“Good afternoon.”With this slight greeting, hyde seated himself, his hunched back suggesting that he was collecting his light body close to himself. Before him like a paper cup filled with coffee that he had poured himself, along with his lighter and cigarettes. His personal interview carries the air of the commonplace. It has been nearly a month since the beginning of the current tour. Today, on which they have crossed the Seto Ohashi Bridge to `the next city’, hyde’s interview begins with the same air as always.
—
All notes in {<- } format are from the interviewer/editor and were present in the original Japanese.
– How have you been lately?
hyde [You want to know how I’ve been… *Cough, cough cough* (he coughs)]
– Uh oh. Are you alright?
hyde [Lately… Well actually I’m a bit better now than I was… Right when the tour started I came down with a cold. …A really long cold. These past couple of days, I finally got rid of my chill. Now, all I got left is this cough. The worst part was when I’d get into my futon and then break into a massive sweat. I went to the doctor but they couldn’t help, I took medicine and it didn’t do any good. It’s my own body, but like…. I don’t even like it anymore, but I can’t do anything about it. But oh well, it hasn’t hurt my throat. If nothing else, I take good care of my throat, so there haven’t been any lives where I couldn’t sing, and I don’t think there ever will be. Lives put a lot of stress on my body, so it’s important that my voice be in good condition. So yeah, as long as I’ve got my voice, everything else is just brute strength getting me through the fire. And mentally, it’s a great high. It’s just that some days, I’m all like “Oh man, am I ever in awful shape today,” you know. I get so dizzy during the lives, it gets me thinking “One of these days I will definitely pass out. Passing out sounds like fun.” (laughs) But I’ve been just fine. Afterward its like “Oh so I guess I’m not gonna pass out after all.”]
– Your body was in better shape than you thought?!
hyde [Yeah, pretty much. (laughs) … The last thing I want to do is make a bad impression on the fans. I don’t want to have to tell them in an MC that I can’t do my best because I caught a cold, and I don’t even want them (the audience) to notice I’m sick during the live. It would just really annoy me to have them thinking “Oh, I guess he’s not as cool as we thought he was”. Because I’ve thought that myself, when I go to other people’s lives. Like, if they don’t think that much of the audience. They just stand around, doing the live like it was a rehearsal in a studio. So the live isn’t fun or even interesting. I do not want to do that to my fans. Cause, you know, it’s no fun. It’s pride; lives are Pride. Because, in this business, more than any other aspect of the work, lives are when we can show off the best of ourselves, that’s what I believe. To be thought badly of at that point, it’s really beyond annoying to me. That’s why I always give 100%, no matter what condition I happen to be in.]
– Precicely because it’s the aspect you have the most self-confidence in, it forms your Pride.
hyde [Yeah. I do have lots of self-confidence that way, and well, if a live goes wrong then what else have I got? You know? I really do think that way. I have to be cool, that’s the important thing.]
– During lives, are there particular moments when you think of yourself as cool?
hyde […… (silence) …… Sometimes, as a result. Looking at the videos or pictures (of the lives) I’ll realize “Oh yeah, I did that thing.” I don’t think to myself “I am cool” during the actual live. It’s more “Gotta work, gotta work it,” or “I should still have some (energy) left in me.” I feel like I should be giving it everything I’ve got, every live. Sometimes I just do it naturally, sometimes I have to talk myself into doing it.]
– That’s incredibly honest of you.
hyde [….I guess it is.]
– For instance, I was going to ask you if you ever felt at one with the audience, but instead I want to hear more of this honesty, if you don’t mind.
hyde [Ah…… Let me see…….. …. … Um, I don’t know. …. It’s just, you know, on the inside, I have this idea that lives need to be aggressive or else they won’t be any good. …… Well, every day when there’s a live, I think about giving it all I’ve got. I don’t think about the next live, or about the tour being two-thirds over, or anything like that. I may not know what the next day will bring, but I do know that I’ve got to put all of myself into what I’m doing right this moment.]
– This tour has you getting up in super-crowded sold out stadiums for each and every live. Do you ever feel that it’s any different from your previous tours?
hyde […Of course it is. It always feels a little different when it’s not sold out. When the place is jam-packed, that in itself builds up a feeling of anticipation, makes me think I’ve got to give them all something in return. It’s my Duty. It’s linked to what I said before, about how I want to give it everything I’ve got and for everything I can possibly do.]
– I see. So then, do you feel that there is some kind of huge, invisible power underlying the sold-out lives?
hyde [….? What are you talking about?! (laughs)]
– My apologies (laughs). To put it as simply as possible, I meant to ask if you think there is some kind of unseen power lying in the fact that there are far more people who wanted to come to live than people who actually were able to do so. This isn’t limited to lives; I think that this invisible power is already present everywhere. It’s the power that comes with the name of L’Arc~en~Ciel, and all your activities. Do you ever feel any kind of unease with respect to this power?
hyde [……I don’t feel any unease. …And well, you know, when it comes to indirect information like that, I think it always ends up getting twisted somehow. If I were to pay attention to every single tidbit, there’d be no end to it. Personally, I think truth is in every passing moment. And then after that, the information that we give out ourselves, in magazines and stuff, that’s truth too, but only that. From outside the venue, thinking about what kind of live is going on inside, well that’s nothing but imagination. And because it’s imagination, there can never be end to how far it extends…]
– Truth is everything, then.
hyde [Precisely, and that’s also why I feel that I ought to make that true moment as perfect as possible, these days. On the other hand, lately I’ve been caring about all the other stuff (other than the truth) less and less. Looking back, I think that I used to care about all the trivial stuff around us a lot more.]
– How far back are you looking?
hyde [By looking back I mean… maybe a year or two ago.]
– Let’s change the subject. How do you feel about travel?
hyde [Traveling… Well well…. I’ve been like this (i.e. sick with a cold) since the recording just before (the start of the tour) so yeah. I’ve hardly been able to do anything at any of the towns we stopped at. I slept right through Hiroshima. I’ve just been staying in my room, making them bring me okonomiyaki. That’s all. Except when we’re moving.]
– With your health in such a poor state, rather than moving, it would be better to say that you are being moved.
hyde [Yeah yeah yeah. Like, they’re delivering me (laughs).]
– Delivery! (laughs) …. I can just about picture it, though it might somewhat pathetic. Sorry.
hyde [It is (laughs).]
– So, this traveling hasn’t been much fun, or much of a chance to relax for you, has it?
hyde [Ummm…. I wouldn’t say that. We all go for long stretches without going home, so it really feels like “Hey, I’ve gone a really long way” or “Hm I wonder where I am right now.” The problem is my MCs (during the lives). Even if I’ve been to the place before, it’s not like I was there to play. I just stay in my hotel room, the entire time, so I can’t go “Last night I went out and this funny thing happened.” I can’t say “I caught a cold so I spent all of yesterday in my room, sleeping” either. If I said something like that, all I’d get would be their (the audience’s) sympathy.]
– Indeed. If you said that, they’d reply “Are you OK?!” “Hang in there!”.
hyde [If they started sympathizing with me, then it’s a guarantee that they wouldn’t be as excited anymore. So yeah, I don’t have anything left to say. (laughs) When I get to the venue, I ask the local staff about famous things in the area, so I can at least talk about that.]
– If you were well enough to go out, it would surely be more enjoyable.
hyde [Yeah. It would definitely be different. … I really, really haven’t gotten to go out in any towns. Maybe out to a video rental store, at most.]
– You went to a video rental store? And, did you rent a video?!
hyde [Yeah. Cause you know, some days, like today, we don’t do anything except travel. When that happens, we usual get to the next hotel around 3 or 4 in the evening. And then, well, I don’t have anything else to do until night, personally. I just stay in my futon and sleep. I could read or something, but that just makes me tired. I’d rather get info from the TV, that’s easier. That’s why I spend all day watching videos.]
– That’s nice. A few months ago, you mentioned that there were several videos that you wanted to watch, but you didn’t have the time, so I suppose you must have found the time by now.
hyde [Yeah. I watch everything I want to see.]
– It’s the All-you-can-watch video tour.
hyde [All I can watch. I spend eight hours straight watching videos.]
– Continuously?
hyde [Yeah. Four movies.] { â†ã€€Precice, for once}
– No way!? That sounds like an endurance race to me.
hyde [Before that I watched three movies in six hours.]
– Unbelievable. You wanted to watch those videos that badly?
hyde […More like, I had absolutely nothing else to do. (laughs)]
– Were they any good?
hyde [Uh…. (He stops to think) `The Fifth Element’, that was a good one. That girl, Mila, who stars in it, she’s pretty cute. ….Doing that, taking all that time just to watch videos, makes me realize that when we’re on tour, I actually have more time to myself than I do when we’re at home. On the day of a live, there’s tons of stuff to do, so of course I’m busy, but on the travel days I have a lot of free time. But the things I can do are so limited you know!? (laughs) In the end, watching videos is pretty much all I can do (laughs).]
– Do you think that, more than most people, you feel that you don’t want to waste your time?
hyde [I wonder about that. I guess that since I’m in this business, that’s the sort of thing that would bother me. Nowadays, you know, I just normally try to make lots of time for myself, taking things where normally don’t pay much attention and trying to do them according to some kind of plan. I think that it probably gets expressed all over the place in a lot of tiny ways. Then I take all that time I’ve made for myself and spend it all doing whatever it is I really feel like doing that day. So, even if I just use the time to space out, I still think it’s worth it. I think so because I’m doing it for myself.]
– If it was your free time right now, what would you be doing?
hyde [I want to take a walk downtown. …And then I want to watch a movie.]
– At the cinema?
hyde [Yeaaah, or on video. Whichever.]
– And the conversation shifts back a topic ….. I guess it’s not enough yet.
hyde [……………Yeah. (Nodding off)]
– I see. (laughs) Well then, what is the thing you want most right now?
hyde […….Peace and quiet.]
– And how long would you have that peace and quiet last?
hyde [Uhmmm….? Lessee. ….Let me think. ….. A year or so… Maybe two years ……. something like that.]
– One last question, and its the one I’ve been asking everyone. How do you think the other three members have been, lately?
hyde [They’re pretty delicate people, you know, those three. So, when it comes to lives, they’re pretty random. The rest of the time, they…. They look like they’re having fun, and I really wish I was healthy right now (laughs).]
—
All notes in {<- } format are from the interviewer/editor and were present in the original Japanese.
– How have you been lately?
hyde [You want to know how I’ve been… *Cough, cough cough* (he coughs)]
– Uh oh. Are you alright?
hyde [Lately… Well actually I’m a bit better now than I was… Right when the tour started I came down with a cold. …A really long cold. These past couple of days, I finally got rid of my chill. Now, all I got left is this cough. The worst part was when I’d get into my futon and then break into a massive sweat. I went to the doctor but they couldn’t help, I took medicine and it didn’t do any good. It’s my own body, but like…. I don’t even like it anymore, but I can’t do anything about it. But oh well, it hasn’t hurt my throat. If nothing else, I take good care of my throat, so there haven’t been any lives where I couldn’t sing, and I don’t think there ever will be. Lives put a lot of stress on my body, so it’s important that my voice be in good condition. So yeah, as long as I’ve got my voice, everything else is just brute strength getting me through the fire. And mentally, it’s a great high. It’s just that some days, I’m all like “Oh man, am I ever in awful shape today,” you know. I get so dizzy during the lives, it gets me thinking “One of these days I will definitely pass out. Passing out sounds like fun.” (laughs) But I’ve been just fine. Afterward its like “Oh so I guess I’m not gonna pass out after all.”]
– Your body was in better shape than you thought?!
hyde [Yeah, pretty much. (laughs) … The last thing I want to do is make a bad impression on the fans. I don’t want to have to tell them in an MC that I can’t do my best because I caught a cold, and I don’t even want them (the audience) to notice I’m sick during the live. It would just really annoy me to have them thinking “Oh, I guess he’s not as cool as we thought he was”. Because I’ve thought that myself, when I go to other people’s lives. Like, if they don’t think that much of the audience. They just stand around, doing the live like it was a rehearsal in a studio. So the live isn’t fun or even interesting. I do not want to do that to my fans. Cause, you know, it’s no fun. It’s pride; lives are Pride. Because, in this business, more than any other aspect of the work, lives are when we can show off the best of ourselves, that’s what I believe. To be thought badly of at that point, it’s really beyond annoying to me. That’s why I always give 100%, no matter what condition I happen to be in.]
– Precicely because it’s the aspect you have the most self-confidence in, it forms your Pride.
hyde [Yeah. I do have lots of self-confidence that way, and well, if a live goes wrong then what else have I got? You know? I really do think that way. I have to be cool, that’s the important thing.]
– During lives, are there particular moments when you think of yourself as cool?
hyde […… (silence) …… Sometimes, as a result. Looking at the videos or pictures (of the lives) I’ll realize “Oh yeah, I did that thing.” I don’t think to myself “I am cool” during the actual live. It’s more “Gotta work, gotta work it,” or “I should still have some (energy) left in me.” I feel like I should be giving it everything I’ve got, every live. Sometimes I just do it naturally, sometimes I have to talk myself into doing it.]
– That’s incredibly honest of you.
hyde [….I guess it is.]
– For instance, I was going to ask you if you ever felt at one with the audience, but instead I want to hear more of this honesty, if you don’t mind.
hyde [Ah…… Let me see…….. …. … Um, I don’t know. …. It’s just, you know, on the inside, I have this idea that lives need to be aggressive or else they won’t be any good. …… Well, every day when there’s a live, I think about giving it all I’ve got. I don’t think about the next live, or about the tour being two-thirds over, or anything like that. I may not know what the next day will bring, but I do know that I’ve got to put all of myself into what I’m doing right this moment.]
– This tour has you getting up in super-crowded sold out stadiums for each and every live. Do you ever feel that it’s any different from your previous tours?
hyde […Of course it is. It always feels a little different when it’s not sold out. When the place is jam-packed, that in itself builds up a feeling of anticipation, makes me think I’ve got to give them all something in return. It’s my Duty. It’s linked to what I said before, about how I want to give it everything I’ve got and for everything I can possibly do.]
– I see. So then, do you feel that there is some kind of huge, invisible power underlying the sold-out lives?
hyde [….? What are you talking about?! (laughs)]
– My apologies (laughs). To put it as simply as possible, I meant to ask if you think there is some kind of unseen power lying in the fact that there are far more people who wanted to come to live than people who actually were able to do so. This isn’t limited to lives; I think that this invisible power is already present everywhere. It’s the power that comes with the name of L’Arc~en~Ciel, and all your activities. Do you ever feel any kind of unease with respect to this power?
hyde [……I don’t feel any unease. …And well, you know, when it comes to indirect information like that, I think it always ends up getting twisted somehow. If I were to pay attention to every single tidbit, there’d be no end to it. Personally, I think truth is in every passing moment. And then after that, the information that we give out ourselves, in magazines and stuff, that’s truth too, but only that. From outside the venue, thinking about what kind of live is going on inside, well that’s nothing but imagination. And because it’s imagination, there can never be end to how far it extends…]
– Truth is everything, then.
hyde [Precisely, and that’s also why I feel that I ought to make that true moment as perfect as possible, these days. On the other hand, lately I’ve been caring about all the other stuff (other than the truth) less and less. Looking back, I think that I used to care about all the trivial stuff around us a lot more.]
– How far back are you looking?
hyde [By looking back I mean… maybe a year or two ago.]
– Let’s change the subject. How do you feel about travel?
hyde [Traveling… Well well…. I’ve been like this (i.e. sick with a cold) since the recording just before (the start of the tour) so yeah. I’ve hardly been able to do anything at any of the towns we stopped at. I slept right through Hiroshima. I’ve just been staying in my room, making them bring me okonomiyaki. That’s all. Except when we’re moving.]
– With your health in such a poor state, rather than moving, it would be better to say that you are being moved.
hyde [Yeah yeah yeah. Like, they’re delivering me (laughs).]
– Delivery! (laughs) …. I can just about picture it, though it might somewhat pathetic. Sorry.
hyde [It is (laughs).]
– So, this traveling hasn’t been much fun, or much of a chance to relax for you, has it?
hyde [Ummm…. I wouldn’t say that. We all go for long stretches without going home, so it really feels like “Hey, I’ve gone a really long way” or “Hm I wonder where I am right now.” The problem is my MCs (during the lives). Even if I’ve been to the place before, it’s not like I was there to play. I just stay in my hotel room, the entire time, so I can’t go “Last night I went out and this funny thing happened.” I can’t say “I caught a cold so I spent all of yesterday in my room, sleeping” either. If I said something like that, all I’d get would be their (the audience’s) sympathy.]
– Indeed. If you said that, they’d reply “Are you OK?!” “Hang in there!”.
hyde [If they started sympathizing with me, then it’s a guarantee that they wouldn’t be as excited anymore. So yeah, I don’t have anything left to say. (laughs) When I get to the venue, I ask the local staff about famous things in the area, so I can at least talk about that.]
– If you were well enough to go out, it would surely be more enjoyable.
hyde [Yeah. It would definitely be different. … I really, really haven’t gotten to go out in any towns. Maybe out to a video rental store, at most.]
– You went to a video rental store? And, did you rent a video?!
hyde [Yeah. Cause you know, some days, like today, we don’t do anything except travel. When that happens, we usual get to the next hotel around 3 or 4 in the evening. And then, well, I don’t have anything else to do until night, personally. I just stay in my futon and sleep. I could read or something, but that just makes me tired. I’d rather get info from the TV, that’s easier. That’s why I spend all day watching videos.]
– That’s nice. A few months ago, you mentioned that there were several videos that you wanted to watch, but you didn’t have the time, so I suppose you must have found the time by now.
hyde [Yeah. I watch everything I want to see.]
– It’s the All-you-can-watch video tour.
hyde [All I can watch. I spend eight hours straight watching videos.]
– Continuously?
hyde [Yeah. Four movies.] { â†ã€€Precice, for once}
– No way!? That sounds like an endurance race to me.
hyde [Before that I watched three movies in six hours.]
– Unbelievable. You wanted to watch those videos that badly?
hyde […More like, I had absolutely nothing else to do. (laughs)]
– Were they any good?
hyde [Uh…. (He stops to think) `The Fifth Element’, that was a good one. That girl, Mila, who stars in it, she’s pretty cute. ….Doing that, taking all that time just to watch videos, makes me realize that when we’re on tour, I actually have more time to myself than I do when we’re at home. On the day of a live, there’s tons of stuff to do, so of course I’m busy, but on the travel days I have a lot of free time. But the things I can do are so limited you know!? (laughs) In the end, watching videos is pretty much all I can do (laughs).]
– Do you think that, more than most people, you feel that you don’t want to waste your time?
hyde [I wonder about that. I guess that since I’m in this business, that’s the sort of thing that would bother me. Nowadays, you know, I just normally try to make lots of time for myself, taking things where normally don’t pay much attention and trying to do them according to some kind of plan. I think that it probably gets expressed all over the place in a lot of tiny ways. Then I take all that time I’ve made for myself and spend it all doing whatever it is I really feel like doing that day. So, even if I just use the time to space out, I still think it’s worth it. I think so because I’m doing it for myself.]
– If it was your free time right now, what would you be doing?
hyde [I want to take a walk downtown. …And then I want to watch a movie.]
– At the cinema?
hyde [Yeaaah, or on video. Whichever.]
– And the conversation shifts back a topic ….. I guess it’s not enough yet.
hyde [……………Yeah. (Nodding off)]
– I see. (laughs) Well then, what is the thing you want most right now?
hyde […….Peace and quiet.]
– And how long would you have that peace and quiet last?
hyde [Uhmmm….? Lessee. ….Let me think. ….. A year or so… Maybe two years ……. something like that.]
– One last question, and its the one I’ve been asking everyone. How do you think the other three members have been, lately?
hyde [They’re pretty delicate people, you know, those three. So, when it comes to lives, they’re pretty random. The rest of the time, they…. They look like they’re having fun, and I really wish I was healthy right now (laughs).]
Zdroj:http://www.larcompendium.com/site/?p=231
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