TETSUGAKU 55 : FANS, SPROUSE

 

– What do you think about the existence of your fans?
[The fan presence? I don’t think they can all be lumped under the word fan. Cause, I think there are different degrees of it. There’s some wildly enthusiastic fans, but there’s also some who aren’t really fans, but still fan enough to ask for an autograph or something (laughs). There are some people like that, you know. I think it’s extremely dangerous to lump them all together with the word fan. Some kids have been cheering us on since many years ago, and I read fan letters from kids who’ve been sending them for years, now.]
– Do you ever get inspired by the words contained in those fan letters?
[That does happen. Only very occasionally, though. But, it has nothing to do with how long the person has been a fan. Some kids have a long history as fans but still don’t understand me at all, and some do even though they’ve only been fans for a short time. Each person is completely different.]
– What kind of words do you like to read?
[There aren’t any specific words in particular, but when I read a letter that makes it clear that the person understands me, that they’re really seeing me, that they’re paying attention to me, it makes me happy. Like, ah, so they know about that. But when it comes to most of them, it’s like they’re writing in their own diaries (laughs). That gets a little tiring. It’s stuff I don’t know about. A lot of the time it seems like they’ve totally got the wrong idea about me. I’m not that kind of guy of at all (laughs).]
– Do you get letters asking for advice?
[Yeah, I do. Oh, and sometimes people get mad at me for things I didn’t even say. Like, when did I ever say that? It’s surprising sometimes. In those cases, instead of copying out what I’m supposed to have said, clip it out and send it to me, and if it’s something I said on TV or radio then send me the tape or video. In most cases, it wasn’t even me who said it.]
– It’s like a telephone game, since in many cases the piece of information has been repeated many times.
[Yeaaah. Makes me wonder what they’re talking about.]
– During a live, what do you think of the fans sitting in the audience?
[Mostly, I’m just grateful.]
– Do you feel you want to live up to their expectations?
[I’m glad they support what we do, but I don’t know what people like. And besides, their tastes change. If we were to restrict ourselves to what people want, if we did only what they want us to do, then we’d never improve, would we? But I am grateful. I just won’t be pushed around by fan opinion. But I’m not saying that to be harsh with them. I think it’s only natural that what I do ends up satisfying the fans. But, anyway, “I’m full of love for my fans” and sweet things like that, saying that sort of thing makes me sick.]
– On the other hand, saying those things might be healthy. For instance, there are artists who’ll say things like “We’re becoming one with all of you!” during their MC segments.
[That’s impossible for people from Kansai(1) (laughs). If I went to see a show where they said that, I’d go “The hell’re they sayin?” all bored-like. Cold~!(2) What’s the point of that, it’s not like they’re starting a religion. You know, to be honest, when I’m on stage, I don’t talk much during the MC parts. I don’t have anything to say. “Thanks for coming to the show today,” as an MC, isn’t that boring? But, that’s about all there is to say. And if I were to make my MCs serious, it’d be boring. So, isn’t it better that I shake things up by throwing my bananas?]
– How do you feel when you read a fan letter that says, for instance, “I went to a L’Arc~en~Ciel show and it cheered me up”, or “it helped me recover from something bad”?
[I’m glad to hear it. I think it’s good that something I did helped somebody out. It’s just that I don’t explicitly aim to do that sort of thing. Of course, I’m aware that some of my activities are going to influence somebody, somewhere, in some situation, I think that’s only natural. But, that doesn’t mean it’s a form of love, or anything like that. Talking like I am now, I must sound so cool, or cold even. I’m easily misunderstood. But, things like religion are what I hate the most. When someone tells me “I’ll always follow you,” that makes me happy all by itself. I think “Thank you.” But I don’t want to say “Come follow me.” I apply ‘Those who come will not be refused, those who refuse will not be chased’ to everything.]
– You don’t depend on anyone and aren’t depended on by anyone. You’re an individual, you need to keep your independence. That’s what you mean, isn’t it?
[Fundamentally, that’s how I am. I’m not trying to be especially cold to my fans, in some ways I’m actually quite warm (laughs). It’s just that saying you do it all for the fans, because you love them, that’s hypocritical and I hate it. Cause, I think that when you do this professionally, it’s a business. CDs and lives, those things are done to make money.]
– That is certainly correct. tetsu-san, I think you say many things that are obviously true.
[I think so too. I like things that make sense.]
– How and why did you decide to make your own label in the first place?
[My motives were actually very simple : I was releasing my own solo work and wanted a label, a logo mark to go with it. At first though, it was a virtual label, a label in name only.]
– But now, a few more artists belong to it, right?
[Since I made it, it’s taken on the form of a true label, but it still doesn’t have much of a function. It’s got three other artists besides TETSU69, and they’ve got indie releases but that’s really a coincidence. Sometimes we met when recording, but it was by chance, it really feels like a natural flow of events. I never decided to collect artists, never held any auditions, but I knew some people who wanted to release stuff, and so I said “So, how about we work together for a bit?” Just casual offers like that.]
– Well then, do you have a vision for the kind of label colour you want to acquire?
[No way, I’m not thinking of it on such a large scale. It’s going to take a long time before it gets to the stage where a real colour can be determined, and I think I’ll need a lot more artists, too. It might never get that far. If I get a little bit more staff, then I might. Since I haven’t got that much staff yet, I don’t think the label can take such a big step right now.]
– The name SPROUSE is a word you made from “sprout” and “rouse” isn’t it? How did you come up with that word?
[I thought that the printed trademark didn’t suit the space it was taking on the releases, so I quit using it, then I was wondering what to use and checked a dictionary, looking for something. The first word I saw was “sprout” which means when a new bud starts to grow or something like that, and I thought it was perfect, but “sprout” was taken by someone else so I didn’t take it as a registered trademark. Then, I looked in the dictionary again and saw the word “rouse,” meaning to awaken, so the meaning worked well, and it sounded good, so I thought I’d try combining the two words. Since it’s a made up word, it was sure to be available as a registered trademark. But, SPROUSE.com was taken by someone in America, so I figured there must be someone in the world who came up with the same thing.]
– Was the logo mark made to reflect your own inclinations, tetsu-san?
[Yes it was. I made it look like both a crown and an arrow. The top feels like it’s stretching out, too. Oh, and since I like soccer, I made it look a bit like a soccer team’s logo, too (laughs).]
– What’s the best part of having a label? What’s most interesting?
[There’s more awful stuff involved than interesting stuff, actually. I started by getting a barcode, first. Then the CD numbers, I had to request them so that it would match up with the standard for all the CDs in the world. Each maker has a distinct number, so for instance Sony has SRCL, Ki/oon has KSCL and so on. I wanted SPROUSE to get SP or something, you know? But Sony had already taken SP. The first two letters represent the maker’s name, then the third one, C, is C as in CD. Then, the last letter is totally up to the maker. If it’s the first part of a series for instance, then you can use 1 then 2 or A then B, it can be anything you like. SPROUSE has LSCA-1001, and so on like that.]
– Why did you make it LS?
[There wasn’t much else left. One of the available ones was LS, so the label SPROUSE is LS, and it has L like in L’Arc, so that’s good. Then, I heard from the people in charge. They said to me “What are you going to do with all this once you have it?” “It’ll be three figures, right?” and all that other reasonable stuff (laughs).]
– Concerning label management, have you experienced anything you hadn’t before?
[Well, I made arrangements with the merchants who handle circulation. It’s just that I got to understand the way finances work, but I had to study a lot to do it. As an artist, I don’t speak as selfishly anymore (laughs). Before, I could only relate to how artists felt, but now I think I can also understand the staff’s feelings. I understand their excuses, now, too. Even before that, though, I intended to be more understanding than other musicians. I thought about whether to sell something completely different or not, when not to release the results, and when not to say what I want to say.]
– Do you have an image of what you want to make the label into in the future?
[There are a lot of difficulties involved in implementing that sort of thing. First of all, if the artists don’t want to sell their stuff, then there’s nothing that can be done. Right now, the whole label revolves around making money for TETSU69, but if the other artists don’t want to sell, then I can’t do anything. In the end, it takes money to do what you want to do. Normally, as the number of staff increases, the first promotions are done properly, the products get completed and so on, but so far there hasn’t exactly been an established system. We’re in an era where CDs don’t sell, too. I think the name SPROUSE will remain, but it might go back to being only virtual, I really don’t know what’s coming next.]