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– At last, the new album KISS has been completed. First of all, could you please tell me your feelings about it?
[It ended up without a single song that I don’t like. I like the sound of every single one of them. ‘Cause, there was great communication with the engineer we worked with, and there was wonderful communication between us members during the recording, and each of us was able to express the atmosphere he wanted each of his demo (songs) to have, so I was able to get into that atmosphere for every single song. I think that’s what affected it.]
– Keeping the 15th anniversary show in mind, I think that it must have settled a few things for you. It seems that it made you ask yourselves if you were going to keep it up with L’Arc~en~Ciel, and of course you decided to keep going, so it made you straighten up and make music together once again. In that sense, I think this recording must have been a new starting point for you as songwriters. What do you think?
[I did think of that. L’Arc~en~Ciel is L’Arc~en~Ciel. I don’t know that L’Arc~en~Ciel-ish-ness is, but clearly we are L’Arc~en~Ciel! ………When I hear something that makes me think “This is L’Arc~en~Ciel” it makes me want to spit out new music, maybe that’s what it is. I have no idea what that L’Arc~en~Ciel-ish-ness is, though. …I don’t know what kind of ambition it is, but I felt the same way when we were making True, and also when we were making DUNE. Whatever it is, it’s come around again.]
– It sounds like a wonderful thing to be conscious of. Could it be that you were starving for that something?
[Like, “Music is NOT boring!”. I get to feeling that way, then I want to make people listen to something. And then…. It was the same for DUNE and for True, you know, like everyone was doing his own thing. We can make music without going there, and when that happens, it’s bye-bye! But I wanted to go there. Can’t we keep doing this forever? But it gets to a point where it goes boom! And (they take a break and sneak into some other bands) happens, you know? Then once that gets going the gossip starts up, and we’re all painted with the same brush (laughs). For example, when we were being called visual, we went “NO!” and protested, and then when we climbed up the Oricon chart we started getting lumped in with those (normal) people, and we went “NO!!” all over again. Maybe that’s coming around again…]
– ken-san, you’re coming from the idea that what you’re doing is on a completely different level, right?
[That could be it. They ask “Why does this sell?” and say “The magazine writers say this is cool but they don’t understand it”…… I don’t know why members of a band think their own music is cool. Often, when I read other people’s interviews and they mention how wonderfully cool they are, I’ll listen to the music and go “What are they talking about?” …… or just go “?”, that happens a lot.]
– I know what you mean. I heard from the other members that this time, for the totality of the recording, you dove in quite unhesitatingly and were wonderfully sharp the entire time, ken-san. Could you tell me how you came to be that way?
[It might just be that I realized that if there is a way I want things to turn out, something that it would be awesome for L’Arc~en~Ciel to do, then I have to speak up if it starts to seem like it won’t get that way naturally, and when I do speak up the others understand, so I can relax. They don’t ask “What are you talking about?”. I used to stay in my place rather more. For example, I was going over a melody with hyde, and he wanted to cut out a measure. I didn’t want to take that bit out, but hyde did. We were able to have a proper discussion about why and why not, we managed to really understand each other. And then, we were able to do this part this way, and that part that way…… I’m talking about Yuki no Ashiato (Footprints in the Snow) here, if it had just been rushed according to what I had in mind it wouldn’t have worked and you wouldn’t be able to hear the good points of hyde’s melody there, but it’s not like our ideas merged into one, more like they took on a shape that allowed both to coexist. Also, to understand each other you have to be able to say that you don’t like something when you don’t like it… It’s not about giving in as soon as someone says no. Anyway, I wanted to be able to say “I want it to be like this” when I had an idea.]
– You were able to get much deeper into each other, that makes the experience worthwhile all by itself. All that included, was this recording fun for you?
[It was a lot of fun. It’s all great music. tetsu changed the way he records bass, he sounded awesome… very happy. Me, too, I’ve liked these songs since we started recording, and I wanted to make them with only the sounds that made my heart pound, so it feels good to listen to the whole thing. I simply thought “It’s good”. That’s why it reminds me of when we made True, we put a lot of heavy thinking into the treatment of the songs, that time. So that, plus how each member’s performance is so much better now, I fell in love with it… The treatment of the whole thing, and everyone’s performing power, that made it possible to express something with every performance, and the sound lets you know it, it’s got real quality… That’s how I feel. I might be wrong though.]
– As for the songwriting stage, was there anything that seemed radically different to you this time?
[When I’m at the songwriting stage, I get excited, and I think I really treasured the feelings that I surprised myself with. Then, when we got to the actual recording stage, I was all like “This has to be even cooler than the demo!”, full of passion like that. And it’s a gorgeous feeling… If I felt like putting a certain sound into it, I didn’t hold back and just put it in there. I did that with piano, and with strings, and for my guitar I had a certain amp set up and played with it, and I tried several kinds of micing (the position and recording method of the microphone) too, until I could settle on the best one… even though it took time, I did it. I really put in the effort required to get exactly the sound I could be satisfied with. Even when it could have been done right away, I wanted to be sure I’d feel good about it in the end, so I didn’t say anything definitive right away. I didn’t want to say it was good, but then think “Oh it could have been so much more gorgeous…” so I didn’t say much of anything, I was very self-conscious about that.]
– This time, the songs are quite amazing. I was taking with the other members, and there was the opinion that you’re the music teacher of the group, ken-san.
[Hahahahahahahahahahaha.]
– I think what they mean is that, on top of having the longest-running experience with musical theory, you make exceptional music that has made you the songwriter per excellence. Once again, the songs sound lovely. Thinking about why that is, I’ve come to the conclusion that in addition to being a good song from L’Arc~en~Ciel’s perspective, the songs are good from the perspective of those who will listen to them – those who hear them with you, enjoy them with you, those who will be touched by the songs; your songwriting is aimed at all of them, isn’t it? That’s what I’ve observed.
[Hmmm, but it would have been strange for me not to keep all those people in mind as much as now.]
– ……so I’m wrong.
[I’m sorry (laughs). But there is one point that I feel good about – When something sounds like it will make other people happy, but has me thinking “Well, others might think this is good but I don’t feel good about it”, then I’d look for a way to make myself feel great about it. That’s even more applicable to recordings than to songwriting – well for songwriting too, I think I made ‘surprise’ the key element there – anyway, in recording, I felt strongly about how I wanted each song to be. I mean, for instance when I’m writing a song, I’m doing it alone so I can let it go wherever I want, but for recording there are a lot of people involved. So then, even though I was taking everyone’s opinion into consideration, I felt strongly that I couldn’t let certain parts be ruined. Until my points were made, until everyone understood, I had to keep at it, so that’s what I had on my mind while making this.]
– Doesn’t this mean that since you were so stubborn while getting the album made, ken-san, you must truly love pop for it to turn out so pop-like.
[Yeah, I won’t deny that. Sometimes I think about whether it’s pop or not, but…… I guess I do like pop, normally… I’m inconsistent (laughs).]
– Hahahahahahahaha.
[I figure some people do hold on to a single type of music forever, but I’m not that consistent (laughs). Putting it another way, I think I’d have a hard time coping if I were restricted to a single musical genre. When we discussed what would sell and what wouldn’t, like if they say “If we do it like this, it will sell”, but the thing that would sell isn’t my style at all… it makes me wonder what the point of making music is supposed to be, then. But, I do like many different kinds of music… is that why? I’ve wondered that before.]
– (laughs) The point would be, then, that it takes an inconsistent person to create the greatest albums.
[I guess so (laughs). Of course, we are a band after all, so I think it goes like this : hyde is the head of band, thinking up the words and writing them out for us, then my inconsistent music lets us have some variety, and then tetsu’s playing and yukkie’s playing fill it out and give it substance.]
– There is a sense of great joy throughout this album. Was this one of the goals you kept in mind, ken-san?
[I didn’t perceive a sense of joy in it, but the music that I want to make heard is something that can fan feelings of joy as well as those of despair. Of course there’s music that can just be listened to casually, every day, too, but there’s some music that’s meant to make the day extraordinary, even if you listen to it on a normal day, and I very much prefer the latter. That’s why there can be both in it, it can make you sublimely happy, or it can get you down without you really knowing why…… I listened to music in order to shake up my feelings, so if this album can achieve the same effect, then the listeners will be happy, they’ll be glad they listened to it, won’t they? That is really what I aimed for, this time. I guess I won’t know if it worked or not unless I ask the listeners (laughs).]
– Hearing you speak, it makes me think that when I listen to the music, my own cells and nerves will get the better of me……
[Yeah yeah, that’s what I mean.]
– Do you ever feel that the songs you make are made to grow by the band and then evolve, or can you see where they are headed from the beginning?
[Hmmmmmm…… We do discuss things in detail, but I think it’s rather more of a mutual sense of understanding. It’s not about artistic theories, it’s just a feeling about how it should be…… Maybe in reality, I should be saying “Do it like this, because if you do it like this it will feel like that”, but that’s not how it is, I can get it all across just by saying “I want it to feel like that”. It works for all of us.]
– I think it’s the same for orchestras and gypsy bands, in that everyone comes together to build up a groove, and so it comes to transcend the art form and something else begins, something fun is born.
[Right.]
– I think that these days, a lot of the people who make music are being turned into food, but despite the times, I think it’s a wondrous thing to be able to hear joyful music like this once again.
[Right (laughs), that’s definitely something I want, something I consider to be good. The recording was a lot of fun, you know.]
[It ended up without a single song that I don’t like. I like the sound of every single one of them. ‘Cause, there was great communication with the engineer we worked with, and there was wonderful communication between us members during the recording, and each of us was able to express the atmosphere he wanted each of his demo (songs) to have, so I was able to get into that atmosphere for every single song. I think that’s what affected it.]
– Keeping the 15th anniversary show in mind, I think that it must have settled a few things for you. It seems that it made you ask yourselves if you were going to keep it up with L’Arc~en~Ciel, and of course you decided to keep going, so it made you straighten up and make music together once again. In that sense, I think this recording must have been a new starting point for you as songwriters. What do you think?
[I did think of that. L’Arc~en~Ciel is L’Arc~en~Ciel. I don’t know that L’Arc~en~Ciel-ish-ness is, but clearly we are L’Arc~en~Ciel! ………When I hear something that makes me think “This is L’Arc~en~Ciel” it makes me want to spit out new music, maybe that’s what it is. I have no idea what that L’Arc~en~Ciel-ish-ness is, though. …I don’t know what kind of ambition it is, but I felt the same way when we were making True, and also when we were making DUNE. Whatever it is, it’s come around again.]
– It sounds like a wonderful thing to be conscious of. Could it be that you were starving for that something?
[Like, “Music is NOT boring!”. I get to feeling that way, then I want to make people listen to something. And then…. It was the same for DUNE and for True, you know, like everyone was doing his own thing. We can make music without going there, and when that happens, it’s bye-bye! But I wanted to go there. Can’t we keep doing this forever? But it gets to a point where it goes boom! And (they take a break and sneak into some other bands) happens, you know? Then once that gets going the gossip starts up, and we’re all painted with the same brush (laughs). For example, when we were being called visual, we went “NO!” and protested, and then when we climbed up the Oricon chart we started getting lumped in with those (normal) people, and we went “NO!!” all over again. Maybe that’s coming around again…]
– ken-san, you’re coming from the idea that what you’re doing is on a completely different level, right?
[That could be it. They ask “Why does this sell?” and say “The magazine writers say this is cool but they don’t understand it”…… I don’t know why members of a band think their own music is cool. Often, when I read other people’s interviews and they mention how wonderfully cool they are, I’ll listen to the music and go “What are they talking about?” …… or just go “?”, that happens a lot.]
– I know what you mean. I heard from the other members that this time, for the totality of the recording, you dove in quite unhesitatingly and were wonderfully sharp the entire time, ken-san. Could you tell me how you came to be that way?
[It might just be that I realized that if there is a way I want things to turn out, something that it would be awesome for L’Arc~en~Ciel to do, then I have to speak up if it starts to seem like it won’t get that way naturally, and when I do speak up the others understand, so I can relax. They don’t ask “What are you talking about?”. I used to stay in my place rather more. For example, I was going over a melody with hyde, and he wanted to cut out a measure. I didn’t want to take that bit out, but hyde did. We were able to have a proper discussion about why and why not, we managed to really understand each other. And then, we were able to do this part this way, and that part that way…… I’m talking about Yuki no Ashiato (Footprints in the Snow) here, if it had just been rushed according to what I had in mind it wouldn’t have worked and you wouldn’t be able to hear the good points of hyde’s melody there, but it’s not like our ideas merged into one, more like they took on a shape that allowed both to coexist. Also, to understand each other you have to be able to say that you don’t like something when you don’t like it… It’s not about giving in as soon as someone says no. Anyway, I wanted to be able to say “I want it to be like this” when I had an idea.]
– You were able to get much deeper into each other, that makes the experience worthwhile all by itself. All that included, was this recording fun for you?
[It was a lot of fun. It’s all great music. tetsu changed the way he records bass, he sounded awesome… very happy. Me, too, I’ve liked these songs since we started recording, and I wanted to make them with only the sounds that made my heart pound, so it feels good to listen to the whole thing. I simply thought “It’s good”. That’s why it reminds me of when we made True, we put a lot of heavy thinking into the treatment of the songs, that time. So that, plus how each member’s performance is so much better now, I fell in love with it… The treatment of the whole thing, and everyone’s performing power, that made it possible to express something with every performance, and the sound lets you know it, it’s got real quality… That’s how I feel. I might be wrong though.]
– As for the songwriting stage, was there anything that seemed radically different to you this time?
[When I’m at the songwriting stage, I get excited, and I think I really treasured the feelings that I surprised myself with. Then, when we got to the actual recording stage, I was all like “This has to be even cooler than the demo!”, full of passion like that. And it’s a gorgeous feeling… If I felt like putting a certain sound into it, I didn’t hold back and just put it in there. I did that with piano, and with strings, and for my guitar I had a certain amp set up and played with it, and I tried several kinds of micing (the position and recording method of the microphone) too, until I could settle on the best one… even though it took time, I did it. I really put in the effort required to get exactly the sound I could be satisfied with. Even when it could have been done right away, I wanted to be sure I’d feel good about it in the end, so I didn’t say anything definitive right away. I didn’t want to say it was good, but then think “Oh it could have been so much more gorgeous…” so I didn’t say much of anything, I was very self-conscious about that.]
– This time, the songs are quite amazing. I was taking with the other members, and there was the opinion that you’re the music teacher of the group, ken-san.
[Hahahahahahahahahahaha.]
– I think what they mean is that, on top of having the longest-running experience with musical theory, you make exceptional music that has made you the songwriter per excellence. Once again, the songs sound lovely. Thinking about why that is, I’ve come to the conclusion that in addition to being a good song from L’Arc~en~Ciel’s perspective, the songs are good from the perspective of those who will listen to them – those who hear them with you, enjoy them with you, those who will be touched by the songs; your songwriting is aimed at all of them, isn’t it? That’s what I’ve observed.
[Hmmm, but it would have been strange for me not to keep all those people in mind as much as now.]
– ……so I’m wrong.
[I’m sorry (laughs). But there is one point that I feel good about – When something sounds like it will make other people happy, but has me thinking “Well, others might think this is good but I don’t feel good about it”, then I’d look for a way to make myself feel great about it. That’s even more applicable to recordings than to songwriting – well for songwriting too, I think I made ‘surprise’ the key element there – anyway, in recording, I felt strongly about how I wanted each song to be. I mean, for instance when I’m writing a song, I’m doing it alone so I can let it go wherever I want, but for recording there are a lot of people involved. So then, even though I was taking everyone’s opinion into consideration, I felt strongly that I couldn’t let certain parts be ruined. Until my points were made, until everyone understood, I had to keep at it, so that’s what I had on my mind while making this.]
– Doesn’t this mean that since you were so stubborn while getting the album made, ken-san, you must truly love pop for it to turn out so pop-like.
[Yeah, I won’t deny that. Sometimes I think about whether it’s pop or not, but…… I guess I do like pop, normally… I’m inconsistent (laughs).]
– Hahahahahahahaha.
[I figure some people do hold on to a single type of music forever, but I’m not that consistent (laughs). Putting it another way, I think I’d have a hard time coping if I were restricted to a single musical genre. When we discussed what would sell and what wouldn’t, like if they say “If we do it like this, it will sell”, but the thing that would sell isn’t my style at all… it makes me wonder what the point of making music is supposed to be, then. But, I do like many different kinds of music… is that why? I’ve wondered that before.]
– (laughs) The point would be, then, that it takes an inconsistent person to create the greatest albums.
[I guess so (laughs). Of course, we are a band after all, so I think it goes like this : hyde is the head of band, thinking up the words and writing them out for us, then my inconsistent music lets us have some variety, and then tetsu’s playing and yukkie’s playing fill it out and give it substance.]
– There is a sense of great joy throughout this album. Was this one of the goals you kept in mind, ken-san?
[I didn’t perceive a sense of joy in it, but the music that I want to make heard is something that can fan feelings of joy as well as those of despair. Of course there’s music that can just be listened to casually, every day, too, but there’s some music that’s meant to make the day extraordinary, even if you listen to it on a normal day, and I very much prefer the latter. That’s why there can be both in it, it can make you sublimely happy, or it can get you down without you really knowing why…… I listened to music in order to shake up my feelings, so if this album can achieve the same effect, then the listeners will be happy, they’ll be glad they listened to it, won’t they? That is really what I aimed for, this time. I guess I won’t know if it worked or not unless I ask the listeners (laughs).]
– Hearing you speak, it makes me think that when I listen to the music, my own cells and nerves will get the better of me……
[Yeah yeah, that’s what I mean.]
– Do you ever feel that the songs you make are made to grow by the band and then evolve, or can you see where they are headed from the beginning?
[Hmmmmmm…… We do discuss things in detail, but I think it’s rather more of a mutual sense of understanding. It’s not about artistic theories, it’s just a feeling about how it should be…… Maybe in reality, I should be saying “Do it like this, because if you do it like this it will feel like that”, but that’s not how it is, I can get it all across just by saying “I want it to feel like that”. It works for all of us.]
– I think it’s the same for orchestras and gypsy bands, in that everyone comes together to build up a groove, and so it comes to transcend the art form and something else begins, something fun is born.
[Right.]
– I think that these days, a lot of the people who make music are being turned into food, but despite the times, I think it’s a wondrous thing to be able to hear joyful music like this once again.
[Right (laughs), that’s definitely something I want, something I consider to be good. The recording was a lot of fun, you know.]
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