Translated from original text by Hiroshi Mitsutani, originally appearing in M-Gazette vol. 24, May 1999.
What were your impressions, as a guitarist, when you tried playing "Desperate"?
It's like the 16-beat songs that Janne Da Arc started out playing, isn't it? I had been trying to play it for a while beforehand, but until now we hadn't played it on stage at all for some reason. Personally, this is the type of song that I really like a lot, so I felt really good while playing it and had a great time.
In the B-Melody (the part that begins "At times, you have nights like this...") it seems you really like those muted arpeggios.
That's right, but that was something that kiyo put in the version on the demo tape. I really liked those parts on the tape, and so they became the arpeggios in the current form.
What about the guitar solo?
I feel like it's a weeping sort of solo. The atmosphere given by the background gives the same impression. There was a time that I thought about just keeping it one line, but then I thought about adding one more after that. Those two lines really seemed to suit one another somehow. The lines that were added in after the first two were entirely ad-libbed.
In the other songs, a pattern of playing quickly on your part is fairly evident in a lot of them, but do you use those weeping sort of solos as frequently?
I do, I really like them. Up until now I haven't had very many chances to do them, but this time around I think I've gotten really good at making them work. Generally, I really like them a lot.
In "R-TYPE [Hitomi no Iro]", there's quite an impression left by the beam-like sound that you produce with the whammy bar from the intro forward.
When yasu put that on the demo tape, when he put on those notes that sounded like that, he told me, "To make the sound come out like this, I suppose we can only use the whammy bar..." When we had it during the recording session, yasu was standing back there touching it, messing with it the whole time. (Laughs.)
You've become very good at using the wah pedal as well.
I really loved using the wah pedal, but until now I really couldn't use it for much of anything. I think that maybe I'll be using it more and more from now on.
"Psycho Dance" seems like it would have been very difficult.
From the beginning, I didn't make the guitar part in that one stand out.
During the A-Melody (that begins "Within the mysterious empty space...") the distorted guitar parts were used well. Could it be that those were done with the wah pedal?
That's right. We started the sound from the right, and then added in our usual backing from the left.
During recording, did you play while sitting in a chair?
Yes, I was sitting. When I had to manipulate the wah pedal, I was playing in my socks...and when my socks wore down badly enough that I was in bare feet, I did my best to manipulate the pedal with my fingers. (Laughs.)
(Laughs.) So you don't mess up, right? During live shows, when you're using the wah pedal, which method do you use to push the button?
Now, I'm still trying to figure that out a little bit. Before, when we didn't have a wah pedal, those notes were just freeze notes...so I'm still working on deciding what to do with them.
And what about "...song"?
The introduction and phrases are the same as they were on the original demo tape. But, the phrases that kiyo added in were hard to perfect on the guitar, and maintaining the balance between the guitar and keyboard is really difficult. In the beginning, there was an acoustic guitar part added in as well.
The acoustic part was difficult?
I kept on messing it up completely. So, when I was at home, the acoustic part was the only thing I was playing.
What parts of the "Labyrinth" arrangement that was done when you were in high school have changed since then?
The only thing that changed was myself. I got opinions from the other band members as to how to deal with the backing. Since I had never done it on stage before, changing it was quite difficult.
You can hear that you use several patterns in your guitar work that involve a very deep sound.
I play so many different ones because I want people to be able to listen to it multiple times.
What points do you really focus on so that you can produce that deep impression in your sound?
As far as the guitar is concerned, I think the way that you play makes the most difference. Where you place the muted notes, your sense of timing; these are the things that make a piece that feels right.
Was "Strange Voice" difficult for you?
To say that it was difficult, well, I wanted to make something that made me feel a little uneasy, so I added in some discord and some shaky notes. But, that caused some arguments with those around me (Laughs). I told them, "No matter what, I want to put this sound in!", but in the end, it ended up being decided by the arrangement anyway. (Laughs.) Gradually, I did add in some very uncomfortable, brassy-sounding notes...(Laughs.) In the end, I ended up getting that uneasy feeling after all...
You don't really accentuate the guitar parts much, do you?
No, not for three or four songs. There are those that do have stronger guitar parts, though. If I don't put the guitar parts in too strongly, it's easier to hear how all of the parts work together.
So, it's not the emphasis, it's more that you have an idea that you want people to say, "Is there more than one person playing this?"
For me, I have five or six patterns that I'm thinking about for a certain piece, and during recording we can put those over one another perfectly. So, with that, I feel like we've already decided how the piece is going to be played. However, when recording is over, it presents a problem; the problem of "How am I going to play this live?" So, that's why the solo in "Desperate" is different live than it is on the recording.
Out of all the songs on the album, which one, or which part, do you feel you especially put yourself into?
As a guitarist, I would like people to listen closely to the solo in "Psycho Dance", since I spent such a long time playing it to be able to do it well.