sorry for making you guys wait
ive been busy with college applications
-We've been calling you a weird drummer behind your back but after this album you have to admit it(laughs).
Shinya: A little(laughs). Depending on the song I do really weird things.
-You don't play normal beats.In the intro for "BUGABOO" you play a normal 8 beat but other than that you've constructed very abnormal things.
S: That's the basic.
-So does that mean that you can’t be normal when you tour the world?
S: No, I it means that I was abnormal to begin with(laughs). But I’ve only started to think that way and concentrate on that approach in these past 2 years. I’ve always like weird approaches but I wanted to do simple drumming as well. But after that when I was touring overseas, people liked the weird phrases.
-Yea. When you look up your evaluation overseas as a drummer, drumming that isn’t normal have really high ratings. They say “Nobody can think of them”.
S: Really!? Actually, musicians that we’ve shared stages with ask me “How do you play that phrase?” or “What was that?”(laughs). Because of that, I think that the abnormal part of me defines my originality. I wanted to master that. During TMOAB I haven’t thought it up to that point. So starting from this album.
-So you’ve tried to put in as many weird phrases as possible?
S: No, I think of weird phrases by nature. So I can say that I am myself in this album. Not too long ago, I thought that it was better to concentrate on simple and groovy drumming but I noticed that instead of forcing me to be something else, it’s better to just be myself.
-I was surprised that you can express yourself in so many different ways with the drums. A lot of the song really have unexpected things in them. How do you look at these songs and put phrases in tehm?
S: I just listen to it and play what comes to my mind. There was a lot of different parts so I thought of many different phrases. I was inspired by the songs. Because of that, there’s a lot of weird phrases. The things is, there was no time for me to practice until the actual recording(laughs). I have the phrases in my head but I can’t play them. During preproduction, I went to the studio and practice.
-You have the drum set you use to play your shows in your mind when you think of these phrases right?
S: Yes. I memorize the set and make the phrases so “that one piece” becomes necessary. They’re all phrase that can only be played on that set, at that position or else I can’t play it. I think you’d understand if you listen to the phrases with low toms. The setting is really important for me to play these phrases.
(Sorry, I’m going to skip 2 questions because it really doesn’t make sense at all in what they’re saying. It’s not the terminology but just don’t get where the convos going. My guess is that it’s not really important.)
-I hear so much that I always think you’re overdubbing yourself.
S: In the middle of “Ware, yami to te…” I overdub myself playing congas and percussion instruments to add more taste to it. And in the middle of “Reiketu nariseba” too. Those are the only 2 overdubs. The rest is all done once. That’s why the drums are really busy even when it’s quiet.
-It’s really interesting how you use the kicks. Even if you do the same thing with your hand your feet are doing completely different things.
S: I just played. I never really thought too much about how I wanted to play the kicks. The blast in “RED SOIL” is something I usually don’t do. I was playing it before it knew it(laughs). I’ve never had any difficulties making up drum parts. I had more difficulties playing what I thought of.
-What was a hard song for you to be able to play then?
S: The chorus for “GLASS SKIN”. I put in the hi hat with the ride but it’s really complicated to play. Well if I say that then everything really complicated (laughs). This time it just really worked my brain. I couldn’t memorize “VINUSHKA”. It’s really scary how that song is constructed. There’s so many different parts and in each part there’s different patterns. It was really hard for my body to memorize it. This was a song that become close to its final form towards the end but I would have never imagined it being like this. I felt the scariness of this album first hand. And for “Gaika, Chinmoku ga nemuru koro” this was diru’s fastest song (228BPM) and I’m just physically tired. It’s just a blast beat with the high hat. When I nailed this song it felt so relieving.
-You can say that you’re very close to the complete form of your weird drumming for the first work.
S: I don’t think that it’s perfect but I think that I’ve pulled out everything I have now. I’ve worked on this album thinking that my drumming would be a significant factor of DEG’s sound.