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Feat. Gakupo from Vocaloid.
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Feat. Gakupo from Vocaloid. ---- Best view in Google Chrome, 1280 x 800. ---- |
☆ GACKT RockStar vol.1Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 6:11 PM.Gackt interview :o!copyrighted by ashura_oh posted on Dears Live Community~ Gackt You can meet such a cute Gackt! Part 1 Single “Journey through the Decade” interview! Part 2 Here Gackt tells us about hero[ic] characters! Gackt embellishes the commemoration cover of the new magazine “ROCK STAR vol.1”. The strong, beautiful, cool, sometimes impish (laughs) Gackt. In “ROCK STAR”, we present you the greatly cute Gackt! Part 1 Single “Journey through the Decade” interview! Every child can become a hero by putting the belt around the hips like Kamen Rider. Still, when becoming an adult, everybody takes it off voluntarily and stores it somewhere else… Gackt’s new single “Journey through the Decade” is “Kamen Rider Decade” ’s theme song. “All children have the chance to become a hero” Gackt says. “Even if it’s hard, even if it’s painful, even if it’s cruel, because you can walk, in the end you can achieve that word ‘hero’.” (Gackt) A song to give courage to everybody was born. When I heard Gackt was about to do something with Kamen Rider, I thought it’d surely be something performed on stage. It wouldn’t be Rider, [rather] a master teaching martial arts to Rider or, definitely, a strong enemy like evil Satan or… When I heard he’d only sing the main theme, I was a little disappointed. After all, Gackt and the hero, the battalion[s] or the fighter would have suited him well. I had never thought similarly when he made theme songs for “Mobile Suit Gundam”. Maybe because there, an unconnected image of a world of heroes was created. What he sings this time is “Kamen Rider Decade”’s theme song “Journey through the Decade” (released March 25th). It’s always aired on Sunday mornings every week. To understand the title, “Kamen Rider Decade” (a decade means 10 years, or 10 things measured) is the tenth incarnation of Rider in Heisei period. [in Japan, years often get measured after the years the Tennô (emperor) is reigning; the current emperor is named Heisei, his first year of reign was 1989 = Heisei 1, 2009 = Heisei 21] So to speak, in the 10 weeks anniversary edition, in the story, the previous 9 Heisei Riders (Kûga, Agito, Ryûki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva) will appear, an overwhelming opus for fans. The theme song is about the topic of “travel”, which will continue to be handed on by the 10 Riders to the persons shaping the image of future’s new travels. Though sadly, Gackt doesn’t appear in the movie, his song can be heard like a scream of the Rider’s souls, like the figurine of the proudly isolated Rider it will appear sublimely in reality. By chance, Gackt himself will also receive his 10 year solo debut anniversary this year. “Isn’t that fate…” he says. From now on, many encounters will mount up, Gackt will also continue his travels. We’ll hear about all his memories/thoughts put into this time’s single. I believe that one should do everything one can do. - When it came to talk about this time’s theme song for “Kamen Rider Decade”, what did you yourself think at first? “It’d be a lie to say that I hadn’t doubted I [could] sing another person’s song with honesty.” - Was it really like that? Because to be honest, I had thought “How may it have been like to sing a song composed [by others]?”. “Yeah, as I said, I was reluctant, a lot. But because it was special, all in all the talk alone answered [my questions/worries] by trying to listen/ask. Because in this case, I thought that surely they wouldn’t tell me to sing that song with light [= shallow] feelings. But in fact, when I met the producer, it wasn’t like that at all, the conception was extremely hot. Ah, it was serious. Like that, my heart was a little moved.” - You liked the song, too…? “At that time, among the prepared pieces there was fortunately one that was amazing. And then, though it had been created by chance, I heard that it had been [made by] a friend of my drummer Jun-Ji. With that, too, I felt somehow strongly close. Like this, it was fate, wasn’t it. Like this, if this piece was chosen, I’d choose to sing it. So I decided for this song. It was the present “Journey through the Decade”.” - So from the production side, it was probably a feeling like “in any case, we wish for Gackt to sing”. “I thought that if there had been other candidates, wouldn’t it have been okay if I hadn’t been special, but it wasn’t like that. Out of consequence, because such an extremely warm thing [feeling] was transferred, I was happy. Also concerning the time, close before the tour started, with the situation of continuing to work nights through for parallel rehearsals and recordings, that idea was so hot, I started to feel like okay, let’s do it! From there, I thought “I want to do all I can!” In fact, trying that, it also became an extremely good lecture for myself.” All children have the chance to become a hero - To you, [singing] another person’s song is rare, so how was it to, so to speak, execute the work of the vocalist? “Yeah~, that was interesting. There were many new discoveries as well, in any case it was very instructive. Speaking of my own songs, I think that at the point of making them, there’s been an image before of how I want to sing them. But for songs made by others, I’m very troubled because there’s too many ways to sing those. So in the end I thought that, when kids listen to that theme song, while they’re cool, they also keep something within themselves [lit. “keep sth. secret within their chests”]… wounds, darkness and so on… but what if they let me feel that voluntarily invoked coolness and hard-boildness. They try to [keep] the enthusiasm [lit. “heat”, “fever”] inside, the coolness outside, don’t they. I felt so happy to receive that longing by such an image, so I sang. It’d be great if something close to that kind of heat was transferred. I think that that’s why though the expression and tiny parts also express many things, in the end [everybody] wishes for an extremely cool completion. It’s a little painful, a feeling like there’s a wound, isn’t it.” - The character of a hero is usually thought of as full of energy and braveness. Is that different [here]? “That’s different, isn’t it. Because Kamen Rider itself is different. Speaking of Kamen Rider, doesn’t it start from a place of darkness? That’s great. That’s what I think is separating Kamen Rider from other fighters. That place of darkness is close to real society’s humanity. Because these days, “support the good, punish evil” [this is given in the typical form of a slogan, made up by only four kanji] somehow doesn’t exist! (laughs) American heroes are only totally just people. So with the image of perfect people being completed, in real society there’s no relation to good guys and bad guys. Being a hero is troubling, being a villain is troubling. Because with each on his own, there’s each life on its own, the way you live and so on, isn’t it. Like that, the shape of Kamen Rider’s troubled dark hero can give huge courage to the children who have to go forward in future’s society, can’t it. When defeated, you can’t become a hero. Even if it’s hard, even if it’s painful, even if it’s cruel, but because you can walk that way, in the end you can achieve being a hero. All kids have that chance. To speak with the language of Kamen Rider, everybody takes the Rider belt off their hips and stores it somewhere else. What I want to transfer to children is to say this isn’t useful, that this is a theme with a big meaning.” - Singing words written by other people, wasn’t there a feeling of strangeness? “Though in the beginning, I thought there was [that feeling]… if there had really been a feeling of strangeness, I think I’d maybe have written it newly. (laughs) But it wasn’t like that. There wasn’t one moment when I thought I couldn’t sing it. Speaking of the melody or some tiny detail, though of course there were things I modulated myself, there was no “I’ll change this a little…”. I think that lyrics written by others are the same as the lines when you make a drama or a movie for example. If I had thought “My character absolutely can’t say that!”, I could have said “but when changing it, yeah, that he could definitely say!”. So there weren’t any problems.” Because when I perform something, it becomes all dark - Did you watch the Kamen Rider series yourself? “No, but at least I came to watch it in the internet recently. (laughs) But because there was the long awaited chance now, I ordered the whole of Heisei Kamen Rider on DVD. I said “I can’t watch several hundred hours in total!” (laughs) Before, there had been [= I had been talking to] people knowing so much about Heisei Kamen Rider, all going like “this Rider is like this, this Rider’s life is like that…”. That was pretty interesting. Suddenly I became interested, I said if it’s that great, I want to watch it all. Concerning “Kamen Rider Decade”, with all 10 incarnations of Heisei Rider appearing, it’s going to become a very interesting language. Each Rider can’t let the different worlds coexist, they collide, the parallel worlds will collapse. The own world [= each Rider’s world] can’t continue to exist like that. But isn’t that the reason for the Riders following upon each other one by one? Though believing that they were each others’ enemies, in fact they’re great guys, in fact they become extremely important guys. Still, if there’s no inversion, they can’t save their own world…” - Yeah… so that’s the conflict, isn’t it. “(his eyes brightening up) Isn’t that an awesome conflict? That one! When I heard that talk, I thought wouldn’t kids be able to understand that? But though I thought so, maybe the image of children we have in our mind is different [from reality]. I believe that children’s level has immensely risen these days. In the current society, everybody’s a hurt hero, in the wars rising all over the world, something like a [common; pure] hero doesn’t exist. So in this age, when you want to create something that rings in children’s chests, such a thing has [to have] a real direction, so to say, to win empathy. I think that children understand fully, too.” - But your vocals, the complete image itself etc. totally fit these dark heroes’ philosophy of life, don’t they. A perfect image! “I’m very happy to hear that. The feeling to sing this song was good. The lyrics also fitted my very own thoughts pretty well. “Decade”… speaking of ten years, with my own 10th anniversary since my solo debut this year, I’m here now because of many different things/persons, so speaking of a main character continuing the journey from here, it overlaps totally [in many ways with his own life]. That’s why I could sing about these feelings so well. In the end, I think it overlaid with my character. I’m a super positive character, but [that’s because] I don’t have definitions for good or bad. Though I don’t know if what I do myself is always right, and it’s good when this will be judged in the world to come, I think what I do isn’t wrong. There’ll certainly also be many people who criticize me, who can believe my statements to be dangerous, and there might also be people who don’t understand. But whatever’s said by other people like that, still in my own belief, I only think I’m not wrong.” - The standard to judge lies within [the individual] self, doesn’t it. Surrounding opinions don’t. “Exactly. If this is dangerous, surely everybody would have felt such a dark part in me, wouldn’t they. I don’t hate this at all, it seems good. Not to talk about the films or dramas I’ve been in, if you ask “Are you a hero?”, it’s totally different, isn’t it. I want to express a dark way wherever, all in all, when I perform, it becomes dark. (laughs)” - When I watched the promotion video for “Journey through the Decade”, it seemed just like a stage gig. (laughs) After in the end, your “Gackt”-logo emerged like “Ba~m!”, I wished for a metamorphose. “No, no, I metamorphosed before, so it’s my current self. (laughs)” Part 2 This is about Gackt telling us about the figure of a hero! When I was a child, my body was weak, so I longed for a body lacking that weakness. I want to say that because you’re weak, you’re not useless. Precisely because you’re weak, you can see things, precisely because you’re weak, there’s certainly things you can do. Gackt also drills his body with five hours of training every day, he’s almighty in martial arts, he doesn’t know defeat in conflict. (laughs) … so I thought “Gackt = totally strong person”. But Gackt knows the heart of a weak person, he’s an understanding person. Here’s the surprising sobriety [lit. “natural face”] of a Gackt unknown to anyone so far. To be called a hero, there’s a variety of conditions. To possess special abilities. To cause legendary results with these abilities. To be strong. On the downside of strength, to keep your sadness, weakness etc. covered up. To act steadily based on unshakeable belief. To be cool. (essential) There’s an unrealistic, mysterious part. In the context of desiring a similar existence, though there’s that expression “star”, stars are always splendidly active and in light of being judged; heroes posses their true value and charisma [for the very reason of] that dark part. If that’s the case… I think Gackt surely is a hero. With Gackt receiving the 10th year of his solo debut this year while releasing the theme song for “Decade”, also indicating 10 years, of the hero symbol “Kamen Rider”, it’s close to faith. While we continue to evolve, what does hero Gackt think a hero is? Especially a dark hero is a realistic existence in today’s society - What kind of person is the figurine of a hero to you? “I think there’s two kinds of heroes. The hero who, so to speak, upholds total justice, and also the one called dark hero. So basically that hero upholding total justice is in the end a perfect hero… that’s pretty bad, isn’t it? If you ask why, this person finished by total brainwashing and drill doesn’t have a will of its own, it’s like programmed. Like that, a person called hero is popular… it means that emotions move within that programme, doesn’t it? The American hero is typical for that, making this programme is America, isn’t it? I think that’s what’s turning that country called America into a symbol. In war as well as everywhere else, America upholds that total justice, doesn’t it? Because the method of justifying a war in the name of justice is exactly American.” - No doubt! “But, in today’s world, this doesn’t get believed. Though until about ten years ago this was still somehow valid, with the spread of the internet the truth got exposed a lot. Because it became impossible to manipulate the information, didn’t it? So I think that in contrast to this hero totally corresponding to justice, a motive produced by the great powers [“big country”], isn’t that person called dark hero the figurine of a hero corresponding to today’s society? Or rather, doesn’t the figurine of a dark hero fit exactly to the image of a hero in the world today? Someone called a dark hero neither ever wanted to become a hero, nor did he ever do anything to become [one], only because of a certain power, situation, circumstance etc. he’s forced, or because there’s the necessity, unfortunately he gets into the situation of a hero. [there’s a situation a hero is needed for, so he becomes a hero] In this process, there’s many different conflicts and pain, and in contrast to that a hero gets shaped by his surroundings, by the things each hero on his own causes… so I think isn’t that a person you can call a dark hero? That’s why a dark hero person is so overwhelmingly realistic today, isn’t it?” - You can say that, can’t you. At the moment movies for example also change for characters drawn like that, don’t they. In the “Batman”-series the dark image also develops. “That’s because in the end, they came to understand a dumb total hero is useless. Implausible. Though in former times, that was impossible, wasn’t it? Because it was manipulated in the context of the country’s situation. Movies were also censored by something like an ethic committee in each country in former times, and because they manipulated the way of drawing, the total justice was upheld, but today that doesn’t work. In China for example the censoring is still strict, isn’t it? I most probably couldn’t perform my recent tour in China for example. I think it wouldn’t pass inspection.” - Why is that? “Because there’s costumes showing a Nazi image, World War II performed on stage. Though the theme and what I want to deliver is totally different, it’s still a NO GO when looked at shallowly. What I want to deliver is that from the centre of this world, there was a prayer for peace, saying it would be great if there was no more war, though that is the message delivered in the end, it wouldn’t be accepted by inspection. But I think this is also going to change step by step.” I like Char better than Amuro because he keeps his weakness to himself - Do you like hero movies or anime? “I like them! Especially dark hero persons are great, aren’t they? Dark heroes can achieve today’s people’s greatest sympathy, that’s essential, I think.” - Which hero do you like, for example? “I like Gundam which features Amuro and Char. When you ask me which one I like, I somehow like Char extremely. To say why, it’s because Char isn’t strong. I like him because he’s weak. Bearing his past, for the sake of avenging the past, Char performing perfection quickly becomes weak, that’s why I like him. Speaking of Amuro, he’s the opposite. Because Amuro is a youngster bearing ordinary pain, doesn’t he become strong quickly? Instead of that I’m fascinated by people who look strong on first sight but sometimes show weakness.” - Like Superman or Ultraman, some kind of –man? “In that movie called’Daredevil’, Ben Affleck plays a protagonist who can’t see. Though he was showered with chemicals as a child and couldn’t see [from then on], his sense of hearing and all sensory perception apart from seeing have become superhumanly strong, during daytime he’s a lawyer, at night he becomes Daredevil and fights evil. I totally love that. Apart from that, I also like “X-MEN”’s Wolverine. Because I like Hugh Jackman who plays him. I think among the mutants in “X-MEN”, Wolverine is a hero with an incredible presence. He’s a typical dark hero, isn’t he? He’s made a start since he doesn’t have memories of his past, he’s searching for who he is. So I think that there somehow the modern, agonized hero is a symbol.” - Some super metal was planted into his body, and when these blades emerge his body, his face extremely distorts in pain, doesn’t it. “Yes, yes, while he feels pain, be becomes strong. Isn’t that strong? [“sugoi” is usually “cool”, “great”, but to me this didn’t sound fitting in the context] Interesting. Though there’s all kinds of different heroes in the world, there’s surely imperfection, isn’t it? Even when they’re mentally perfect, why might there surely be a weak point?” - Well, Ultraman’s chest light sends a warning signal after three minutes. [Ultraman needs solar energy, he can only survive on earth for 3-5 minutes after transformation from his human host.] “How can he only fight for three minutes? It doesn’t serve whatever purpose. It’s okay when his partners are monsters, but in a fight, how does he do that! It’s a fairy tale, isn’t it? (laughs)” If I could live in a dead body, that would be the best! - Do you think you want to become a hero yourself? “I longed for it when I was a kid. Because my body was weak, I wanted to get a strong body. I longed for a body without a sickly constitution. - I see… But I think now your body is many times stronger than an average person’s. (laughs) How did you overcome this? “That’s the outside, isn’t it? Inside I’m still weak.” - Nonetheless, compared to the time of your solo debut, you’ve certainly become healthy, haven’t you. In former times, after a concert tour was over, you passed out for about a month, didn’t you? “Yeah, because I didn’t do anything else than training. In the end, when you’re training for five hours every day, physical aspects get strong. But until then, if you can’t do it, there’s also things you can’t uphold, but you somehow believe. (laughs) After that, concerning eating habits or whatever, you use much more energy than an average person, don’t you?” take care D: - That’s amazing self discipline, isn’t it. Your mental strength must be great. “It’s only perfection of self discipline, I’m weak, my body is. If it wasn’t, I’d live in a better state of health, I think. Without thinking about anything any further, I think I’d just keep eating different things at will. Just because my body is weak, I can accomplish the technique of thorough self discipline. That’s why I want to say that because you’re weak, you’re not useless. Even when you’re weak, because of your very weakness, there’s things you can see. Precisely because of your weakness, there’s things you can do. I think that’s something totally unknown to weak people.” - That’s it, isn’t it? Because there’s things invisible to strong people . “Precisely because of weakness, you can understand the importance of various things. Precisely because of weakness, you understand the things giving you life, giving you health, irrespective of fortunes. You understand to keep these, no matter how hard it is. That’s why I’m so very sensitive for these things. I think that’s what’s not understood by strong people. It’s impossible to eat something because it’s delicious. But to talk more about the real intention, if I [could] change birth, I think I’d also like to be born with such a body. But because of course I can’t hope for that now, in that case I will think about up to where I’m going to fight with [=using] this recent body. It’s no use, searching for a weapon that doesn’t exist. Because you [can] only fight with the weapons in front of your eyes.” - So, if for example you could change into anything right now, what would you like to become? “Hm~mm… if I could have a body that wouldn’t get sick, everything would be great. But I long to be a dead person. If I could live with a dead body, that’d be the best I think.” (laughs) - A zombie? I think maybe that’s impossible. (laughs) “Listen, like the cursed pirates in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’! (laughs) But their appearance isn’t beautiful, is it? Dirt is disgusting…” (like seriously worried) LOL. - You must not sell your soul! “Ah, yeah. You absolutely can’t sell your soul.” Labels: Gackt |