The last member of the GazettE, who is having his personal project in this corner, is vocalist Ruki. Just before a short while, their first single release in nine months had been announced, as well as the tour, which will be starting on July 22nd. Of course we have asked him about this, and also about how he "redefined the GazettE" during their underground activities.
Ruki [OK, let's go!]
-- Now how is that for a feeling of being challenged suddenly!(laughs) This time, we would like to investigate on the different things you are going to challenge and your conscious during these times, so please let's do this together.
Ruki [OK]
-- Ruki-kun has always been responsible for the artwork within the GazettE, however, where do you take these images from usually?
Ruki [Right now this is extremely abstract. For the visuals of our homepage, we have always been working together with this one designer and we would explain our images to them roughly and they would eventually create them for us directly. For example: „There should be six crows flying on the top page." And that's about how abstract I would tell them (what I want). Or saying it the opposite way, it can only be done with a person who I can properly convey these abstract things to. It would be like "this needs to me a lot darker" or "there needs to be more black", which I would tell them about what kind of sensation (I would like) and it seems like I can only work with a person, who can do this for us, by us simply saying "yes, just like that."]
-- It's the same you could also tell the band members, right?
Ruki [Yes. Whatever it is, we just explain it very abstract like that. If that kind of sensation wouldn't be and if we couldn't come to an understanding like that, we couldn't move on from there.]
-- How about the image of today's photo shooting?
Ruki [This time it was also pretty abstract like that. Actually, I hadn't been thinking about anything really until the actual day (of the shooting). (laughs) But actually, it's really every time like that. While I would be coming in acting as if I had thought up something, I would be like "weeeelll..." and during this "weeelll..." I would think really hard about it (laughs.)In that situation, I would put the many thoughts into words and build things up from there. I'd just throw out things like "red enamel", "acrylic boarding" and "white paint". When I am thinking about the jacket designs for CDs it would be pretty much like that, too. It happened a lot of times that just the things I come up with in the actual place are made into shape like this.]
-- Your lyrics, too?
Ruki [Yes. There are a lot of times where I just think about something and sit down to write it out just like that. I'd just put the things I have thought up into words and from there I would arrange them accordingly. Making the songs is very abstract as such, but basically, it is just like that, too. As for a song that's going to be a single, I usually start out with the main part of it and from there we would create the coupling songs that go with it afterwards. Every time we assemble things like that, which means there is no presumptuous construction of the album beforehand. There are times, when we would follow a certain flow in making things, however, for [DIM] we would certainly not follow a specific order, or [NIL] and [STACKED RUBBISH] where we'd just try to put in a variety of songs. These things can also lead to a sudden outcome. (laughs) Somehow saying it like this, it seems we are really not thinking about anything. (laughs) We do think things through properly, to ever so often. However, it has not happened, that we talk about it like “How should we do it?”. [DIM] would be an example for that. For [DIM] I told the others as much as, that "either way, I wanted to make it a dark album", and disregarding any kind of flow (in the process), we would make this album with that kind of image only and put it together with that kind of spirit.]
-- [DIM] has certainly been made during a very busy time, that's why you have been making the instrumental parts in-between being in the studio for the shooting of the promotion video, wasn't it?
Ruki [During that time, I absolutely couldn't sleep. That was the kind of schedule we had been working really hard with. Yet, regarding those instrumental parts, I probably have reached a level where I can't help but being satisfied with them. For the fans, it probably doesn't really matter, but completing an album with such a perspective and a flow like that, I think (those parts) are absolutely necessary, that's why I would work on them without sleeping.]
-- I think that the perspective of the album has come to completion because of these important instrumental parts. On the official homepage, during the advertising of the new single and the upcoming tour, there is also music playing in the back. Because of that, the view on it is certainly deepening as such.
Ruki [It is, isn't it? I think that such a vivid way of showing things, just as much as the instrumental music for the way of presenting is really important. In that sense, I am really glad, that I put this much effort into the instrumental pieces on [DIM]. We have been able to create what we had been imagining up to that point and on the contrary we came to take a more objective look at ourselves as well.]
-- You can feel how this album [DIM] has come to life, don't you? However, doing it like that also means that the next images brewing up must be coming directly from the views burned in the back of your mind.
Ruki [Yes. There are also a lot of things that I look at, which are fashionable at that, and yet, I try not to get carried away by them. I also think that there is this general awareness, of what is "the GazettE"-like. However, especially in that part I have now come to be able to look at us more from an objective point of view.]
-- By what chance did you become able to look at yourself more objectively?
Ruki [Somehow, as [DIM] is a really dark and heavy album, we accomplished showing this kind of thing as well and as we realized it all, we thought that it was enough. Therefore, we reached a state, where we though "What's next then? “ A basic deficiency. (laughs) A very questionable deficiency (laughs). Because does this mean, you have thought about what you want to pursue thoroughly enough already? Well, then there was the tour for [DIM], we had the time to reflect upon ourselves then, and then we did the fan club tour thereafter, with a different kind of thinking until then. It seems we have gotten "lighter". Doing the fan club tour, we temporarily put the things, we so stubbornly tried to protect aside. Because within ourselves, there was also the thought that we need to make a certain kind of songs and have a certain kind of lyrics as "the GazettE". Around the making of [DIM] it was like that, too. For one thing there had been times, when we had been in complete denial about our old songs, too. However, for the fan club tour I re-listened to the older songs and it was like "Well, the songs from that time were good, weren't they?" So what would it be like if we were to write these songs now? I thought about it and tried, coming to think that the songs were really good. They were certainly good, too. As a result, during the fan club tour, we were able to mix the new songs and the old songs well, which was great. I thing that evolving with this sensation is great. The reason is that like everyone, I want to be better now than I was in the past. Therefore, it is natural to usually think that you can do more and that there are also times, when you deny your past. Yet, now we have also come to properly recognize [Cassis] (as a song of ours).]
-- You have said that during the time of [Cassis] you did not intend to become a band like that, didn't you?
Ruki [We stubbornly did. Therefore, the lyrics in the songs after [Cassis], have become something only we would understand. However, this is also something that doesn't change now. I write the lyrics without thinking that I would like people to feel alike. If someone feels the same, then that's fine, too, however, I don't write it with this aim. Because I don't want to write lyrics that sound like mails written on a mobile phone. I want to die within these lyrics. Like, people die on their own. Still, the feeling that has been born inside of us, is that "good things are good, after all". Of course, even now, we still need to accept other things. Writing things straight out isn't bitter, that won't change either. This time, the single [SHIVER], which will be released in July is no different from this in its sensation. For me, the lyrics in that song are written as nothing more than what my thoughts are. After all, I want nothing more than to write them as something I agree to.]
-- For the release of [BEFORE I DECAY], which was released right after [DIM] you didn't say something like this, did you?
Ruki [Yes. However, this is because it was the same for the songs within the making process of [DIM] and it was like a direct connection to that. I have come to take a new look at a number of things concerning ourselves, and of this new feeling [SHIVER] is the first thing made. [SHIVER] is also a song which I made during the fan club tour. However, this does not mean that I made this song as a song I would write if I wanted to take a new step forward. I rather wrote it with the feeling of "It has to be this”, as in the opposite, like it isn't new, but rather a "classic approach".]
-- Yes. I did notice the nostalgic feel in it. Like the guitar solo in it, and when the guitar is carrying the piece during the second half of the song.
Ruki [See? Someone to notice these things is someone of a certain age. (laughs)]
-- Ey!
Ruki [Ahahahaha. But it really is like that actually. (laughs) It is the feeling of the GazettE during [Wakaremichi] or even [Seishunn no Koro]. The song is completely different in quality though. I thought it was good like that. It is catchy, yet it is still "rock". For me, this is what we excel in. the GazettE from back in the days was like that, too. Yet, I think that the evolution from [DIM] to our being now is big. We have to work a lot harder with our generation. Lately I really came to think that. Recently a lot of our sempai-bands are taking up their activities again, don't they? And looking at it, I came to think that it is clear why. I don't think we broke out with (our band activities) and I think that our dimensions are different, however, within me, it is like they are saying "You are all no good, let us do it again." Therefore, we really have to work a lot harder. Therefore, I really want to make songs, of which people tell me that they are good songs, however, I don't want us to become a band, which is hanging on the thought of "wanting to sell". It is not in particular that I don't want our sempai-bands to think of us like that, but I just don't want them to think of us like "What kind of band are you?" in a bad way. There is this respect I have for them.]
-- I see. Then, from July 22nd, you will be going on a long tour again after a while.
Ruki [As there is no album this time, I think this a going to be a tour where the GazettE can be shown as a sort of entertainment. Lately, there have been a lot of people, who have come to our lives for the first time, telling us that "the GazettE lives are full of entertainment." For us, that is something we have absolutely not thought of ourselves, and we were like "Eeeeh? Really?". Therefore, I hope we can create a live performance, which creates even more excitement. It feels kind of close to making a Japan tour as a foreign artist. I think I would like to make it a tour where you wonder where it is ultimately going. In what kind of shape, with what kind of set list, and how we can be looking towards the greatest final of all. That's what it'll be about. Well. Come and see for yourself. (laughs)]
Credit by kiniro_ageha
Ruki [OK, let's go!]
-- Now how is that for a feeling of being challenged suddenly!(laughs) This time, we would like to investigate on the different things you are going to challenge and your conscious during these times, so please let's do this together.
Ruki [OK]
-- Ruki-kun has always been responsible for the artwork within the GazettE, however, where do you take these images from usually?
Ruki [Right now this is extremely abstract. For the visuals of our homepage, we have always been working together with this one designer and we would explain our images to them roughly and they would eventually create them for us directly. For example: „There should be six crows flying on the top page." And that's about how abstract I would tell them (what I want). Or saying it the opposite way, it can only be done with a person who I can properly convey these abstract things to. It would be like "this needs to me a lot darker" or "there needs to be more black", which I would tell them about what kind of sensation (I would like) and it seems like I can only work with a person, who can do this for us, by us simply saying "yes, just like that."]
-- It's the same you could also tell the band members, right?
Ruki [Yes. Whatever it is, we just explain it very abstract like that. If that kind of sensation wouldn't be and if we couldn't come to an understanding like that, we couldn't move on from there.]
-- How about the image of today's photo shooting?
Ruki [This time it was also pretty abstract like that. Actually, I hadn't been thinking about anything really until the actual day (of the shooting). (laughs) But actually, it's really every time like that. While I would be coming in acting as if I had thought up something, I would be like "weeeelll..." and during this "weeelll..." I would think really hard about it (laughs.)In that situation, I would put the many thoughts into words and build things up from there. I'd just throw out things like "red enamel", "acrylic boarding" and "white paint". When I am thinking about the jacket designs for CDs it would be pretty much like that, too. It happened a lot of times that just the things I come up with in the actual place are made into shape like this.]
-- Your lyrics, too?
Ruki [Yes. There are a lot of times where I just think about something and sit down to write it out just like that. I'd just put the things I have thought up into words and from there I would arrange them accordingly. Making the songs is very abstract as such, but basically, it is just like that, too. As for a song that's going to be a single, I usually start out with the main part of it and from there we would create the coupling songs that go with it afterwards. Every time we assemble things like that, which means there is no presumptuous construction of the album beforehand. There are times, when we would follow a certain flow in making things, however, for [DIM] we would certainly not follow a specific order, or [NIL] and [STACKED RUBBISH] where we'd just try to put in a variety of songs. These things can also lead to a sudden outcome. (laughs) Somehow saying it like this, it seems we are really not thinking about anything. (laughs) We do think things through properly, to ever so often. However, it has not happened, that we talk about it like “How should we do it?”. [DIM] would be an example for that. For [DIM] I told the others as much as, that "either way, I wanted to make it a dark album", and disregarding any kind of flow (in the process), we would make this album with that kind of image only and put it together with that kind of spirit.]
-- [DIM] has certainly been made during a very busy time, that's why you have been making the instrumental parts in-between being in the studio for the shooting of the promotion video, wasn't it?
Ruki [During that time, I absolutely couldn't sleep. That was the kind of schedule we had been working really hard with. Yet, regarding those instrumental parts, I probably have reached a level where I can't help but being satisfied with them. For the fans, it probably doesn't really matter, but completing an album with such a perspective and a flow like that, I think (those parts) are absolutely necessary, that's why I would work on them without sleeping.]
-- I think that the perspective of the album has come to completion because of these important instrumental parts. On the official homepage, during the advertising of the new single and the upcoming tour, there is also music playing in the back. Because of that, the view on it is certainly deepening as such.
Ruki [It is, isn't it? I think that such a vivid way of showing things, just as much as the instrumental music for the way of presenting is really important. In that sense, I am really glad, that I put this much effort into the instrumental pieces on [DIM]. We have been able to create what we had been imagining up to that point and on the contrary we came to take a more objective look at ourselves as well.]
-- You can feel how this album [DIM] has come to life, don't you? However, doing it like that also means that the next images brewing up must be coming directly from the views burned in the back of your mind.
Ruki [Yes. There are also a lot of things that I look at, which are fashionable at that, and yet, I try not to get carried away by them. I also think that there is this general awareness, of what is "the GazettE"-like. However, especially in that part I have now come to be able to look at us more from an objective point of view.]
-- By what chance did you become able to look at yourself more objectively?
Ruki [Somehow, as [DIM] is a really dark and heavy album, we accomplished showing this kind of thing as well and as we realized it all, we thought that it was enough. Therefore, we reached a state, where we though "What's next then? “ A basic deficiency. (laughs) A very questionable deficiency (laughs). Because does this mean, you have thought about what you want to pursue thoroughly enough already? Well, then there was the tour for [DIM], we had the time to reflect upon ourselves then, and then we did the fan club tour thereafter, with a different kind of thinking until then. It seems we have gotten "lighter". Doing the fan club tour, we temporarily put the things, we so stubbornly tried to protect aside. Because within ourselves, there was also the thought that we need to make a certain kind of songs and have a certain kind of lyrics as "the GazettE". Around the making of [DIM] it was like that, too. For one thing there had been times, when we had been in complete denial about our old songs, too. However, for the fan club tour I re-listened to the older songs and it was like "Well, the songs from that time were good, weren't they?" So what would it be like if we were to write these songs now? I thought about it and tried, coming to think that the songs were really good. They were certainly good, too. As a result, during the fan club tour, we were able to mix the new songs and the old songs well, which was great. I thing that evolving with this sensation is great. The reason is that like everyone, I want to be better now than I was in the past. Therefore, it is natural to usually think that you can do more and that there are also times, when you deny your past. Yet, now we have also come to properly recognize [Cassis] (as a song of ours).]
-- You have said that during the time of [Cassis] you did not intend to become a band like that, didn't you?
Ruki [We stubbornly did. Therefore, the lyrics in the songs after [Cassis], have become something only we would understand. However, this is also something that doesn't change now. I write the lyrics without thinking that I would like people to feel alike. If someone feels the same, then that's fine, too, however, I don't write it with this aim. Because I don't want to write lyrics that sound like mails written on a mobile phone. I want to die within these lyrics. Like, people die on their own. Still, the feeling that has been born inside of us, is that "good things are good, after all". Of course, even now, we still need to accept other things. Writing things straight out isn't bitter, that won't change either. This time, the single [SHIVER], which will be released in July is no different from this in its sensation. For me, the lyrics in that song are written as nothing more than what my thoughts are. After all, I want nothing more than to write them as something I agree to.]
-- For the release of [BEFORE I DECAY], which was released right after [DIM] you didn't say something like this, did you?
Ruki [Yes. However, this is because it was the same for the songs within the making process of [DIM] and it was like a direct connection to that. I have come to take a new look at a number of things concerning ourselves, and of this new feeling [SHIVER] is the first thing made. [SHIVER] is also a song which I made during the fan club tour. However, this does not mean that I made this song as a song I would write if I wanted to take a new step forward. I rather wrote it with the feeling of "It has to be this”, as in the opposite, like it isn't new, but rather a "classic approach".]
-- Yes. I did notice the nostalgic feel in it. Like the guitar solo in it, and when the guitar is carrying the piece during the second half of the song.
Ruki [See? Someone to notice these things is someone of a certain age. (laughs)]
-- Ey!
Ruki [Ahahahaha. But it really is like that actually. (laughs) It is the feeling of the GazettE during [Wakaremichi] or even [Seishunn no Koro]. The song is completely different in quality though. I thought it was good like that. It is catchy, yet it is still "rock". For me, this is what we excel in. the GazettE from back in the days was like that, too. Yet, I think that the evolution from [DIM] to our being now is big. We have to work a lot harder with our generation. Lately I really came to think that. Recently a lot of our sempai-bands are taking up their activities again, don't they? And looking at it, I came to think that it is clear why. I don't think we broke out with (our band activities) and I think that our dimensions are different, however, within me, it is like they are saying "You are all no good, let us do it again." Therefore, we really have to work a lot harder. Therefore, I really want to make songs, of which people tell me that they are good songs, however, I don't want us to become a band, which is hanging on the thought of "wanting to sell". It is not in particular that I don't want our sempai-bands to think of us like that, but I just don't want them to think of us like "What kind of band are you?" in a bad way. There is this respect I have for them.]
-- I see. Then, from July 22nd, you will be going on a long tour again after a while.
Ruki [As there is no album this time, I think this a going to be a tour where the GazettE can be shown as a sort of entertainment. Lately, there have been a lot of people, who have come to our lives for the first time, telling us that "the GazettE lives are full of entertainment." For us, that is something we have absolutely not thought of ourselves, and we were like "Eeeeh? Really?". Therefore, I hope we can create a live performance, which creates even more excitement. It feels kind of close to making a Japan tour as a foreign artist. I think I would like to make it a tour where you wonder where it is ultimately going. In what kind of shape, with what kind of set list, and how we can be looking towards the greatest final of all. That's what it'll be about. Well. Come and see for yourself. (laughs)]
Credit by kiniro_ageha
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