25. července 2023

TOP OF THE RAINBOW – YUKIHIRO

 


From the rainy days of Tokyo’s may, he took a flight. Its purpose was to make use of the tour’s transit days to take care of this personal interview. The craft climbed ever higher, westward bound, revealing the Seto Inland Sea below within an hour’s time.
The first time I met yukihiro-kun, we were heading north – toward London, to be exact – in an airplane. He had only one bag; an extremely small amount of luggage. Indeed, with nothing but the clothes on his back, he made his way to a L’Arc~en~Ciel photoshoot. Bending his knees upon the seat, he demonstrated the flexibility of his body and laughed. yukihiro-kun’s luggage must be only the bare minimum needed for the trip.

– How have you been lately?
yukihiro [I’ve been on tour lately.]
– Are you used to touring, now?
yukihiro [I can’t get used to it. Somehow, I can’t sleep, I end up staying awake until 10 am. Last night, I managed to sleep a little, but the last two days before that, I didn’t sleep at all. It sucks.]
– It really does. How about the lives?
yukihiro [I did my best, obviously. Even though I didn’t sleep, it’s not like I did a bad job, so there’s no need to feel bad for the fans who came to the lives on those days.]
– Have you always been unable to sleep during tours?
yukihiro [It’s been happening for so long that I can’t remember anymore!]
– Hahahahaha! (Both laugh)
yukihiro [For me, it’s not just the tours, I have a hard time sleeping any time I’m in a hotel room. I end up doing something or other, so I stay awake until 4 or 5 am. Even though I meant to sleep. I can’t sleep, and I can remember looking at the clock last time and it was already around 5 am. That happens a lot.]
– Eehh. I wonder why. I suppose some people are extra-sensitive to changes in environment.
yukihiro [A different pillow… or something… gah, I don’t know, I don’t know myself.]
– But, I suppose you must be getting delicate.
yukihiro [Barricade!]
– …Er? …I don’t believe it. I didn’t think you were the type to mess up someone’s words like that. (laughs)
yukihiro [Hahahahaha! (both laugh)]
– How about the lives, themselves?
yukihiro [Hm, yeah, the lives, I think they’re going pretty well. …I don’t know if the fans are really enjoying it or not, but personally, I’m getting great feedback, really.]
– Can you say, specifically, how the lives are going?
yukihiro […When it’s over, I feel really satisfied. … Yes. Somehow, I feel the same way every day.]
– You mean, you feel satisfied with your own performance?
yukihiro [Let me see… Well, if you want details, there are some days where it’s just basic. Then just… times when I simply feel I did a great job.]
– What do you think about on those nights when you can’t sleep?
yukihiro [Oh, all kinds of things. All sorts of things inside my head, trying to get to the front. I think about all those things, all at the same time, you know.]
– Oh, I see. So you don’t mean that you think about all sorts of topics, one after the other, but rather that half of your mind is occupied with one thing and the rest is working on a different thought entirely?
yukihiro [Yeah yeah. Yes. That’s pretty much it. And, I get frustrated because I can’t sleep. …My eyes and stuff hurt. It gets to the point that it hurts to have them open. I figure I can’t sleep so I might as well read something, but I can’t read anything. Because my eyes hurt (laughs). So, I put on music and stuff, but now, I’ve got that music stuck in my head. Ah, and then, since we’re on tour, I can’t go out to buy other CDs. Some good stuff has come out lately, right?!]
– I can imagine you’d want to go CD shopping.
yukihiro [Yes. Even in the middle of a tour, I’ve still got some free time sometimes, so I’d like to be able to go out and buy CDs.]
– These days, no matter where you go, you can find those big foreign chain stores.
yukihiro [Yes. They’re everywhere. Well, some places didn’t have them (laughs).]
– Ah, already.
yukihiro [Yes, already. …I guess I want to listen to them (to his recently-bought CDs). I wanna hear some cool sounds.]
– Do you mean that you expect to be stimulated by that music?
yukihiro [Yes. That’s it. …But, there are other things like that, you know. … Books, just after I finish reading one. …That part (of him that craves more stimulation), it’s insatiable, isn’t it, even I think so sometimes.]
– Ah, is that so.
yukihiro [Yes. Before, I… how do I say… I used to be afraid that if I didn’t constantly take in cool things like that, I’d end up dead inside. I really thought so. I was sure that if I didn’t work on making myself a deeper person every day, I’d wind up completely empty.]
– And now, you don’t feel that pressure anymore?
yukihiro [Now, I… I think I still do, in some ways. Of course, I think that now, I’m better able to make use of all the things I’ve taken in, compared to how I used to be. So, I can’t say that I feel afraid, not the way I used to.]
– I wonder if that’s related to your ability to control the quality and quantity of what you express of the things you’ve taken in.
yukihiro [Hmm… I rather think it’s that I’ve gotten better at interpreting it all. For example, if I take one new thing now, before if took in one new thing, I’d get only one thing out of it… or that’s how it felt, but now, it all passes through me and I can use all of it, express it in in many different ways.]
– How much of that do you think is due to the influence of L’Arc~en~Ciel in your life?
yukihiro [How much, how the band is influencing me now, even I can’t answer that. But, I want to influence them, I want to do what I can for this band, in my own way.]
– That aspect of you, yukihiro-kun, can it be faithfully transmitted?
yukihiro [Hmmm…. (silence)… … . I intend to show it, that is. Yes. …I think it shows in the way I approach my work, with the songs. …And, even in ways that have nothing to do with music. When I make a huge ruckus, I think that side of me is part of it, that’s got to be what it is. I never used to do anything like that, before.]
– A huge ruckus??
yukihiro [No no no (laughs). Well of course, I think that before, my reaction to other people used to wait a breath. I’d be asked something, and before reacting, I’d take a breath and think about how I should react to whatever it was, I think that’s what I was doing. Now, if something is funny, I just go Nyahahahahahahahaha right away. It’s funny (laughs).]
– Ah, I see. More responsive, responding with laughter, indeed that’s the impression I get. You must be a laughing drunk, too, aren’t you?!
yukihiro [Am I?! (laughs) I think that part of me must have always been there, but I didn’t let it out, nicely. Because, I thought that laughing out loud, laughing too hard, was totally uncool so I didn’t do it. Because punks are cool. Or something. (both laugh)]
– What a change (laughs).
yukihiro [Hahahahaha (laughs). I don’t think like that anymore, not at all. I figure that if what I do is cool, that’s good enough.]
– It’s easier that way, I’m sure.
yukihiro [Yes. It is. And it’s boring to take a breath during lives. …Anyway, I think this is a really great environment. A little while back, the live was over, and I saw the staff loading things onto a truck, and I was touched, emotionally, somehow. Ah, they work so hard, they’re doing all this work.]
– Could you please tell me a bit more about that?
yukihiro [Yes. That time, it was after a live, and I was at the members’ exit, which was the same as the delivery entrance. That’s when I realized how great it is, everything the staff does for us.]
– And you felt it was great that you had so many people doing it?
yukihiro [Ah, yes yes yes. That’s it. And, those people, they’re all working together for the same cause. That’s just, wow, it’s great.]
– You mean that the staff members are all working together for you, for L’Arc. Did you feel something because you were the one at the centre of all this effort?
yukihiro [No. That’s not what I felt. I felt that I was a part of all the work that was happening, though.]
– yukihiro-kun, what have you been putting the most power into, recently?
yukihiro [The lives, of course.]
– For instance, do you do anything to give yourself more energy?
yukihiro [Before the show starts, I kick chairs.]
– You kick chairs. Hahahaha. (laughs)
yukihiro [Yes. Kick. (laughs) But even that doesn’t do much for me… so I kick walls (both laugh hard).]
– You kick?! (laughs)
yukihiro [Yes. I focus hard on doing it. …But you know, I don’t want to put too much power into it. Obviously, if I spend too much energy on that, I won’t have enough power left for the live. To an point, I need to be tense, but I also need to relax.]
– Is that something you can find in your regular daily life?
yukihiro [No, not at all. Well, really, in my regular life, I don’t think the same way at all. It’s just for lives, I guess that’s the only time I think.]
– One year ago, could you have imagined yourself the way you are today?
yukihiro [How could I possibly have done that?! (laughs) One year ago, I think that’s just about the time that Niji was being written.]
– At that point, had it already been decided that you’d be at the recording?
yukihiro [Ummm…. I think it was. But the exact schedule hadn’t been made up yet. …. But even still, how could I have imagined?!]
– How does it feel to have your entire environment change so much in one year?
yukihiro [It’s a good experience. It may not be a very common experience, so I’m lucky. Ever since the recording of Niji, up until this current tour. Everything single thing that’s happened has been a really great experience.]
– I’d like to close with the same question for all four members. How are things between you and the other three, lately?
yukihiro [Hmm, let’s see. hyde-kun has a bit of a cold, but that makes for a different atmosphere in and of itself, and he talks about making sure all the lives are really cool. I guess there are some parts that are really hard for him, with a cold, so that’s exactly why things are that much more intense. But it looks like he’s starting to recover now, so I’m happy about that. ken-chan is, well he never changes the slightest bit… right. (laughs) I think he’s very energetic. tetsu-kun is… Ah, tetsu-kun had a cold too, a little while ago. Because of that, in the morning, his eyes would be all puffy, and he’d say his eyes were no good. (laughs) Well, that’s how the tour’s been going.]


Zdroj:http://www.larcompendium.com/site/?p=228

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