Posted by: on: December 22 2007 • Categorized in: Tetsuyaku
Thorough to the point of being stoic, this bassist expresses himself from the highest peaks: this is tetsu. Fully testing his newly-obtained five-string bass, he treats us to his intricately refined playing with the release of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s new album, KISS. “It might sound a bit subdued, but I’m doing a lot of things when you’re not looking.” And, he also told us that “I’m playing a bass melody in these happy songs”, and so, at the core, techniques that he alone is capable of employing are given full life in this new creation. As pertains to the album’s creation, we wonder what he confronted with his instrument, what music he constructed. These questions we shall earnestly pursue.
INTERVIEW – BEGIN
– The new album KISS has just been released, but could you tell how long ago you began working on it?
[For the music itself, I think each of us members had some in our respective stocks, but we got together and showed them to each other in January of this year.
– Then, you would have started writing songs after last year’s 15th L’Anniversary Live at Tokyo Dome on November 25th and 26th?
[On the band’s schedule, we had set December 2006 and January 2007 aside as songwriting time, so that’s when each of us had scheduled time to write some songs.]
– In March of this year, you released the single Can’t stop believing under your solo name of tetsu. Were both things in progress at the same time?
[Well, I was doing them side by side, so you could say they were in progress together…]
– Now, how did you switch gears, mentally speaking, between making music for L’Arc~en~Ciel and making music for your solo project?
[I did my solo recording in December and January too… but for my solo work, it’s not like I wrote a new song from scratch right then and there, I already had a fully built-up demo to work from, so all I needed to do was get it properly recorded, or just make a clean copy, basically. Then, I started from scratch writing my songs for L’Arc~en~Ciel, which I do in a completely different frame of mind. The way I think changes, and so on. So, it doesn’t feel like I was really working on both things at the same time to me, and I didn’t feel like I had to work at separating them mentally, either.]
– I see. How do you feel about the way your bass playing turned out on the new album?
[There are some songs worth copying, and there are some very difficult songs in there, too. Pretty girl is a hard song. So is Umibe… Oh, and Hurry Xmas is hard, too. In these songs, it wasn’t just about fingering, I had to actually memorize bits, it was hard to play them without making mistakes (laughs).]
– It seems like you’re always working quite hard.
[Yeah. So once I mess up I can’t go back (laughs). In recordings, too, I follow my sheet music and end up going “Woah~ Where am I again?!”, getting totally lost. It might be hard to pick up on, but in parts of Pretty girl I’m moving quite a lot. What else now… Yuki no Ashiato is hard too, with those pauses.]
– Indeed, sound division and pauses aren’t easy to mark on sheet music, yet they’re important points to keep in mind.
[Well… I’m really not that good at taking pauses (laughs). I can’t just stop and wait, I always to keep right on playing the next bit (laughs).]
– Link -KISS Mix- is a song you wrote yourself, right, tetsu-san. It’s up-tempo and cheerful. I think it has the pattern you already specialize in….
[No, that’s a difficult song, the bass line moves quite a bit, and there’s part one, part two, part three, each part’s bass line moves in a different way. Um…… I guess this time around, the bass lines seem simple, at first, they don’t sound all that difficult, but if you try to copy them I think you’ll find that there are a lot of hard songs on here.]
– Which songs do you have in mind when you say they sound simple?
[I mean like, it’s probably just that our older songs were more obvious and flashy. For example… if they were food, they’d be hamburgers and curry (laughs).]
– (laughs) Or fried shrimp!
[Yeah, and spaghetti! You know what I mean, they had that easy-to-understand feel to them, I think. Also, our band sound, the balance was set so that the drums would be quieter and the bass would be louder, but now we’ve gone normal (laughs) and the balance changed, the bass sounds more restrained than it used to. Another thing is that I used to play a lot of things in high positions, but now I’m doing more with low sounds, so I think that the showiness doesn’t jump out and grab you as much… Well I guess I’m just playing like an adult.]
– Like an adult… Thanks to that, even if you aren’t showing off, you make your music dance, it’s as if you’ve reached your ultimate form…
[Nah, it’s not like I’ve reached the castle or anything like that. But I do think I’m getting wiser, and growing up, little by little.]
***
– As of this album, you’ve shifted from using four-stringed basses to using five-stringed ones. I think this makes for a major topic. Why the switch?
[I used five-string basses way back on the first album, DUNE, and the second one, Tierra, so it’s not like I’d never used them before, but the fundamental change where I switched completely over to only using five-string basses happened in April 2006, when I participated in Creature Creature, MORRIE-san’s solo project, as bassist. For that project, the guitarist Minoru-kun had composed songs with a seven-string guitar and he was playing them on one, too, so to match it I naturally used five-string basses. On the Creature Creature album, Light&Lust, I play the bass on nine of the ten songs, and for all those recordings I used only five-string basses. After doing that, it’s like I can’t go back anymore.]
– The nuances must be different, between a down-tuned four-string and a five-string bass, right?
[I’ve used down-tuned four-strings before, but when I’m holding one of those it messes up my head. To make the switch easier I just use a five-string bass.]
– Are there any tricky aspects to using a five-string?
[No, I have used five-string basses before, so it’s not something I just recently learned how to play. There are some old songs of ours that I recorded with a five-string, and if you look at the video of our first live at Budoukan, I’m using a five-string fretless bass there… On the album ark, I played Shinjitsu to Gensou to with a five-string. There’s also the tour, 1999 GRAND CROSS TOUR, I used one then too, so it’s really not a new thing for me at all. My fans have known it for a long time, oh and for my solo song Shinkirou I played a five-string bass too.]
– I see. Then, does making five-string basses your main instrument affect your methods when writing songs or constructing basslines?
[No, it really doesn’t. If you were to write a song starting with the riffs, then it would affect things because a five-string gives deeper sound, but since I write starting with the melody, it really doesn’t influence my songs much at all.]
– Do you think changing your type of instrument affects your actual style of play?
[Even though I didn’t use the lower end of the register, I still need to change my fingering. To bring the five strings to life, I need to move differently, and to be honest it makes fingering a lot more fun, this way.]
– It’s the way the 4th string’s 2f was too far, but you can play it when it becomes the 5th string’s 7f, right?
[Yeah. I think of the phrase first with a four-string, then when I transfer it over to a five-string that phrase is going to change, so my playing changes with it, and it’s not like I changed it in the middle of composing the song, it’s like I’ve always had the five-string version, naturally.]
– I see. Have you ever had any problems with the tune being too low, so that you couldn’t hear the vocals clearly anymore?
[Hmmm, I think I’ve already gotten used to it. It might have been harder to pick sounds out, before, but that’s really just a question of “adjusting”. About my five-string basses on this album, I almost used nothing but my ZON Legacy ELITE 519, it’s actually my first time using just one thing for most of an entire album that way.]
– You didn’t need to adjust much, then.
[That’s right. But for making the right sound, I went through a lot of amp heads, though.]
– Also, speaking of your five-string basses, for lives in the past, you’ve used your ESP BARDIC, which is actually a tetsu model, right? When getting your own model made, what kind of requests do you make, and what sort of exchanges do you have with the makers?
[The BARDIC got made some time last year, but for requests…. I designed everything myself. That’s why I charted everything and drew them a map. Sound-wise…. The body and neck are the same as the BUZZ BASS I’ve used for a while now, and for the pickups I just went through a lot of different ones and tried them all out. I had them changed three times, and with these Seymour Duncan ones I can finally relax.]
– How did you get the idea to use a humbucker for the rear pickup and a single coil for the front pickup?
[About the rear pickup, actually I tap it, so I only use it like a single coil anyway… It’s just that, the reason is that when you mount a single coil for the rear pickup, it affects the sound.]
– With this combination, in a way it’s as if you had three coils lined up, but were tapping one of them.
[Going on my experience, I’d say having three pickups never works out well. A long time ago, I had three pickups on my model ESP BASS IV, but in the end I had it changed so there would only be two.]
– When dealing with this sort of equipment, tetsu-san, do you take pains to go over everything carefully?
[When I’m making my own models, I go over the details with them every time. About the latest BARDIC I used for the tour “Are you ready? 2007 Light my Fire Again”, I’ve had the bridge changed. It was a Hipshot before, but I had it changed to a Gotoh. It reconfirmed for me the way that changing the bridge can change completely change the sound. Back to my current stuff, I think this bass sounds great. I’ve used a ZON in recordings for a long time, but now I’ve added this five-string ZON to my repertoire. With five-stringers, the balance of each string can get pretty bad, you know? The fifth string can sound completely out there, or it might sound like it belongs elsewhere. But with a ZON, any string you play has just the right volume, the balance is incredible, the sounds are tight and low just like they should be, and it’s a low sound you can pick out. Oh, this time around I changed my speaker cabinet to a Basson. Especially since I’ve gone five-stringed, the Basson sounds excellent.]
– Since the “15th L’Anniversary Live” it’s been seen with you on stage. It has an impact, looks-wise.
[Because it’s so big, right. But, more than that big, 8-speaker cabinet (B810B EarthQuake), I prefer the one I have with four, 10-inch speakers and twitter built in (B410B). I have both, but I think the 4×10 suits me better. This year for the “Are you ready? 2007 Light my Fire Again” tour, I had two of the 8-speaker ones lined up plus a 4×10 hooked up in the back with a mic.]
***
— Each of us members goes around thinking “Let’s make some good music”, but we have no way of knowing how it will be received out in the world. If there’s as much as one single person who can share our feelings, then that a good thing, but of course there must also be a lot of people who don’t like it, then. —
– By the way, given that all the members are able to compose songs, I imagine that it must be difficult to balance each person’s demands when you are constructing music together. What’s your secret?
[Ummm, there is no secret, probably… …we each have a different approach to writing music, each person, each group must have their own too, and even in one group the same methods don’t get used for every song. It’s probably the fact that we’ve been together for over a decade, so we’ve found the best ways to go about it and we know what works.]
– How does the song writer manage to take initiative?
[Let me see. We all have our own ideas, so we throw them around, we express our opinions as things come up, adding things, removing things, until it’s in the best shape it can be and we’re all satisfied with it, whether it’s an actual recording or just pre-pro…]
– Speaking of the bass melody on this album, I can hear the high degree of movement in the phrasing, but I’d like to ask how you strike a balance between making the bassline move, bringing the song to life, and adapting the band ensemble?
[Hmm… The first thing is getting the song to stand up on its own, but I think that’s obvious… Above all, the guiding principle is that we need to see if the song has a melody that can stand alone. The most important songs need to have a solid melody, I’ve always thought that it was important to check whether a melody is worth working out arrangements for or not. Putting that first, next comes the whole ensemble, the rhythm pattern, the tone quality and all the instruments. As a result, if it sounds like something’s lacking afterwards, I adjust my bass part and move around until it gets better, and sometimes the opposite happens and I need to move a bit less… In recordings, unlike lives, we can do it over and over again, record and listen, try things out, listen to what we’ve got so far, in any case we can go until we’ve got the best result possible, so we can try out all our ideas. I think the basic thing is to have a choice of good ideas.]
– In other words, it’s by trial and error.
[Well, as each member records more and more tries, we can go back and change the arrangement a bit. That happens a lot.]
***
– In old Japanese pop… In rock as well, when listening to the most popular songs, there’s the singing of course, but the bass playing also steals attention. The bass playing moves, alongside the singing that it helps bring to life, and in a sense, I believe this to be ideal. Listening to the many songs you’ve played, tetsu-san, I think this certainly applies to L’Arc~en~Ciel.
[Old pop and famous songs, well of course there’s a lot of great stuff there, it was well thought out when it was made, a lot of theory went into it, it was all made according to calculations, so of course it’s high-quality.]
– There are links between eras, sometimes as a song that becomes popular enough to still be popular years later. I think that the way L’Arc~en~Ciel is going, you’re right in the middle of everything, this era. How does it feel for you?
[Ummm… Well, right now, I think we’re different from the music that’s popular around the world.]
– But, in the grand scheme of the era, some of your melodies are universally known…
[No, because stuff with no melody whatsoever is very popular. Hiphop is that way, for example, and even hard rock can get that way too. There are songs where the melody is forgotten and all they think about are guitar riffs.]
– That included, what do you see as your position in the grand scheme of things?
[(strained laugh)…That’s a hard one. Honestly, I don’t know what the popular things of the world or of the era actually are. Each of us members goes around thinking “let’s make good music, let’s make good music” so we make the kind of music that we like, but we have no way of knowing how it will be received out in the world. If there’s as much as one single person who can share our feelings, then that a good thing, but of course there must also be a lot of people who don’t like it, then.]
– Then, do you try to move the hearts of those people who don’t like your music?
[I think there are many kinds of people among the “people who don’t like us”. For example, I think every person has their own tastes, so if you asked people what they like, asked them to name artists and songs they like, and if we heard that music and thought it was “good”, then we could get closer to that person… Nah, it wouldn’t get us any closer. If we heard what that person’s tastes and interests were, if we could go “Ah, I get it!” then as people who get it, we could go “let’s try to do things this way” or ask “What can we do to become a little more like this?” and so that’s how we’d probably think…]
– You don’t need to get closer to them?
[For example, if we were to take someone who thinks “L’Arc~en~Ciel totally sucks, their songs are no good”, and ask that person “So what kind of music do you like, then?” we could hear their answer. Then we might listen to that music and see if we get it or not. Then we might go “Ah, it’s actually this kind of music that sucks, not us” (laughs), so we don’t need to get close to that person. It’s like “Go ahead, say whatever you want.”]
Posted by: on: December 22 2007 • Categorized in: tetsuya's Diary
Right now, we’re in the middle of rehearsals for the lives! But, I have a TV set up at my feet so I can watch soccer in real time! Maybe I should get back to work now~ (laughs)
Posted by: on: December 22 2007 • Categorized in: tetsuya's Diary
(Very happy picture of him and Ayana in similar white outfits, on a pink background)
Today, I have something important to tell you, to tell all of you who are always cheering me on : I, tetsu, am going to be married to Sakai Ayana.
Me, MARRIED! Even I can’t believe it, but I am thrilled that I’ve come to feel this way, and I’m so grateful to have met her, the one who makes me feel like this!
I would like you all to keep watching over me, so that I can keep working hard to deliver even better music to you from now on.
Posted by: on: November 25 2007 • Categorized in: Tetsuyaku
This is the translation of the talk that aired on Music Japan in two parts. The longer segment was on 16th November 2007, and the end was played on 23rd November 2007. Since the individual parts are rather short, and they are obviously all recorded at the same time, I decided to combine them for translation purposes.
Since I am working from the video, it is always possible that I may have misheard something.
— BEGIN —
Host : We welcome L’Arc~en~Ciel to the studio! Hello! *claps*
Members : Hi~
Host : I understand that last year marked your 15th anniversary.
hyde, tetsu : Yes.
Host : Then you travelled to many locations on a long tour. Are there any memorable incidents that stand out in your minds? ken-san, anything?
ken : I have to do MCs, you know?
Host : Yes.
ken : Talking to the crowd in the middle of the concert, yeah, well I didn’t have anything to say.
Host : I see.
ken : So I wondered what I was gonna do, and I asked hyde. Let’s see, where were we again? Iwate? Anyway, he said “Why don’t you eat wanko-soba?” (1)
*some laughing*
ken : So I ate wanko-soba. During the show.
Host : During the show?
ken : Yeah. So I put on the apron and had an old lady come up and serve it to me, then I went “Okay, next song!”
Host : You were eating it on stage?
ken : Sure was. So I called out the next song and got started, ready to get into it, let’s go… Then I turned and saw hyde was laughing at me. I didn’t know why, but it’s because I was still wearing the apron.
*laughter*
ken : I couldn’t take it off during the song…
hyde : Cause he’s got his hands full playing guitar and we need to keep going.
ken : So I was dressed to eat soba… *mimes playing*
Host : *laughs*
ken : Like, “What the hell am I doing?”
*laughter*
ken : I didn’t mean to do anything that weird.
Host : Next, tetsu-san, was there any show that was memorable for you?
tetsu : I got a cramp in my leg, up on stage.
Host : What? You had a cramp?
tetsu : Yes.
Host : What happened to give you a cramp?
tetsu : Nothing, I was just playing normally, then in the middle of a song… well you know how when I play I have both hands kinda low, I was doing this, stretched a little *demonstrates*.
Host : *laughs* So you pulled it?
tetsu : But I couldn’t let it show on my face… so I kept on looking cool.
Host : Hiding it?
tetsu : Yes.
Host : Didn’t the others notice?
hyde : No, no, he’s such a pro you know.
*laughter*
ken : This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Host : Is that so?
ken : Good story.
Host : And yukihiro-san, your body fat percentage is 4%, I’ve heard. Is that true?
yukihiro : Sometimes the measurement comes out to 5% actually.
hyde : It’s not measurable.
Host : Is that so…
hyde : He doesn’t eat. He doesn’t eat food.
Host : Don’t you all get together to eat something tasty after a show?
hyde : We do.
Host : And…
ken : We make him a “yukkie set”.
tetsu : We pick something and he has to eat it all himself.
hyde : We go to an izakaya (2) or something, you know how you can order all sorts of things to eat? So we stopped eating everything that comes out. We go “THIS part is just for yukkie,” and tell him to eat it.
yukihiro : I’m being careful now.
Host : You need to make sure you eat.
yukihiro : Yes. Everyone’s worrying about me…
Host : Please take care of yourself.
yukihiro : Thank you. *laughs*
Host : Eating is good for you.
Host : Now hyde-san, a little while ago during the tour, I heard that you snuck out into the area where the fans were, near the entrance to the venue. What happened?
hyde : When there’s a concert, I always hear about how people who look just like me are out in the crowd. “There’s someone who looks like hyde-san, acting like him”, things like that. So I figured that if I go out there myself, they won’t know the difference, right?
Host : *laughs* Because of the lookalikes…
hyde : They’re there too, yeah. I thought it would be okay. So I said I’d do it some time. The staff said “Okay but only this once, hyde-san!” Okay. I put on my sunglasses, and I had a L’Arc~en~Ciel paper bag in my hand, and I was talking on my cell phone, then went walking around for five minutes or so. There was a big crowd.
Host : Of course.
hyde: This was an hour before the show. I knew I couldn’t cause a panic. So I was nervous. Talking to our manager on the phone. People would walk right up close to me, so I’d talk louder into the phone.
Host : Didn’t anyone spot you? Or at least wonder?
hyde : I could see in some people’s eyes that they suspected…
Host : Didn’t anyone ask?
ken : They must have thought “No way”.
hyde : So I was in the crowd for a while, heart pounding. It wasn’t until the moment I went back into the restricted area that they went “WAAAI!”
Host : Ah, so that’s how they knew it was you, after all.
hyde : “He was right there”.
Host : Mission successful.
hyde : Big success.
— The rest of the talk was aired on 23rd November 2007 —
hyde : Weren’t you mistaken for a member of GLAY?
tetsu : Yeah, I was.
Host : Oh?
tetsu : I was mistaken for a member of GLAY.
Host : Is that so.
tetsu : It was like “Ah! I’ve seen you before!” So I thought “Oh no, I’ve been spotted”… They went “You’re from GLAY!”
Host : *laughs*
tetsu : I asked which member of GLAY they thought I was, and they said “You’re TARO right!?”
*laughter*
tetsu : TARO! Who the hell is that?!
hyde : A long time ago in Niigata, hey you were there too! What was it again?
tetsu : *laughs* Oh yeah.
Host : You were with tetsu-san?
hyde : Yeah, and the shop owner was looking embarrassed, but he came up to me to ask… I thought “Ah, I’ve been spotted!” but he went on and asked “Are you Okuda Tamio-san?”
Host : *laughs* Eeeh?
Host : Now, your first album in two and half years, KISS, has just been released, so I’d like to ask about the title. It was hyde-san who chose it, right?
hyde : Yes, yes.
Host : What meaning were you intending it to have?
hyde : It’s like “I wanna smooch”, you know. That feeling. Yeah, KISS.
Host : And also when you make an album, how do you decide on the song order?
ken : The song order… well each of us writes up the order he thinks we should use, right. So we take those ideas and try them all out. It takes a really long time.
Host : So you put them in order and listen, then try it out another way…
ken : Right. So we can be like “This needs changing” or like… hey it took about a whole day, right?
– cut to performance –
Transcribed and translated by Natalie Arnold.
1. A speciality of northeast Japan, wanko-soba is a way of serving noodles where the customers get one bite tossed into their bowl at a time. The customer keeps eating the bite of noodles and getting another thrown in by the server until the customer is too full to keep eating. It is rather messy. Go back.
2. Izakaya are a Japanese sort of pub that serve various small dishes along with alcohol. Fried foods, sushi, dumplings, noodles and meat are all available.Go back.
Posted by: on: November 17 2007 • Categorized in: Tetsuyaku
This is a translation of the talk part of Music Fighter from 17th November 2007. It concerns many interesting stories from L’Arc’s past.
BEGIN
Today’s guest : L’Arc~en~Ciel!
Tonight, we have an out of control special talk! From the formation of the group to their current projects, we’ll hear about special episodes never before revealed!
Host : Ok, let’s get started. First of all, I’d like everyone to watch this video.
Video : L’Arc~en~Ciel in 3 minutes
It has now been 16 years since the formation of L’Arc~en~Ciel.
On screen : 1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union
It was the year where the Soviet Union collapsed, changing the political landscape of the world.
Meanwhile in Osaka, tetsu was active as a bassist, and he began to pursue hyde, who was involved with another band at the time.
Arrow : tetsu scouted hyde
Q : How did tetsu invite hyde?
hyde : I was doing lives (with the previous band) and he kept coming, every time. Every time he was all.. “Well? Well? How do you feel?”.
*laughter*
And so that year, tetsu and hyde joined together and L’Arc~en~Ciel was born.
By the way, the word L’Arc~en~Ciel is French for rainbow. It was tetsu who found this name and gave it to the band.
Next, in 1992, tetsu scouted his childhood friend ken, who was a university student at the time, and asked him to join the band. ken accepted the invitation and quit school.
But! At the first live, ken got a negative reaction from the audience… Why?!
ken : It’s because I had a recruit cut.
Hosts: Eh? Why did you have a recruit cut?
ken : Cause I was a recruit (into the working world).
Host : So how did you look, standing on stage that first time??
ken : I had my recruit cut and a little braid coming out the back.
*laughter*
ken : The other members made me do it!
Starting from Osaka, they lit a fire and were soon burning up the whole country!
On July 1st 1994, they released their major debut single, Nemuri ni Yosete.
How did tetsu, the leader, react when the major debut was proposed?
tetsu : Eeh? We have to go to Tokyo?
Host : *laughs* Wasn’t it your dream? (to go major)
tetsu : Dream? Not really… And moving (to Tokyo) seemed like such a pain…
Four years later in 1998, their senior in the music industry, yukihiro, joined the band. This brings us to the current lineup.
During yukihiro’s first session with the group, which was an excellent session of excellent skill, there was a shocking sight to be seen! What was it?
yukihiro : It was hyde-kun. He showed up in shorts.
*laughter*
yukihiro : Really tight ones.
*more laughter*
The year that yukihiro joined, 1998, was also the year of the three simultaneous singles : Shinshoku – lose control – , HONEY, and Kasou, all of which climbed high on the Oricon charts! From 1998 through 2000, the success never slowed, and they participated on Kouhaku Utagassen among other elite programs.
BUT!
In 2001, they each suddenly began to work on solo projects. The first to announce a solo was hyde.
Question : how did hyde feel when he proposed his solo project?
hyde : I just… kinda… wanted to show off my own personal worldview.
Host : Aaah, separate from the group.
hyde : Yeah.
And so the four of them began to walk their own paths. (Note : The video shows solo clips from 2006 but they are still discussing 2001-2002. MF’s mistake) L’Arc~en~Ciel was not active, but the four of them were far from forgotten by the world. A year passed, then another, and then!
Reunion?!
Just when all might have been lost… in 2003 they came back spectacularly with the Shibuya Seven days 2003 live! Such was the revival of L’Arc~en~Ciel.
Question : What did tetsu notice when he returned to L’Arc~en~Ciel after working solo?
tetsu : The difference between solo and the band is really the budget.
host : Striking, isn’t it?
That is L’Arc~en~Ciel, now reaching their 16th year. They are still going strong!
– end video –
Host : (to hyde) So about tetsu asking you to join the band..
hyde : We had a session, and well, I met him and got to know him a little, but after that, he was like stalker…
*laughter*
hyde : I was already in another band, at the time. After our lives, he’d come to the parties and sit next to me and go “So how was it?”
*laughter*
hyde : And if I said I felt good, he’d go “Aaah, so you feel good~”
*laughter*
Aoki : Like he was in love with you, practically.
hyde : Oh yeah.
tetsu : *nodding*
Hosts : He really liked you.
tetsu : I was serious about him, but he was two-timing me. I wanted him to break it off with the other.
Hosts : (to hyde) And how did it feel for you, having him pursue you?
hyde : Well my band was in rough shape. The guitarist and bassist were always playing like this (demonstrates with hunched over posture).
*everyone laughs*
hyde : I pointed it out to them, but it was rough going.
Host : So how did he convince you?
Other host : How did he propose?
*more laughter*
tetsu : “I think it would be much better for you to form a band with me, hyde.”
Host : Ah, I see.
tetsu : I guess it sounded weird, but don’t misunderstand…
Host : It must have been a problem if hyde-san was still training the guitar and bass.
*laughter*
host : So next it was tetsu’s old friend ken-san who got recruited. How did that happen?
ken : He called me.
tetsu : Early in the morning.
ken : Yes, early.
tetsu : Around 4, 4 or 5 am. I said “Wanna join L’Arc?”
hyde : We thought 3 am wouldn’t be a good time to call. So we waited another 2 hours.
Host : So hyde-san, you were there too?
hyde : We were having a big meeting. At Denny’s.
Hosts : Eeeeh!
tetsu : We were in a bit of a predicament. The previous guitarist had just quit.
Host : Oh yeah.
tetsu : So we, L’Arc, went to Denny’s to eat and figure out what we were gonna do. Well actually I’d already introduced him (ken) to hyde, cause he’s my old friend, so hyde said something like “tet-chan, why don’t you ask that friend of yours? He’s good.”
Hosts: Oooh. So what was ken doing at the time?
ken : I was in university.
Hosts : Ooh.
Aoki : Looking for a job? In what area?
ken : General construction.
Aoki : Eeeeh! So ken-san, if you had already gotten a job, would you have refused to join the band?
ken : Yeah it was a close call. I had done an interview or two already.
Host : So it was really close then, almost hired.
Other host : If they were hiring you, would they call at 5 am?
*laughter*
Host : How was it, when you first went on stage?
ken : You know, all the members had their own fans already. So the audience was there, but they moved away from me, kinda like a strong wind was pushing them over to the other side.
Host : Because of how you looked, I bet.
*laughter*
Host : You had a recruit cut right? Couldn’t you at least put it up?
ken : I tried, I think I looked like a piece of sushi. The others felt sorry for me so they bought me a braided extension.
*laugher*
ken : Well sure people will laugh at me for wearing it, but they laughed when I didn’t too.
Aoki : I wanna see that!
*Everyone laughing*
Host : You must have scared the fans!
Host : Moving on to your major debut, how it was announced, and was it a big deal?
tetsu : Um, well I kinda found our manager’s notebook lying open, and I flipped through it, and it said “L’Arc’s major debut XX date”. So yeah…
*laughter*
Host : What did you think?
tetsu : I didn’t mind.
Host : tetsu-san, you didn’t want to go to Tokyo, right?
tetsu : That’s right.
Aoki : How come?
tetsu : I really didn’t have that sort of goal in mind, the whole turn pro and move to Tokyo thing. I figured it would happen eventually if things kept going the way they were going, but it wasn’t my goal.
Host : I see. But, you did go major, and you did move to Tokyo, so was there anything that shocked you when it happened?
hyde : For me well… My weak point was Osaka-ben.
Host : Eh? Aren’t you from there?
hyde : I am from Kansai, yeah. In a normal conversation you hear things like “The hell you saying, moron?!” every day. To me it sounded so harsh!
Host : You were so naive.
hyde : Tokyo people say “What’s the matter?”
*laughter*
hyde: And so I thought people in Tokyo are so nice.
Host : And ken-san?
ken : When we first went there all of us were crammed into one tiny car. Then in Shibuya or something, on the way to a livehouse, I think tetsu was next to me but anyway I thought I saw “KINTAMA-ZAKA” (Testicle slope) on a sign.
*Laughter*
Host : No such place!
tetsu : I saw it too!
ken : Now they call it Konnouzaka (Golden King slope), missing one line. (Nani : If you add one line to the second kanji it changes from Konnou to Kintama).
*laughter*
tetsu : That name makes me wanna go there.
*Onscreen note : Kids, graffiti is bad, so don’t change it to what he says*
Host : yukihiro-san, you must have had some culture shock when you joined this band. When you first met them, there must have been surprises.
yukihiro : Yeah. That and all the nervous tension.
Host : How was it, hyde-san?
hyde : I don’t remember. Was I in a swimsuit?
Crowd : Eeeeh?!
Host : Why would you wear a swimsuit to the first session?
*laughs*
Host: Must have been summer fever.
yukihiro : I was summer. It was like he’d just come back from Hawaii or something.
Host : Must have been in a swimsuit.
hyde : I was in a swimsuit!
*laughter*
Host: How did you get to know him (yukkie) in the first place?
hyde : He’s our great sempai. (Nani : A senior, ahead in the same job) Back when were still working part time jobs, he was in ZI:KILL already. So I heard of him a long time ago.
Aoki : And yet when you went to meet your great sempai, you wore a swimsuit.
*laughter*
hyde : Sorry. *bows*
*laughter*
yukihiro : The first time I saw them was one time, while I was still with my previous band, they came backstage to say hi. I didn’t know what to expect. And at first glance, hyde-kun really looked like a girl, so I though “Wow, this beautiful person is coming to see me~”
Host : And then?
yukihiro : And then I noticed his facial hair.
*laughter*
Host: What did you all think? What was your first impression of yukihiro-san?
ken : I didn’t know how to talk to him. He’s our sempai, so I ought to treat him accordingly, but then he joined our band and I thought “yukihiro-san” sounded bad, but I couldn’t find a good way to address him.
*laughter*
ken : So for a while… I didn’t call him anything.
Aoki : You didn’t ask him what he wanted to be called, in a meeting or something?
ken : More like we each had our own little strategies. hyde is more the type to randomly make up nicknames. He suddenly started calling him “yukkie”. Before that no one said it.
*laughter*
ken : Once I saw him using that name, I figured “yukkie = OK”.
*much laughter*
Host : Can you tell us about some crazy incidents?
tetsu : One time we were recording a radio show, and when we got to Omiya station we were mobbed. I found out later there were about 20 000 people. They came right to our car. I thought “Wow, we’re like the Beatles”.
*laughter*
Host : No way.
Host : Changing the subject, let’s talk about your solo projects. hyde-san, care to comment?
hyde : When you’re in a group, everyone brings up their opinion, and there are a lot of things to consider. I wanted to try doing things by myself.
Host : Aah. And we’ve heard that the budgets are quite different, compared to when you’re L’Arc~en~Ciel.
tetsu : Even in our solo work, I think each of us is on a different budget level.
*laughter*
Host : That striking?
Host : So what’s the biggest difference, the most noticeable thing that changes between L’Arc and your solo, tetsu-san?
tetsu : When I’m on a plane, I can’t recline the seat as much.
*laughter*
Host : It goes all the way down for L’Arc.
*more laughter*
tetsu : And the amount of squeeing that goes on is quite different. Even my staff, and the program hosts, everyone acts differently.
ken : When I came to this show for my solo promo, you really put me through a rough a time.
*laughter, and the in-screen video shows ken playing ping-pong*
Host : You mean the ping-pong game?
ken : If it was L’Arc, you’d have let us win.
*screen : Ken’s total failure*
Host : Let’s look at the video now and see how energetic your lives can get.
*live footage from L’Anniversary*
Embarrassing moments from Lives! The best four! Revealed for the first time!
4th place – During his first live with the band at Tokyo Dome, yukihiro started to leave even though there was still one song left !
yukihiro : I had seen the list of songs, and there was a pause before the last song starts, so I thought it was going to be an encore.
Host : So you thought you were going to leave, and come back again?
yukihiro : Yeah, but I was the only one who started walking offstage, the others didn’t move. Then I realized I was wrong and just walked around my drum set.
*laughter*
Host : Didn’t the others notice?
ken : I think I did. But I also thought “maybe he’s not feeling well”. Then he sat down again so I figured he’s okay.
*laughter*
3rd place – During one live, right at the beginning, hyde dropped his mic during the first song.
Host : Really?
hyde : Yes. It was in a livehouse, we were on tour, so first we all came on stage and started playing, like an intro. Just before starting to sing I came flying out of nowhere, but I hit the mic stand and the mic fell.
Aoki : That’s not cool!
hyde : It went over the audience’s heads.
*much laughter*
Aoki : So what did you do?
hyde : One of the audience members was very kind and gave it back.
*more laughter*
2nd place – At one live, tetsu’s zipper was completely open!
Host : How embarrassing!
tetsu : It was when I was singing for P’UNK~EN~CIEL. I was feeling great, really into it, then when the guitar solo came around I looked down and “Oh?”…
Host : What did you do?
tetsu : I was completely open. But I thought I’d better not act embarrassed.
Host : They’ll think you’re just a pervert, then.
tetsu : Pervert?!
1st place – When they were supposed to a live in a livehouse’s main floor, ken messed up and walked into a yakiniku restaurant, going “Good morning!”
Host : How can you mix those things up?
ken : It was right when I’d just joined L’Arc, and it was my first time going to a livehouse in Tokyo. I didn’t know where it was. tet-chan had said “It’s over there” and I was like “Ok, I got it!” so I was wearing my sunglasses, looking down, and just walked forward, opened the door and went “Good morning!”. People were just eating their meat.
*laughter*
Host : So L’Arc~en~Ciel just released a new song, and the title is :
hyde : What is it again?
Host : How can you not know it?!
hyde : Well we’ve released so much lately! I can’t remember what came out when!
*Laughter*
*Video of Hurry Christmas*
hyde : It’s very pop, and cool, but actually we’ve been playing it since six months ago, since May.
Host : So Santa came in May?
hyde : Yeah, Santa came in May this year.