This interview originally appeared in the Closer to Ideal pamphlet sold at the 10th anniversary live of the same name in 2009.
Read other portions of this interview:
1999 - 2000
2000
ーYou had a lot of lives this year.
Karyu: We did nothing but lives, huh.
Tsukasa: The one I'll never forget is the Egota club Dorothy live.
ーWhy is that?
Tsukasa: It was the first time since forming D'espairsRay that we made a puddle at a venue.
ーA puddle atthe venue?
Tsukasa: Yes. Sweat and... sweat. Sweat and steam.
ーBut it was January?
Tsukasa: Yes. Yes it was.
Hizumi: It was fucking hot. It was cramped, and fucking hot.
ーWhat's the capacity for club Dorothy?
Hizumi: It's 50 people. And, there's airconditioning on the stage side, but it's hot (laugh).
Everyone: (laugh)
ーWas it on heater mode?
Hizumi: I don't know.
ーWas the puddle on the stage? Or in the audience?
Tsukasa: Both?
Zero: Probably both. When we were on stage there was a puddle up there, and even though it was a really slippery floor we made a puddle, so we were slipping around the stage.
ーIsn't it hard to do everything with water up there like that?
Tsukasa: That's right. But we remember it so well, it became a memory.
ー(laugh) A memory. Speaking of, wasn't it dangerous?
Karyu & Zero: It was dangerous.
Zero: I got an electircal shock that day. At the time we had to set up our own instruments I think? And, with power active in a cable I was about to plug into the speaker, just then I got a shock, so I played the live half out of it (laugh).
ー(laugh) Then, the demo tape [S]yste[M] came out at AREA on January 28th, and "Sakura" on January 29th at Dorothy - was separating them by day a specific strategy?
Zero: I don't remember about AREA, but at Dorothy we gave them out. I think the previous day was AREA but... I wouldn't know without checking.
Hizumi: Is it okay to write "maybe"?
Zero: Yeah.
Karyu: I'm fairly sure that at club Dorothy, the plan was to capture all the fans there.
Zero: Right.
ーIsn't it good for a band to take such an aggressive approach?
Karyu: It was aggressive. Things started to change from there. Our popularity started growing gradually.
ーSo surpassing the ticket quota* started to become a reality?
Karyu: That was the goal... a tiny one.
Everyone: (laugh)
* Refers to the minimum number of tickets a band is expected to sell in order to perform, often a rule for small bands that are starting out. If they fall short of the ticket quota, they often have to pay the difference out of pocket,
ーIt's important. Even so (if you look at your biography) you had an awful lot of lives.
Karyu: We just played shows without writing any songs.
ーLike you were prioritizing shows over new music?
Hizumi: I think we were playing events we were being invited to for the time being.
Karyu: I don't know if this can be published, but if we weren't playing lives we'd have to be working part time. If we didn't have a goal. So there was also that, I think?
Zero: It was around this time that we started talking about wanting to be a live band.
Hizumi: I feel like we'd discussed having shows two or three times a month.
ーThat's ambitious. Or, maybe reckless? Doing it that way.
Karyu: Yeah.
Hizumi: Well, we were amateurs (laugh).
ーAnd you continued putting out demo tapes that year.
Karyu: That's right. We didn't know how to put out CDs yet.
ーI see. So you mainly focused on lives... aside from club Dorothy, were there any other shows that left an impression?
Tsukasa: Personally, I remember that the quota for Y2K was incredible.
Zero: (laugh) It was, huh.
Karyu: I remember that.
Tsukasa: It was several tens of thousands of yen, right? Per person.
ーHuh??
Zero: The tickets were expensive and the quota was high.
Karyu: But we were really quite successful.
ーOn June 4th at Kumagaya VOGUE, you had a show with Due'le quartz.
Hizumi: We got a call that there was a great opportunity in Kumagaya.
Zero: Yeah, and I'm from Kumagaya. So I asked Kumagaya VOGUE shove us in when there was a good opportunity
ーYou played in Kumagaya and Maebashi and the like a lot. Well, you played in Tokyo and the Tokyo suburbs a lot, if you were to sum up the year 2000.
Everyone: (laugh)
Karyu: We did, didn't we.
ーThen, in September you put out the demo tape "RAZOR." How many (different) demo tapes did you release as a band?
Hizumi: Four.
Zero: At the time free distribution was popular, right? For demo tapes.
ーAs usual did you make this one yourselves?
Zero: We did.
ーAnd in October you released your first maxi single, "Kumo." The first press consisted of 1,000 copies. How did you originally decide to handle this release?
Karyu: What was it again?
Zero: It was Shun.
Karyu: Shun from JILS produced it.
Hizumi: "Kumo" was the first thing we recorded properly. By properly, I mean, not completely.
Everyone: (laugh)
Hizumi: Our first taste of what it's like to record.
Karyu: Yeah. But we didn't do mastering.
Hizumi: We didn't. And we recorded the vocals in a shower (laugh).
ー(laugh) A shower?
Hizumi: A shower at someone's home.
ーBecause of the good reverberations?
Hizumi: Yes.
Zero: We could hear him screaming from inside the shower (laugh).
Hizumi: I shouted my lungs out in the shower. I thought we'd definitely get reported.
ー(laugh) Tsukasa, did you record normally?
Tsukasa: At the studio.
Zero: Drums and bass were at the studio.
Hizumi: It was Bucchi that time.
Tsukasa: Hiroshi Sasabuchi did the engineering.
ーIf you were in the studio with Bucchi, why record the vocals in a shower?
Tsukasa: Probably the budget...
Everyone: (laugh)
Tsukasa: We had a budget, but if we couldn't at least record the drums right it would have a huge impact on the finished product.
Zero: And I took my bass along.
ーWhere did you record guitar?
Karyu: Why didn't I go along too? (laugh) Why was it?
Zero: Maybe they didn't have a booth for it.
Karyu: So for this one, we didn't have the sound coming from an amp.
Tsukasa: A line recording?
Karyu: What was it that I had... Was it VS? I created the guitar sounds using what's now called something like a ProTools plugin.
ーSo, you listened to the finished instrumental recording, and...
Hizumi: Basically screamed in the shower.
ーIt's incredible you recorded in a shower. But did you manage to record alright? In the shower.
Hizumi: Definitely not.
Everyone: (laugh)
Hizumi: In such an echo-y place (laugh)
ーIt was your first CD, but was there a track called "Kumo"?
Hizumi: No, it wasn't the name of a song.
ーJust a title?
Hizumi: The CD title.
ーWhat songs were on it?
Hizumi: "Parasite," "Mousou Heki na EGOIST," and "Misshitsu no Naka... 'Ikareta Kimi' no Senritsy."
ーDid these three songs feel representative of D'espairsRay at the time? Or were they new songs?
Hizumi: They were songs we had played at lives.
Z: "Misshitsu" was relatively new.
Hizumi: Oh, that's right.
Zero: When we made it, that is.
ーSo was this a must-have for fans going to lives then?
Zero: I think so. For the songs we had at the time.
ーWere the (vocals) for all 3 songs recorded in the shower?
Hizumi: (laugh) Yes. There's no weight to my voice at all (laugh).
Tsukasa: All-natural reverb.
Karyu: Well, it was pretty shocking because it was completely different from our impression of how foreign artists record (laugh)
Everyone: (laugh)
ーHow was it? The sales.
Karyu: Not bad?
Zero: I think they weren't bad.
Karyu: Yeah.
Hizumi: Thanks to them being not bad, is probably why we got invited to "HYSTERIC MEDIA ZONE."
ーOh~. When you get to this point, you evolve from ticket quotas, to...?
Karyu: You start getting guarantees.*
Zero: Yeah.
Hizumi: Well, to some extent.
* A guarantee is a rate a band is paid for performing. Rather than having to hit a ticket quota and possibly pay to play, they're instead paid for their appearance.
ーSo you were on track?
Karyu: We were.
Hizumi: The first press was limited to 1,000 copies.
ーDoesn't this show up on Yahoo Auctions?
Hizumi: Occasionally.
ーIt seems like it'd go for a lot of money.
Zero: I've never seen a first press.
Hizumi: Yeah, I haven't seen one, either.
ーAs you are now, would you want current fans to... hear this one?
Hizumi: No (laugh).
Karyu: I think we're doing pretty well.
ーAs in?
Karyu: Well, the music and singing was a little... (laugh).
Everyone: (laugh)
Karyu: Wouldn't we wanna re-record it?
Hizumi: Yeah.
ーIsn't a little self-deprecating?
Hizumi: Our direction now has probably changed. That was like something from another dimension.
ーI see. Then, aside from lives, is there anything else you did that left an impression?
Zero: If I had to pick something, it was probably the year that the car we bought right after forming broke down (laugh).
Hizumi: When we went to Kumagaya?
Zero: It broke down after something like a year.
Hizumi: Huh? Wasn't it later? On our way to Kumagaya.
Tsukasa: On the highway?
Zero: The Kumagaya one was our second car.
Hizumi: Ah, right. Eh? When the engine stalled and we got it towed?
Zero: Wasn't that the second car?
Hizumi: Was it?
ーWhy did it break down after a year?
Zero: Because, it cost about 200,000 yen for the car (laugh).
ー(laugh)
Tsukasa:Wait, wasn't that the first car?
Zero: It wasn't.
Hizumi: Mi---gi Motors?
Zero: No, it wasn't.
Everyone: (laugh)
Tsukasa: Mi---gi Motors is very... (laugh).
Zero: Mi---gi Motors was the third car (laugh).
Hizumi: That was the third car? (laugh)
Karyu: Mr. Sato from Mi---gi Motors (laugh).
Tsukasa: I'm Mr. Sato from Mi---gi Motors. (Doing an impression)
Zero: Wasn't it Kato?
Hizumi: Sato.
Zero: Sato, huh.
Hizumi: There was a Sato there too, huh (laugh).
ーYou basically bought a cheap used car.
Zero: We did.
Hizumi: Wait, where did we go to look first?
Tsukasa: Was it Kumagaya? The brown...
Zero: Brown - grey?
Tsukasa: The dented one.
Hizumi: Ohh.
ーIs this where you bought the one that broke down?
Tsukasa: No, it was different from in the magazine so we didn't buy it.
Hizumi & Zero: (laugh)
Tsukasa: We went after seeing it in a magazine, right?
ZeroWe did.
Hizumi: Wait, do you remember going to Hachiouji the first time?
Karyu: We did. All together.
Zero: Yeah.
Hizumi: To look for a car (laugh).
ーI get the feeling this is how young bands handle things.
Hizumi: We did it without thinking about it whatsoever.
ーSo, was there a decent car in Hachiouji?
Hizumi: Was there, then? I feel like we thought we were gonna get scammed.
Karyu: So, we declined.
Zero: Oh, that happened, huh.
Hizumi: Like, isn't this too good of a deal? (laugh)
ーSo this year, your first car broke down, and then the next year it happened again?
Zero: That's right. I think both of them broke down in about a year.
ーYou buy a cheap car, so it breaks down from use?
Zero: It does. That's why we bought an expensive one the third time (laugh).
Hizumi: Yeah, it was expensive.
Tsukasa: A million yen.
ーWas that the Mi---gi Motors one?
Tsukasa: It was Ten--yu Motors.
Everyone: (laugh)
Hizumi: You really remember it.
Tsukasa: It was mine.
Karyu: You were in charge of it?
Tsukasa: I was on the title, so I got the phone calls. "It's time for the expection," and all. Thinking back on it, the second car, we all had to push down the narrow backroad behind AREA.
Hizumi: The engine wouldn't start (laugh).
Tsukasa: Zero had some special way of getting it to start. What was it?
Zero: Because it was my mission.
Karyu: Pushing it?
Everyone: (laugh)
Tsuaksa: It was to push it.
Karyu: Was it a bike?!
Hizumi: While we all pushed it.
Karyu: We don't need to talk about this sort of pathetic thing (laugh)
Everyone: (laugh)
Hizumi: It's fine, isn't it?
ーBut, because you're here now, isn't it a tough story you can laugh at?
Karyu: It's pitiful, thinking about it now.
ー(laugh)
Hizumi: It's the same for everyone (laugh).
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