niedziela, 17 listopada 2013

Interview with Gakido

Cure Vol. 117 at June 2013


A few days ago you’ve changed your band name back to kanji at your 4th anniversary one man live.
Shutaro: Yes! I had the final word!
Rito: We talked without holding back. We have a goal we’re aiming at and we want everyone’s feelings to become as one. We thought it’s necessary to talk about those things we have in mind. That was the time when Shutaro came up with his final word.
Shutaro: I came to know during the past 4 years that we are a band that continues to walk on, no matter what happens and without looking back and standing still. But the time when we talked without holding back was the time when we’ve stopped walking for the first time. We all agreed that the way it is now is not how it’s supposed to be and because of that we talked about everything that was in our minds. We thought that we don’t want to regret anything. That time we realized: “In the end we are the Kanji-type of band!”

 It’s the thought of “ga, ki ni donari” [~I’m going my way]. It’s good to have that “Gakido” [in Kanji] back? It’s the way you decided for your name when you started activities, isn’t it? Even if there were things like that the 4th anniversary one man live at Shibuya WWW was a really good live!
Shutaro: After the end of the live I went home and I had a completely good feeling about it! “We did it!” A feeling like that.
Rito: Yes, it happened in a blink of time. I never had such a strong thought of “We made it!” before.
Shutaro: We’ve re-organized some things and my position is lead guitarist now but when I looked at the members from the side I could see them being happy and I thought: “They [or we] are so cool.”
Tossy: And when I’m looking at them from the back [of the stage] I think that we have changed so much during those 4 years. I think it’s because we performed those songs we’ve composed on stage even while suffering and having many things in mind.
Yohya: We had that feeling of realization and we wanted to give lives where we could give our fans a feeling of satisfaction.
Kahiro: I think it was a One man live where we could give a shape to the feeling of “this is Gakido”. From the beginning to the end.

Ah, you could show the real character of Gakido. You want to make your fans happy and make them laugh. I get this kind of feeling when I see you performing on stage.
Shutaro: And I think that you can see the character of those songs. A cute song is cute, a cool song is cool, a song that makes you cry makes you cry.
Yohya: And the members cry as well!
All: (laugh)

An impressive scenery… It was really touching that you started with an a capella version of “mou nakanai to sora ni chikatta hi”.
Yohya: To tell the truth, this is what we’re feeling the most.
Shutaro: We wanted to emphasize our three vocals. When we talked about that I came up with the idea to compose an a capella version. The result was a huge success. “You can sing a triad only if you have three vocals!” This is what we said and then I even got goosebumps! When we let Rito and TOSSY listen to it they were so strict! But step by step we decided that it’s a good version. But for now we decided to perform it just at this one live.

If you perform it only once it has a very strong meaning.
Rito: When TOSSY and I listened to it we thought: “We have to give our best [to make it]!” When we decided to perform it live… Even if we talk about it now, tears are still coming up.
All: (laugh)
Yohya: We felt like becoming one when we made it to the charts [“countdown”].
Rito: I think it’s something only three vocals can express.
Tossy: That we’ve made it into the charts was an important step and I have to give my best and to get better there are a few steps left.
Yohya: From the charts to band-in… To reach that point with our hands reached out was hard!

If everyone was like this concerts would be appreciated in another way.
Tossy: Yes! For this one man live we’ve concentrated on the arrangement of our songs. It wasn’t a live where we played our songs the normal way. We talked about this live without holding back and without being scared [what the other members would think of my words].

You played very dignified songs. I think that was the main point you wanted to convey. At this live you performed your latest song “namida kawareru made naitemo ii desu ka?” for the first time. And I think it was a good decision to play this song for the first time at this live because you could convey your message that well at this live.
Shutaro: Exactly. I want to make this song an encouragement for everyone who’s crying every day. At the live houses we only know fans that are having fun. But in their daily lives there are many fans that have problems at work or school, or things aren’t going very well at home or they’re suffering and crying often. We know that from letters and fanmails. I want to write lyrics and compose songs so that these people can face the next day with a smile on their faces and continue living.

I think those songs are very straight forward.
Shutaro: And that would be perfection! The song begins with a heavy sound and gets calmer then. And that I can think: “It’s a good song!”

You use encouraging words as lyrics but did you all make those experiences?
Shutaro: If I look back and think about times when fate made our ways different onces then I’ve often listened to songs of my favorite artists and I think that they really encouraged me. My wish to compose those songs and to write those lyrics is huge.
Kahiro: When I’m feeling down I don’t listen to encouraging, happy songs but those with a dark atmosphere that suit my own mood. I feel bad but before I realize it I act as if everything’s alright. But when I listen to those songs afterwards and think back then I get depressed again (laughs) I want to make “kawareru made~” a song that people keep in their hearts after listening to it.
Rito: In times when I want to cry I think I’m not honest to myself and I try to calm down. And even if I think that I don’t want to lend any strength I realize deep inside that the thing that helps me is the power of music. And this time as well, there’s Shu-chan’s message that we want to reach out for the people who are crying and we want to push them forward but we thought that this is also very important for us, in this current state.
Tossy: Yes, our songs also helped us. While composing our daily music we lived our daily lives and there are songs that remind us of things we’ve already forgotten. We heard people say that Gakido’s songs have saved them and that gave us strength to live on.
Yohya: In hard times we want people to have faith because there are lyrics with strong messages. But the thing we want the most is that people who listen to a song and think of it as a good song come together. And I think if they become friends it also gives you strength. I think it would be great if “namida kawareru made~” could create such friendships.

When you’re depressed things like “You’ll make it!” don’t help. In the end you’re depressed but I think this is a song that gives you the strength to cheer up again. Such an intention is really nice.
Shutaro: Yes, I always come up with negative things. I also think that it’s okay to cry if you want to cry. Afterwards your friends are always nice to you.
Rito: … Cut!

(laughs) The song changes from a powerful and strong part to a nice melody. It’s a dramatic development.
Shutaro: First it suddenly changes from the intro to a hard part. When I wanted a bridge [he used “cusion” here] I added a bass solo for Rito-cchi.
Rito: It’s my first solo since Ochame POP, isn’t it? It’s an important part, so it was a test for me.
Tossy: The song is really fast but the climax made me getting really exited! In the end I think even on the drums I could express this fast and slow parts and its flow smoothly.
Shutaro: And the next scene the feelings change. The character of the vocals express this. It’s not that those three vocals get mixed up while singing. Kahi is good at shouting, Yohya is good at singing fast and I bring harmony. We’ve composed a song where every vocalist has his own strong part.
Kahiro: Yes. My part in this song is to give it an accent. And while singing I thought it’s very important.
Yohya: I thought about singing it with a painful feeling and at the same time with a lot of power.

The intention that every vocal has an individual character… We can see Kahiro-san’s and Yohya-san’s character in the coupling song, right? In Carnival Rhythm, the song that Kahiro-san wrote.
Kahiro: Shu-chan gave me this CD. It was composed with the concept that everyone should have fun while listening to this song. We wanted it to be a song where you have so much fun that your body almost bursts during a live. It eats your own body up… That’s why we decided for the title “Carnival Rhythm”.

I understand now! The reason is that there’s this hard melody and also an a bit terrifying part in the lyrics?
Kahiro: That’s right. Everyone has these moments when they want to show their inner self. “Let’s show it without being able to hide it! Let’s go wild!” It was like that.

Yohya-san was responsible for the lyrics of “Monologue”. I understand why you said while searching for a topic that  Yohya-shi’s lyrics are wonderful (laughs) [The interviewer used the word “ikemen” for “wonderful”. It describes a handsome man. Shu always uses this word for Yohya.] He’s able find wonderful words. It’s a love song with happy end, isn’t it?
Yohya: Yes. But the part where we’re singing about the relationship is a tough battle… . Like an angel and a devil. I wondered how I should express the conflict in the protagonist’s heart. That was the part that was the biggest problem for me.
Shutaro: We wanted Kahi to write lyrics he likes but Yohya wrote it as a love song, so he finished this song telling his message.

Earlier Tossy-san said that OchamePOP, sweet perfume and darling are songs that show the good sites [of life]. It’s really like that.
Tossy: 4 years have passed now and that’s why I think this is a song that represents us today.

At your 4th anniversary live you’ve revealed your further plans. There’s your next one man tour and your tour final at Shinjuku BLAZE on November 30th. This year it seems like you meet many challenges, isn’t it?
Rito: Yes. And the title of our one man tour “1” (one) has a huge meaning for us. We’ve entered our 5thyear of band activity and of course there are the members but there are also the fans and all people concerned. We’ve decided for the tour final at Shinjuku BLAZE to come together at one place. The title of our 4th anniversary live was “Kizuna ~nanairo no kiseki~” (bond ~seven-colored wonder~) and that day the members and fans came together and shared 7 thoughts [He’s talking about the concept that the minds of those 6 members and fans (1) met that day.] If you think of it as fractions you see that 7/7 is 1. We continue from that point and want to reach 500 fans at Shinjuku BLAZE. 500/500 = 1. The meaning is that our feelings become one. That’s why we’ve decided for the title “one”. We want to experience all those feelings at the end of this stage. [stage = small explanation! He used an expression people using in online games. The word he used describes a place full of adventures. I translated this as stage but you could also call it “level”. To not get confused with the actual stage where the bands hold lives I write it as “stage*”]

I see. You want to gather all those thoughts/feelings at one place.
Tossy: We’ve been together for 5 years now, so we have so much power and have to move forward. We want to get the feeling of accomplishing something. I think in the end there has to be a result. I wonder how Gakido will be after we’ve reached that goal. This is the one thing we want to do.
Kahiro: Rito called it “stage*” but it’s not like this 500/500 = 1 is the end. If we do “1000/500” it makes 2 (two). If 1 ends, 2 follows. And then we’re aiming at 3. We all have this in common but now these 500/500 are really important friends to us. But we’re aiming at “1” and we’ll do our best to make our feelings to become one. We want to intensify this feeling.
Yohya: Just like Kahiro said, after 1 comes 2. To be satisfied there’s not only those 500. There are those 500 we’ve reached. If we’ve made this level we’ll unlock the next stage*!
Shutaro: Yeah! A hidden stage*! Shinjuku BLAZE is level 5 we’ve entered in our 5th year. We’re aiming at meeting our final enemy at level 99 and we’re full of power!
Yohya: If we can fulfill this we can enter the next stage* because it makes us twice as happy as we are after doing those things.
Shutaro: Lately I’m thinking about a documentary of this one man live. In order to do that we have to work hard and give our best. If we succeed we can go on to the next level!

















Gakido - Color

2 komentarze:

  1. Mogłabyś przetłumaczyć albo podać link do polskiego tłumaczenia tego wywiadu? ledwo co rozumiem >.<

    -G

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    Odpowiedzi
    1. Link nie mam, bo nie zapisałam xd ale myślę, że ze słownikiem czy tłumaczem sobie poradzisz c;

      Usuń