#visulog

[enchantingmoon]

【Part 1】「DEAL DESIGN×VISULOG×DIAURA collaboration」for DEAL DESIGN 2017 SPRING&SUMMER COLLECTION「INVISIBLE EMOTION」

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Initial’L

[mokkoriness]

Saga x Nao Interview in ViSULOG for “IDEAL”

A9, who will release their first full-length album after having changed their name from ALICE NINE, 『IDEAL』, at this perfect timing. Last year they declared a "return to the starting point" and welcomed their 12th year. We asked A9's leader in terms of music Saga(Ba) and Nao(Dr) who is attracting attention for things other than the drums, about this release, which was made after having played many live events and livehouses, as if they were a band in their first year.

I'm not quite sure why, but 『IDEAL』 has a really young feeling to it.

Saga: It certainly does feel young. Not just the music. When I looked at our new photos, we also looked young. It felt like the whole band had regained their youth.

Nao: It seems to be the result of doing live events with many other bands and getting their essence of youth (smiles).

Saga: Just as Nao said, we had been doing lots of live events, and through that we thought many times about "What exactly is A9". We also received advice from our seniors. As a result, we thought to make something that was packed with only our signature moves. And by using those moves, we made this kind of album. And incidentally, we also regained our youth in terms of visuals.

Nao: I thought this during our live events with many other bands. I thought that if you play with younger bands, you can remain young. Even after doing this for 12 years. Watching the young kids makes us able to return to when we were beginners. But we've got the skills we built up over 12 years. I think that even if we look young we aren't like what we were before. I think we made an an album at this level that is only possible now.

Since the album was made with the concept of putting in all of your special skills, which have gotten better, it's amazing that we don't feel a connection to the previous, stylish release (『LIGHT AND DARKNESS』).

Saga: Yeah. No connection at all (laughs). Making 『LIGHT AND DARKNESS』, to a certain extent, I felt like it was like the band had opened its last drawer.

You went into the kind of areas that Visual Kei bands don't go into.

Saga: Right. Same with the two-part tour we did after that. Honestly, there was this feeling that at that point we had reached the end, and we were like "We did it until the critical point". So then we wondered what to do from there, and we did the "returning to the starting point" live last year. There, it wasn't like we had reformed the band, but it did have the feeling that we made a new start.

And from there, didn't you also play live events with many different bands regardless of which generation they were from? What kind of effect did that have on the band?

Saga: We learned about the world. We used to only do solo shows and we had only ever done things in our own world, so it was sort of like the Galapagos Islands (laughs)

So when you did try and leave the island, you got a culture shock?

Saga: Right. There were so many cool bands, and we were so motivated by the younger bands to the point that we felt a sense of danger, like "Crap, this isn't the time for us to be careless". That definitely did have an influence over us. In terms of our senses.

And due to that, you were able to make such a fresh album even after 12 years.

Saga: Yeah. There are no old songs on the album at all. When we did what we were good at, it turned out like this.

Before writing the songs, did the members talk about only doing what you were good at?

Saga: Yes. The things that are remembered as the better songs at lives. For example, just like a leather jacket that you wear so often the leather becomes soft and fits to your body line, rather than our more recent songs, these songs have been played many times at lives they've become mixed with us. We, who have returned to our starting point, are powering up those songs with our own hands and making them into something new. That's why we talked about wanting to do something that is like a "best of album", in a sense, and something like "the most recent A9".

So although it's a new album, you could also say it's an album that only has the songs that will become the main songs during lives from now on.

Saga: That's right. They are all main songs. The way we will present them also comes to us naturally. There's no "What should we do about this song during the live?".

Nao: Like Mr. Tora made a headbanging song for lives. For all the songs on this album, you can imagine that people will groove along to it in a way particular to Visual Kei. And this is actually A9's first full-length album!

It actually is.

Nao: It comes just that the time where we are in a position of making a new start, so we have to show that we're not done yet and we have to triumph over our rivals.

Do you have a rival that you want to triumph over, Nao? (smiles)

Nao: Oh.... What should I do (laughs). It's those people. We have to show to music fans and people in this scene that "We're not an old band" and that we're not gonna let it end at "I used to listen to you guys". Those feelings are in this album. Yes.

I see (smiles). So I would like to ask about the songs on the album. This album opens with the instrumental song 「REAL」. Does this have any connection to the song 「3.2.1.REAL-SE」 on the 『Zekkeishoku』 album?

Saga: I don't think so. The album title 『IDEAL』 is a made up word from adding "REAL" and "IDEA" together, so I think that to Show, it was important to have the first song as 「REAL」 and the second song as 「IDEA」 lined up like that.

The guitars in the intro in the second song 「IDEA」 has a really UK Rock feel to it, but as the song goes on, more and more different expressions start to show.

Saga: This is a complex song. At first I made the song with the intention of it being a long introduction to 「MEMENTO」. I made the song wanting to make a song that would connect well with the world of 「MEMENTO」. For the song itself, I had the prototype of it ever since 『GEMINI』. But we didn't really have an album that it would fit into so I had kept it on hold for a long time. Since I thought that the time for this song was now and that it also seemed to go well with 「MEMENTO」, when I gave a shot at making this song going all out with the world view, the song turned out like this (smiles)

「GEMINI」 became a musical suite because you went all out with presenting the world view, but this time it's more compact.

Saga: This is also the kind of song that if you don't restrain yourself in exploring it you would keep going and not be able to come back.

Nao: Gyahahaha (laughs)

Saga: It was the same for 「MEMENTO」. Because you can keep on repeating the developments in the song. But we somehow came back with that.

Personally, in that muffled kind of world -- I guess we would call it the interlude -- I couldn't get enough of the refreshing feeling of the world clearing just as the melodious part comes in.

Saga: I was puzzled over what to do with that part. It would have been okay to stay muffled and lead into 「MEMENTO」, but doing that would be normal. I questioned my own brain, like "That wouldn’t be like us though" (laughs).  After exploring it a bit more, I changed the key here. This took me about a week to figure out. That's why this song gave me the most trouble.

Nao: That the songs changes key and becomes happier, I feel like that it's not just about being young, but also something we could only do because of the things we have gained over the last 12 years. This is the odour of an expert.

Saga: Odour of an expert (laughs)

Nao: I think is has the message of "We're not just about youth".

Saga: I thought that maybe the drums in this song would have been embarrassing to play.

Nao: Why?

Maybe because it's similar to pop song from a long time ago?

Saga: Yeah. But I asked Nao to play it knowing that he would surely be able to play it coolly.

Nao: Up until now I've been drumming in a Western music style, but this time the drums has lots of elements of Japanese drumming. In the past those elements weren't adopted by the band, but lately even those elements have been adopted so I'm having fun.

What are some songs that have a particularly Japanese taste in terms of the drumming?

Nao: 「Rinne to Ichiya no Monogatari」 and the hi-hats for 「ECHO」. For Western music you could go all out at playing these parts and kind of make it like the highlight, but for Japanese style drumming you add some dynamics to it, and without hesitation, you add quiet notes in the kind of places that people can't hear. It seems simple but it's not. I think I was able to play in this kind of way for those two songs.

「ECHO」 also features female vocals on top of Show's singing.

Saga: Right. It's by AISHA, and I've always liked her songs so I bought them on iTunes. Then Hiroto had invited her to his own birthday live. I was surprised, like "What the hell? You guys know each other?!"

Nao: Hahahaha (laughs)

Saga: I wanted to have female vocals in 「ECHO」 too so when I made the offer, she gladly accepted it. They did the song recording together. I was surprise since she only sang it normally but it was really good (smiles)

By having the vocal range of a female singer, Show doesn't need to strain his voice here and can sing in the middle range, so I feel like there's a grown-up mood in this song.

Saga: From the very beginning I had thought about adding two ballad-type songs on this album. One would be a passionate ballad that Show would sing his heart out too. So I asked Hiroto to make a kind of maniacal yet stylish ballad. It ended up being the opposite (smiles). Show's 「ECHO」 became the stylish one and Hiroto's 「Rinne to Ichiya no Monogatari」 became the classic ballad. It was difficult arranging Show's song too. But for the relationship between the bass and drum in 「ECHO」. I like this rhythm section the most.

Nao: That's right.

I was surprised that some spoken parts came up in the middle of 「Rinne to Ichiya no Monogatari」

Saga: When I opened the file that Hiroto sent to me, it already had "talk" written there.

Nao: I see (smiles)

Saga: This song was the last one to be made and it came just in time. I thought "What the hell is wrong with this guy, asking for a "talk" part when the band is at its wit's end?" (laughs). But I'm glad that it turned out to be a good ballad.

It's a ballad that asks for you to listen. 「Zouka no Daisho」 and 「UNDEAD PARTY」 are songs that the rhythms section really go all out for.

Saga: 「Zouka no Daisho」 is a shuffle song. Our guitarists really don't like this kind of lively song.

Nao: Rather than saying they don't like it, it's just that the tempo of lively songs is too fast (laughs)

Saga: Oh, I see (smiles). For us, we don't have any lively songs except 「Himitsu」 and 「Haikara naru Rondo」 so when I asked Hiroto to make a song like 「Haikara naru Rondo」, this song came. I had a really hard time doing arrangement for the bass.

Nao: The drumming in this song is so hard I might die. The drums and bass can work hard to make it sound lively, but since the guitars are playing in 4/4 time, we have to be careful not to play in opposition to them.

Saga: Since Nao said that he would make the song lively by using bass drum and snares and hi-hats and did his best to do that this song became like a shuffle song. On top of that I added my bass and played it as if it was a flow that and we finally got the shuffle element to it.

Who brought the song 「UNDEAD PARTY」?

Saga: This was Show's song. It's a song where we'll become party people during the live.

Nao: It makes me want to sing along to it (laughs). Let's have a drum backing track and have twin vocals. I played the drums to this imagining that kind of scene (laughs)

Saga: During one of the interludes there's a part with a backing track, so maybe Nao will do something there?!

How about you go to the front of the stage and do a performance that could rival "Sunshine Nao"?

Nao: Should I do it?

Saga: I can imagine Nao causing a commotion at the front of the stage (laughs). The performances that Nao does at the front are quite shocking and it adds a nice touch to the lives, so we'll think about it.

And Saga also has a part to appeal to the audience, doing slap bass.

Saga: For this album, I only wrote 「IDEA」 and 「MEMENTO」, so I was really able to focus on bass playing.

You only wrote those two songs?

Saga: That's right. This time I really thought about the balance of the members. That also came from us returning to our starting point, so I wanted us to make an album where there was equality in the song composers. I thought that by doing that the songs would become more varied and we could show our "A9-ness". Thanks to that, this time I was able to spend some time on bass arrangement.

And so you were able to play using more different techniques than normal.

Saga: That's right.

When you were approaching the latter stage of production and the songs still hadn't been done, did you every think "I can't wait any more. I'll make it myself"

Saga: That's something I couldn't do. This time. If we didn't get a mixture of songs that we all made, then there wouldn't be any merit in this album.

What about writing a small part that would be the last piece to complete the song?

Saga: No. It wouldn't be any different from me writing the song. This time all the members wrote an equal amount of songs. That might be the most important thing about this album. That's why I waited until the very end.

Nao: It's because we waited the latter part of the production was difficult〜. We were still in the middle of recording during that week we had in-store events for 「MEMENTO」.

Saga: It was the kind of schedule that if we didn't record 7 songs in the last week we wouldn't be able to release the album.

With the change in your environment and under the pressure of such a schedule, Show's lyrics this time are quite poisonous. The lyrics in 「Zouka no Daisho」 kind of talk about adultery, right?

Saga: Isn't that okay too? I mean it's relevant in this age (smiles)

Nao: You're right.

Saga: You will definitely see more of this. If you shake up the music industry, it'll be like "You're committing adultery too?!". There are a lot of people who are "making amends with artificial flowers"1

Huh...... (Whispers) Even A9?

Saga: We're clean. Right now (laughs)

Hahaha (laughs). So let's talk about the last song on the album, 「ONE」. Who wrote this song?

Saga: This is Tora's song. We decided that Tora's song would be the last on the album. From the very beginning.

Why is that?

Saga: With Tora's songs, they are songs you get into or songs that are cute. He has a lot of calming songs that don't think too much about the finer details and it's only Tora's songs that can do this. I wanted to end the album on a gentle note. For this album. The albums starts on cloudy and then the violent and muddy stream that is 「MEMENTO」 comes next, right? But although many things happened, I wanted the album to end with a soft feeling. I wanted to have this "Everything is okay if the end is" feeling, so I asked Tora to make a song that was like 「Shunkashuuto」, a song with this "a lot of things happened but let's do our best" feeling.

「ONE」 has this adolescent, bittersweet feeling and is cute. This is the kind of song you don't write, do you, Saga?

Saga: Even if I tried to write it I would give up halfway through. I would keep digging deeper and deeper. I can't write a song as refreshing as this. I wanted the album to end of this kind of refreshing feeling. With Tora, it's either a violent song like 「Ibara」 or a cute one like this. The songs he writes are on the two extremes like this, so it's easy to ask him to write songs.

But think about it from the writing point of view, even though Tora has lots of tattoos and looks like a mischievous kid, he must be a really nice person (smiles)

Nao: I think he's pure. Actually. He appears like he's the kind of person who lives his life not thinking about the complicated things and it always laid back. That's why he can write this kind of song. I've even been over to his place, and it was a pure lifestyle.

It's because that sparkling feeling on A9's stages comes from Tora's carefree smile.

Nao: What?! It's not me? (awkward smile)

Won't it be Nao's turn from now on? When we see your performance at the front of the stage during 「UNDEAD PARTY」 on the 「A9　2017　TOUR[IDEAL HORIZON]」

Nao: Oh right! (smiles)

I can imagine that the audience will make those shining bracelets flash at that part.

Nao: We better make a lot of those.

Saga: I think that if Nao wore "UNDEAD bracelets" on both of his arms and came out to the front screaming "Yay!", people would want them.

Nao: Whoa. It's slowly getting out of hand. But that sounds good (smiles). Let's do it. But if that part in the song is the only time I can do it then my part is short〜 (laughs)

Saga: I got it. I'll make that part longer in the live arrangement〜.

Nao: If I'm going to the front I wanna sing too〜.

Saga: Okay (smiles). I'll make a live arrangement for 「UNDEAD PARTY」 so that Nao can shine brightly.

What about the female vocals in 「ECHO」?

Nao: How about we pick one of the fans each time and be like "Today is your turn"?

Saga: I don't mind if Nao sings that part instead.

Nao: Wah. Uhh...... (tries singing it). It's weird if I sing a ballad, right? (laughs). I want to shout.

Saga: Then we need to make one for 「UNDEAD PARTY」.

Why don’t you sing your own original lyrics during the interlude?

Saga:  Like (rapping) "Yo, yo, yo, I'm Nao!" (laughs). Should we do that?!

If you're going to do that, you might as well also change into party clothes. I think if you do this, A9's lives will have a new side (smiles)

Saga: Let's do it! But that said, I think that on this tour, it will be a tour where we put all of things in it to make it a "classic A9" tour. The people who want to see A9 and come to the live venue. I think that the lives will be something that those people are looking for.

Nao: Please look forward to it. Me on the first day (laughs).

1The rough translation of 「造花の代償 "Zouka no Daisho"」

Link to original article: http://v-kei.jp/interview/?interviewId=386

[yuukinodorei-blog]

[enchantingmoon]

【Part 2】「DEAL DESIGN×VISULOG×DIAURA collaboration」for DEAL DESIGN 2017 SPRING&SUMMER COLLECTION「INVISIBLE EMOTION」

[mokkoriness]

ViSULOG February “MEMENTO” Interview Part 1

A9, who will release their new single 「MEMENTO」 on February 18th. From last year right up until this year, they have been appearing at more and more events with the younger bands that ViSULOG readers are familiar with, and there surely are a lot of readers who first learned of A9 through such events. 「What kind of band is A9?」 This will be a huge feature spanning 2 parts and will answer this question!

The first part of this interview will talk about the younger bands they met, and the second part will talk of the transition from "アリス九號." to "Alice Nine" to "A9", and all five members Show (vo), Hiroto (gu), Tora (gu), Saga (ba), Nao (dr) talked plenty about their new release 「MEMENTO」.

2017's A9 started off with 「A9 Tour BLACK PERIOD」. On this tour, you played with DEZERT, DIAURA and Pentagon. Also at DEZERT's event 「This Is The”FACT”」, you met with Arlequin and NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST, and have been playing continuously with the younger bands, so could you please tell us your thoughts on seeing them perform?

Show: Let's start off with the youngest among us, Hiroto (laughs) Hiroto: At “BLACK PERIOD” and last year's event in Osaka. What was that called again? Show: 「BAND SHOCK REVOLUTION～ Visual Festival 2016～」. Hiroto: By appearing at that event, we finally got to know the bands who are younger than us in age and career.

It's been like that ever since you changed your name to A9. To appear at many events.

Hiroto: That's right. And so I've seen many bands from the younger generation. As for my feelings, I felt that they had properly taken the reigns. The basics actually haven't changed since 20 years ago. Also, maybe it's the effect of YouTube and the internet, but everyone is good! I thought that because everyone is good, it's become a bit harder to express your own individuality. The bands who are on the rise and are drawing in more crowds were the ones who could project individuality and originality.

Were there any people that shocked you?

Hiroto: I think it's also a matter of taste, but I like DEZERT (laughs). The songs of course, but they were interesting. They all have different personalities. I thought that they were the most like us. Their unique characteristics and energy is completely different from us though. Also, I'm not sure if this will be considered harmful to their act (laughs), but I felt that even though Chiaki (vo) looks like that, he's actually a serious person.

Show: Guys who look bad but are actually good guys are more loved by others (laughs)

But I was surprised that A9 was the first to play at DEZERT's event. Honestly, who did you feel about that?

Show: At first I thought "Is this to annoy us? As expected, they're not holding back" (laughs). But when we asked about it it seems like they were told to make us perform first, without us even knowing it.

Hiroto: During the celebrations afterwards when we were a bit more relaxed we said to them "You guys sure weren't holding back", but they looked surprised and said "Huh? A while ago the A9 staff told us to put you up first, and although we did put you on first, we really wondered if that was okay".

Show: I was like "That's my first time hearing it" (laughs). We just didn't know about it.

I'm glad it came to light during the celebrations (laughs). How about you, Tora?

Tora: I think that the balance in the bands of late is great. I think there's no band where just one person is getting better. There's no one person who is falling behind the rest and has to catch up. All the members have their own colour so it's easily to understand.

Were there any bands that interested you?

Tora: Rather than the bands, I had no idea about the audience's "groove" (laughs). They were doing moves I had no clue about so I was interested in that. The charge to the front of the first row was also completely different.

Hiroto: Ah. Yeah, it's changed.

Tora: That was a shock.

Hiroto: Since we've not appeared at events until now, both us and our fans are being left behind when it comes to the recent way to groove at the show.

Nao: Everyone was like "What was that move?!" (laughs)

Not just the members, but A9 fans too.

Show: Yeah. At the previous tour we started doing the "wall-of-death" thinking it would be a new thing, but Pentagon, DEZERT and NokuBura were already doing it (laughs). I thought that the times were changing at an extremely fast pace.

What about Nao?

Nao: They didn't seem like juniors to me (laughs). But I also thought that the younger bands weren't as young as I thought they would be. First, their music had a really mature feeling to it.

Show: That's true!

Nao: They're all serious. I thought that since they were young they would be all over the place but during the 2-man shows at 「BLACK PERIOD」, all bands had set aside a "Nao time" (laughs).

During the live of the other band you had a mic in your hand and charged in as a vocalist and went wild, right?

Nao: Right (laughs). The only young person all over the place was me, and everyone else was a grown up.

Please tell us the band that interested you.

Nao: I secretly checked out all the equipment of the other bands. Pentagon's Minpha (ba) had crazy equipment. The bass head was put on slanted, and I felt that there was probably a reason for this. Also, everyone has good equipment, it was amazing. I felt their enthusiasm from their equipment.

What about you, Saga?

Saga: I felt that the standards had been raised. On a whole, I felt that it was different from our generation. The average quality on a whole is higher. With the make-up techniques, the performances, the songs, the singing, everything. There are so many tutorials you can find on YouTube that the average is higher. Even with bands I've never heard of, there are loads of bands that are really good. To put it another way, I thought that our generation was in a tight spot. If there were these kinds of young bands back around the time we formed, I thought that we wouldn't have this "now". I thought that because we were there in the past, there are these bands here now. The bands these days really research things like make-up and presentation. I think that our generation probably had some considerable influence on that.

I'm sure that's the case.

Saga: For example, back in our day there wasn't a band where all members were cool. But now there are plenty of bands like that. When you look at the photos, there are good-looking guys everywhere. Back then, there would be a really good-looking guy but he would be crap at playing. There were a lot of those guys who were balanced-out like that.

There were some unfortunate people (laughs)

Saga: Right? Now there any many good-looking guys are good at playing that make you think "You've got everything!". That's why I think compared to our generation, it's harder to make yourself stand out. I also thought that it's a time where it's hard to change. Since on a whole the average is higher, everything is fine from the start so there's no need for change. Since the quality is really high, it seems like the fans would go "What, they've changed" if a band were to change a little. But I think that's okay too. Personally, it's interesting to see this.

Which one of these bands are you into, Saga?

Saga: Minpha!

Show: He answered right away. I thought it was (DIAURA) yo-ka (laughs).

Weren't you super happy when you found out that you were from the same town?!

Saga: yo-ka is good too, but I'm completely taken away by Minpha.

All: (Explosive Laughter)

And Show.

Show: There really are more good bands than I had ever imagined, and I think it's a time where it's easier to get the know-how. During our generation, no matter what grooves you used or what kind of song you put out or what visuals you used, there was always this tendency to copy from each other. These days, it's overwhelmingly faster to get all this new information. So although it's easier to complete a song it's probably harder to be adventurous. Since it's all complete like this, we have a lot of things to learn from the younger generation. So we actively seek out to play with young bands or young people not even in this scene. That is basically what 「MEMENTO」 is. When I was the junior, while respecting my seniors, from the bottom of my heart I thought that seniors who couldn't learn from their juniors were lame. But from when we first started out I thought that while seniors have parts of them that are amazing, juniors also have parts about them that are amazing too. So in that way, we will progress by learning off our junior bands. I've met so many bands that made me re-confirm this stance. I thought that it was great we did many events with these bands.

Which of those bands caught your interest?

Show: They really are all good. But the ones I really want to do a live where we go all out at each other is DEZERT, the ones I actually want to be friends with is DIAURA and the ones I want to spoil is Pentagon.

Hiroto: That's such a honour student answer (laughs).

Show: But that's what I really feel. During these last few months, I've been able to come into contact with the younger bands that I'm interested in, it really is motivating and it was fun. Playing together with younger bands brings nothing but good things.

[mokkoriness]

ViSULOG February “MEMENTO” Interview Part 2

Part 1 Here

So, please tell us things about from when A9 were a new band. You started out as アリス九號., then you became Alice Nine and now you're A9, so your band name has changed three times.

Show: Yes. Together with the concept of "Japanese meets Western", we stylised our name as “アリス九號.”. We started appearing on TV and front covers of magazines more, and we didn't like the fact that the way we stylised our name gave off the feeling of being a minor group. So we discussed it with management at the time, and when we welcomed our 5th year anniversary we changed it to the English stylisation of "Alice Nine".

What was the reaction when you changed the name?

Show: We had been told by experts in the field "Isn't the previous stylisation better since it has impact?", but it's just the stylisation that had changed; the pronunciation hasn't changed. However, when we became “A9” from “Alice Nine”, the pronunciation also changed.

Hiroto: People thought we were a different band entirely.

There are people who think A9, Alice Nine and アリス九號. are all different bands.

Show: That's right. The people interested in us know they are all the same band, but I suppose the people who aren't interested in us don't know.

When you formed アリス九號. and first came out in the Visual Kei scene, what kind of position did you have in the scene?

Saga: Good-looking guys!

He answered straight away (laughs). Did you form a band of good-looking people?

Saga: No. It's not like we were only looking for good-looking guys.

Show: Personality is important.

Saga: We were told at the time "It's a miracle all these nice-looking faces came together", but we didn't do it on purpose. It's not like I thought of myself as "good-looking".

Nao: I also never thought of myself as good-looking. But since everyone around us kept saying it, I thought "Huh? So I'm a good-looking guy".

All: (Explosive Laughter)

Huh?! Did that many people call you a “good-looking band”?

Saga: They called us "the SMAP of Visual Kei".

(laughs) Really?

Hiroto: They did (laughs). The people around us always said "Be the SMAP of the Visual Kei world".

Tora: That brings back memories (laughs)

Show: But I could only ever think of them as them ridiculing us. Even if we were told "You guys are a good-looking band", I thought "You're making fun of us, aren't you?"

Tora: That's not it. It's just that we were relatively fast in realising the importance of design and re-touching. It was a time where people didn't do it that much.

So you even set yourselves apart in that respect.

Show: Yeah. We certainly did start doing that stuff relatively early (laughs)

Tora: Really early.

Show: But now it's become the norm.

Saga: If it's a five person band, there would be about one or two cool people. In our generation. That's why when I first saw our band photos that had been edited, I was like "Huh?! How is everyone looking so good?!"

So it turned out so nice that even you yourselves were surprised.

Show: That's why re-touching is important.

And since you all looked so good, some people got jealous and said things like "Those guys are just pretty faces"?

Saga: Yeah. A lot of people said that.

Tora: Well, it was true.

Dahahaha (laughs)

Tora: But the reason why we were told that is our aura when we stood on stage lost to the aura we gave off in those edited photos.

Saga: We should have been more aware of that back then. If we were more aware of the fact that we were good-looking we definitely would have been more popular.

Nao: Fuhahahaha (laughs)

Show: What left the biggest impression on me at the time were words said to us by someone who wasn't our fan: "Even though these guys can't do a thing, what is with their "We're the winners here" aura?"

Tora + Nao: Gyahahahaha (laughs)

Show: I just remembered that we were told that even though what we were doing was rubbish, only our aura and "We're the winners" feeling we gave off was amazing (laughs)

I suppose the impression that アリス九號. and Alice Nine would give off to non-fans were about your appearance.

Show: Yeah. At that time, we were either the band that wore school uniforms in 「Shunkashuuto」 or the band that appeared on a music show called 『HEY！HEY！HEY！』 with Downtown for the song 「TSUBASA.」 where Nao got a roundhouse kick from Hama-chan1. It was either one of those two images that a large majority of non-fans had of us.

Hiroto: That really was the case eight or nine times out of ten. But our seniors and people close to us would often say to us "アリス九號./Alice Nine actually also play some old-school rock and progressive rock". They never really said this or that about our faces. It would be nice if people could start talking about our music instead.

Show: They say it takes ten to twenty years for peoples' first impressions of you to change, so we've still got a way to go.

Tora: I mean Dragon Ash still has this hip-hop image. Even now.

Show: Even though they've stopped rapping.

Meaning the same goes for アリス九號./Alice Nine's image.

Show: I guess there are a lot of people who just look at our faces and think that we're completely devoid of substance and stop there.

So rather than your music, you presented your faces to people instead?

Tora: Not presented, but "were able to present". Assertively. I think that was our style back then. I mean, even though we hadn't finished any songs we took new photos first. We couldn't even talk about musical direction or anything.

So you took on the words 「You guys are just pretty faces」 and even though you didn't have any songs, you kept on presenting new, cool visuals.

Tora: Right. At the time, there weren't any people to put visuals as the top priority. Although after that there were people who started to imitate us. That's why I think we're an example of succeeding (though putting visuals as a top priority)

And ever since then you've been putting visuals as the top priority?

Show: When we got signed to a major label, we gradually stopped doing it that way. Because you start learning about how to make music. At the time, we were also told by our company to make songs with more grown-ups. We were quite resistant to that, and that's when Saga brought in the song 「JEWELS」 and we were able to make the company understand that "We are going to do the songs that we make ourselves". I think things started changing from there.

You shifted from having the top priority as visuals to music.

Show: That's right. And from then Saga started thinking about the basics of music. We've been putting visuals a top priority for about nine years, and I think that the point at which people started to acknowledge that we weren't just a bunch of pretty faces but a band that plays music was last year at 「PARTY ZOO〜Ken Entwines Naughty stars」(L’Arc〜en〜Ciel's Ken's live event). When we played at that event with our latest musical style with the rock band style which we thought was cool, Ken told us "No! You look basic! I didn't call you here for that. Don't you have any white suits?" (laughs). Ken had said to us "Put out your “Good guy aura” more to the point it makes us choke", and Tatsuro (MUCC) told us "You need to use your "good-looking guy" part 100% more! Even though I hate those kinds of bands".

Tora: We were like "Oh, really?"

Nao: It seems like I'm still a good-looking guy (laughs)

Show: Being told that, we became more aware of our colour. To a certain extent, MUCC has shown us an example of that. MUCC is overwhelmingly MUCC. They're a band that does exactly what people, including the fans, want from MUCC. They don't "spoil" themselves at all and say that next they're going to make the music they're into lately. And if we look at ourselves in the same way, I think that the things people want from A9 were the things that Ken had said, so we've accepted that. But we really don't think of ourselves as good-looking. Ah, except for Nao (laughs)

Nao: Hahahahahaha (smiles)

Show: But we've accepted this. After that 「PARTY ZOO」, we've played at events in all-white costumes (laughs). 「PARTY ZOO」 had the effect of making us stop spoiling ourselves, like "We're in this mode right now so that's why we're doing it like this", and letting us do the things that we should be doing. I think that the results of that can be seen in our latest single.

So please tell us about your latest song 「MEMENTO」. How did this song come about?

Saga: It's a song that was made being influenced by our 12th year anniversary live last year and all the live events we've appeared at up until now. The advice we got from Ken and Tatsuro at 「PARTY ZOO」. The us that third parties see us as, the things we want to do, the things that our fans or fans of the scene want from us; they are all different. That's why we thought to put all of that in this song. But what it comes down to is what we want to do. I thought that if it didn't have the things we wanted to express, it wouldn't catch on, so while taking into account the advice, we properly express the things we want to express. I really thought about that balance.

Was it the uplifting chorus you made taking into account the advice you received?

Saga: I suppose so, if we were to talk about specific parts. I think that you wouldn't imagine a song with that kind of intro to have this kind of chorus. I think that perhaps our distinctive feature is that we can do that sort of thing.

Was the second bridge always supposed to be like that?

Saga: Yeah. That is kind of like my bad habit, I just want to make the song go in that direction. I am trying to treasure those parts too. Because that also makes up a part of our "unique characteristics".

I think another part that you couldn't imagine just from hearing the intro is the piano part before the solo.

Saga: For this song, I asked nishi-ken to do the arrangement. I didn't say anything at all like "Put a piano part there" but it seems like nishi-ken had the image of a piano at that part. At first there were a lot more notes but we cut down on some.

I felt that the uniqueness of the song is also that it quickly develops and the melodies keep changing.

Saga: Personally, I think it's important that you don't bore the listener. So taking that into consideration, I did think that it would be better to have a fast-changing development. And with all of that, while using things that are also popular in this scene, we gave of this "rock feeling" that even fans not into this kind of music could listen to.

What about the other members?

Hiroto: I think it's turned out to be a song that reflects the motivation we received from the live events. Personally, it's been a while since I used down-tuning for a song. Hearing the completed song for myself, rather than it being intense it has energy, but I thought that we made a song with an awesome uplifting feeling when the five of us play it together on stage, so I think it's great that this is the song being released as a single, as we haven't released a single in a really long time.

Tora: The lead song on our previous release 『LIGHT AND DARKNESS』 was a danceable track but this time the song is intense. I'm the kind of person to go with the flow of the other members, but this kind of song is easier to groove along to. But it really is the kind of song Saga would make. Even if Saga makes an intense song, as expected, it's also really melodious. I think there has to be a reason why it's like that.

Nao: The start makes me nervous. Because it's a song that starts off with the drums. And because if I mess up the beginning there's going to be trouble. It's a song that make you that nervous. It's also got a fast tempo.

And the title has the meaning of "memento", right?

Show: That's right. For us, there was a moment where the future of the band was in danger. But even though we've been doing this for more than 12 years, I don't really feel that we've done all we could, or that we've left an impression behind. That's why we want to leave something behind in this scene. That is expressed as the lyrics of a hand reaching out to the light.

So those intentions are in the lyrics.

Show: Yes. Although there are a lot of ambiguous expressions, that is the main point of the lyrics. During lives, it appears as if the audience is reflecting the light of the venue, so the feeling of reaching out to that light is linked to the uplifting feeling of the chorus.

I hear that Tora was involved in the editing for this MV. What did you pay attention to when editing the footage?

Tora: I looked for the members good-looking “nice faces”.

Based on your own tastes.

Tora: Yeah. I used all the parts where I thought that the members probably wanted me to use. Hiroto shines during the performance parts, so rather than the acting parts, I mainly used his performance parts. The way he moves during the parts he wants you to use is usually the same for all takes, so you just know. But there was also some conflicting moments. There were times when Nao or someone wants you to use his shot but you can't due to the flow of the MV. Those are difficult to deal with. But I have few shots in this MV. I put in my own cuts when I thought I had to. It's quite hard for you yourself to put in your own shots (bitter smile). That's why the main part of the MV is the performance part.

So what is the concept for the visuals in 「MEMENTO」?

Show: Up until now, I've sort of being like the artistic director, but this time I asked a designer to do this for us, for the first time in a while. It had been a while since I met a person that made me think "This person is amazing!", so I left it all up to them. They're a person who does designs by combining mode fashion and 3D, so that's why the artwork has turned out that way too. Even though it's really fashionable it has an eccentric atmosphere to it and that's really interesting. So that's why even though it's a single, the booklet is oddly quite detailed, so do please take a look.

After the release of this single, you'll also be releasing your album 『IDEAL』 in April and prepare for your nationwide tour 「IDEAL HORIZON」. For A9 lives, the lights that the fans wear on their arms are also a part of the performance. From when did you start using those?

Show: Ever since we were アリス九號., we thought about other ways to enjoy the live apart from the moves, head banging and reverse stage diving. We're the pioneers in the Visual Kei scene when it comes to using those lights.

Really?

Show: Aren't we?

Hiroto: In the past, the use of these lights were only limited to idol culture, so when we, a band started using them we were hated by the fans.

Show: We were bashed quite a lot.

Hiroto: But we started using them from around the time we made our 1st album.

Show: At that time, there weren’t any bands that were using those lights, but once we started using it other bands caught on too.

The “A jump” in 「RAINBOWS」 is also something that only this band does. Whose idea was that?

Show: That was from a live in Niigata or something.

Hiroto: We were talking about the X-jump2.

Show: During the MC.

Hiroto: And since we're A for Alice Nine.

Show: We do the A jump.

Hiroto: Did we start doing it there too?

Saga: At first we were joking around and did the X-jump. If I remember correctly. But the fans were like "Since it's Alice Nine shouldn't it be an A jump?". That's when it became the A jump.

I see. Finally, please give a message to the readers about the tour.

Saga: I think there are a lot of people who first saw our photo or read our interview from ViSULOG. If you come to our live, there will definitely be good-looking male fans since people always call us a good-looking band. So maybe you can meet new people there.

Show: That's your message?! (laughs)

Saga: No, I'm sure it's much better than going to “group dates”.

And on top of that, you have this good-looking band standing on stage.

Saga: We're not scary and we talk a lot, and we also have a comedian in our band (laughs). And we're the kind of band that at an event the other day, we were told that there wasn't enough time so when we had to choose between playing another song or talking more, we chose to talk more (laughs). We're a band with that kind of sense of humour.

Watching your live really gets the point across that though A9 is a good-looking band, they don't put on airs.

Saga: I think you can enjoy that "SMAP" feeling we have.

Nao: Since it's April, it's a new school year. Why don't you get a change of pace and come to our lives and get a good start to the year? Also, to those who haven't come to see us live yet, why don't you start a new relationship with us?

Tora: I think we're a really approachable band. Even though distance-wise we're far from the audience, we are also close to them. There are also cool parts in our live shows, so I hope you watch our lives with an open mind.

Hiroto: We're definitely a band that never gets told that we're boring, even by people who don't know us or people who came along with their friends. I think something will catch your attention. So I want people to come see us on tour and not hesitate to invite their friends along.

Show: We're actually a good band. I think that we will definitely be able to make all those involved in our band happy. It's okay to read opinions online, but if you actually come to our live show, we will make you happy. Do come see us. 1 Hama-chan is one half of the comedic duo "Downtown".

2 A jump that X-Japan fans do, by crossing their arms to form an "X" shape

[kyokutoromanceworld]

Yo-1,Shindy a,d Mike & Soya (Blu-BiLLioN) during a nico live 2019

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