2006/ 09.27
Finalising the jacket of “FAITH LIVE”
DVD at the office and checking the footages.
After that, editing of the DVD at the studio.
The making of a DVD is surprisingly difficult. With Laruku, mostly
we let the staff work on it, but for our solo work I get really picky. It is like I’m the director so it takes
a lot of time. So the finished
product was somewhat within our expectations, the reaction was also
as expected. Although I thought
the fans would think that the documentary is more interesting for sure,
but we really didn’t have much time to work on it.
But I guess the fact that the documentary is sort of unrefined
is nice in another way, and I think the fans would agree and like it
like this.
2006/ 10.02
Working on solo photo book and DVD design
2006/ 10.02
Checking the footage of “ark/ray 15th anniversary expanded
edition” and Faith Live
These days its all about checking…Laruku and solo. Since
ark and ray expanded edition comes with a DVD, I have to check the old
images for it. And you know how
when you look at old videos, there are always embarrassing moments. But it was also very fresh. It made me thought of the past and how nice
it was. (laughs)
2006/ 10.15
Performance of ANEMONE and HONEY at staff’s wedding.
A staff’s getting married at our record company and I was asked
to sing for them. It was a really
glamorous party and I thought well, my performance is probably just
one of the various entertainment planned for the night.
But somehow there were lots of foreigners in the party and the
atmosphere was reallllly cold… And the
performance before me was simply priceless.
It is the bride’s father!
He’s retired but said that he would dance at his daughter’s
wedding. And he had some sort
of lion dance… and then I was like..What? I’m next? (laughs) Come on, shouldn’t we leave it at this
gorgeous dance…! But then yeah I had to perform…and it was
silent..the audience were like
“ ……………” when I went out..
I was so scared!! After that,
we had an after party, and there were more artists coming to congratulate
the newlyweds. And I’m simply one of the entertainers
of the night. I had my solo member
play the guitar for me and we had a good performance.
2006/ 10.31
Monoral’s Halloween special appearance
Last Halloween we had a total blast, so this year I thought I’ll
lay low. Monoral
is going on so I thought, alright, I’ll just simply join the party.
But somehow, I like… wanted to have a Mohawk maybe…we
have decided on Punk. And, I kind of liked Sigue
Sigue Sputnik’s looks so we did that. I wore fishnets on my head and had black make-up.
At first when I got on stage
its like nobody knew who the hell I was. (laughs)
2006/11.06-11.22
”15th L’Anniversary
Live” Rehearsal
Today, after our first rehearsal, I bought a snowboard in Harajuku.
So far, I don’t have a board that I particularly like. Well, I have been using some boards that I
thought I like…but it still wasn’t the perfect board. I even thought about designing my own because
I just can’t find anything that seem to catch my eye. But anyhow, every year I still check out what’s
in store for the hell of it. Finally,
this year there’s a Burton board that I really like, one that
I would consider even better than a board that I would design for myself.
So I must get it, but the store at Kanda is far away and I didn’t
have the time to go there today. Therefore, anyway I decided that since I was
looking for a chair, I’ll go chair shopping at Harajuku
after rehearsal instead. I browsed
around the furniture store but didn’t find anything nice in particular,
so just when I left the store, I saw a Burton sign in the store right across.
Why the heck is there Burton in Urahara..!?
I thought…Oh, so this is a Burton store in Urahara! Ah, it must have been the chair that’s
playing tricks and lured me here!! Then
I was told by the sales person that this store is new and has not been
advertised yet. Isn’t this
a very dramatic beginning. I mean, this store was opened but it wasn’t
promoted....yet. hmmm. Its
like… what the hell kind of store is this! (laughs). Well at this store they have a vast variety
of boards, and of course, the one that I really liked. I know that I won’t be going snowboarding
this year anyway, but they change the designs of the boards every year
so I must buy it now if I find some design that I like. Although this season I cannot go boarding,
but just getting to buy something that I want already makes me really
happy.
At the rehearsal, there are a lot of songs that Yukkie
has never played before, like All dead and I’m in pain. I’ve never sang White Feathers in the
drums of any other drummer other than Sakura until now. The difficult atmosphere was ridded and the
song became very easy to listen to…”Oh, this song was like
this…” I listened to it with a very fresh feeling.
Next thing is the Medley. Somehow
it was just difficult to leave it up to other people to arrange it,
so it took us a long time to finish it.
I cleared my head and started thinking how one guitar solo’s
chords would blend into another song’s solo.
I made a demo tape like that and showed it to the other members.
I have never performed Live for such a long duration,
I was kind of worried, not knowing what to do.
So I know that if I don’t sing with all my best the songs
will not grow, so even at this rehearsal, I gave it my best.
I thought if I sucked… and that is unfair for the other
members too…I want to show that I am sincere.
In the past, during rehearsal I usually don’t go all out
coz I thought it hurts my throat. But because of that I think I will not get
better. Nevertheless, it is the
15th year already (laughs).
And this time, giving it all at rehearsal it felt very good.
This is how life is also, isn’t it? It’s very tiring to always give your
best, but at the end you get something perfect. And anything else is like that, if you just
a lousy job, when you finish you’d just feel “
Oh, its over…” but if you do it with all your heart
each and everything you will feel fulfilled and touched.
2006/11.25
When it gets busy you know…I feel sorry for the staff. We have these really complex settings, and
of course it is difficult for them to set up, and we still keep bombarding
them with request like “No no, that’s
not how we want it!” …”The lighting should be like
this..” etc. Its
like..impossible for them. But I’m sure the staff
feel that if they don’t do their best, they won’t
be proud of it, we won’t be proud of it, and the fans cannot be
proud of it maybe. Therefore,
for the sake of everybody, we would check on each other whenever we
notice. And as expected, the first day of the concert
was very interesting. The guests
have no idea what to expect on the first day right, and their surprise
would therefore be the biggest, so it is worth surprising them. Also, because it’s the first day there
would be some mistakes and lousiness here and there, but instead I do
want the audience to see that and enjoy that too, compared to aiming
for perfection. For example, forgetting lyrics, messing up
our stage clothes. Those little
things I hope the audience would find enjoyable to watch too.
1995/ 07.19
”15th L’Anniversary
Live” 2nd day
This is the 2nd day so we got to correct our mistakes in
the first day and we were much faster setting up.
This Live was a great project..or
like it was a good live..or
I should say it’s going to be a very memorable live…We had
planned a special birthday surprise during the rehearsal stage. Because we have 2 birthdays in the band (Ken
and Yukkie), we gotta
have a birthday surprise. On
the first day, we had everybody pretend they didn’t know for Yukkie’s
surprise. But at the same time
we also didn’t want Ken-chan to think
“Tomorrow they’re gonna do the
same to me” So we didn’t let Ken have too much free time
to think. We had a word with Tetchan
though. So we’ve decided
that until that day we are not going to tell Ken about Yukkie’s
surprise. That was about a week
ago. And that day just right
before the live at the last minute we announced we’re doing Yukkie’s birthday.
And after the first day we told Yukkie
“We’re doing Ken’s birthday tomorrow” J (laughs)
2006/ 12.21~12.25
Bought Kaneko Sensei’s picture, and went to Company’s year
end party.
I had Kaneko Sensei draw the jacket of Faith for me, and I bought the
painting. But of course I had
planned to purchase that piece straight from the beginning. Right at this time I also was invited to perform
at the Tenka 5 gig. But I was also busy writing songs.. and about 5 days ahead, Sakura
called me… ah.. I knew he would call. (laughs). And he was whining and begging me to go so
I couldn’t refuse. (laughs) And
since it would be announced that I would perform, it’s not fair
to those who came all the way if I just play guitar and go home isn’t
it? So I told Sakura, lets play
“I’m so happy!” and Sakura also said “
Yeah lets do it!” From
the past, I’ve always had this image that “I’m so
happy” is a song that I share with Sakura.
In addition, this time I’ve finally saw the whole Tenka
concert from beginning till end. So
I got to see the new artists in our Company.
Although we meet in the office once in a while, but I’ve
never seen them perform. And
I thought some of the bands were pretty good.
After the concert we had a year end party, and normally I don’t
have a lot of chances to meet my seniors so I was glad we could chat
up in here. And the newer artists just
feels like little brothers to me.
I mean, they’re in their 20s.
In the past I’ve never thought that guys are cute.. but wow, these days, I really
think a lot of guys are so cute!! (Laughs)
2006/12.29~2007/01.12
Song writing, confirming of Laruku stuff.
I just keep getting stuff to confirm and I just wanna yell STOP! Its
like..haven't I already seen this before... But
anyhow, there are definately stuff that's interesting...like you can
see all the different eras. Many things I've forgotten about seem to
come back again. So i chillaxed, did the above, and passed the new year
in between....
2006/01.15
Laruku song presentation.
Sang the prototype song. The atmosphere really changes when we have
a song. The songwriter would be very picky on the melody, so i know
i must not screw up, so I try to remember the music very well and sing
to it and i'm getting better at this. And the funny thing is, end up
I have even more confidence than the songwriter because I've listened
to it so many times. Its like, if they say anything I'd be "No,
it wasn't like that" ( like, i know better than you already! laughs)
I wonder if i can apply this special talent of me in any other areas..(laughs)
2006/01.21
We were talking about countries you would like to go to earlier. You
know how you have these places that you know you must visit at least
once in your lifetime? For me, what i must see is aurora. No matter
what I must see it!! And other than that if we speak of places, would
be pyramids. And in my lifetime I don't think its possible to see everything,
but other than the above there's not a lot other things that I really
wanna see. But otherwise, Monaco has some very beautiful streets. Since
many people have said that Monaco is a great place I sorta wanna see
it too. Then its Italy. Its such a famous place but how come I've never
been!? Having said that, L'Arc~en~Ciel is French isn't it...but I've
never even been to France! (Laughs) Place that I would like to visit
once more is Greece. The buildings are wonderful. Something I would
like to see at least once in my lifetime. Well I've been to the Grand
Canyon, seen the stone hedge...Ah, I've also seen diamond dust. I've
also seen frost...it in the morning when I woke up, ice was frosted
on the trees like blooming sakura flowers. White sakura version. The
mountains turned all white but it wasn't just like snow. When the wind
blows, the ice dust gets blown away and its very beautiful. I was very
surprised when I saw it, didn't know it was like that.
2006/02.04
Glay Concert
Its my first time going to a Glay Live. I've went drinking with Takuro-kun
a few times before, but I've never been to their concerts. I was quite
busy around this time, but I always end up not going to other people's
concerts because of that, so this time I set it in my schedule from
the beginning so I wouldn't miss it. And the concert really was the
kind of concert of a band that had went to the very very top. And the
live was very warm, it really touched my heart! I would not have imagined
that it was going to be like this so i'm very glad that i came.
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