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FROM B-PASS 1999 September--Interview on
"kokodewanai,dokokae"
Since "Survival" was a video single, it
seems like it's been awhile since you released a "real"
single CD.So anyway, this new single song "kokodewanai
dokokae"(to someplace else) seems like a very
"GLAY"-ish type of song.
TAKURO "When did I make this?
It was last year...Autumn? Oh..I remember. I recorded the demo
tapes for this, "BE WITH YOU", and "Winter,
again", and another song....4songs...on the day after the
Seibu-kyuujyou live.(9/6) Why were we working at a time like
THAT!?!?!?"
TERU "We were talking about it
at the free time right before the Seibu Live."
TAKURO"Yeah..I was like 'Can we
talk for a second?'"(laugh)
JIRO"We're such a reasonable
band"(laugh)
Why did you have to record demo tapes when you were so busy?
TAKURO"Don't you think single
songs are really important? They can represent a band, so we want
to make lots of good songs and choose the very best out of them.
So we had a hard schedule, but we made new songs. Well...they're
all going to see 'the light of day' sometime. It's like our
property--or our fortune. So it's good to save alot while we can
make them...Oh! There was one that never did see the light of day
though! The one that sounded like a blues tune!"
ALL"Oh yeahhhhh!!!"(laugh)
Did it get rejected?
TAKURO"Just by hearing the
intro."(tear) <----awwwe...heheh
ji"We were like..'errrr...lets waitt 3 more years' and that
was the end of that song."(laugh)
And...about THIS song?
TAKURO"It's a really...'good'
song. Like a good student at school. We wanted to release a new
song from GLAY in the summer, so it was just perfect. What I
thought about, was that even though I wanted to keep the song a
'GLAY song', I wanted to stop the chords from sounding like the
ones we normally use."
JIRO"Aren't both the songs
including the coupling really.."GLAY-ish"? We didn't
want to repeat anything we did before.
TAKURO"Yeah. So we really had
to think about the chords."
HISASHI"For standard songs like
this, I don't really think about the approach before I play.
Like.."Beloved", "However", and "BE WITH
YOU".Every time, a standard's formed for them, but I play
it...like...I'm just marking time or something. It'll probably
take a few more years, but someday when I listen to all of these
songs, I'll probably be able to hear myself getting better each
time."
TERU"I try this every time at
recordings, but I imagine myself and how I'll be singing in the
future. This time I tried to be more..masculine"
masculine?
TERU"Yeah. It's a nice song,
but I wanted to make an image that it's more masculine than
sweet.
Does that image come from the lyrics?
TAKURO"Isn't that important?
This song might look like a love song, but it's really not a love
song. So we talked about 'not letting it get warm' alot during
the recording"
TERU"Yeah. So it was really
hard for me. No matter how many times I tried singing it, it
sounded like my usual self, and it didn't sound sharp enough. By
then only I'd be able to tell the difference, but I think I sang
it 20~30 times. And I usually finish in 2 or 3. I wanted to sing
a song where you can tell how the person is living. Like..you
know in Blankey songs you can almost see the person? I wanted to
create a world like that too. I wanted to express something that
will show how I live."
This song that made TERU do so much. TAKURO-what were the
thoughts you put into these lyrics?
TAKURO".....well..this is
really our song. We came from the country and went up to the
dome, but from now on, we want to go to somewhere noone's ever
been before. It could be any little tiny thing in the world, and
it's okay if it works or doesn't work, we just want to be
ourselves. I just think that the new beginning is now. From this
year to next year, me and GLAY want to go to somewhere new. I'm
better now at controlling myself. I think we can get along
somehow. Yes. This song just made those feelings into lyrics. So
I really had to think hard about the title. I think just the
title can represent our current selves. Like the part that says
'we started on a journey'. It just fits us perfectly."
I wonder where GLAY's going to go from now.
TERU"Even we don't know"
TAKURO"But it's not here. We're
done with our job here. Now we have a feeling that we've done
pretty much everything, so we'll try something new from
now...We'll make mistakes, and learn...and I hope we can find the
'somewhere' we're searching for."
So this is the time to set sail.
TAKURO"Yes. I'm not the type to
say these kinds of feelings at TV interviews, so I thought'since
I'm a musician, what could be a better way than expressing myself
with music?' Well, it's kind of like I'm just talking to myself,
but it's okay if people take it as a word from GLAY. Not like I'm
trying to say it to anyone though."
It's really honest, but it's kind of hard to tell where
you're going.
TAKURO" Then that's probably
our situation right now."
HISASHI"Well, we're a rock
band, so we can make mistakes and just leave them alone. We can
just not care about what other people think. We can just go
anywhere we want."
TAKURO"We don't know where
we're going yet.."
I see. And the coupling is "summer FM, which TAKURO
said that he likes better than "kokodewanai,dokokae".
HISASHI"Ohhh at the beginning,
TAKURO wanted me to mix it like disco music."
JIRO"We tried it, but it just
ended up like this anyway"(laugh)
HAHAHAHAH
TAKURO"But don't you think it's
a good song?"
Yes. The melody reminds me of the past sortof...and the
lyrics just made me "see" the summer scene.
TAKURO"TERU's radio had it's
..4th or 5th anniversary this year, so I wanted to give it to him
as a present. So the ending is "TERU ME" and this
situation is all near where bay FM is. Well, I just hope you'll
continue it for another 5 or so years. Oh, I think I made this at
the beach too. Looking at the sea I think."
HISASHI"Whenever I go to bayFM,
it's akways sunny. Even if it rains, the sky's still clear...I
thought about that image when I played my guitar."
When you first heard it TERU, did you think it was
"my song"?
TERU"Wellllll, I didn't think
it was MY song(laugh) but the image I saw was really real. I
think it was an easy song for the band to face the same
direction. And since this song is a coupling song, we could
experiment with it alot, so it was fun to record."
The recent coupling songs are kindof experimental, aren't
they?
TERU"Yes, the other members
were like that, but since I'm the vocal, I didn't get to do
much...I always wished I could do something different, so I was
happy with this."
And..what did you do different???
TERU"I took the same melody two
times, and I completely split it into left and right. Before, I
just wanted to sing good songs, but this time, I found out that
having fun is important too."
This song goes well with the scenes of summer.
TAKURO"yes. I wanted it to be
like a theme song of EXPO. it's really fun when we can perform it
outside during summer."
