Fish Tank 52
Interview with Imai Hisashi
Translation: Lola
Looking back on this tour up till now, how do you find it?
The excitement's building bit by bit with each show, the more places we go to, the better the atmosphere. It's been good.
Have you had any technical trouble?
I did this time. I didn't have any guitar sound in Kyoto. For [Memento mori]. I put on my horned headpiece before that but, because the horn is so long I put it on after my guitar. But then I noticed there was no sound at all. So I signalled that, 'hey I've got not sound' because I wanted to switch guitars right away.......but, because the horn was so long I couldn't slip the guitar off over my head, I had to let it slide down *smiles*. So I change guitars, but once again I couldn't really step into it from the bottom so *smiles*, I was forced to play with the guitar strap hanging from the horn.
Did they stop the song?
No this all went on as the song continued.
This time the distinction seems very clear between songs that are part of the main story and songs that are for the encore.
Yeah. I think it's better that way. It works you know, even when we change the song order. The entry song adds to it too. We change it as we go along.
Since this tour began you've shaved your beard....
Until then, even though my beard wasn't really growing very much at all I was kinda shy about shaving it off but then I had this growing feeling...... *smiles* I myself thought, 'I look nasty!'.
Ah, so that's why.
Yeah *smiles*. And I was slowly getting tired of having a beard.
And now Sakurai-san has grown a beard so I was thinking, what, is everyone in the front going to grow one now...?
I've always thought Acchan should grow a beard just once in his life *smiles*. There were a ton of pros and cons about it when we read people's surveys but *smiles*, I think he looks good.
There was quite a lot of flames when performing [Memento mori] but, how did you find being close to the fire?
Mm, warm. Warm *smiles*.
You looked a little scared to me.
Because my costume had a lot of fringe. But I was only worried for [Memento Mori]. When we first rehearsed it, my heart was racing and it felt like it would never end *smiles*. But, the flames really suit that song though.
You seemed to be wearing red tabi (1) with your glittering sandals for your costume.
When I had a meeting about my costume with Yagi-san, we decided on a fringed vest as the base, but that's not quite native in style though so we discussed various things that would be and figured that sandals would be good. I wasn't intending on wearing tabi with my sandals at first. But then I realized that if I wear sandals, I'd have to get a pedicure because it'd look bad if I didn't paint my toenails. But I couldn't be bothered with that. So, right before the first day of performing I said, "Ah! I'll wear tabi!". So I had Yagi-san go out and buy Japanese style scarlet tabi. But I only wore the sandals about four times....
During the tour, you performed for the ARABAKI fest in April but, how did that go?
It was cold. The fans were really amazing though. They waited for us for an insanely long time didn't they. There was really a fevered energy from them. Even in the crazy rain and the cold. So when I came onstage and saw them there, of course I was happy. I was touched that they waited in that terrible weather just to see us.
What are your thoughts about Arabaki?
Popping in to do a show like that mid-tour.......turned out to be a good thing I think. It's like, a nice little break from the usual.
You've even decided on doing a standing tour of "memento mori" in live houses....
Yeah. I think it's a good idea. That's......how we started the "memento mori" tour.......
With the special live at Akasaka BLITZ right.
Wasn't that the day the album went on sale? Even so, [Memento mori] was the most exciting just as I thought it would be so I was happy about that, I was glad you know. It was like that both in the live house and in the big halls....... But my performance can get stiff if I'm just doing it one way the whole time. But because in a live house, it's more interactive and the band being united with the audience keeps things interesting you know. Because it's not just one way all the time.
Because you also have fan club only lives, I thought you'd like to do different songs then too.
Ah, of course I will! Since fan club only lives are just for the fan club, we don't......just do general songs, we do others too.
The tour ran through Golden Week (2) so what did you do during that time?
What did I do again? Uh? .......I went out drinking and stuff. Hey wait. When did I start using [Serenade] as the opening sequence again?
You used it as an opening sequence for a live?
Yes I did. We used the beginning of [Memento mori] during rehearsals for the opening sequence. But I thought what about if we tried using the beginning of [Serenade] for a time. But we hadn't tried it out before the tour started. Of course, when we did try it, it was good just as I thought it would be.
Finally, say a word to everyone who is awaiting the next tour after this one.
With every show of the tour things get more and more exciting so, make some free time and come out to see us.
(1) Tabi are traditional Japanese socks that are ankle high and with a separation between the big toe and the other toes. Usually so that they can be worn with traditional footwear like zori and geta.
(2) I've explained Golden Week previously but in case some still don't know, Golden Week is a name applied to the period at the end of April to the first week of May containing several Japanese holidays. Beginning with Showa Day and ending with Children's Day.