7. ledna 2023

RUKI – FOOL’S MATE – (8.2009)

 


Interviewer
R - Ruki :)
[] - my explanaitons

At the stage of song-making, it was said that it would be a dark and maniac album, you probably became experienced with such work.
R - It's not that we intended to harden such songs, we went with the flow of DISTRESS AND COMA, and probably that's the feeling that we had.

Was it like that for the whole band?
R - Well, everyone got to that place naturally without thinking about it ... I think.

Ruki-kun, was there any particular consciousness during the song-making stage?
R - There was probably a feeling remaining in the melody, this time. It's a different feeling every time.

A different feeling?
R - What was made this time, I'd say had a similar atmosphere to the things that the GazettE was doing before as a band. Even now I'd say there are melodies that I like to sink in. About my own songs, rather than adapting something new, I'd say I was looking again at the songs from the very beginning.

Ruki-kun was doing songs as dark as in the the times of the old band?
R - Yes. So to say, those were songs with a more dark feeling. Gothic style ... though it wasn't really the Medieval Europe times feeling.

Arrival at the decision to revive the origins, did you do something that added to the result, it seems it made a full circle?
R - I wonder. Kind of "Where's the origin?", it was probably close to my own preference. It's not that I got tired of the melody I was doing, those were the songs I though were the best, it's like that now too ... but this time I did the compilation of songs with such a feeling.

Surely, there is a different atmosphere this time than in NIL or STACKED RUBBISH, it also became more aggressive, I noticed that you introduced some flexibility there.
R - Yeah, hmm. The songs we were doing in the past, when we make songs now it has a certain part of it.

The aim that you mentioned now, did you also say it to the members?
R - No, even when I didn't tell it, such songs were made. The songs that didn't fit into this album, even if we don't use them now I think it's ok, because we can do something with them in the end.

So about the lyrics, was there a constant theme?
R - It didn't change since before, at the time of writing I wrote about things that were happening in my own vicinity.

While there were entirely feelings of despair and loss, it got the kind of being alive wish somewhere in it.
R - It can be said that this album has even more than despair and abyss, it's on the edge of an abyss, on the verge of death.

But the death there, isn't it positive?
R - Hmm. Rather than a song connected to death, until the point when you arrive at it I'd say there is a story. This is a true story for all the lyrics, and there things represented there are the thoughts that piled up in the me then. I was probably very particular about the representation method for words.

The song from the previous single was edited too, but did you rerecord it entirely?
R - In GUREN we only recorded one part again from the live version, but after that the sound and the effects had chaned mixing. But I'm not sure if it was greatly changed.

Probably, if it changed you'd hear it. The mastering for this work was done entirely overseas right?
R - In any case, in whatever environment you listen to it, it will be good, I don't suppose it's going to be bad. Whether you listen to it on a cheap radio-casette player or a high class audio, I want people to listen to good sound. That's why if the sound is too good, it's bad.

For the children of a young band, it's been asked "The Gazette kind of sound's feel of material, how can it be made?"
R - This... because it's made with the utmost effort! (laugh)

Isn't it difficult to make a sound that is without too much beauty yet not overtly cheap?
R - We also had the "Luna Sea kind of feel of material we want to do" kind of era of thinking. But, however we did it, it never got the same. That's why there was no other way but to pursue our own sound shape. Even if we worked with the same engineers, it never became definitely the same. Even if we insisted on having the same producers and doing whatever it takes, I think we still wouldn't be able to make wholly the same sound quality.

I understand. You conveyed it like that. The album's leading song, right after the first SE is THE INVISIBLE WALL, but is it correct to think that it's the album's core?
R - Well, THE INVISIBLE WALL, rather than the core, it has its neutral existance in this album I'd say. It's heavy and dark and melodious... I'd say this song holds all the components. Since other songs are more one-sided, this one is probably the album's symbol.

You had an inspiration for THE INVISIBLE WALL from a scene [picture], right.
R - I sketched the scene of the emotions for this song's lyrics.

Ruki-kun, did you have the feeling of "a wall you can't see"?
R - Many times! Also when I didn't even really see where the Gazette was going to.

You mentioned that before too.
R - Yeah. If it was the opposite situation and I'd have seen it, it would've been boring. Whenever I'm fighting with a thing I don't see, I plunge into the thing I don't see and I have the feeling of going for it. You perceive "A wall you can't see" with different meanings.

The world of the lyrics is steadily becoming deeper.
R - That's why in the Japanese language there are plenty things you can't express in words. Because of that I'm stuck with English. Well, the judgement of this situation also depends on the recording company.

It's not good to have the representation regulated.
R - It was also like that once with doing the jacket, and there were also moments when we were stuck with the PV.

There's always a fight about this. NAKIGAHARA is the song where the old Gazette is recalled.
R - The NAKIGAHARA called place exists in reality, but it's not in the lyrics, when I was writing about the internet society image, where it's natural to corner a person whose face you don't see, it's a steadily becoming destorted world. You spill it out, and it's the kind of song... where people with similar feelings come together to hurt [others].

The last "there is the killed you" words in the line give a greatly dreary feeling. BATH ROOM had it too, it was the kind of "in" song, but because of the bounce in it, it had the rescue feeling, but this song...
R - It has the depressing feeling. As if it was really returning... *because it's done in this cheap way*. If you only listen to the story, the way of perceiving/capturing the internet society is surprisingly simple, but immediately I got the feeling of deeply-rooted things [in the song].

Because in reality there is the Net, and because there are also many crimes commited via it, right.
R - That too, because there is the Net, there are probably a lot of people getting hurt. The Net, now it's the system that can be used by anybody, right, and it's scary.

I realy think it's scary.
R - In these times, the world is abandoned in distortion.

13STAIRS[-]1 too, it seems as if there are warning lyrics.
R - This one, I was thinking "What is rock?" from the beginning. Basically, in the times right now the thing called "rock" doesn't exist, but that's what I was thinking.

With the emotional part?
R - The "rock", in a way I started to think that for the society it's a backlashing mental dispute. But even if I thought about "rock", some people probably won't think of it as "rock", even if someone thinks "he rocks, that person", aren't people's reasons different? If something is called "rock", even in the middle of this major scene there are different shapes of it in reality, but there are also things which I don't think of as "rock". Contrary to what is said, I think that rock's fundamental emotions are in punk more than in hip hop.

In the middle of the scene with no rock, what is the GazettE's stance?
R - We mistook it before as well, there were times where we thought "we rock everywhere". But now whether we're called the Visual Kei or not, however we're going to be called, it's perfectly fine with us.

If we can do the things we want, we don't care how we're called, you mean.
R - Yeah, it doesn't need an explanation.

But it's difficult to give a name to the genre of music of The GazettE.
R - Yeah. That's why whether we're called "That's Visual Kei", whether they call our hard songs "crumbling metal", whichever is fine. That's because we only do the things we love.

Isn't that the basis of rock!
R - I think so, probably.

But people confuse it.
R - That kind of songs (laugh)

Clear understanding! (laugh) A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN...
R - A smoothing song, isn't it.

This simply given solution is enough? (laugh)
R - (laugh) Well, it's parodying a butterfly and a moth resembles it. Even if you change into whichever shell, you are who you are. There's no criticism, it's only a song like that. You imagine a heavier matter when you look at the title, right? (laugh)

Certainly. Such cynical words I think are new.
R - Yeah, the way of writing them was different. I thought that a moth and a butterfly are similar. When you look at them quickly, you don't know [which is which], but the treatment is too different I'd say.

OGRE, the kanji enumeration makes very dreary lyrics...
R - It's got the biker gang cheek (laugh). I think it carries different meanings, but to give it a big name, "there's no god".

How did you decide on the atmosphere of this song?
R - Rather than the atmosphere, it was the rhythm. Another: what's the rhythm you can ride to? I/We have always ridden to English, but this time I wanted the kanji's seriousness to come out.

The kanji lyrics have the correct interpretation, right!
R - English interpretaiton is minute, but with the kanji words it's called correctly, and also it fits neatly. Because the contents differ from sentence to sentence, it's interesting and should be pretty good too.

Ruki-kun composed it?
R - Yeah, unexpectedly such a song too (laugh).

It doesn't seem likely that NAKIGAHARA has the same composer (laugh). In SHIROKITEKIYUUTSU, the "優" was used instead of "憂".
R - Everyone was like "the kanji, isn't it wrong?", but I was like "it is wrong!"(laugh)

The kind of feeling of loss flows about this song... .
R - It's not the kind of inside the hospital talk, but I'd say the first impression seems to be as if you lost something. The lyrics were troublesome, I wondered what representation to use. I wanted to make a sadness carying feeling.

IN THE MIDDLE OF CHAOS is the only speeding song in this album.
R - It's refreshing, isn't it. It was an independent world I drew myself. When you get to know Visual Kei, when you wake up to music and you're standing on the stage ...

You want proof. Also, the last, DIM SCENE. The reality is really in Japanese words in this one, the last "la la la...", the ending kind of remains in your ears.
R - Probably, I wonder if this song hasn't become the album's core. The lyrics were an obsession, in writing this time I put it all into the lyrics of the highest point of the song.

That's true. It's amazing!
R - The last "~my time~" words in the sentence, it's not revealed, but I wanted to write a song that would be as if old roadie's child died. That's why DIM SCENE is the kind of song with encompasses the whole album.

I remeber that the ending of DIM SCENE is looped with the beginning of THE INVISIBLE WALL.
R - It resembles the world overview too.

Well then, in the lyrics this time "iki [Jap.]", "breath" word is used a lot.
R - Now that you mentioned it, it's true. And "kyomu [Jap. nihility]" is uesd a lot too. That was an accident (laugh).

Wasn't the fact that you struggled with those words in the time you had for the work this time the reason?
R - Taking all things into consideration, there was "emptiness". I thought a lot about it.

In Ruki-kun's case, because of the circumstances you mentioned, you were able to make songs, right?
R - Yeah. I couldn't help it but I wrote it in my journal. I made my own problems and unhappiness into lyrics and songs, that's the reason why I make songs.

Now that you've completed it, from Ruki-kun's prespective, how do you perceive DIM?
R - Probably just like I mentioned before, there's also the loop feeling. The loop and the edge of the cliff... it's strange, but it's got the at the last moment kind of feeling.

For example, this "at the last moment feeling" image, personally you are feeling it for whichever single you make, right.
R - This "bang" kind of hardening feeling. There is a reason why it happens like that... I'd been thinking about the album's image long before. This at last coherent feeling. I'd say I finally managed to do the "that's what I wanted to do". Even if I took this melody once, there is a feeling of completion stronger than with anything we've done so far. Because of the SE put in, it will be something difficult to listen to to an ordinary person (laugh).

You're steadily becoming a band not aiming a tthe charts! (laugh)
R - (laugh) Well, but it's difficult... I think GUREN is a good track, it's catchy.

But you don't really feel the catchy-ness when you listen to the single (laugh).
R - Yeah, it's a dark song.

Still, I understand the meaning of the origin of this album's "good track".
R - I want to introduce it, this side. It seems people generally face into the direction of popular, but I didn't know about it from the beginning when I was making [songs]. Because I wanted to introduce "this music" to the world/public and not to make money, if it sells, there'll be money, it will probably acquire status and prestige too, "please make such songs" was also said to us... but the GazettE that would become like this wouldn't receive such fascination and it's better that it does. Even until now we're creeping up to doing the things we want to do. Because there are things for us to protect, we must be strong, and however the surroundings look at us, we're going to continue going through it.

Even in the past, when the ballad single sold, "tragedy/disaster!" you more or less declared, right (laugh)
R - It was CASSIS, wasn't it (laugh). That image of the GazettE being considered popular was bad. I wanted this song to sell, but it wasn't why I made it, still I thought it was a good song and that's why we released it, but that the GazettE as a whole would be considered like this, I was greatly irritated by it. That's why the singles after that were the opposite [to CASSIS] and aggressive songs were released. Ballads were made, I love such beautiful melodies as I mentioned, but we simply didn't overdo it in one song. This time, rather than an album following one main thread, we wanted to make an album that would be rich in composition variety.

NIL and STACKED RUBBISH were also albums with very thick centres, but the depth there, it increased in DIM for sure, it is correct to say that it symbolises the GazettE's true intention.
R - Yeah. That's why even if you only listen to the songs, it's ok, but because the substance too is very frank, I want people to read the lyrics too.

You'll probably restrain yourseves from excessive in this summer's tour promoting the album, but what will the next stage be like?
R - I can't say anything about it yet, but I want to make the kind of "we'll show you" live, with the way of using LED that no one has done before. Like the image of the album, I want to do a live with a film-ish drama nature.

Žádné komentáře:

Okomentovat