Tetsugaku 69 : TETSU69

– The word TETSU69 originally came from a URL, right?
[Right. First, it was my URL, “TETSU69.com”. At one point, I was really into buying all sorts of domain names.]

– How many did you get?
[About twenty or so. “TETSU.com” was already taken by someone else though, so I couldn’t get it. So yeah, “.com” is the best, isn’t it? Not “.co.jp” or anything else. I absolutely wanted a “.com” so I added the 69 for the year I was born, and got “TETSU69.com.” At first, that’s all it was. Is it okay if I go off-topic? It’s related to this, there’s just one thing I want to say.]

– I think it’s best for these talks to cover a wide range of subjects, so feel free to go off-topic, please.
[I got domain names on my own, all by myself. And, with domain names, if you’re wondering whether someone has it or not, you can easily go and check. A fan girl ended up finding out about it, that I had bought that domain name, and then went and talked about it, so I had it be claimed in the name of a staff member, that way it would seem like “Oh, it’s just the company,” when they looked it up. But even though I knew that anybody could look into it if they wanted, I had registered it with my own credit card, that has my real name and everything attached to it, so only the site itself was in the name of that staff member. And of course, it was me who paid for it. Kinda naive of me (laughs). A while after I’d gotten “TETSU69.com” we started thinking about solo projects, but just tetsu, well, there’s a lot of tetsus in the world, so I said to Mi-chan (from the record company’s board of representatives) “Wouldn’t “TETSU69″ be better?” and went with that. That’s the whole story.]

– You’re very particular about the number 69, aren’t you?
[It’s not on my mind as much, now. Like I’m getting a bit sick of it. But I showed someone I know who’s a good judge of names my “TETSU69” name. “I’m thinking of doing some solo work, so do you think this name is any good?” We had a look at the stroke count and stuff (1). It seems the number “69” is very easy to misinterpret. I could be misunderstood if I use that number, maybe. 6 and 9 get twisted around, you know? I was told that “Maybe a different number that doesn’t have this particular feature would be better?” but at the same time I was also told “It’ll take time, but ultimately you’ll be a success so it won’t be that bad, but there will be problems because it’s so easily misinterpreted.” “But if you want to use it that badly, you might as well,” they said and okayed it, so that’s what I used. I was sure it was the right thing to do. Even though it’ll be misinterpreted and troublesome (laughs).]

– It meant you needed to prove yourself, then.
[23 is a good number too. “TETSU23” (laughs). But that number means nothing to me (laughs). When I’m with L’Arc~en~Ciel, my name is written as “tetsu” in lowercase, you know? “TETSU69” is in capitals, which affects the stroke count. Adding 69 changes the stoke count too, right? Given that difference, and for the sake of balance, I changed the “TETSU” part to capitals. That way the total stroke count works out well. Lowercase letters with 69 gives a bad stroke count. It would affect my luck, so I don’t want anyone to write it the wrong way. A lot of fan girls don’t know how to use capital and lowercase properly in their fan letters, so I want them to be more careful.]

– I thought it was plainly obvious that, from a design point of view, the capital and lowercase letters were chosen for a reason.
[That’s not right, it’s for the stroke count. Because it’s different for capital and lowercase. Like e and E are different, for one.]

– So there’s a stroke count for the alphabet too, then.
[Yes, even for the alphabet. There are different ways of seeing it depending on the teacher, though. Oh, and when RARUKU AN SHIERU (2) is written with the alphabet, well, there’s been a lot of talk going around to the effect that “L’Arc-en-Ciel” with – (hyphen) replacing the ~ (tilde) is a mistake, but the truth is that it doesn’t change the name at all. Because using hyphens instead of tildes doesn’t affect the stroke count. Besides, no matter what you do, depending on the design or the font, sometimes using hyphens looks better, and sometimes using tildes looks better, so whichever fits best should be used. They both work fine. The “L’Arc-en-Ciel” logo changes with every release anyway, they change it freely. There is one thing that shouldn’t be changed though : when it’s written in katakana, there shouldn’t be any dots in. It should be RARUKU AN SHIERU, not RARUKU-AN-SHIERU (3).]

– Why is that the case?
[Some people don’t include dots in the stroke count and other people do, but with the people who do include the dots, those make for a bad total so I want them to be dropped. Some count them, some don’t, and when you don’t count the dots, the total comes up to 18 strokes. 18 strokes is very good. But then the dots would add two more, making 20 strokes. If you remove the dots, it gives 18 strokes no matter how you count, so I want them gone. That got confused with the tildes and hyphens issue when the news started going around. When it comes to changing those, there’s a good reason to do it, so it makes sense.]

– I see, there’s clear reasoning behind it all. Now, let’s talk about TETSU69, what’s the most interesting part of doing solo work?
[While working solo I met some new people, and that was great. I didn’t know anything outside of L’Arc~en~Ciel, so it was kind of like entering a different world, which was a big change to experience, for me.]

– What kind of balance do you want to achieve between your solo work and your work with the band?
[Nah, I really don’t know yet.]

– I wonder if the results of your solo work might not be reflected in your band activities now. Do you see any merit in pursuing both at once?
[L’Arc~en~Ciel’s activities were put on hold for two years, so even if I hadn’t been doing any solo work over those two years, I think I’d have grown as a person. So I don’t really know. I did some solo work, but I don’t know if it affected me or not. There’s such a thing as growth medicine, right? You could take some during puberty, and if you do that, you’ll get taller, but even if you hadn’t taken any, you’re in a growth period, so there’s no way of telling if that’s what made you grow, it’s not at all obvious what the cause was, you know? I think this is the same sort of thing. I might have grown even if I hadn’t done any solo work. However, everything I did was connected to the solo project, so the simplest way to put it is to say that I did some solo work, which powered me up, and now I’ve come back to the band, but what if I’m just putting it like that because it’s easier? I see things more coldly.]

– But during your solo project, you sang and did several other things you hadn’t done before. I think it’s obvious that it served as a kind of training for you.
[It’s just that with the solo work, I didn’t play the bass all that much. Some of my songs used synth bass instead. Because I didn’t play it myself in the shows. I played it for the recordings, but I didn’t spend much time on it. And so thinking as a bassist, it doesn’t seem like working solo helped me grow, it’s more like it stunted my growth instead. Being in L’Arc~en~Ciel is what makes me grow as a bassist. Of course, as a vocalist, I think my solo work helped me grow a lot.]

– Is growth as a vocalist in any way related to growth as a bassist? It could be seen as an increase in the number of channels you use to express yourself, so surely there must be some mutual influence.
[Well, I’m certainly not saying there’s no connection whatsoever. It’s just that I never ever think of myself and go “Wow, I’ve grown so much to get to this point.” (laughs)]

– I’m sure many things must be different when you’re making music alone as opposed to in a group of four, so do you find these differences enjoyable at all?
[As a solo artist, “Suite November” is the only album I’ve put together. For every single song, I had a different group of musicians participating. So, the process was different for each and every song, and the members were different too, but the work itself wasn’t all that different from how it is with the band. It felt as if for each song, the members involved became a band themselves. Oh, speaking of differences, the only thing was that I wrote all the music and lyrics myself.]

– But for instance, the jacket design, the album title, the track order, all of these things were decided by you alone, right tetsu-san?
[That part was fun. If it was OK with me, then it was OK. It was easy and fast. For the performances and arrangements too, I could say “Play it like this,” “Play it like that,” and that’s how it was going to be. Maybe on the inside, those musicians were thinking “I don’t like it this way, I don’t want to play it like this,” but I was the one who got to be selfish. It was my own album, so I said things forcefully and made them happen. I didn’t have to think too hard about how other people would feel. With the four of us in L’Arc, it just can’t work that way. We need to make sure everyone’s happy, make sure everybody’s feeling good about what we do. Doing that takes time, so we need to work carefully. But that’s fun in its own way too, it brings an entirely different sense to things, so I think both approaches have their good points.]

– For your solo work you get to decide everything according to your own criteria, your own sensibilities, being true to your own senses, so I think the end result will be that it reflects more about you as an individual human being. With that in mind tetsu-san, what kind of an artist is TETSU69?
[Hmm, what kind of artist? That’s a tough question.]

– Do you think you’re cool, that you do good work?
[I think my tunes are great, very much so.]

– Is there anything you don’t understand about the stage you are at currently?
[Maybe if I were more forceful about it, I could get a boost in sales, which would be nice (laughs).]

– For TETSU69, do you have anything in mind that you’d like to do later, ideas on the back burner or anything like that?
[Nah, musically speaking I still don’t have a solid concept like “TETSU69 is -this- kind of artist” or anything, it takes shape little by little as the project moves along, step by step. I’ve been working by trial and error since the beginning, experimenting with different things, and there are still lots of things I’d like to try for a bit, so if I get the time I think that’s how things will shape up. Right now I don’t have the time, so I can’t put down any specific ideas like “I’ll do this” or “I’ll try that” any time soon.]

– Then, looking at the big picture and taking the time to think it through is better, isn’t it.
[It would be nice if I could go about it like that. Right now though, I’ve got tons of things to do for L’Arc~en~Ciel, but hearing things like “Of course, tet-chan is at his best when he’s playing bass in L’Arc,” makes it seem like I don’t need to do solo work, like maybe it’s a wasted effort, and that makes me feel a little bit lonely.]

– It’s as if the more you persist, the less meaning it has. Do you have any plans for TETSU69 live shows?
[If the timing is right, and if I feel like doing something, then I might have some lives. But it’s always L’Arc, L’Arc, L’Arc, so TETSU69 doesn’t really matter does it? (laughs)]

– No, that can’t be right. Last year’s year-end event was effectively your second show on stage, so now I believe there must be some expectations along the lines of “Well, what’s going to be next?”
[As a vocalist, I’ve only just barely gotten started, and there are a lot of things I still do wrong when I’m singing, so since I still haven’t done very many lives, I think the best is still to come. I’m a member of L’Arc~en~Ciel, where my primary position is being the bassist, so as far as that goes, looking at it calmly and objectively, I think I write good songs. People might or might not like my voice, and I’m sure there are some people who can’t take the sound of my voice on a physiological level, but personally I do like my own vocals.]

– I think the feel of the songs you write and the quality of your voice match very well, tetsu-san.
[I think so too. But I’m in no position to evaluate it fairly. I’m in L’Arc~en~Ciel after all, and compared to L’Arc, I’m in trouble (laughs). hyde and I have different vocalist careers, our voices have different qualities, and our registers are different too, and of course, I think there are some ways in which we can’t even be compared. It’s kind of disappointing, really. I’ve been told things like “If hyde-san sung the songs you made solo, it would sound a lot cooler,” and that’s extremely frustrating. A lot of people say cruel things like that. Things like that make me wonder if there’s any point to my work as TETSU69.]

– I suppose that the longer it lasted, the more it would sink in to your mind, but tetsu-san, is there a source of motivation inside you that urges you on and makes you want to work on your solo project?
[Right now I’m busier with L’Arc, I don’t really have the time, so I don’t feel much desire to work on it. I think it would be best of each of us could have fun with our solo projects while still being in the band. I know that with some of the fans, as soon as we put out some solo work they think that L’Arc is over, so they won’t support the solo projects and some even badmouth them, but that’s not the case at all. Whatever we’re doing, we can still work on both things, so I want people to drop their prejudices and listen to it all.]

– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold


1. Stroke count refers the number of paintbrush (or pen, these days) strokes required to form a Japanese character. Seeing as it’s also how kanji are organised in a dictionary, its an important attribute to consider.Go back.


2. The katakana version of L’Arc~en~Ciel, romanized instead of translated for the sake of clarity in this paragraph. In all other situations throughout the book I have changed the katakana version to the properly spelled version.Go back.


3. Normally there are no spaces in Japanese, so dots are often used to space out foreign words instead. tetsu is explaining that spaces need to be used for the katakana version of the band name. Go back.

Comments: 2 Comments

Comments are closed.