Neo Genesis - Volume 44 - Personal Interview

URUHA

“Back in the old days, I didn’t like music”. Uruha, talking in brief about his history as a guitarist, from such an extraordinary past to his journey to the present. High on motivation ever since having held a guitar in Middle School, going to the extent of saying “I like devoting myself to learning” and holding an almost greedy spirit of enquiry when it comes to music. Let us introduce intriguing chapters from the life of one of the key persons sustaining the unique musical works by the GazettE.

----When was your first time with a guitar?

“The first time I held a guitar was in Middle School. It was the era of the ‘Band Boom’…… If I’m not mistaken, a friend of mine in the 2^nd year of Middle School had a guitar, and he came home to show it to me. He even had a tiny amplifier and an effector, and at the time, it was quite unusual to have someone who had all those things. He played the Intro to some song, and I went “Wow!”. He let me play too, and it was so much fun.”

----On the contrary, was there never a time before that when you felt like trying out a guitar?

“Never ever. Either way, I hated music. Though I normally used to listen to those J-POP songs playing in Hit Charts on the television…… But I hated music classes. There aren’t many chances for people, other than the ones going for music classes, to lay their hands upon any instruments, like a recorder or a piano, are there? Anyway, I hated that…… According to me, band music was what such music wasn’t, and I felt that to be just the right thing for me…… A place where there were no rules.”

----(laughs) ‘A place where there are no rules’ does express a lot of what the charm of rock bands is. One feels absolutely free.

“That’s right. Whichever way one puts it, I hate being ‘made to’ do things, no matter what. I used to play soccer too…… I think the trigger for why I started was also that my parents made me go in for sports. Because one could learn a lot through sports. And I myself started enjoying it, somewhat, as I continued with it…… I suppose my ‘My Pace’ self came around from that point onwards? Having to go for practice at fixed timings used to seem oppressive to me and because I couldn’t do anything to change that, I couldn’t really immerse myself into it. But that wasn’t the case with things I liked, games or manga, for example, and ever since the old days, I was the type who could get lost in them. To that ‘me’, bands felt like the ultimate ‘real’ things, you know.”

----So, for you, a band or a guitar was, one way or the other, something to plunge into, with all one’s heart and soul. When did you get your own guitar?

“There are these bands performing at school Cultural Fests, aren’t there? For some reason, I had SUGIZO’s model bought for me. When I talk to my parents about that time, it seems they were probably thinking on the lines of “He’s going to lose interest anyway.” (laughs). But I think I worried my parents a little, when I didn’t return to soccer after that, and completely immersed myself into this, because I was taking a plunge into a world where even making a living seemed so difficult.”

----Taking the guitar seriously must’ve been inevitable for you then, even if it just meant relieving your parents’ worry.

“Yes. I practiced real hard after that. For example, when there are two people, one can see how each sound rapidly changes over time, isn’t it? I got really passionate about reproducing the sounds of the bands I was practising, at the time, when I started. Even for my Daily Time (time for letting the guitar sounds reverberate, using the effector), since the cheaper effector I bought with my limited means wasn’t good enough to reproduce those sounds properly, I worked part time and bought something that matched those standards and then tried it out. (There were) things which I wasn’t able to understand in the beginning when I listened to them just once, but by listening to them more thoroughly, and looking at the score sheets, I would eventually feel, “Is this how it is……” and then actually trying it out, and going “Really!” used to be a lot of fun.”

----There’s a lot of variety even among those effectors…… There really seems to be no stopping once one starts looking for different ways to produce sounds.

“Right right. I used to like researching and devotedly learning about things since the beginning. I could be considered almost a maniac, actually…… Particularly in bands with two guitarists, identification isn’t difficult even with the sounds flowing so smoothly, isn’t it? Because there are differences even in the complications in their individual sounds. When I listen to them, I feel, “This is so heavy with emotions!”. When I feel, “This person wants to attempt such and such”, I like it when I listen to them and see their emotions conveyed well.”

----Do you think that spirit of inquiry, or even that maniacal disposition, is still present in your style?

“Aah…… For example, aren’t guitar solos the easiest to listen to and decipher? Even I used to find that quite cool in the beginning, but still, what I like are those exceptional parts. Mostly, they are the ones which make me feel how cool they are. Those are the parts which “talk” to me.”

----Aah. The guitar “talks”. That again is such a typically guitarist-esque expression (laughs).

“(laughs) It is as if it’s, talking~ But it’s no good having such a thing, you know. I still think that even if the façade isn’t flashy, a guitar which can express the significance of a song well, is admirable.”

----What is your basis for selecting the equipment in order to express “the significance of a song”?

“Whatever the song signifies…… I think the guitar isn’t all that important here, if the digital sounds are primary. But a band is not formed of those, so one has to consider how far a guitar can go for expressing (something). I feel, that though there is a limit to how much one can express through a guitar, that level is upto oneself to decide. So I use whatever equipment is available to us as of now, and search for something that comes closest to whatever image I hold in my mind. Of course, my own guitar that I mainly use is always there. My model guitar too. I have a method, where in the initial stages of making a song, I test a lot of tones in the instrumentation area, irrespective of their makers, and then I finally try to replicate those sounds with my own guitar. Afterall, at a Live, one can’t rely upon anything but one’s own guitar playing.”

----So, your secret strategy is to first check out all sorts of things, without holding any opinions in mind.

“ Yeah, rather than not holding any opinions, I think it’s more on the lines of trying out a wide variety of things without holding any prejudices in my mind. At the end of the day, it’s just like an urge to keep wanting to know more and more about what one likes, right till the end.”




Ducky's Notes: 
1. Uruha's way of speaking is so gentle, it makes me want to hug him. But all that vagueness doesn't bode too well for a translation now, does it? I'm sorry about all the errors that might have crept in, though i tried my best to keep it as close to the real thing as possible. Do let me know if you spot any gaping mis-translations :) 
2. Credit for the scans goes to [rawkstarr23 and gazette_daily at LJ]. Thanks a lot!