Motto2 Vol.5 SUGIZO and Kyo - Talk session

 

Last December at SUGIZO’s concert the whole truth about Kyo’s solo project became known to all. Also, SUGIZO participated in extra remix cd added to the special edition of sukekiyo’s 1st album “IMMORTALIS”, which was released on April 30th… SUGIZO and Kyo seem to have a close relationship. They are from different generations, their music genre is also different. What kind of interaction will they have?

SUGIZO: Kyo-chan, DIR EN GREY will soon have a performance in Budokan, right?
Kyo: Yes. Thank you for coming.
S: After that will you have some free time?
K: Only a bit (laugh). Now, other members already started to work on the next release.
S: That’s fast, your pace at making new music. I was told it would be good to get some conversation partner for this interview, I know many other musicians, but I thought the timing would be good for sukekiyo, so I made a suggestion.
K: I’m honored (smile).
S: Was it a first time for sukekiyo [to perform] as a secret opening act at my concert last December?
K: That was a first performance.
S: Of course, even before I was friends with DIR EN GREY [members] (hereafter: DIR), but… How did we meet? (laugh)
K: (laugh) They had always liked LUNA SEA like their generation, I think we met kind of arbitrary (laugh), maybe through a direct introduction…
S: Maybe it started 6 or 7 years ago when I learned about DIR EN GREY and I decided to go see a concert. Looking at it from distance, At that time your sound became more heavy, I think then the band called “DIR EN GREY” became established.
K: Exactly the time when we went abroad for the first time.
S: Since about that time I think I could have seen that you were standing out from other bands of your faction, with both your musical performance and existence. If there’s an artist who makes good music I will start to pay attention to them, so I think I went to check out your concert. At that time were there any big changes for the band?
K: We did a tour abroad, we experienced many things we would not be able to experience in Japan. I think because of that the band started to change.
S: I see. …ah, I remembered! First time I saw DIR was together with YOSHIKI.
K: In LA?
S: No, it was in Zepp Tokyo or in Shinkiba STUDIO COAST. As I went to other concerts after that my memory is bit vague (laugh). They become addictive, you know, DIR’s concerts.
K: I’m glad (laugh).
S: You just have to repeat it. It is highly addictive, so you unconsciously start to want to see it again and again. I think the aura or shivers you release standing on the stage is totally unique.
K: Nah, nothing like that (shy smile).
S: So, we were becoming gradually closer, we started to go out to drink together. That includes you (Kyo-chan), Kaoru, Die. With Shinya it’s always unexpected (laugh).
K: He’s like that (laugh).
S: The distance between me and DIR started to get shorter so worrying like a relative I started to come to your concerts (laugh). Are they doing well? Is their sound ok? Like a parent I went to check out on them to the previous [show at] Budokan (laugh)
K: (laugh)
S: Doing a performance with the same direction as always, it’s awesome you do a two day show in Budokan creating a maniacal stage as well. It makes me as happy as it was happening to me.
K: (laugh)
S: Kaoru and Die also often talk to me, “tonight the sound was like that” or “even though I created a good sound perfectly it was not transmitted well through speakers, so should we change PA?” - like that.
K: Actually, we got that advice and we changed our PA.
S: MORRIE also came to see the 1st show from the previous Budokan performance, “kick (=the sound of the bass drum) is totally not coming out (=we cannot hear it), you have to hit it harder” he said to Shinya over the phone, at night after the show (laugh). They make people [care and] want to give them a lot of advice, DIR members. You are creating sound very earnestly, so people like me or MORRIE, people who are a bit higher up in this career, you made us want to give you a meddling in advice (laugh). If you ask me why, I understood from watching you that you will get better.
K: But no one is really giving me any advice what should I improve… Even if I ask you or MORRIE or other people after the concert “how was it?”, no one tells me anything. It makes me feel a bit isolated (laugh).
S: Oh, you felt lonely (laugh). You know, Kyo-chan, TH-I-S is good. (what you do)
K: Really?
S: What I’m usually unhappy about is the sound of instruments (laugh). But you’re becoming better, definitely your sound is getting better.
K: Yes, the guys feel that they are blessed with senpai’s (senior) help. But, it is also very stressful, when they receive greetings. We can give our greetings to acquainted seniors, but I often wonder if I should greet seniors that I haven’t met yet. In a same way, recently [I saw] you standing with yukihiro. I couldn’t see those 2 shots I was totally nervous (laugh).
S: I know yukihiro from the time of Zi:KILL.
K: Did you start at the same time?
S: No, Zi:KILL started 1 year earlier. Although now it feels like we started at the same time. If it’s only 10 years 1 year difference makes someone your senior, no?
K: True.
S: L’Arc~en~Ciel definitely started about 2 years after LUNA SEA, but yukihiro is my senior from the time of Zi:KILL, so… that’s the relationship we have. It seems like a senior and junior from the same high school.
K: Ah, I see. Somehow I can comprehend it. I often watched video “EXTASY SUMMIT” (laugh). That’s why to see you and yukihiro together is great, and it made us very nervous when you came backstage [to see us] (laugh).
S:… Oh, right, Kyo-chan, your body became very flexible.
K: Eh, you think so?
S: It’s awesome, you do some acrobatic stuff  - I thought that while watching your performance at Budokan.
K: What did I do?
S: Ah… So you just follow your instinct and you are not aware of what you do [at concerts]?
K: I have no idea (what I do).
S: You know, I really love your solo time (inward scream time). Is that also improvisation? The base.
K: Yes, it is all improvised. I don’t think about it at all.
S: You lean back and bend like crazy, you move like some type of modern dance. But, you didn’t have any training, right?
K: Nothing at all.
S: In that case, it’s amazing.
K: Last year in December, when you let us play as your opening act, there was some woman dancing on your stage. I thought it was amazing when I was watching the performance.
S: It was a contemporary dance. Wouldn’t it be good to start learning? To tell the truth I’m also being trained by that dancer.
K: He~h, really?
S: If a singer included this kind of performance I think it would be totally amazing. You and me, we use our whole body as a tool to express ourselves. Especially singers are like that, there’s something really attractive about the body movement when you release all energy. You know, it’s not only musicians or singers. That sense, other members of the band also must have this common knowledge, feeling. But talking about expressing oneself, Kyo-chan, the truth is you are an illustrator.
K: No no, I only draw as a hobby (laugh).
S: At the Budokan you also painted your face and neck by yourself, right?
K: Yes, by myself. I had some free time.
S: It seems like you don’t really do a sound check (laugh).
K: I don’t really do it (laugh).
S: I thought so (laugh). Is that fine?
K: It’s fine (not doing it).
S: I see. RYU (=RYUICHI hereafter same person) is [your] exact opposite. From the LUNA SEA members he’s the most serious guy.
K: You see… Doing tours abroad we had many situations when we couldn’t do a rehearsal, so it stopped bothering me. Also, various foreign bands come to the concert 5 minutes before starting the performance, they carry beer from the backstage and go like that on the stage, and they give really amazing concerts. Even without doing the sound check. Seeing that, huh… I had this thought that they can give an amazing performance like that.
S: Ah, for example, when Metallica came to Japan to give a concert, Kirk Hammett like really just came in time for a concert. He was surfing for so long.
K: Surfing!? (laugh)
S: He came as he was surfing and just like that he took his guitar and went on stage.
K: Really? (laugh)
S: Yeah (laugh). Why was he able to do that? If we ask that it’s because techs (=technician, roadie. He takes care of musicians and instruments during the recording or concerts, he also do the maintenance and customization) do the sound check for them.
K: I envy that.
S: It would be great to do it like that, right? As I thought the skills of techs abroad are great. But at the same time, their position is high.
K: Ah, that’s true. About being there (abroad) me and other members, we have almost same feelings. The staff that travels with them during the tour, or when they resign in the middle of the tour, we had some problems (wry smile).
S: The local staff?
K: Yes (laugh).
S: Over there they have Union (=labor union) that meddles in to the point that cannot be even compared to Japan. They are also very strict about working hours. Like “I will do this and this and I’m done”, that’s something common.
K: Yeah, it’s common.
S: They are still in the middle of work, but without a thought they go back home. Japanese work too much… nah, that’s not really what I want to say (laugh).
K: (laugh) So, does LUNA SEA do the sound check solidly?
S: Rehearsal is very short. Me and J are the group that wants to take time, Shinya, INORAN and RYU are the group that doesn’t want to spend time on that. Everyone is busy, LUNA SEA now rather than being made of band members is made of solo artists, but well, it can’t be helped… To the extend that at the time when we had performance at Saitama Super Arena we only managed to do a decent rehearsal for 2 days.
K: Only for 2 days…… (speechless).
S: It was ok as everyone is really good, staff and techs, without PA. Rather, this two days, we did it for that, it felt like that. Although I felt bit uneasy.
K: I see. Last year, at the performance when you let as play as your opening act, I watched your rehearsal, oh it’s packed like that, I learnt a lot from it.
S: The truth is I would like to have someone do it for me (laugh).
K: (laugh)
S: Speaking about concerts, DIR had a lot of troubles during the last overseas tour, right?
K: YES. Every time the same (wry laugh).
S: Like your bus had broken down and you spend half a day waiting? (laugh)
K: Like we could only move by a van for 8 hours (wry laugh). You were well informed, weren’t you? (laugh)
S: Because I got most information from Die through LINE at the real time (laugh).
K: When we arrived somewhere, the airport was closed of as there was a murder incident or something, we had to wait for about 4 hours to enter the country. There’s always something happening, abroad.
S: So you were lucky not to get killed (wry laugh).
K: Riiight (laugh).
S: Recently, when your flight was cancelled when you were coming back from Australia as well, I got update from Die through LINE (laugh).
K: That was also tough, we had to wait for 12 hours, we arrived 12 hours late at 9 o’clock, and from afternoon we started rehearsing for Budokan 2 days (wry laugh). But we didn’t even have 3 days for rehearsal.
S: After that rehearsal after coming back from Australia, me and Kiyoharu went to the concert where MORRIE was playing as a guest and Shinya-kun came too, saying “I just came back from Australia, did rehearsal and came straight here~” (laugh).
K: He’s great, like that (laugh).
S: He’s really fit. Even when everyone else is really exhausted (laugh).
K: That’s true (laugh).
S: Sometimes I worry is it ok for his body to not rest at all (laugh). But, I think everyone in DIR is totally awesome, to continue [bands] activity without a break, I’m the opposite, I think it’s good to rest once.
K: You said so before as well.
S: Yeah. If you continue bands activities for a long time, you loose breath sometimes, also relationship between band members gets difficult. If you take a break it resets. But… you will not stop, right?
K: You know, I can do things I love.
S: This time sukekiyo?
K: Yes.
S: Without being a bother to others it’s best to try doing things we love as much as possible, human life is not so long. If you are tied up with bound hands and foots nothing will go well, looking at human aspects and at our desires.
K: That’s true. That’s why this time, I was allowed to do what I love with sukekiyo.
S: About that, I did a remix for you, have you listened to it?
K: I did, I did. It’s great (laugh).
S: Really? It came out bit crumpled (laugh).
K: No, nothing like that (laugh).
S: I really love sukekiyo’s music. The music of “sukekiyo” and “DIR EN GREY” is totally different.
K: Right?
S: sukekiyo has a very progressive smell, it’s dark and bit gothic, it has some depth.
K: Thank you. At the time when you were choosing a song to remix, you handed in few songs, right? Why did you choose “hemimetabolism” in the end?
S: I think it was because it seemed to be the most different from the image of “DIR EN GREY”.
K: Ah.
S: You know, I wanted to make a track made from the shivers you release. I thought about making a dance track from the sounds you release, from the inspiration I felt. I wanted to be able to remember that when I will listen to the remix I’ve made (laugh).
K: (laugh)
S: The antithesis, the fear inside of me that was touched by your released shiver, I felt like it exploded… . The image inside of me was like the techno of communism. Like the people from the society under tyrannical rule of former Soviet Union had exploded, but now they are frozen, I tried to make the remix with deep industrial techno to show this feeling.
K: I see. It’s like my voice was manufactured, it’s interesting. It becomes a voice like that! - I thought. When I listened to the remix, the image of your concert revived me with a “bam!”.
S: Really? To tell the truth, this remix is a music that will become like a step to the next me. It feels like I always get involved with remixes. As a result of chemical reaction with others, there’s a new breath born from it. This time as well, I was pushed towards the indicator of my own music which I should go next to, by you, by sukekiyo.
K: No, it can’t be.
S: But, in sukekiyo everyone is excellent. It’s a gathering of good members. That’s why the quality of your music is very high. Because everyone is skillful.
K: They are (grin).
S: Takumi, he’s doing great?
K: He is (laugh). He does programming and guitar for sukekiyo, but he also helped with programming at your concert, right?
S: Yes. He was an acquaintance before, but I didn’t know he can play on a guitar like that! (laugh)
K: He is quite good, right (laugh).
S: Thinking of that, you were connected through various places.
K: Yes. Later this year what will you focus on in your activities?
S: The truth is from the end of May starts LUNA SEAs tour, so I will get pretty busy. But, I will find time somehow and go to your concert. You know, I’m a big fan of “DIR EN GREY” and “sukekiyo” (laugh).
K: Oh, I’m so honored that I can’t find words… I don’t know what to say, Sugizo-san (shy laugh).

Zdroj:https://kyotakumrau.tumblr.com/post/88838291372/motto2-vol-5-sugizo-and-kyo-talk-session?fbclid=IwAR0hN2nSOC3KvUy_4Glai7irvDZFyB6bddCJQz5_1ZwKxe6M9mOBI-d0GkM