were near to me, I thought "Will I also be able to be like that person? I want to be like that". So it's still like that, I admire people that are close to me.
hyde: When you do music nowadays, you have to live in the capital no matter what. But before I aimed for music, about 10 years ago, I thought "I want to live in the country". Because I loved drawing pictures, I wanted to make a living out of that, and keep drawing pictures in beautiful places surrounded by nature. So that was what I wished for. Now that music has become my number one, I'm always trying hard to forget it, but... Even now, I think "that kind of life exists too".
Band
sakura: The "band", as it is now, is "a collection of egos", I think. According to me, it's "a place where I can express myself".
tetsu: It's a treasure. And it's not only the band, it's also the members, the staff and the fans. I'm someone who tires of things easily. And yet, this is the one thing I can keep doing. Why is that? Because I'm bound by the red thread of destiny (laugh). Or maybe it's because here I can do what I want to do.
ken: To me, it feels something like playing, by using what comes gushing out from my body. A place where I can express myself + α, something I can't put into words... I think it's the "good quality" that only people in a band can understand.
hyde: When it's like "I want to push harder here, but my own power is not enough", and then you can push, with everyone's power together... is that what a band is? I can't explain it well, but maybe a band is what finally can express those things that I can't express by myself.
Color (your own color)
ken: If you mix up lots of colors too much, it turns into this dirty color, right? And maybe I'm like that (everyone laughs). The band is different from that, an exception to it, because it's as if you have 24 colors, and then take all of them, little by little, and mix them up and make it muddy (laugh).
sakura: I can't be compared to a color. There is no thing like "I want to be this color".
tetsu: I'm blue. Because I'm always feeling blue (laugh). No, I'm red. I flare up quickly. I'm really hot tempered.
hyde: I'm white or black. But it's like I'm trying to hide that... My essence is monotone, but I'm always showing off various colours. That feeling maybe?
tetsu: L'Arc~en~Ciel is... rainbow colored, after all (laugh).
Drive (driving)
ken: Due to the circumstances I have given this up, but just until recently I often took my motor cycle and went driving on roads where no one would go. There were very few people, and I went out in the middle of the night... I like to look at dams too, and when I happened to find a dam while driving I felt so moved.
hyde: Since years ago, I have always looked forward to going on drives alone during the weekdays. Recently I don't have much time to do it though. There is this road that goes straight to the sea. Because it was during the weekdays, there was pretty much only my car on the road. The sun was blazing and I played loud music as I was driving... I was tripping (laugh). It felt really good, and doing this turned into a habit. But I never arrived at the sea. (everyone laughs) The road came out at the sea, but crossed over it and went into the mountains, as if turning around in a circle. So it was really far.
ken: Did you circle around there too?
hyde: (laugh) No, I didn't do that. At those times, it was like my body was joined with the music and didn't move, as if my body was soaking in the music in a strange way. Maybe this comparison is weird but when you go into the bath, and your body goes almost numb? "Aaah..." It was a feeling close to that, my body soaking in the sun and the music.
sakura: I'm the opposite, I go to the mountains (laugh). When I was in Tokyo, I went for drives pretty much every day with my friends, through mountain passes and forest paths. We went out in the middle of the night, drove as far as the roads let us. If we got sleepy, we slept and then returned in the morning... Now I'm busy too and I can't do it, it feels a bit sad.
tetsu: I like going on drives, too. I drive alone at night with music on, on highways and in empty town areas. Since it's empty I can drive really fast, and driving in itself feels good. I just go somewhere, passing by convenience stores (everyone laughs). If I see yet another convenience store while driving, then I go there. Touring convenience stores alone - it's great (laugh).
Endowmend (natural talents)
[about ken]
hyde: He makes good songs. And so many, where do they all come from?
ken: From my pocket (laugh).
tetsu: (laugh) Oh yes, his melodies. They are different from other people's. He doesn't think of them first before they are born, it's really as if they're a part of him.
sakura: He reads (things) into things, and is quick to find out what he wants to do. And with accuracy. He also does great things without thinking about them, does them without being aware of it himself.
tetsu: Also he comes up with melodies that no one would ever think of... a real talent. And he's good at persuading again and again, he keeps insisting on his own opinion. Many times, before you know it, your own opinion changes to his (laugh).
[about sakura]
ken: He has a wild side and an intellectual side living together, and these meshing is both positive and negative, but I dunno if it's a talent or an instinct (laugh).
hyde: As for playing, he is good at expressing the undulations of emotions. That's his talent.
tetsu: He is good at melodies too (laugh)... No really, he drums in patterns other people wouldn't think of. To reveal so much of his instincts (laugh) ... but he gives off a feeling like "calculated savageness".
[about tetsu]
hyde: Fashionable bass lines. His looks are like that too, he is fashionable.
ken: He has countless antennas gathering information, and consistently picks info up and acts correspondingly; I think he can change himself easily.
sakura: If he gets a good feeling about something, or there is something he wants, he successfully and thoroughly investigates it. That's his talent.
(Comment: There is nothing written about hyde, for whatever reason.)
First Campaign (first time on stage)
tetsu: The first time I was on stage was at the culture festival in middle school. It was the third year, and I played bass in a copy band in front of all students in the school... I'm really a shy person, but strangely enough I wasn't nervous at the time.
ken: At the weekends in middle school, we had meetings where it was okay to present anything, so I brought an acoustic guitar and sang. That was my first time on stage. Until before I was going to go on stage, I strongly felt "I wanna do it!", but when I really did it, I suddenly got all calm, like "what am I doing standing here?". When I was thinking that, it felt like it had already ended (laugh).
hyde: My first time on stage was eight years ago, I was alone playing twin guitar. I have memories of acting all violently, by myself (laugh). At that time, I thought "a guitarist must move, otherwise it's not cool". My impression of being on stage was "well, so it's like this". It was so-so.
sakura: No comment. The first time on stage with L'Arc~en~Ciel... I don't remember it.
tetsu: That's terrible (laugh).
sakura: (laugh) I'm close to my "current self", so the recent lives have left a more strong impression on me. But I must probably have been nervous then.
Gratification (satisfaction)
ken: It's when I can "sleep twice" (laugh). I wake up first, then think that I want to keep dreaming, and sleep again... It's cool when I can turn my dream into a three-parter, I feel all "yes, I did it!" (laugh)
tetsu: For me, it's when the audience gathers up for the lives and such. I like to read (fan) letters. It has nothing to do with the letters' contents, I'm just happy that people write to us.
hyde: Everyone's calm faces after a live is over make me happy. When I think "that went well", and then see the others smiling too, I feel happy.
sakura: For me, it's when the desire I have at the moment has been fulfilled. I won't go further into this subject though (laugh).
Horror (things you're scared of)
sakura: Even though I can't do anything about it, I'm scared when mysterious things come close to me. To give an example, "ghosts". Although no one knows what they are, if I knew they were there I would be scared. Also, when I was a kid, all the people doing stuff in places I didn't know about. For example, mothers - if it was in a place I wasn't familiar with, they were all hags (laugh). If I was told "mother knows everything about you", I thought "wonder from where she's watching" (everyone laughs). Because I didn't think other people were human, it went beyond my understanding. I thought they were beings I couldn't oppose, or something.
ken: When I was in middle school, the glass in our windows at home went "kaaa" and shook. Was it a poltergeist? It continued for about a week. It was once a day, at about the same time, for tens of seconds. It only happened when I was there though, so I thought maybe I was the cause? Eventually it stopped, but I don't know why.
hyde: When I'm driving my car, there are times when I have felt scared. For instance when I give someone a ride, and drive really fast on the highway, and then think stuff like "maybe, if I turned this handle a little to the right now, a big accident would happen". When I imagine things like that, I get scared.
tetsu: There is nothing I'm particularly afraid of. Getting sick is scary though (laugh). Injections, or dentists, or hospitals... they've been scary to me since I was young (laugh).
Inside Story (inside story from the tour)
tetsu: I've always thought I got sick easily, but when we went on tour I found out that my body was strong. It was only me that was full of energy, annoyingly so (laugh). The tension was higher than it was during the time in Osaka, and I was tired without knowing it.
ken: I got addicted to air guns (laugh). At first I got one as a present and started with that, but then I bought them by myself too. And I brought them with me this time to Tokyo too... I'm surprised of the influence they have over me (laugh).
hyde: We had a little time before the live in Hiroshima, and we went to look at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. We went to the museum too, we were all "we gotta see this" and went in there all yay and happy...when we came out we were sad, with glazed eyes. It was like "well, what should we do about the live today?". Because we had seen all those tragic things...
ken: I was in a total shock....
hyde: I thought "everyone (the members) really has a gentle heart". What about the "690 000 yen" story? (everyone laughs)
tetsu: We were out in the middle of the night in Aomori, looking for a convenience store, but none was open, and then we found a suspicious store... What was it?
hyde: It was a night open super market.
ken: They had put up a sign that said "Bocchan Bentou" (laugh)
tetsu: (laugh) There were strange posters, outside the store, and in the corner with the counter too. The woman at that counter was a Brazilian, and when I had done my shopping she said "that will be 690 000 yen" (laugh).
ken: Then she said "you need chopsticks?" (laugh)
hyde: (laugh) How much was that 690 000 yen really?
tetsu: Like 690 yen. (everyone laughs)
hyde: It was really suspicious (laugh).
tetsu: If you go to Aomori, I want you to try to go to that store too (laugh).
Juvenile (when you were young)
ken: During the 6th year of elementary school, I kept getting report cards that said I was "emotionally unstable" (laugh). Because the kanji 情 (emotion, sympathy) was in it, I thought for the longest time that it was a complement. But when I entered middle school, I realized "no, it's really not!!" (everyone laughs)
hyde: This is a story from when I was very young, but it seems my parents wanted a girl. But they got a boy. When we went to the sea to bathe, my swimwear was different. Even though all the other boys had proper swimming trunks, I had a bikini, with both an upper and lower part. (everyone laughs) I didn't investigate [my parents' reason for this] very deeply I think, but I thought "those [swimming trunks] are a lot cooler".
tetsu: I was a serious, quiet child. I didn't have any friends in the neighbourhood, and until I started preschool I liked to sit at home alone doing nothing. I got 2, 3 friends when I started preschool, but they all moved away one after another. So when I started elementary school I started from zero again... It was hard (laugh). I can't make friends easily, because there are only a small number of people I will open my heart to. But I was fashion conscious ever since I was young (laugh). I just wouldn't wear the clothes my parents bought for me, and ever since then have I been particular about what clothes I put on. But since my parents were soft with me, they bought what I wanted.
Knowledge (knowledge, things you'd like to study)
sakura: I've liked psychology and physics since I was young. Even though I read manga, I had an interest in the concept of reading people's hearts. As for physics, at first I was really interested in astronomy, and I got into physics from there. Even if you turn something into music, after all it still has a relation to other physical things. Einstein's "theory of light speed" has had a big impression on me.
ken: I was going to become an architect, so I studied things that had to do with architecture. Then, I was trying to put the general concept of "the passage of time" in order in my head. The view of "time" is not easy to grasp, and it feels like you can't define material things either. But I wanted to do it somehow, and I also often read books about it at the time. Just like sakura, Einstein's theories has had a big impression on me.
hyde: I have no interest at all in things like this. This is my own strange thinking, but since I don't like be taught by people, I don't read much books either. For example, the thing I have most interest in right now is the voice, but I don't think that I want to gain any knowledge about it. I want to think about it in my own way.
tetsu: Since I was young I've liked to look at maps, so I had an interest in geography. Then it's been ancient civilizations, the history of Japan during and after Meiji, and things like that. I won't go as far as researching it though. But isn't Meiji the time when Japan changed the most? The western culture came here... I'm captivated by that time.
Love (philosophy of love, difference between "ai" and "koi")
hyde: I'm not very sure of what the difference is, but it's like "koi" is included inside the boundaries of "ai"... Your parents are the ones you feel the most "ai" for. Yor parents are not connected to the concept of "koi" though (laugh). This is something I've thought recently, but isn't "koi" and pain sensibly the same? To feel the insecurity of the heart with your body, and to feel "koi" with your body. The conditions feel similar.
sakura: "Koi" is escaping from reality, whereas "ai" is embracing it. For example, if it's "koi" you like someone so much you become restless, to the point you can't do anything. But "ai" is "I must do these things properly, because I love that person", and thus, I think you can embrace reality.
ken: For 3-4 years now, I haven't been embraced by the feelings of "ai" or "koi". Even though this is all me, I still get sad about it sometimes and try to remember love from the past, but it's too long ago and I can't recall it (laugh). But, for the members I do feel love. For example, when they betray you in a good way... Usually, even if you have experience, you still can't understand what "life values" are, for some reason. And then, when you are betrayed in a good way, you realize it, suddenly, like "wow". But I'm not feeling any "koi" (laugh).
tetsu: For me... it's the feeling of "be in love with us at lives!" (laugh).
Mischief
sakura: I won't tell any details, but recently we tricked our manager... (everyone laughs)
ken: All members tricked him. He fell for it, and when the truth was revealed, I felt like "supreme happiness" or something... Our manager was just standing there with his mouth open and couldn't close it (laugh). We got a very calculated revenge though.
hyde: When I was a kid I remember we threw fireworks and firecrackers into apartment complexes, and they got angry and shouted "HEY!" after us, while we fled on our bikes (laugh)
tetsu: When I was in elementary school, on the way home, I rang a bank's emergency bell and ran (laugh). I went there with two friends... We were putting our courage to test. But I wasn't caught, I didn't get in trouble, and the next day I went to school as if nothing had happened (laugh).
Nervous (depression)
sakura: I feel very depressed when I'm really broken hearted. Apart from that, I don't get very nervous. To recover from it, I fall in love. (everyone laughs) I immediately go out looking for someone. I use every trick in the book (laugh).
ken: When I have a lack of sleep, I get nervous. Either I'm in a natural high and no matter what I do, I find things interesting, or it doesn't matter what I do, it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't know myself which of these I'll turn to. My way to solve it is to sleep properly (laugh)
tetsu: In my case, I'm constantly nervous. Small things make me depressed, small things make it better; I just ignore it. And since it's ignored by everyone else too... The way to fix my nervousness is to be nice to me (laugh)
hyde: When everyone, including me, gets depressed after a live, I become nervous. My way to solve it is to sleep, and quickly let the day end. When I awake, I'll face forward.
Osaka
tetsu: Osaka is nice. I love Osaka. Maybe what I like are the messy parts, the places where the city is filthy.
ken: I lived in Osaka at first, until I was 3 years old, but I don't have any memories from that time. And now I live in Osaka again... and it's a strange feeling. It's like I should know the place well, but I don't really. To me it's a strange city, it has a special feeling.
sakura: I have only ever lived in Tokyo, so I only have Tokyo views of things. Even so, the structure of Osaka resembles Tokyo too much, it's like "even though it looks like it, it's different", and for me that feels bad. Also, except for the members, I don't have any friends there, so it feels tough.
hyde: I like the fans we have in Osaka, but I don't like the city. I feel I only came here to make music... If I wasn't making music, I really wouldn't live here.
tetsu: That's horrible, too horrible. Don't you have any love for your home town!?
hyde: No, I like my hometown, but... something about that city doesn't fit right with me.
tetsu: But I love it (laugh).
Power (your own power source)
tetsu: The fans. The fans and fan letters. That's the source of my power.
hyde: I think that maybe the fans are my power source too, but what demonstrates that power the most are the lives, and what drains my power are the lives too... It's difficult though. On the stage I'm in a superman condition and I don't feel any physical pain. When I have gotten power from the fans, that power which I never would have been able to let out comes out, so at the same time the power gets drained (laugh).
ken: In my case, I take unusual, special days and spend them in a meaningful way. I think the power you get then stays inside your body? For instance, I go to the aquarium, I try to touch nature... When I touch living things, nature, etc, it feels like I'm given power.
sakura: As long as I have a my own "drive", I think that probably is essentially all that is my power source... Like when I make a regular person my partner, and of course the fans become power, and conversely the feeling of wanting to be understood by someone who doesn't understand me becomes a power. I want to be understood through my music, "this is really who I am", by people who know nothing about me. And also, because I want to convey this properly, I can do research in order to practice and improve myself, I think.
Quip (wise saying)
ken: "Tomorrow's wind blows tomorrow" (laugh). In the past, I was kind of thinking very hard about everything... There are good things about doing that too, but I took it to the extreme. So forced myself to not think very hard about anything at all. But I took this to the extreme too, and I thought maybe I should make a small adjustment to my orbit (laugh).
tetsu: "Being a liar is the beginning of a successful career" (laugh).
ken: First time I heard that (laugh). Does that saying really exist?
tetsu: (laugh) I think so all the time. Because can't you become rich if you lie, but no bad things happen? I think so. And here's a saying that concerns myself: "the world revolves because of me" (everyone laughs). Well, there are times when I really try to think that (laugh). There's not really any deep meaning to it though (laugh).
hyde: This is something someone said in a movie or something, but "jealousy is not love, it's insecurity of the heart". When I heard that, I thought "aaa, indeed". But that's all, I won't think of anything else deep (laugh).
sakura: This is not a saying, but a word that's been on my mind is "nothing". Even though it's absolutely nothing, there is a word for it, and I feel like "what is this!?" (laugh)
Reborn (if you were reborn)
ken: It would be great if I could become something with no body. As long as you have a body, it's important to to put in great effort and trouble to make it move. If I didn't have one, maybe I would become lonely though... But if I could return to be a human being, I would like to try exist as just a consciousness once. For example, in general it's said "spirits" used to be human beings. So I'll transmigrate and become refreshed (laugh), and then it would be nice to get a new body again.
sakura: It would be enough if only my own will could be more relaxed. Without having to do any unpleasant things to preserve my body. If I for argument's sake would be reborn into a living being, I wouldn't want to become a human again. I want to be reborn as something that doesn't have great intelligence, and can live without thinking about anything, just following its instincts.
hyde: I'd be a bird. A big bird, one that just could spread its wings and fly. It seems to be such a good feeling... Humans can't fly. So I want to try to do things I can't do as my current self.
tetsu: If I was reborn, I would be cured from all my complexes and weaknesses. Then I'd be a powered up "neo tetchan" (laugh)
Stage (a thought you embrace on stage)
ken: It feels like you have something to fall back on with a CD. You express yourself (play), it becomes recorded and then the sound comes out of the CD player... On stage, that thing to fall back on is removed, and you have to express yourself in order to play music, so you have to convey your thoughts in a straight-forward manner, I think. So, during lives, it's like I'm playing while wishing that the sound that is coming from my hands is being sent out to all the people that are listening. Like a feeling of "Reach to them!". When I think it's not really reaching the corners (of the live house), I go "go over there too!" (laugh)
sakura: To me, it's like the act of masturbation (laugh). First I have to make myself feel good, because if I don't I won't convey what I'm trying to convey. Then, I'm not thinking of anything else. Like different dimensions I am making... Towards the audience that is seeing this, I'm like "What do you think? Is my masturbation cool?" (everyone laughs) But if I'm feeling good on my side, they should feel good on their side too... Yes, it's really like sex (laugh). In order to make your partner feel good, you have to do your very best. And that thought is something I have towards the audience, towards the members... it's really making us come together (laugh).
tetsu: Like those pictures that are popular now, "pictures were you can see hidden objects"... When you see the object, there is like a feeling of entering the picture. It would be nice if we could make people enter our music like that. If they do, they will be able to see something (laugh). Of course, you would also enjoy yourself at the same time.
ken: So your advice on how to clearly see the hidden objects, is by using your body and music, or something like that?
sakura: "If you can see these as three dots...", maybe like those small dots they have over the pictures? (everyone laughs)
hyde: For instance, even if the lyrics are written in a really concrete way, I think everyone has a different way of perceiving them. So, for each and every song there are parts that are difficult to convey with just sound, like "in this song, the feeling I'm embracing is this", or "it's this scenery". And isn't the place where you can express these difficult parts the stage? And to make this, I'm trying to express "the feelings I attach to lives" with my body. So for all songs, I always have keep a feeling in my heart that will make that song become as easy to understand as possible.
Tears (something that made you cry recently)
sakura: I rarely cry because of sad things. When there are happy things, or I see something beautiful, or when something captivates my heart, tears come out without me knowing it... But something I cried about recently was when we tricked the manager during the tour, it was "tears of laughter" (everyone laughs).
ken: I cried then too. When he got his revenge later, I cried too but it was "tears of regret" (laugh). On this recent tour, I've been crying in secret everywhere. Maybe I still have my "emotional instability" from elementary school (laugh). I become excited, my nerves become tense and at then I have cried. So at the final day of the tour (3rd July, Osaka) I cried. Because of the idea that "tears are something you should spare", crying is something you can regret though... I wanted to save my tears for a greater time. But that time was also great, so I feel I just couldn't help it.
tetsu: My tears were gushing out too at the tour final in Osaka, after the final song of the second encore. All the lives I'd done until then came back to me and kept flashing in my head... I've wanted to be in a band since forever, and since finding the members we've actually come to this. I truly felt that we finally had been able to have real concerts, and just that made me feel so happy.
hyde: I was crying on that very same live too, but for a totally different reason. I was remembering a certain person. Because I was singing while remembering this person during practice and rehearsal, I soon got all emotional and "aaah..." And then the live was about to begin. But when it went too far and I actually cried, my voice disappeared and wouldn't come out at all... It was just a brief moment though.
Urge (motivations, urge)
sakura: This is a story from long before, but I met a foreigner who was the same age as me and we became friends. He'd just come to Japan and couldn't speak Japanese very well, but we talked about "where do you come from?" and he drew a map to explain for me. That map was the same as the map I knew... Of course it was only natural it was the same, but I was surprised. When I listened to the story about his home country, I revised my thinking and felt "the world is really big". Then my activities with L'Arc~en~Ciel started, and nowadays the world (inside myself) has become chaotic. There are both shocking things, and things to be happy about. And all of a sudden the feeling that I would be able to make it anymore disappeared, and so I thought "even if it's like that, couldn't you still keep going?" (laugh).
ken: On this tour, I felt that Japan was smaller than I had previously thought. That was shocking. I had thought that even outside the big cities, there would probably be surprisingly many houses, but actually outside the big cities there were few... I thought, "are there really only this many people in Japan?" and became a bit worried (laugh). But really, people are probably living somewhere else though (laugh).
hyde: This is going to be a depressing story, but a person close to me died... That was the first time I saw a dead body. It really looked like a wax doll, to the point you couldn't believe that that person had been moving until just a little while ago... That had an impact on me.
tetsu: It's the same for me. In high school, a friend died. That person who had been by my side yesterday wouldn't be with me tomorrow... His funeral was the first one I went to, and I saw his dead body and thought "people die really easily". Partly due to this friend who died in an accident, I felt "I'll do what I want to do, and first then I'll die".
Voice (your own voice/sound, the song "Voice")
ken: In my thinking, it feels as if what my own voice can't express and convey, the sound of my guitar does instead. Like, aren't there times when it's better to play the guitar instead, if no particularly good words come to mind? I think it could communicate a richer expression than my own voice.
sakura: There are both good and bad moments for the sound that comes out of me. Because I think everything is proportioned to me, if I would let myself come out more clearly defined, you could probably understand that "it's this kind of person", just from my sound. If I would become more genuine and be more and more different from other people, my sound would also become more clearly defined and I would be able to play drums in a way that differs from how other people do it. And I think this is the same for for example guitar, bass and singing.
tetsu: Just like that. In my case, the bass sings instead of my words.
hyde: In my case, my voice can only use words to make sounds, so words are my most important weapon. But to make those words live or die, I'm depending on how I deliver my voice and nuances. At lives, I always have my "I want you to free your bodies" thought. So during this tour, I think it's appropriate that we have done "Voice" as the final song, as it turns towards freeing onself both musically and lyrically. I think it's the song that is the most intimate, for everyone.
ken: "Voice" is the first song I made, when I wanted to make songs for L'Arc~en~Ciel, before sakura entered the band. I'm filled with memories from that time, so for me it's yet another song with a special place in my heart.
tetsu: Also for me, the song has become my first sound source for L'Arc~en~Ciel, so it's special... It's as if what has changed within L'Arc~en~Ciel are in the song. Maybe "Voice" is the first song that feels really good to play.
sakura: Although I'm a member, I don't know anything about the past L'Arc~en~Ciel. But isn't it so that before ken entered the band, the four people who were L'Arc~en~Ciel then created the starting point? I think so. So if anything, isn't "Voice" like the "debut song" for the current L'Arc~en~Ciel? When I was invited to become a member, I personally liked the song "Voice" very much too, and when I listened to it I really felt "aa, I want to play this song".
Wish (something you wish for)
sakura: A life of luxury feasting in a place where there's no time or space (laugh).
ken: I think it would be nice if I had the opportunity to have a wise person teaching me the general concept of time, in an easy-to-understand way (laugh).
hyde: At lives, I'll entrust my body to the sound, but even if the the fans (audience) are dancing, it's more like they are "making love" to the sound rather than "entrusting their bodies" to it. Because of this, no matter what song it is, everyone is moving in the same way... There should be "free movement" fitting every song, for every person, so wouldn't it be nice if people could move their bodies in a more natural way? If they would, they should be able to enjoy our lives more, and we could enhance ourselves too. That is my wish.
tetsu: My wish is that, from now on, there will be people who understand us four and our music, and that those people will keep increasing.
Xenophobia (disliking other countries)
hyde: I don't dislike other countries (laugh). I want to try to go to all countries in the world. If I could live for long, and had lots of money, I'd take one country at a time for how many years... From the North Pole to Africa, I want to experience every "town" to understand them. I'm especially drawn to Greece. Those white houses and the Mediterranean Sea have a really great image.
sakura: I like other countries too. I've felt I wanted to go overseas since before, but there is also a part of me that is afraid. For example, just between Tokyo and Osaka, if you look at the whole picture their atmospheres are different. There must be some element that differs. So there is probably something like that between Japan and USA as well. It's not something you learn or understand intellectually, but more something you understand from experience. The meaning of this is that I want to try to go to all countries, just like hyde. This feeling has grown even stronger during this last live tour... I draw a map in my mind of my whereabouts at every place I go to, and when I think "I only know this place yet", I seem to be so very small. But since I must be more than that, and also in order to get to know myself, I want to turn my eyes more outwards without being afraid.
ken: I don't dislike other countries either. Even though we are the same Japanese people, there are many different personalities. When you think about the world like that, there must be ten, hundred times more [different personalities].... It will be difficult because we can't understand each other's languages, but I'd like to talk to these different people, with all these different ways of thinking.
tetsu: I don't dislike other countries either, but I don't feel I want to go there. I like Japan... so even if a foreigner talks to me, no matter if we can understand each other or not, I'll reply in Japanese without hesitation (laugh). If it was for a short shopping trip to Europe or Hong Kong I feel I'd like to go though. That's impossible though.
Yokefellow (work mates = band members)
sakura: Because being in a band is something I like, the members are not something in the sense of "work mates". The members are like "triggering explosives", or something. On the emotional side, too.
ken: The image of the word "work" is something like "being employed at a company" and this is something quite different from that, but no matter what you call it I think "we're probably connected by sound". When we release our sounds we can feel the connection, and we understand what we think... To go that far makes it sound like we're wizards (laugh), this feeling of ours.
hyde: Is it "trust"...? For every part where can't imagine how it should be, they do it for me. So I can entrust it to them. They are not really like "work mates" at all. Also I enjoy doing this so the word "work" doesn't fit.
tetsu: I'm happy just by being together with the members. I have assembled my ideal people... About the word "work mates", I don't think what I'm doing now can be called work yet. Maybe it's optimistic, but there are still many things I'm just enjoying about this.
Zenith (climax, the absolute best)
sakura: When I was performing at a live, and thought "air is not something of this world". At the same time, I parted from my consciousness and crossed over the limits of the me that I'd known until then. The feeling of "Who am I!?", that was the climax. I have the experience of this now, and because I want to taste it always, I can do lives, and I can do practices.
ken: When I feel the sounds of us four meet with each other and mix with each other, and spread and fill every corner of the live house or hall so that not even 1 cm is free, then I feel it's the climax.
hyde: "To think that I really have come this far", is something I can feel sometimes at lives. When everyone else also has that feeling, it's like I can feel it. And when that feeling becomes stronger than usual with everyone's power, I come (laugh). That's the climax.
tetsu: It's being together with everyone for me too (laugh).
MESSAGE
We want to have lives as soon as possible. If you come to our live and see us and listen to our music, we think you'll understand that we're currently at our best. To be honest we want to have our live tour so soon that it hurts. So wait for us just a little bit longer (laugh).
sakura: I'm always drawn to beings that have things that I don't. I'm also drawn to the beings that I turn to with a great power, when I'm about to realize my own ideals.
tetsu: I admire cool people that are near to me. When I was young it was the older guys in the neighbourhood, or my senpai in school. Since they were near to me, I thought "Will I also be able to be like that person? I want to be like that". So it's still like that, I admire people that are close to me.
hyde: When you do music nowadays, you have to live in the capital no matter what. But before I aimed for music, about 10 years ago, I thought "I want to live in the country". Because I loved drawing pictures, I wanted to make a living out of that, and keep drawing pictures in beautiful places surrounded by nature. So that was what I wished for. Now that music has become my number one, I'm always trying hard to forget it, but... Even now, I think "that kind of life exists too".
Band
sakura: The "band", as it is now, is "a collection of egos", I think. According to me, it's "a place where I can express myself".
tetsu: It's a treasure. And it's not only the band, it's also the members, the staff and the fans. I'm someone who tires of things easily. And yet, this is the one thing I can keep doing. Why is that? Because I'm bound by the red thread of destiny (laugh). Or maybe it's because here I can do what I want to do.
ken: To me, it feels something like playing, by using what comes gushing out from my body. A place where I can express myself + α, something I can't put into words... I think it's the "good quality" that only people in a band can understand.
hyde: When it's like "I want to push harder here, but my own power is not enough", and then you can push, with everyone's power together... is that what a band is? I can't explain it well, but maybe a band is what finally can express those things that I can't express by myself.
Color (your own color)
ken: If you mix up lots of colors too much, it turns into this dirty color, right? And maybe I'm like that (everyone laughs). The band is different from that, an exception to it, because it's as if you have 24 colors, and then take all of them, little by little, and mix them up and make it muddy (laugh).
sakura: I can't be compared to a color. There is no thing like "I want to be this color".
tetsu: I'm blue. Because I'm always feeling blue (laugh). No, I'm red. I flare up quickly. I'm really hot tempered.
hyde: I'm white or black. But it's like I'm trying to hide that... My essence is monotone, but I'm always showing off various colours. That feeling maybe?
tetsu: L'Arc~en~Ciel is... rainbow colored, after all (laugh).
Drive (driving)
ken: Due to the circumstances I have given this up, but just until recently I often took my motor cycle and went driving on roads where no one would go. There were very few people, and I went out in the middle of the night... I like to look at dams too, and when I happened to find a dam while driving I felt so moved.
hyde: Since years ago, I have always looked forward to going on drives alone during the weekdays. Recently I don't have much time to do it though. There is this road that goes straight to the sea. Because it was during the weekdays, there was pretty much only my car on the road. The sun was blazing and I played loud music as I was driving... I was tripping (laugh). It felt really good, and doing this turned into a habit. But I never arrived at the sea. (everyone laughs) The road came out at the sea, but crossed over it and went into the mountains, as if turning around in a circle. So it was really far.
ken: Did you circle around there too?
hyde: (laugh) No, I didn't do that. At those times, it was like my body was joined with the music and didn't move, as if my body was soaking in the music in a strange way. Maybe this comparison is weird but when you go into the bath, and your body goes almost numb? "Aaah..." It was a feeling close to that, my body soaking in the sun and the music.
sakura: I'm the opposite, I go to the mountains (laugh). When I was in Tokyo, I went for drives pretty much every day with my friends, through mountain passes and forest paths. We went out in the middle of the night, drove as far as the roads let us. If we got sleepy, we slept and then returned in the morning... Now I'm busy too and I can't do it, it feels a bit sad.
tetsu: I like going on drives, too. I drive alone at night with music on, on highways and in empty town areas. Since it's empty I can drive really fast, and driving in itself feels good. I just go somewhere, passing by convenience stores (everyone laughs). If I see yet another convenience store while driving, then I go there. Touring convenience stores alone - it's great (laugh).
Endowmend (natural talents)
[about ken]
hyde: He makes good songs. And so many, where do they all come from?
ken: From my pocket (laugh).
tetsu: (laugh) Oh yes, his melodies. They are different from other people's. He doesn't think of them first before they are born, it's really as if they're a part of him.
sakura: He reads (things) into things, and is quick to find out what he wants to do. And with accuracy. He also does great things without thinking about them, does them without being aware of it himself.
tetsu: Also he comes up with melodies that no one would ever think of... a real talent. And he's good at persuading again and again, he keeps insisting on his own opinion. Many times, before you know it, your own opinion changes to his (laugh).
[about sakura]
ken: He has a wild side and an intellectual side living together, and these meshing is both positive and negative, but I dunno if it's a talent or an instinct (laugh).
hyde: As for playing, he is good at expressing the undulations of emotions. That's his talent.
tetsu: He is good at melodies too (laugh)... No really, he drums in patterns other people wouldn't think of. To reveal so much of his instincts (laugh) ... but he gives off a feeling like "calculated savageness".
[about tetsu]
hyde: Fashionable bass lines. His looks are like that too, he is fashionable.
ken: He has countless antennas gathering information, and consistently picks info up and acts correspondingly; I think he can change himself easily.
sakura: If he gets a good feeling about something, or there is something he wants, he successfully and thoroughly investigates it. That's his talent.
(Comment: There is nothing written about hyde, for whatever reason.)
First Campaign (first time on stage)
tetsu: The first time I was on stage was at the culture festival in middle school. It was the third year, and I played bass in a copy band in front of all students in the school... I'm really a shy person, but strangely enough I wasn't nervous at the time.
ken: At the weekends in middle school, we had meetings where it was okay to present anything, so I brought an acoustic guitar and sang. That was my first time on stage. Until before I was going to go on stage, I strongly felt "I wanna do it!", but when I really did it, I suddenly got all calm, like "what am I doing standing here?". When I was thinking that, it felt like it had already ended (laugh).
hyde: My first time on stage was eight years ago, I was alone playing twin guitar. I have memories of acting all violently, by myself (laugh). At that time, I thought "a guitarist must move, otherwise it's not cool". My impression of being on stage was "well, so it's like this". It was so-so.
sakura: No comment. The first time on stage with L'Arc~en~Ciel... I don't remember it.
tetsu: That's terrible (laugh).
sakura: (laugh) I'm close to my "current self", so the recent lives have left a more strong impression on me. But I must probably have been nervous then.
Gratification (satisfaction)
ken: It's when I can "sleep twice" (laugh). I wake up first, then think that I want to keep dreaming, and sleep again... It's cool when I can turn my dream into a three-parter, I feel all "yes, I did it!" (laugh)
tetsu: For me, it's when the audience gathers up for the lives and such. I like to read (fan) letters. It has nothing to do with the letters' contents, I'm just happy that people write to us.
hyde: Everyone's calm faces after a live is over make me happy. When I think "that went well", and then see the others smiling too, I feel happy.
sakura: For me, it's when the desire I have at the moment has been fulfilled. I won't go further into this subject though (laugh).
Horror (things you're scared of)
sakura: Even though I can't do anything about it, I'm scared when mysterious things come close to me. To give an example, "ghosts". Although no one knows what they are, if I knew they were there I would be scared. Also, when I was a kid, all the people doing stuff in places I didn't know about. For example, mothers - if it was in a place I wasn't familiar with, they were all hags (laugh). If I was told "mother knows everything about you", I thought "wonder from where she's watching" (everyone laughs). Because I didn't think other people were human, it went beyond my understanding. I thought they were beings I couldn't oppose, or something.
ken: When I was in middle school, the glass in our windows at home went "kaaa" and shook. Was it a poltergeist? It continued for about a week. It was once a day, at about the same time, for tens of seconds. It only happened when I was there though, so I thought maybe I was the cause? Eventually it stopped, but I don't know why.
hyde: When I'm driving my car, there are times when I have felt scared. For instance when I give someone a ride, and drive really fast on the highway, and then think stuff like "maybe, if I turned this handle a little to the right now, a big accident would happen". When I imagine things like that, I get scared.
tetsu: There is nothing I'm particularly afraid of. Getting sick is scary though (laugh). Injections, or dentists, or hospitals... they've been scary to me since I was young (laugh).
Inside Story (inside story from the tour)
tetsu: I've always thought I got sick easily, but when we went on tour I found out that my body was strong. It was only me that was full of energy, annoyingly so (laugh). The tension was higher than it was during the time in Osaka, and I was tired without knowing it.
ken: I got addicted to air guns (laugh). At first I got one as a present and started with that, but then I bought them by myself too. And I brought them with me this time to Tokyo too... I'm surprised of the influence they have over me (laugh).
hyde: We had a little time before the live in Hiroshima, and we went to look at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. We went to the museum too, we were all "we gotta see this" and went in there all yay and happy...when we came out we were sad, with glazed eyes. It was like "well, what should we do about the live today?". Because we had seen all those tragic things...
ken: I was in a total shock....
hyde: I thought "everyone (the members) really has a gentle heart". What about the "690 000 yen" story? (everyone laughs)
tetsu: We were out in the middle of the night in Aomori, looking for a convenience store, but none was open, and then we found a suspicious store... What was it?
hyde: It was a night open super market.
ken: They had put up a sign that said "Bocchan Bentou" (laugh)
tetsu: (laugh) There were strange posters, outside the store, and in the corner with the counter too. The woman at that counter was a Brazilian, and when I had done my shopping she said "that will be 690 000 yen" (laugh).
ken: Then she said "you need chopsticks?" (laugh)
hyde: (laugh) How much was that 690 000 yen really?
tetsu: Like 690 yen. (everyone laughs)
hyde: It was really suspicious (laugh).
tetsu: If you go to Aomori, I want you to try to go to that store too (laugh).
Juvenile (when you were young)
ken: During the 6th year of elementary school, I kept getting report cards that said I was "emotionally unstable" (laugh). Because the kanji 情 (emotion, sympathy) was in it, I thought for the longest time that it was a complement. But when I entered middle school, I realized "no, it's really not!!" (everyone laughs)
hyde: This is a story from when I was very young, but it seems my parents wanted a girl. But they got a boy. When we went to the sea to bathe, my swimwear was different. Even though all the other boys had proper swimming trunks, I had a bikini, with both an upper and lower part. (everyone laughs) I didn't investigate [my parents' reason for this] very deeply I think, but I thought "those [swimming trunks] are a lot cooler".
tetsu: I was a serious, quiet child. I didn't have any friends in the neighbourhood, and until I started preschool I liked to sit at home alone doing nothing. I got 2, 3 friends when I started preschool, but they all moved away one after another. So when I started elementary school I started from zero again... It was hard (laugh). I can't make friends easily, because there are only a small number of people I will open my heart to. But I was fashion conscious ever since I was young (laugh). I just wouldn't wear the clothes my parents bought for me, and ever since then have I been particular about what clothes I put on. But since my parents were soft with me, they bought what I wanted.
Knowledge (knowledge, things you'd like to study)
sakura: I've liked psychology and physics since I was young. Even though I read manga, I had an interest in the concept of reading people's hearts. As for physics, at first I was really interested in astronomy, and I got into physics from there. Even if you turn something into music, after all it still has a relation to other physical things. Einstein's "theory of light speed" has had a big impression on me.
ken: I was going to become an architect, so I studied things that had to do with architecture. Then, I was trying to put the general concept of "the passage of time" in order in my head. The view of "time" is not easy to grasp, and it feels like you can't define material things either. But I wanted to do it somehow, and I also often read books about it at the time. Just like sakura, Einstein's theories has had a big impression on me.
hyde: I have no interest at all in things like this. This is my own strange thinking, but since I don't like be taught by people, I don't read much books either. For example, the thing I have most interest in right now is the voice, but I don't think that I want to gain any knowledge about it. I want to think about it in my own way.
tetsu: Since I was young I've liked to look at maps, so I had an interest in geography. Then it's been ancient civilizations, the history of Japan during and after Meiji, and things like that. I won't go as far as researching it though. But isn't Meiji the time when Japan changed the most? The western culture came here... I'm captivated by that time.
Love (philosophy of love, difference between "ai" and "koi")
hyde: I'm not very sure of what the difference is, but it's like "koi" is included inside the boundaries of "ai"... Your parents are the ones you feel the most "ai" for. Yor parents are not connected to the concept of "koi" though (laugh). This is something I've thought recently, but isn't "koi" and pain sensibly the same? To feel the insecurity of the heart with your body, and to feel "koi" with your body. The conditions feel similar.
sakura: "Koi" is escaping from reality, whereas "ai" is embracing it. For example, if it's "koi" you like someone so much you become restless, to the point you can't do anything. But "ai" is "I must do these things properly, because I love that person", and thus, I think you can embrace reality.
ken: For 3-4 years now, I haven't been embraced by the feelings of "ai" or "koi". Even though this is all me, I still get sad about it sometimes and try to remember love from the past, but it's too long ago and I can't recall it (laugh). But, for the members I do feel love. For example, when they betray you in a good way... Usually, even if you have experience, you still can't understand what "life values" are, for some reason. And then, when you are betrayed in a good way, you realize it, suddenly, like "wow". But I'm not feeling any "koi" (laugh).
tetsu: For me... it's the feeling of "be in love with us at lives!" (laugh).
Mischief
sakura: I won't tell any details, but recently we tricked our manager... (everyone laughs)
ken: All members tricked him. He fell for it, and when the truth was revealed, I felt like "supreme happiness" or something... Our manager was just standing there with his mouth open and couldn't close it (laugh). We got a very calculated revenge though.
hyde: When I was a kid I remember we threw fireworks and firecrackers into apartment complexes, and they got angry and shouted "HEY!" after us, while we fled on our bikes (laugh)
tetsu: When I was in elementary school, on the way home, I rang a bank's emergency bell and ran (laugh). I went there with two friends... We were putting our courage to test. But I wasn't caught, I didn't get in trouble, and the next day I went to school as if nothing had happened (laugh).
Nervous (depression)
sakura: I feel very depressed when I'm really broken hearted. Apart from that, I don't get very nervous. To recover from it, I fall in love. (everyone laughs) I immediately go out looking for someone. I use every trick in the book (laugh).
ken: When I have a lack of sleep, I get nervous. Either I'm in a natural high and no matter what I do, I find things interesting, or it doesn't matter what I do, it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't know myself which of these I'll turn to. My way to solve it is to sleep properly (laugh)
tetsu: In my case, I'm constantly nervous. Small things make me depressed, small things make it better; I just ignore it. And since it's ignored by everyone else too... The way to fix my nervousness is to be nice to me (laugh)
hyde: When everyone, including me, gets depressed after a live, I become nervous. My way to solve it is to sleep, and quickly let the day end. When I awake, I'll face forward.
Osaka
tetsu: Osaka is nice. I love Osaka. Maybe what I like are the messy parts, the places where the city is filthy.
ken: I lived in Osaka at first, until I was 3 years old, but I don't have any memories from that time. And now I live in Osaka again... and it's a strange feeling. It's like I should know the place well, but I don't really. To me it's a strange city, it has a special feeling.
sakura: I have only ever lived in Tokyo, so I only have Tokyo views of things. Even so, the structure of Osaka resembles Tokyo too much, it's like "even though it looks like it, it's different", and for me that feels bad. Also, except for the members, I don't have any friends there, so it feels tough.
hyde: I like the fans we have in Osaka, but I don't like the city. I feel I only came here to make music... If I wasn't making music, I really wouldn't live here.
tetsu: That's horrible, too horrible. Don't you have any love for your home town!?
hyde: No, I like my hometown, but... something about that city doesn't fit right with me.
tetsu: But I love it (laugh).
Power (your own power source)
tetsu: The fans. The fans and fan letters. That's the source of my power.
hyde: I think that maybe the fans are my power source too, but what demonstrates that power the most are the lives, and what drains my power are the lives too... It's difficult though. On the stage I'm in a superman condition and I don't feel any physical pain. When I have gotten power from the fans, that power which I never would have been able to let out comes out, so at the same time the power gets drained (laugh).
ken: In my case, I take unusual, special days and spend them in a meaningful way. I think the power you get then stays inside your body? For instance, I go to the aquarium, I try to touch nature... When I touch living things, nature, etc, it feels like I'm given power.
sakura: As long as I have a my own "drive", I think that probably is essentially all that is my power source... Like when I make a regular person my partner, and of course the fans become power, and conversely the feeling of wanting to be understood by someone who doesn't understand me becomes a power. I want to be understood through my music, "this is really who I am", by people who know nothing about me. And also, because I want to convey this properly, I can do research in order to practice and improve myself, I think.
Quip (wise saying)
ken: "Tomorrow's wind blows tomorrow" (laugh). In the past, I was kind of thinking very hard about everything... There are good things about doing that too, but I took it to the extreme. So forced myself to not think very hard about anything at all. But I took this to the extreme too, and I thought maybe I should make a small adjustment to my orbit (laugh).
tetsu: "Being a liar is the beginning of a successful career" (laugh).
ken: First time I heard that (laugh). Does that saying really exist?
tetsu: (laugh) I think so all the time. Because can't you become rich if you lie, but no bad things happen? I think so. And here's a saying that concerns myself: "the world revolves because of me" (everyone laughs). Well, there are times when I really try to think that (laugh). There's not really any deep meaning to it though (laugh).
hyde: This is something someone said in a movie or something, but "jealousy is not love, it's insecurity of the heart". When I heard that, I thought "aaa, indeed". But that's all, I won't think of anything else deep (laugh).
sakura: This is not a saying, but a word that's been on my mind is "nothing". Even though it's absolutely nothing, there is a word for it, and I feel like "what is this!?" (laugh)
Reborn (if you were reborn)
ken: It would be great if I could become something with no body. As long as you have a body, it's important to to put in great effort and trouble to make it move. If I didn't have one, maybe I would become lonely though... But if I could return to be a human being, I would like to try exist as just a consciousness once. For example, in general it's said "spirits" used to be human beings. So I'll transmigrate and become refreshed (laugh), and then it would be nice to get a new body again.
sakura: It would be enough if only my own will could be more relaxed. Without having to do any unpleasant things to preserve my body. If I for argument's sake would be reborn into a living being, I wouldn't want to become a human again. I want to be reborn as something that doesn't have great intelligence, and can live without thinking about anything, just following its instincts.
hyde: I'd be a bird. A big bird, one that just could spread its wings and fly. It seems to be such a good feeling... Humans can't fly. So I want to try to do things I can't do as my current self.
tetsu: If I was reborn, I would be cured from all my complexes and weaknesses. Then I'd be a powered up "neo tetchan" (laugh)
Stage (a thought you embrace on stage)
ken: It feels like you have something to fall back on with a CD. You express yourself (play), it becomes recorded and then the sound comes out of the CD player... On stage, that thing to fall back on is removed, and you have to express yourself in order to play music, so you have to convey your thoughts in a straight-forward manner, I think. So, during lives, it's like I'm playing while wishing that the sound that is coming from my hands is being sent out to all the people that are listening. Like a feeling of "Reach to them!". When I think it's not really reaching the corners (of the live house), I go "go over there too!" (laugh)
sakura: To me, it's like the act of masturbation (laugh). First I have to make myself feel good, because if I don't I won't convey what I'm trying to convey. Then, I'm not thinking of anything else. Like different dimensions I am making... Towards the audience that is seeing this, I'm like "What do you think? Is my masturbation cool?" (everyone laughs) But if I'm feeling good on my side, they should feel good on their side too... Yes, it's really like sex (laugh). In order to make your partner feel good, you have to do your very best. And that thought is something I have towards the audience, towards the members... it's really making us come together (laugh).
tetsu: Like those pictures that are popular now, "pictures were you can see hidden objects"... When you see the object, there is like a feeling of entering the picture. It would be nice if we could make people enter our music like that. If they do, they will be able to see something (laugh). Of course, you would also enjoy yourself at the same time.
ken: So your advice on how to clearly see the hidden objects, is by using your body and music, or something like that?
sakura: "If you can see these as three dots...", maybe like those small dots they have over the pictures? (everyone laughs)
hyde: For instance, even if the lyrics are written in a really concrete way, I think everyone has a different way of perceiving them. So, for each and every song there are parts that are difficult to convey with just sound, like "in this song, the feeling I'm embracing is this", or "it's this scenery". And isn't the place where you can express these difficult parts the stage? And to make this, I'm trying to express "the feelings I attach to lives" with my body. So for all songs, I always have keep a feeling in my heart that will make that song become as easy to understand as possible.
Tears (something that made you cry recently)
sakura: I rarely cry because of sad things. When there are happy things, or I see something beautiful, or when something captivates my heart, tears come out without me knowing it... But something I cried about recently was when we tricked the manager during the tour, it was "tears of laughter" (everyone laughs).
ken: I cried then too. When he got his revenge later, I cried too but it was "tears of regret" (laugh). On this recent tour, I've been crying in secret everywhere. Maybe I still have my "emotional instability" from elementary school (laugh). I become excited, my nerves become tense and at then I have cried. So at the final day of the tour (3rd July, Osaka) I cried. Because of the idea that "tears are something you should spare", crying is something you can regret though... I wanted to save my tears for a greater time. But that time was also great, so I feel I just couldn't help it.
tetsu: My tears were gushing out too at the tour final in Osaka, after the final song of the second encore. All the lives I'd done until then came back to me and kept flashing in my head... I've wanted to be in a band since forever, and since finding the members we've actually come to this. I truly felt that we finally had been able to have real concerts, and just that made me feel so happy.
hyde: I was crying on that very same live too, but for a totally different reason. I was remembering a certain person. Because I was singing while remembering this person during practice and rehearsal, I soon got all emotional and "aaah..." And then the live was about to begin. But when it went too far and I actually cried, my voice disappeared and wouldn't come out at all... It was just a brief moment though.
Urge (motivations, urge)
sakura: This is a story from long before, but I met a foreigner who was the same age as me and we became friends. He'd just come to Japan and couldn't speak Japanese very well, but we talked about "where do you come from?" and he drew a map to explain for me. That map was the same as the map I knew... Of course it was only natural it was the same, but I was surprised. When I listened to the story about his home country, I revised my thinking and felt "the world is really big". Then my activities with L'Arc~en~Ciel started, and nowadays the world (inside myself) has become chaotic. There are both shocking things, and things to be happy about. And all of a sudden the feeling that I would be able to make it anymore disappeared, and so I thought "even if it's like that, couldn't you still keep going?" (laugh).
ken: On this tour, I felt that Japan was smaller than I had previously thought. That was shocking. I had thought that even outside the big cities, there would probably be surprisingly many houses, but actually outside the big cities there were few... I thought, "are there really only this many people in Japan?" and became a bit worried (laugh). But really, people are probably living somewhere else though (laugh).
hyde: This is going to be a depressing story, but a person close to me died... That was the first time I saw a dead body. It really looked like a wax doll, to the point you couldn't believe that that person had been moving until just a little while ago... That had an impact on me.
tetsu: It's the same for me. In high school, a friend died. That person who had been by my side yesterday wouldn't be with me tomorrow... His funeral was the first one I went to, and I saw his dead body and thought "people die really easily". Partly due to this friend who died in an accident, I felt "I'll do what I want to do, and first then I'll die".
Voice (your own voice/sound, the song "Voice")
ken: In my thinking, it feels as if what my own voice can't express and convey, the sound of my guitar does instead. Like, aren't there times when it's better to play the guitar instead, if no particularly good words come to mind? I think it could communicate a richer expression than my own voice.
sakura: There are both good and bad moments for the sound that comes out of me. Because I think everything is proportioned to me, if I would let myself come out more clearly defined, you could probably understand that "it's this kind of person", just from my sound. If I would become more genuine and be more and more different from other people, my sound would also become more clearly defined and I would be able to play drums in a way that differs from how other people do it. And I think this is the same for for example guitar, bass and singing.
tetsu: Just like that. In my case, the bass sings instead of my words.
hyde: In my case, my voice can only use words to make sounds, so words are my most important weapon. But to make those words live or die, I'm depending on how I deliver my voice and nuances. At lives, I always have my "I want you to free your bodies" thought. So during this tour, I think it's appropriate that we have done "Voice" as the final song, as it turns towards freeing onself both musically and lyrically. I think it's the song that is the most intimate, for everyone.
ken: "Voice" is the first song I made, when I wanted to make songs for L'Arc~en~Ciel, before sakura entered the band. I'm filled with memories from that time, so for me it's yet another song with a special place in my heart.
tetsu: Also for me, the song has become my first sound source for L'Arc~en~Ciel, so it's special... It's as if what has changed within L'Arc~en~Ciel are in the song. Maybe "Voice" is the first song that feels really good to play.
sakura: Although I'm a member, I don't know anything about the past L'Arc~en~Ciel. But isn't it so that before ken entered the band, the four people who were L'Arc~en~Ciel then created the starting point? I think so. So if anything, isn't "Voice" like the "debut song" for the current L'Arc~en~Ciel? When I was invited to become a member, I personally liked the song "Voice" very much too, and when I listened to it I really felt "aa, I want to play this song".
Wish (something you wish for)
sakura: A life of luxury feasting in a place where there's no time or space (laugh).
ken: I think it would be nice if I had the opportunity to have a wise person teaching me the general concept of time, in an easy-to-understand way (laugh).
hyde: At lives, I'll entrust my body to the sound, but even if the the fans (audience) are dancing, it's more like they are "making love" to the sound rather than "entrusting their bodies" to it. Because of this, no matter what song it is, everyone is moving in the same way... There should be "free movement" fitting every song, for every person, so wouldn't it be nice if people could move their bodies in a more natural way? If they would, they should be able to enjoy our lives more, and we could enhance ourselves too. That is my wish.
tetsu: My wish is that, from now on, there will be people who understand us four and our music, and that those people will keep increasing.
Xenophobia (disliking other countries)
hyde: I don't dislike other countries (laugh). I want to try to go to all countries in the world. If I could live for long, and had lots of money, I'd take one country at a time for how many years... From the North Pole to Africa, I want to experience every "town" to understand them. I'm especially drawn to Greece. Those white houses and the Mediterranean Sea have a really great image.
sakura: I like other countries too. I've felt I wanted to go overseas since before, but there is also a part of me that is afraid. For example, just between Tokyo and Osaka, if you look at the whole picture their atmospheres are different. There must be some element that differs. So there is probably something like that between Japan and USA as well. It's not something you learn or understand intellectually, but more something you understand from experience. The meaning of this is that I want to try to go to all countries, just like hyde. This feeling has grown even stronger during this last live tour... I draw a map in my mind of my whereabouts at every place I go to, and when I think "I only know this place yet", I seem to be so very small. But since I must be more than that, and also in order to get to know myself, I want to turn my eyes more outwards without being afraid.
ken: I don't dislike other countries either. Even though we are the same Japanese people, there are many different personalities. When you think about the world like that, there must be ten, hundred times more [different personalities].... It will be difficult because we can't understand each other's languages, but I'd like to talk to these different people, with all these different ways of thinking.
tetsu: I don't dislike other countries either, but I don't feel I want to go there. I like Japan... so even if a foreigner talks to me, no matter if we can understand each other or not, I'll reply in Japanese without hesitation (laugh). If it was for a short shopping trip to Europe or Hong Kong I feel I'd like to go though. That's impossible though.
Yokefellow (work mates = band members)
sakura: Because being in a band is something I like, the members are not something in the sense of "work mates". The members are like "triggering explosives", or something. On the emotional side, too.
ken: The image of the word "work" is something like "being employed at a company" and this is something quite different from that, but no matter what you call it I think "we're probably connected by sound". When we release our sounds we can feel the connection, and we understand what we think... To go that far makes it sound like we're wizards (laugh), this feeling of ours.
hyde: Is it "trust"...? For every part where can't imagine how it should be, they do it for me. So I can entrust it to them. They are not really like "work mates" at all. Also I enjoy doing this so the word "work" doesn't fit.
tetsu: I'm happy just by being together with the members. I have assembled my ideal people... About the word "work mates", I don't think what I'm doing now can be called work yet. Maybe it's optimistic, but there are still many things I'm just enjoying about this.
Zenith (climax, the absolute best)
sakura: When I was performing at a live, and thought "air is not something of this world". At the same time, I parted from my consciousness and crossed over the limits of the me that I'd known until then. The feeling of "Who am I!?", that was the climax. I have the experience of this now, and because I want to taste it always, I can do lives, and I can do practices.
ken: When I feel the sounds of us four meet with each other and mix with each other, and spread and fill every corner of the live house or hall so that not even 1 cm is free, then I feel it's the climax.
hyde: "To think that I really have come this far", is something I can feel sometimes at lives. When everyone else also has that feeling, it's like I can feel it. And when that feeling becomes stronger than usual with everyone's power, I come (laugh). That's the climax.
tetsu: It's being together with everyone for me too (laugh).
MESSAGE
We want to have lives as soon as possible. If you come to our live and see us and listen to our music, we think you'll understand that we're currently at our best. To be honest we want to have our live tour so soon that it hurts. So wait for us just a little bit longer (laugh).
Zdroj:https://larcenciel.livejournal.com/1272508.html?fbclid=IwAR1mGxwLQEKv0fYZf6u1kd6y082nFsS4PYc6NKflhmzSa1MxzgSOBYae0pk
Žádné komentáře:
Okomentovat