Interview with alice nine.
Neo Genesis vol 4, pg. 49-51
Also in : Neo Genesis Year Book 2006, pg. 41-44
Original text: Hiroko Yamamoto
English Translation: Janique
The theme is sweet, painful spring memories.
Given that it’s March, graduation season, we got a frank talk among the five members about their memories of love from their middle school student days.
In the end, there was someone who was popular, someone who was rejected after a first confession, and someone who had no chance with girls.
Plus, we’ve got lots to tell you about “Zekkeishoku”, their first full-length album.
Since it’s graduation season, could you please first tell us some of your sweet and painful memories?
Saga : Memories, huh…
Well then, let’s start with you, Saga-kun.
Saga : Oh, we’re starting with me (laugh). If you mention spring, you think of the time of changing classes. Even being shy, after a year, I could become friends with everyone. I developed a crush, too, at the end of the second year of middle school; on the way home from my club meeting, I told her “please go out with me!” and that was the very first time I ever confessed my feelings to someone!
You’d normally send a letter or an email though.
Saga : Yeah. My sempai told me “Buddy, if you don’t tell her, I’ll kill you!” (laugh)
(bitter smile) You were threatened?
Saga : So I confessed my feelings, but was rejected. The answer she gave me when I asked “why?” really shocked me.
What did she say?
Saga : She said, “Because you’ve changed ____-kun… We should just be friends.” (laugh). So in the third year of middle school, we were both in different classes but because our houses were about 30 seconds apart on foot, even after rejecting me, on the way home she would say in this sort of awkward way, “oh. we’ll go together” (laugh).
Did you still have a crush on her that whole time?
Tora : I wonder if you still like her even now (laugh)
Saga : Yeah (laugh). That girl liked GLAY so at karaoke I sang one of their songs but I forced my voice and it backfired (laugh)
Nao-kun, what about your sweet memories?
Nao : Sweet memories? I’ve got lots. That was when I was a student in the third year of middle school. Even I had girls that apparently had crushes on me…
Ooooh, did anyone confess their feelings to you?
Nao : They did—how should I put it? It was my era…
Everyone : (laughing) My era
Nao : It’s unbelievable that I didn’t go on a date in middle school.
Show : Because middle school was a time of war (laugh)
Nao : I was embarrassed and hid my feelings. I couldn’t expose the people I liked. But you know, at the time there was a rumour going around.
What kind of rumour?
Nao : That there was a girl that had a crush on me.
The Other Four : (laughing)
Nao : So I was agonizing over it, like, “what do I do?”. Know what I mean?
I do, I do. Unintentionally thinking about them, glancing by accident, that sort of thing?
Nao : Yeah. I was always aware of it. So this one day after school, it was just the two of us in the classroom—
Tora : Nice.
Nao : By chance, it was just the two of us there. I wanted to resolve my hazy feelings, so I said, “Hey you, you have a crush on me, right?” (laugh). And then she ran away and I was like “What in the world should I do?” (bursts out laughing)
She didn’t say anything back to you at all?
Nao : Nope. If I were able to relive that moment, I’d want to find out the truth.
Show : When I think of how Nao-san has had such bittersweet memories, and of how he is now, it makes me happy to understand where he comes from.
What about you, Hiroto-kun?
Hiroto : A love story…… Graduation season—isn’t it a rush to confess your feelings? So I was kind of expecting it to happen.
Show : You were waiting for a confession?
Hiroto : I’d been expecting one since the beginning of fall (laugh). Because I was hearing the seniors talking about confessions happening that way… but I really didn’t like the idea of following the graduation season cliché.
Was there someone you liked?
Hiroto : There was. So, daringly, I thought of taking it a step forward. I thought I should make a move before anyone else did and so at the time took a chance to talk to her, and we exchanged cell numbers.
Whaat?
Show : You had a cell phone in middle school?
Hiroto : Yeah, I did.
Nao : It’s become more common, huh. In my era… (laugh)
Show : Everyone was running off to the public telephone during the 10 minute break (laugh)
Hiroto : Well, in school, you just had to have a cell phone. So anyway, we exchanged addresses, and even talked on the phone two or three times.
A good vibe, wouldn’t you say?
Hiroto : So I thought, “yes!”, and one day, I was at the neighbourhood playground, meeting up with her. When I confessed my feelings to her, I said I’d wait for her answer and thought “ugh, she’s going to ignore me”. However, the week after, on Monday at 5 in the evening, it seemed she had some free time, and that girl came to see me and said “Please treat me well!”
Nao : What the hell, man! (laugh)
Show : So it was a success.
That’s a sweet memory.
Tora : (indignant) What kind of story was that!?
Saga : (sorrowful) So precocious.
Tora : Kids these days… (laugh)
Hiroto : But even after plunging into the season where everyone confesses their feelings, we’d already decided to go to different high schools, and had begun to feel a distance between one another, and a goodbye… It may be because that happened that every year when the spring air comes drifting in, I start to feel this pain, sort of fleeting.
Show : And because of that you composed the new song?
Hiroto : That’s right!
Haru, Sakura no Koro, which is on the album being released in April, Zekkeishoku?
Hiroto : That’s the one. Even though it was still winter, there was a day where the weather was like at the end of March, and when I went outside, it really felt like spring was in the air. Even though spring is a time of goodbyes, it’s also kind of brimming with hope—that is to say, Haru, Sakura no Koro was born out of that atmosphere.
Tora : What did I just listen to? (laugh)
Nao : I enjoyed that.
You know, her saying “Please treat me well” kind of seems like something you’d hear in a drama.
Show : Wasn’t that modesty nice?
Hiroto : I loved that old air about her.
It’s a fleeting memory.
Hiroto : After that, since we went to different high schools, I never got back the LUNA SEA album I’d lent her (laugh).
Alright, Tora-kun.
Tora : A love story, huh. Is it alright if I brag? In middle school, I was really popular.
How much chocolate did you get on Valentine’s Day?
Tora : How much did I get? I don’t really remember.
Hiroto : You got so much you can’t remember!?
Tora : Though, it’s a weird thing, I also never went out with anyone then.
Nao : So there were guys like that!
Tora : Maybe it was because I was the only delinquent but whenever I had gym class, there would be girls who’d skip their own class to come see me.
That’s amazing.
Tora : So graduation season came around and I thought “Finally, today someone will confess their feelings to me! From here on out, I’ll be able to openly date someone!” (laugh)
(laugh) So really, you were waiting.
Tora : That’s right. So then, on the day of the graduation ceremony, girls came up to me but they came to say “sempai, could you sign this please?”—that’s all. It was just for a signature; I wrote my name on a towel (laugh).
You were popular because you were in a band?
Tora : Not even—I wasn’t doing anything in particular. So in the end, without getting any confessions…
Nao : It seems sad but it’s really just a typical martial story (laugh)
Tora : As I said, bragging (laugh).
Saga : (sorrowful) How nice…
Tora : Well, they say that you get a period of popularity once in your life but mine already ended in middle school (laugh)
You were the person they were in love with, so they couldn’t just confess their feelings to you that easily.
Tora : But, I wanted them to. After all, even if I said I was going to high school, I couldn’t really see a future for myself, could I?
(bitter smile) Because you had no girlfriend.
Tora : Yeah. There really wasn’t anyone, at that time, that had cell phones or beepers. It was a hopeless situation (laugh)
Like, I’m going to be alone during spring break.
Tora : Alone with the famicon (laugh)
Being too popular is tough as well.
Show : Being a guy is tough.
Nao : That’s Tora-san (laugh) ¹
What about you, Show-kun?
Show : My middle and high school were both all-boys schools.
There wasn’t an all-girls school nearby?
Show : Nope. There was an all-girls sister school, but it was a school of football ² champions (laugh), and everyone was burly. Our graduation ceremony was a joint one but all the girls looked really strong—so I have no bittersweet memories.
But you probably thought about wanting to be in love, wanting to go out with someone?
Show : I thought about it so much, I could die.
A puberty of fantasizing?
Show : Fantasizing yes, fantasizing (laugh). For starters, even just walking down the road, if I saw anything that resembled the shape of a woman, I’d think, “so cute…” (laugh)
(laugh) The shape of a woman.
Show : Well, even saying that, since we had school festivals, I thought, girls from other schools will come to see us, shouldn’t I look forward to it? But the rules at my school were strict and solid so that was absolutely hopeless. Ours was elected the “4th shittiest school culture festival in the city” so almost no girls came to it. On the other hand, there was no mischievous group marching into the girls’ school festival either so I gave up. I thought, “I’ll never, in my life, be able to have a girlfriend” (laugh).
Saga : I felt the same way (laugh).
Nao-kun, when you got to high school, could you see a ray of light?
Nao : Oh, but, I was surprisingly popular. I was given a handmade scarf as a present from a boy. (laugh)
Show : Oh, me too—in the middle of class, there was this teacher that would point at me each day, lay a hand on my shoulder, and say, “go to the educational guidance room” (laugh)
That sort of popularity? (laugh)
Nao : (sorrowful) I wonder if that was the one window of popularity of my lifetime.
Well, I’ll ask one more question about graduation days. What is it that you are all gradually thinking about wanting to graduate from?
Tora : There is something. Ever since kindergarten my voice has made involuntary noises, and I just can’t stop it. When my throat gets itchy, I do this (he does the action) ³, but, I’d like to stop doing it.
Hiroto : For me it’s dreams that I can’t graduate from school.
Dreams while asleep?
Hiroto : Yeah. I’ve had plenty of dreams where I’m just missing one credit and can’t graduate. Each time the dreams were about different scenarios like, if I remember properly, not being able to leave swimming class, not having enough credits, skipping too many classes and not getting credits, getting kicked out of class, and for some reason not being able to get a credit for attendance, and so on (laugh). I kept dreaming in these same patterns.
I guess you must have memories where you were blanching with fear at the possibility of not graduating?
Hiroto : That’s right (laugh). But it felt so real, and even after having been awake for 4 to 5 minutes, I wouldn’t realize it had just been a dream. I’d be like, “Oh, damn, I have to get to school”. So sometimes when we’re doing a live, I secretly want to graduate instead. In a stadium or something.
Show : Singing the national anthem?
Hiroto : Before the encore, I’d like the fans to sing it (laugh)
Show : The thing I’d like to graduate from… is shyness. Like saying “certainly!” way too freaking much, and also not being able to say “thank you” very well. I can say it now, but when I’m supposed to be thanking someone for their efforts, I probably say it more like thang’yoo.
Nao : You do!
Show : Yeah. When I have to say it, I can’t say it well. I wish someone could tell me why.
Nao : It’s undoubtedly because you’re so thankful you can’t find the words to express it.
Show : That makes sense (laugh). I was even worse at speaking before, and I’ve made a lot of gradual improvement, but I want to get rid of these remains of my shyness quickly.
Anything else you’d like to graduate from?
Show : Video games. When I think of games or clothes I want, even if I end up sacrificing something else, I buy them.
Like standing up in line to buy something on its release day?
Show : I have. In the case of Dragon Quest V, for instance.
Nao : I’d like… I’d like to graduate from using my futon. I want to upgrade to a bed. When I sleep in a hotel bed during tours, I feel a huge difference. The futon is painful to sleep on (laugh). So now for some reason my futon has a Marie-chan comforter on it (laugh)
What’s a Marie-chan?
Show : A Disney character ⁴. One that seems like it’d be only for girls.
Tora : Pink, isn’t it?
Nao : Blue (laugh). So when I sleep in a bed I feel happy. Memory foam mats seem really good.
Show : I’m actually using memory foam, but from now on I think regular hotel mattresses are going to feel stiff in comparison and I so probably won’t be able to fall asleep on them. Your futon is a Marie-chan print, so what about your underwear?
Nao : Today they’re Chip and Dale (laugh).
Saga : There are a lot of things I can’t graduate from. I’m using an MTR ⁵ when I write songs now, but I want to gradually move on from that, and be able to create songs on a PC.
Tora : For what purpose?
Saga : For starters, I have to buy a PC. Also I’m using cassette tapes right now. Eventually I’d like to have a combo that can read MDs.
You’d like to upgrade your sound environment, then. Anything else?
Nao : The question that’s being asked is “Something you want to graduate from”, and not something you want, you know (laugh) ⁶
Saga : Also, the pegs on the bass I’m using right now are busted.
Tora : No PC, no CD/MD combo…
Hiroto : No iPod either (laugh)
Saga : Man, I’m thinking I’ve got to do something about it this spring.
(laugh) Understood. Now I’d like to ask you about your new album but at present, from what I’ve listened to, what you’ve produced is rich with variety and vivid colour.
Show : The previous singles Kuuron-NINE HEADS RODEO SHOW- and FANTASY, I think, began to work out alice nine.’s hard and pop extremes but I feel that the album brings out our colourful side. For the singles we thought, for instance, “let’s go with a hard sound”, and with that in mind, we would decide what we’d compose. But the album has our individual roots in it, and we composed what we wanted to, with honesty, so each and every song is very real. The band, more and more, is achieving unity, so I have this feeling that we’ve created something good.
So the individuality of each song that was written came through clearly?
Hiroto : They’re all jumbled together.
Show : The lyrics too, up ’til now, have been more or less me thinking in a more detached way, that “I should probably write it sort of like this, shouldn’t I?”. But this time I was writing the things I wanted to say, the things I felt, in a frank, fluent way. When I look back at it, I’m projected in it, and I can think “these are my lyrics” so I really want people to listen to the album soon.
The singles were like this, but do the lyrics in the album also make use of colour?
Show : Well, I listened to the songs, the images expanded in my mind, and I wrote the lyrics—but I thought more of scenery than colour. That also ties in to the title of the album, Zekkeishoku. Even in lives, we want to show those in attendance this “superb view!”, a splendid, Japanese-style scenery that hits them with a bang. That’s the sort of spirit I wanted to bring out of the songs with the lyrics. Because I think, for me personally, in terms of colour, it is the Japanese sensibility that alice nine. embodies.
Tora : For the album, without putting on airs in terms of our abilities as a band, our approach was to display everything alice nine. was actually capable of. To be perfectly honest, every song on the album has enough power to stand alone as a single, so I think this album is one that is really easy to listen to. In terms of the guitar in it, I think I’m the type who doesn’t really think when he plays, so I did everything by instinct, but I think that turned out for the better.
Show : It’s better when Tora-kun goes into the recording booth to play phrases without thinking. His takes are different from what’s on the demos, so when I go in to record the vocals, I’m like, “What’s with this cool phrase? Awesome”. The album is accented with that sort of Tora-kun magic.
Tora : Something’s been transferred into it (laugh)
Hiroto : Show-kun said so earlier but since the singles Kuuron and FANTASY were composed with intent this time, we did the opposite for the album and composed freely. I could easily picture my inner landscape and I was able to make songs in which the faces of fans at a live floated before me, almost, and—the result is, I discovered, my heart comes out solidly in the compositions on the album.
The lead track on the album, VELVET, is a cool song with a live feel to it.
Hiroto : Around the middle of the year, my feelings that we weren’t playing any lives exploded. I wanted to write a song where, when you go to a live, all the boring things in day-to-day life will be forgotten at once.
It is a passionate song.
Nao : You’ll be able to see me burning out right before your eyes (laugh).
Well then making it the first song at a live would be problematic (laugh)!
Saga : Nao will break (laugh). This is a stylish song. Performing it, it has the power of making me think, “Man, I’m cool”; it’s the first one like that, I think.
Tora : Actually, alice nine. doesn’t have any other intense songs like that. I usually call the songs I write intense, but rather than intense, I think I just write a lot of heavy ones. So I’m happy the others can compose the types of songs I can’t.
Hiroto : And another thing about VELVET, it’s a song packed with my ideals from the time when I was a band kid. I thought that if I could be in a band when I was an adult, I’d want to play a song like this.
Show : It’s a song about lighting a fire in the hearts of kids that have become dark and closed off, about burning away the dull things in the world. The word “fire” does have an image of being warm, gentle, and embracing, but it’s also aggressive, isn’t it? It’s like an eruption that can’t be stopped, coming out of all of the many things that have exerted influence on our current selves, and so I think it would be okay to sort of consider VELVET this album’s business card.
Yep, yep. What about you, Nao-kun?
Nao : Up ’til now, in the format of singles or mini albums we’ve put out compositions, but for our first full album, with our feelings of wanting to show more of ourselves on it, I think it’ll get you to understand, more profoundly, who we are. Our various thoughts and feelings are packed into it and there are surprising songs on it too. That’s what I’d like you to look forward to listening to (laugh)
Saga : Hiroto said it earlier, but this time we composed songs roughly without first deciding “we should make one like this, one like that”; instead we sort of brought songs to the table that we felt could be put in our first full-length album. There are 3 composers in alice nine. but I think the songs’ features are distinct enough that you can tell right away who composed which one.
Hiroto : This is a first for the band so we feel like making the best music we can.
Show : Yep. Because we’ve made an album that’s like, “this is alice nine.” and should stick our chests out with pride.
Nao : If we can finish the album, it’s going to be a cheerful spring (laugh).
And after that, you’ll do lives.
Show : Yeah. When the album’s complete, the tour’s going to start in high spirits (laugh). We’ll do our best.