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 vol.184 interview with Nightmare
translated by: Noriko 'Non-Non' Takeuchi

↓p48

I heard that RUKA decided the title of『killer show』, right?

Yes, that’s right.

When I first heard it, I thought it was old Visual style.(laugh)

The old Visual style?

It’s like you tied up yourself with bloody bandages and shout “Kill me!”.(laugh)

Ahahaha!(laugh)

What image do you have, YOMI?

I imagine a killer pass in soccer….

So is this a killer album?

Yes. If you listen to this album, I’m sure you will want to go to our live concerts.

That’s why it’s a ‘show’. Putting aside「Resondetoru」「Konoha」and「DIRTY」, when I listened to the 3 songs which were finished, I really felt that it would be a powerful album as you said.

Did you think so?

Yes. As 2 out of the 3 songs were shuffles, I thought it would be an album where Nightmare’s great style could really be felt.

Ah, I think that you are right there.

In this way, I think that it is close to your 1^st album 『Ultimate  Circus』. I wonder if RUKA and SAKITO who made the songs were conscious about returning to your origns in this album.

I don’t know, but we wanted to make this album driving, because we did lives most of the time in halls last year……

They included your first Budoukan live.

Yes. That was just great.

You feel good when you sing 「Star［K］night」in a hall, don’t you?

Yes. But when I have to do it often, I get tired. It’s more like Nightmare to play in live houses wildly.

So about the Zepp tour on sale now (This interview was held in the middle of March.), you are excited, aren’t you?

Yes. I’m very excited.

The tour after『killer  show』 is also a lot of live houses, so RUKA, HITSUGI, SAKITO and Ni~ya may also be thinking the same thing.

I think so. So that’s why this album became to be very wild.

It’s like “We can’t be calm now! Nightmare has to be aggressive!”, right?

Yes.

How many years have passed since you made the band?

Eight years? I think that this is our strongest work ever; you can really feel Nightmare’s style in the music.  I don’t think that we have fully evolved yet, but it is our strongest so far.

So this has been eight years in evolution. Was that a long time for you, or was it fast?

Um, I am not sure. At that time RUKA hadn’t joined us yet, but when HITSUGI, Ni~ya, SAKITO and I first made the band, we knew that we would make it one day.

To be able to make it means the Budoukan live?

Yes. I have my life plan, and it contained a Budoukan live. But I should have done younger than when I did. (laugh)

What’s after the Budoukan live?

Tokyo Dome.

So when do you plan to do that YOMI?

In this year or next year.

Oh!

But that may be impossible now. Ahahahaha!(laugh)

Don’t laugh, but work hard!(laugh) Changing the subject, there is no song in this album called ‘Kill!’ is there?

No. There isn’t.

Your previous album『The WORLD Ruler』had songs of「BOYS BE SUSPICIOUS」and 「18歳」(=18 years old) written about boys in adolescence, but you don’t say “Kill!” in them.

Yes. All of them were written about ourselves.

Yes. Even when you have anger and frustration, you don’t get angry at others in your music, rather you face it more at yourselves. Why is that?

I think RUKA and SAKITO and even myself, are not really into punk. Maybe that’s why.

You don’t have songs that say “I love you.” either.

I can’t sing that.

Do you mean you don’t want to sing that?

No. Now I can’t sing that and Nightmare can’t sing that either.

But Ryuichi Kawamura who you respect sang expressing these feelings in both in his solo activities and in LUNA SEA? Don’t you want to be like him?

I want to be like him, but my image is bad.(laugh)

For example?

I’m more erotic.

It’s because you always talk dirty!(laugh)

I know. I can be a bit of a fool (laugh) .

From a few years ago, you placed a lot of importance on the way you express yourself with words in your music, right?

Yes.

So maybe one day you can sing ‘I love you’ in your music?

Maybe, but I am not ready yet. Well, technically I could sing those words, but I wouldn’t be persuasive.

Persuasive. What do you need to be persuasive?

I think I would need various experience. Your experience really comes out in you music.

So you have to love and experience a lot of things!

Yes. You know that I saw Ryuichi in LUNA SEA last year at Tokyo Dome. And he was just himself, he did not do anything that wasn’t him. He was a member of LUNA SEA.

So do you want to do Nightmare and solo activities separately like Ryuichi?

No, way. I can do what I want to do even in Nightmare, and I don’t want to do solo, but this album is difficult! I did a tour, then went into recording, and then did a tour again? The condition of my throat was bad, it was awful!

What is the strongest song among your work?

We haven’t done the real recording yet, but we have a song which we think would make a really good end song. So at the moment I’m thinking a lot about how I would sing the song.

What’s the title?

I hasn’t been decided yet, but the temporary title is 「まつ毛」(=eyelash).(laugh)

Okay… that’s kind of strange...(laugh) What kind of a song is it?

It’s rather bright, but a bit different from 「落羽」(Ochiba).

It isn’t just bright, right? It’s a mix of feelings, right?

No, it mostly is about just one feeling but……

But it isn’t so bright?

No, no. It’s… more neutral I think.

You don’t sing the same every time, but you are not so relaxed that every time you sing a song that it is different either. I suppose that it comes a lot from experience that you have in life.

Yes. If I can sing it well, I think that I will have improved as a vocalist.

I’m looking forward to seeing it then.

Yeah, I have to work at it though. But I have tried to do similar things in our lives and recordings…I tried to pretend to be cool, but now I don’t do like that so much. I can do things in my natural way, like I’m the same person but I put on different clothes. I think that I want to be a vocalist that can do that, do different things but be the same person.

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↓p51

About the album 『killer show』, SAKITO predicted that it would be ‘an aggressive one’ last month. HITSUGI, what do you want this album to be?

I want this album to have songs that we can use in lives for a long time to come. You know, we don’t play often play songs that we released several years ago, so it would be great if we could change that.

Do you thank that because you are a live band?

Um…….I don’t know about that.(smile) We say that we are a live band but we have not done that many concerts so…There are many bands which do many more concerts thatn us.

Yes, some do 300 lives in a year.(laugh) But I meant more about what a ‘a live band’ means.

Yes. I think that you mean the difference between doing many live concerts and a band that does live concerts that are better than their CDs. If people say that our concerts are better than our CDs, I am kind of happy, but on the other hand it’s is kind of complicated too. (smile) I want to be a band that people say are both good at live concerts and CDs.

Being able to do both live concerts and CDs are good, or better for a band, right?

Yes. If we can do both successfully, I think that we can be a very strong band. So I want to make this album so that it ‘remains’ in people, so that they listen to it and we could play it in our lives for a long time.

So what kind of image do you want to get across as guitarist?

It depends on the song, but I put in phrases mostly according to the song, and sometimes I put in phrases just because I want to. Even though it may be different to the song’s image, I want to put them in. It’s a recording which I want to do freely. OS I think that I just want to have the freedom to do what I want.

So it’s different mode from 『the WOLRD Ruler』.

Yes. Last time, we organized everything with the songs in the center.

So what caused you to change your mode?

I wanted to change my mind. I want to increase the drawers in my head, so to speak, musically as well as as a person..

As we grew up, we tend to be reluctant to know and challenge new things…….So HITSIGI, are you in a phase where you want to absorb anything you can?

I really understand that reluctant feeling (laugh)…I don’t want to be flat. So I talk with various people and I try to learn various things. I don’t want to be calm but I want to be an adult. When others tell me things, I don’t want to be rigid, you know someone who can’t accept it what others have to say. Even if I have a totally reverse opinion, I want to accept it and talk calmly.

Surely only an adult can do that.

Of course I know a strong will and feelings are important, but I don’t want to be just an assertive selfish adult.

You mean you want to be like that in the band too?

Yes. I can do what I want with my appearance, but if someone said to me you can’t wear your make-up I couldn’t do it. But because I can do what I want with my appearance I want to be able to be more flexible with other things. You know, have a balance.

But you know as a person, it is often hard to find the time to accommodate everyone and everything. Talk about time, do you still play video games? (laugh)

Ah, yeah.(laugh) When it’s too early to go to bed but too late to go out drinking, I watch movies or play video games. I play on line war games with someone I don’t know, or SAKITO.(laugh) I put on headphones, so I can hear each others voices, and I fight making a team with unknown people, which is very exciting.(laugh) SAKITO bought an on line game at first, he recommended it to me “It’s interesting so just play it.”, and I started….but I’m completely absorbed in it, and I play it about twice as much as SAKITO.(laugh)

(laugh) Like an on line game, recently Nightmare released 「White Room」only on the internet. The world has become so convenient that we can connect to others and can buy songs at home.

Yes.. Honestly speaking, I don’t buy songs over the internet.(laugh) But Nightmare released a song over the internet, and it helped us get to get a wider audience. I think it was a good opportunity.

Then new people who get to know Nightmare from 「White Room」, will get to know the album 『killer show』.

Yes, I hope so.

By the way, in the song 「the LAST SHOW」in your album…you have the lyrics "lastly ruined show" do you have a desire of ruin and destruction?

No… not now…

How about before? When you were a teenager?

…….no, not then either.(laugh) Well, I might have such desirers in future, but I haven’t had it until now. I might thought about such things, but I want my parents to be happy, so I may say various things pretending to be bad, but it’s not the real me, or what I am thinking..

Despite your appearance (laugh), you are a very good son to your parents.

No, no.(laugh) I don’t think I want to live long, but if die while my parents are still living, it would be a betrayal for all of my parents love, I think. I’m an only child. I know there are various types of 3 member families like mine, but my family is very friendly to each other. Of course, I respect my father and my mother, but we are like friends at home.

It’s unusual for a boy.

Really? Actually I was supposed to have 2 elder brothers, but they died soon after they were bone. So I don’t know them at all, but I suppose my parents have loved me 3 times more than usual, like they put all their affection of us three sons into me. And I think my parents have young feelings, such as my father says, “The new song of @@@ was very cool so I bought it-.” Quite often.(laugh)

Ah, he isn’t talking about enka?(laugh)

No. My parents love to listen to rock music.(laugh)

That’s why your family has such a sense of identity.(laugh)

Maybe so.(laugh) They were very against me doing the band at first, but now they are supporting me.

For your nice parents, you don’t have a desire of destruction. But don’t you have things that you just like to break impulsively?

You know the hard sponges that you get in flower arrangements? I love to wreck them...(laugh)

Do you!? That has nothing to do with anger… (laugh)

No, not at all.(laugh) But it’s a very good feeling.(laugh)

If I’ll write this in the article, fans would send lots of them.(laugh)

Ah, that would be bad!(laugh)You are not supposed to wreck them on purpose, and I’m sorry to all those people who use it in their flower arrangements… It’s just my private desire…(laugh)

But you don’t have a desire to destroy your situation, which means you don’t have much stress doing the band, right?

I think I have a stress…..but I don’t really feel it. And it’s easier to live without noticing that. And basically I don’t want to say doing the band is my job, including radio broadcasting, shooting, lives etc. I know I have to be a professional, but I didn’t start the band thinking that it would be my job.

You started it because you liked doing it, right?

Yes. I just started it as a hobby. So it seems like everyday is my day off. If I think positively like I can just do what I like, it’s no problem to be busy. I think like “As I wanted to be so, I worked hard until now?”. Even I sometimes feel lazy and tired(laugh), but I try to change my head positively and work.

So now you can work on producing your albums and a tour having such positive motivation?

Yes, I can. I shouldn’t forget my motivation that I had when I started playing guitar. When I feel stress, I try to remember it and work hard. Even though the title is 『killer show』, I’m positive.(laugh)

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↓p52

In your personal interview last month, you predicted “The album would be an aggressive one.”, so what is your impression of the album as a composer?

I feel like I have put everything into this album, both positive and negative. Compared to my previous work, the lyrics are simpler and easier to understand too.

「White Room」which was released only on the internet before the album release, was both negative and positive, but it wasn’t difficult to understand.

That’s right. There may be difficult meanings behind it, but you can see that when you read the lyrics. I aim to use simple but profound words.

With the arrangement and lyrics, they seem simple at a glance but they are actually profound.

Yes, I wondered how many meanings I could fit in by using simple words. I tend to be a difficult personality, so I’m not easily understood.(smile) I can’t really look at my opinions or songs from the audience’s point of view, I can only draw the world which I see.

That’s why there are no lies there.

Yeah, there are no lies.

You know I think there are various types of musicians out there, the type that make things to sell, and that is a talent too, but I think that you are the opposite of that.

Yes, I think so too. Even when I know what people want to hear, if there is something else in me I won’t do it. I’m not smart…(smile) If I lie it you can see it all over my face. (laugh)  Even if a song I write will not a get a good reception, as I long as I think that it is good then it’s okay.

You are like a Ken Takakura(=a famous Japanese actor).(laugh)

Hahaha, I should say “I’m all thumbs.” like he does.(laugh) Maybe so. I think people who can tell a lie well, can manage to get along in the world well, but I can’t do it. I can’t deceive people.

Are you easily deceived?

No, I’m not deceived, either. I can see what people really think.

Ah, as you don’t tell lies, you can see the truth instinctively.

Yes, yes. I think like “He is saying this with his words, but he thinks like that in his mind.”.

And if that continues you become suspicious.

Yeah I think so. I would think “This guy must hate me.”.

You must get tired from thinking like that.(laugh)

Yeah. I’m basically S but in some ways I wait to see how a person reacts. (laugh) So I sometimes think to myself “I’m not an interesting guy.”.(smile)

No, people think you are rather interesting, I think.(laugh)

I hope so.(laugh) Well, it’s me anyway. I’m happy to be accepted as I am.

Yes, it’s awesome that so many people accept you without the lies.

Well, with the songs of 『killer show』, we played them in our lives, but it hasn’t been released yet , so I worry a little whether they will accept them.(smile)

But the album 『the WOLRD Ruler』had good results, so as long as you keep your attitude, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

I think that in this album you can listen to all the songs in order, from the beginning to the end and not get tired. Up until now I think that people would choose songs that they wanted to listen to, but this time I think that you can listen to the all the songs in order.

If you make your music without playing up to listeners and you express what you want, that is the best.

Yes, it’s the best. I hope this work is just like that.

As a guitarist, you said last month that you wanted to express a degenerate having a guitar, how is it progressing?

Well…..I think I managed to express degenerate. But it may be a simple form.(laugh)it is not so obvious but more in the background. I think that if we put it to the front too much, it would be too difficult to understand.

A little too avant-garde maybe? (laugh)

You think so, too?(laugh) A degenerate doesn’t mean to make strange sound. I do have an ideal of what I want to work towards… I think that I have not made it to that ideal yet so it is a future project. I have that ideal, so it is just a matter of facing it and moving towards it.

I don’t mean this in a bad way, but you are not there yet, right?

No. Not yet. Which means I can do more. I think it is better to go step by step.

Changing the topic, do you think the combination with HITSUGI is changing?

Before, we used to have a distinction like HITSUGI was in charge of bottom sounds and I was in charge of high sounds……but recently it depends on the songs. We are different characters, but we want to do various things respectively. So while we are different types of guitarists, of course, we do what the other doesn’t do. I want HITSUGI to be a different kind of degenerate.

So you are a degenerate x 2? That’s deep.(laugh)

Yes. I want to be a degenerate with phrases, but I want HITSUGI to be a degenerate about feelings, I hope.(laugh) Like “Do you want to put an accent in there?”.

It’s not very distinguished, but deep.(laugh)

Yes, but it would change the flow of the music. And I think that we could make a good balance as degenerates.(laugh)

For the band I think that it’s quite high spec.(laugh)

Yes.(laugh) So I want the rhythm to be heavy. The bands I like are generally like that.

In this album, the rhythm feels closer to your ideal, right?

Yes I think so, it may be closer. When we do preproduction of new songs, we still have strong impressions of their demo tapes, so it’s something we have to work on, as in, how we can escape from that. Sometimes we are bound by them….. and sometimes they influence us for the better. This time, we were able make a good balance, I think.

By the way, in「the LAST SHOW」there are the lyrics "lastly ruined show".Do you have a desire of ruin or destruction?

I have a feeling I want to fall down to the bottom. Well, it’s a kind of self-destruction.(laugh)

So you don’t care about when you die, you want to have a full but short life?

I don’t have much fear of death. I hate pain so I don’t want to die like that(laugh), but I’m not afraid to die.

Before, you said “Even if I am not evaluated well during my life, I want to leave something behind.”.

Yes. Even if it is a very tiny thing, if I can destroy something, I think that there was value in living.

Your thoughts are similar to a Buddhist priest. You are so philosophic.

Ah, maybe. I really like India. Such concepts about the life and death of Buddhism. In Bhutan, people don’t have fear for death, and they believe in reincarnation. I might be close to them. When I think “If I’ll be born again, what will I would be”, I’m excited.

Then, what do you want to be when you are born again?

An American or a dolphin.

Why?(laugh)

America has a representative culture which is different from Japanese. And I like their feeling of “Yeah~!” quite a lot, as I’m not like that, so I want to be like that. And when we translate English, they often use expressions like ‘one of the most @@@’. I have a question that I want to answer. I want to know why they say ‘the most’ and use ‘one of them’ together. It’s kind of strange to me, so I want to know whether that is correct grammar or not.

You have to be born American and actually use it.(laugh)

I really think so.(laugh) Then, a dolphin doesn’t have vulgar feelings or greedy parts which humans have. If I was a dolphin, I might unexpectedly find out that they have those feelings.(laugh)

They might be very black-hearted actually.(laugh)

Yes.(laugh) But they seem to enjoy living so honestly and purely.

Yes, they seem to be very sensible creatures. But SAKITO, you kind of look like a dolphin.(laugh)

Really!?.....?(laugh)Well, I just like dolphins, so I want to be like them someday.

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↓p55

Nightmare is now in the middle of the recording, but Ni~ya, have you done the recording of your bass?

Yes, I have finished.

So you can just do whatever you want now!

Oh, no I can’t. We are doing the Zepp tour, and I have to do interviews, like this.(* This interview was held during their Zepp tour.)

Sorry about that.(laugh) Let’s start talking about 『killer show』. I listened to several new songs which are finished now, and I think this album will be totally different from your former work 『The  WORLD Ruler』, right?

I’m not sure. Well, I think some things have changed, but I’m not sure what yet.

What do you want this album to be like, Ni~ya?

Uhn….. I want to make an album that is good for lives.

When you say ‘good for lives’, for example, such a hard songlike 「DIRTY」matches for lives, and also the ballad「このは」(Konoha) would be more impressive in lives, right?

Yes. But I was brought up on rock so I think that that is to be expected. I like to do hot lives, it’s okay to stick in a few ballads, but I like doing lives where you can really get into things, like in live houses or the Budoukan.

Does that mean that『killer show』is mostly hard songs?

Not really, of course we will make a story with our music in our lives.

Is it a kind of a logical development?

Yes. We are conscious of it every time. This time there are a few medium tempo songs but the overall impression is much harder that『The  WORLD Ruler』, I think. There are more faster songs than hard songs.

『The WORLD Ruler』was a quite hard album, so do you mean that this album will be harder than that?

Personally, I feel like it will be a grade-up version of『The  WORLD Ruler』.

Who chose the title of『killer  show』?

RUKA did.

With a title like that you kind of expect to see Jason or Freddy to jump out at you.(laugh)

When you hear the title, you might think of such violent images.(laugh)

What is your image of the album Ni~ya?

We often say that very good songs are ‘killer tunes’, right? I think that it is like that.

You mean that this album is like the strongest piece of the artist, right?

Yes.

Actually, I feel that too. Out of the new songs I was able to listen to, there were two shuffle songs that I thought really matched Nightmare very well. Do you think that this album fits Nightmare?

Yes I do..

『The WORLD Ruler』was an experimental album in which you challenged new things, so in a way maybe that is why we feel so.

Well, I felt that too, as I played this time. I felt like we were good these kinds of songs.

I thought so. It has been eight years since you made Nightmare, right?

Yes.

Do you think RUKA and SAKITO who make the songs felt like they wanted to return to their origins now?

I don’t know, but we have done various tunes such as hard ones to ballads, and I feel like we did a whole circle.

Do you feel your age? Like ‘I shouldn’t calm down just yet!’.

Yes, I do! Last year we did our lives in halls, including the Budoukan. I know doing lives in halls are fun but we wanted to do lives in small venues too, such as live houses.

Bands which have been going for 10 or 20 years always have times where they return to their origins. Nightmare may be in such a period now, as more and more young bands are coming out.

I don’t have many occasions to see young bands. But when we played in Zepp last year, many young bands appeared too, and I really felt that their age was not relevant to their skills.

Did you feel some kind of crisis for that?

No, I didn’t feel as though we were in crisis, but if young bands appeared one after the other first, and then we appeared, people would look at us like we are old. Then it would be bad, I thought.

Probably.(laugh)

So I want to hold on to this momentum forever. I want to have a positive attitude. We have a live house tour coming up so maybe it has something to do with that.

The awareness of the whole band is probably focusing on that now. I think that this is a good opportunity so I’ll ask you Ni~ya, what are your impressions of the past eight years?

I don’t know whether it has been good or bad, because I can’t compare it to anything. But recently I noticed that we have all the luck.

Luck?

With who we meet. We came from Sendai and entered our representing company, that was good, and when we transferred to a record company, our situation became even better, and we haven’t had many problems when our staff changed. I know it’s not only luck but I think it’s important too.

We could say luck is also your ability?

I don’t know really, but I think that we should just keep doing the things that we want to do.

Now changing the subject, there is a phrase in the song 「the LAST　SHOW」of the album『killer  show』 ‘lastly ruined show’ (=ruin the show at last.). What is it that you want to destroy, Ni~ya?

Hmm… I wonder.

It’s OK to say something like you want to change yourself.

I try to not think like that.

Why?

To change myself is probably something beyond my ability. Of course, I if work hard, then it’s possible, but if my goal is too high, well… the results are not so good.

Surely to keep the present situation is the most important and the difficult.

Yes. I think so.

By the way, do you drink alcohol?

Well, not so much anymore.

Even though you are on tour now?

I go drinking during the tour because it’s a good opportunity to talk with my staff. But when I stay at home, I don’t go out drinking often.

Don’t you feel a lot of stress?

I do! Ah, what I want to destroy is my stress!(laugh)

Ni~ya, how do you reduce your stress?

Alcohol?

But you said that you don’t drink often…

Yes…..Ah, I play darts.

Do you go to darts bars?

No, I play at home.

Alone?

Yes.

Can you reduce your stress by doing that?

Yes! When I practice bass and feel tired, I feel quite refreshed by playing darts.

I remember you said you were good at cooking?

Ah, cooking also reduces my stress.

If you don’t concentrate on the cooking and think about other things, the food you make won’t be so good. Do you have any dishes that you are good at?

Ramen.

Do you make it from the soup?

No, I cook instant Ramen.(laugh)

No, way!(laugh)

But I cook adding one more thing, I put in stir-fry vegetables.

Do you care about your health?

Yes.

That is like an old person...(laugh)

(laugh) But strength is important for this job, don’t you think? Everyone who works for a long time is cares about their health.

Yes. If they would live the so-called, sex, drug & rock’n roll life, your musician life would finish quickly.

I think so too. Especially as the next tour is a live house tour. So I want to build up my strength.

You seem to be looking forward to the live house tour.

Yes. Recently I have the confidence where I can do a live without depending on sets. I know we need staff too, but I feel like we can make the best show in any place as long as we have the 5 members and our audience.

You say ‘shows’ even in live houses?

Yes. We do shows. If you hear the word ‘show’, you might imagine something that is produced completely, but we don’t mean that. I want to show our own shows, so please look forward to seeing them. We are also looking forward to doing them.

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↓p56

About your album『killer show』, SAKITO predicted last month that “It would be an aggressive one.”. What will it be like, RUKA?

I think that if we put the songs in that we are looking at the moment that there won’t be that many ‘vocal’ songs.

Among them, how many songs did you write, RUKA?

This time, I wrote about 5 or 6 songs. But there is a song that we recorded but would be passed on it this time.

I see. As a composer, what did you emphasize in these songs this time?

I think it was reality for me. I wrote about everyday dramas, you know things that just happen everyday.

Is it difficult to write a drama based on daily life which is not fiction?

No, it’s not difficult. The point is just to write affectedly.(laugh)…it’s joke, but such a reality was my theme.

So what were your reasons for wanting to write about real life situations?

Hmm….. I think that wanted everyone to know that my daily life was full of events.

(laugh)

Your daily life is that full of events?(laugh)

Yes. Zozzy (YOMI) has lots of things happen too. (laugh) And you know, there are times when there are three members of the band together and two of them will notice something and laugh about it, but I won’t get the joke. And then there is the other way around too. I will think that something is interesting but others don’t.

Your viewpoint may be a little bit different from others’, right?

Yes. Maybe, the scenes which I can see may be different from others. Because of that, I might want to draw my reality. Recently when I brushed my teeth and I looked at mirror, I wondered “Is my face really like this!?”. As you know, we have a fixed idea that mirrors reflect things accurately.

Well mirrors don’t have feelings or pre-conditions, so they should reflect the same way at any time, every time.

Yes. And I heard that ‘Life is a game which is determined by the gods.’. When I start thinking like that, I can’t stop thinking and everything seems be a big lie for me. But it’s different from searching for the meaning to live. I think it’s interesting.(laugh)

You can draw your own world view which no one else has because of your original viewpoint.

Yes. I’m happy that I can think like that, and that’s why I want to write what I think in my music. We can’t be artists without being abnormal or fools.

Surely such crazy senses and dangers are attractive, right?

Yes. And I think we have such senses. We have fools and abnormal.(laugh)

By the way, which member do you feel synchronized with the most?

It’s Ni~ya. I think I would be a friend of Ni~ya, even if I didn’t play music. So I’m happy being the rhythm part with him.

As for your images, dirty RUKA and stoic Ni~ya seem to be totally different types of people, so it’s a little bit unexpected.(laugh)

But our favorite things are quite similar. We both still play Tetris.(laugh)

And Ni~ya always reaps the harvest of my mistakes.(laugh) If Ni~ya was a drummer and I was a bassist, I don’t think that it would work. I think it’s much better that I’m a drummer and Ni~ya fits to that.

So this album shows the good combination of both of you?

Yes, we have 「ジャイアニズム罰」（[Gianism 8]）playing only by drums and bass. In our lives it’s actually extended.

With time I think that the rhythm and groove just get better, what do you think?

Yes, perhaps that’s right. I tend to use my feet more than my hands. Ni~ya works to fit that so it works well, I think.

So it’s getting more fun as you play more and more. So in this album, how did you work as a drummer?

I think that I returned to my old sound. A lower sound on the whole.

In「White Room」, the bottom sound is quite low. Before, SAKITO said that the band tended to drop a little lower when tuning the instruments these days, but did you want to return to a lower sound because you wanted to rather than just trying to fit in with the band?

Yes, I think that I did it because I wanted to. I think that when we had just started the band we tended to increase the sound as most bands do in their early stages. But when we play in a lower pitch, we have to make the sound clear or it becomes muffled and buried. Recently I have decreased the amount I move my hands and the sound has lowered.

Now that you are playing like that, will you change the way you play your former songs?

Yes, they are changing day by day.

You are not against doing that?

No, not at all. I don’t think that I have to change something, but they change naturally. For example, if I’m someone says “Please change the arrangement of your former song as we want to release it as a single.”, and if I want to change it, that is fine , but if I didn’t want to change it, I would probably be against doing it. However in lives the music naturally changes, and that is no problem at all.

You are very flexible. All the members can work with you.

Yes, I think so. I don’t think that any of us are really set in our ways..

By the way, about the lyrics "lastly ruined show" in 「the LAST SHOW」,……do you have a desire of ruin or to destroy something, RUKA?

Yes. You can see it in the lyrics of 「to for」, too.

Have you had such a desire from before?

Yes, I have had it from a long time back. I think every man has such a desire. But I have both a desire to destroy everything and protect everything.

What you want to protect are your band, friends, family, etc?

Yes. I think that I have both desires because I’m a human. What I want to destroy is human, and what I want to protect is also human. They aren’t objects because I’m not really that materialistic.

So you don’t really gain any pleasure from destroying objects then?

No not really. If I broke things I would hurt my hands, and anyway objects are innocent. (laugh)

That’s interesting.(laugh)

But you know there are times when maybe I take things out on my futon.(laugh)

But that can’t break.

It absorbs anything you put into it.(laugh)

Yes, yes, it’s not broken and I don’t hurt myself too.(laugh) Once I kicked out a fusuma(=a framed papered sliding door used as a room partition) and it broke, I found that my parents had to pay money to have it repaired later, so I haven’t been hard on objects since then. I learnt that if I do something bad it will always return to me.(laugh) So I throw such feelings into my lyrics and words.

Even if you get angry about a person, do you try to resolve it by your words not by force?

Yes. Because we can kill people and make them live both by words. I can kill people by my delusion, too.(laugh)

So I guess what you are saying is that you want to face people head on?

I have people who I want to face and those I don’t want to face.(laugh) I won’t fight with people who I don’t want to face.

Do you ignore them!?(laugh)

I totally ignore them. I don’t even recognize their presence, even if they are in front of me.(laugh)

That is pretty scary.(laugh) So what do you want to destroy now?

….my body fat.(laugh) I’m fattest I have ever been in my life right now. My veins can’t be seen…..(He stares at his arms.)

Ah, okay. (laugh) As the band gets bigger, various people will look at you in different ways. Do you feel any stress associated with that?

Not at all. Because it means we are in the major field. Every one goes through there, so I don’t feel any resistance about that. If I feel stress, I just want to have more time in my schedule, and that’s all.

You seem to be quite balanced about it all, so I’m relieved. And you are in good health too.

Well, I caught a cold and have a pollen allergy, so my health condition is not so good actually.(smile) But that’s all. I think I’m in good condition for our 8^th year.