Q: The new
single “CHASE” is the theme tune of the film “WILD7”, with a neo-futuristic and
grand-scale feel. How did the creation of this track start out?
ken: This year is the 20th Anniversary of L’Arc~en~ciel and we’d
already decided to make an album. When we had our meeting where we bring the
songs that we’ve each composed and choose which one to make into a
single/album, I’d had a couple of songs ready. But aside from that there was a
request for writing a single-type song… although I did think “what exactly does
a “single-type song” mean???” (laugh). I think I first thought of the
synthesizer riff for the chorus, and I carried on from there. Then when we had the
second meeting we decided to record this song. At that point, I was still
wanting a more playful, mischievous feel to the track. Then yukki- suggested
“we should do this, we should do that”. This was the timing where we first
heard about maybe using the song as the theme to “WILD 7”. We watched the
unedited version of the film, which led us to think “then we should change the
song a bit like this” and not keep it as it was originally – I think hyde
suggested that. It was clear that none of us were quite satisfied/comfortable
with the track at that point anyway, so he suggested that we could change it a
bit. As I said, I myself was still after this playful/mischievous feel anyway,
so we decided to work on it all together – and it started from there. I’m not
sure if I’d told hyde about this “playful/mischievous” feeling I wanted, but
having seen the film, the ideas coming from hyde gave it a more wild feel.
hyde: I wanted it to be more rock…and more wild. It was already
decided that the film would end and then the track would be used with the
end-roll, so I thought it would be more effective pursuing the image I felt
from the film. I wanted the song to have a synergetic effect – the film would
end, the track will start to play and together it’d make it “cool”. So that’s
how I came up with the intro and the A-melo. I think in the end I came up with
the bits apart from the chorus. But having said that, it wasn’t like it was
ken-chan and myself that created the song together, because the other members
all contributed to the entire song. yukki- did the programming. Te-cchan
thought of the melody too. We all did a lot of things together. So for a change
for L’Arc~en~ciel, we made the song as a band would.
tetsuya: It was like we started with ken-chan’s demo, and using
hyde’s ideas we all brainstormed together. I think we haven’t created something
in this way since “DRINK IT DOWN”. “X X X” was a little bit like that
too, but this time it was even more of a joint effort. It’s also stated
“composed by: ken/hyde”.
Q: This piece was created “as a band would”, with each member making
suggestions. As a result, how did each part turn out? First we asked hyde about
the lyrics.
hyde: the image I got from the film “WILD 7” was that of
pursuing/chasing a target/kill, so I combined this image with the image of
driving through the Shutokou (Note: major motorway running through Tokyo).
There’s the phrase “Te no naruhou e” (Note: this is a reference to one of the
phrases chanted when playing “tag” Japanese-style – the “it” who does the
chasing is sometimes blindfolded, and the people running away clap their hands
chanting ‘follow the clapping’ – which is what this phrase translates as. The
blind-folded ‘it’ then has to chase the others using hearing as the only aid),
which is playing on this concept of “Onigokko” (note: this is what we call
playing tag in Japanese – it literally translates as ‘pretending to be the
demon/devil’ – as we call the “it” who does the chasing, the “oni” (demon). I
know, how pleasant). There’s also a part where it’s sung ‘onigokko’ in the
chorus. Here I tried to play with the words “CHASE” and “onigokko”. The lyrics
were originally ‘cool’ and edgy, but I wanted to add a sense of
comedy/satire... or to make it slightly catchy.
Q: the lyrics for this piece combines both English and Japanese, but what
makes it characteristic is how there are lyrics such as ‘Calling’ and ‘kourin’
(Note: translates as ‘The Advent” or “descent”) which can sound both Japanese
and English. Did you originally think that it was better sung in English?
hyde: Ah, maybe. But I always feel that when we release songs
in Japan, I want to use Japanese as much as possible. Not because I’m not
taking Japanese seriously, or I think English is more cool. Simply because I
think using Japanese makes the lyrics sound more catchy. But with these lyrics
I really did do a lot of experimenting with the English and Japanese.
Q: What are L’Arc~en~ciel aiming for musically, and what does hyde
himself considers to be ‘rock’?
hyde: What L’Arc~en~ciel are pursuing is not only about enjoying
ourselves – we’re pursuing something at a higher level. I think the band has
come to a point where there’s no point if we’re making music just to enjoy
ourselves – we need to achieve a higher level musically. For example, if we
have to play for a live, or we meet together as a band, we try and fine-tune
our performance as a band. It makes us aim for a higher quality of music. As
for what I consider as ‘rock’, I think people see it from different angles, and
the definition differs depending on individuals. So in a way, it’s a difficult
word to define because it’s so vast... but what I find interesting is when I
remember a while back, “Morning Musume” released ‘Love Machine’ (Note a song
that was a very big hit in 1999 sung by a pop girl-band. Believe me they are
not what one would consider ‘rock’), I thought it was really rock. It was
really powerful whilst also being quite satirical about the whole music
industry. It really stuck out. In that sense I think a song can be pop but have
a ‘rock’ feel, so it’s hard to simply put into words. In a way it’s like
rebelling. But for our new track, I think most people will consider the A-melo
as being rock. If anyone thinks this song isn’t rock... they’re either really
cynical... or a person that considers anything apart from slash-rock as being
pop (laugh). In that sense I think this track represents a form of rock that’s
fairly easy to recognise.
Q: Also effective in this track is the carefully thought out guitar riff
which is slightly different in the phrases of the first and second verse.
ken: when I was writing the original track, I had more guitar
phrases, adding them in between the synthesiser parts. But when we decided that
we wanted to make it more ‘wild’ we went in the direction of adding more riffs.
I first thought of adding riffs when I heard hyde playing some riffs when we
were arranging the track together. I thought that could work too. So we started
to try out lots of different riffs.
Q: ken also discussed what he currently pursues as a guitarist.
ken: I think it’s the melody. Even if I’m playing one melody, I
like to add more melodies into that one melody. If I’m using a certain amp for
a recording, I try to find more melodies within the sound of that amp. Apart
from that, I’m trying to practice so that moving my fingers becomes more easy
and comfortable. To create and express a range of melodies, I need to be able
to control how hard I want to pick, or how to hold down the chords. To be able
to do that more smoothly, I need to be able to consciously control my fingers.
I want to be able to work with a track without thinking about it too hard.
Aside from practicing playing, I’m trying to train my brain and fingers to move
as freely as possible.
Q: The bass part uses the synth-bass as well as the bass.
testsuya: considering the image of ‘WILD 7’, we wanted to make
ken-chan’s original track more digital-sounding – this led us to the idea of
adding the synth-bass. But having used the synth-bass throughout the track, we
had to think about how we were going to combine it with the usual bass. The
mixing was hard too. Actually, unless you have proper audio equipment you may
not even be able to hear the bass at all. But in the B-melo the bass chord
changes in every bar, and at the beginning of the chorus the guitar chord
changes with every bar too. But for the chorus, I suggested that we don’t
change the bass chords, and instead use fraction chords. I thought that if the
bass chord changes at the chorus, it doesn’t sound very sturdy. When I
suggested that ken-san gave me the go-ahead (laugh), so the bass chords don’t
change apart from at the end where the chorus repeats itself.
Q: the guitar riff in the intro was also suggested by tetsuya.
tetsuya: I thought hard about the guitar riff in the intro. I
wanted it to feel wild without being too earthy (Note: the word he uses here
literally translates as ‘earthy’ but he probably means that he didn’t want it
to sound so ‘raw’), so I asked for ken to play different versions of it. We
make suggestions to eachother whatever part we play.
Q: And yukihiro’s drums. Like the guitar and bass, the drum part is
intricately arranged. What sort of concept was it here?
yukihiro: originally the whole track was composed with a 4-on the
floor drum part, but I wanted to try different things, and in the end we ended
up just using it for the chorus part. For tracks like this it’s easy to use a
4-on the floor beat and there’s no way it won’t fit, but I wanted it to be like
a dance track done by a rock band. I think a 16-beat is expected when a track
starts with a synthesiser sequence like this one, but I thought it’d be cool to
use 8-beat too. When you want to merge a rock band and dance music together,
nothing beats the 4-on the floor beat used in techno music. But I thought we’d
be able to approach dance music from a rock aspect without using this typical
beat.
Q: Also effective in this track is the synth-bass, where yukihiro’s
abilities are used to the full extent.
yukihiro: Personally, I never use such a basic 16-beat. I think it
sounds cool but I’m embarrassed to do it (laugh). You know there are some words
which vocalists feel a bit embarrassed to sing? It’s like that. For a
programmer to programme such a basic beat, we need a little courage. But since
I didn’t write this track, and it was arranged in such a way, I thought “now’s
the time to try it (laugh)”.
Q: The release of the “20th L’Anniversary LIVE” DVD on the 28th of
December, the start of the “L’Arc~en~ciel WORLD TOUR 2012” in March 2012, and
the release of the new album after 4 years and 3 months (Note: does that mean
we can expect the album in February??? Woohoo!). There’s a lot going on.
tetsuya: The “20th L’Anniversary TOUR” left us with a really good
feeling, so we want to keep up this momentum for the world tour. I don’t want
to feel strained or think too deeply about the fact that we’re playing overseas
– I think it’ll be fine to just do what we normally do in Japan. When we were
junior-high/high-school kids, there weren’t any Japanese bands that were still
going strong after 20 years. The same thing goes for bands playing overseas.
We’d never even dreamt of carrying on for 20 years, or of doing a
headlining-tour overseas. But in reality, here we are, still going strong, and
headlining at Madison Square Garden. If the junior-high school aged tetsuya
found out, he’d be shocked (laugh).
hyde: regarding the album, half of it will be made up of singles,
so I think it’ll be a really catchy album. But the other tracks... for me, they
have a very ‘real/down-to-earth’ feeling. Like folk music (laugh)?? Personally,
there were some lyrics where I felt ‘ah, these lyrics sound good even on their
own’. So if an old-man like myself (Note: WHAT!?) listens to it, it’ll sound
like a really cool album.
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