The following interview was published in the July 2005 issue of UV, scans of which are available on the internet if you will just look around. This translation has never been posted anywhere else!
Begin interview
No matter what kind of music they create, when it comes time to perform, the four members of L’Arc know their craft. That is why it can be said that no matter how hard it seems, they are not facing hardship.
It is unusual to find a musician as even tempered as he is. Of course, this refers to tetsu. Not to say that his manner of speech and action lacks undulation, but rather that since he is made aware of his position as a musically creative individual on a daily basis, he is rather self-conscious. Do you understand? If so, please allow your eyes to take in the following discussion. AWAKE, a rock album comprising multiple pop facets, has naturally attracted much curiosity. At last its secrets will be unlocked via these tranquil yet passionate words.
– tetsu-san, has your personal impression of the album AWAKE changed at all now that it has been completed?
[No, cause I…… didn’t really listen to it (laughs). I only listen to music when I’m in my car, I don’t listen to much at home. But lately, I haven’t had many opportunities to drive around on my own.]
– Take for instance, the discussion of the album’s subject matter at the time of it’s completion. Were you at all affected by the clearer picture that came out during that time?
[Hm, no. I think it’s an incredible album, I personally like it, and that hasn’t changed. But, usually, L’Arc has ten or eleven songs per album, and this one has the most with twelve songs, right? Even so, now that we’ve finished all the work, some of the songs we didn’t record are still in my head.]
– Do you include that in your overall impression of AWAKE?
[Not exactly, but anyway, there were a good 15 songs recorded for it. Including the ones that weren’t part of the final product. In the end, it looks like only those twelve songs were made. So, how can I put this…… I haven’t adjusted to that, yet. Of course, by the time those songs get released, I’ll have forgotten all about this. Like “When did we make this, again?”]
– I had thought that, like a strong ache, creating art was something that couldn’t be completely forgotten. Rather, was this album produced smoothly and quickly?
[Hm, was it? It took a long while. Personally, the impressions that stay or don’t stay with me have nothing to do with how smooth it went, or so I think now. I’ve completely forgotten some recordings that were full of trouble, and I still remember exactly how some completely smooth, trouble-free sessions went. What is it that makes me remember one or not? I don’t really know, myself. But, if I’m told it seemed like a rough one, I’ll end up feeling like there had been some trouble. With L’Arc, when the four of us make music, never once has the music not taken off, or has seemed like it would be better to give up.]
– You could also say that since you take extra care to complete an album with a certain number of songs, this affects your perception upon listening to it, does it not?
[Guess so. Well, anyway, all four of us are wonderful musicians, so each of us brings in lots of great music, and we have four composers putting out all sorts of music, having this wealth of variety to our music is a strong point. Also, no matter what kind of song it is, with the four members of L’Arc performing it, it becomes something amazing, and that’s what really makes us L’Arc. On top of that we’re good at performing……]
– You don’t dwell on the negative (laughs).
[Isn’t that why I can say that troublesome looking stuff isn’t so bad? You know, even though this recording was judged to have dragged on for an incredibly long time, I personally wondered if that hadn’t been a good thing.]
– What do you mean by that?
[Well, simply put, if we hadn’t taken so long, if every three minutes had only taken two takes, would we have had a finished product of the same quality?]
– This time, you were prepared ahead of time to compare the length of time with your previous work.
[Right. Compared to SMILE, or compared to our earlier albums, this one took a long time to make. Looking at it from a company president’s point of view, it probably seems that the scheduling and budget for SMILE were a bit too tight. Well, actually, the other members might not have the same opinion, I haven’t asked them, but a lot of opinions were taken when the scheduling was worked out this time. So there was a whole lot of time allocated. What it boils down to is that this time, the work didn’t drag on because of delays. We had allowed a lot of time for it since the start.]
– As a result, you think that it is because so much time was allowed that you were able to produce work of such substance.
[Yeah. We had time, so we could try things out. Record a little, listen to that, and if it’s no good, try a different approach and record it again. That only works if there’s a lot of time allocated. But, looking at the results, I think we should have been able to produce something of this quality without taking quite so much time. In the end, I think they both went overboard. Looking at SMILE and AWAKE. So next time, I want to be smarter, more efficient about it. So……. well, it’s a lot like that. Construction work at the end of the year (laughs).]
– Great description!
[Like, the budget needs to be used up (laughs). After all, if you don’t use it all, they won’t give you as much money or time for the next one. Lately, I realised that’s sort of how it works. Well, it might be just me thinking that way.]
– I see. Well, moving on, comparing the two albums, I found that the greatest difference was not in how the music was structured but rather that it had a different feel to it. In the case of SMILE, did it not contain many songs that didn’t feel like they had been made by L’Arc? It’s as if each of you had pulled the songs from your individual stock.
[Well, that happened this time too. Two of hyde’s songs came from his solo stock.]
– But even so, AWAKE came later, so it is expected that the process of making SMILE and the tour that followed it would have no small repercussions. That must be clear to yourselves, as well.
[I guess so.]
– For example, when making SMILE, as L’Arc was deciding how to progress with it, I’m sure you must have been instrumental in determining which direction to move in, tetsu-san. For making the music, as well. Are you self conscious about that?
[Yeah, a little.]
– Are you aware of your duty, your mission?
[Pretty much, since I’m the leader and all. It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but during SMILE, right before we started working on it, it was like our engine needed to be started, like we couldn’t move until that engine had warmed up. Of course, I think we did the best we could at the time, but of course, now that we’ve made SMILE, our engine is already warmed up for the next album, and so we should be able to make better music, I think. So, the fact that it turned out this way falls within my expectations.]
– And now, even though you had shown up a lot on the precious album, it seems that this time the other members were more prominent. This time, there was the song New World; it was honestly surprising that yukihiro-san had composed it. For instance, are there things you would have to write yourself on previous albums that are better left to other members now? To put it more blatantly, if you don’t write those fast-flowing pop songs, they’ll come from the other members. I think there’s been a change in what a tetsu-san song sounds like.
[Oh, no, it’s not like I was deliberately trying not to write any songs like that for this set of twelve songs. I don’t feel that way at all. See, between the four of us, we brought in just under 20 songs this time, and twelve of those were recorded, but it doesn’t mean the other songs were rejected because they were bad. There are still plenty of ways for those songs to make their way out into the world later on. There’s no such thing as “Even if I don’t write it, this sort of song will get made.” I may be the leader, but each one of us, each of the other three members, we’re all capable of producing things ourselves, of arranging things, and then I think it’s simply “This one would sound cool on the next L’Arc album.” But, well, last year we went on tour, so we spent a lot of time together, we had a lot of talks. I think the reason hyde came up with AS ONE might have been because ken-chan said to a magazine “I wanna try doing a Slipknot style song.” (laughs).]
– I thought it sounded more like Pantera (laughs). Honestly, I thought there would be more songs from you, tetsu-san. But in the end it was only Jiyuu e no Shoutai and TRUST, wasn’t it? About TRUST, could it be that recently, you’ve told yourself “I shouldn’t forget to write this kind of song,” or something along those lines?
[Yeah, sometimes. This time, I submitted seven songs, but if my seven songs were all the same kind of thing, that wouldn’t be interesting, and the order in which I made them matters to me, too. After writing a couple of up-tempo, cheerful songs, I feel like changing the tempo and making the next one a bit darker. That’s how I get around to writing something like TRUST, and sometimes that’s the only kind of song I can come up with.]
– Is it different, when you work on a fast flowing song, as opposed to when you work on one like TRUST?
[No, it’s the same thing. It’s just that after making a song, I feel like making something different from the one that came before it.]
– About the song TRUST itself, what’s your personal analysis of it?
[When it comes to singles…… It’s always the light hearted pop numbers that are easiest for our staff to sell, and I think that’s going to continue, but there are more and more of these kinds of elements, since I’ve been able to write more of this type of song. Actually, I think there have been rather more dark songs on my solo album.]
– Indeed (laughs). Whether you need a pop song or a dark song, you’re capable of producing either one, right?
[Yeah. I like both. But right now, the tendency around the world is the perception that “Pop song = weaker” and “Dark song = tougher,” isn’t it? And some musicians hold that perception themselves. I think that’s really stupid of them.]
– Actually, I think TRUST is a pop song, too.
[I think so too.]
– By the way, the word “pop” has lost it’s meaning, it’s used so lightly.
[Yeah. That’s just Japan though.]
– For example, in the 80s, heavy metal and new wave both became part of the mainstream, didn’t they? It wasn’t strange at all to like both of them, yet if you listened to Mötley Crue, you were OK, but if you listened to Depeche Mode you were looked down upon. I think that perception comes from the past, after all.
[It hasn’t changed, has it? I think I’m not as judgemental as most Japanese. Instead, I manage to make use of that perception. Just by wearing leather, hard clothes like that, I can be thought of as a tough guy.]
– That means, if I may explain it this way, that you have a talent for manipulation. Moving on, let’s hear about the new single released in July, Link. This is a song you wrote, tetsu-san, but when I heard it I felt that it was a “songwriter’s product.” It’s a song for people who know how to write a proper song. Or so I thought. It gives the impression that “this was made by a rock musician who knows what goes into a pop song.”
[I kind of resent being called a rock musician. “What’s rock?” And what defines a pop song? …… I thought Mötley Crue were pretty pop, and I think Marilyn Manson is pop, too.]
– And Metallica has pop songs, too.
[Yeah. They do, they do. I don’t know what makes something more rock as opposed to more pop. For example, it’s said that “If your work is colourful, then it’s pop music,” right? As if wearing bright clothes means you’ll be seen as pop.]
– Yeah. In the end, even though L’Arc itself is a rock band through and through, you’ve had some colourful periods so I think it’s possible to classify you as a pop band. And even if you aren’t classified with the pop bands, you’ve always had those kinds of elements, haven’t you? In other words, you incorporate both aspects, and that has become one of the special characteristics of this band.
[That’s right. Regardless of what kind of song it is, we work on it normally. We can make songs like twinkle, twinkle; we can make songs like Ophelia. So far, for our band, no kind of song has been impossible. I don’t think there can be many other bands like this out there.]
– I agree. Now, back to Link, was this song written just like the ones on AWAKE?
[You see, when we were working on the album, we had already decided to do the tie-in with Fullmetal Alchemist. And then this song ended up being one of the ones that wouldn’t be on the album.]
– Was it just a matter of timing?
[Yeah. When I was first writing Link, I thought it would probably get chosen. That was just my own impression, but I thought it would end up being the one, and in the end it was.]
– Then you were looking ahead at where it would end up. You personally knew what you needed that song to be.
[No, that’s not it. Whenever we agree to a tie-in, there are lots of songs that could fit what we need. So its just a matter of letting them pick one they like. However, for Link, they didn’t give us a very specific request. Well, we knew that it was going to be an anime opening song, so we were only told what the opening atmosphere was going to be like, whether it would be easygoing or heart-pounding.]
– Did it cross your mind that since it’s for an anime, there will be kids exposed to it, too?
[Since little kids are watching, too, “don’t make them feel like crying” (laughs). It really doesn’t have anything scary in it.]
– For instance, when your band was just starting up, you could make songs by thinking “Let’s try making one like this,” or “What if we did a song like that?” but now, when you go about creating new songs, what is most important?
[Well, basically, it has to be something we’d feel like listening to, ourselves.]
– Do you mean that now, you don’t pay attention to the rest of the world?
[No, I don’t really listen to music that much, so I wouldn’t know. What the rest of the world is doing, that is.]
– If you want something, create it yourself. I think that’s a healthy way of thinking. Instead of going around looking for something, start by creating what you want to have by yourself.
[Yeah. Of course, I want to hear new music, good new music. But generally, it’s a bother. If someone tells me “This is good” then I’ll give it a listen…… but I don’t have many friends who recommend things to me like that. (laughs)]
– What to recommend to you next? (laughs) By the way, now that it’s summer, how do you feel regarding the tour?
[No, nothing yet.]
– Do you plan it out, like “Next time let’s try something like this” or “How about doing that for the next one?”
[Oh, yeah. Lately, we’ve…… played around. We didn’t goof off much during the recording, so now it’s play time.]
– When you say playing, do you mean going home and working on new songs?
[No, not working…… but lately, I have been thinking that I should write some songs.]
– To get the next album done sooner?
[Mm… No, more for my solo. I still have some stock left for L’Arc, and we don’t have a set recording date yet. So, it seems like now would be a good time to write some songs for my solo work. Well, I do still have a bit of a stock ready for my solo work.]
– This is completely changing the flow of the conversation, but AWAKE is memorable because it is your tenth album. Did you keep that in mind beforehand?
[No, not at all. That why when people first pointed that out, I thought “No way!”]
– Is it a “ten already” feeling, or rather “only ten?”
[“Ten, already.” Besides, with ten albums made, it’s pretty clear that there must be over 100 songs, right? That’s incredible…… it feels like they mean someone else (laughs).]
– Normally, when a band starts up, they don’t go around thinking they’re going to make it to ten albums.
[No, actually, when we first debuted, we signed on with Sony for seven albums. But I remember wondering if they actually expected us to make it to seven (laughs). Even though I thought that way, with each new album that got us closer, I thought it was obvious that we would keep going even once we’d passed the seven album goal (laughs). But still, I’d like it if when people became fans, they’d listen to everything in order. There might not be many people going that far, though.]
– Right now, it seems that AWAKE is an ideal “first L’Arc album.” Of course, I think that all of your past albums make good gateways, too.
[Yeah. Of course, I think so too.]
Text by : Yuichi Masuda
Translated by Natalie Arnold
Begin interview
No matter what kind of music they create, when it comes time to perform, the four members of L’Arc know their craft. That is why it can be said that no matter how hard it seems, they are not facing hardship.
It is unusual to find a musician as even tempered as he is. Of course, this refers to tetsu. Not to say that his manner of speech and action lacks undulation, but rather that since he is made aware of his position as a musically creative individual on a daily basis, he is rather self-conscious. Do you understand? If so, please allow your eyes to take in the following discussion. AWAKE, a rock album comprising multiple pop facets, has naturally attracted much curiosity. At last its secrets will be unlocked via these tranquil yet passionate words.
– tetsu-san, has your personal impression of the album AWAKE changed at all now that it has been completed?
[No, cause I…… didn’t really listen to it (laughs). I only listen to music when I’m in my car, I don’t listen to much at home. But lately, I haven’t had many opportunities to drive around on my own.]
– Take for instance, the discussion of the album’s subject matter at the time of it’s completion. Were you at all affected by the clearer picture that came out during that time?
[Hm, no. I think it’s an incredible album, I personally like it, and that hasn’t changed. But, usually, L’Arc has ten or eleven songs per album, and this one has the most with twelve songs, right? Even so, now that we’ve finished all the work, some of the songs we didn’t record are still in my head.]
– Do you include that in your overall impression of AWAKE?
[Not exactly, but anyway, there were a good 15 songs recorded for it. Including the ones that weren’t part of the final product. In the end, it looks like only those twelve songs were made. So, how can I put this…… I haven’t adjusted to that, yet. Of course, by the time those songs get released, I’ll have forgotten all about this. Like “When did we make this, again?”]
– I had thought that, like a strong ache, creating art was something that couldn’t be completely forgotten. Rather, was this album produced smoothly and quickly?
[Hm, was it? It took a long while. Personally, the impressions that stay or don’t stay with me have nothing to do with how smooth it went, or so I think now. I’ve completely forgotten some recordings that were full of trouble, and I still remember exactly how some completely smooth, trouble-free sessions went. What is it that makes me remember one or not? I don’t really know, myself. But, if I’m told it seemed like a rough one, I’ll end up feeling like there had been some trouble. With L’Arc, when the four of us make music, never once has the music not taken off, or has seemed like it would be better to give up.]
– You could also say that since you take extra care to complete an album with a certain number of songs, this affects your perception upon listening to it, does it not?
[Guess so. Well, anyway, all four of us are wonderful musicians, so each of us brings in lots of great music, and we have four composers putting out all sorts of music, having this wealth of variety to our music is a strong point. Also, no matter what kind of song it is, with the four members of L’Arc performing it, it becomes something amazing, and that’s what really makes us L’Arc. On top of that we’re good at performing……]
– You don’t dwell on the negative (laughs).
[Isn’t that why I can say that troublesome looking stuff isn’t so bad? You know, even though this recording was judged to have dragged on for an incredibly long time, I personally wondered if that hadn’t been a good thing.]
– What do you mean by that?
[Well, simply put, if we hadn’t taken so long, if every three minutes had only taken two takes, would we have had a finished product of the same quality?]
– This time, you were prepared ahead of time to compare the length of time with your previous work.
[Right. Compared to SMILE, or compared to our earlier albums, this one took a long time to make. Looking at it from a company president’s point of view, it probably seems that the scheduling and budget for SMILE were a bit too tight. Well, actually, the other members might not have the same opinion, I haven’t asked them, but a lot of opinions were taken when the scheduling was worked out this time. So there was a whole lot of time allocated. What it boils down to is that this time, the work didn’t drag on because of delays. We had allowed a lot of time for it since the start.]
– As a result, you think that it is because so much time was allowed that you were able to produce work of such substance.
[Yeah. We had time, so we could try things out. Record a little, listen to that, and if it’s no good, try a different approach and record it again. That only works if there’s a lot of time allocated. But, looking at the results, I think we should have been able to produce something of this quality without taking quite so much time. In the end, I think they both went overboard. Looking at SMILE and AWAKE. So next time, I want to be smarter, more efficient about it. So……. well, it’s a lot like that. Construction work at the end of the year (laughs).]
– Great description!
[Like, the budget needs to be used up (laughs). After all, if you don’t use it all, they won’t give you as much money or time for the next one. Lately, I realised that’s sort of how it works. Well, it might be just me thinking that way.]
– I see. Well, moving on, comparing the two albums, I found that the greatest difference was not in how the music was structured but rather that it had a different feel to it. In the case of SMILE, did it not contain many songs that didn’t feel like they had been made by L’Arc? It’s as if each of you had pulled the songs from your individual stock.
[Well, that happened this time too. Two of hyde’s songs came from his solo stock.]
– But even so, AWAKE came later, so it is expected that the process of making SMILE and the tour that followed it would have no small repercussions. That must be clear to yourselves, as well.
[I guess so.]
– For example, when making SMILE, as L’Arc was deciding how to progress with it, I’m sure you must have been instrumental in determining which direction to move in, tetsu-san. For making the music, as well. Are you self conscious about that?
[Yeah, a little.]
– Are you aware of your duty, your mission?
[Pretty much, since I’m the leader and all. It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but during SMILE, right before we started working on it, it was like our engine needed to be started, like we couldn’t move until that engine had warmed up. Of course, I think we did the best we could at the time, but of course, now that we’ve made SMILE, our engine is already warmed up for the next album, and so we should be able to make better music, I think. So, the fact that it turned out this way falls within my expectations.]
– And now, even though you had shown up a lot on the precious album, it seems that this time the other members were more prominent. This time, there was the song New World; it was honestly surprising that yukihiro-san had composed it. For instance, are there things you would have to write yourself on previous albums that are better left to other members now? To put it more blatantly, if you don’t write those fast-flowing pop songs, they’ll come from the other members. I think there’s been a change in what a tetsu-san song sounds like.
[Oh, no, it’s not like I was deliberately trying not to write any songs like that for this set of twelve songs. I don’t feel that way at all. See, between the four of us, we brought in just under 20 songs this time, and twelve of those were recorded, but it doesn’t mean the other songs were rejected because they were bad. There are still plenty of ways for those songs to make their way out into the world later on. There’s no such thing as “Even if I don’t write it, this sort of song will get made.” I may be the leader, but each one of us, each of the other three members, we’re all capable of producing things ourselves, of arranging things, and then I think it’s simply “This one would sound cool on the next L’Arc album.” But, well, last year we went on tour, so we spent a lot of time together, we had a lot of talks. I think the reason hyde came up with AS ONE might have been because ken-chan said to a magazine “I wanna try doing a Slipknot style song.” (laughs).]
– I thought it sounded more like Pantera (laughs). Honestly, I thought there would be more songs from you, tetsu-san. But in the end it was only Jiyuu e no Shoutai and TRUST, wasn’t it? About TRUST, could it be that recently, you’ve told yourself “I shouldn’t forget to write this kind of song,” or something along those lines?
[Yeah, sometimes. This time, I submitted seven songs, but if my seven songs were all the same kind of thing, that wouldn’t be interesting, and the order in which I made them matters to me, too. After writing a couple of up-tempo, cheerful songs, I feel like changing the tempo and making the next one a bit darker. That’s how I get around to writing something like TRUST, and sometimes that’s the only kind of song I can come up with.]
– Is it different, when you work on a fast flowing song, as opposed to when you work on one like TRUST?
[No, it’s the same thing. It’s just that after making a song, I feel like making something different from the one that came before it.]
– About the song TRUST itself, what’s your personal analysis of it?
[When it comes to singles…… It’s always the light hearted pop numbers that are easiest for our staff to sell, and I think that’s going to continue, but there are more and more of these kinds of elements, since I’ve been able to write more of this type of song. Actually, I think there have been rather more dark songs on my solo album.]
– Indeed (laughs). Whether you need a pop song or a dark song, you’re capable of producing either one, right?
[Yeah. I like both. But right now, the tendency around the world is the perception that “Pop song = weaker” and “Dark song = tougher,” isn’t it? And some musicians hold that perception themselves. I think that’s really stupid of them.]
– Actually, I think TRUST is a pop song, too.
[I think so too.]
– By the way, the word “pop” has lost it’s meaning, it’s used so lightly.
[Yeah. That’s just Japan though.]
– For example, in the 80s, heavy metal and new wave both became part of the mainstream, didn’t they? It wasn’t strange at all to like both of them, yet if you listened to Mötley Crue, you were OK, but if you listened to Depeche Mode you were looked down upon. I think that perception comes from the past, after all.
[It hasn’t changed, has it? I think I’m not as judgemental as most Japanese. Instead, I manage to make use of that perception. Just by wearing leather, hard clothes like that, I can be thought of as a tough guy.]
– That means, if I may explain it this way, that you have a talent for manipulation. Moving on, let’s hear about the new single released in July, Link. This is a song you wrote, tetsu-san, but when I heard it I felt that it was a “songwriter’s product.” It’s a song for people who know how to write a proper song. Or so I thought. It gives the impression that “this was made by a rock musician who knows what goes into a pop song.”
[I kind of resent being called a rock musician. “What’s rock?” And what defines a pop song? …… I thought Mötley Crue were pretty pop, and I think Marilyn Manson is pop, too.]
– And Metallica has pop songs, too.
[Yeah. They do, they do. I don’t know what makes something more rock as opposed to more pop. For example, it’s said that “If your work is colourful, then it’s pop music,” right? As if wearing bright clothes means you’ll be seen as pop.]
– Yeah. In the end, even though L’Arc itself is a rock band through and through, you’ve had some colourful periods so I think it’s possible to classify you as a pop band. And even if you aren’t classified with the pop bands, you’ve always had those kinds of elements, haven’t you? In other words, you incorporate both aspects, and that has become one of the special characteristics of this band.
[That’s right. Regardless of what kind of song it is, we work on it normally. We can make songs like twinkle, twinkle; we can make songs like Ophelia. So far, for our band, no kind of song has been impossible. I don’t think there can be many other bands like this out there.]
– I agree. Now, back to Link, was this song written just like the ones on AWAKE?
[You see, when we were working on the album, we had already decided to do the tie-in with Fullmetal Alchemist. And then this song ended up being one of the ones that wouldn’t be on the album.]
– Was it just a matter of timing?
[Yeah. When I was first writing Link, I thought it would probably get chosen. That was just my own impression, but I thought it would end up being the one, and in the end it was.]
– Then you were looking ahead at where it would end up. You personally knew what you needed that song to be.
[No, that’s not it. Whenever we agree to a tie-in, there are lots of songs that could fit what we need. So its just a matter of letting them pick one they like. However, for Link, they didn’t give us a very specific request. Well, we knew that it was going to be an anime opening song, so we were only told what the opening atmosphere was going to be like, whether it would be easygoing or heart-pounding.]
– Did it cross your mind that since it’s for an anime, there will be kids exposed to it, too?
[Since little kids are watching, too, “don’t make them feel like crying” (laughs). It really doesn’t have anything scary in it.]
– For instance, when your band was just starting up, you could make songs by thinking “Let’s try making one like this,” or “What if we did a song like that?” but now, when you go about creating new songs, what is most important?
[Well, basically, it has to be something we’d feel like listening to, ourselves.]
– Do you mean that now, you don’t pay attention to the rest of the world?
[No, I don’t really listen to music that much, so I wouldn’t know. What the rest of the world is doing, that is.]
– If you want something, create it yourself. I think that’s a healthy way of thinking. Instead of going around looking for something, start by creating what you want to have by yourself.
[Yeah. Of course, I want to hear new music, good new music. But generally, it’s a bother. If someone tells me “This is good” then I’ll give it a listen…… but I don’t have many friends who recommend things to me like that. (laughs)]
– What to recommend to you next? (laughs) By the way, now that it’s summer, how do you feel regarding the tour?
[No, nothing yet.]
– Do you plan it out, like “Next time let’s try something like this” or “How about doing that for the next one?”
[Oh, yeah. Lately, we’ve…… played around. We didn’t goof off much during the recording, so now it’s play time.]
– When you say playing, do you mean going home and working on new songs?
[No, not working…… but lately, I have been thinking that I should write some songs.]
– To get the next album done sooner?
[Mm… No, more for my solo. I still have some stock left for L’Arc, and we don’t have a set recording date yet. So, it seems like now would be a good time to write some songs for my solo work. Well, I do still have a bit of a stock ready for my solo work.]
– This is completely changing the flow of the conversation, but AWAKE is memorable because it is your tenth album. Did you keep that in mind beforehand?
[No, not at all. That why when people first pointed that out, I thought “No way!”]
– Is it a “ten already” feeling, or rather “only ten?”
[“Ten, already.” Besides, with ten albums made, it’s pretty clear that there must be over 100 songs, right? That’s incredible…… it feels like they mean someone else (laughs).]
– Normally, when a band starts up, they don’t go around thinking they’re going to make it to ten albums.
[No, actually, when we first debuted, we signed on with Sony for seven albums. But I remember wondering if they actually expected us to make it to seven (laughs). Even though I thought that way, with each new album that got us closer, I thought it was obvious that we would keep going even once we’d passed the seven album goal (laughs). But still, I’d like it if when people became fans, they’d listen to everything in order. There might not be many people going that far, though.]
– Right now, it seems that AWAKE is an ideal “first L’Arc album.” Of course, I think that all of your past albums make good gateways, too.
[Yeah. Of course, I think so too.]
Text by : Yuichi Masuda
Translated by Natalie Arnold
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