– You’ve taken charge of writing many songs for L’Arc~en~Ciel, and you also take care of every TETSU69 song, so what do you think of the lyric writing side of yourself?
[No, I don’t think I have much of anything to say about myself as a lyric writer.]
– When did you first start writing lyrics?
[The very first song I wrote the words to was for the band known as D’Ark~en~Ciel (1). It was for a song called INSANITY. But I only wrote them out of necessity. I’ve always thought lyrics were something a vocalist should write. I was the vocalist for D’Ark~en~Ciel, so I had no choice but to write them (laughs).]
– What sort of theme did that song have?
[Death. Darkness and Death. It was dark, anyway. Absolutely gloomy (laughs).]
– How about your next song?
[That would be L’Arc~en~Ciel’s milky way, wouldn’t it?]
– Why did you write the lyrics for it even though you thought that was the vocalist’s job?
[That’s because hyde casually asked “Wanna write the words?” and I figured I’d give it a try. Also, I thought it must be tough for hyde to write the words to every single song. I thought I’d give him a hand. “Yeah, I’ll write some and see,” is how it started.]
– When you tried it, did you find you had some talent for writing lyrics?
[No, I don’t have talent, do I? (laughs)]
– Does it take a lot of time to do?
[Yeah. I’m fast about writing music, but when it comes to the lyrics, I’m slow (laughs). Sometimes I can do it in one night, but I’m still slow. Time flies without my noticing it.]
– What about for TETSU69? You write the melodies first, and then the lyrics?
[Yeah, that goes for both L’Arc and TETSU69.]
– When it comes time to write lyrics, what do you base yourself on? Personal experience, feelings, your present reality, echoes, something the melody stirs up, fiction, all sorts of things like that?
[All of that. And sometimes whatever’s my boom (2) at that time will insist on coming out. Some parts are fiction, and some parts are non-fiction. It’s just that while I’m actually writing, I can’t tell where it’s coming from. It’s like echoing words and numbers get put into proper words. That’s why writing lyrics can be like a puzzle.]
– Then, the interesting part is putting it all together.
[It’s great when it’s done. It’s the same feeling as finishing a puzzle. Yay! I’m done! (laughs). I’m the kind of person who always writes the melody before the lyrics, so I don’t want to change the music to fit the words. I start by deciding how many words should go in, and I don’t change that, so it can be tough. I don’t want to have too many words. More than the meaning of the words, or their content, I give priority to their sound. The music itself becomes more prominent with age (3), so I’m going to want words that are easy to remove. That’s hard to do. I worry about the gap between the words I want to use and the sound I want to have. It troubles me.]
– Some of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s songs that you wrote the lyrics for, such as Perfect Blue or bravely (4), paint quite a severe picture of the world, tetsu-san.
[That’s a technique I use a lot, taking a very pop, refreshing, pretty melody, and then inserting a black element via the lyrics. It’s a pattern I like, and I think highly of it. The result is a pretty melody which crosses the heart that much more. That’s the result I wanted for those songs.]
– I thought the lyrics for TETSU69 communicated a lot of loneliness, loss, and pain.
[The first album Suite November does certainly have some of that.]
– How did those elements come to dominate the feel of the album?
[My schedule was really tight around then, writing three, four songs in the space of one week, not just the lyrics but making the whole song in that schedule. In the end, I might as well have written all the lyrics on the same date. I think that’s why the themes all ended up resembling each other. If I get around to making a second album, I think the contents of the song lyrics will be completely different. Even a new song from summer and a new song from winter turn out completely different. Also, sometimes, when there’s a movie I like, part of me will become the main character and write a song that way. The movies I like, the manga I like, their settings take hold of me. However, the people listening don’t realize that, so when I tell them, “Oh, really?” is the answer I usually get.]
– Could you give an example?
[The song TIGHTROPE, well, in Yazawa Ai’s manga Kagen no Tsuki (5), there’s a setting where a lost cat wanders up to a mansion. I wrote the song to hint at that scene. Then I got mail from Yazawa-san saying “That’s my favourite song.” (laughs). She caught me (laughs). This is bad (laughs). It might have been a coincidence, but I got really nervous when I thought I’d been caught. Don’t tell that to Yazawa-san. But it isn’t really a direct connection. That image persistently stuck out. It didn’t stick neatly to that one song, either. It got scattered among the other ones too, without my noticing.]
– I think that pieces of yourself are spreading into the music world, tetsu-san. Is there anything specific you’re conscious of sending out with Suite November as a whole?
[This sort of thing can’t be substantially explained in words. What could it be? I’m sure there must be something, but even I’m not fully aware of what it is.]
– I thought the overall sensation was a prominent feeling of loneliness.
[As far as my public image goes, I write pop songs, I wear pop clothes, and even within the band I take on that sort of character, but I have dark roots (laughs). No, it’s not quite right to say I have dark roots. I like being alone. I can’t say I really get lonely.]
– You’re a lone wolf.
[No, I don’t think it’s anything that cool. I just like being alone. Alone, I can indulge in my hidden thoughts (laughs).]
– Are you a romantic?
[I do have a romantic side. And a great imagination.]
– So then are you able to channel that imagination into creativity?
[Yeaaah. Sorta. But I think lyrics take a lot of getting used to. I’ve only written about ten songs so far, but if I can get a bit more practice at it I should get faster. As it is, I like the songs I’ve written. I do think some changes and improvements could be made to my earlier ones, but it was an experience I needed to have.]
– What do you think defines good lyrics?
[Good lyrics? That’s hard (laughs). But there are some songs I like because of the lyrics. “Ah, these are nice lyrics,” or something. Mostly, they need to fit the music well, have a nice ring to them. Sometimes I won’t look at the lyric card even once, then I’ll be carried along by the melody and suddenly think “Hey, these are good lyrics,” and notice them. But overall, melody is more important to me than lyrics. I say that, but it’s not an absolute rule. Of course, there are times when I’ll listen to a song because I noticed it’s nice lyrics first.]
– What sort of theme do you think will be expressed in TETSU69’s lyrics from now on?
[I really don’t know, but it’s good that some people are concerned about the lyrics. I’m kind of embarrassed when people draw attention to them, so I just sort of go with the flow. I’m still not very confident about that aspect of my work. I do like what I’ve done, but I’ve always given more praise to music than to lyrics, and I kind of regret that now (laughs). I want to write good music, with good lyrics.]
– Is there a message you want to send in your lyrics?
[There isn’t. I just wanted my lyrics to support the world view created by my music.]
-Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
[No, I don’t think I have much of anything to say about myself as a lyric writer.]
– When did you first start writing lyrics?
[The very first song I wrote the words to was for the band known as D’Ark~en~Ciel (1). It was for a song called INSANITY. But I only wrote them out of necessity. I’ve always thought lyrics were something a vocalist should write. I was the vocalist for D’Ark~en~Ciel, so I had no choice but to write them (laughs).]
– What sort of theme did that song have?
[Death. Darkness and Death. It was dark, anyway. Absolutely gloomy (laughs).]
– How about your next song?
[That would be L’Arc~en~Ciel’s milky way, wouldn’t it?]
– Why did you write the lyrics for it even though you thought that was the vocalist’s job?
[That’s because hyde casually asked “Wanna write the words?” and I figured I’d give it a try. Also, I thought it must be tough for hyde to write the words to every single song. I thought I’d give him a hand. “Yeah, I’ll write some and see,” is how it started.]
– When you tried it, did you find you had some talent for writing lyrics?
[No, I don’t have talent, do I? (laughs)]
– Does it take a lot of time to do?
[Yeah. I’m fast about writing music, but when it comes to the lyrics, I’m slow (laughs). Sometimes I can do it in one night, but I’m still slow. Time flies without my noticing it.]
– What about for TETSU69? You write the melodies first, and then the lyrics?
[Yeah, that goes for both L’Arc and TETSU69.]
– When it comes time to write lyrics, what do you base yourself on? Personal experience, feelings, your present reality, echoes, something the melody stirs up, fiction, all sorts of things like that?
[All of that. And sometimes whatever’s my boom (2) at that time will insist on coming out. Some parts are fiction, and some parts are non-fiction. It’s just that while I’m actually writing, I can’t tell where it’s coming from. It’s like echoing words and numbers get put into proper words. That’s why writing lyrics can be like a puzzle.]
– Then, the interesting part is putting it all together.
[It’s great when it’s done. It’s the same feeling as finishing a puzzle. Yay! I’m done! (laughs). I’m the kind of person who always writes the melody before the lyrics, so I don’t want to change the music to fit the words. I start by deciding how many words should go in, and I don’t change that, so it can be tough. I don’t want to have too many words. More than the meaning of the words, or their content, I give priority to their sound. The music itself becomes more prominent with age (3), so I’m going to want words that are easy to remove. That’s hard to do. I worry about the gap between the words I want to use and the sound I want to have. It troubles me.]
– Some of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s songs that you wrote the lyrics for, such as Perfect Blue or bravely (4), paint quite a severe picture of the world, tetsu-san.
[That’s a technique I use a lot, taking a very pop, refreshing, pretty melody, and then inserting a black element via the lyrics. It’s a pattern I like, and I think highly of it. The result is a pretty melody which crosses the heart that much more. That’s the result I wanted for those songs.]
– I thought the lyrics for TETSU69 communicated a lot of loneliness, loss, and pain.
[The first album Suite November does certainly have some of that.]
– How did those elements come to dominate the feel of the album?
[My schedule was really tight around then, writing three, four songs in the space of one week, not just the lyrics but making the whole song in that schedule. In the end, I might as well have written all the lyrics on the same date. I think that’s why the themes all ended up resembling each other. If I get around to making a second album, I think the contents of the song lyrics will be completely different. Even a new song from summer and a new song from winter turn out completely different. Also, sometimes, when there’s a movie I like, part of me will become the main character and write a song that way. The movies I like, the manga I like, their settings take hold of me. However, the people listening don’t realize that, so when I tell them, “Oh, really?” is the answer I usually get.]
– Could you give an example?
[The song TIGHTROPE, well, in Yazawa Ai’s manga Kagen no Tsuki (5), there’s a setting where a lost cat wanders up to a mansion. I wrote the song to hint at that scene. Then I got mail from Yazawa-san saying “That’s my favourite song.” (laughs). She caught me (laughs). This is bad (laughs). It might have been a coincidence, but I got really nervous when I thought I’d been caught. Don’t tell that to Yazawa-san. But it isn’t really a direct connection. That image persistently stuck out. It didn’t stick neatly to that one song, either. It got scattered among the other ones too, without my noticing.]
– I think that pieces of yourself are spreading into the music world, tetsu-san. Is there anything specific you’re conscious of sending out with Suite November as a whole?
[This sort of thing can’t be substantially explained in words. What could it be? I’m sure there must be something, but even I’m not fully aware of what it is.]
– I thought the overall sensation was a prominent feeling of loneliness.
[As far as my public image goes, I write pop songs, I wear pop clothes, and even within the band I take on that sort of character, but I have dark roots (laughs). No, it’s not quite right to say I have dark roots. I like being alone. I can’t say I really get lonely.]
– You’re a lone wolf.
[No, I don’t think it’s anything that cool. I just like being alone. Alone, I can indulge in my hidden thoughts (laughs).]
– Are you a romantic?
[I do have a romantic side. And a great imagination.]
– So then are you able to channel that imagination into creativity?
[Yeaaah. Sorta. But I think lyrics take a lot of getting used to. I’ve only written about ten songs so far, but if I can get a bit more practice at it I should get faster. As it is, I like the songs I’ve written. I do think some changes and improvements could be made to my earlier ones, but it was an experience I needed to have.]
– What do you think defines good lyrics?
[Good lyrics? That’s hard (laughs). But there are some songs I like because of the lyrics. “Ah, these are nice lyrics,” or something. Mostly, they need to fit the music well, have a nice ring to them. Sometimes I won’t look at the lyric card even once, then I’ll be carried along by the melody and suddenly think “Hey, these are good lyrics,” and notice them. But overall, melody is more important to me than lyrics. I say that, but it’s not an absolute rule. Of course, there are times when I’ll listen to a song because I noticed it’s nice lyrics first.]
– What sort of theme do you think will be expressed in TETSU69’s lyrics from now on?
[I really don’t know, but it’s good that some people are concerned about the lyrics. I’m kind of embarrassed when people draw attention to them, so I just sort of go with the flow. I’m still not very confident about that aspect of my work. I do like what I’ve done, but I’ve always given more praise to music than to lyrics, and I kind of regret that now (laughs). I want to write good music, with good lyrics.]
– Is there a message you want to send in your lyrics?
[There isn’t. I just wanted my lyrics to support the world view created by my music.]
-Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
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