↓p59
Congratulations on a great recording.
Yes, I worked very hard.(laugh) It took me quite long time.
And more than just the time playing, this album seems to be particularly hard work for a drummer.
I think so. I realized the big role of a drummer in a band again during this recording.
Before you did the recording, you made songs.
Kai, which songs did you make originally in this album?
Let me see, it's [ Ganges ni akai Bara].
In what image did you base this song on?
My first image was Latin music!
Latin music? It's a little bit unexpected. It seems quite rockabilly taste.
No, the original one was quite Latin in style, because I often listened to Latin music when I started to make this song.
There are many kinds of Latin music.
I often listened to music in which percussion was used mainly and basically, because I felt very comfortable to listen to the native rhythm of Latin music. When my parent listened to it, I also listened to it and thought "It's good.".
Then you were gradually absorbed in it, weren't you?
Yes. After that, when I saw DVD of Phil Collins (He used to be a drummer of Genesis, then became solo artist.), there was a Latin tune, and I felt this kind of music was interesting. However, I think there are some difficulties to fuse a band's sounds and such kind of music.
But you tried to approach that in this song.
So at first I made it by using only drums. It was like I put only my comfortable rhythms into the song. Anyway, I made the most of driving feelings, didn't think about guitars and vocals at all, and made it the way I wanted it, in my taste. Well I actually played a bass and put it into the song somehow, but I thought it would change a lot when the band played it.
What was happening while the song changed from a Latin tune to rockabilly tune?
During our preproduction, the one who started saying that it would be interesting to change it to a rockabilly tune was Ruki. To be honest, his words didn't really ring with me so much at first (smile bitterly), but when the melodies were put on it concretely, I thought "I see what he meant.".
That's the interesting part to create songs in a band. I mean that each member has his own sense of values, and when that clashes, something new is born.
But the rhythms and the atmosphere of drums themselves are from the original which I made, so it doesn't mean the original shape I made changed very much. This is a song which I could do what I felt at first as a drummer.
I see. The hot dry atmosphere which I feel in this song might be due to the Latin feeling that you put in there.
I use bass drums in a new way. I think that it's kind of new anyway.
For Kai who made the original song, was there anything to tell Ruki about lyrics beforehand?
No, there wasn't. When I saw the lyrics which Ruki wrote, I just thought they matched my impression of the song. For example, the words of 'rosary', 'sukuenu Kami' (=god can't save), and 'akai Bara'(=a red rose). About the image, I wanted him to write a woman who seems lonely but having something strong inside. When I read the lyrics, they seemed like that, so I thought "That's it".(laugh)
But why was it ' Ganges'?
I don't know. Please ask Ruki about it directly.(laugh)
OK.(laugh) By the way, could you tell me how you felt about songs which other members wrote, Kai?
Ah, first of all, when all of the songs were determined, I felt "They seem hard.". As you see, I had an impression that if [FILTH IN THE BEAUTY] and [HYENA] was be put in, the album would be quite awesome.
I see in this work there are many aggressive songs such as [MOB 136 BARS] and [CIRCLE OF SWINDLER]. But when we listen to the whole album, it has more various colors and it doesn't seem to be such a simple aggressive work, but have more character.
Yes, I think it's an interesting point. Quite various tunes have been put in, and it also seems to match the GazettE well, so we never feel tired of listening to it, I think.
Then I think you were requested to do various things as drummer, so how did manage to do everything?
Well, I thought "What should I do?" at first, because there were such a variety of songs, and I had to make various sounds in each song, so it seemed very hard. But it was strange. I tried various things until just before the recording, I knew that it was more necessary to 'stick my principles' as a drummer than to 'do various things to fit with each song' to make this album this time.
That's interesting.
If I tried to fit in with each song too much, I think that when listening to the whole album it would lack unity. It would seem disjointed and loose.
It's important to search for the image in each song of course, but it's also important to think about the whole tone of the album and make the balance.
Yes. Well but I understood it finally after I tried various things, and I think I leaned one more thing. This time I played based on the base sounds first then I approached each song based on that.
As the result I get the impression that the drum sounds became more emotional. The real trunk sounds of snare and tum seem to travel to listeners.
I cared about it very much.(laugh)
To say it simpler, the impression of the sounds became softer. They sound like not solid and inorganic sounds, but seem to have passion and humanity in them.
I think I managed to really get the best out of our recording; it was worth taking all that time.
But as the sounds themselves have such a ring to them, were you asked to play a certain way?
Um, yeah.(smile) I can make different expressions in sounds easily, whether to stand out or to blend in. But the detailed nuance in the songs such as [GENTLE LIE] was very difficult.
On the other hand, there is a song [CIRCLE OF SWINDLER] which BPM is 240, which is the highest among the GazettE's songs.
Well, it's just a part that is really fast. But it was very hard.(laugh) If I paid attention only to the speed, I would not have been able to convey each sound properly, which was especially hard. So when I accomplished it well, I felt like "I really achieved something.(laugh)
You will do these songs in the long national tour ［STACKED RUBBISH［Pulse Wriggling To Black］］which will start in this summer. How do you feel about that now, Kai?
Um. Maybe it would be more important to play harder and more persuasively.
I heard you'll showoff a new drum set in this tour. What features do the drums have?
Well, both in a good and bad way, they are very honest.
That is very much like you Kai.(laugh)
Really? Well, I don't know, but it might be so.(laugh)
End Of Interveiw.
Translation credits to
Noriko 'Non-Non' Takeuchi
Web credits to J House Rock -
http://www.jhouserock.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233&Itemid=516