VISUAL goes JAPAN’s interview with Makoto
- March 1st, 2011
- By Henkka
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VISUAL goes JAPAN did an interview with Makoto a while back. Well, I say “a while back“, but I’ve been working on this on-and-off for a good four and a half months now. Holy hell. This one damn near killed me and my poor Japanese skill. In any case, I’ve translated it here. Enjoy!
This summer, Λucifer came back with a dramatic revival. What were their thoughts behind the reunion?
Λucifer’s vocalist as well as solo artist, musician and actor: MAKOTO.
MAKOTO, busy with all these activities, talked to us about both the past and the future.
How did Λucifer’s revival come to be?
After our debut in 1999, reaching our 10th anniversary felt really significant.
There was lots of fan feedback asking if we wouldn’t do something for our 10th anniversary. After Λucifer’s break-up, too, us members would meet up for drinks and when we started saying “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something together for our 10th anniversary?“, that’s when it all started taking shape.
Did you go see the other members live, too?
I did. Like guitarist YUKI’s DUSTAR-3, drummer SANTA’s OLIVE SUNDAY, as well as lives of artists they were supporting. ATSURO’s the only one whose live I haven’t been to! ATSURO’s supporting a lot of artists, too, but a lot of them are voice actresses and going to those lives would’ve felt a little embarrassing. (lol) But I’ll have to go sometime. I mean, I haven’t seen him playing live aside from Λucifer! I have on TV though. Yeah, on Music Station, I did see him playing behind Shokotan, but his appearance was completely the same as when we were in Λucifer! A little visual kei-ish, that is. (lol) I was like “Huh? Is it alright to look like that?!” (lol)
He does the same playing stance too, eh (lol)
Yeah.
Everyone was also doing their individual activities at the time of the revival. Were there any difficulties because of that?
I think Λucifer has less rehearsals than bands normally do. We really drilled everything into our minds back then and so even after these 7 years have passed, it all came back to me really quickly without even looking at the lyrics. The others, too, were able to completely pull it off after basically just a little bit of fine tuning.
I see. So there weren’t that many problems?
Right. This time we had a different mindset. Back in the old days we were busy worrying about how we did on the charts and stuff. That was an important thing for us then. However, this time we did it simply for the fun of it all. Even now I think there’s lots of bands like that, ones that worry about that kind of stuff. However, doing music in an environment like that isn’t enjoyable. This time we distanced ourselves from all of that and it became fun.
It really looked that way!
Sorry if I looked worn out (lol) It’s my selling point (lol)
Not at all. It was fun that there were lots of MC’s, too.
After I became a solo artist it’s gotten bad. After the first 4 songs, I can go on talking for an hour! It’s already Chiharu Matsuyama-level. (lol) This time I held back though. (lol)
During the live, you made fun of your old character a number of times. Still, how was it like to become the fallen angel character again after all this time?
Oh yeah, the datenshi character itself was pretty questionable from the beginning. (lol) Back then I didn’t talk that much so conversely now I’m talking a lot like I usually would. There’s this thing the comedians Girin used to say. If you keep chewing on your food for a long time, at some point you’ll notice the taste will have eventually changed. They call that going “Beyond the Borderline of Flavor.” The same thing happens with your voice. If you keep talking, at some point you’ll suddenly notice you’ve crossed the line and you’ve been talking forever. I call it going “Beyond the Borderline of the Voice.” (lol)
I see, so MC’s were thanks to crossing over to the Other Side of The Voice. (lol)
Aside from the performances in Japan, Λucifer also went to play in Thailand. How was it?
In Thailand, the stage was really high up, around 2 meters or so. When I asked the security “Is it alright to stage dive from here?“, they said “No.” But then during the live there was an instant where I thought I absolutely had to. Like, an “I gotta do it now!” moment. So I did (lol)
Were you okay?
I braced myself and it was alright. The fans held me up and got all excited, too.
That’s good. After Λucifer’s dissolution, you also had solo activities in other parts of Asia. Are there any differences between Japanese and foreign fans?
If you want to make a good performance abroad, it’s important to take into consideration the culture and atmosphere of the country you’re performing in. As for the Thai performance… Thailand, a Buddhist country, has people who think very highly of unconditional love. As such, during the live rather than everyone screaming their heads off, it was more like everyone was thinking “Oooh, it’s the real thing～” while kind of holding back or more like, in the first half, they were just taking it all in, but when we got to the halfway point, the audience started getting more fired up. Therefore, compared to the 4 performances in Japan, being on stage was completely different. It was once again fun doing a show at a place with completely different culture. When it comes to the language, the members don’t speak Thai, so we crammed hard until the last minute so we could speak a little bit. Me, I like to use a marker to write what I need to remember on my hand, but if you write it on your palm, the sweat will wash it off and besides, it looks to the audience like you’re reading from your hand. So what I like to do is write on the outside of my hand. If you do that, place your hand up high and look at it that way, it doesn’t seem as if you’re reading something and you look like something out of a painting. (lol)
So you used that kind of a technique. (lol) So, if someone sees you abroad looking at your hand, there’s always the possibility you’re reading some memo you wrote to yourself.
Exactly. (lol)
How was it, seeing Λucifer come back to life again?
Though I’m 30 years old right now, both our debut and our break-up happened really early on, so I’m still thinking about how my life will turn out from now on. I have a friend who also has a band who made a limited time comeback and I went to have dinner with him after their live. At that time we hadn’t yet decided on Λucifer’s revival. So I asked him “How was your comeback?” and he replied “The audience doesn’t get fired up if you don’t have new songs.” That time, I just thought “Ah, I see.“
Bands are usually like, they release new songs, and they go “Alright, this time let’s go with these!” and then they tour, right? But for us, we decided to keep the focus on our old songs, and in doing so, I had to think about what my reasons were for getting up on stage for our anniversary. Sure, I could’ve just gone and done it without giving it a second thought, but I didn’t want it to be this lukewarm class reunion thing. Rather, I wanted to go and seize the energy to focus on my solo career and other activities from now on, and that’s how I had my feelings sorted prior to getting up there on stage.
Actually standing on stage, were you able to find that energy you were searching for?
Right now, my thoughts are that I strongly believe in myself, my fashion, my way of living, everything. Like, “Others can say what they like, but I’ll keep on going on the path I believe in!“
Λucifer announced during the live that it will again for the time being “freeze” its activities. Does it feel like the day that “ice” melts again is close by?
Standing on stage again after 7 years, seeing how Λucifer had continued to live in everyones’ memories made me really happy. Also, during the performances, it felt like the fans were smiling even more than they did before. If there’s this many people waiting for us, I think it’d be bad if we don’t get together to play once in a while! Although we’ll become “frozen” again, I believe we will play again and the others feel the same way, too.
We can’t end it here. It feels like we’re a band that’s still continuing to evolve.
From here on, we can expect your solo activities to pick up the pace again, and, compared to the MAKOTO of Λucifer, I think your fans are looking forward to seeing a completely different you again.
Though I’ve been a performer for 12 years now, my current status is that I’m still searching for myself, so I want to challenge lots of different things and I’m thinking I want to do work that improves me as a person. So, I’m thinking I want to do things like stage plays and sessions with other bands. For me, Λucifer is a thing of glory from my past, so before I return to do things with Λucifer again, I’m thinking it’d be good for me to see new worlds and learn new things from them to make myself grow as a person. So in that sense, too, I want to go on challenging various things.
Your stage play “Urizun no Kaze” is starting, too.
Yes. It’s a play about a tight-knit family that gets into a major crisis which nearly collapses their lives, and how with each others’ support they try to overcome that adversity.
It’s something completely different again from being in a band, so your preparations for it must be difficult.
Right. In my case, for that character who’ll stand on the stage in that play, I’m thinking about things like, what kind of a life does he lead? What does he eat? How much does he sleep? What kind of characteristics does he have? I’m thinking about all of these things one by one. When you think about things like this, the character you’re portraying on stage is going to gain depth. From now on, I’m going to practice and enter into that kind of simulation work.
When I was doing a period drama, for example, I was even wearing kimono at home. If I just put in the work during rehearsals and on stage, I can’t properly get into character. Until now, I’ve only done roles like bisexual sadist dentists or sword-wielding master fencers, just roles that are kind of strange. But this time it’s just an ordinary person, so that’s something I was looking forward to. It’s normally those strange roles that seem to be hard for actors as they need to be in high spirits. But in my case, it’s oddly enough the opposite — for me, it’s the normal salaryman or convenience store clerk I’m worried about doing. So this time it’s a challenge for me.
So people going can look forward to seeing another side of you?
That’s right. This’ll look like I’m trying to sound cool, but it feels like I myself am going to find a new side of me as well, so I’m looking forward to that. I want to put my soul in it and really make it a play that will move you.
As for your new band Trick, there’s still lots of things being kept a secret about it. Could you tell us what you can about it?
It’s a session band we formed with close friends of mine and we took part in a Seikima II tribute album. I don’t know about its future activities yet. It’ll be a band enshrouded in mystery.
But, when it comes to music, I have a clear fashion style I want to go for. When Λucifer debuted, my outfits were flashy and my makeup was light. Then, a bit later during our activities, my style got relatively natural. Now, I’ve steadily started moving towards both flashier clothes and darker makeup.
What I think I’m leaning towards now is the metal style or, I mean, using more ornaments and going for a flashier look, in kind of like a sadistic flavor.
Kind of like a cross between visual kei and metal styles?
Right. I like that kind of thing. Though I do think about how long it’s okay for me to continue using eyeliner. (lol)
They also posted a short video message from Makoto. Notice his John Lennon/Yoko Ono shirt!
