-You guys have made something amazing.
Die: Yea(laughs). I feel like I've put everything into this.
-Did you have any challenges as a guitarist when you guys started?
D: I don't know if it's a challenge but I wanted to overcome the hurdle of being better than I was. Because of that it really took a long time for me to arrange and record the song. It wasn't like "I think it's enough around here".
-You've tried to pull out something that was deep in your drawer?
D: If you put it that way, yea. I needed to concentrate. If it was this kind of song, these phrases might work or based on my past experiences there was some things that just came out naturally. I didn't mind if that happened but if my goal was set at a much higher level, I needed to reset my mind. Otherwise, I probably would have made the same thing. Easier said, I have a hard head(laughs). Even in chord sequences I didn't want it to be all theory like how high should this C7 or a Em be to fit here. But this time, those kind of things didn't make sense to me(laughs). There are some things that I don't even know even if I use theory. Instead of understanding theoretically and guessing the sound, I looked for the sound that seemed to fit. Depends on the songs but I've played off the songs.
-Yea. There's a lot of odd phrases.The intro for "RED SOIL" has one.
D: If I didn't think of that sound and phrase I think it would have been a really normal song. I felt that it needed a phrase that would make it sound completely different.
-"Reiketu nariseba" has a weird chord hanging in the background and has a really creative phrase in the middle.
D: Yea(laughs). We never had anything like that. Those are the types of things I wrote without thinking about theory.
-Not just that song but you've put these kind of phrases everywhere.
D: That's why there was a shit load of tracks just for guitar. I wanted to make a mood from the guitar so I need to make a backing sound for that guitar. The backing sound took a really long time to write. To have people hear the guitar in the front, the existence of the backing guitar was really important. I used three or four each playing a single note. This time it wasn't like left channel kaoru, right channel me. We wanted to use everything we had. That's why I've put more thought into structures of the songs much more than I did in the past.
-I felt that "VINUSHKA" was a piece where you put in phrase after phrase into the song as soon as it came into mind.
D:But the phrases that came up were already near the complete form since the writing process. The rest was just adding more taste to it during each session. And how we wanted the structure to be(laughs). I didn't know where this song was going to land. It really took a long time to finish this on.
-On the other hand "Toguro" seems like a song you really enjoyed writing with some improvised phrases.
D: Actually that was the phrase I thought about the most. I couldn't think of anything good and I thought about it even during the recording of other songs. How much it echoes to how my guitar playing was. I think my personality appears in that song.
-So you've felt more pain than fun?
D: Yea. And "RED SOIL" too. It's a short song but the notes in each measure are really detailed. I've done a lot of thinking on where to bring that 1 note. I played it a lot. Actually this is a song that was done by theory. In the writing process it only had about 2 chords and it was really simple, but it drastically changed.
-When you want a beautiful sound you use an accoustic?
D: It's more like when the sound came to my head it was a accoustic. But even if I'm using a acoustic there are places where that guitar ruins the atmosphere of "Reiketu nariseba". In those places I used another acoustic in a different tuning, hook it up to a amp and play it without a pick. It's top secret what I used instead of a pick(laughs). I didn't choose a phrase but I just played random things and took about 3 takes on that and then I just chose what sounded right. I've done that a lot. We didn't make sounds that just sounded great though. We've made sounds(as in chord changes or probably chords that don't even exist) that were never heard before in every song. As we've worked on the recording we've found new techniques and tried it on different songs.
-So the impact of the sounds and phrases that never existed in the world are strong.
D: I think all the members think that. Even in the arranges, Kaoru and I argued many times on how it should be. We've expressed specific sounds we wanted with words and images like "That atmosphere this person has standing in front of this country''s church sitting in absolute darkness"(laughs).
-That seems hard to make. But each time I listen to this album, I discover a new sound. And the number of guitar phrases and information(?) seemed really close to "MACABRE"
D:oh...yea. I think the process of making it was really close. But this time we've really looked for our limits and thought it can't be normal. It was really hard making it but surprisingly I was able to relax during the recording. At the studio, we were able to hear the amazing sounds and got me excited and it was just fun. When you get to see the new sounds being made right in front of you it's like a orgy(lol i had to use that).
-After overcoming many hurdles, do you have a future image that you have in mind?
D: I wasn't thinking that far. I just want to make myself more open so that we can evolve/change more. Just go with the flow. If I don't do that I feel like I won't get anywhere. I think making this album, got me to think that way.