Fish Tank 60
Interview with Higuchi Yutaka
Translation: Lola
How were you affected Yuuta-san when the earthquake hit on March 11th?
I was just about to leave the house to go out. My ride was there and then right after I still didn't really know the full effect it had so I got in the car and proceeded to the train station. But in the end the Shinkansen wasn't even running so I figured I'd return home at once. But then I was stuck in insane traffic and only ended up getting home past nine in the evening. On the way home in the car I saw some walls collapse.
Cell service was down as well.
Yeah so I couldn't communicate. It's grave times like that that you realize how much you depend on your cell phone. I couldn't get a signal at all.
Even the Shinkansen stopped running that day....
That's why I figured I'd just go back home right. And all I could think about the whole way home was that it seemed we would have to postpone our show. Of course I was also worried about everyone's safety. At that time even without proper information because the train wasn't running and cell service was down I figured it must be something that is affecting the whole of Japan even though I had no news about it. I didn't know what I should do. But as the day wore on I understood just how terrible a disaster it was.
It was decided to postpone all the remaining shows but, how was this decision made?
Because of the absolute severity of the disaster, we figured it really wasn't the time to be doing concerts. Even the fans were happy with our quick decision and we got feedback from them thanking us for that. Of course I think it's one of those times where nobody knows exactly what would be the best course of action. I mean we had just done a live in Sendai not that long before.
That's true, on February 13th you had a live at Zepp Sendai.
That show was amazing, truly. And even the after party with the staff was incredible, full of excitement you know. Because we've been to Sendai dozens of times too right. So, we know a lot of the people who work there, I'd often go out to eat with them or go shopping so yeah, I was really worried about them.
But you all knew that the rest of the tour would be postponed right?
We just had issues with scheduling. Because other artists ended up deciding to postpone their shows too right so, they were changing the dates of their lives as well.
It's true, shows could only be scheduled where there were openings.
That's why I thought we wouldn't be able to get some venues. But thanks to everyone who worked hard to shift things around for us, we didn't have to end up cancelling. And the fact is I'm really thankful for that.
The cell phone site's charity proceeds have already reached 2 460 000 yen in ten days but how do you feel about that fan response?
I'm so happy. I'm grateful they reacted so quickly. I mean we just wanted to do what we could. And that's when we started to think about all the things we'd like to do. There was so much damage, we had to do something. Because it will take a considerable amount of time to get things back to normal you know.
You toured until the show on March 6th in Nagoya but was there anything in particular that left an impression on you up till then?
Yes, the live house in Kumamoto because it was my first time there. It was interesting. The audience was close too. I thought I'd like to go there again.
After that you also performed in the 'Ongaku to Hito' event on February 20th.
Oh, right. That was fun too. I've always liked Polysics so for me it was truly an honor to be able to do that with them.
You like Polysics Yuuta-san?
Yes, I like them so I was curious about them. So being able to do the event with them and then being able to talk to the members about all sorts of things afterwards was so fun. Another amazing thing was, that day all the other bassists were women *smiles*. Recently there's a lot of them, female bassists, and I really think it's cool there's so many.
Did you discuss playing bass?
Yup! We did. It was fun.
From now on you have some free time until the postponed lives so what are your plans till then?
I'll be training up for starters. I don't know if it'll be for an album or something else but of course I'll be practicing. It's not the time to goof off. And I'll be thinking about what to do for the postponed lives.
I guess you'll be thinking about the content for the postponed lives right?
I'm thinking about it now. Really I'm thinking about whether it'd be ok to do something along the same lines as before or do something different.
There's also the DIQ after the postponed lives.
I always want to do various things so I'm happy we'll be able to go and do the DIQ in many different places. So I'll have to my very best!!
Finally, please say something to all the fans awaiting the postponed lives.
I'm really sorry to have kept you all waiting. But I'm glad that thanks to our staff the shows didn't have to be cancelled. Please look forward to it!!