CUT magazine Interview
Translator Comments
There’s attractive photos of the musically altruistic boys in the actual magazine, so don’t dodge it now, don’t forget that paper is edible now: you can buy it and chow down.
Original Untranslated Text; ripped from the magazine:
(Also special thanks to 184ry Ohm for equipping me.)
Hitorie is a rock band who embodies the taste of the Vocaloid songs of 2010. With wowaka (Vocals/Guitar), the producer who back then went by the name GenjitsuTouhi-P, as the heart of the band, they connected through the net in 2011.
Drawing songs without any agency from anyone, there is a reason wowaka is stepping away from the vicious Vocaloid scene, and choosing the happy road of a band. This is because wowaka has always embraced vehement admiration for the power that only the mingling of fellow humans can make, and he sought such out as his own objective. Yet still, since so most bands feel the same, no matter what variety of skill to be had, there’s no way perfect chemistry can appear at the start. That’s why, there’s something more the quad of Hitorie can do. With such tenacity Hitorie are always having concerts, strengthening each other’s muscles and trust, and continue to make funky dance rock songs. Their ninth album DEEPER is a masterpiece that compiles their steps. They even walked to such heights that they were able to release a riveting DVD of their tour final, one-Me Tour “DEEP/SEEK” at STUDIO COAST. So here I am to ask them about their current beings, and what is to become.
About the DVD, the fact that this concert was important to you was evident by the heat of it all, but what was it that made you want to release it?
wowaka: Since we made DEEPER, I’ve thought of it as an album befitting of a concert CD, and making it into one was often of discussion. Lots of people have told us that we’re a band who’s impression changes once you see us in concert, so we thought that we should compile such impression into a DVD that we could leave unto the world. After all, it was our biggest one man show so far, and I think of DEEPER as the destination of what we’ve accomplished thus far, so we thought it was great that we got the chance to be recorded in our most lively state.
I get it.
wowaka: I love all of our members, and probably the albums I’ve listened to the most in my life are, concert albums. Number Girl’s Last Live. That’s why I thought us four too understand how to touch hearts with such goodness.
Your favorite being concert albums is quite surprising. wowaka, you originally played music alone, yet wanting to be in a band, wanting to do something more physical is where Hitorie started right. Do you think that idea was actually around since long ago?
wowaka: I think so. The more I do concerts, the more I feel as if concerts are the place most, where one cannot tell a lie about music or their person. Since I experienced that for myself, there’s definitely parts I have understood from the tingles in my skin. That was the meaning behind me thinking I want to be in a band, if I’m going to do it then I’m going to plays lots of concerts and try to live strongly, and I think that is how Hitorie is always continuing on.
In being a band who carries conflict and egoism, it makes our personalities perk up and I like us like this
You already faced the challenge on how to exhibit the sounds of DEEPER from a studio song to a concert but, were you nervous before you got started?
ygarshy: More than nervous… There was something else to be nervous about.
Yumao: Everyone was down with the flu (laughing).
ygarshy: Yumao and I were the only ones left alive,
Yumao: There was a pandemic outbreak, so us two alone would go to the studio, just to watch everyone else slowly leave (laughing). This was right before the tour was going to start, so we were nervous that we were definitely going to catch it too, yet we ended up going to eat curry together as the final dinner. After that we started to feel as if we were sick… Yet we were totally fine (laughing).
shinoda: That was why you guys had to play the bass and drums so damn well. When I went to the studio in full sickness, I couldn’t play well, and it was so bad that I had almost started crying.
Yumao: You even lost a heck ton of weight,
wowaka: I especially felt like I was dragging everyone down, because even after I was restored back to health I was continuing to cough. The tour started with hopes of me somehow being able to sing, and the first became an extremely painful concert. So personally it was a tour start-off of much regret. However, from the support of these three here, and the aid of the audience, I was able to ride through so much. From that I learned where I could rely on and what sort of strengths I need to have, and feel like I displayed my new self on the last day of the tour.
I get it. So Hitorie’s concerts are all about, performing while driving one’s mentality and physicality into a corner.
wowaka: I’m pretty sure everyone’s overtired, in our band (laughing).
shinoda: Before the tour too, I kept begging to change the setlist, to cut me some slack, yet everyone would force me, saying ‘No, we gotta do this’, and so there were many times where I would just accept all like “Alright then, I can do it".
All members laughing.
Undoubtedly, when listening to DEEPER, one can feel that the strength in the speeds and ensembles of your songwriting is intensifying, hence I think that the you four are strengthening as a band.
ygarshy: More than any tour before this one, the realization that I am a piece of this band came out really certain. Those things inside me that are almost like emotions, just let them come out of wowaka’s mouth in the end, sort of thing.
You all seem to be much more selfless and have less of an ego.
shinoda: Naw my ego hasn’t disappeared at all though, but my idle thoughts and such have disappeared a lot. Before my feelings were more like, I gotta stand out on a 24'7 o'clock stage, but now I’m in a phase where, I think that slamming down a more complete performance will make the concerts even better.
Yumao: I’m the opposite of those two, before DEEPER my ego was at zero. I had realized that the band was better that way, so I continued on that way but, maybe I got more skills or something, because I became able to imagine the scenery of the next level in my head, and from there on whenever I wanted to take a certain sort of approach to a song, I realized that I had to get a bit more greedy, and now I feel as if such is moving me, one, two more levels ahead.
Hmm, I get it.
wowaka: Listening to the conversation I can tell, that each of us have our own unique ego, and as we uniquely carry inner conflicts, I think that the benefits of each of us are being passed on into our band. We all face towards one direction, and more than a band who sacrifices their life to the cause, our way makes our personalities perk up, and I like us like this. Then now, with a conclusion on DEEPER’s tour, what could Hitorie as a whole do to become even better; how I feel about that is… Why don’t we just do what ever the hell we like.
All members laughing.
wowaka: While that was also just a figure of speech, if I do what I like just a little bit once, with performing, song writing or even singing, I believe that it’ll turn out good. So now, we’re in that sort of mode when we produce or do concerts.
For you wowaka, the part of you who wants to have steady control over the world of Hitorie and, the part of you who wants the world to become something so amazing that it takes control over you, seem to be coexisting.
wowaka: You’re right, I want to be as both, I do.
While this might be a difficult question, I’m wondering if for you guys, this has been a four years of getting the feel of what you’re capable of.
wowaka: That’s exactly it.
Yet now you’re trying to raise the bar even higher (laughing).
wowaka: And I really think that if I’m going to do such, I want to have fun doing it.
Well say, even if we played a concert for thousands of people in Tokyo Dome, don’t you guys think that we still be saying that this isn’t enough
Then, how is the song writing of Hitorie going to go from here on?
wowaka: Be it the resonation of sound or word or melody, my aesthetic of wanting to create something beautiful with such, is what I’ve been living with my whole life so, I don’t think there’s any means for changing our music. Then, what process do I step until I reach such, what words will I let out, I personally feel like that’s all been heading towards a more open direction. I also said this after when we finished DEEPER but, originally, I would write songs and lyrics from the sidelines reclusively, so that’s the origin of creation for me. Yet, in trying to somehow let my body seek out to my aesthetic, as if going ‘DEEPER’, I think I was able to overtake it in an instant. Then from that level and up, I’m getting this feeling as if I want to go, go up above to the heavens, I want to go up to the viewpoint of the gods. Wondering about what sort of music would come out of such places, I feel excited in just writing so… Recently I’ve been making songs with that sort of mind.
It’s true that if you look at the way even one line of your lyrics has been written, they have really changed.
wowaka: You’re right, I think that they’ve changed. On top of changing, we’ve come a long way in seeking out our music, so I want to become able to avail myself to it all, and I feel that I’m becoming someone who can. The sensation that I have grown is definite, so the problem is figuring out how to convey that to everybody.
Because of that, I get no sense of nostalgia from Hitorie’s concerts. Yet in your last concert spontaneously, you did the song Prism Cube, a track from your Vocaloid days.
wowaka: You’re right. It’s of the same sort of feeling that I was just talking about, that came to me before we concluded our DEEPER tour. When I felt as if I wanted to show my feeling to the audience, what arouse inside of me was, a feeling of wanting to sing Prism Cube. So, at the rehearsal for our final show suddenly I asked saying, “I quite wanna do Prism Cube, and everyone nicely told me 'Then let’s do it’. I think that’s really great, the fact that we were able to do that song as an encore was really big to me, and I think to the band too.
I get it. Concerts are undoubtedly a place of communication, and by but craving such, wowaka, your nature is showing. Whether you’re getting satisfied, or you’re going to continue on craving, which is it?
wowaka: For me personally, wanting to be found by someone, wanting to be accepted, wanting to be told that I’m liked, I’ve been dating those desires for 28 years now so, for me to feel achieved would take… Well say, even if we played a concert for thousands of people in Tokyo Dome, don’t you guys think that we still be saying that this isn’t enough? Or at least I think so. That means that, with all those painful thoughts from every level of life, with all those thoughts of improvement, as we cling to conflict, we’ll still be living on. Or so is the sense that I get.
That might already might be a feeling in all of four of you, but like a karma, always there.
wowaka: It’s definitely there… It’s karma isn’t it (laughing).