SHOXX - November 2004 - the GazettE Interview

ALL ABOUT “DISORDER”

Congregation of sharpened spirits

GazettE, finally advancing towards their first cover feature. Also, the interview presenting their first full- album “DISORDER”, releasing on 13^th October.

Also this time, a quick recounting, even at the photo session, of the situation that turned out to be the preface of the tale continuing in the pages of SHOXX.

The strategy being not merely a one-shot plan, but setting up a new project, from the cover feature, through the pages of SHOXX, and as one would expect, keeping to their normal methods so typical of them. We received an elucidation upon every song at the interview.

----Thanks for your efforts at the photo-shoot for your first cover feature.

Ruki : It was another one of our wishes granted.

Kai : We jumped for joy, you know, the moment we received the news about the Gazette being the “Cover Feature of SHOXX”.

----The photography this time holds a lot of what you have planned for the times ahead, doesn’t it?

Ruki : That’s because the album “DISORDER” has an image of negatives like “chaos” and “confusion”. Even for the pages of SHOXX, we photographed as if the 5 of us were gathering at some sort of a hide-out, about to start something.

Kai : Each person who listens to the CD has a different way of thinking and perceiving things, and there is definitely no way to tell that, so we want them to feel those things freely, and also to enjoy themselves as we further expand this visual and the tale from now onwards.

----Like you just mentioned, there was a very clear concept for the album ‘DISORDER’ even as the production started, isn’t it?

Ruki : We wanted to convey the picture of utter chaos in the world of today through melodies carrying different expressions, in the form of various facets of human emotions.

----How did “intro”, which became the curtain-raiser of this tale, form in your head?

Ruki : The story starts with the scene where 5 music-junkies escape the police chasing them. Why these 5 people ended up getting chased by the police…is where this volume flowed out from, with the initial 2 songs.

----Although you act like 5 dangerous junkies in the production, such behaviour is definitely not seen normally, is it?

Aoi : That’s because the 5 of us are fine young men, normally.

Reita : Because we are told by the people we normally meet that “Such fine young men don’t exist.”, right?

Ruki : But when it comes to music, even these sort of 5 people end up turning awful, isn’t it……

----So, how did the 5 of you, starting with the escapade, go onto “THE $OCIAL RIOT MACHINE$”?

Kai : This composition had a quick tempo in the A-mellow parts and became quite a fast-paced song. It was something common, nothing special, but performing it was very Gazette-like…personally, though, it was quite troublesome for me to perform.

----But if I’m not mistaken, from the point of view of boosting up the Lives, doesn’t it turn out to be an absolutely lively song?

Uruha : That’s because it’s a composition which stresses upon vigour more than anything else, isn’t it?

Kai : Truly. I feel this is where we show our abilities. That’s the feeling that stays with me at Lives.

----This song, it doesn’t really have any lyrics, does it?

Ruki : There are a number of things said in English, but to pointlessly add lyrics doesn’t hold much importance for me. I want each person to listen to the song and grasp it’s feeling…well, if one reads the title, one thinks about checking what the level of the contents is. In any case, the moment Aoi came along with this composition, I was confident about this song being “one we couldn’t do without”.

----“Carry” is also a very lively song, and Ruki’s voice modulation while singing again sounds quite good, right?

Ruki : I did that because I wanted to bring forth the facets of human emotions clearly, by matching them with the sway of emotions embedded in the lyrics. Having said thus, it’s not that only happy aspects are included in the lyrics.

Uruha : Even with respect to the music, this song ends with a rather mechanical feel to it, isn’t it?

Ruki : There’s the movie called “Frankenstein”, isn’t it? This composition was made with that image originally, and when a song matching that picture was required, this is what it turned out to be, I guess.

Uruha : Frankenstein was a man-made person, so instead of putting all my efforts into too much of mechanization, because such a sound couldn’t be just inserted into it, I wondered how to bring forth a mechanical atmosphere through guitar phrases… From that point of view, it was difficult to give shape to that particular nuance there.

Ruki : Either way, this song revealed a very GazettE-like “intense, gothic atmosphere”. To that extent, it could also be said to have a “digital, mechanical, gothic core”. That was our opinion about this work.

----Do you have any opinions, from the point of view of drums, about this song?

Kai : In this song, the tuning of the tom-toms changes twice, and differing expressions have been included. For that reason, as of now we are making plans on how to deal with the increased number of tom-toms while performing this song at Lives.

----Next, the compilation of the forth song, the unique and well-known “Zakurogata no Yuuutsu”.

Uruha : I somehow felt how the more pronounced and fierce songs continued to come along, so I thought of trying to include a song which would drop the tempo once, in the flow of the Live, and could actually be heard, so I went ahead and brought along this song.

----Though this messes up the order of the conversation, your 3 singles have recorded big hits and are elbowing their way to the top of the charts. It was really moving when the 3 songs played back-to-back followed by the PV on ‘CDTV’, isn’t it?

Ruki : To state it simply, I was delighted.

Kai : We were touring at the time and were watching the programme in the car while moving. There was a lot of clapping and applauding when the 3 songs and the video played.

Reita : There weren’t enough people for an actual applause, you know.

----Next, the development of “Maximum impulse”, which has a rather tempestuous feel to it.

Uruha – Don’t the lyrics have a fellow doing drugs? But that wasn’t my outlook at the time of making the main song, so it was strange when it became a song about a druggist.

Ruki : I say the word ‘coke’ in between, but throughout, I’m using it as a word to represent that initial impulse, and I don’t want anybody to reach out for drugs, and I don’t want them to have any misunderstandings about this. It’s good that there are a variety of things which can send one in a trance, but they are not ‘drugs’.

----But in the lyrics, there is a sense of suddenly waking up with a start, isn’t it?

Ruki : I wanted that feeling of the moment of shock to be transferred as it is to the moment of listening to the song. At any rate, when I heard the demo track of the song for the first time, I got that feeling of the first impulse, so I felt I ought to bring out that junkie-ness through music in order to express that feeling.

----Since this is a very lively composition with overflowing dynamics, it seems to have become quite a riotously ‘good tune’ at Lives too, isn’t it?

Uruha : In truth, since it’s come to be such a consistent song for openings and closings, even at Lives, the song has totally become our forte, I think.

----What image did you personally hold while making this song?

Uruha : There were a lot of things, from the point of view of the image of floating away and turning it into music, and from the point of view of bringing it out emotionally. We had just completed “$OCIAL RIOT MACHINE$”, a song emanating ‘destructive energy’, so I guess I wrote this composition stressing upon ‘happy energy’. I did that, but the way the contents of the lyrics turned out to be over-energetic was…….

Ruki : That’s because compositionally, there was the image of non-stop shock…….

----What does “CUCUMBER DEVIL”, which appears in the lyrics, mean?

Ruki : That is the devil of the cucumber.

Reita : That’s such a cute devil!

Ruki : The lyrics were required to put into words the images that come to mind when one is in a trance-like state. Since I was writing about situations where one could see impossible things, various such deity-like expressions appeared.

----You don’t normally see those kind of impossible things in your head, do you?

Ruki : There definitely aren’t any risky images.

Reita : If there are any please enumerate them right here. Because then I’ll take you to the hospital immediately.

Ruki : I don’t do drugs at all! Even the ‘coke’ that appears in the lyrics, was actually referring to Cola, you know.

----Aoi, what is your personal impression of the composition?

Aoi : I too remember feeling the happy energy when I heard the original melody. So I play the guitar with emphasis on that aspect. When I play this song in particular, an image of everybody enjoying themselves at the Lives naturally comes to mind, you know. So I want to perform this song in front of everybody soon.

Reita : In this song, the atmosphere changes suddenly at the high point. But while preparing or performing the song, even that shift doesn’t seem out of place and instead becomes a natural change, so I think it turned out quite well.

Aoi : This song surely has an edge because it’s packed with parts which are heavy or expressions which are easy to feel a closeness with, and I think it turned out to be a composition fully loaded with exquisite parts.

Uruha : That’s true. And the feeling that all the members were having fun with rock comes across everywhere.

----And then, a complete change in the melody once again. One can feel the gentle touch of the acoustics as “Hana kotoba” is introduced.

Kai : In the song, the sound of the drum role, tambourines, etc is rather irregular in the beginning. Despite that, it’s very well compatible with the keynotes at the back (step recording). Again, the mood before the high point also makes quite an impact. Since we have never performed this sort of melody until now, it was a very fresh feeling.

----The sound of the acoustic guitar in “Hana kotoba” makes a deep, resonating impression, doesn’t it?

Aoi : I’ve had nothing but the acoustic guitar with me recently, so I was quite happy to be able to play this song with abandon. Though, somehow, the sound of the acoustic guitar spreads all over the place, the ambience in its entirety is built by the sound of the acoustic guitar as well as the drums, so even if there are differences to some extent, it exudes a nice charm, I think.

----Aren’t the sounds of various other instruments included?

Aoi : Well headmost, we utilized the sounds of various instruments from folk music. Yet, the composition seems to flow along steadily because the sound created is very simple.

----With respect to “Hana kotoba”, apart from holding the centre field of the album, it also lends a good feeling to the undulating flow of the entire product, doesn’t it?

Aoi : Right. Even if we perform at a Live playing the songs from this album alone, it still turns out to be an absolutely captivating experience.

----Uruha, what is your impression about the composition?

Uruha : It starts quite calmly at the opening, doesn’t it? After that, as the drums create the ‘pace of the moment’, the bass prepares the ‘ground’, Aoi’s guitar carves out the ‘space’ for the song, my guitar seems to be ‘roaming the skies’, and through those expressions, our individual performances in the song keep becoming gradually prominent.

Ruki : Eh? And I’m not even there?

Uruha : The song is absolutely the protagonist, so the fact is that it would be prominent anywhere. Based upon that, the 4 of us aimed at making the best use of each of our individualities within a single song. And then an overwhelming unification emerges at the high point. From this aspect too, we felt that we were once again able to create the form of the new GazettE through this composition.

Reita : That’s what it truly is like, isn’t it? I too aimed at giving this song a warm feeling, so I worked at giving each phrase a warm atmosphere. Even for the entire album, I thought of how I wanted to convey that mood, through managing the groundwork , and also sometimes adding phrases which would stand out, and overall giving a performance where it sustains the foundation.

----How do the lyrics broaden your worldview?

Ruki : In the beginning, I just got the theme ‘Hydrangea’ from Aoi, who wrote the composition, but I couldn’t remember what sort of a flower a Hydrangea was. Hydrangea is a beautiful flower which cannot be trampled upon right away, isn’t it? Nevertheless, I ended up writing various things for the lyrics, on the lines of “What if they are parched and then trampled upon?” But then I thought, “This is too different from the theme”, so then I re-wrote it… .

----But, what you wrote for the contents also turned out to be the same miserable conditions you were just talking of, isn’t it? It’s again a song with your forte, the sorrowful woman, making an appearance, right?

Ruki : The poem has words of the flower talking to itself.

Uruha : Eh, is that so?

Ruki : In short, this flower, being under the dandelions growing on the wayside, hoarsely asks of them, “What flower is this?”, and realizes how it’s a flower which, being different, is able to live on. For this reason, it wishes for “an existence where it could be loved by anybody”, but is unable to change its own fate.

----So this song was the flower itself crying out.

Ruki : Maybe it’s just that I always keep writing too many lyrics about heartbreak, but whenever I write lyrics about love, they invariably end up being songs about heartbreak or sadness. I was thinking how “I just can’t write lyrics from a point of view other than this, can I?”, when Aoi came along with this song, saying “This song was created in the rainy season so I used Hydrangea as a motif”, and I thought, “That’s it!”… . However, once I started writing, it still turned out to be a rather angry song, so full of hatred.

Aoi : Like Ruki also said, the fact that it was a song made in the rainy season, and also that the lovely Hydrangea flower fit so well with the beautiful sound of the acoustic guitar; those were the reasons I came up with that word. Since the Hydrangea flower also carries the meaning of ‘betrayal’ in the story, which differs from its appearance, we thought how that particular nuance could also be brought forth in the lyrics, and as a result, the song shaped up quite skillfully, I guess.

----Moving on, “Tokyo shinjuu” again has weighty subject matter, isn’t it?

Kai : The poetry is wonderful. I felt the lyrics crash all over me when I read them.

Ruki : Since the time this song was being made, I had been thinking, “Let’s make a song in the style of the ancient ballads”. As I wrote the tale, the story of the relationship between two people got steadily longer, so I wondered what to do. What came out of that was the technique of including a monologue-like talk in the middle of the song.

----Though the ending is sad, had you assumed that since the beginning itself?

Ruki : The way the ending would shape up was all I could sort of visualize in the beginning, and there was the scene, “Eloping couple jump into the ocean to commit lovers’ suicide” initially, so the story unfolded from there onwards. Yet, for the high point, etc, I managed to avoid using any beautiful words, and instead used ones which would seem mismatched if listened to normally.

Kai : But I came over that so fast! Even now, I get goosebumps every time I listen to the song, you know.

Uruha : This song is truly one where visualizing the circumstances is easy, isn’t it?

----What about the sad ending?

Uruha : I’m really envious of the image of that connection of never-ending love which goes on to the extent of even dying together, you know.

Ruki : That, for certain, is pure love. As in, love which you cannot turn away from, right? (laughs)

----So, it can never turn out to be a happy ending.

Ruki : Since I have personally never seen instances where it turns out to be a happy ending, such a thing is impossible.

Uruha : I’m fairly predisposed to envy. I’ll return to the topic, but just imagining the final scene of the couple jumping off the cliff towards the ocean makes the forms of the two of them become so beautifully visible.

Reita : Don’t the two of them go walking towards the deep sea holding hands?

Aoi & Kai : I thought so too.

Ruki : That is just the case when they jump off.  But it’s a given, that as the two would sink to the bottom of the ocean, and their consciousness would steadily grow fainter, their hands would lose their hold.

----Lyrics which can be interpreted in various ways depending upon the listener are sort of good, right?

Ruki : Well, it’s nice if some particular lyrics are talked about by everybody, like that. Incidentally, the theme “Heartbroken Lovers’ suicide” also has the same sentiment of DISORDER ensuing in the chaotic world of today.

Reita : I too remember feeling deeply moved, to the extent of getting goosebumps, every time I listen to the song. Regrettably though, I have not yet loved a person deeply enough to have a connection of the sort those two had.

----What do you have to say about that, Ruki?

Ruki : ……I have……Hm~……

----Moving ahead, there is “SxDxR”, with a sudden change in expression once again.

Ruki : This song is again a compressed composition of SEX & DRUG & ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. Even the appearance of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and his girlfriend Courtney Love in the lyrics is  because I wrote the two of them as symbolic of being junkies.

----It made good sense to pick the pair, isn’t it?

Ruki : I also thought how Sid and Nancy might just be better.

----But in the lyrics, the name of Malcolm McLaren, the creator of SEX PISTOLS, also makes an appearance, doesn’t it?

Ruki : Malcolm was the one who set up that movement, so I checked what it’d be like to have his name there. Melody-wise, it has a punkish feel, and since it was made with that mood, I was able to complete it comparatively quickly.

Reita : At the time of the production of the album, the first song I was able to grasp was this one. It’s easy to get into the mood with this composition and play it, so I too was able to finish recording with just 30 minutes of performing it.

Aoi : I too assumed it was the Live and was able to play it quite well with that mood.

Kai : Phrase-wise too, I could play the drums in rhythm along with the flow.

Uruha : I, sort of learnt the most from this song, and from the album, this one composition in particular stayed on in my memories, you know. Having said that, ever since I heard the title “SxDxR”, I held the notion that “this is a rock song”, so in the beginning, I played it with my own fixed idea of rock. But what Ruki had requested for this song was a more hard-core, heavy feel, so I tried taking up that style too as a challenge. I guess it was great that as a result, my guitar play turned out to be such that the new element of rock in me came forth. I felt that it once again taught me how stereotypes are unimportant in music.

----This “SxDxR” is again a symbol of a music junkie, isn’t it?

Ruki : Hm~ What do I say. I was conscious of the fact that rock is not the most interesting thing, and also that there isn’t just one way to rock. Even in these lyrics or songs, the attitude of “anything being there is fine” definitely comes across.

Uruha : Holding onto stereotypes is not rock, you know.

Ruki : It came to be a product which will firmly crush all such stereotypes.

----Considering this, the album “DISORDER’ turned out to be a product which not only crushes all fixed ideas about rock, but also crushed the ideas held by the GazettE as musicians themselves, isn’t it?

Ruki : Right. The attitude of underrating rock was the main point of this composition. We are all evil spirits from heaven, and basically the attitude of “everything exists” is strong.

----To continue, “Anti pop” again turned into an interesting melody, didn’t it?

Ruki : This song was the most troublesome to make.

Reita : I started with a jazzy phrase in my head, and I had played and checked beforehand that this was a song with quick changes in melody as it would progress. But what actually was troublesome during the production itself was proceeding on to a fast tempo like “SxDxR” after quickly changing keys, and to do it in a restrained manner…something of the sort.

Ruki : But you said, “Speed is important in this song”.

Reita : I did it because I concluded that “it would be good even if around one song in the album would naturally flow at a lively pace”.

----Truly, compositions which completely change the worldview so much are wonderful, aren’t they?

Reita : Also, with the sound of the “1 2 3 4” of Kai’s drum-beats, the acceleration goes up at once.

Kai : Reita requested me, “Please say it”, so even I put full force into the words. It’s staggeringly fast while listening, actually. I’m used to such tremendous speeds, so I was able to play the drums unexpectedly smooth.

Reita : Just the recording of the “1 2 3 4” took 3~4 takes, didn’t it?

Kai : Well I had a feeling that the beginning was crucial, and whether or not everybody would have a booming entry at the performance was dependent upon the sound of my drum-beats, so I wanted be that stimulus right from the start. And then, since everybody’s chorus enters at B-mellow, there is a sensation of achieving a sort of unification, at Lives.

----Even the lyrics take one by surprise. Like, “Will you go back home and grope even your mother’s breasts?”

Ruki : About the lyrics, you know, in the past, there were many instances of us flattering the fans. The mentality of flattering by saying “Kindly watch this” seems irritating now, as in, “Why did we do such things?”

----Perhaps what is included in the lyrics, “Lining up just the good tunes” is an expression related to the Gazette of the bygone days?

Ruki : Right. Though I never used abusive words, it won’t be wrong to say that we, in the past used to say that they are all good tunes. But now that attitude has fucked off. We are now of the opinion that we’ll “do (only) as we wish to do, unconcerned about everything”. So they also turned into lyrics carrying such a strong message.

Aoi : Yeah, more than performing in a free and uncontrolled manner, with no concern about anything. To us, performing means more than that, for sure. We now perform with that spirit. Though I’m repeating myself, that intro had an impact.

Reita : I did a lot of trial and error to figure out how to rapidly change from the jazzy build-up of the song… But everybody made it evolve into the most ideal form, so it was good.

Uruha : That is sort of our job, to take up some music requested by a person and to amplify it into something beyond what had been requested, as far as possible. If you think about it that way, each member has the power of a speaker through which sound can be amplified.

----Continuing, “Shichigatsu youka” is again……

Kai : Noticed something when you heard the title or the song?

----If it’s someone you like, I understand.

Kai : There is a song “Wakaremichi” by the GazettE which we made 2 years ago, the song “Shichigatsu youka” is a sequel to that. The lyrics too talk about 2 people who went onto different paths, and in the end, what ultimately became of them. Even from the composition point of view, we had a uniformity spanning the 2 songs without changing the ambience or the phrases of “Wakaremichi” much.

----Kai, you seem quite fond of the lyrics too.

Kai : “Wakaremichi” is about 2 people taking different paths owing to their separate futures, despite loving each other a lot. 2 years later, on 8^th August (which is also the anniversary of their first meeting), the heartbreak truly came back…… .

Ruki : As I worked at a singing-specific composition full of aesthetic elements, which I had been wanting to make, I realized that the composition came to be similar to “Wakaremichi”. Taking it from there, I thought, “with the story of 2 years later as the base, let’s make a composition for an adult version of “Wakaremichi”” and I made this.

Reita : By raising just the high point and half-tone, I played with practically the same chord progressions.

Uruha : Concerning the guitar phrase too, it took shape capitalizing well upon the flow of the previous work, didn’t it?

----It’s always a woman, who meets a sad ending, making an appearance, but here a man meets a lonely end. Isn’t this a strange pattern?

Ruki : Although they promised to “meet again” at the stage of “Wakaremichi”, the girl forgot the promise and besides, met up with another man…it’s an awfully cruel story, isn’t it?

----That’s true, even though it’s seen quite commonly.

Ruki : If one says men don’t have such a side to them, it’s taken as a lie. But don’t women also have quick changes of heart? Surely, the ones who seem to have any lingering affection, are men.

Uruha : The ones who turn into dangerous stalkers are also mostly men, right?

Ruki : Even though women also turn into fleeting stalkers, don’t they completely change if treated with some gentleness? But men, they turn rapidly vicious.

Reita : Has someone been unfaithful to you too?

Ruki : It was long back…but it did happen. It was intolerable then, but if one likes the other person, one sort of ends up forgiving the person even if it’s in vain.

----And then, at the final stage, “Saraba” makes an appearance. This is a song with a strong message, isn’t it?

Ruki : Initially, I had only decided upon the title “Saraba”, but ever since that time I’d been wanting to make a song containing the tremors of war. So, when Uruha came with this composition and I heard it, there was a war-song-like feel to it, and I went, “This is it!”

Uruha : I made the song with the aim of “making it a deeply meaningful composition”, but war and war-songs was not exactly what I had in mind, rather, I was thinking upon the lines of “it could turn out to be a composition about mature connections”. So I was surprised when it turned out to have lyrics in relation to war or the opinions of a young  Japanese boy. But well, the aspect of singing about the unity against war was indeed connected with the “bonds” that I myself had wished for, so I was absolutely satisfied.

----But, why did you take up war or the psychology of a young Japanese boy to turn it into a song?

Ruki : I was watching a debate programme, contesting over the issue of dispatching the self-defence forces, where one side called for “Opposition to War”, while the other had an approving opinion, saying “War is Inevitable”. So, one of the reasons was that I wanted to talk about “why the fellow Japanese people are so disputed over this problem”. When I hear stories of past wars from someone, I identify with the mental strength the Japanese possessed in the past, and I felt like learning about that feeling. I definitely oppose war, but also the narrow-minded controversies over issues with obvious conclusions. Long back, there were large numbers of young Japanese men who suffered an honourable death, as the Kamikaze, for their country. I wrote these lyrics wanting everybody to remember “What on earth was the truth that got conveyed out of that reality?”

Reita : The war came around about the time when my Grandpa was living, and there were plenty of personal tales of tragedy I got to hear. Not to mention, the number of people who experienced the war has been rapidly reducing, and before we know it, there’ll only be people who know nothing about how tragic war is. For this reason, even with the intention of conveying how “one must not dodge away from this”, this composition is definitely also one that we, as GazettE, want to leave behind to live on for generations.

Kai : Though we can’t express such thoughts in any way other than through music, by singing and performing, it is also true that lots of thoughts are stuffed into this, and if our thoughts can be conveyed across to everybody, I’ll be quite happy.

----And then lastly, with another Instant Number “Disorder heaven”, it is brought to a finish, right?

Ruki : By placing Instant Numbers at the beginning and the end, the ends of the entire product get drawn together, and by placing compositions having something in common, the entire album is linked together in a loop.

----That method of production is so stylish, isn’t it?

Ruki : What we wanted to say through this album was that this world, including Japan, is ruled by chaos, and since this world is a chaotic Kingdom of Heaven, the conclusion is that not everything ends happily. The thought, of such a chaotic situation/condition being DISORDER after all, developed this way, as we put in our sort of message through this work.

----So what route will the 5 guys take, who were running from one place to the other to start with?

Ruki : We’re in that state of escape even now.

Kai : After completion and inspection, what I felt was that this one album has the flow of a Live. Of course, since the album also has compositions which display our specialty very well, at the Lives, I want to hurl and spew all those thoughts out with all my heart.

----As a precursor is the “TRIBAL ARIVALL TOUR”, beginning in October, where you’ll be touring the country with Kra and bis.

Reita : It’ll be an event-tour after a long while, but I myself learn a lot through events. There is mutual growth as one gains encouragement and motivation, and the best thing would be relate it all at the One-Man starting in December.

Kai : Beginning from ZEPP TOKYO in December, we go touring the major cities for “ROYAL DISORDER”. From February next year, we push the scales further up with “GRAND ROYAL DISORDER” opening up.

Aoi : Touring for an event with 3 bands, there are also many places we visit for the first time, so the plan is to further develop, the Lives with DISORDER as the focus, as well as the best kind of Gazette.

Kai : This volume of SHOXX, the album “DISORDER”, these are all new beginnings for the GazettE, so please experience the beginning of this fresh new page together with us.

Ducky's Notes:

1. Happy Birthday, Kou san :D

2. I'd suggest opening this page up as you read the interview to understand what they're talking about better.

3. I tried my best, but i might still have misinterpreted some things here and there. I apologize for those errors.
4. This was the photoshoot. I'll do the last two pages after the interview as soon as possible :)
5 Thanks to [rawkstarr23@lj] and [gazette_daily@lj] for the scans!