Shoxx 235 - Song interview (1/2)

N.B.: This interview will be divided in 3 parts, in the first two parts the GazettE talks about the single songs and in the last one they talk about the album in general. We will post firstly the parts about the single songs since they are the most interesting ones but in the original interview the part about the general album came first.

The Gazette
from DIVISION to DIPLOSOMIA part 1
#1 disorganization

[DEPTH]

Interviewer: Depth, which decorates the first part of DIVISION album, is a SE that makes you feel like floating in the air. Was this be made after others songs were made?

Ruki: Exactly. Besides being a summary of both Disc 1 and 2, it's a curtain that opens on DIVISION world and since I thought about connecting it to the next song Ibitsu (during the production period) it became the last song I created.

Interviewer: In that moment, what type of image did you have in mind?

Ruki: DEPTH in Japanese means 深層 (shinsou). What I had in mind was an image of the depths of the sea, like something that deforms in the depths of the sea.

Interviewer: If we think about the concept of the album, the existence of this introduction is fundamental, isn't it?

Ruki: It should be. Even if -when listeners will listen to it- they'll skip it and say "what's a SE?" *bitter smile* but I like adding this kind of things, so I ended up doing it.

歪 (Ibitsu) - (Twisted, Distorted)

Interviewer: This is a piece that has the strength to push right in front of the band sensation in which the GazettE excels. It has such a power attack that it wouldn't be strange if it was a single.

Ruki: Actually, this song existed already in the period I made REMEMBER THE URGE (single announced on August 2011). At that time, I was insure if release REMEMBER THE URGE or this song, in the end the result born from a deep exam was that the audio source shouldn't change so this song was left in the "storage". However, since I thought that I would probable never use it, in that moment I ended up deleting all the datas.

Interviewer: That song came back to life. And a MV was made too, it really went to a prestigious position.

Ruki: Mah, we could say that it was a hard salvage. *laugh* Personally, it was a song I cared a lot. This time Uruha, thanks to his new arrangements, saved me.

Interviewer: Do you mean that Uruha still had the datas of that song?

Aoi: We all store what we receive from Ruki.

Uruha: It's true. Was it because even if didn't do the single, we would use it in the pre-production?

Aoi: Right right. However, thinking about it now, already during the tour last year, that kind of atmosphere was already flowing. See? It was the period during which Ruki naturally started to put that song. *laugh*

Reita: Was he pointing at a subliminal effect?

Kai: aaah so it was like that!! *laugh*

Ruki: It's not true, it's not true!! Since it was a song I really like, I just wanted to listen to it. *laugh* In fact, I did it when I was alone too.

Interviewer: Despite that, I think it's fantastic that a song is so beloved by his creator.

Ruki: I absolutely didn't want to release it as a single. I think it has old sides. Like of the 90s.

Interviewer: I get what you mean. A high pitched melody with virtues of other times was developed.

Ruki: For this reason it didn't seem convenient inside of me to release it as a single. However I liked it, I had this strange feeling. *laugh*

Interviewer: It has nothing to do with present-day coolness but for sure it has a power that can't be doubted. Under that meaning you can perceive a side close to SHIVER.

Ruki: Ah, for sure! It has some points like I made SHIVER darker.

Aoi: If we have to watch it from the viewpoint of the place, this song doesn't have a Tokyo sound, does it?

Kai: Do you think it's closer to Nagoya sound? (note: during the 90s there was a school called Nagoyakei. Rouage etc represented that style.)

Reita: Ah yap. *laugh* Isn't Aoi for sure the closest to Nagoya speaking of distance?

Aoi: Since I'm from Mie? I don't absolutely hate that neither. In my opinion, Ruki prefers to listen to that song rather than sing it. In fact, despite he loved it that much, he didn't want to do it.

Interviewer: In a few words, you didn't want to make a single out of it. However, it's the same feeling that was in the background of your statement "I like it", isn't it?

Aoi: Right right! When we have to choose the songs, who has the expression of not doing that kind of songs is always Ruki. Despite creating it and often listening to it. *bitter smile*

Kai: Even if it's just a song, I think it's already enough that it can make you feel good listening to it and not thinking about difficult things. We gave great importance to the fact that listeners should be able to listen to it in a pleasant way more than refining it.

Reita: As musician, this song as a tempo easy to play. It gives the impression that is a bit out of fashion but on the contrary, if we have to be in today's youngsters shoes, there's the possibility that they will perceive it as something original. I think it's logic to make a song like that just now.

Uruha: It's generally a cool song, moreover I think this is the final edition of a song that everybody can affirm both from the tonality and the sound as a typical visual kei song.

Interviewer: You created something stylistically beautiful, didn't you?

Uruha: From that point of view, aren't there moments in which you can feel that nowadays visual kei is becoming a repetitive fashion? In the end what is visual kei as music? This is a doubt I feel often. If there would be an answer to that doubt from us, I think it would be this kind of song.

Interviewer: Then let me ask you about the lyrics of Ibitsu. It gives the impression that this title is a symbol, like something that describes a contradiction.

Ruki: What I described in this lyrics is about my inner conflict.

Interviewer: Why did you turn your sight in that direction?

Ruki: I thought about releasing a CD in this period. CD's value is changing since we live in a world in which download has the central point, I thought "what's there for real in the future?"

Interviewer: It's scary, isn't it? Isn't it a problem every artist deal with in this period?

Ruki: We all think it's a hard problem. Actually, as an artist I'd like to give lot of importance to the CD as a package but at the same time, I'm a user that easily download music. This is for sure a contradiction inside of me. I'm fighting.

Interviewer: Ruki-kun, what do you think would be the ideal situation?

Ruki: I don't think there is one. Because I don't think that the style of the package would be in the main place again. What I feel is a faint uneasiness. The life of all that people involved in the package production or jacket design, they seem things in decline by now and we can't do anything about it. Naturally, we are a part in this world.

Interviewer: If we base on this, the answer that the GazettE gave this time is an extremely constructive answer. Through the fact of improving the different valuable addition, isn't it that the Limited Edition of DIVISION is becoming a clear message towards users too, increasing its value?

Ruki: I wanted to convey again the feeling of buying something like a CD. Of course I think that getting excited while listening to the songs is a good thing. However, how to say it, I think it's sad that there would be only the emotion of songs. Overseas, even now, luxurious packages with unique covers and big boxed circulate unexpectedly and I thought it was something good. It's painful that this became a taboo in Japan.

Interviewer: This year, from October, it was decided to enforce an amendment proposal for a part of law about authors' rights. The debate is interesting every branch but artists themselves feel a meaning of accepting it as topic of their own works.

Ruki: For sure it's natural that everybody is perceiving conflicts in some way.

籠の蛹 (Kago no Sanagi) - (the caged chrysalis)

Interviewer: This is the piece that after long time took life from Kai-kun's hands, isn't it?

Kai: No no, even if they say it's mine, I received lot of help from all members.

Interviewer: First of all, which kind of tone did you try to in this song?

Kai: First of all, I didn't have in mind anything in particular. *bitter laugh* I started composing it with the thought "since it's an album, it's better if there are various songs" but then halfway I felt like it wasn't good, however doing it from the beginning would have been burdensome, so I kept only the best parts. Basically it was a situation in which I wasn't prepared.

Interviewer: The first one who set his eyes on this song was Ruki-kun, right?

Ruki: When I listened to the song, my first impression was awfully good. *laugh*

Aoi: As far as I'm concerned, I felt a sort of feeling of nostalgia.

Uruha: I felt serene, strangely relieved. This kind of songs are needed sometimes. *laugh*

Ruki: However, when we basically included the melody, since there were various points in which we had to intervene, the quiet part in the middle wast cut and we added some color in points we thought it would improve it.

Kai: After I gave the song to Ruki, it was like I assigned it completely to him. *laugh*

Reita: At first before adding melody A, you told me that the bass was pitiful, you remember?

Kai: How was it? I don't remember.

Ruki: Actually, it was pitiful.

Reita: I received from Ruki the mission to absolutely change it. *laugh*

Interviewer: It was a big responsibility, eh?

Reita: It was worth it just only for this. During records, I was in perfect synch with that guy (Kai). It was really harsh in judging the play (when they play).

Kai: Eh? It's not like that!

Reita: Sure, however arriving to the final outcome of this song was really hard. In order to add shades neatly, I had to play using both pick and fingers, I use this ploys too.

Interviewer: About Uruha-kun, while creating the sound for this song, of which things did you become aware?

Uruha: Since this song is based on simplicity I thought "who knows if I can fix it in short time". However, after I put myself into it for a while, since he couldn't get an extend of sounds and that unexpectedly choices were limited, it was hard. Morever, since that the particularities of this song were that that variations were few and tension constant, the main point became "if I could get out a certain variety and till which point without letting the particularity of the song collapse?"

Interviewer: In the middle of the song, there's a passage in which the sound of acoustic guitar is interweaved. Was it there in the original too?

Aoi: That was Ruki's idea.

Ruki: As far for DISC 1 as first part, since it wasn't possible to add the digital sound, what we could add were chordophones and acoustic guitar. And then the guitar solo.. at first that part wasn't included either.

Interviewer: Such an emotional solo could shine only in such melodic melody.

Uruha: I've just played like always. I played without thinking at anything with a serene mind, without killing the tension of the song I talked about.

Interviewer: Aoi-kun, to which kind of things did you give value to?

Aoi: Since it was a song in which the world conception wasn't completely settled, I worked asking accurately every passage to Kai who composed it "is it good if I do like that here?" or "how would you like to have this passage?" etc. It was truly a work that requested lot of time and effort. I felt a lot the feeling of letting out a sensation that wasn't either cold or warm.

Interviewer: In this work, about other pieces recorded, there aren't many of them in which shades were included distinctly. This song which belongs to these, with that particular sensation neither cold or warm and which wears a melodic and mellow atmosphere that isn't in any other songs, I think it's very interesting.

Aoi: To say the truth, in the middle of the work I couldn't clearly see how this song would become too, but you can feel the harmony right in the points in which we had to harmonize with the efforts of all members.

Interviewer: Moreover, how it can be comprehend by the title, a lyrics that had a somewhat peaceful atmosphere was matched to it. As composer of this song, Kai-kun didn't thought about that at all but Ruki-kun in this song, which kind of world, story did you grasp?

Ruki: From the beginning inside of me, I thought that this song awakened a feeling of tranquillity. Who knows if the progress of chords will give this feeling?

Interviewer: However, Ruki-kun inside of you maybe unconsciously? or consciously? it seems that there is a feeling of when you wrote Chijou lyrics which has been inherited a lot.

Ruki: From the point of view of the lyrics it's like that. Somewhere there was some kind of remaining. However, it will be different when we'll do it live. This, in a few words, is a story of pleasure districts.

Interviewer: Ah, Kago no Sanagi means beging imprisoned. It seems that once prostitutes of pleasure houses, if they erased the high rank, they were called 'caged birds'. Here however, it's not a bird, the meaning of your word game is represented substituting it with a pupa (chrysalis) with no wings, it's awesome.

Ruki: Even if it's caged and can't go out in the outside world, maybe it could go away from there if it will become a butterfly. However, if it will remain a chrysalis, it will forced to remain there for ever. For this reason it's Kago no Kusanagi (the caged chrysalis).

Interviewer: What a painful story!

Ruki: There will be for sure various situations. However, inside them I think there were people who took alone that path and moved on. If I think about that I've the feeling that it could be said the same for visual kei. One you enter this world, it doesn't matter how many times you claim to be a rock band, no one remove you definitively the crown called visual kei. However, we are going off topic so it's better leave it like that. In the case of the protagonist of this lyrics, in the end she will remain without knowing what happens in the outside world. It's a story in which if the protagonist meets someone and they love each other, she doesn't know at all if he's dead or what he has become in the outside world.

Interviewer: It's really a cruel karma.

Ruki: It's been a long that I awfully like this kind of lyrics. Thinking about it know Kawareta Haru, Kawarenu Haru (from Madara) is similar to this one.

Interviewer: Thinking about it, isn't it awesome the change when sensuality and harmony melt together? A sensuality that should be explicit, when it has a shade of harmony it suddenly change in something erotic that brings melancholy with it.

Ruki: It could be. I'm not an expert in sensuality or things like that. *laugh* When there are erotics words in a row I end up thinking "I'm a middle school student!"

Interviewer: So what you wanted to seek was not sensuality but eros?

Ruki: Yes, exactly. Mah, I think it's better to end this part. *laugh*



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