-- That you are appearing in this book, is actually the first time in five years,
Ruki [It is. It's really been a long time.]
-- You said that recently you didn't have a real place to properly talk (about things), so today we would like to listen to Ruki, as he is now, until the end. Last time we had been talking about the time until your debut, so this time, we would like to hear more from you while focusing the spot on the evolution "from your debut to Tokyo Dome".
Ruki [Yes. But honestly, it is like that, how I have been thinking about a lot of things I would like to talk about but there was no place, where I could properly do so. There was no platform, where I could talk about those things.]
-- Today, you can talk as much as you like. (laughs)
Ruki [Of course. (laughs) When talking a lot, it usually ends up being a talk about what Visual-kei is (to me). Actually, anything is fine with me in Visual-kei; however, there are a lot of things where I think that the authenticity is being taken less serious. Really, there are things where I think: "What's that supposed to mean?" So when I am talking with you or Masuda-san (Note: Interviewer, who is doing the second part of the interview.) I think this is the kind of deep conversation we get into.]
-- Ahahahahaha. Of course the artists are thinking about it, but on our part as well there are a number of things we feel frustrated about. I think there are lots of people, who don't listen, who just judge by appearance and not take things into account. I just think it's a strange kind of "pride" to depreciate things like that. I find myself thinking: "What kind of pride is that?"
Ruki [Ahahahaha Still a poisoned tongue as ever. (laughs) But it really is like that' isn't it? At first we are told that "Honestly, I had prejudice". That is, bluntly speaking, to look down on someone, isn't it? And I don't think that I am happy either when then being told that, after listening properly, that these kind of prejudice eventually vanished. Like, "Huh?" When being told these things like that that's not exactly a good way.]
-- With these words right now, I think Ruki has really been coming out as a human. I think these words show, that in which ever words you say things, without dancing around with their meaning, you do properly express what kind of human you are. I think that it is certain, that people come to think when listening properly, that the quality (of your music) is high, that you do have the skills, that you are great. However, there are certain conversational skills, not like first putting things down and then praising them afterwards.
Ruki [Ahahaha. It really is like that. We have also become good adults and we do understand that much. It is about listening to our music properly and then telling whether things have been understood or not. This is a little about magazines, but we do see, if the person who wrote the report, came to see us appropriately. The fans do understand this, too and there are letters saying "That was a good report". Maybe it is the same thing with interviews as well. But, honestly, I wonder why Visual-kei is the only thing that is put down like that with this kind of prejudice? I didn't think that it is something that particular. It's not like Visual-kei is especially separating itself (from other genres), so I don't know why people are looking down on it especially.]
-- Actually, Visual-kei isn't really a music genre, and it is really strange, how it is so greatly "discriminated", let's say from guitar-rock or so.
Ruki [Yeah, I really think so. Actually, as of late, I have been told a lot that, people have been fans of us for a long time, yet they could never openly say it. And while I am really happy that they have been fans for a long time, I do wonder why they couldn't have said it openly until now. Was it because it was embarrassing to like the GazettE? Isn't this also a form of looking down on us? Looking at thing like that makes me realize how much this world is based on judgment by sight.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [However, we are the Gazette all including this kind of look. And when the orientation of the magazines changes, we are also told that we should rather not wear make-up, but we say that this right here, including all of it is what the GazettE is. I always intend to do everything by possessing this kind of pride. The music, the lyrics, the GazettE's logo, the CD jacket designs, the outfits, everything. Therefore we do of course check the pictures taken for the magazine, everything until the color proof of it. I think in a way, I am a pretty annoying, noisy guy in that sense, as I have to check everything that far. It also includes the images of the songs, the perspective towards things. Also, when I am saying I would like to do (the shooting) in black and white and I am told that "it would be a waste to not do it in full color" or that "the magazine isn't selling if it's not in color", I feel really disappointed by such things. Because this is of course part of the band concept and I think that all of that makes the GazettE. I really don't like creating things that are unfitting for us. We do not intend to get rid of our make-up just because someone tells us it needs to be done to fit in. That includes the costumes as well. Because that's something that can't be changed that easily according to the situation. It's not meant to be some kind of narrow-mindedness, but when someone asks me to take off the sun glasses and they are part of the outfit then there is no reason to take them off. And it's like "Huh? There are other artists that are wearing sun glasses but because this is Visual-kei, it's no good?" There has been this kind of discrimination. It's weird, because it's like asking "Demon Kogure" to remove his make-up. Because isn't Demon Kogure he himself because of his make-up?]
-- Certainly he is. And it's also OK for Kobukuro to sunglasses, isn't it?
Ruki [Yes yes! (laughs) It's said to be just a little stubborn. Moreover, when the talks go in that direction, it also turns to saying: "Well, as an adult..." (laughs)]
-- Yet, when looking at it from the opposite point of view of those adults, then the GazettE are really the "HEADACHE MAN" (laughs) The reason for some headache for sure. (laughs)
Ruki [Ahahahaha, yeah. (laughs) That hasn't changed ever since. And it won't change now.]
-- However, I think it is also connected to those uncomfortable human traits, that when there are people who are selling well, they are not being told such things at all. Even if they are causing people headaches, as long as they sell, there (attitude) won't be causing any headache really.
Ruki [Ah, yes. I also think that if we were selling even better, that the reactions would change, honestly. Actually, since the time of our major debut we have experienced this kind of thing. It is one reason, why I wrote "Hyena".]
-- "Hyena" is the single you have released in February 2007. At that time, there have been things that made you think like this?
Ruki [Yeah. In December 2005 we have been making our major debut with a single release through King Records (Note: Single release of “Cassis” in Dec. 2005) and the year after, in May 2006, we have held our finale of "Nameless Liberty Six Guns" at Nippon Budokan. But frankly, we didn't sell it out. In September 2005, we had held the final of our tour "[gama] the underground cockroach" at the Tokyo International Forum Hall A, which we didn't sell out either. Yet, without selling out the International Forum, the performance at Nippon Budokan had been announced. At that time, somehow on the side, it felt like: "will this be OK?" Moving to Budokan without selling out the International Forum first. However, I think this kind of priming is very important for a band. If things weren't like that, the band wouldn't develop further. It would always remain lukewarm, just spoiling us and not lead to growth. We'd be stuffed with self-confidence, yet that doesn't mean we'd be having this kind of conviction. I think that the things we do have meaning to them. Therefore we did Budokan. And as expected we didn't sell it out. However, from the time we did Nippon Budokan onwards, in about 2006, the people we were able to mobilize were starting to increase and step by step the people who started to know the GazettE became more and more. The fans that accepted us increased and there was a time, when we got this kind of response. There were more and more people, at the same time who said that they had been having prejudice at first and that there had been a misapprehension. And I thought: "Wow, how can they tell these kind of thing from the appearance alone?"]
-- What kind of people have been saying these things?
Ruki [As we dealt with making a record within the fields of a major (record company) the people to which our contact expanded newly, like the people from the agency, those people as our new points of contact. The (people) from Core magazine (Note: Visual-kei specialized magazine), those magazines, who had been publishing us ever since, never said these kind of things. However while those people have judged us also by our sound, the people from general magazines and those people who dealt with us when we started to sell and popularity began to increase, (have been saying things like that). This is certainly the way these people had been looking at us. Thinking about it like that it is kind of depressing. Well, this is still an unchanging story about magazines. Frankly, these things have been said by people who are involved with music and such. I would hope that these kind of people wouldn't judge us just by what they see. Being told that, they are having prejudice, yet think that the Gazette is different from other Visual-kei bands is also absolutely nothing happy. I just think: "What's with this kind of saying things?" It is often said like that. It was depressing. We are not at an age where you can get us to do things by saying nice stuff and praise us like that. Because in the end we do feel the real intentions behind the words of these people.]
-- I see. So this is how "Hyena" came to be.
Ruki [That is it. As long as we sell they'll be all over us, yet as soon as we don't they'd drop us at an instance. That's what we see. Therefore we will keep to ourselves sternly and we can only continue to do what we believe in. I think we can only protect ourselves like that. Probably, now, as we are about to perform at Tokyo Dome, the people to gather around us will become more, yet, we will stay calm about that. In that sense, it also seems that with doing Tokyo Dome, the line between artists/musicians and entertainers is vanishing. However, I don't like it, when that's the only thing. We are first and foremost a band, not entertainers. We are not intending to become part of the trend. Just previously, Visual-kei had been in a sort of boom phase, and I really hated it. I disliked being put into that. Visual-kei isn't a trend; it has been there for a long time already. I didn't want it to be a boom. Therefore we did things not to be put togther with that. And as we did something that isn't meant to be a boom and yet becomes one anyway, we had to get out of this forcefully. Like: "Isn't this kind of different?"]
-- Certainly. There was a time when people would say that "this is the year of Visual-kei!"
Ruki [Wasn't that like "Huh? Is that so?". We have always been doing the same thing until now.]
-- That's what I though. I myself have been following you from the time you mobilized maybe 30 people, to now, where you have played Nippon Budokan a number of times as you have been this band for a long time. And I have been told that I "absolutely have to check out your band! They are absolutely coming!" And I was like ....huh?? Wondering what that person actually really knew.
Ruki [Ahahaha. It really is like that. There is this huge time lag.]
-- There is. Also after your major debut you have been going abroad pretty fast, haven't you?
Ruki [Yeah. We have been told that we should do a tour overseas, because touring overseas wis popular. And we thought that that was maybe a number of years earlier, wasn't it? There was also this kind of time lag, when it came to the thinking of touring overseas, looking at it from nwo. As going overseas was popular, kind of everyone went overseas at once, yet, we had experienced this already at a different time before that. We have been going overseas for the European tour in 2007 and there were quite a few places which sold out completely. However, there has also been this moment, when we had grown tired of this bad kind of selfishness, which is different from Japan. With that, we came to think that it will be better to create the basis in Japan and renew our activities overseas. That's why we haven't been positively active concerning going overseas since then. I dislike being part of a boom anyway. There have been places where no Japanese band had been before, yet, when being interviewed overseas, rather than being asked about things concerning the band, there have usually been questions, which had to do with anime. Like: "Which season of [DRAGON BALL] did you like best" and such. There were only these kinds of questions. I came to think that the people there, who came to see the GazettE, didn't actually come to see us as a band but because they felt the connection to Japanese anime culture.]
-- Huh? Was there any sort of relationship between the GazettE and anime at that time?
Ruki [No. The first time ever was when we released out first single after moving to Sony, which was "SHIVER" in a tie-up with "Kuroshitsuji - Black Butler".]
-- And it was still like that?
Ruki [It was...]
Ruki [It is. It's really been a long time.]
-- You said that recently you didn't have a real place to properly talk (about things), so today we would like to listen to Ruki, as he is now, until the end. Last time we had been talking about the time until your debut, so this time, we would like to hear more from you while focusing the spot on the evolution "from your debut to Tokyo Dome".
Ruki [Yes. But honestly, it is like that, how I have been thinking about a lot of things I would like to talk about but there was no place, where I could properly do so. There was no platform, where I could talk about those things.]
-- Today, you can talk as much as you like. (laughs)
Ruki [Of course. (laughs) When talking a lot, it usually ends up being a talk about what Visual-kei is (to me). Actually, anything is fine with me in Visual-kei; however, there are a lot of things where I think that the authenticity is being taken less serious. Really, there are things where I think: "What's that supposed to mean?" So when I am talking with you or Masuda-san (Note: Interviewer, who is doing the second part of the interview.) I think this is the kind of deep conversation we get into.]
-- Ahahahahaha. Of course the artists are thinking about it, but on our part as well there are a number of things we feel frustrated about. I think there are lots of people, who don't listen, who just judge by appearance and not take things into account. I just think it's a strange kind of "pride" to depreciate things like that. I find myself thinking: "What kind of pride is that?"
Ruki [Ahahahaha Still a poisoned tongue as ever. (laughs) But it really is like that' isn't it? At first we are told that "Honestly, I had prejudice". That is, bluntly speaking, to look down on someone, isn't it? And I don't think that I am happy either when then being told that, after listening properly, that these kind of prejudice eventually vanished. Like, "Huh?" When being told these things like that that's not exactly a good way.]
-- With these words right now, I think Ruki has really been coming out as a human. I think these words show, that in which ever words you say things, without dancing around with their meaning, you do properly express what kind of human you are. I think that it is certain, that people come to think when listening properly, that the quality (of your music) is high, that you do have the skills, that you are great. However, there are certain conversational skills, not like first putting things down and then praising them afterwards.
Ruki [Ahahaha. It really is like that. We have also become good adults and we do understand that much. It is about listening to our music properly and then telling whether things have been understood or not. This is a little about magazines, but we do see, if the person who wrote the report, came to see us appropriately. The fans do understand this, too and there are letters saying "That was a good report". Maybe it is the same thing with interviews as well. But, honestly, I wonder why Visual-kei is the only thing that is put down like that with this kind of prejudice? I didn't think that it is something that particular. It's not like Visual-kei is especially separating itself (from other genres), so I don't know why people are looking down on it especially.]
-- Actually, Visual-kei isn't really a music genre, and it is really strange, how it is so greatly "discriminated", let's say from guitar-rock or so.
Ruki [Yeah, I really think so. Actually, as of late, I have been told a lot that, people have been fans of us for a long time, yet they could never openly say it. And while I am really happy that they have been fans for a long time, I do wonder why they couldn't have said it openly until now. Was it because it was embarrassing to like the GazettE? Isn't this also a form of looking down on us? Looking at thing like that makes me realize how much this world is based on judgment by sight.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [However, we are the Gazette all including this kind of look. And when the orientation of the magazines changes, we are also told that we should rather not wear make-up, but we say that this right here, including all of it is what the GazettE is. I always intend to do everything by possessing this kind of pride. The music, the lyrics, the GazettE's logo, the CD jacket designs, the outfits, everything. Therefore we do of course check the pictures taken for the magazine, everything until the color proof of it. I think in a way, I am a pretty annoying, noisy guy in that sense, as I have to check everything that far. It also includes the images of the songs, the perspective towards things. Also, when I am saying I would like to do (the shooting) in black and white and I am told that "it would be a waste to not do it in full color" or that "the magazine isn't selling if it's not in color", I feel really disappointed by such things. Because this is of course part of the band concept and I think that all of that makes the GazettE. I really don't like creating things that are unfitting for us. We do not intend to get rid of our make-up just because someone tells us it needs to be done to fit in. That includes the costumes as well. Because that's something that can't be changed that easily according to the situation. It's not meant to be some kind of narrow-mindedness, but when someone asks me to take off the sun glasses and they are part of the outfit then there is no reason to take them off. And it's like "Huh? There are other artists that are wearing sun glasses but because this is Visual-kei, it's no good?" There has been this kind of discrimination. It's weird, because it's like asking "Demon Kogure" to remove his make-up. Because isn't Demon Kogure he himself because of his make-up?]
-- Certainly he is. And it's also OK for Kobukuro to sunglasses, isn't it?
Ruki [Yes yes! (laughs) It's said to be just a little stubborn. Moreover, when the talks go in that direction, it also turns to saying: "Well, as an adult..." (laughs)]
-- Yet, when looking at it from the opposite point of view of those adults, then the GazettE are really the "HEADACHE MAN" (laughs) The reason for some headache for sure. (laughs)
Ruki [Ahahahaha, yeah. (laughs) That hasn't changed ever since. And it won't change now.]
-- However, I think it is also connected to those uncomfortable human traits, that when there are people who are selling well, they are not being told such things at all. Even if they are causing people headaches, as long as they sell, there (attitude) won't be causing any headache really.
Ruki [Ah, yes. I also think that if we were selling even better, that the reactions would change, honestly. Actually, since the time of our major debut we have experienced this kind of thing. It is one reason, why I wrote "Hyena".]
-- "Hyena" is the single you have released in February 2007. At that time, there have been things that made you think like this?
Ruki [Yeah. In December 2005 we have been making our major debut with a single release through King Records (Note: Single release of “Cassis” in Dec. 2005) and the year after, in May 2006, we have held our finale of "Nameless Liberty Six Guns" at Nippon Budokan. But frankly, we didn't sell it out. In September 2005, we had held the final of our tour "[gama] the underground cockroach" at the Tokyo International Forum Hall A, which we didn't sell out either. Yet, without selling out the International Forum, the performance at Nippon Budokan had been announced. At that time, somehow on the side, it felt like: "will this be OK?" Moving to Budokan without selling out the International Forum first. However, I think this kind of priming is very important for a band. If things weren't like that, the band wouldn't develop further. It would always remain lukewarm, just spoiling us and not lead to growth. We'd be stuffed with self-confidence, yet that doesn't mean we'd be having this kind of conviction. I think that the things we do have meaning to them. Therefore we did Budokan. And as expected we didn't sell it out. However, from the time we did Nippon Budokan onwards, in about 2006, the people we were able to mobilize were starting to increase and step by step the people who started to know the GazettE became more and more. The fans that accepted us increased and there was a time, when we got this kind of response. There were more and more people, at the same time who said that they had been having prejudice at first and that there had been a misapprehension. And I thought: "Wow, how can they tell these kind of thing from the appearance alone?"]
-- What kind of people have been saying these things?
Ruki [As we dealt with making a record within the fields of a major (record company) the people to which our contact expanded newly, like the people from the agency, those people as our new points of contact. The (people) from Core magazine (Note: Visual-kei specialized magazine), those magazines, who had been publishing us ever since, never said these kind of things. However while those people have judged us also by our sound, the people from general magazines and those people who dealt with us when we started to sell and popularity began to increase, (have been saying things like that). This is certainly the way these people had been looking at us. Thinking about it like that it is kind of depressing. Well, this is still an unchanging story about magazines. Frankly, these things have been said by people who are involved with music and such. I would hope that these kind of people wouldn't judge us just by what they see. Being told that, they are having prejudice, yet think that the Gazette is different from other Visual-kei bands is also absolutely nothing happy. I just think: "What's with this kind of saying things?" It is often said like that. It was depressing. We are not at an age where you can get us to do things by saying nice stuff and praise us like that. Because in the end we do feel the real intentions behind the words of these people.]
-- I see. So this is how "Hyena" came to be.
Ruki [That is it. As long as we sell they'll be all over us, yet as soon as we don't they'd drop us at an instance. That's what we see. Therefore we will keep to ourselves sternly and we can only continue to do what we believe in. I think we can only protect ourselves like that. Probably, now, as we are about to perform at Tokyo Dome, the people to gather around us will become more, yet, we will stay calm about that. In that sense, it also seems that with doing Tokyo Dome, the line between artists/musicians and entertainers is vanishing. However, I don't like it, when that's the only thing. We are first and foremost a band, not entertainers. We are not intending to become part of the trend. Just previously, Visual-kei had been in a sort of boom phase, and I really hated it. I disliked being put into that. Visual-kei isn't a trend; it has been there for a long time already. I didn't want it to be a boom. Therefore we did things not to be put togther with that. And as we did something that isn't meant to be a boom and yet becomes one anyway, we had to get out of this forcefully. Like: "Isn't this kind of different?"]
-- Certainly. There was a time when people would say that "this is the year of Visual-kei!"
Ruki [Wasn't that like "Huh? Is that so?". We have always been doing the same thing until now.]
-- That's what I though. I myself have been following you from the time you mobilized maybe 30 people, to now, where you have played Nippon Budokan a number of times as you have been this band for a long time. And I have been told that I "absolutely have to check out your band! They are absolutely coming!" And I was like ....huh?? Wondering what that person actually really knew.
Ruki [Ahahaha. It really is like that. There is this huge time lag.]
-- There is. Also after your major debut you have been going abroad pretty fast, haven't you?
Ruki [Yeah. We have been told that we should do a tour overseas, because touring overseas wis popular. And we thought that that was maybe a number of years earlier, wasn't it? There was also this kind of time lag, when it came to the thinking of touring overseas, looking at it from nwo. As going overseas was popular, kind of everyone went overseas at once, yet, we had experienced this already at a different time before that. We have been going overseas for the European tour in 2007 and there were quite a few places which sold out completely. However, there has also been this moment, when we had grown tired of this bad kind of selfishness, which is different from Japan. With that, we came to think that it will be better to create the basis in Japan and renew our activities overseas. That's why we haven't been positively active concerning going overseas since then. I dislike being part of a boom anyway. There have been places where no Japanese band had been before, yet, when being interviewed overseas, rather than being asked about things concerning the band, there have usually been questions, which had to do with anime. Like: "Which season of [DRAGON BALL] did you like best" and such. There were only these kinds of questions. I came to think that the people there, who came to see the GazettE, didn't actually come to see us as a band but because they felt the connection to Japanese anime culture.]
-- Huh? Was there any sort of relationship between the GazettE and anime at that time?
Ruki [No. The first time ever was when we released out first single after moving to Sony, which was "SHIVER" in a tie-up with "Kuroshitsuji - Black Butler".]
-- And it was still like that?
Ruki [It was...]
-- Huh? Was there any sort of relationship between the GazettE and anime at that time?
Ruki [No. The first time ever was when we released our first single after moving to Sony,
which was "SHIVER" in a tie-up with "Kuroshitsuji II - Black Butler".]
-- And it was still like that?
Ruki [It was. Despite that. I think that is, what a "boom" is all about. The feeling of everything seen as one thing is, what is extremely popular. Therefore, when it comes to going overseas next time, it will be when we are a lot bigger. When we are bigger than that, is when I would like to go overseas again. People should come to see the GazettE as a band and we want to perform for people who like the music of the GazettE. That's the kind of environment. In Japan, too there are bands, which go overseas numerous times and there are many who have been approved because of their music as well. Therefore, I hope we can create a basis in Japan and head overseas from there again.]
-- I see. However, when it comes to the GazettE, you have walked quite a few paths that hadn't been opened yet, haven't you?
Ruki [Even so, the things we are doing are nothing that hasn't been done before. I think our sempais, who created this scene were amazing. There are so many things to actually experience by oneself. It is the same concerning the fields of a major band, in terms of trying things out for the first time and understanding them. Thinking about it now, the days we have spent to come until here is all our own experience.]
-- I see. Before, you talked about how Tokyo International Forum and Budokan as well hadn't been sold out, however, after you had released "Hyena", the performance at Yokohama Arena in March 2007 was pretty packed, wasn't it? You even added standing places, didn't you?
Ruki [Yes, the performances on March 11th in 2007 at Yokohama Arena was actually sold out. It wasn't necessarily related to the single that had been released at that time, nor had there been any great movements ever since we had performed at Nippon Budokan.]
-- Was going major maybe such a big thing?
Ruki [I wonder. For us, it only felt like an incommodity, when it came to going major. Like in terms of the lyrics writing. However, rather than doing things ourselves, we were able to use more PR tools, which I think certainly helped spread things further. I think it was the merit of that. In December 2005 we had been making our major debut through King Records, however, this was only concerning the distributions of our records. Therefore we didn't make any big announcements concerning that issue.]
-- Wasn't there any sort of longing to get a major contract?
Ruki [There wasn't. There isn't now either. Even if we were not major we could still be a band. Also, I don't feel like the GazettE has changed a lot ever since we went major, either. Because I think that, in which position we ever might be, we won't change who we are. Still, if there weren’t our surroundings listening to us, we could never lead a winning match either. In that sense, it is important for us to be major, because of the great number of people, who get the chance to listen to our music.]
-- I see. The release of "Cassis" in December 2005 had been very popular among many; however, there were times when you did show a certain resistance to being bound to that didn't you?
Ruki [There was.]
-- Why was that? After all, "Cassis" had been the very first release as a major band; did that have to do with that eventually? As the song had been made in that sense of incommodity of song making, maybe?
Ruki [No. That was not what it was about. It didn't have specifically to do with the "major" background. I just thought that I don't want us to be thought of as "the GazettE = a band that makes only song like Cassis". It is one of our songs, and we released it with the feeling of it being a good song, so it wasn't that "Cassis" was a bad song at that. I don't think so now either. Just being seen like that is what I didn't like. However, "Guren", which was released in February 2008, is also often referred to as a song people say they like a lot. It's good, because they are ballads, certainly. However, both "Cassis" and "Guren" are only songs among all of those of the GazettE and I dislike them being put as signature songs of ours. With singles, the number of songs released are actually only a few, so they easily leave an impression and among those the ballads leave the strongest ones. That is the reason, why I disliked that. Yet lately I am not so stubborn about that as much. When making "Guren" there was this part of purification, however, the feelings which I had at that time became less intense. Yet, it is probably just that we can put out acceptable songs into the world as well now. With this as our testimony, I think that the single "PLEDGE", which is to be released on December 15th, 2010, can be seen as a signature ballad for the GazettE, because we can say that we have made this kind of rock-ballad. I think that I'd be OK if this was seen as a signature song or ours. Put simply, "Cassis" and "Guren" are also good songs, but "PLEDGE" incorporates everything that the GazettE is right now. "Cassis" had been a song which I had written as a ballad for the winter with that bitter-sweet feeling to it. For "Guren" I somehow wanted to create a song with that Japanese feeling to it. Yet, for "PLEDGE" I wanted to create a song of which I could say that this is "what our songs are like". I think that is how I came to make this song.]
-- It is the moment, when you accept your earlier self. Also, in 2008 you have released "LEECH" and in 2009 it was "DISTRESS AND COMA". Personally, I really like the songs, including all their coupling songs, however, including the graciousness of releasing those songs as single tracks, it also shows the GazettE as an unshakable band with this firm kind of pride you have. The Album "DIM", which followed there after also held that feeling.
Ruki [For the album as usual, I thought about which color I wanted it to be like. And with "DIM" the dim feeling is coming about like that. At the heart of the album "DIM" was the phrase "DIM SCENE", which had already been there when I made "Guren". And the record has become one to carry this feeling on deeper.]
-- During the tour, too you have been showing the perspective of "DIM" on that stage, haven't you? With something like this, would this be a situation, which causes the least stress when expressing yourself?
Ruki [Hmm...On a musical level, that is probably the case. On a mental level, this had been a little out of order. Just with the release of "LEECH" in the second half of 2008, the year 2009 followed with the worst mental state possible due to human treachery. Certainly, when the band started growing bit by bit, different fellows started gathering around us as well. And amongst all of them, some had seemed to be plotting steadily, we felt. We had been betrayed by a person, which we had trusted a lot. This had been really hard. Despite all of that, "LEECH" did reach the top of the charts, which is extremely ironic. With that recoil, we did realize a secret live in Shinjuku as well. It was a time, when we hit back with the power of negativity. The lyrics I had written at that time portrayed the anger of that period, to the extent that I was probably revealing too much.]
-- Yet, this is probably the time, when humans have most of their underlying strength resurface.
Ruki [It really is like that. While being major, we moved as if we were still indies at that time. (laughs)]
-- But that's how it goes. Looking at it from the side, I think that, surprisingly, this was a very rich time for the band as such (because of the circumstances.)
Ruki [It was. It was like that. Like always, there was this wide gap in the situation as such. Concerning the music, we were very passionate, yet, concerning everything else our spirit / moral fell back a lot, because of the things that happened. I think that the many things occurring are simply a part of life. But this "negative power" is probably necessary as well, I think. Right now we have been able to free us from this bad vortex of that time, but it cost about this one year until this time's single "PLEDGE". It was not just being agitated through a number of directions, but the anger (of that time) was also incorporated in the singles following "LEECH".* Because it had been this kind of deep betrayal, it caused this kind of deep anger. Yet, I think that because we went through something like that, we are now who we are today. Honestly, because there had been these heavy feelings incorporated in the songs released after "Guren", added with the real anger of that time, this actual heaviness had been born. (laughs)]]
*Ruki had mentioned that after "LEECH", also "VERMIN" and "THE TRUE MURDEROUS INTENT" had been about the same issue, even though he had hoped to be done with it, when he wrote the latter.
-- Ahahahaha
Ruki [Thinking of it now, with the things that have been decided, and yet while not forgiving this ever, it was a necessary experience. Well, despite making songs like "Cassis" and "Guren", breaking things down with this kind of heaviness probably also had its parts where this kind of stubborn/weird think was in the way as well. Yet, I think it is also very interesting as to how we do things like this. (laughs) At the same time, we also had been playing in the charts. Like: "Wow, this songs gets this kind of a reaction!" I also think that this kind of enjoyment is important, on top of making music. However, only ever making music with the charts in mind is really not interesting at all. Despite making music as a professional, it is also important to not only think of making music as part of one's work. After all you wouldn't want to go things the wrong way, and if you have to look at it as work, from a time where you started making music, because you liked it, it is no use, when you stop enjoying it. This is what I think right now.]
-- Previously we had been slightly touching the topic of what pride is, yet, when it comes to you, do you ever think about breaking through this kind of pride to make this band bigger than necessary and just want to sell?
Ruki [No. Until now I haven't thought that doing certain things would sell more. For example, I haven't thought that when we wanted to go a certain direction, that we should change that direction in order to sell, or to fill a certain venue. Because after all, even if we don't fill TOKYO DOME I would not think it is because our music is bad. This is not how I think about this. Because I have this kind of confidence, I wouldn't take things like this to heart too much, even if we don't fill it. On the other hand, I don't really understand how to simply fill a place either.]
-- Like, what would that need to be done?
Ruki [While playing at TOKYO DOME, this does not mean it is the end of the band, because we will continue in the future as well. That's not the end of the road after all. It also does not mean that we will only keep playing venues at TOKYO DOME class. I am not failing its meaning, when I say that for us, TOKYO DOME is just another place to get fired up. It is a place for us to prime inspiration. In this way I think it is necessary for us. This is the reason, why we decided to do TOKYO DOME this time. I don't want this to be seen too heavy. It is just like Tokyo International Forum in 2005 and Nippon Budokan in 2006.]
-- I see.
Ruki [At those time, those had been "unfitting" venues for us. Tokyo International Forum and Budokan had been for us at that time the same kind of priming. Lately we have been doing halls, which have been about a certain size only, like playing safe, not doing anything we wouldn't fill, DOME had been decided looking at what we might be able to do like right now. Really, we are not being threatened by anything or anyone really. It doesn't mean we want to be seen as artists who have played at TOKYO DOME either. We don't have this kind of pride. I'm repeating myself, but for us this is simply pulling of the ignition. Lately, I have received a lot of fan letters, asking whether we would go on hiatus after TOKYO DOME, or since our schedule after TOKYO DOME has not been revealed yet, whether we would eventually disband. No, no, no, like always for a final, we are playing at a bigger place, where we will be announcing future plans. In that sense it is just like always. There is no particular reason why the future plans have not been announced yet. Certainly, TOKYO DOME is for everyone an especially large place, in general terms as well. It is seen as something special. Of course, for us, too, this is different in sensation from playing an average live house. However, it is a challenge in its own way. It won't change anything, whether we played at TOKYO DOME or just a simple live.]
-- On the other hand, the reactions you get from your surroundings are very special.
Ruki [They are. When I read the letter, which asked whether we would break up after TOKYO DOME, because the schedule hadn't been revealed, I just wondered: "Huh?? Why would we?" (laughs) If we were to break up, I'd probably announce that a lot bigger, like "the GazettE DISBANDING! “ I don't know what it is like with other bands, but we as band members are very close to each other, so before we break up, we'd have to really start hating each other, I think. At that point, I am not sure if we could still be playing live.]
-- You wouldn't be able to continue if you were to dislike each other this much, right?
Ruki [Yeah. If we were to dislike each other, we wouldn't do this. That would be the time to quit it already. I don't see the point in continuing until you hate each other...]
Ruki [No. The first time ever was when we released our first single after moving to Sony,
which was "SHIVER" in a tie-up with "Kuroshitsuji II - Black Butler".]
-- And it was still like that?
Ruki [It was. Despite that. I think that is, what a "boom" is all about. The feeling of everything seen as one thing is, what is extremely popular. Therefore, when it comes to going overseas next time, it will be when we are a lot bigger. When we are bigger than that, is when I would like to go overseas again. People should come to see the GazettE as a band and we want to perform for people who like the music of the GazettE. That's the kind of environment. In Japan, too there are bands, which go overseas numerous times and there are many who have been approved because of their music as well. Therefore, I hope we can create a basis in Japan and head overseas from there again.]
-- I see. However, when it comes to the GazettE, you have walked quite a few paths that hadn't been opened yet, haven't you?
Ruki [Even so, the things we are doing are nothing that hasn't been done before. I think our sempais, who created this scene were amazing. There are so many things to actually experience by oneself. It is the same concerning the fields of a major band, in terms of trying things out for the first time and understanding them. Thinking about it now, the days we have spent to come until here is all our own experience.]
-- I see. Before, you talked about how Tokyo International Forum and Budokan as well hadn't been sold out, however, after you had released "Hyena", the performance at Yokohama Arena in March 2007 was pretty packed, wasn't it? You even added standing places, didn't you?
Ruki [Yes, the performances on March 11th in 2007 at Yokohama Arena was actually sold out. It wasn't necessarily related to the single that had been released at that time, nor had there been any great movements ever since we had performed at Nippon Budokan.]
-- Was going major maybe such a big thing?
Ruki [I wonder. For us, it only felt like an incommodity, when it came to going major. Like in terms of the lyrics writing. However, rather than doing things ourselves, we were able to use more PR tools, which I think certainly helped spread things further. I think it was the merit of that. In December 2005 we had been making our major debut through King Records, however, this was only concerning the distributions of our records. Therefore we didn't make any big announcements concerning that issue.]
-- Wasn't there any sort of longing to get a major contract?
Ruki [There wasn't. There isn't now either. Even if we were not major we could still be a band. Also, I don't feel like the GazettE has changed a lot ever since we went major, either. Because I think that, in which position we ever might be, we won't change who we are. Still, if there weren’t our surroundings listening to us, we could never lead a winning match either. In that sense, it is important for us to be major, because of the great number of people, who get the chance to listen to our music.]
-- I see. The release of "Cassis" in December 2005 had been very popular among many; however, there were times when you did show a certain resistance to being bound to that didn't you?
Ruki [There was.]
-- Why was that? After all, "Cassis" had been the very first release as a major band; did that have to do with that eventually? As the song had been made in that sense of incommodity of song making, maybe?
Ruki [No. That was not what it was about. It didn't have specifically to do with the "major" background. I just thought that I don't want us to be thought of as "the GazettE = a band that makes only song like Cassis". It is one of our songs, and we released it with the feeling of it being a good song, so it wasn't that "Cassis" was a bad song at that. I don't think so now either. Just being seen like that is what I didn't like. However, "Guren", which was released in February 2008, is also often referred to as a song people say they like a lot. It's good, because they are ballads, certainly. However, both "Cassis" and "Guren" are only songs among all of those of the GazettE and I dislike them being put as signature songs of ours. With singles, the number of songs released are actually only a few, so they easily leave an impression and among those the ballads leave the strongest ones. That is the reason, why I disliked that. Yet lately I am not so stubborn about that as much. When making "Guren" there was this part of purification, however, the feelings which I had at that time became less intense. Yet, it is probably just that we can put out acceptable songs into the world as well now. With this as our testimony, I think that the single "PLEDGE", which is to be released on December 15th, 2010, can be seen as a signature ballad for the GazettE, because we can say that we have made this kind of rock-ballad. I think that I'd be OK if this was seen as a signature song or ours. Put simply, "Cassis" and "Guren" are also good songs, but "PLEDGE" incorporates everything that the GazettE is right now. "Cassis" had been a song which I had written as a ballad for the winter with that bitter-sweet feeling to it. For "Guren" I somehow wanted to create a song with that Japanese feeling to it. Yet, for "PLEDGE" I wanted to create a song of which I could say that this is "what our songs are like". I think that is how I came to make this song.]
-- It is the moment, when you accept your earlier self. Also, in 2008 you have released "LEECH" and in 2009 it was "DISTRESS AND COMA". Personally, I really like the songs, including all their coupling songs, however, including the graciousness of releasing those songs as single tracks, it also shows the GazettE as an unshakable band with this firm kind of pride you have. The Album "DIM", which followed there after also held that feeling.
Ruki [For the album as usual, I thought about which color I wanted it to be like. And with "DIM" the dim feeling is coming about like that. At the heart of the album "DIM" was the phrase "DIM SCENE", which had already been there when I made "Guren". And the record has become one to carry this feeling on deeper.]
-- During the tour, too you have been showing the perspective of "DIM" on that stage, haven't you? With something like this, would this be a situation, which causes the least stress when expressing yourself?
Ruki [Hmm...On a musical level, that is probably the case. On a mental level, this had been a little out of order. Just with the release of "LEECH" in the second half of 2008, the year 2009 followed with the worst mental state possible due to human treachery. Certainly, when the band started growing bit by bit, different fellows started gathering around us as well. And amongst all of them, some had seemed to be plotting steadily, we felt. We had been betrayed by a person, which we had trusted a lot. This had been really hard. Despite all of that, "LEECH" did reach the top of the charts, which is extremely ironic. With that recoil, we did realize a secret live in Shinjuku as well. It was a time, when we hit back with the power of negativity. The lyrics I had written at that time portrayed the anger of that period, to the extent that I was probably revealing too much.]
-- Yet, this is probably the time, when humans have most of their underlying strength resurface.
Ruki [It really is like that. While being major, we moved as if we were still indies at that time. (laughs)]
-- But that's how it goes. Looking at it from the side, I think that, surprisingly, this was a very rich time for the band as such (because of the circumstances.)
Ruki [It was. It was like that. Like always, there was this wide gap in the situation as such. Concerning the music, we were very passionate, yet, concerning everything else our spirit / moral fell back a lot, because of the things that happened. I think that the many things occurring are simply a part of life. But this "negative power" is probably necessary as well, I think. Right now we have been able to free us from this bad vortex of that time, but it cost about this one year until this time's single "PLEDGE". It was not just being agitated through a number of directions, but the anger (of that time) was also incorporated in the singles following "LEECH".* Because it had been this kind of deep betrayal, it caused this kind of deep anger. Yet, I think that because we went through something like that, we are now who we are today. Honestly, because there had been these heavy feelings incorporated in the songs released after "Guren", added with the real anger of that time, this actual heaviness had been born. (laughs)]]
*Ruki had mentioned that after "LEECH", also "VERMIN" and "THE TRUE MURDEROUS INTENT" had been about the same issue, even though he had hoped to be done with it, when he wrote the latter.
-- Ahahahaha
Ruki [Thinking of it now, with the things that have been decided, and yet while not forgiving this ever, it was a necessary experience. Well, despite making songs like "Cassis" and "Guren", breaking things down with this kind of heaviness probably also had its parts where this kind of stubborn/weird think was in the way as well. Yet, I think it is also very interesting as to how we do things like this. (laughs) At the same time, we also had been playing in the charts. Like: "Wow, this songs gets this kind of a reaction!" I also think that this kind of enjoyment is important, on top of making music. However, only ever making music with the charts in mind is really not interesting at all. Despite making music as a professional, it is also important to not only think of making music as part of one's work. After all you wouldn't want to go things the wrong way, and if you have to look at it as work, from a time where you started making music, because you liked it, it is no use, when you stop enjoying it. This is what I think right now.]
-- Previously we had been slightly touching the topic of what pride is, yet, when it comes to you, do you ever think about breaking through this kind of pride to make this band bigger than necessary and just want to sell?
Ruki [No. Until now I haven't thought that doing certain things would sell more. For example, I haven't thought that when we wanted to go a certain direction, that we should change that direction in order to sell, or to fill a certain venue. Because after all, even if we don't fill TOKYO DOME I would not think it is because our music is bad. This is not how I think about this. Because I have this kind of confidence, I wouldn't take things like this to heart too much, even if we don't fill it. On the other hand, I don't really understand how to simply fill a place either.]
-- Like, what would that need to be done?
Ruki [While playing at TOKYO DOME, this does not mean it is the end of the band, because we will continue in the future as well. That's not the end of the road after all. It also does not mean that we will only keep playing venues at TOKYO DOME class. I am not failing its meaning, when I say that for us, TOKYO DOME is just another place to get fired up. It is a place for us to prime inspiration. In this way I think it is necessary for us. This is the reason, why we decided to do TOKYO DOME this time. I don't want this to be seen too heavy. It is just like Tokyo International Forum in 2005 and Nippon Budokan in 2006.]
-- I see.
Ruki [At those time, those had been "unfitting" venues for us. Tokyo International Forum and Budokan had been for us at that time the same kind of priming. Lately we have been doing halls, which have been about a certain size only, like playing safe, not doing anything we wouldn't fill, DOME had been decided looking at what we might be able to do like right now. Really, we are not being threatened by anything or anyone really. It doesn't mean we want to be seen as artists who have played at TOKYO DOME either. We don't have this kind of pride. I'm repeating myself, but for us this is simply pulling of the ignition. Lately, I have received a lot of fan letters, asking whether we would go on hiatus after TOKYO DOME, or since our schedule after TOKYO DOME has not been revealed yet, whether we would eventually disband. No, no, no, like always for a final, we are playing at a bigger place, where we will be announcing future plans. In that sense it is just like always. There is no particular reason why the future plans have not been announced yet. Certainly, TOKYO DOME is for everyone an especially large place, in general terms as well. It is seen as something special. Of course, for us, too, this is different in sensation from playing an average live house. However, it is a challenge in its own way. It won't change anything, whether we played at TOKYO DOME or just a simple live.]
-- On the other hand, the reactions you get from your surroundings are very special.
Ruki [They are. When I read the letter, which asked whether we would break up after TOKYO DOME, because the schedule hadn't been revealed, I just wondered: "Huh?? Why would we?" (laughs) If we were to break up, I'd probably announce that a lot bigger, like "the GazettE DISBANDING! “ I don't know what it is like with other bands, but we as band members are very close to each other, so before we break up, we'd have to really start hating each other, I think. At that point, I am not sure if we could still be playing live.]
-- You wouldn't be able to continue if you were to dislike each other this much, right?
Ruki [Yeah. If we were to dislike each other, we wouldn't do this. That would be the time to quit it already. I don't see the point in continuing until you hate each other...]
-- You wouldn't be able to continue if you were to dislike each other this much, right?
Ruki [Yeah. If we were to dislike each other, we wouldn't do this. That would be the time to quit it already. I don't see the point in continuing until you hate each other. Don't you think it would be hard to be making music together if you didn't like each other? If it goes as far as not talking to each other anymore, I think we could not be making music together either. You don’t do sad things like that, right? I don't think we could continue until it goes that far. I think we wouldn't be able to continue physically. However, before we really start disliking each other, there would be a lot of talks, so I don't think we'll dislike each other after all.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [Therefore, I will never think about selling so much that the musical aspect changes. Because I wonder what kind of meaning there is (to music), when doing so in order to sell. However, when it comes to the opinions from outside, just as much as to what the band members think we should be doing, I will stop to take those in and think about it. Parts of understanding will lead to a consent. If there were the things we wanted to do within this hard-to-understand music business, we will not forcefully push them through only halfway understood, but we will rather take them in and make them properly understandable. After having come to release records in the major fields, that is certainly the one thing we have been told the most.]
-- In that sense, this is also what being major means, right?
Ruki [However, in the early days, there was also a time, when we made songs that were easy to understand und we thought that people could like. That's also been something that is part of us, and because we know what is good about that, too, we also properly think about it and make music from there. Yet, I am totally not taking in any opinions, which state that "you won't be selling if you don't directly say 'I want to meet you'". It is probably one thing to take in this kind of guarantee of that person, if I was to write lyrics accordingly to make the GazettE sell a lot more, with simple lyrics like "I want to meet you". However, if we threw our pride away like that, writing these lyrics and didn't sell, we'd be talking about who was going to take responsibility for that, right? Like: "If you say something like this, would you please take over responsibility?" or "Are you going to take over responsibility now, since I wrote those lyrics as you told us and have caused so much damage to the band that is might be the end?". That person would in any case refuse to take responsibility. Well, then why would they keep demanding things like that so strongly? And if they were telling us that "Don't worry, anyone who has written something like this sold" and put up any number of people who sold as examples, I'd still be like "No, no, no, these people are all different from us". Those people might have sold doing so, but just because everyone is doing the same thing, doesn't mean everyone is selling. For the things we do at our own responsibility, we will take over responsibility, yet, if someone tells us to do certain things and we fail with it, I wouldn't know where that would be resounding. Because I don't want to do something as bad as seeking responsibility in other people.]
-- At whatever time, you would want to take over responsibility for the things you have done yourself. That is probably all of what your pride as the GazettE and as Ruki, along with the direction you are taking with the other band members is all about. I think that is graciously cool.
Ruki [In which way ever it will eventually be turning out, we will not bend around the things we want to do or our individuality. For me, that would be the worst thing that could be done in Visual-kei. Changing completely after not selling and in that respect starting to wear make-up...such things. I think it's fine if there are bands that put their main priority to selling. However, we are aiming for something else. Even if it is not to solely make music for our fans, nor the people that gather around us and our music, because we are in vogue, we want to become a band that has always been thought of as a good band by those fans who have supported us ever since. Yet, to do that, we still have to work a lot harder. That's also how we came to decide about playing at TOKYO DOME. This is to urge us forward more than until now even.]
-- You have also said that you don't want to gather shared feelings with the lyrics you write. In the previous interview in ROCK AND READ you have said that, there are quite a few moving things, when it comes to what women understand as "sad", and that was, what left the biggest impression on you. You are not talking about common feelings there, are you?
Ruki [No, I'm not. It's more like reading the lyrics and being moved by picturing them. Like being moved just listening to the song. Since I am a man, it shouldn't become like the feelings of a woman. That's not how shared feelings come about. Even as love is one thing, people are very different. The sorrow and the sadness. The type of person you like is different, which is also the point in difference of sorrow and sadness. It's not possible to share feelings completely. It is more like feeling sorrow by imagining the scene from which the sadness arose or imagining the background from which these feelings came from. I don't write these lyrics for people to understand these feelings, from a situation when someone met with someone at that hour, with something happening from which those feelings arose. After all, this is what happened to me as a writer and I think of shared feelings in that aspect as somewhat intrusive. The people that listen have (only) the images of people that listen. I thinks that's fine like that. Because the people that listen and take it in, have a number of feelings coming together, which is good that way. However, I would like to talk about my feelings of the lyrics I wrote, when I am asked in interviews, as to what kind of background they have. Still, without using the phrase "I want to meet you" directly I still bring this feeling across that the person from the song really wants to meet that other one altogether. Rather than using such obvious words, I want to write lyrics on an a lot deeper and more mental level. Yet, while probably being connected to the topic of selling or not selling, I was, reversibly, during the Indies time as compared to the major time, a lot more “dirty”.]
-- Dirty?
Ruki [Yes. Because I thought about writing lyrics with the awareness of what I thought fans of Visual-kei would like to hear. I was calculating with it. Usually people liked it when I thought they would. It was the same with songs. However, I was aiming for that less and less as we continued with the band. It has become less needed in that sense. Back then I was still trying out the lyrics I was writing myself. Like, what would be like me, what would be like Ruki, what's his style? Certainly, I didn't want to write lyrics like everybody else. However, as I continued writing, this just came to be naturally. Of course there are times when I just want to write "I want to meet you", since I do have these feelings naturally as well. Still rather than using that phrase, I see if I can express it deeper and the means of that is what is most like me. That's also why I think that my lyrics now as compared to earlier are a lot straighter forward. Saying "I want to meet you" also means "I can't meet you" and accordingly it also means "I can't hold/reach you", which would be the expression in that. When adding things up like that, it is probably what makes lyrics harder to understand, but then I don't want to write it simple. Because hidden in that are the deep sadness and those feelings I want to sing about.]
-- I see.
Ruki [Lyrics to decode. Because I think this is also part of my individuality, I hope I can continue this without bending myself around things.]
-- In a different interview in another magazine you said that you believe, that the revivals of all your admired sempais, is due to the fact that you, who continued their work, couldn't do it properly.
Ruki [Yes. I really think like that. It seems that even though we have surpassed the age of our admired sempais from then already, we have still not achieved what they have. I think we need to work a lot harder on that. That's just how I think in general. It seems that if we don't work harder, the hurdles ahead are getting lower and lower. Back in the days, when you worked really, really hard, you were able to get on a black and white page (in a magazine), however, when you are just about to sprout (as an artist) you can get some 10 full-color pages. That's not good. There is no enticement in something you can obtain this easily. We really have to work harder. After all these are our fields of Visual-kei we have been admiring, and yet, it even feels embarrassing. There is this tendency of imitating those bands that have become popular. I don't want to say anything patronizing really, but I think that it can't be helped that there is this kind of "prejudice", too. We need a lot more pride to do it properly I think.]
-- During their performance on December 29th and 30th, 1991 at Nihon Seinen Hall LUNA SEA announced their major debut and eventually went major in May 1992, the following year. GLAY became major in May 1994. The band members were all still in their 20s at that time, right?
Ruki [Yes. Even at a young age like that, LUNA SEA and GLAY were simply awesome. I remember what RYUICHI said at the time of their major debut: "What's wrong with dreaming!" When I talked to J-san back then and said "We are going to play our first Budokan! “ He would say: "At that time, we have done TOKYO DOME already! Work hard! (laughs)" It was a supportive push and I could only think that we need to work harder. Lately, I have more opportunities to talk with our sempais and I was told that they think that the GazettE is a cool band. And while I think that it is quite a motivational force, I think I would be giving even more if they told us we are rubbish. (laughs) It's not that I would want them to call us rubbish, but I would work harder so they wouldn't call us that eventually. Those fields that have been created by our sempais, and because we are walking those paths, which have already been opened up for us by them, it is what I have to protect. After all, our sempais have not just fascinated us by their look, but of course also on a musical level and past that on a very deep mental level as well. I have been reading the magazines, too. I have always admired the more, esthetic masculine Visual-kei scene with bands that are more particular about their musical and artistic side. Still, somehow there was this time, when it became more colorful. It seems that that was when the image was crumbling. Because of that the music disappeared, too. At that time, all the big bands seemed to have stopped their activities as well. The timing and the things coming together during that period are also the reason, why we were there as fans. That's what I thought at that time. The fans too thought of it as a claim of their always admirable and cool Visual-kei scene. As for me and with anything really, I dislike people who give up easily. I really hate people who give up without doing anything about it. Wouldn't you regret it if you just gave up without trying anything? Therefore, I think it's better to take action than regretting things later.]
-- Isn't there anything you gave up on without doing anything?
Ruki [No. I can say there isn't. As there are things that are impossible when it comes to the visual aspects of the CD jacket design, there are concerning the budget. However, I don't give it up when it seems impossible on the budget side. It's like at first just trying to go with saying it's impossible. (laughs) After all there are cases when things that seemed not to be an option, come to be a possibility when taking the first steps. Giving things a shape that I don't like is pretty painful after all. I wouldn't be able to handle it, when thinking about giving such things to the fans. I really don't like this kind of thinking. Doing everything earnestly is what holds the meaning to things. Whatever the result of it may be, first it needs to be done earnestly. That's what I think. It is the same when I think about TOKYO DOME.]
-- I see. There are also connections to this, right?
Ruki [Yes. Even if it is stubborn, I am not one to forget the sensation of the early days. That is my basic premise.]
-- Sadly, humans are just beings, who do forget things, so that's difficult, isn't it. Even though you remember that pure feeling / sensation from when you were a kid and thought you would never forget it, eventually (the memory) grows thin.
Ruki [Yes, that's what it's like. Therefore, at those times (when I am about to forget), I am absolutely watching hide-san's videos. His live DVDs or so. And when I watch these videos of him, I remember those things I was about to forget. Like very basic thing, such as how being in a band is actually fun. For me, music with respect solely to the charts is no fun because that's not what rock music is about. If I was to become like that, I was to disappear myself. Of course playing in the higher ranks of the charts feels great along with the facts that everyone gets to listen to it a lot and everyone thinks it's great, yet that kind of joy is something else. First and foremost I think that not losing sight of the original joy (of being in a band) is important. Even though it seems simple, it is actually difficult.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [But really, I think it's a simple thing. That is the one thing we wish for the most right now. When we first were about to play Budokan, there had been this wall, which showed us it was impossible. Yet, when looking at it, we all joined together and rushed towards it with all our strength. This passion and the emotions of that time is what we came to remember now again. I think we should never forget this sensation in the future either. When aiming of a safe place, one gets to be lazy. Even though that's not intentional, the passion runs out. As of late, I came to think that the GazettE had a decline in this certain kind of passion. Therefore we are aiming for TOKYO DOME.]
-- However, in all honesty, when thinking about the people to mobilize for TOKYO DOME, even with the long tour prior to that, I thought that it might be quite hell-bent to go for. You probably also have thought about not doing lives at all and just do TOKYO DOME on one blow, which would also be by the means of the number of people you'd expect to be able to mobilize.
Ruki [Yes, we did. We do understand that much. We understand this ourselves and we have been told the same things by the staff around us. However, I don't think it is of much meaning. We are not playing at TOKYO DOME to challenge anyone in the number of people we can mobilize. That's also why we wanted to go on tour at all costs. Telling our event manager to squeeze in the plan as much as possible, they have scheduled this tour for us. We are a band that usually challenges a big place at the end of each tour and just because this was TOKYO DOME, we didn't want to let it go to waste.]
-- I see. Like for the Budokan performance, it was this degree of importance to sum things up like that.
Ruki [It was. That is the most important thing. Therefore, there would have been no meaning in just playing TOKYO DOME like that.]
-- I see.
Ruki [The first person who told us to do TOKYO DOME was the one who set it up for X JAPAN and LUNA SEA. That person said: "Do it! I'll take over responsibility." However, we wondered if it was OK if someone else took over responsibility. After all, you can't take responsibility for something like that really. However, that person still wasn't lying. We were happy that this was the kind of feeling we were regarded with. This feeling did support us, too. Even though there was no way of confirmation, there was still the feeling that the GazettE would be OK. It was passionate in either case. We were happy. Honestly. The fact that there were people who supported us just like that. It must have been the same feelings as the fans were having, waiting to see the GazettE stand on the stage of TOKYO DOME. With this kind of support in the back, and to become the GazettE, which can be thought of as a cool band, we are right in the middle of rushing ahead.]
-- Of course I am expecting a lot.
Ruki [If I was to earnestly express my feelings, it is not that we are not uncertain (about playing at TOKYO DOME) even after the long tour. It's not that we are not scared about it either. However, performing at TOKYO DOME after this long tour is also part of the loyalty towards those fans that have ever since supported us like this, I think. I thought this, no matter how hard, is what we need to do, and in respect to being in a band and to protect what the GazettE is all about. Our surroundings probably thought that we are idiots to be playing TOKYO DOME after we have been on this long tour. However, that's fine. That's just how we as the GazettE do it. Isn't it OK do dream? (laughs) I don't want to let a dream simply end as a dream. And I would like to borrow RYUICHI's words here: "What's wrong with dreaming!" I really think about it like that, too. Even as we are told that it is oh-so awesome to be playing at TOKYO DOME, it really isn't. For us, it is the same as it was when playing at Nippon Budokan and Yokohama Arena. TOKYO DOME is where the street we have been walking earnestly until hear leads us. This rout is also what we have wanted to show. It is one of the landmarks on this way. Even though this landmark is extremely huge and has our inner most excited. (laughs) However, if it wasn't there, we wouldn't be able to keep going further. At this point in time, this is what the GazettE wants to show.]
Ruki [Yeah. If we were to dislike each other, we wouldn't do this. That would be the time to quit it already. I don't see the point in continuing until you hate each other. Don't you think it would be hard to be making music together if you didn't like each other? If it goes as far as not talking to each other anymore, I think we could not be making music together either. You don’t do sad things like that, right? I don't think we could continue until it goes that far. I think we wouldn't be able to continue physically. However, before we really start disliking each other, there would be a lot of talks, so I don't think we'll dislike each other after all.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [Therefore, I will never think about selling so much that the musical aspect changes. Because I wonder what kind of meaning there is (to music), when doing so in order to sell. However, when it comes to the opinions from outside, just as much as to what the band members think we should be doing, I will stop to take those in and think about it. Parts of understanding will lead to a consent. If there were the things we wanted to do within this hard-to-understand music business, we will not forcefully push them through only halfway understood, but we will rather take them in and make them properly understandable. After having come to release records in the major fields, that is certainly the one thing we have been told the most.]
-- In that sense, this is also what being major means, right?
Ruki [However, in the early days, there was also a time, when we made songs that were easy to understand und we thought that people could like. That's also been something that is part of us, and because we know what is good about that, too, we also properly think about it and make music from there. Yet, I am totally not taking in any opinions, which state that "you won't be selling if you don't directly say 'I want to meet you'". It is probably one thing to take in this kind of guarantee of that person, if I was to write lyrics accordingly to make the GazettE sell a lot more, with simple lyrics like "I want to meet you". However, if we threw our pride away like that, writing these lyrics and didn't sell, we'd be talking about who was going to take responsibility for that, right? Like: "If you say something like this, would you please take over responsibility?" or "Are you going to take over responsibility now, since I wrote those lyrics as you told us and have caused so much damage to the band that is might be the end?". That person would in any case refuse to take responsibility. Well, then why would they keep demanding things like that so strongly? And if they were telling us that "Don't worry, anyone who has written something like this sold" and put up any number of people who sold as examples, I'd still be like "No, no, no, these people are all different from us". Those people might have sold doing so, but just because everyone is doing the same thing, doesn't mean everyone is selling. For the things we do at our own responsibility, we will take over responsibility, yet, if someone tells us to do certain things and we fail with it, I wouldn't know where that would be resounding. Because I don't want to do something as bad as seeking responsibility in other people.]
-- At whatever time, you would want to take over responsibility for the things you have done yourself. That is probably all of what your pride as the GazettE and as Ruki, along with the direction you are taking with the other band members is all about. I think that is graciously cool.
Ruki [In which way ever it will eventually be turning out, we will not bend around the things we want to do or our individuality. For me, that would be the worst thing that could be done in Visual-kei. Changing completely after not selling and in that respect starting to wear make-up...such things. I think it's fine if there are bands that put their main priority to selling. However, we are aiming for something else. Even if it is not to solely make music for our fans, nor the people that gather around us and our music, because we are in vogue, we want to become a band that has always been thought of as a good band by those fans who have supported us ever since. Yet, to do that, we still have to work a lot harder. That's also how we came to decide about playing at TOKYO DOME. This is to urge us forward more than until now even.]
-- You have also said that you don't want to gather shared feelings with the lyrics you write. In the previous interview in ROCK AND READ you have said that, there are quite a few moving things, when it comes to what women understand as "sad", and that was, what left the biggest impression on you. You are not talking about common feelings there, are you?
Ruki [No, I'm not. It's more like reading the lyrics and being moved by picturing them. Like being moved just listening to the song. Since I am a man, it shouldn't become like the feelings of a woman. That's not how shared feelings come about. Even as love is one thing, people are very different. The sorrow and the sadness. The type of person you like is different, which is also the point in difference of sorrow and sadness. It's not possible to share feelings completely. It is more like feeling sorrow by imagining the scene from which the sadness arose or imagining the background from which these feelings came from. I don't write these lyrics for people to understand these feelings, from a situation when someone met with someone at that hour, with something happening from which those feelings arose. After all, this is what happened to me as a writer and I think of shared feelings in that aspect as somewhat intrusive. The people that listen have (only) the images of people that listen. I thinks that's fine like that. Because the people that listen and take it in, have a number of feelings coming together, which is good that way. However, I would like to talk about my feelings of the lyrics I wrote, when I am asked in interviews, as to what kind of background they have. Still, without using the phrase "I want to meet you" directly I still bring this feeling across that the person from the song really wants to meet that other one altogether. Rather than using such obvious words, I want to write lyrics on an a lot deeper and more mental level. Yet, while probably being connected to the topic of selling or not selling, I was, reversibly, during the Indies time as compared to the major time, a lot more “dirty”.]
-- Dirty?
Ruki [Yes. Because I thought about writing lyrics with the awareness of what I thought fans of Visual-kei would like to hear. I was calculating with it. Usually people liked it when I thought they would. It was the same with songs. However, I was aiming for that less and less as we continued with the band. It has become less needed in that sense. Back then I was still trying out the lyrics I was writing myself. Like, what would be like me, what would be like Ruki, what's his style? Certainly, I didn't want to write lyrics like everybody else. However, as I continued writing, this just came to be naturally. Of course there are times when I just want to write "I want to meet you", since I do have these feelings naturally as well. Still rather than using that phrase, I see if I can express it deeper and the means of that is what is most like me. That's also why I think that my lyrics now as compared to earlier are a lot straighter forward. Saying "I want to meet you" also means "I can't meet you" and accordingly it also means "I can't hold/reach you", which would be the expression in that. When adding things up like that, it is probably what makes lyrics harder to understand, but then I don't want to write it simple. Because hidden in that are the deep sadness and those feelings I want to sing about.]
-- I see.
Ruki [Lyrics to decode. Because I think this is also part of my individuality, I hope I can continue this without bending myself around things.]
-- In a different interview in another magazine you said that you believe, that the revivals of all your admired sempais, is due to the fact that you, who continued their work, couldn't do it properly.
Ruki [Yes. I really think like that. It seems that even though we have surpassed the age of our admired sempais from then already, we have still not achieved what they have. I think we need to work a lot harder on that. That's just how I think in general. It seems that if we don't work harder, the hurdles ahead are getting lower and lower. Back in the days, when you worked really, really hard, you were able to get on a black and white page (in a magazine), however, when you are just about to sprout (as an artist) you can get some 10 full-color pages. That's not good. There is no enticement in something you can obtain this easily. We really have to work harder. After all these are our fields of Visual-kei we have been admiring, and yet, it even feels embarrassing. There is this tendency of imitating those bands that have become popular. I don't want to say anything patronizing really, but I think that it can't be helped that there is this kind of "prejudice", too. We need a lot more pride to do it properly I think.]
-- During their performance on December 29th and 30th, 1991 at Nihon Seinen Hall LUNA SEA announced their major debut and eventually went major in May 1992, the following year. GLAY became major in May 1994. The band members were all still in their 20s at that time, right?
Ruki [Yes. Even at a young age like that, LUNA SEA and GLAY were simply awesome. I remember what RYUICHI said at the time of their major debut: "What's wrong with dreaming!" When I talked to J-san back then and said "We are going to play our first Budokan! “ He would say: "At that time, we have done TOKYO DOME already! Work hard! (laughs)" It was a supportive push and I could only think that we need to work harder. Lately, I have more opportunities to talk with our sempais and I was told that they think that the GazettE is a cool band. And while I think that it is quite a motivational force, I think I would be giving even more if they told us we are rubbish. (laughs) It's not that I would want them to call us rubbish, but I would work harder so they wouldn't call us that eventually. Those fields that have been created by our sempais, and because we are walking those paths, which have already been opened up for us by them, it is what I have to protect. After all, our sempais have not just fascinated us by their look, but of course also on a musical level and past that on a very deep mental level as well. I have been reading the magazines, too. I have always admired the more, esthetic masculine Visual-kei scene with bands that are more particular about their musical and artistic side. Still, somehow there was this time, when it became more colorful. It seems that that was when the image was crumbling. Because of that the music disappeared, too. At that time, all the big bands seemed to have stopped their activities as well. The timing and the things coming together during that period are also the reason, why we were there as fans. That's what I thought at that time. The fans too thought of it as a claim of their always admirable and cool Visual-kei scene. As for me and with anything really, I dislike people who give up easily. I really hate people who give up without doing anything about it. Wouldn't you regret it if you just gave up without trying anything? Therefore, I think it's better to take action than regretting things later.]
-- Isn't there anything you gave up on without doing anything?
Ruki [No. I can say there isn't. As there are things that are impossible when it comes to the visual aspects of the CD jacket design, there are concerning the budget. However, I don't give it up when it seems impossible on the budget side. It's like at first just trying to go with saying it's impossible. (laughs) After all there are cases when things that seemed not to be an option, come to be a possibility when taking the first steps. Giving things a shape that I don't like is pretty painful after all. I wouldn't be able to handle it, when thinking about giving such things to the fans. I really don't like this kind of thinking. Doing everything earnestly is what holds the meaning to things. Whatever the result of it may be, first it needs to be done earnestly. That's what I think. It is the same when I think about TOKYO DOME.]
-- I see. There are also connections to this, right?
Ruki [Yes. Even if it is stubborn, I am not one to forget the sensation of the early days. That is my basic premise.]
-- Sadly, humans are just beings, who do forget things, so that's difficult, isn't it. Even though you remember that pure feeling / sensation from when you were a kid and thought you would never forget it, eventually (the memory) grows thin.
Ruki [Yes, that's what it's like. Therefore, at those times (when I am about to forget), I am absolutely watching hide-san's videos. His live DVDs or so. And when I watch these videos of him, I remember those things I was about to forget. Like very basic thing, such as how being in a band is actually fun. For me, music with respect solely to the charts is no fun because that's not what rock music is about. If I was to become like that, I was to disappear myself. Of course playing in the higher ranks of the charts feels great along with the facts that everyone gets to listen to it a lot and everyone thinks it's great, yet that kind of joy is something else. First and foremost I think that not losing sight of the original joy (of being in a band) is important. Even though it seems simple, it is actually difficult.]
-- Certainly.
Ruki [But really, I think it's a simple thing. That is the one thing we wish for the most right now. When we first were about to play Budokan, there had been this wall, which showed us it was impossible. Yet, when looking at it, we all joined together and rushed towards it with all our strength. This passion and the emotions of that time is what we came to remember now again. I think we should never forget this sensation in the future either. When aiming of a safe place, one gets to be lazy. Even though that's not intentional, the passion runs out. As of late, I came to think that the GazettE had a decline in this certain kind of passion. Therefore we are aiming for TOKYO DOME.]
-- However, in all honesty, when thinking about the people to mobilize for TOKYO DOME, even with the long tour prior to that, I thought that it might be quite hell-bent to go for. You probably also have thought about not doing lives at all and just do TOKYO DOME on one blow, which would also be by the means of the number of people you'd expect to be able to mobilize.
Ruki [Yes, we did. We do understand that much. We understand this ourselves and we have been told the same things by the staff around us. However, I don't think it is of much meaning. We are not playing at TOKYO DOME to challenge anyone in the number of people we can mobilize. That's also why we wanted to go on tour at all costs. Telling our event manager to squeeze in the plan as much as possible, they have scheduled this tour for us. We are a band that usually challenges a big place at the end of each tour and just because this was TOKYO DOME, we didn't want to let it go to waste.]
-- I see. Like for the Budokan performance, it was this degree of importance to sum things up like that.
Ruki [It was. That is the most important thing. Therefore, there would have been no meaning in just playing TOKYO DOME like that.]
-- I see.
Ruki [The first person who told us to do TOKYO DOME was the one who set it up for X JAPAN and LUNA SEA. That person said: "Do it! I'll take over responsibility." However, we wondered if it was OK if someone else took over responsibility. After all, you can't take responsibility for something like that really. However, that person still wasn't lying. We were happy that this was the kind of feeling we were regarded with. This feeling did support us, too. Even though there was no way of confirmation, there was still the feeling that the GazettE would be OK. It was passionate in either case. We were happy. Honestly. The fact that there were people who supported us just like that. It must have been the same feelings as the fans were having, waiting to see the GazettE stand on the stage of TOKYO DOME. With this kind of support in the back, and to become the GazettE, which can be thought of as a cool band, we are right in the middle of rushing ahead.]
-- Of course I am expecting a lot.
Ruki [If I was to earnestly express my feelings, it is not that we are not uncertain (about playing at TOKYO DOME) even after the long tour. It's not that we are not scared about it either. However, performing at TOKYO DOME after this long tour is also part of the loyalty towards those fans that have ever since supported us like this, I think. I thought this, no matter how hard, is what we need to do, and in respect to being in a band and to protect what the GazettE is all about. Our surroundings probably thought that we are idiots to be playing TOKYO DOME after we have been on this long tour. However, that's fine. That's just how we as the GazettE do it. Isn't it OK do dream? (laughs) I don't want to let a dream simply end as a dream. And I would like to borrow RYUICHI's words here: "What's wrong with dreaming!" I really think about it like that, too. Even as we are told that it is oh-so awesome to be playing at TOKYO DOME, it really isn't. For us, it is the same as it was when playing at Nippon Budokan and Yokohama Arena. TOKYO DOME is where the street we have been walking earnestly until hear leads us. This rout is also what we have wanted to show. It is one of the landmarks on this way. Even though this landmark is extremely huge and has our inner most excited. (laughs) However, if it wasn't there, we wouldn't be able to keep going further. At this point in time, this is what the GazettE wants to show.]
-- From this summer on you have been on your long tour throughout Japan the whole time. Right now the final at TOKYO DOME you had been heading towards has clearly come into focus as a turning point.
Ruki [Yes. The tour this time has been divided in part "01" and "02" and we began "01" with the thought of wanting to play "all songs of the GazettE". Making no difference between old and new songs, we just wanted to play all our cards. Honestly, the preparation was rather difficult. There were songs we had the feeling had been quite different already. However, there were also things of which we could reconfirm the things we have always thought of to be good parts and it was important to try and do all those songs after all. As we gradually squeezed in the songs, we also went with a changing set list every evening for the second half of the "02" part of the tour. As a result, we figured out what was necessary when aiming for TOKYO DOME and we have come up with what has become sort of a golden rule for us at that.]
-- I would like to ask, by which circumstances you eventually came to decide upon playing at TOKYO DOME again.
Ruki [At first it was Backstage Project's Sugimoto-san, who asked us: "How about TOKYO DOME?", which he recommended at the time, when we had done Yokohama Arena and we had been really worried about it at that time. Quite a bit of time has passed since then and we came to think that at some time, we would have to take up this challenge...Somehow, we always understood our own capacities and weren't aiming for insecure places either. We kind of had been doubtlessly buried in this expected range.]
-- It is understood as common sense, if you only reach out for the challenges you can win.
Ruki [Yeah. Gradually, the doubt concerning that grew bigger, though. As with the way the tour had been done, you kind of get used to it as you go about it again and again. First we'd tour the halls and only the finale would be held at a bigger place. Rather than repeating this procedure, we wanted it to be more like the explosion we have to eventually look towards. That's what we want it to be. That is, why we eventually decided upon TOKYO DOME as a result.]
-- As the rout that's taking you there?
Ruki [Yes. However, when playing places like TOKYO DOME, most let some time pass in-between (doing a tour), don't they? I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to do it like a festival. The moment we had decided upon DOME, we also decided upon the three month consecutive single release. With that, (we knew), we had to record about nine new songs and we decided to squeeze this into the tour schedule around the free times as best as possible. That's the flow of how we decided it. (laughs)]
-- That's a pretty masochistic development, isn't it? (laughs)
Ruki [Isn't that where the passion and the desperation comes from when facing something like that? Giving our utmost, when doing a tour doesn't change for once, but when then facing such a huge goal ahead, the sense of unity between the band members and the staff just becomes incredible. That's what it was like when we were doing Budokan for the first time. Playing at a big stage for the first time, and people around you tell you how impossible that is. (laughs) However, I realized again, that this is the time, when the band itself is developing the most and it does now, too. This is the kind of tour I wanted to do once again.]
-- Like "Team GazettE" is once again, growing to be something new?
Ruki [Yeah. That is the kind of passion I wanted to feel once again. We also understood that this would be hard on us, too. And actually it was extremely hard and I wanted just to get a break more than ever. (laughs) Besides making songs and playing live there were a number of things that we had to do, too. After all, making three singles is much like making one album. Yet, I thought that we could not let ourselves get cornered. It is not like I felt bored of ourselves, but I really dislike facing purely innocuous things. I just wanted a wall, some real obstacle, which everyone would tell us to be impossible to break through.]
-- Do you actually think of this as a wall this high?
Ruki [Of course. I think there is also meaning behind provoking those people to tell us "Do you think it's good to do this right now? “ We, as band members have talked about doing this unusually thoroughly. The opinions this time were really going apart, too. "Isn't that just a little scary?" along with voices stating "Do we need to rush it like this?" The result of it all came down to "I don't know, let's just do it." (laughs) Somehow, the GazettE has always been like that from the very beginning. For the first time we had been playing Tokyo International Forum, the first time we had been playing AX; it was like being mentally hungry for the things we thought impossible and going with that. Eventually, it has always been like that and that was, what we talked about with everyone.]
-- Actually, even as you have come this far, it is still a very narrow field in which people know about the success of the GazettE, right? It is not like a band that has been standing on the stage of TOKYO DOME is going to be accepted in a wider field automatically. Accordingly, isn't letting people know (about the GazettE) thoroughly, part of the motivation as well? Personally, this is what I imagine it to be.
Ruki [There is certainly this reality that, even if there wasn't this kind of motivation. Simply, when we actually decided on playing there, we did think about how the view of people would change eventually, and we did move on, being aware of the things concerning what we could be doing on that stage. (We thought about), what we could be doing, based on the fact that many other artists groups had been performing on the stage of TOKYO DOME until now. As for the timing this time, we will be playing right after LUNA SEA, don't we? And as that we would like to do something incredible in this position. Eventually, for us, the number of people we are able to mobilize is nothing we can just do. All we can do is make great songs. However I think this is still different from simply seeking to make songs that would gather as many people as possible there. Because this is not supposed to become a story about how much we change ourselves. Therefore, as for the things we can do either way, is busy ourselves and do what we can. I think it would be good if "we are understood by the people around us", concerning that.]
-- I see. Certainly, I think that the GazettE is aiming to be liked by just anyone. Even though that probably makes it sound bad.
Ruki [Ah, but we think like that, too. It certainly is like that.]
-- However, no matter what the preferences are, it's about being recognized. You wouldn't be negating that there is this kind of desire, would you?
Ruki [No I wouldn’t. That's something that's important. When I first learned about Visual-kei, I started out with the feeling "Woah, this is weird! “ However, I also remember the moment, when my feelings towards this changed from "What's this?" to "This is cool! “ Well, the time is different now, and it doesn't mean that things are taken in the same as they were back then... For example once, there was a time when Visual-kei CDs sold like an explosion, but then recently the charts are a battle about selling well or not, aren't they?]
-- Yeah. It is like racing with the technology for the sake of consumption.
Ruki [I think that a battle in that place is rather meaningless and something a bit different. Also, we can't keep up with the pros in the end. For example, when I first got to know LUNA SEA, and even though they had been on the top of the charts, they were different, which is why they fascinated me. And I think this position is still open today. We, ourselves, are intending to work our hardest towards that, yet, if we were to go with this kind of flow in our fields, it would be troublesome and rather mortifying, wouldn't it?]
-- Even more so since TOKYO DOME is a place where only "success" is forgiven and whatever it takes to achieve this success.
Ruki [Yeah. Somehow, even before "02" of the tour started, I somehow came to think that I would like this band to have a color it hadn't had before. Concerning the set and the lighting and such. When I thought about, what kind of color I would like the GazettE to show, I thought that this should be regardless of the Visual-kei (background). Yet, with it still being Visual-kei as it is.]
-- Including it not being just and overdone performance?
Ruki [The lasers we came to use are probably a result of that. We wanted to make use of something that usually isn't used like that by Visual-kei bands, but not just half heartedly but exhausting it fully. I hoped that in our case, people would say that "if GazettE does it, it's cool", when doing it. And of course it was meant to also include the "Rock-aspect". the GazettE is after all a rock band and that was a real must...Actually, for the "01" part of the tour, we did it with a more gothic appeal to begin with, however, it was that we came to think that it was maybe a little different. To put it differently, it showed us, what we had to do it differently in the next (step). Therefore, even though we had intended to use about the same staging for "01" and "02", we urgently came to change that. It was very motivating to change this in real time, too and we came to do something that hasn't been done by anyone anywhere else before. We wanted to make this a scene that no one would forget. This is not just about the aggression (during the live) or the "mood / rhythm" of it. After all, when playing on a big stage like that of TOKYO DOME, eventually, rather than the five people on stage, people's views often go to the screens, don't they?]
-- Certainly. Originally you would like the views of all people to go to the stage.
Ruki [That is one thing and I would also like to make the whole venue become much like a rave. Not like being divided into the stage being the stage and the seats being the seats. I wonder how far we can do this by using DOME. I thought that this is one place I would really want to create an unforgettable scene at first, when challenging it for real. Naturally, when you think of doing something as daring and try doing something unprecedented, quarrels come up. It is not really a thing to fight over yet there were so many things I wanted to do that I was told weren't possible. Yet, I wouldn't give in just saying "it can't be helped", and wanted to know the reasons behind it. I wanted to comprehend what it takes to make it happen. Like, if it was OK when being in the budget and such. I didn't want to leave these things unanswered.]
-- This seems to be the kind of fight that repeats itself throughout the history of the GazettE, doesn't it?
Ruki [It does. However, doing this, it is because we are working hard on grasping on to some kind of new sensation right now. Whenever we are completing the things of one tour at the end of it, something is different the next. For example, when it came to the stage entry for the "02" part of the tour, while having this imagine in our heads, there were things where we thought that they wouldn't be possible as we imagined them to be. Yet, when we came to see what we had mapped out in our mind having become real on stage, we had been feeling a shiver running down the spine on our own set for the first time in a long time. Certainly, we have to do things thoroughly, so we can honestly think of ourselves as a cool band. If it's not like that, it's meaningless.]
-- This is the same, when it comes to music, right?
Ruki [It is. For example, during the time of "DIM", while our enthusiasm was kind of low at that time, we wanted to do something definite for this album. Something that would be described as dark. This was also included in the tour and we realized something that was fresh for us as well...and we did that anew when it came to making "SHIVER".]
-- I can just agree to these words. Making "SHIVER", making "RED", they are overflowing with strength. It seems there is nothing you were lost about.
Ruki [No. After all there is what we perceive as a "cool band" isn't there? We have pursued this the whole time until "DIM". "This band has to do this kind of song and this band needs to do these things". That's what was there at first. However, we came back to the position in which we would think about what would be cool and what we eventually wanted to show ourselves....... It's kind of weird, while Visual-kei is kind of a closed scene, there are lots of exciting things about it, aren’t there? Yet to understand these good points ourselves, we had to realize the importance of turning outside and see how to show this that way. Back in the day, I really hated anything that was like pop.]
-- You mean the things that the record companies would want as a potential single song, right?
Ruki [That's still the same these days, though. (laughs) However, when looking at it from the angle of "conveying or not conveying", it is not like I don't want people to understand eventually. Yet, while thoroughly portraying our own style, I think this is all we can do. After all, the people in a record company are all normal people, too, aren't they? This also means that not all of them know really everything about music either. They are all people who just want to make "songs that sell". I was wondering to what extent we could get their agreement when making songs like we do with lyrics like ours. That's the key to it, I think. Because I am trying out to what extent I can do (what I want), is why I get into fights with them, ever since we moved (to Sony). (laughs)]
-- You do? I thought that the single you released after you had been moving was extremely easy to understand in parts.
Ruki [Even so I was told that it was hard to understand, still. (laughs) Like, I was advised to write this as if it was an e-mail that was written on the phone. And it is not like that person would have been especially touched at heart by words like that; it was just, because that was the kind of thing that was selling. However, at the same time, that person didn't know anything about Visual-kei, yet I knew that they were learning about it. Hence, I think it was a first step to conveying things to this kind of "outsider", getting their consent and taking this into account.]
-- On top of calculating the whole scene, it is good if you could find a common standard, right?
Ruki [Yeah. Right now we have been doing a number of experiments within our music and there have been good results as well, yet there are certainly some that aren't. (laughs) Moreover, I think there are also times, when we think too much about the balance of things. Like feeling the need to make a very heavy song after having released a ballad. I think it would be OK if we don't get too tied up with this kind of fixed balance either. Therefore, maybe, when looking at what we are doing now, I think I remember the resistance that would have been there with our earlier selves. However, when being too particular about things like that, you just can't move on. I think it is necessary to break down this kind of frame and just have to move on to something I think would be even cooler. Of course there are also fields where you have to stay true to your principles. Be it the lyrics or the feeling of the chords, there are fields, where you'd wonder where it went. Eventually, I hate it when it becomes neither one nor the other. Heavy stuff has to be thoroughly heavy as such. There has to be this kind of rebel spirit to it.]
-- That is the part you shouldn't miss out on even though you become a band that played at DOME, right?
Ruki [Or to say it in the opposite way, because we are a band playing at DOME we shouldn't lose that (kind of spirit). Since the stage of DOME is the one place we wanted to stand on since we were kids, there would be no meaning to it, if we stood on that same stage not thinking of us as being cool with it.]
-- That's totally understandable. And one thing I believe is that if there was a song that was undisputable seen as a signature song, the GazettE would become even stronger. To say it in an extreme way, if even people looking at the GazettE from the outside without having a special interest, but like that one certain song.
Ruki [I understand. For example in our case, the existence of ballads are kind of extreme. The chance by which they can be listened to, are also extremely different (from the usual). Until now it had been "Cassis" and "Guren". In December 2010 the ballad "PLEDGE" will be released and we wanted to make it something different from those (others). With that I wanted to make it something the previously mentioned record company representative would say "wow" to, because I think that if he wasn't affirming with it, it wouldn't lead to a reaction either when normal people would listen to it. However, of course first and foremost it also has to be something that we think about as the best we can do, too. After all, we want to spread the things and have them understood as what we think is cool. Back in the days, it was just that only the people that "knew" would eventually understand (what it was all about). However, now, we also want people to understand, that usually don't know (what it is about). We couldn't be satisfied with songs otherwise. ... Yet we didn't want to make something anyone could write, nor something that would be the usual J-POP ballad. First of all we wanted to make an awesome rock ballad. It was supposed to be a
ballad yet bringing things across in the rock (music) kind of way.]
-- And as a result "PLEDGE" can be seen as this kind of signature song.
Ruki [If it does, that's fine. That's the wish I have. I wanted to make a song without regret. Honestly, "Cassis" was a song I had regrets about. I hated how this one song was what we were told was "the GazettE". That's why the next songs where so heavy. However, if "PLEDGE" became this kind of signature song, I wouldn't see it as a problem. I can show this off with self-confidence.]
-- I have come to look forward to TOKYO DOME more and more. And of course to the things that follow.
Ruki [This might be kind of sudden, but I really think that B'z way of doing it, is really awesome. Among the people playing at DOME they are the ones doing it with utmost conviction. They are certainly the people one can see as someone doing the real ROCK among people. I think the same about the revival of sads, too. It's what you feel is rock music, they are the real players. I probably think this because I like Kiyoharu-san, though. (laughs) When I watch him the feeling of excitement is kind of different. They are not simply a band that got back together again. Just looking at one of his pictures, it just immediately makes me think how awesome it is. That people like him are here like that now is something very stimulating for us. And it would be no good if we as the Gazette could not reach past these sempais of ours at some point.]
-- Yeah. It would be simply losing to those who have reunited again.
Ruki [Eventually, Visual-kei isn't some industrial standard. There would be no meaning to us, if we just lost to the people from a different time that returned now. There are so many amazing sempais of ours. Previously, when I went to see Yoshii Kazuya-san for the first time, there was something that struck me ever since I saw a foreign live first. DEAD END were like that, too. It feels a bit like wondering what "god-like people would be like", though. (laughs) Like this kind of awesomeness. However, I don't think it is too favorable if we ourselves still keep wondering about these kinds of things. It seems that if we were to sit back in this position, the things we were reaching out to had been different. As I said, I do not want to become this kind of celebrity. There are people who act too much upon being a celebrity...I don't want to liven-up the sports news paper and I don't need to appear in ground-wave TV shows either. I want to exist as someone, who can release this one real record.]
Ruki [Yes. The tour this time has been divided in part "01" and "02" and we began "01" with the thought of wanting to play "all songs of the GazettE". Making no difference between old and new songs, we just wanted to play all our cards. Honestly, the preparation was rather difficult. There were songs we had the feeling had been quite different already. However, there were also things of which we could reconfirm the things we have always thought of to be good parts and it was important to try and do all those songs after all. As we gradually squeezed in the songs, we also went with a changing set list every evening for the second half of the "02" part of the tour. As a result, we figured out what was necessary when aiming for TOKYO DOME and we have come up with what has become sort of a golden rule for us at that.]
-- I would like to ask, by which circumstances you eventually came to decide upon playing at TOKYO DOME again.
Ruki [At first it was Backstage Project's Sugimoto-san, who asked us: "How about TOKYO DOME?", which he recommended at the time, when we had done Yokohama Arena and we had been really worried about it at that time. Quite a bit of time has passed since then and we came to think that at some time, we would have to take up this challenge...Somehow, we always understood our own capacities and weren't aiming for insecure places either. We kind of had been doubtlessly buried in this expected range.]
-- It is understood as common sense, if you only reach out for the challenges you can win.
Ruki [Yeah. Gradually, the doubt concerning that grew bigger, though. As with the way the tour had been done, you kind of get used to it as you go about it again and again. First we'd tour the halls and only the finale would be held at a bigger place. Rather than repeating this procedure, we wanted it to be more like the explosion we have to eventually look towards. That's what we want it to be. That is, why we eventually decided upon TOKYO DOME as a result.]
-- As the rout that's taking you there?
Ruki [Yes. However, when playing places like TOKYO DOME, most let some time pass in-between (doing a tour), don't they? I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to do it like a festival. The moment we had decided upon DOME, we also decided upon the three month consecutive single release. With that, (we knew), we had to record about nine new songs and we decided to squeeze this into the tour schedule around the free times as best as possible. That's the flow of how we decided it. (laughs)]
-- That's a pretty masochistic development, isn't it? (laughs)
Ruki [Isn't that where the passion and the desperation comes from when facing something like that? Giving our utmost, when doing a tour doesn't change for once, but when then facing such a huge goal ahead, the sense of unity between the band members and the staff just becomes incredible. That's what it was like when we were doing Budokan for the first time. Playing at a big stage for the first time, and people around you tell you how impossible that is. (laughs) However, I realized again, that this is the time, when the band itself is developing the most and it does now, too. This is the kind of tour I wanted to do once again.]
-- Like "Team GazettE" is once again, growing to be something new?
Ruki [Yeah. That is the kind of passion I wanted to feel once again. We also understood that this would be hard on us, too. And actually it was extremely hard and I wanted just to get a break more than ever. (laughs) Besides making songs and playing live there were a number of things that we had to do, too. After all, making three singles is much like making one album. Yet, I thought that we could not let ourselves get cornered. It is not like I felt bored of ourselves, but I really dislike facing purely innocuous things. I just wanted a wall, some real obstacle, which everyone would tell us to be impossible to break through.]
-- Do you actually think of this as a wall this high?
Ruki [Of course. I think there is also meaning behind provoking those people to tell us "Do you think it's good to do this right now? “ We, as band members have talked about doing this unusually thoroughly. The opinions this time were really going apart, too. "Isn't that just a little scary?" along with voices stating "Do we need to rush it like this?" The result of it all came down to "I don't know, let's just do it." (laughs) Somehow, the GazettE has always been like that from the very beginning. For the first time we had been playing Tokyo International Forum, the first time we had been playing AX; it was like being mentally hungry for the things we thought impossible and going with that. Eventually, it has always been like that and that was, what we talked about with everyone.]
-- Actually, even as you have come this far, it is still a very narrow field in which people know about the success of the GazettE, right? It is not like a band that has been standing on the stage of TOKYO DOME is going to be accepted in a wider field automatically. Accordingly, isn't letting people know (about the GazettE) thoroughly, part of the motivation as well? Personally, this is what I imagine it to be.
Ruki [There is certainly this reality that, even if there wasn't this kind of motivation. Simply, when we actually decided on playing there, we did think about how the view of people would change eventually, and we did move on, being aware of the things concerning what we could be doing on that stage. (We thought about), what we could be doing, based on the fact that many other artists groups had been performing on the stage of TOKYO DOME until now. As for the timing this time, we will be playing right after LUNA SEA, don't we? And as that we would like to do something incredible in this position. Eventually, for us, the number of people we are able to mobilize is nothing we can just do. All we can do is make great songs. However I think this is still different from simply seeking to make songs that would gather as many people as possible there. Because this is not supposed to become a story about how much we change ourselves. Therefore, as for the things we can do either way, is busy ourselves and do what we can. I think it would be good if "we are understood by the people around us", concerning that.]
-- I see. Certainly, I think that the GazettE is aiming to be liked by just anyone. Even though that probably makes it sound bad.
Ruki [Ah, but we think like that, too. It certainly is like that.]
-- However, no matter what the preferences are, it's about being recognized. You wouldn't be negating that there is this kind of desire, would you?
Ruki [No I wouldn’t. That's something that's important. When I first learned about Visual-kei, I started out with the feeling "Woah, this is weird! “ However, I also remember the moment, when my feelings towards this changed from "What's this?" to "This is cool! “ Well, the time is different now, and it doesn't mean that things are taken in the same as they were back then... For example once, there was a time when Visual-kei CDs sold like an explosion, but then recently the charts are a battle about selling well or not, aren't they?]
-- Yeah. It is like racing with the technology for the sake of consumption.
Ruki [I think that a battle in that place is rather meaningless and something a bit different. Also, we can't keep up with the pros in the end. For example, when I first got to know LUNA SEA, and even though they had been on the top of the charts, they were different, which is why they fascinated me. And I think this position is still open today. We, ourselves, are intending to work our hardest towards that, yet, if we were to go with this kind of flow in our fields, it would be troublesome and rather mortifying, wouldn't it?]
-- Even more so since TOKYO DOME is a place where only "success" is forgiven and whatever it takes to achieve this success.
Ruki [Yeah. Somehow, even before "02" of the tour started, I somehow came to think that I would like this band to have a color it hadn't had before. Concerning the set and the lighting and such. When I thought about, what kind of color I would like the GazettE to show, I thought that this should be regardless of the Visual-kei (background). Yet, with it still being Visual-kei as it is.]
-- Including it not being just and overdone performance?
Ruki [The lasers we came to use are probably a result of that. We wanted to make use of something that usually isn't used like that by Visual-kei bands, but not just half heartedly but exhausting it fully. I hoped that in our case, people would say that "if GazettE does it, it's cool", when doing it. And of course it was meant to also include the "Rock-aspect". the GazettE is after all a rock band and that was a real must...Actually, for the "01" part of the tour, we did it with a more gothic appeal to begin with, however, it was that we came to think that it was maybe a little different. To put it differently, it showed us, what we had to do it differently in the next (step). Therefore, even though we had intended to use about the same staging for "01" and "02", we urgently came to change that. It was very motivating to change this in real time, too and we came to do something that hasn't been done by anyone anywhere else before. We wanted to make this a scene that no one would forget. This is not just about the aggression (during the live) or the "mood / rhythm" of it. After all, when playing on a big stage like that of TOKYO DOME, eventually, rather than the five people on stage, people's views often go to the screens, don't they?]
-- Certainly. Originally you would like the views of all people to go to the stage.
Ruki [That is one thing and I would also like to make the whole venue become much like a rave. Not like being divided into the stage being the stage and the seats being the seats. I wonder how far we can do this by using DOME. I thought that this is one place I would really want to create an unforgettable scene at first, when challenging it for real. Naturally, when you think of doing something as daring and try doing something unprecedented, quarrels come up. It is not really a thing to fight over yet there were so many things I wanted to do that I was told weren't possible. Yet, I wouldn't give in just saying "it can't be helped", and wanted to know the reasons behind it. I wanted to comprehend what it takes to make it happen. Like, if it was OK when being in the budget and such. I didn't want to leave these things unanswered.]
-- This seems to be the kind of fight that repeats itself throughout the history of the GazettE, doesn't it?
Ruki [It does. However, doing this, it is because we are working hard on grasping on to some kind of new sensation right now. Whenever we are completing the things of one tour at the end of it, something is different the next. For example, when it came to the stage entry for the "02" part of the tour, while having this imagine in our heads, there were things where we thought that they wouldn't be possible as we imagined them to be. Yet, when we came to see what we had mapped out in our mind having become real on stage, we had been feeling a shiver running down the spine on our own set for the first time in a long time. Certainly, we have to do things thoroughly, so we can honestly think of ourselves as a cool band. If it's not like that, it's meaningless.]
-- This is the same, when it comes to music, right?
Ruki [It is. For example, during the time of "DIM", while our enthusiasm was kind of low at that time, we wanted to do something definite for this album. Something that would be described as dark. This was also included in the tour and we realized something that was fresh for us as well...and we did that anew when it came to making "SHIVER".]
-- I can just agree to these words. Making "SHIVER", making "RED", they are overflowing with strength. It seems there is nothing you were lost about.
Ruki [No. After all there is what we perceive as a "cool band" isn't there? We have pursued this the whole time until "DIM". "This band has to do this kind of song and this band needs to do these things". That's what was there at first. However, we came back to the position in which we would think about what would be cool and what we eventually wanted to show ourselves....... It's kind of weird, while Visual-kei is kind of a closed scene, there are lots of exciting things about it, aren’t there? Yet to understand these good points ourselves, we had to realize the importance of turning outside and see how to show this that way. Back in the day, I really hated anything that was like pop.]
-- You mean the things that the record companies would want as a potential single song, right?
Ruki [That's still the same these days, though. (laughs) However, when looking at it from the angle of "conveying or not conveying", it is not like I don't want people to understand eventually. Yet, while thoroughly portraying our own style, I think this is all we can do. After all, the people in a record company are all normal people, too, aren't they? This also means that not all of them know really everything about music either. They are all people who just want to make "songs that sell". I was wondering to what extent we could get their agreement when making songs like we do with lyrics like ours. That's the key to it, I think. Because I am trying out to what extent I can do (what I want), is why I get into fights with them, ever since we moved (to Sony). (laughs)]
-- You do? I thought that the single you released after you had been moving was extremely easy to understand in parts.
Ruki [Even so I was told that it was hard to understand, still. (laughs) Like, I was advised to write this as if it was an e-mail that was written on the phone. And it is not like that person would have been especially touched at heart by words like that; it was just, because that was the kind of thing that was selling. However, at the same time, that person didn't know anything about Visual-kei, yet I knew that they were learning about it. Hence, I think it was a first step to conveying things to this kind of "outsider", getting their consent and taking this into account.]
-- On top of calculating the whole scene, it is good if you could find a common standard, right?
Ruki [Yeah. Right now we have been doing a number of experiments within our music and there have been good results as well, yet there are certainly some that aren't. (laughs) Moreover, I think there are also times, when we think too much about the balance of things. Like feeling the need to make a very heavy song after having released a ballad. I think it would be OK if we don't get too tied up with this kind of fixed balance either. Therefore, maybe, when looking at what we are doing now, I think I remember the resistance that would have been there with our earlier selves. However, when being too particular about things like that, you just can't move on. I think it is necessary to break down this kind of frame and just have to move on to something I think would be even cooler. Of course there are also fields where you have to stay true to your principles. Be it the lyrics or the feeling of the chords, there are fields, where you'd wonder where it went. Eventually, I hate it when it becomes neither one nor the other. Heavy stuff has to be thoroughly heavy as such. There has to be this kind of rebel spirit to it.]
-- That is the part you shouldn't miss out on even though you become a band that played at DOME, right?
Ruki [Or to say it in the opposite way, because we are a band playing at DOME we shouldn't lose that (kind of spirit). Since the stage of DOME is the one place we wanted to stand on since we were kids, there would be no meaning to it, if we stood on that same stage not thinking of us as being cool with it.]
-- That's totally understandable. And one thing I believe is that if there was a song that was undisputable seen as a signature song, the GazettE would become even stronger. To say it in an extreme way, if even people looking at the GazettE from the outside without having a special interest, but like that one certain song.
Ruki [I understand. For example in our case, the existence of ballads are kind of extreme. The chance by which they can be listened to, are also extremely different (from the usual). Until now it had been "Cassis" and "Guren". In December 2010 the ballad "PLEDGE" will be released and we wanted to make it something different from those (others). With that I wanted to make it something the previously mentioned record company representative would say "wow" to, because I think that if he wasn't affirming with it, it wouldn't lead to a reaction either when normal people would listen to it. However, of course first and foremost it also has to be something that we think about as the best we can do, too. After all, we want to spread the things and have them understood as what we think is cool. Back in the days, it was just that only the people that "knew" would eventually understand (what it was all about). However, now, we also want people to understand, that usually don't know (what it is about). We couldn't be satisfied with songs otherwise. ... Yet we didn't want to make something anyone could write, nor something that would be the usual J-POP ballad. First of all we wanted to make an awesome rock ballad. It was supposed to be a
ballad yet bringing things across in the rock (music) kind of way.]
-- And as a result "PLEDGE" can be seen as this kind of signature song.
Ruki [If it does, that's fine. That's the wish I have. I wanted to make a song without regret. Honestly, "Cassis" was a song I had regrets about. I hated how this one song was what we were told was "the GazettE". That's why the next songs where so heavy. However, if "PLEDGE" became this kind of signature song, I wouldn't see it as a problem. I can show this off with self-confidence.]
-- I have come to look forward to TOKYO DOME more and more. And of course to the things that follow.
Ruki [This might be kind of sudden, but I really think that B'z way of doing it, is really awesome. Among the people playing at DOME they are the ones doing it with utmost conviction. They are certainly the people one can see as someone doing the real ROCK among people. I think the same about the revival of sads, too. It's what you feel is rock music, they are the real players. I probably think this because I like Kiyoharu-san, though. (laughs) When I watch him the feeling of excitement is kind of different. They are not simply a band that got back together again. Just looking at one of his pictures, it just immediately makes me think how awesome it is. That people like him are here like that now is something very stimulating for us. And it would be no good if we as the Gazette could not reach past these sempais of ours at some point.]
-- Yeah. It would be simply losing to those who have reunited again.
Ruki [Eventually, Visual-kei isn't some industrial standard. There would be no meaning to us, if we just lost to the people from a different time that returned now. There are so many amazing sempais of ours. Previously, when I went to see Yoshii Kazuya-san for the first time, there was something that struck me ever since I saw a foreign live first. DEAD END were like that, too. It feels a bit like wondering what "god-like people would be like", though. (laughs) Like this kind of awesomeness. However, I don't think it is too favorable if we ourselves still keep wondering about these kinds of things. It seems that if we were to sit back in this position, the things we were reaching out to had been different. As I said, I do not want to become this kind of celebrity. There are people who act too much upon being a celebrity...I don't want to liven-up the sports news paper and I don't need to appear in ground-wave TV shows either. I want to exist as someone, who can release this one real record.]
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