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I think it’s good we chose to do this on our 14th anniversary. We’ll reflect on our past on our 14th anniversary, and then I’d like to see “something toward the future” during our 15th anniversary.–With a personality like that, you must find the ongoing discussions between politicians on the news about the earthquake frustrating?No, those are people who are much smarter than me butting heads to reach a conclusion, so I guess there isn’t any other way (laughs).
–Maybe my example wasn’t fitting. Like, I’m sure it takes a lot of time before reaching a conclusion about your next single.In those cases……. In our case, each member submits a song. I think this is a good thing for MUCC recently, but a member’s strong opinion isn’t reflected on to our work as much. I think that’s a good thing. Each member prepares a song, so we’re all attached to our own songs, and that can prevent us from comparing our song with the other songs without bias. I think it’s good that we have a third-party, like someone from the agency or the person in charge of the tie-up, step in and choose which song is good flatly.
–So, the objective view is more important than the underlying feelings?For that part of the process. Or else we won’t be able to make a flat judgement.
–Does this mean you guys don’t know or don’t have a grasp of what part of MUCC is working most effectively right now?We can’t look at ourselves objectively. We have an idea of how we should be seen and how we want to be seen, but we aren’t certain about how we are actually being seen.
–From how you guys are completing “Karma” and bringing up your history in May’s Budokan lives, I feel like you guys are objectively looking down upon yourselves and understand your needs.No. That is from the simple thought, “We’ve got two days, so we should do a lot of stuff and play around”…… Also, we’re at our 14th anniversary. Next year is our 15th anniversary. Usually, you’d go about doing a history live on your 15th anniversary. This is also a subsequent event, so it’s not something we planned on doing from the beginning. But I’m glad we get to do this at our 14th anniversary. 15th anniversaries are just a stepping stone toward the 20th anniversary, so I want to see “something toward the future” during our 15th anniversary. When I realized that, I thought bringing up the past on our 15th anniversary is something really negative.
–Summarizing it makes it feel like it’s going to end.Yeah. So, before we move on to the next stepping stone toward our 20th anniversary, we’re going to reflect on our past at our 14th anniversary, and beginning next year, we’ll start running toward the future.
–And it’s not like you’re trying to bury away the past.Yeah. We’ve changed a lot with “Karma,” so I think we can show the two extremes, and I think we can show how we haven’t changed, too. Even if we do completely opposite things, there are still some matching points. I thought that was kind of interesting.
–Are your plans for what you’re going to play pretty solid now?No, not yet. We’re still brushing it up. Picking out the must-haves lead to a big number. Instead, we’re picking out the “we’re definitely not going to play this, right?” ones and we give the “I don’t know if it’s necessary but I want to play this” songs a try and then decide. That was pretty fun.
–So you’re taking a negative poll?Yes. And we’re seeing what we end up with. There are also parts we can’t see until we start building the setlist. I’m sure we’ll make adjustments based on whether it fits in or not. So, we’re still deciding. Most of the people coming to see us are people who don’t know the old MUCC. I think they’re mostly people who are going to come so they can hear the songs that you can’t hear live now, so I think it’s necessary to make the live enjoyable to those who don’t know our old songs. That’s why what we want to accomplish becomes more than simply recreating our past. Recreating the past also leads to “why bring down the level than where we are now?” Instead of doing that, I want to play our old songs and bring it up to the level of our current work. Also, I think there are some songs where we can do stuff that we didn’t even think of doing in the past, or we wanted to but weren’t able to, or couldn’t think of doing because we didn’t have the knowledge.
–Yes. But, that doesn’t mean you’re going to neglect the people who have been following MUCC from the past in real time?Yeah. We appreciate them, so I think it’s important to include songs that they’ll particularly enjoy. But it can’t be that alone.
–And you don’t mean that you’ll simply arrange your old songs into a “Karma”-like arrangement?It’s not a matter of arrangement. We won’t change the arrangement. It’s more how we show it, like with the staging.
–So, how you present the song?Yes. There are songs from our old work that I think are still good now and there are songs where I think, “I wouldn’t write lyrics like that now, but the lyrics are good because it’s full of the atmosphere of how things were back then.” While there are songs where I think, “I’d like to sing it like this now,” and will change how I sing it, on the other hand, there are songs where I think, “I’d like to change how I sing this, but it’d be better to sing it as I did in the past.” In other words, you feel a number of different feelings when you hear your favorite band play their old songs, and we’re doing the same with our own songs.
–How will it come out when our current selves play it. That kind of curiosity is the motivator?Yes. But, for this Budokan live, we are taking action after thinking it through. It’s not just intuition. The balance and feel is still important but on top of that we’re thinking about our past mistakes and thinking…… When it comes to producing better work, there are times when it’s never enough no matter how much you think.
–But, while there are people who are going to see your old songs be played, there are also people who love “Karma” and don’t care for the songs from a period they don’t know about.Yeah. There’s that too, so that’s why it’s necessary to do a live that will be enjoyable even if you don’t know the songs. I hope we’ll be able to present it that way.
–So it’s not necessary to preview or review your songs before going?It doesn’t matter either way. When people go see a movie, there are people who read the program beforehand and then there are others who read it afterward, and there may be people who check the trailers before going. It doesn’t matter either way. I think it’s fine to go to a live without knowing our old songs and discovering, “Ah, I like this song” and have that lead to checking out an album from that period
Fonte:
[Apr. 2011] ROCK AND READ 035: Tatsuro (MUCC) (3/6)
