– Actually, it seems you’re in your thirties yourself. Be honest : How does it feel?
[Mentally, I’m in my late teens, so not much has changed. I’m 34 now, turning 35 soon. Thinking about that is…… kinda scary.]
– Scary……. What’s scary about it?
[What’s so scary? Back in elementary school, when I was a kid, I used to think that 30-somethings were so old. I haven’t changed that much since back then. Even though I’m that age myself. Am I allowed to be 30? I wonder (laughs). Of course, I have matured a little bit since elementary school (laughs). But in high school, at 16 or 17, I felt like I was done growing up. But that, doesn’t everyone do that? Not change that much after reaching 16 or 17? If you think about it, it’s a wide stretch of maturity compared to elementary school.]
– I think there certainly is a part of oneself that doesn’t change after those days. But even so, now that you’ve passed into your thirties you must feel like you’ve changed somehow. In the mental sense, regarding maturity.
[Seriously?! I totally haven’t (both burst into laughter). Nah, is that more or less maturing? Even for me. But in my case that stretch of maturity is really narrow. Until 16, 17 I grew up reaaaally fast, all at once. Ever since then, until now, it’s been so much slower, I really feel like I’m only getting more mature a tiny little bit at a time.]
– Until the lower teens, there’s a bodily aspect to it, a sudden rush of growth that doesn’t happen anymore, that could have been scary too.
[Hmm…… Yeah, there was that too. You know, when I was little, I had this mental image of “adulthood”. Adults work hard, they think the right way and they live by those thoughts, that’s what I imagined. However, the way I am now, I haven’t become anything even remotely like that mental image of adulthood I had when I was a kid, and I’ve come to realise that.]
– As a human being, you still have some maturing to do before you can really be an adult, perhaps you’re afraid of that realisation.
[Right. Anyway, when I was a kid, I thought adults had to be something like “Sennin” (1) didn’t I? I must have.]
– As if they had to keep themselves above everything?
[That’s it. “Young people these days,” that’s a phrase adults use a lot, isn’t it? But I wonder about adults these days. I think adults today are worse than the young people. Any way you look at it.]
– In what situations? When do you feel that way about today’s adults?
[Take this for example, it happened just recently. I was in my car, at the high-speed tollgate, and there was another car diagonally in front of me. On this side of the tollgate, you slow down, right? That’s when it was. They dumped an ashtray out the window. Dumped out still-smoking cigarette butts onto the road. It’s an adult doing this, an adult! An old guy. “The hell you doin’?!” It was an “Eeeeh?” moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so surprised. The point is, when I was a kid, I thought that adults did the right thing. But, there’s a ton of adults who don’t. Now that I’m an adult myself, I know. When you’re a little kid, everything adults or seniors say sounds like the right thing, you get caught up thinking that. However, it turns out that’s not the case, which you find out once you grow up. It’s the same with schoolteachers. As a kid, you think “Teacher said it, so it must be right,” don’t you? I don’t know why this makes me angry, but it’s happened that I’ve thought maybe I was wrong. Actually, it wasn’t me, it was probably the teacher saying something weird. Looking back now, I can think of a lot of instances of that.]
– When you were a child, you thought that “Adults are always right,” but it was nothing more than an illusion. Now that you’re an adult yourself, you can take a good look at the other adults all around you. How about this : Do you feel at all fascinated by the accumulation of years?
[I’ve never been fascinated by that. Because people have to get old, even though they hate it. There’s no need to admire that necessity, is there? That’s why there’s no need to go “I wanna hurry and be a grown up!” either. Some people do say that, but even people who hate getting older will end up being adults someday.]
– So, do you have any idea of how you’ll spend your thirties?
[No, not the slightest.]
– Is anything different from your twenties?
[There’s nothing tangibly different but, it’s just that knowing and thinking that I’m in my thirties feels a bit distasteful.]
– I wonder how you’ll be in your fourties.
[The idea of being 40 is hard to grasp for me. At that point, I’ll probably be better off accepting that I’m an “old guy.” But at this point, I hate the thought. Actually, as I go about my life, I don’t normally think that I’m 34.]
– Sometimes you don’t feel like you really are your age, right?
[Yeah, that’s for sure. Take this for example, I’ve got more physical strength than I used to have. Better concentration, too. Sometimes I’m more aware of those aspects of me.]
– What about other aspects? For example, do you sometimes feel like there’s a generation gap between you and younger people?
[I don’t. Ever since way back, I’ve been able to tell what’s going to be fashionable and what isn’t. That still hasn’t changed.]
– At the end of 2003, you performed as part of the event “Danger II” at Budoukan (1). What kind of sensation did you get from doing that show?
[Until then, there hadn’t been any TETSU69 lives yet. There was that one acoustic show I’d arranged with piano and acoustic guitar, I’d done that show, but the band I’d organised for it was only meant to play together that one time, so having this second show at Budoukan was pretty cool (laughs). I took every shortcut I could, thinking of how interesting it would be. Last summer, I played at SHIBUYA-AX(2) too, but this was by far much easier than AX. I guess I prefer the big places, after all. Playing there feels great, and the bigger the venue the more natural it feels.]
– tetsu-san, you’ve played in huge places several times with L’Arc, so there must not be much left that can surprise you. You move quite excitedly here and there about the stage.
[Yeah, I do. I’ve never gone out there planning to move around so much. I start out thinking I’ll stay in my prearranged spot and sing. But once I’m out on stage, completely subconsciously, I move around a lot. I get wrapped up in it, and it feels great. I think Budoukan’s pretty nice.]
– Beyond the size alone, you must also have some feelings about the seating capacity.
[If you were to ask me about how big AX is, I’d say I don’t find it all that big. Even from the audience’s perspective, I think that’s the case. Ain’t it tiny? The year before last, when I went there to see Duran Duran, I was thinking about how small it was, and yet they played anyway, I thought. The first time I played at Budoukan I thought the same thing.]
– It’s round, so that probably makes a difference.
[But it hasn’t got that much depth.]
– Does it feel any different going on stage as the bassist of L’Arc~en~Ciel as opposed to going on stage as TETSU69?
[There are differences between being bassist and vocalist, so it’s not a simple thing to compare. If I was bassist for both acts, I’d be able to understand the differences more objectively, but since my duties are so completely different, it feels completely different.]
– Did going on stage as a vocalist, a front man, seem smooth or was it uncomfortable?
[Well, all the members of L’Arc have taken up doing lead vocals. Thinking about it objectively, it’s quite impressive, but all of us do it like it’s an obvious thing to do, we just gotta, or else it’d feel kind of embarrassing. I mean, of course we can do that. Being with such high-level people, it paralyzes you in a way (laughs). All four of us write songs, all four of us take up lead vocals; looking on a global scale, I don’t think there are any other bands who can scatter into musically active solo projects like this. I think L’Arc~en~Ciel is an incredible band.]
– When you participated in “Danger II”, what did you make a point of?
[I’m quite sure people hadn’t expected me to be the first act to go on stage, so first of all, since I was the top batter, I had to do a great job up front so I could pass the baton to the next person. I thought it was a heavy responsibility.]
– Were you nervous before the live?
[Nah, I wasn’t nervous. It’s like I didn’t have time to be nervous. Mostly because I’m so noisy. Actually, I was pretty pressed for time in rehearsal, so I didn’t get that much of it. It felt like the show came up right away.]
– Are you nervous when you go on stage as part of L’Arc~en~Ciel?
[With L’Arc, I’m even less nervous. When I’m up there as TETSU69, I have a bit more to take care of. Speaking of which, for the singing part, there are so many things I gotta do, since singing is so much more direct than playing bass, and there are so many more points I need to be careful about. With singing, there’s pitch, rhythm, lyrics, tone of voice, all sorts of things to worry about, and yet I have to give plus alpha (3) to all of them; it’s awful. I’m always afraid I’ll mess up the lyrics. On bass, I can cover it up. I think I can cover it up no matter how often I mess up (laughs).]
– You say you mess up on bass, so what kind of mistakes do you make?
[I stop playing sometimes, just to go “Yaaaay!” or my slides will go buriririri, or it’ll go buiiin by mistake (laughs).]
– tetsu-san, when was the first time you ever performed in front of other people?
[In third year of middle school, for bunkasai(4). We were doing a cover of Michael Schenker. I’ve played bass since the start. Just so I could be in the show, I tossed together a band with some classmates, so I don’t really remember the members, I just remember that it was fun. I was unbelievably nervous, I must have been giggling in the middle of class (laughs). At the time, I was thinking I’d work on getting myself on stage. It feels great, it’s fun, I’ve thought that since the beginning.]
– Which was more fun for you, playing music or getting people’s attention?
[At the time, my playing wasn’t crap anymore, but I still wasn’t great at technique, so when I performed, that feeling of being in the groove wasn’t there at all, but, I remember thinking that it felt great to be the focus of the crowd’s attention.]
– tetsu-san, is it part of your personality to be the type to stand out?
[There is a part of myself that does stand out, but rather than stand out the most, I’d rather hang back a little; I prefer to be second or third in terms of standing out.]
– So out of the five Rangers, you’d rather be Blue than Red(5).
[That’s right, beyond just colour preference (laughs), as far as position placement goes I think I’d rather be the Blue ranger.]
– During that bunkasai, how did it feel to be watched by the audience?
[Being on stage for the first time, you mean? Nah, I don’t really remember, but first of all there were lots of people. Although, since there were lights on me, I couldn’t see the audience, so I couldn’t tell how many.]
– From then on after, you must have felt even more strongly about wanting to do live shows.
[Yeah, I guess so. But the first thing I started with was searching for other members. I wanted to have a proper band, since I was starting high school. In middle school, it was more just for fun. Being in the bunkasai, that was pretty much the only serious show we did. We had entrance exams to cram for.(6)]
– When did you start thinking that playing on stage was the epitome of performing?
[Once I was in high school, it came by pretty fast. Because I put together a band with some talented members. Our drums and bass were great, it was wonderful, and I don’t understand how anyone can stand it when they don’t have talented guys playing those parts(laughs).]
– As L’Arc~en~Ciel, you played your first live at Nanba Rockets in 1991. Did you get much of a response at that time?
[We did. We even managed to mobilize an incredible number of people into coming to see us. By ourselves, we could get about 130 people, and when we played with another band there would be around 200; it was full to bursting. So then that means our first live did get quite a response. But, we didn’t have many songs yet, and it was the first time the audience heard us, the first time they saw us, and still we were part of the scene.]
– For a first live, mobilizing so many people, as you put it, is amazing.
[We knew that we would have a certain appeal for people who liked our kind of music. Also, ever since the beginning we knew we’d be in trouble if we couldn’t bring in that kind of people. Cause, with 100~200 people, we could have just been catching the people hanging out in that area, and then we wouldn’t ever grow any bigger than that. We wouldn’t be able to grow, we wouldn’t be able to move up.]
– Beyond doing lives with L’Arc~en~Ciel, what else were you intending to do?
[Back around the time of the first live, L’Arc had only been formed for about two, three months. We had very few songs at the time, so we could squeeze out one live per month, thinking we’d increase our song count little by little. So, we didn’t want to do too many lives. Just one a month.]
– Why was that?
[So the crowd wouldn’t get sick of us. Even if we didn’t overdo it, they could get tired of us fast, so if we’d been doing two or three lives a month, we wouldn’t have time to write new songs, or enough time to focus on the music. One a month seemed to be exactly the right pace. For starters, our first live got us 130 people, and even if we had lots of people already, we still needed to make it a good live or else there would be a lot less people at the next one. If we don’t make every live a good one, we can’t keep people coming, and we won’t get any bigger. This is being picky but, every time, we wanted to be dressed differently. We never wore the same thing more than once. I used to be very particular about that (laughs). I get the feeling that recently, I might have worn the same outfit more than once. Oh yeah, and back then, we’d decided not to do any tours.]
– Normally, don’t people want to go on tour as soon as possible?
[We didn’t want to leave Osaka so soon. One of our goals was to light a fire for ourselves in Osaka. Actually, we didn’t tour the country until after we signed with the company, and we didn’t even do any lives in Tokyo until later on. It was more of a treat when we finally did. In the end, if you take a good look around you, there are already plenty of chances to hold lives, but there are overwhelmingly many bands who are hungry to go on a national tour right away. We’re different from the bands who do that. We think about things more strategically.]
– However, it’s difficult to be so objective in your judgment when you don’t have much self-confidence.
[Like I said, we thought about it calmly and decided that was the best way to go.]
– Didn’t you feel like doing more lives?
[Nah, it was enough, that one per month pace. And we couldn’t afford to buy that many outfits, either (laughs).]
– You said that if you don’t play a good live, half the audience won’t come back, but what exactly is it that makes a show be one of those “good lives?”
[A good live? First of all, the people who come to see it have to think it’s a good show, and if it makes them want to come back, then it was a good live.]
– Did you get a response when you first went on stage?
[At the time, there wasn’t much response. The performance, the staging… looking back on it now, we were still immature. First off, we were making efforts so that our lives back then wouldn’t decrease in value. We had to do the next one in a month. If we overlooked that, we wouldn’t be able to see two months ahead. On top of that, if we had new songs ready every time, we’d be able to play a new song at every live. We thought it would be nice if doing that made the audience want to come back. For the first one, we still had no idea how to do the staging, how to put a face to the performance, and so I think we were lacking in that dimension.]
– As a band, did you have review meetings after your live shows?
[Review meetings, well, I think we had some kind of meeting after every live. I don’t remember very clearly. We went out to eat after every practice, so we did have a lot of meetings. And then we never had any sort of closing, what we did was only with our own staff, we’ve been rather particular about that.]
– Why might that be?
[At that time, all the amateur bands used to invite their fans to closing parties. They’d say “3000 yen per person” and take money from their fans, then drink that money away. We never did anything like that. We kept a distance away from our fans. That’s the same now as it was back then.]
– It sounds like you’ve consciously taken a professional approach ever since the beginning.
[I think it’s just that we never wanted to be “the guys next door” or “familiar people”. It was a strategy to maintain our charismatic appeal. After the lives, there would be fans crowding around in the front and back of the livehouse, and if we stopped to have light chats with them, that wouldn’t get us anywhere, we thought. Doing that sort of thing would mean stopping. The reason is that then we’d get stuck with fixated fans. And so we chose our livehouses carefully. If the ready room wasn’t right next to the stage, it was no good. You know how in some livehouses you have to go through the audience seats just to get to the stage, right? We avoided those places. In places like that, you’re in the middle of the crowd with people all around you, walking in just like a pro wrestler, and you get touched, they get way too close to you, you know? We avoided those places and chose livehouses that were arranged so we could go straight from the ready room to the stage without having to get too close to the crowd. Then, when the live was over, the members weren’t the ones putting the equipment away. It was all done by the roadies. We didn’t want to let the fans see us cleaning up and loading our equipment into cars. We were much more thorough about that during the early days.]
– You don’t see many amateur bands go so far.
[That’s right. Since going pro, that’s been the case even more. Ever since the beginning, we’ve had a rather high-handed way of doing things (laughs). Aesthetically, too, we were strategic about how L’Arc~en~Ciel would be branded.]
– Your strategy let you become a success, so of course that strategy itself granted you a certain foresight, but given that the band’s own force is drawn from its substance, I think that both of these must drive you. In that respect, what did you make a point of doing for the sake of having the band make it big, as far as the lives were concerned?
[I certainly thought strategically, but beyond that, I didn’t dwell much on what would come next. Anyway, at that time, we were just doing what we had to do. That strategic aspect, it seems so much easier ever since we signed with our current company. Their way of doing things is a lot like what our approach was, so joining them went smoothly. Until then, it felt like we’d done nothing but upgrade our method of doing things. Our previous company mostly gave us trouble for it.]
– Do you feel that you’ve always done things your own way?
[It’s not something to exaggerate about. Well, we’ve somehow gotten this far doing things our own way. It’s just that it isn’t a question of having gotten so far because we always did things our way. We’ve had good relations with other bands, we’ve had relationships go bad and get talked about, and we’ve participated in closing parties several times.]
– Since your major debut, has there been a tour or live you would consider a turning point?
[No, I don’t think there’s any one show that could be elevated so much. Any show of any tour could be called a turning point in a way, couldn’t it?]
– Have there been any lives you were personally unsatisfied with?
[I can’t remember any bad lives, but now I remember one incident where we were playing in a rather large livehouse, and in the middle of the show, the people at the front of the crowd got stirred up, and then the head of my bass got grabbed. Right out of the blue. That messes up the tuning, you know. And so I have bad memories of not being able to play right. That’s just lacking common sense, right? I understand why they touch my feet or grab at my clothes, but screwing up the tuning of my bass, that messes things up for the other members, and also for the rest of the audience, and I don’t get to have a good time performing, either. Even now, I still remember that incident a little bit.]
– How do you feel you’ve developed over the course of doing so many live shows?
[Hmmm. I wonder. It’s been accumulating since the start, and I think all of it is still with me.]
– For instance, as a live artist, are there any goals you feel you’ve accomplished?
[No, that’s too vague, I don’t quite know. I think it all accumulates. Our first time at a livehouse drew in 130 people, but that was with another band, so we wanted to headline the next one, which drew in 300 people, so we wanted to have the next one in a slightly bigger place, then we went to a bigger venue, then it sold out, that’s what you mean isn’t it? Well, we made it all the way to Tokyo Dome. But we might want to hold the next one in a small venue we haven’t been to in a while. That’s accumulation too.]
– Early on, was it one of your goals to someday be headlining at Tokyo Dome?
[Yeah. Playing in bigger venues is correlated with higher CD sales and popularity, though the number of people who don’t buy tickets goes up, and I think that’s just because we’re playing in bigger places.]
– It felt good to play live as an amateur band, and you say it feels good to play on stage now, but is it the same kind of good feeling? Or is it different?
[It’s basically the same thing. It never ends. However, early on I didn’t feel good about singing on stage, as opposed to purely playing, but lately that aspect of it has become a plus.]
– When you go on stage for a live, what do you think about the audience? Is it more important that the people in the crowd have a good time or that you have fun yourself?
[Both, really. We think about the crowd’s enjoyment when we choose songs, make up the sets, and go out on stage, but we also think about all that being fun for us. So it’s a little bit of both.]
– Does the audience response stimulate your own performance?
[Personally, it really doesn’t, these days. Maybe it did in the past, I don’t know. Of course, whether I’m playing in an empty room or in front of a crowd clearly makes a difference, but getting a good or bad reaction doesn’t affect me now.]
– As a pro, you shouldn’t let it influence you?
[That’s what I think. Actually, it just doesn’t bother me.]
– Do you get stimulation from the other band members?
[I do. Being with such incredible members today makes me so happy. Also like, “Ah, we’re out of order today.” (laughs)]
– tetsu-san, are you the one who drags them down?
[No, I’m not. I’m just about average. Rather than have 120% days and 40% days, keeping up a steady 80 to 90% is ideal for me. I’m not really rock and roll (laughs). I’m the careful, precise craftsman type.]
– What is that makes L’Arc~en~Ciel’s live shows interesting? Do you do something that other bands don’t?
[Nah, since I’ve never been in any other band than L’Arc, I can’t really tell.]
– tetsu-san, what is your personal position on lives? Do you live for lives, do you write songs so that you can perform them live, or do you not like lives much and simply prefer to write music?
[I like both recordings and lives. Though, I wouldn’t say that I especially love live shows, and I don’t want to do especially many. But I do think it’s bad not to be able to play live. I don’t want to be one of those bands, those artists who don’t have live shows. CDs are great, but I don’t want us to be one of those bands who says lives aren’t interesting. I’d rather be an artist with good CDs who also has the greatest lives. Besides, I think that if our live shows stop being good, there won’t be any good live artists left. Or rather, that they won’t last long. Without lives, it’s like, where does this all come from? The artist might be a fake.]
– Do you think you can judge that from a live?
[No, because even if they have lives, some people still just lip-synch. We’re pros, so we can tell by looking, but sometimes I wonder if normal audience members can tell or not. Or maybe it’s more fun because they’re lip-synching. It’s more of a show, maybe they watch and think of it the same way as a Tarazuka(7) show (laugh). It could be that they’re not trying to understand it all but just out to have fun.]
– L’Arc~en~Ciel is starting another tour in May, so is there anything in particular you’d like to try to do in these shows?
[There are places we haven’t been to in a while, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s just that there are a lot of hard parts. A tour is a tour. We have to memorise all the new songs, as well as review a lot of old songs.]
– Do you train your body at all for the sake of a tour?
[For “Shibuya Seven days 2003” I went through a physical remodeling program, since I thought I’d need it before I could go on stage so much. If I hadn’t, I’d be in crappy condition (laughs).]
– Since you’re a pro, you had to face what was necessary.
[At the core, it’s like what athletes go through. Going on stage, being on tour, that is. Even performing, it’s your body that does most of the memorizing. Even when I can’t remember a song at all, I can listen to it two or three times, then play it again completely naturally. That’s a mysterious thing.]
– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold
[Mentally, I’m in my late teens, so not much has changed. I’m 34 now, turning 35 soon. Thinking about that is…… kinda scary.]
– Scary……. What’s scary about it?
[What’s so scary? Back in elementary school, when I was a kid, I used to think that 30-somethings were so old. I haven’t changed that much since back then. Even though I’m that age myself. Am I allowed to be 30? I wonder (laughs). Of course, I have matured a little bit since elementary school (laughs). But in high school, at 16 or 17, I felt like I was done growing up. But that, doesn’t everyone do that? Not change that much after reaching 16 or 17? If you think about it, it’s a wide stretch of maturity compared to elementary school.]
– I think there certainly is a part of oneself that doesn’t change after those days. But even so, now that you’ve passed into your thirties you must feel like you’ve changed somehow. In the mental sense, regarding maturity.
[Seriously?! I totally haven’t (both burst into laughter). Nah, is that more or less maturing? Even for me. But in my case that stretch of maturity is really narrow. Until 16, 17 I grew up reaaaally fast, all at once. Ever since then, until now, it’s been so much slower, I really feel like I’m only getting more mature a tiny little bit at a time.]
– Until the lower teens, there’s a bodily aspect to it, a sudden rush of growth that doesn’t happen anymore, that could have been scary too.
[Hmm…… Yeah, there was that too. You know, when I was little, I had this mental image of “adulthood”. Adults work hard, they think the right way and they live by those thoughts, that’s what I imagined. However, the way I am now, I haven’t become anything even remotely like that mental image of adulthood I had when I was a kid, and I’ve come to realise that.]
– As a human being, you still have some maturing to do before you can really be an adult, perhaps you’re afraid of that realisation.
[Right. Anyway, when I was a kid, I thought adults had to be something like “Sennin” (1) didn’t I? I must have.]
– As if they had to keep themselves above everything?
[That’s it. “Young people these days,” that’s a phrase adults use a lot, isn’t it? But I wonder about adults these days. I think adults today are worse than the young people. Any way you look at it.]
– In what situations? When do you feel that way about today’s adults?
[Take this for example, it happened just recently. I was in my car, at the high-speed tollgate, and there was another car diagonally in front of me. On this side of the tollgate, you slow down, right? That’s when it was. They dumped an ashtray out the window. Dumped out still-smoking cigarette butts onto the road. It’s an adult doing this, an adult! An old guy. “The hell you doin’?!” It was an “Eeeeh?” moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so surprised. The point is, when I was a kid, I thought that adults did the right thing. But, there’s a ton of adults who don’t. Now that I’m an adult myself, I know. When you’re a little kid, everything adults or seniors say sounds like the right thing, you get caught up thinking that. However, it turns out that’s not the case, which you find out once you grow up. It’s the same with schoolteachers. As a kid, you think “Teacher said it, so it must be right,” don’t you? I don’t know why this makes me angry, but it’s happened that I’ve thought maybe I was wrong. Actually, it wasn’t me, it was probably the teacher saying something weird. Looking back now, I can think of a lot of instances of that.]
– When you were a child, you thought that “Adults are always right,” but it was nothing more than an illusion. Now that you’re an adult yourself, you can take a good look at the other adults all around you. How about this : Do you feel at all fascinated by the accumulation of years?
[I’ve never been fascinated by that. Because people have to get old, even though they hate it. There’s no need to admire that necessity, is there? That’s why there’s no need to go “I wanna hurry and be a grown up!” either. Some people do say that, but even people who hate getting older will end up being adults someday.]
– So, do you have any idea of how you’ll spend your thirties?
[No, not the slightest.]
– Is anything different from your twenties?
[There’s nothing tangibly different but, it’s just that knowing and thinking that I’m in my thirties feels a bit distasteful.]
– I wonder how you’ll be in your fourties.
[The idea of being 40 is hard to grasp for me. At that point, I’ll probably be better off accepting that I’m an “old guy.” But at this point, I hate the thought. Actually, as I go about my life, I don’t normally think that I’m 34.]
– Sometimes you don’t feel like you really are your age, right?
[Yeah, that’s for sure. Take this for example, I’ve got more physical strength than I used to have. Better concentration, too. Sometimes I’m more aware of those aspects of me.]
– What about other aspects? For example, do you sometimes feel like there’s a generation gap between you and younger people?
[I don’t. Ever since way back, I’ve been able to tell what’s going to be fashionable and what isn’t. That still hasn’t changed.]
– At the end of 2003, you performed as part of the event “Danger II” at Budoukan (1). What kind of sensation did you get from doing that show?
[Until then, there hadn’t been any TETSU69 lives yet. There was that one acoustic show I’d arranged with piano and acoustic guitar, I’d done that show, but the band I’d organised for it was only meant to play together that one time, so having this second show at Budoukan was pretty cool (laughs). I took every shortcut I could, thinking of how interesting it would be. Last summer, I played at SHIBUYA-AX(2) too, but this was by far much easier than AX. I guess I prefer the big places, after all. Playing there feels great, and the bigger the venue the more natural it feels.]
– tetsu-san, you’ve played in huge places several times with L’Arc, so there must not be much left that can surprise you. You move quite excitedly here and there about the stage.
[Yeah, I do. I’ve never gone out there planning to move around so much. I start out thinking I’ll stay in my prearranged spot and sing. But once I’m out on stage, completely subconsciously, I move around a lot. I get wrapped up in it, and it feels great. I think Budoukan’s pretty nice.]
– Beyond the size alone, you must also have some feelings about the seating capacity.
[If you were to ask me about how big AX is, I’d say I don’t find it all that big. Even from the audience’s perspective, I think that’s the case. Ain’t it tiny? The year before last, when I went there to see Duran Duran, I was thinking about how small it was, and yet they played anyway, I thought. The first time I played at Budoukan I thought the same thing.]
– It’s round, so that probably makes a difference.
[But it hasn’t got that much depth.]
– Does it feel any different going on stage as the bassist of L’Arc~en~Ciel as opposed to going on stage as TETSU69?
[There are differences between being bassist and vocalist, so it’s not a simple thing to compare. If I was bassist for both acts, I’d be able to understand the differences more objectively, but since my duties are so completely different, it feels completely different.]
– Did going on stage as a vocalist, a front man, seem smooth or was it uncomfortable?
[Well, all the members of L’Arc have taken up doing lead vocals. Thinking about it objectively, it’s quite impressive, but all of us do it like it’s an obvious thing to do, we just gotta, or else it’d feel kind of embarrassing. I mean, of course we can do that. Being with such high-level people, it paralyzes you in a way (laughs). All four of us write songs, all four of us take up lead vocals; looking on a global scale, I don’t think there are any other bands who can scatter into musically active solo projects like this. I think L’Arc~en~Ciel is an incredible band.]
– When you participated in “Danger II”, what did you make a point of?
[I’m quite sure people hadn’t expected me to be the first act to go on stage, so first of all, since I was the top batter, I had to do a great job up front so I could pass the baton to the next person. I thought it was a heavy responsibility.]
– Were you nervous before the live?
[Nah, I wasn’t nervous. It’s like I didn’t have time to be nervous. Mostly because I’m so noisy. Actually, I was pretty pressed for time in rehearsal, so I didn’t get that much of it. It felt like the show came up right away.]
– Are you nervous when you go on stage as part of L’Arc~en~Ciel?
[With L’Arc, I’m even less nervous. When I’m up there as TETSU69, I have a bit more to take care of. Speaking of which, for the singing part, there are so many things I gotta do, since singing is so much more direct than playing bass, and there are so many more points I need to be careful about. With singing, there’s pitch, rhythm, lyrics, tone of voice, all sorts of things to worry about, and yet I have to give plus alpha (3) to all of them; it’s awful. I’m always afraid I’ll mess up the lyrics. On bass, I can cover it up. I think I can cover it up no matter how often I mess up (laughs).]
– You say you mess up on bass, so what kind of mistakes do you make?
[I stop playing sometimes, just to go “Yaaaay!” or my slides will go buriririri, or it’ll go buiiin by mistake (laughs).]
– tetsu-san, when was the first time you ever performed in front of other people?
[In third year of middle school, for bunkasai(4). We were doing a cover of Michael Schenker. I’ve played bass since the start. Just so I could be in the show, I tossed together a band with some classmates, so I don’t really remember the members, I just remember that it was fun. I was unbelievably nervous, I must have been giggling in the middle of class (laughs). At the time, I was thinking I’d work on getting myself on stage. It feels great, it’s fun, I’ve thought that since the beginning.]
– Which was more fun for you, playing music or getting people’s attention?
[At the time, my playing wasn’t crap anymore, but I still wasn’t great at technique, so when I performed, that feeling of being in the groove wasn’t there at all, but, I remember thinking that it felt great to be the focus of the crowd’s attention.]
– tetsu-san, is it part of your personality to be the type to stand out?
[There is a part of myself that does stand out, but rather than stand out the most, I’d rather hang back a little; I prefer to be second or third in terms of standing out.]
– So out of the five Rangers, you’d rather be Blue than Red(5).
[That’s right, beyond just colour preference (laughs), as far as position placement goes I think I’d rather be the Blue ranger.]
– During that bunkasai, how did it feel to be watched by the audience?
[Being on stage for the first time, you mean? Nah, I don’t really remember, but first of all there were lots of people. Although, since there were lights on me, I couldn’t see the audience, so I couldn’t tell how many.]
– From then on after, you must have felt even more strongly about wanting to do live shows.
[Yeah, I guess so. But the first thing I started with was searching for other members. I wanted to have a proper band, since I was starting high school. In middle school, it was more just for fun. Being in the bunkasai, that was pretty much the only serious show we did. We had entrance exams to cram for.(6)]
– When did you start thinking that playing on stage was the epitome of performing?
[Once I was in high school, it came by pretty fast. Because I put together a band with some talented members. Our drums and bass were great, it was wonderful, and I don’t understand how anyone can stand it when they don’t have talented guys playing those parts(laughs).]
– As L’Arc~en~Ciel, you played your first live at Nanba Rockets in 1991. Did you get much of a response at that time?
[We did. We even managed to mobilize an incredible number of people into coming to see us. By ourselves, we could get about 130 people, and when we played with another band there would be around 200; it was full to bursting. So then that means our first live did get quite a response. But, we didn’t have many songs yet, and it was the first time the audience heard us, the first time they saw us, and still we were part of the scene.]
– For a first live, mobilizing so many people, as you put it, is amazing.
[We knew that we would have a certain appeal for people who liked our kind of music. Also, ever since the beginning we knew we’d be in trouble if we couldn’t bring in that kind of people. Cause, with 100~200 people, we could have just been catching the people hanging out in that area, and then we wouldn’t ever grow any bigger than that. We wouldn’t be able to grow, we wouldn’t be able to move up.]
– Beyond doing lives with L’Arc~en~Ciel, what else were you intending to do?
[Back around the time of the first live, L’Arc had only been formed for about two, three months. We had very few songs at the time, so we could squeeze out one live per month, thinking we’d increase our song count little by little. So, we didn’t want to do too many lives. Just one a month.]
– Why was that?
[So the crowd wouldn’t get sick of us. Even if we didn’t overdo it, they could get tired of us fast, so if we’d been doing two or three lives a month, we wouldn’t have time to write new songs, or enough time to focus on the music. One a month seemed to be exactly the right pace. For starters, our first live got us 130 people, and even if we had lots of people already, we still needed to make it a good live or else there would be a lot less people at the next one. If we don’t make every live a good one, we can’t keep people coming, and we won’t get any bigger. This is being picky but, every time, we wanted to be dressed differently. We never wore the same thing more than once. I used to be very particular about that (laughs). I get the feeling that recently, I might have worn the same outfit more than once. Oh yeah, and back then, we’d decided not to do any tours.]
– Normally, don’t people want to go on tour as soon as possible?
[We didn’t want to leave Osaka so soon. One of our goals was to light a fire for ourselves in Osaka. Actually, we didn’t tour the country until after we signed with the company, and we didn’t even do any lives in Tokyo until later on. It was more of a treat when we finally did. In the end, if you take a good look around you, there are already plenty of chances to hold lives, but there are overwhelmingly many bands who are hungry to go on a national tour right away. We’re different from the bands who do that. We think about things more strategically.]
– However, it’s difficult to be so objective in your judgment when you don’t have much self-confidence.
[Like I said, we thought about it calmly and decided that was the best way to go.]
– Didn’t you feel like doing more lives?
[Nah, it was enough, that one per month pace. And we couldn’t afford to buy that many outfits, either (laughs).]
– You said that if you don’t play a good live, half the audience won’t come back, but what exactly is it that makes a show be one of those “good lives?”
[A good live? First of all, the people who come to see it have to think it’s a good show, and if it makes them want to come back, then it was a good live.]
– Did you get a response when you first went on stage?
[At the time, there wasn’t much response. The performance, the staging… looking back on it now, we were still immature. First off, we were making efforts so that our lives back then wouldn’t decrease in value. We had to do the next one in a month. If we overlooked that, we wouldn’t be able to see two months ahead. On top of that, if we had new songs ready every time, we’d be able to play a new song at every live. We thought it would be nice if doing that made the audience want to come back. For the first one, we still had no idea how to do the staging, how to put a face to the performance, and so I think we were lacking in that dimension.]
– As a band, did you have review meetings after your live shows?
[Review meetings, well, I think we had some kind of meeting after every live. I don’t remember very clearly. We went out to eat after every practice, so we did have a lot of meetings. And then we never had any sort of closing, what we did was only with our own staff, we’ve been rather particular about that.]
– Why might that be?
[At that time, all the amateur bands used to invite their fans to closing parties. They’d say “3000 yen per person” and take money from their fans, then drink that money away. We never did anything like that. We kept a distance away from our fans. That’s the same now as it was back then.]
– It sounds like you’ve consciously taken a professional approach ever since the beginning.
[I think it’s just that we never wanted to be “the guys next door” or “familiar people”. It was a strategy to maintain our charismatic appeal. After the lives, there would be fans crowding around in the front and back of the livehouse, and if we stopped to have light chats with them, that wouldn’t get us anywhere, we thought. Doing that sort of thing would mean stopping. The reason is that then we’d get stuck with fixated fans. And so we chose our livehouses carefully. If the ready room wasn’t right next to the stage, it was no good. You know how in some livehouses you have to go through the audience seats just to get to the stage, right? We avoided those places. In places like that, you’re in the middle of the crowd with people all around you, walking in just like a pro wrestler, and you get touched, they get way too close to you, you know? We avoided those places and chose livehouses that were arranged so we could go straight from the ready room to the stage without having to get too close to the crowd. Then, when the live was over, the members weren’t the ones putting the equipment away. It was all done by the roadies. We didn’t want to let the fans see us cleaning up and loading our equipment into cars. We were much more thorough about that during the early days.]
– You don’t see many amateur bands go so far.
[That’s right. Since going pro, that’s been the case even more. Ever since the beginning, we’ve had a rather high-handed way of doing things (laughs). Aesthetically, too, we were strategic about how L’Arc~en~Ciel would be branded.]
– Your strategy let you become a success, so of course that strategy itself granted you a certain foresight, but given that the band’s own force is drawn from its substance, I think that both of these must drive you. In that respect, what did you make a point of doing for the sake of having the band make it big, as far as the lives were concerned?
[I certainly thought strategically, but beyond that, I didn’t dwell much on what would come next. Anyway, at that time, we were just doing what we had to do. That strategic aspect, it seems so much easier ever since we signed with our current company. Their way of doing things is a lot like what our approach was, so joining them went smoothly. Until then, it felt like we’d done nothing but upgrade our method of doing things. Our previous company mostly gave us trouble for it.]
– Do you feel that you’ve always done things your own way?
[It’s not something to exaggerate about. Well, we’ve somehow gotten this far doing things our own way. It’s just that it isn’t a question of having gotten so far because we always did things our way. We’ve had good relations with other bands, we’ve had relationships go bad and get talked about, and we’ve participated in closing parties several times.]
– Since your major debut, has there been a tour or live you would consider a turning point?
[No, I don’t think there’s any one show that could be elevated so much. Any show of any tour could be called a turning point in a way, couldn’t it?]
– Have there been any lives you were personally unsatisfied with?
[I can’t remember any bad lives, but now I remember one incident where we were playing in a rather large livehouse, and in the middle of the show, the people at the front of the crowd got stirred up, and then the head of my bass got grabbed. Right out of the blue. That messes up the tuning, you know. And so I have bad memories of not being able to play right. That’s just lacking common sense, right? I understand why they touch my feet or grab at my clothes, but screwing up the tuning of my bass, that messes things up for the other members, and also for the rest of the audience, and I don’t get to have a good time performing, either. Even now, I still remember that incident a little bit.]
– How do you feel you’ve developed over the course of doing so many live shows?
[Hmmm. I wonder. It’s been accumulating since the start, and I think all of it is still with me.]
– For instance, as a live artist, are there any goals you feel you’ve accomplished?
[No, that’s too vague, I don’t quite know. I think it all accumulates. Our first time at a livehouse drew in 130 people, but that was with another band, so we wanted to headline the next one, which drew in 300 people, so we wanted to have the next one in a slightly bigger place, then we went to a bigger venue, then it sold out, that’s what you mean isn’t it? Well, we made it all the way to Tokyo Dome. But we might want to hold the next one in a small venue we haven’t been to in a while. That’s accumulation too.]
– Early on, was it one of your goals to someday be headlining at Tokyo Dome?
[Yeah. Playing in bigger venues is correlated with higher CD sales and popularity, though the number of people who don’t buy tickets goes up, and I think that’s just because we’re playing in bigger places.]
– It felt good to play live as an amateur band, and you say it feels good to play on stage now, but is it the same kind of good feeling? Or is it different?
[It’s basically the same thing. It never ends. However, early on I didn’t feel good about singing on stage, as opposed to purely playing, but lately that aspect of it has become a plus.]
– When you go on stage for a live, what do you think about the audience? Is it more important that the people in the crowd have a good time or that you have fun yourself?
[Both, really. We think about the crowd’s enjoyment when we choose songs, make up the sets, and go out on stage, but we also think about all that being fun for us. So it’s a little bit of both.]
– Does the audience response stimulate your own performance?
[Personally, it really doesn’t, these days. Maybe it did in the past, I don’t know. Of course, whether I’m playing in an empty room or in front of a crowd clearly makes a difference, but getting a good or bad reaction doesn’t affect me now.]
– As a pro, you shouldn’t let it influence you?
[That’s what I think. Actually, it just doesn’t bother me.]
– Do you get stimulation from the other band members?
[I do. Being with such incredible members today makes me so happy. Also like, “Ah, we’re out of order today.” (laughs)]
– tetsu-san, are you the one who drags them down?
[No, I’m not. I’m just about average. Rather than have 120% days and 40% days, keeping up a steady 80 to 90% is ideal for me. I’m not really rock and roll (laughs). I’m the careful, precise craftsman type.]
– What is that makes L’Arc~en~Ciel’s live shows interesting? Do you do something that other bands don’t?
[Nah, since I’ve never been in any other band than L’Arc, I can’t really tell.]
– tetsu-san, what is your personal position on lives? Do you live for lives, do you write songs so that you can perform them live, or do you not like lives much and simply prefer to write music?
[I like both recordings and lives. Though, I wouldn’t say that I especially love live shows, and I don’t want to do especially many. But I do think it’s bad not to be able to play live. I don’t want to be one of those bands, those artists who don’t have live shows. CDs are great, but I don’t want us to be one of those bands who says lives aren’t interesting. I’d rather be an artist with good CDs who also has the greatest lives. Besides, I think that if our live shows stop being good, there won’t be any good live artists left. Or rather, that they won’t last long. Without lives, it’s like, where does this all come from? The artist might be a fake.]
– Do you think you can judge that from a live?
[No, because even if they have lives, some people still just lip-synch. We’re pros, so we can tell by looking, but sometimes I wonder if normal audience members can tell or not. Or maybe it’s more fun because they’re lip-synching. It’s more of a show, maybe they watch and think of it the same way as a Tarazuka(7) show (laugh). It could be that they’re not trying to understand it all but just out to have fun.]
– L’Arc~en~Ciel is starting another tour in May, so is there anything in particular you’d like to try to do in these shows?
[There are places we haven’t been to in a while, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s just that there are a lot of hard parts. A tour is a tour. We have to memorise all the new songs, as well as review a lot of old songs.]
– Do you train your body at all for the sake of a tour?
[For “Shibuya Seven days 2003” I went through a physical remodeling program, since I thought I’d need it before I could go on stage so much. If I hadn’t, I’d be in crappy condition (laughs).]
– Since you’re a pro, you had to face what was necessary.
[At the core, it’s like what athletes go through. Going on stage, being on tour, that is. Even performing, it’s your body that does most of the memorizing. Even when I can’t remember a song at all, I can listen to it two or three times, then play it again completely naturally. That’s a mysterious thing.]
– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold
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