Fish Tank 57
Interview with Sakurai Atsushi
Translation: Lola & w_b
I would like you to tell us about the current recording progress.
At present...there's only two songs left to do but those two are completely undone meaning...even the chorus for them has to be done. Yesterday...well let's just say it was a complete mess *strained laugh*. It felt like it was two steps forward, one step back.
I thought you would talk about that.
Yesterday we were putting in the chorus and it's just Imai-san's songs that are left. Everyone else is done right?
Yes, they're all done.
Lucky...*laughs softly* ....
I heard you and Imai-san collaborated on lyrics but , when I asked Imai-san about it he said you guys hadn't prearranged it beforehand.
We didn't, no. It was like...well it happened the way Imai-san said, he wanted for us to do a song together but then there was another song that had rap parts in it that he wanted to sing. And reading between the lines I could guess that Imai thought it'd be interesting if that's the song we did together.
What was the inspiration for the demo?
We worked a lot on it. We were checking the melody and the rhythm before finalizing it just to see how it was...and for me, there were moments when I found the demo and the actual song to be quite different since we thought it might be better to simplify it.... But you know it was interesting because as we were recording it, we didn't care if it came out the same. We actually, thought perhaps it's better that it didn't. Well I think it's interesting. Because it's absolute nonsense *smiles*.
I'm looking at the lyrics now and wow...they're incredible.
The world will come to understand us.
Yes. And I believe the vocals were redone for that song?
Imai's parts were redone. All of a sudden, three days after it was done he blurted out, "I wanna redo it!" and everyone groaned *smiles*.
You were working on songs up until the last minute this time, things were getting pretty tight.
Yes, I wasn't sure we'd have time to do the rhythm for the last few songs....
What influenced your lyrics?
The lyrics...were done ahead of schedule.... Because I had Imai-san's lyrics, the work I could do on my own was done swiftly.
So you're saying you were able to work on yours because you already had Imai-san's.
Yup. The recording was split in stages, first the singles, then Hoshino's and then Imai's songs *smiles*.
What's your take on the whole album?
It's clear that it's Imai-san's world but within that there are Hide/Sakurai songs and Imai/Sakurai songs...as a whole...I don't think it's unified *smiles*. But that's not a bad thing right. It comes out unrestricted. As for a general feeling well...I'll have to wait and see I guess....
This time there was a song of Hide-san's that gave me the same impression as 'CREAM SODA'...it's so different~. So when it came to lyrics, did you have fun with it or were you sulking over it?
I'm not sure you know...it made me think strange things in the middle of the night *smiles*. I was amusing myself, usually I'd leave it as is you see~ but I decided to make things a little more interesting. I wanted...to have fun with it. I was cracking myself up. I think it's fun.
Cube Juice-san worked on the arrangements for a number of songs including the previously released 'Kuchizuke'. My impression changed quite a bit with those songs but how about you?
Yeah. I knew they'd be interesting because they were passed through a completely different filter and were born anew so they are once again different from the rough versions....
I see. I heard that Buck-Tick was offered the chance to do the next season's ending theme for the anime [Shiki] which is currently on the air.
I'm happy about that. As with 'Kuchizuke' of course I hope the song meshes with 'Shiki'...that would make me very happy.
Has the content for the outdoor GREENS festival already been decided?
We decided rather quickly *smiles*. Since our stage time is limited...we just picked some trademark songs *smiles*.
So it's summer. What have you been affected by other than recording?
The endless drone of the cicadas.
Finally, say a word for all those awaiting the album and the tour.
It's quite an interesting album. There's an incredible depth to it and I think it's worth listening to so I hope people enjoy it. There's quite a lot of shows too so please come to see many of them. I think they'll be fun.