ROCK AND READ BAND 003 A9 Interview
Something will awaken in these "beautiful beasts"?! Let's take another look at A9's origins before their 15th year anniversary!
There will be an "important announcement" 10 days after this magazine is released, on August 10 at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. As we look forward to the live show, let's take a look at their 15-year history. The members were frank and open about everything, such as unknown backstories that some members learned about for the first time from before the band formed, discord during the period they were classified as neo Visual-kei, and setbacks at their International Forum Hall A show, which became a turning point for them. That they can be so honest here is surely because they are in a better place now.
A9, who are celebrating their 15th year anniversary this year, first released the 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST ALBUMS "Kachou no Chou" and "Fuugetsu no Shi", re-recordings of songs chosen by the members, on April 24th. This was something that was kind of expected. The issue is then what came after that.
Show: Yes (laughs). Many things.
Yes. On the first day on the tour on May 4th, you made some very interesting announcements. The tour that you are currently on now (interview took place in mid-June) in conjunction with those albums, "BEST OF A9 TOUR ALIVERSARY" had "A9 LAST ONE MAN TOUR" added to the tour title. Also, the tour final, which will take place on August 10th at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, "BEST OF A9 TOUR ALIVERSARY FINAL A9 15TH ANNIVERSARY" also had "A9 LAST ONEMAN" added to the title. On this day, the band will make an "important announcement". On top of that, the live at Hibiya will be your last one man live, but it was announced that at the A9 festival live, "Beautiful Beast Fest.", to take place afterwards on August 24th, for some reason, even though it's A9's festival live, they will be the opening act. Although you are welcoming your 15th year anniversary, we don't know if A9 is in a celebratory mood or not (laughs). Today, while asking about a general outline of these last 15 years, I would also like to ask about the true meaning of these interesting announcements.
All: Sure.
In what aspects do you feel that this is your 15th anniversary year?
Nao: That my stiff shoulders won't go away. I'm joking (laughs). It would be that just looking at the number of songs we have, we have over 100 songs! Personally, it doesn't feel like we have that many songs. But we already have over 100 songs. That's amazing.
Show: We have about 120 songs.
Nao: The fact that the number of songs we have are in the triple digits actually makes it feel like we have been doing this for 15 years. Though saying we have been doing this for 15 years, we have always been doing this, so I don't actually feel the gravity of that. But taking the time to think about it, 15 years is quite some time. It's very long.
It's the length of time it would take for a newborn baby to reach third year in middle school. 15 years.
Nao: That's right. When fans tell me "I first started listening to you when I was in elementary school", it makes me think "Are you serious?!". When I think that those fans who were elementary school students back then are now adults and are full-fledged members of society, it really is a long period of time. It makes me actually feel just how long 15 years is.
Saga: I don't really get that feeling if you tell me a newborn baby would be in third year in middle school, but if I were to compare that length of time to a prison sentence, I do think "That's real long" (laughs).
It was just an example, but still (laughs).
Saga: Mine was a bad example, but putting it in terms of prison sentences makes it feel long.
Tora: That's true!
Saga: Just try imagining "A9 in prison for 15 years". It would make you think that we weren't able to be out in the free world for quite a long time.
Tora: Gahahaha.
On the other side of the fence.
Saga: Right. Don't bands have an element that is detached from the real world, by nature? Although I do think we have to match our feeling to society, when you've been in a band this long, this feeling starts to disalign with that of society, and become different. Lately I've been getting this feeling that when you're not in the free world and on the other side of the fence for 15 years, "Even if we were to go out into the free world now, it would be impossible to live a normal life". I feel that I can no longer live a normal life. In our 15th year anniversary, I get this kind of feeling that even from now on, I'll be living like a lifetime gambler.
Tora: I might not even feel that we are in our 15th year at all. Because our band has had more events than I thought it would.
What do you mean by events?
Tora: We left our management company, and there were many other troubles and accidents (laughs).
And in actuality, you yourself had a big accident (emergency operation due to myocardial infarction) last year.
Tora: Since there were many things that happened, I feel like we were able to do this for 15 years without getting bored.
Hiroto: For me, I feel it at those moments when I get dejavu. Actually having experienced the moment in the past, recently, there's been plenty of times where I was like "I've felt this feeling in this situation before". I get that feeling when I'm with the members, and I've been getting it quite a lot at lives too. Right now, we're on tour for the best of album, and there have been many times where I felt "I don't quite remember it clearly since it was such a long time ago, but I've felt this feeling before". That is where I actually feel that we are in our 15th year.
Show: You might feel that quite a lot recently since we were on tour for "Kachou no Chou", the best of album that covers our early years. Now, we've started touring for "Fuugetsu no Shi", the best of album that covers our years as "Alice Nine". For each tour, we travelled across half of Japan. As for the way we built the setlist for the tours, we say that this particular block is for "Alpha1", and this block is for "VANDALIZE2", and we play 3 - 4 songs from the albums without any talk breaks in between. What I think when we do that kind of tour is...... Hehehe, the ladies in front of us go back to being "young girls". That is what I feel, looking out from the stage. "VANDALIZE" is the last album we released under KING RECORDS, and that was already 10 years ago. When we play songs from "VANDALIZE", those 25-year old ladies go back to being 15 years old. Although we probably can't compare ourselves to the "magic" that happens with bands such as BUCK-TICK, even for bands with a history such as ours, that kind of magic happens too. I really do feel that music transcends time.
In that way, it was a really good thing to have made these best of albums.
Show: That's right. The best of album itself was a project which started without any motivations like "If we released this, then our old fans will come back".
If I remember correctly, the best of albums were made with the goal of the current version of yourselves facing your older songs and drawing out the good qualities of the songs to complete them.
Show: That's right. But when we did that, many fans who we've not seen in a while came to see our live shows. I think that as a project, it was a good that we did that. Re-arranging over 20 songs at once, half-way through it seemed like Saga was going to work himself to death, and I did wonder if he would be okay. Honestly, I was worried about whether or not we would produce the results that corresponded to the efforts put into it, but we are currently on tour feeling that it was a good that we did this, so I'm relieved. Looking at the fans' faces during the live show and thinking that music really does transcend time, through the setlist that is packed with several albums of songs, I feel twice the weight of 15 years.
So, could you please tell us once again the details of how A9 was formed 15 years ago?
Show: If we were to give a proper explanation--
Saga: It's a band formed with members with really bad reputations.
Nao: (Looking at Saga) You didn't have a bad reputation, though?
Saga: Yeah, I didn't.
Nao: Neither did I.
Show & Saga: You did, you did!
Nao: What?! I'm sure I didn't~ (laughs).
Show: To be completely honest, Hiroto, Nao, and myself were invited to be in another band. When I asked Nao "So, are we gonna be in this band?", he was like "Nope, not me".
Nao: Gahahahaha. You're making me out to be the bad guy (laughs).
Show: Before that, Saga and Nao--
Nao: That was at Rokumeikan3, right?
Saga: Right.
Nao: I barged into the place and suddenly said to Saga "Be in my band", and exchanged contact info with him.
Saga: Even though I was still in another band.
Nao: At the time, I thought my life was in a dangerous spot, so I had no time to care about others around me.
Since your band had already disbanded at the time, you were desperate.
Nao: Yes. It was just at the time where the internet was getting more widespread, and after looking at many bands on the internet, I thought "Him. He's good".
Saga: So I was chosen in the same way people choose prostitutes from a webpage (laughs). By Nao.
Show: That's an awful analogy (laughs).
Nao: So when I saw him play live at Rokumeikan, he was exactly as I thought he would be like, so I spared no time to go and convince him to start a band with me.
Show & Hiroto & Tora: Ahh~.
Show: Even though we've been together for 15 years, it's my first time hearing about it in such detail.
Nao: I was in a really dangerous spot back then.
Saga: It was unheard of. He tried to headhunt me even though the other band members were standing right in front of us.
Nao: Hahaha. That is crazy.
Saga: It was that bravery of Nao, who had tried to headhunt me in that situation, that won me over.
Show: Amazing!!
Hiroto: That is amazing.
Saga: It left a strong impression on me.
Show: That's a nice story. It really is my first time hearing that he charged into Rokumeikan.
Hiroto: I've only heard the story from the point in time when these two (Nao and Saga) were together and other other two (Show and Tora) were together. So this is my first time hearing this.
Despite it being your 15th year, you finally discovered the truth!
Hiroto: That's right.
Saga: But I had my own circumstances, and it had only been about half a year since I joined that band. So when Nao came upon me at that time, I said "It's definitely too early to quit". On top of that, I had been added to the band after they formed, so I kept thinking over it quite a lot. I mean, what kind of person would it make me, to quit at that time? But under the pressure of Nao's energy, I thought about joining his band.
Nao: Umm, you might have forgotten, but at that time, Saga had said to me, "I'm in the process of joining another band, and we already have the members finalized".
Saga: Huh? Really? I was invited to join quite a lot of bands.
Nao: That's right.
You were really popular.
Saga: Yes. I was at peak popularity. As a bassist, I'm just right.
Show: Ever since back then, Saga was a bassist that could make a band not doing so well have a "big break", simply because "the bassist is good-looking".
Amazing!!
Hiroto: What do you mean "just right"? You stood out like no one's business. When you looked at the flyers, all you could look at was him. And that "him" was Saga.
Saga: It certainly is true that I was popular among band members. Even though I'm not that social.
You received invitations from everywhere to join their band.
Saga: Right. But even among all that, Nao had left an especially strong impression on me, like "This guy is crazy".
Nao: So with the band Saga was invited to join, the members actually were in the middle of joining a management company.
Saga: That's right.
Show: Were you at the stage where they would treat you to BBQ meat from Jojoen4?
Saga: Right, that's right! I ate BBQ meat and they treated me well. At that time, I had already pulled Nao into this new band.
Nao: And so I was also treated to BBQ meat from Jojoen.
Hiroto: How cunning of him (laughs).
Nao: Yeah! Gahahaha!
Saga: At that time, Show & Tora had contacted Nao about starting a new band.
Show: That's right. I called Nao at about 10 in the morning. What I remember Nao saying to me at the time was just this one phrase: "I'm strict, you know?".
Nao: Puhahahahaha!
Show: His enthusiasm was at another level. Even at that time, Nao said "We're already old men compared to the young kids, so we can't keep starting new bands. My next band will be my last band". It really felt like he was on the edge of a cliff.
Saga: Right. Hearing that about Nao, I also got infected with that feeling, and even I started to get this "Oh crap" feeling. There was no other way about it, and we thought we better make a decision. So we spoke openly to the management company that treated us to BBQ meat, right? If I remember correctly, Nao contacted them.
Nao: Right. When I told them, "To be honest, it's impossible to go in the same direction with these members and be serious about this, so we quit", they were really kind and listened to us, and said "It is what it is". Because of that, Saga and I were able to form a band with Show and Tora.
Hiroto: By the way, I received an invitation to join the band of the president of that company.
Show & Tora: Oh?
Hiroto: But this was after I had met the other four, so I was also honest and said, "There's another band that I want to be in", and they understood, and said to me "Do your best".
Show: Wow. So after myself, Tora, Nao, and Saga got together, the four of us made an assault on the disbandment live of Hiroto's band.
Saga: We sure did.
Hiroto: I think the live the four of you came to was before the disbandment live? Because the band that these two (Nao and Saga) were in also played at the disbandment live.
Nao: Really?
Hiroto: "Really?", he says (laughs).
Show: Even his own memories are getting fuzzy.
Nao: I don't remember.
Saga: Right! It was the band in the management company that treated us to BBQ meat. We were serious about the band, so we played live shows and put in the effort. But Nao was pissed off all the time. To the point I felt sorry for the other members.
Nao: Even though I joined the band later, I had the most complaints. It was after putting in the effort that I had spoke to the company about it being impossible to continue working with these members.
I see. Hearing these stories, it feels like it was Nao's passion and seriousness that led the way to the formation of A9.
Saga: I think it is correct to say that Nao's passion formed the band.
Show: When we joined PS Company, I had even said to the manager at the time "I don't want to stand out, so can you write on Wikipedia that the "Nao formed the band"?".
Really?
Show: Yes. I'm serious. The manager had said to me that being a vocalist is a huge mental strain, so I shouldn't be the leader. So I discussed it with Nao, and ever since joining the company, Nao had taken on the role of leader.
Hiroto & Saga: Oh~.
Nao: All I remember is that the company president said to me "NaoNao, you be the leader".
But to think that it was for the sake of reducing the mental strain on Show.
Nao: What about the mental strain on me (laughs)?
Well, now that you mention it (laughs).
Show: So until the band formed, Nao had been pressing forward and had a lot of enthusiasm, but right after we formed the band, Nao had kind of deflated.
Nao: Nahahahahaha.
Show: He wouldn't show up to rehearsals or would show up late. He did a complete 180 from his serious self.
Saga: There were even times when he didn't show up for interviews.
I can't even imagine it, seeing how he is today.
Show: I know, right? But he went through such times.
Tora: I even answered some interview questions for Nao.
Show: Yeah, you did.
Tora: I randomly wrote answers, like "Q: What is your ideal type of girl? A: Yumi Adachi".
Nao: Ahahahahahahaha!
Show: On top of that, when we were deciding on our band name, only Nao had already gone home. So we had no choice but to decide between the four of us at the restaurant.
Hiroto: It was at a fast-food restaurant. We wrote down band name ideas on the napkins and folded them so you couldn't see the name. Then we opened them one by one, and one of the names was "アリス九5".
Oh. By the way, what were the other potential band names?
Show: "ROSSO", "KORN", and "Ms. Anita".
Tora: Gahahahaha! I remember that.
Show: There were already bands called "ROSSO" and "KORN", and "Ms. Anita" was the name of a foreigner who was in the news headlines at the time, so the only band name that we could use was "アリス九".
Is that so? To go back a little bit, when the five of you got together, for you, Nao, did you get the feeling that this was something you could pour your soul into, as your last band?
Nao: I thought that with these members, we could do something, and I could bet my life on this. I thought it was something I could get serious about.
So what was the reason behind you wanting to join PS Company?
Show: From around our third live show, we suddenly got more people coming to see us. Nao was already a famous bandman, Saga was already famous and more people will show up with just him being in the band, and myself and Tora were also famous, in many ways (laughs). So in the 2 - 3 months after starting the band, one of Hiroto's acquaintances was handling all the calls. For tickets and such. But they said they couldn't sleep because their phone wouldn't stop ringing. So we were at the limit of doing things on our own.
Nao: There were also some livehouses you couldn't rent out if you weren't a corporation. We thought that we couldn't go beyond this, so we started talking about joining a management company.
Hiroto: So we thought if we were going to join a company now, it would be PS Company.
Show: With Nao's connections, we got ourselves a black and white page in SHOXX6 that introduced our band. the GazettE's manager at the time saw it and apparently talked about it in PS Company, like "These kids are going to make it big". So we handed a proposal that outlined the band and a demo tape to the underling of that manager.
So you kind of made presentation material for the band?
Show: That's right. About a month after that, the company president listened to it and contacted us. They apparently decided that if we came late, they wouldn't let us join. At the time, the president told us that because we showed up on time, we were able to join the company.
Hiroto: We went to go meet them at around 11 at night. All of us.
Show: The meeting ended at around 5 in the morning, and after that, we went to one of the member’s houses...... Now that we've come this far, we have to tell the truth (laughs). If we don't, it will be inconsistent.
Saga: To give the true story, we had actually played at a PS Company event once before meeting them. At the time, we were kind of dropping hints to them that we wanted to join the company. If I remember correctly, we also handed them some presentation material directly. At the time, they had told us "Now is not a good time".
Hiroto: Oh yeah! For about a month after that, we really didn't hear anything from them.
Saga: Just when we were about to give up, they contacted us.
Was that around the time when the GazettE had joined PS Company and they were going full steam ahead?
Hiroto: They were. It was also right after MIYAVI and Kagrra, made their major debut.
Saga: People have always said that we were a band that PS Company made. People around us often said to us things like "You're a band that PS Company made just by bringing together good-looking people, right?".
People did say that (laughs).
Saga: That's not the case at all.
Show: It's just as you have read in this interview.
Saga: It's a band that Nao had formed.
So where did the band concept of "blending of Japanese and Western style", which アリス九號. had at the time, come from?
Show: The management company had said to us "Come up with a catchphrase about what your band is about", so it's only just something that was added on.
Hiroto: At the time we joined PS Company, all the bands had a catchphrase that was kind of like a subtitle for them.
Show: It was a phrase added to our name because of the company rule.
Saga: Did we have that subtitle attached to our name?
Hiroto: No. We refused to have it. Right from the beginning, we never did what we were told.
Even though in PS Company, you look most like the honour students, but you actually weren't.
Hiroto: Yeah. We didn't add anything ourselves, because we were like "We can only come up with lame phrases!".
You refused to add a subtitle, but you listened to the company when they told you to put a period at the end of the band name.
Show: That was instructions given to us after the fengshui of the band's name was examined.
Hiroto: As we joined PS Company, they said to us "The number of strokes in your band name isn't good. There's one stroke missing, so change your band name".
Show: So I said "Then I'll just add a dot on the end", and we became "アリス九號.".
At first, your name was "アリス九", right?
Show: Yes. When I was writing down our band's name at Takadanobaba AREA7, the staff there said, "Oh, it's like Sakamoto Kyu (坂本九)". I also thought that "アリス九" didn't have much of an impact, so I just added a "號" to the end. Because it seemed like a strong word. Even I was quite proud of myself, to know such an old word like "號".
Now that you think about it, in 2004, when the band had formed, you had already changed your name twice, from "アリス九" to "アリス九號" to "アリス九號.".
All: Oh!
So in your 5th year, you changed your name from "アリス九號." to "Alice Nine". What were your activities like in the time since joining the company and changing your band name to an English stylisation?
Nao: The feeling was different from what it is now. At the time, just by being able to film music videos and being able to record in a proper studio made me think "Wow, we're like pros. It really feels like we're doing music". I was glad.
Were there any dramatic changes since joining the company?
Tora: At the time, there were lots of magazines, and we pretty much appeared in all of them and more.
"All of them and more"? It was that many?
Hiroto: We even appeared in extra editions of magazines.
Show: We appeared in loads of magazines.
Hiroto: Around our third year, whenever we released an album or single, we would be in all the magazines in the music magazine section at bookstores. On top of that, we were also in idol magazines that other bands weren't in.
You were!
Tora: So the toughest thing was that for about 20 days of the month, we would be doing photoshoots for magazines. Since we also had to go on tour with that kind of schedule, the toughest thing was not having the time for band practice, the most important thing. The band was still not a cohesive one, and from such an early stage, where it wasn't as though we had a song that was killing the charts, we were already rushing forward into that kind of thing. So at any rate, we did photoshoots, to the point where I didn't know if we were a band or models.
Show: Just around our third year, the term "Neo Visual-kei" was coined. The NHK music show "MUSIC JAPAN" held a "Neo Visual-kei Midsummer Party", and that was suddenly the trend at the time. We thought that we had to secure a spot there. It was that kind of time. I think that is also why we were appearing a lot in media. So the phrase "Neo Visual-kei" was coined, and when people wondered "So which bands are Neo Visual-kei?", it was our seniors Plastic Tree and MUCC. But don't you get the feeling that if kids like us were to actually go in there to compete with them, we would get roasted? So that was the trend at the time, and for better or for worse, we were there at around the same time. In the world of entertainment, there are limitations to the things that someone can make by themselves. HYDE had once said to me "The world needs trends too". I think that truly amazing people can read the trends of the time and get on board with that. But for us, we went ahead recklessly, and before we knew it, we found ourselves in that trend.
Without you even knowing it.
Show: Right. To begin with, when we started our band, it was at the time where "Visual-kei" was losing its popularity. So I didn't even imagine that we would be appearing on TV or playing at Nippon Budokan8. It's just that at that time, this was the trend.
Along with the birth of the phrase "Neo Visual-kei", things were stirring up in the world and in the music scene.
Show: Yes. BAROQUE was an early adapter, and bands such as ourselves, SID, the GazettE, and NIGHTMARE were being labelled as "Neo Visual-kei". That era ended fantastically with Golden Bomber. I think they were able to bring a close to the era because they are the real deal, and not just copying our seniors.
I see. Even among the "Neo Visual-kei" bands, was it the company that thought to set you apart from the rest by really putting it out there that in terms of looks, you were like an "idol band" or "princes"?
Show: There was not even a single time where the company could properly control us.
Saga: We had good looks. Compared to other bands. So even if we didn't put it out there, it just appeared that we did. That's all it was. Maybe the company or record label wanted to put our looks at the forefront, but it's not as though we purposely did that kind of thing. So that it appeared that way was only natural.
Show: So from then on, we just owned it, like "Yeah, that's right". For example, it had taken us 14 years to be able to use the "prince" thing of our own volition.
Until at your 14th anniversary live, "ALICE IN CASTLE -Princes from the Stars and the Castle of the Moon", where the five of you played the part of princes.
Show: Yes, that's right.
Nao: But for me, back then, hearing people calling us a good-looking band made me think "Oh, so I'm good-looking too?". It made me so happy I was smirking all the time.
Show: Even back then, Nao was famous for being the good-looking drummer of Fatima. Apart from YOSHIKI, who is in a whole other dimension, there weren't really any other star drummers.
Even if you didn't voluntarily use it to your advantage, between yourselves, were you at least a little bit aware from the beginning that the band was full of good-looking people?
Show: Isn't that something we all instinctively felt? In Saga's previous band, he was so much more cooler than the other members. Even with Tora, when I first saw him, there were only fans on the stage left side, where Tora was. At the time, he was working up the crowd by hopping from side to side though. I was confused by that.
Even though he was cool, you didn't understand the point of doing that.
Tora: Nahahahaha.
Show: But I thought "Wow" (laughs). Hiroto being Hiroto, he was a guitarist that stood even further in front of the vocalist and stood out.
Saga: Even though the vocalist was singing, he would be shouting in an excessively loud voice "Let's go!", and be making gestures.
Wahahaha. So what did you think when you first saw Show?
Tora: He was cool. I remember him singing from a really low position. He was pretty much singing from the ground. I thought "What's with that guy?".
Nao: Really?
Show: I've never talked about this before, but I liked FANATIC♢CRISIS' RYUJI The most. He would spread out his legs really far and play from a low position. So I sang with that kind of style in mind.
Saga: I want to see that. Him singing from really close to the ground.
Tora: But when it's like that, it's Visual-kei but also not Visual-kei. I felt something with Show that I had never felt before, and I thought he was really cool.
Saga: The first impression I got from Show was "his face doesn't match his voice". From his face, I thought he was the cute type, but when I heard his voice, he wasn't like that at all. Since his voice was deep and dark, I thought it was interesting.
Show: I think what Saga and Tora saw was when I was in my very first band. Up until then, I had never been in a Visual-kei band before, let alone seen one play before. I had look at the "looking for members" section in "Rockin f (technical music magazine)", and applied to be in a SlipKnot copyband. That was a band where they said to me "All you have to do is go nuts. Don't worry about the singing"...... Are we even going to be able to talk about our 15th year at this pace?
Tora: That's because you just took us back in time again (laughs).
I do want to ask about those times again. When the five of you came together, what ideas did you have about the kind of musical direction you would take?
Saga: I get the feeling that we didn't do what everyone else at the time was doing. That's why from the very beginning, we had a lot of songs that emphasized the singing.
Tora: I might have even talked about it.
Hiroto: So he took the lead and went to go sell his 7-string guitar. And instead, he went and bought a Clapton model guitar and said "We should play the kind of music you can play with this guitar".
Nao: Wow.
Tora: I thought that this wasn't the kind of band that needed a 7-string guitar.
When did you think that?
Tora: When it was time to stand on stage, everyone was shining brightly. It was at that time. At first, I thought it would be better for me to watch things from the back, so when we formed the band, I used to stand where Saga stands now. My personality is not the type to want to put myself out there, so my approach was "I'll just stand back here, and all of you can go to the front". So when I watched the band from that position, I thought that we didn't need a 7-string guitar. It would be better for us to do upbeat songs.
Is that so? So let's move on from when the band formed. During the band's 5th year, why did you change the band stylization from "アリス九號." to the English stylization "Alice Nine"?
Show: We had intended to change the band stylization to "Alice Nine" in 2005, but at the time, the company was against it. So in 2009, we were finally about to get our way. That's all.
What were activities like after you changed the stylization to "Alice Nine"? You also played at Nippon Budokan for the very first time in 2011.
Show: To be honest, we were not able to play at Budokan when the band was at peak popularity. Our peak popularity was around our 4th year. After that, when we left KING RECORDS, which we had been signed to since the beginning, we took a break and lost many fans. I want to let everyone know that you shouldn't take a break, if possible (laughs). Since 2007, having been dragged to the center stage as a Neo Visual-kei band, we were led by the nose by the adults and changed record labels twice. We even reached the decision to leave our management company, and we suffered quite a lot of hardships.
In terms of public image, it doesn't seem like you are a band that had quite a lot of hardships, though.
Nao: That's certainly true. That's how people tend to think of us. Although I do think it's because when we debuted, we rushed straight ahead without any struggles.
Show: Maybe so. For me, even though I'm a vocalist, I was actually better at things other than singing. Although I think the members accepted me because of the way I carried myself on stage, to be completely honest, I was at the level where I needed to become a professional singer. I was a strategist and a designer, but as a musician, when you looked underneath the surface, I had no self-confidence whatsoever. I had lost the power to express things. Also as a band, the adults had started saying things to us like "Write that kind of song" or "Write this kind of song", or "Get a composer to write you a hit". At the time, Saga had said "No, we'll write it ourselves", and the songs he wrote while giving a big "fuck you" to the adults was "JEWELS" and "RAINBOWS". It was from then that this feeling was born that we're not just pretty faces, and that to a certain extent, we had a kind of spirit as a rock band. But still, singing was very difficult for me. Unless you're a person that has liked singing from a young age, and keeps listening to your own voice, critiquing yourself saying "If I did this, I'll be able to sing better", and do it for a long time, you shouldn't become a professional singer. Because singing really is difficult.
But that said, since quitting the company, you've made leaps and bounds as a vocalist.
Show: Now I know how to practice, but back then, I didn't even know how to practice, and I think my singing was plain awful (awkward smile). But what's amazing about the members is that they never once said to me "It's because of your awful signing that we never made it big".
Wow. That's a nice story. I get the feeling that's another reason why the band was able to keep on doing this for 15 years.
Nao: I don't really compliment people, but I think that Show's voice is one of a kind, and the best. I thought that from the beginning.
Hiroto: I thought the same when the band had formed. Even if there are things like technique and pitch, you cannot change the voice itself.
You must be happy to hear that, Show.
Show: All of the members are wonderful people. I think that that's another reason why the band was able to continue. However, one thing I will mention is that after our first time playing at International Forum Hall A, all Nao had said to me was "Show, let's do our best, okay?" (laughs).
Nao: I didn't mean it like that~! I didn't mean just you, but as a band, we should do our best.
Nao was crying backstage after the show was over. What was behind those tears?
Nao: Up until then, we were doing things without any reservation, and I thought that we were perhaps too flippant about it. Those were tears of me reflecting on ourselves, that we should have put more effort into it.
Show: Forum Hall A painfully lays it bare. The upper floors were pitch black. At the time, only about 2700 people had come to see us (the hall fits 5000 people). Seeing that would want to make anyone want to cry.
Nao: It was simply frustrating.
Tora: I have poor eyesight, so I didn't realize it at all.
Nao: Gahahaha!
Hiroto: I thought that the scene in front of us was reality, and accepted that reality. I thought that this was the result of everything we had done up until then.
Saga: From the beginning, I thought there was no way we would fill up the hall. Despite that, truth be told, we were about to play there for two consecutive days. Looking at it objectively, I thought the people around us were acting strange. I thought "Is filling up the hall such an easy feat?". In time, the two consecutive shows was changed to just one show. It was then that things had stopped for me. The vigour we had since forming the band stopped and we came back to reality. It was there that I felt the sense of danger, that we were in a bad spot.
I see. So how did the band recover from that?
Saga: I thought that all we could do is write proper songs, that we had to draw out the charm of our band more. I saw the reality that we could not get any more fans just by having pretty faces. Even with practice, it's not quite what Show was talking about, but without knowing if what we were doing was right or wrong, we kept practicing. The lesson we took from Forum Hall A was that with practice, it was something that had to be done seriously. That's why I wasn't sad that we didn't fill out the entire hall. It was more like "Well, of course not". It was around here. I was the one to wake up from that dream first. My eyes were wide open.
So that was the fork in the road where Alice Nine awoke as a rock band.
Saga: That's right.
Nao: Because of that exprience, from then on, I practiced like crazy. I was in the studio so often to the point you wondered if I lived in the studio. So I think that empty Forum Hall provided the band with good motivation.
After that, when the band was welcoming its 10th year anniversary, you graduated from your management company and started to do things on your own.
Saga: We were indebted to the company, but when we considered our life from that point onwards, we were no longer able to leave everything to them. When looking at our future, we thought that we had to do this ourselves.
Show: Because we thought that humans don't grow and don't have a future if they don't take on risks. That company had taken good care of us, as if we were family. After leaving, it made me think once again that they are a good company, but at the time, we chose to take on the risks. That we can do activities like this now is the socially correct thing, I think.
After graduating from the company, you changed the band name from "Alice Nine" to "A9", and restarted activities. What do you think about that now?
Show: We didn't want to fight with our previous company, so we proceeded logically and changed our name to "A9". Even now, I think that we made the right choice.
Where did the name "A9" come from?
Saga: The phrase "A9" was already there before we even became A9. I don't remember who said it though.
Hiroto: At first, that's what our Chinese fans called us.
Nao: Oh.
Hiroto: So when it came to changing our band name, we didn't want to change it to something that was competely unrelated, so we settled on "A9".
Even after becoming A9 and going independent, you were faced with many difficulties.
Show: If we were to go into detail about that, it would take another 3 hours (laughs). We had a lot of hardships, but now we are at our best. I also feel very grateful that the media will still cover us, like right now. Because this is a chance for us to present ourselves to the people who watch us from a distance, like "A9 is Alice Nine, right? They're still around?". Since going independent, we had met L'Arc~en~Ciel's Ken, and regarding what we could contribute to society, we started to think again about what our strengths were. From the dilemma that we felt about being called "princes" or an "idol band" when we debuted, we accepted the fact, and we started to think about how we could use this to make people happy, and what we could offer to add flair to the audience's experience. Those are the kind of activities we are doing now.
Among those activities, you showed us many surprising performances, such as going back to your roots of a blending of Eastern and Western styles, setting aside your instruments on stage to dance, and even trying out acting. I get the feeling that through this, it has revitalized the image of the band amongst fans.
Show: There was that. Also, we want to play at event lives, but I think that we became a band where it was difficult for others to invite us to play with them. Since we know what our strengths are and we are using it. That is why we decided to host an event ourselves for our 15th year anniversary. If you are reading this and want to see what we are like, I ask that you do come see us.
The A9 that knows what its strengths are now, and is using it.
Show: Yes, because as a Visual-kei band that was around in the 2000s, we can now do our activities properly considering how we can make the audience happy. Be it at Hibiya or Studio Coast9, I would like for them to come see us.
I think that wanting to make the audience happy is connected to that slogan the band had since the beginning, of "the customer is king". Where did this complete approach of "fans first" come from?
Show: It's not as though we want to flatter them (the fans). I think the true essence of Visual-kei is "entertainment". In a different format to the Visual-kei that YOSHIKI had invented, if our generation were to reinterpret Visual-kei and give it a definition, it would be for us to get to the venue much earlier than normal rock bands to do our makeup and to create and wear non-normal outfits to express a world view for the sake of the audience. By doing so, I think that the attitude of entertaining the audience as a part of show business is an element of Visual-kei that allows it to also compete on the world stage. I think that is perhaps the conclusion we reached after these 15 years.
Finally, let me ask about what is on our minds the most. You added the interesting title of "A9 LAST ONEMAN" to the tour that leads to your show at Hibiya. What is the meaning behind that?
Show: I think that you can pretty much guess what that means from the mood of this interview, where there isn't a single indication that we're going to disband (laughs).
1 Album released in November 2007 under the band name アリス九號. 2 Album released in January 2009 under the band name アリス九號. 3 A livehouse in Meguro, Tokyo. It is known as one of the "holy places" for Visual-kei bands. 4 A relatively expensive bbq meat franchise. 5 Literally translates to "Alice Nine", but stylistically different to the actual band name "アリス九號." 6 A Japanese Visual-kei magazine (no longer in publication). 7 A livehouse in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. It is another "holy place" for Visual-kei bands, and being able to play here is like a milestone for bands. 8 A large indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo. 9 A large concert venue in Shinkiba, Tokyo.