– tetsu-san, you’re a bit of a sore loser, aren’t you?
[I don’t think I am, though. A sore loser…… partially, I am, but in other ways I’m not. Typically, I’m not. Of course, if I lose at something, I’ll feel bad. “Sore losers” are usually people who lost after putting in a lot of effort, right? So they could win. I’m not a hardworking person though (laughs). It’s just that first of all, I think “I’m not even competing.” “I wasn’t fighting from the start.” (laughs)]
– You’ve been in a different arena, right? Since the start. So it doesn’t matter if you win or lose.
[Right. I don’t think it’s about winning or losing.]
– Do you rather dislike competition, to an extent?
[Competition, well, there hasn’t been much of it in my life.]
– I see, I thought there would have been. Such as fights and the like.
[No, I’m an adult now, so I don’t get into fights. That’s not what “sore loser” means, is it? I think feeling bad about losing is different. Doesn’t everyone feel bad when they lose?]
– Then, what is a “sore loser?” A hardworking person?
[Isn’t it someone hardworking?]
– I understand. Let’s take a more practical example, relating to your work in music. Perhaps you can connect the topic to something there.
[Hm, when I can’t play something myself, I feel bad, and it makes me want to learn to play it. Is that what is means? “To hate to lose.” “I can’t play this part. Since I can’t do it, I’ll work hard until I can.” That sort of thing is “hating to lose” isn’t it? But it doesn’t mean I’ve lost to the people who can already play it, really. So it’s not a question of winning or losing, is it? It’s not a competition.]
– Ah, right. Do you have a “mind of a rival?”
[The “mind of a rival?” No, I don’t. I don’t have anyone to view as a rival.]
– This might sound odd, but do you concern yourself with the charts?
[When it comes to the charts, sometimes you can sell 100,000 copies and be number one, and other weeks you could sell 500,000 copies and only make it up to number three, so I think part of it is timing and luck. There are talks behind the scenes where the staff members who decide a CD release date take into consideration when other artists are releasing their work. The average person doesn’t know about that, right? Still, that’s how it is. We aren’t involved, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They plan the order by noticing “We’re being talked about,” or “Our popularity is currently shooting up,” and that makes it easier to get into magazines and on TV, honestly. It’s pure propaganda. Spending money on that, or spending it on other things, well…… there’s a lot of talk about whether or not that’s right. So, anyway, even if release dates are set that way, thinking only about sales, the times are always going to have an effect. Compare with just five years ago; CDs were everything to the music business. But now around the world, they’re selling less and less, so its not a simple question of counting the number of discs sold anymore.]
– That’s true. The current social situation is influencing things.
[Right now, copying is a problem. Young people spend their money on cell phones and stuff, so they aren’t buying CDs…… that’s one of many elements. And it’s not something you can solve with “If I lose, I’ll work harder.” It’s a business, and so there are record company politics involved, too. So, all I can do as a musician is to make good music. We don’t think about anything beyond that.]
– I understand. Perhaps you mean that it’s not the artists themselves, but clearly the people they work with who compete and complicate things with their schemes.
[But, I think that’s a natural part of selling things. Take electronic appliances. You have companies A, B, and C. When company A makes a new product, companies B and C try to make something better, something cheaper, and they compete that way. So, you can just imagine the same thing when it comes to selling CDs. Because it’s a “product.” I don’t think it’s a bad thing, from a sales point of view it’s only natural.]
– Of course.
[And so, you know, I can’t help but think coolly about everything, and this talk has really gotten completely off the topic of “hating to lose.”]
– Well, tetsu-san, you wouldn’t consider “sore loser” to be a good description of your personality……?
[I don’t know whether I am or not. People have called me a “sore loser” before, but I’ve never sat down calmly and thought to myself “I really am a sore loser.” Though I don’t really think I’m not one, either. I think I’m quite normal…… That is all. (laughs)]
– No, no, we’re not done yet (laughs). tetsu-san, do you ever look at a person and think “This must be someone who doesn’t give up,” about them?
[Not really. You know, it’s unthinkable to me that I would be thought of that way. I think giving up is important.]
– It’s important to give up? Ah, but what could you be implying?
[For example, even after 40 rejections, I still see musicians growing their hair out and saying “I’m gonna be a pro!” painfully. “Give it up, you don’t have a chance.” I think giving up is important, and I think it’s bad to lose track of reality. Having a dream is very important to people, but I think there are a lot of people who make the mistake of fleeing reality.]
– There are many who accept that “If you wish for your dreams, they’ll come true” ?
[Even I say “If you really wish for it, it’ll definitely come true” about dreams. I say that because, if you make it come true, then it will become reality. But I don’t know if people I’ve never met or seen will appreciate that. The feeling that you need to do something for it is incredibly important. But then there are people in the world who wait for everything to happen, and awful things happen to them, right? So, to those who say “I wanted it so badly, but it didn’t work out,” I think there’s something slightly wrong with how you wished for it. I think, “Don’t you think something went wrong while you were wishing so hard?”]
– That’s saying a lot.
[And so, I think giving up is important. I’m not all that hardworking, I’m not very persistent, so I can’t possibly be what people consider to be someone who “hates to lose.” I’m more or less normal. Or rather, I probably lean more towards being careless. It’s just that all my dreams came true even though I wasn’t all that persistent. I’ve been amazingly lucky, lucky in finding the members, arranging lives, and debuting within two, three years. And selling out Budoukan (1) within two, three years of debuting, even.]
– Even so, I don’t think it’s true that you didn’t work hard.
[I worked more or less as hard as any human being does, in their lifetime. But doesn’t that go without saying? It’s nothing I’d go around saying “I worked so hard!” about. It’s just typical.]
– It’s typical, normal, anybody could do it.
[Anyone, normally. If you’re a taxi driver, you’ll typically know the roads. If you were to say “I don’t know the way,” then you wouldn’t be a pro at all, and I think you’d be ashamed of yourself. So, if I were a taxi driver, I’d have Tokyo’s streets perfectly memorized. Yeah, hard work. But it isn’t especially something to go around saying “Aren’t I great?” about, really. I’m just saying it’s typical. There are a lot of people in the world who typically can’t do typical things, and I’m not enough of a sore loser to go around saying “I hate losing!” and I’m a typical human being.]
– Interviewer : Honma Yuuko
Translated by Natalie Arnold
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