Gackt "Alteration" Interview

 

- Last month we did a long interview on "le ciel", but this time I'd like to focus on your live video, [l'espace].

We're still working on it. There are around 20 cameras at the Yokohama Arena alone. That's 20 cuts! And since the show is around two hours, that means the cameras collected at least 40 hours. We each watch it at home, but we also have to see the stuff filmed at the Budoukan, and that takes really long too. First, that's important.

- It sounds like it's still pretty far off.

And I'm choosing the cuts I want now so I can't run straight through it. I decide I want to use from here to here and then I have to write down what the time counter says, so one video takes around 4 hours.

- And you have to rewind too?

Yeah. So maybe it's more like 80 hours.

- Everyone adds their contribution and then you can finally go to the studio?

Yeah, it takes a tremendous amount of time. But this time I watched it, and the more I did, the more I realized even if I wanted to do it myself I couldn't, and I could see the collection of them all. And standing on those things, I feel there are so many problems* with it.

* when I say "problem," it could also mean theme, situation, or homework...it's a rather hard word to translate without more context

- But there were some good things too, right?

Yes! When I say that, I mean there's no limit to the things. There are a lot of those too, but then there are my problems as the vocalist. "Next, I'm suppose to do this", and things like that, there are a lot of problems when I'm standing on stage.

- Like?

I can't think about where all the cameras are on the stage. If I did I wouldn't be into the live. Besides, it would be useless to know and bad for the audience. So this time I had no idea where the cameras were and I couldn't see them. I don't know what kind of actions and expressions the cameras pick up, like in real life, but when the camera picks them up they have to be perfect. I want to reach that limit.

- I see. But won't that be hard?

We're not tv characters. Actors always know where the cameras are and how they should look when they're filming, and when they see it later they already know how it will look. Afterwards it's beautiful, and if the person filmed isn't, then no one says anything about it. If they think it's not beautiful, they refine things one by one until they are. That's what happens.

- It would be powerful if it could be done that way.

Yeah. Like seeing a video or picture of a bird flying, that's really beautiful. Very elegant. It's beautiful because it was born to fly. I think there are people like that too. That's how I see being filmed, and those are the limits I want to reach. I have to.

- And you do what you say, ne?

Yup. When I say I'll do something, I do it. I try until I succeed; I've always felt that way. Maybe people will think "what an arrogant guy." Maybe I think it is overconfidence. Well, please see for yourself. Because I'll do it. I've said I will! I hate secretly hiding things and straining myself. I'll say I'm going to take a hundred pictures and go off and take them. If I succeed, then I'll say, "Look, I took a hundred photos," but if I can't, I hate nothing more than admitting it. I hate having to say, "It was impossible," and, "I can't do it." Things really are impossible for those kinds of people, but if I think of something I have to be able to do it. That's my strength.

- So we'll see at the next live?

Right. The fact that there are problems in everything I do is a "plus" for me. I think about living while I do everything, and that gives it meaning, whereas even if I were to plan things, without thinking there would be no meaning to them. Even if you change your appearance 2000 times, if you don't think about why you're acting that way it means nothing, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll hit the ball. There's meaning to why people act certain ways, and that's why they live and behave the way they do. Thinking that anybody can simply change their behavior 2000 times and then hit a home run is a big mistake.

- It's necessary to have a reason for doing everything you do, isn't it?

It is, isn't it. I plan something and think about it, and after I've done it while thinking about what I'm getting from doing it I understand why I really did. I think you'll hit a home run if you do. Of course, there might be things that can't be accomplished by effort alone. That's for the people doing them to figure out.

- You remembered it in terms of a baseball match, but a little while ago Kozi said that there were a second and short stop*. It's meaning is like a game maker.
* I assumed it meant short stop, in Japanese it is written "sho-to"

(laughs) What does that make me?

- The pitcher. It's the easiest position to throw a "ki" ball at the audience (laughs).

Mine would hurt.*
* (laughs) this is great. Ki balls are hard to explain. Ki is like your inner energy or spirit, and you can make balls of it and throw it at people to cause massive damage in anime *think angry Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi.* There are some real practices that use them, but in that case they're not electric and funny colors or anything

- Oh, and your fans would be the catchers and batters.

That's putting it extremely simply I think. But I don't try for a strike every time. I gather up all the power I have and then throw it. I aim for a strike and without decreasing the speed, I am betting my life on only the distance of the ball, and I'm throwing it with emphasis on only my memories. So there are probably people with a dead ball inside of them.

- You must have control (laughs).

(laughs) In place of that, the people who catch it in their mitt and zuppa* will probably find it's a heavy ball. Don't you think so too?
* I'm no good with baseball terms. It's very popular in Japan though

- uh-huh. What do you think will determine the people who catch it?

The size of their mitt, probably.

- uh-huh...you sure say skillful things (laughs). By the way, you do a piano solo in the live video. What's it called?

It's [hamon] (wave ring, ripple). It's suppose to have the image of the ripples spreading out on the lake from a single drop of water. But it doesn't just pertain to the water. It's a part of the heart as well.

- I like it a lot!

When I play it I think how good it is too, it has a lot of feeling and life to it. It's like my body is whittling away. If we get big, even if we are reduced bit by bit, something will be born from that. That's the role I received. I have to do it.

- Lastly, your aims for this time, they've been kept underground for a long time, haven't they?

I don't know about that right now. I don't think about or do business related things, so you'll see the answer to how we'll act when all of the member's various aims merge into one goal. I want you to wait of that. Right now we're still running around like crazy, so just sit back on your haunches for a little longer and if I can find the time to talk I think you will soon understand.