1) Q: What do you honestly thing about the restricted lives included in this series of lives?

A: As far as the restricted lives, there was a time a while ago where we said that we should try it out. The feeling was only about that much, and so, afterwards it wasn't really strange that we went through with it.

2) Q: When you say "a while ago" when do you mean by that?

A: Many years ago. We thought that it seemed interesting to do a restricted live. I'm sure everyone all must've thought about this alot. One day a male-only live..., they may not have thought about doing a female-only live, but thought "I want to do a male-only live." This time, we had the opportunity to do so, so we tried it out.

3) Q: So you're saying that you got to put into reality something you thought of earlier. Your first live at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou (concert hall name) didn't have any restricted lives, this was a challenge too wasn't it? Since you had a lot of new songs right? On top of that, there were alot of songs that were being played together for the first time at the live rehersal. Weren't you uneasy about this?

A: Thats why at this run of lives, we had the feeling of concentrating more on the new songs then the male-only lives or the female-only lives. Because of that, it seemed similar to the tours we had done before.

4) Q: As for the new songs, since you hadn't said in your mind "it should be like this!" it was alot more nerve-wracking wasn't it?

A: Yeah. Up until now, even if we were playing a new song, we had just not released the song yet, and the recording for it was already done. It was just a new song that hadn't gone on sale yet. All the new songs since we debuted were like that. But, this time is the first time since [Gauze] that we played it at a live before recording it. Up until [Vulgar] we did the lives after choosing the phrases and punching them into the computer. As for this time's new songs, we decided to do them without deciding on the phrases until we did the live. We thought that we probably wouldn't have many chances like this. So at the rehearsals, while we were putting it together, we were thinking of the phrases.

5) Q: Like a jam session?

A: No, it wasn't really like that feeling.

6) Q: But, up until now, you've decided on the drum phrases down to the small details on the computer, wrote it out, and then printed it out, so this time you came up with your own parts while practicing on a live drum right? And yet, you flew through this stage quickly. So wehn you were deciding what should go in that spot, was it because you wanted to try it?

A: Yeah. Since we had the opportunity to play it at the live before the recording, we decided to try it out. When we did that, there were phrases that were created, and we even changed the tempo of some of the songs. After all this, I'm glad to have done it at the live.

7) Q: Just, during the lives, they had a different feeling didn't they?

A: Yeah, they were completely different. Therew was a different feel while doing the new songs.

8) Q: Since you've undertaken this challenge, do you feel as if you understand yourself now?

A: Yeah. I realized that between creating it in my head and then typing it into the computer, and hitting out the phrases as I feel like it, the latter turns out to be more simple phrases.

9) Q: Do you think that simple is better than complicated?

A: Although I feel that way, so that I don't do that (simple phrases) all the time, I think I have to balance it out.

10) Q: Does it seem like that not only with the 3 songs you played for the first time at the lives, but also with the new songs that your making now, to be a new hint?

A: Yeah. Even though we're not done with the live yet, we're still wrestling with the feeling of the live. (this turned out so awkward ;_; )

11) Q: The groove changes, if you do it like that.

A: Yup.

12) Q: By the way, when you were done facing the obstacle of playing the new songs on the opening day, what did you do? Did you talk in the dressing room after the live with Toshiya about the rhythm?

A: Yup, we did that. (smile) Well, the feeling was like, "is this how the opening day should be."

13) Q: When you say like this, what do you mean?

A: Like an opening day. (smile) I was able to solve many problems within myself. And then, the next day when we performed, the second day also felt like an opening day. Well, it was like "is it going to be like this?" (smile)

14) Q: Its because although the song order on the second day was different, but the same 3 new songs from the opening live were in there right?

A: Thats right. On the second day, when it got to a new song, I had to change my thinking about the song. Keeping up the tension while doikngn the live is hard. And I was like "is it going to be like this?" (smile) (Miaka975: okay..that had to be the third question in a row he answered w/that phrase )

15) Q: Relatively, you're the cool-headed one?

A: Yes, thats right.

16) Q: I want to talk about that cool-headedness. After finishing the two day live at Yaon (Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo), how did you feel about the other members at that time?

A: Huh?! Well, they were good, was the feeling I think, yeah.

17) Q: You were mad at Toshiya weren't you?

A:Thats right... I remember now. After all, starting off with a new song, the bass and drums weren't really together. This was at the Yaon concert site. Between Yaon and the Osaka lives there was a small space of time. It was for two days, and we did live rehersals. During those two days, we rehearsed for many hours with only the drums and bass. At lives, only I listen to the clicks (Miaka975: it sounds like he's talking about a metronome..but he called it a "click"), but at the rehearsal, the clicks were played on the moniter, so Toshiya praciced while listening to those clicks. Since it was a fundamental point in the song, we did it again. Of the new songs, when we played it at Nagoya we redid the rhythm pattern again from scratch, and started playing the new rhythm at the next live. Thats why the rhytm patter at Yaon and Nagoya were different. The rhythm at Yaon had not been smooth.

18) Q: I have never heard of just the two of you doing a rhythm rehersal before recording an album or single before....

A: We haven't had one up until now. Toshiya often picks out the bass line at the very very end. Because of this, there were times that we didn't hear the bass line until we were actually recording. The drums are also done right before recording starts too. If felt like after the live was over, that in two days we were going to record.

19) Q: Since this was the first Dir en grey rhythm rehersal, can you say that in the back of your mind you felt pretty impatient? Wouldn't it be bad if you kept going this way?

A: Not really, if you're talking about being impatient....Instead of that its mores that because we were able to do a rhythm rehersal before the recording, and I felt "ah this is good" I was more at ease. After that rhythm rehersal, matching with Toshiya's bass became much easier.

20) Q: Had you been putting forth an act to oppose him?

A: No, its not that we have opposing idea, we try various stuff out and its more like we mutually have arguments. Such as, if the opinion that melody A doesn't go well with the song, then how about we change it like this? The truth is, the rhythm team should always reherse together recording by ourselves. But we always don't have the time and barely make it as it is. (smile)

21) Q: At the past lives, did you also talk about certain parts as the rhythm team?

A: Lately, we've been doing it alot. Such as, this part in the song doesn't match well, and so on, exchanging opinions on small parts and such.

22) Q: But this time, instead of going into the studio with only talking to each other and without hearing the sound, you're saying that the rhythm team was finally able to connect closely?

A: Thats right, before Yaon, we had live rehersals for about 10 days, at that time too, we would come in early and have rhythm rehersals. This time, we practiced too much and my hand went numb. (smile) When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't move the arm that had gone numb. I would move it around until rehersals began, and finally i would be able to at least hold the sticks. (smile) I overdid it.

23) Q: Tenosynovitis (swelling of the tendons, caused by too much physical activity) is coming up. (smile) On top of that you're doing open rim shots, I think those are pretty bad for you bones.

A: Yups its bad. (smile)

24) Q: But what happened?

A: After all, doing a new song is pressuring.

25) Q: Which of you said it first? About doing the rhythm rehersals.

A: It came from someone else. (smile) One of the staff.

26) Q: The outcome of that was more self-confidence when you went to Osaka wasn't it? After all, inside your head you that the new songs were bigger than the female-only live.

A: Thats right. Thats why at the Osaka live, on the sixth song, when we were doing the live, I forgot that it was a women's only live. After the sixth song was over, the normal tension was there. But up until the fifth song, it was the normal me who couldn't overcome tension.

27) Q: So from the seventh song you had the time to look over the audience?

A: Thats right. But the impression I got wasn't that different. It was pretty much like the feeling of a normal live. (smile)

28) Q: Speaking of the drums, only Osaka and Nagoy had different drum techniques right?

A: Yes. Different people pointed out my faults for me, and I thought "I see."

29) Q: The points that were pointed out wer points that you yourself couldn't see?

A: The way of thinking was like a 180 degree change from mine.

30) Q: That's really interesting isn't it?

A: Shall we talk about it? Hm... from a while ago, the members, especially Toshiya, would tell me "let me see you hit the drums with all your might." or "let me hear a living sound." "Get your body to that of the giant Kiyohara (sorry guys..I have no idea who that is...but i guess since he's a giant he's really muscular? ^^;;;) and then play how you want." I've be told things like that fooorever. I thought "I see" and would hit the drums with all my might at the lives, to the point where I though I would pull a muscle. But I'ld still continued to be told by the members that it wasn't good enough. Anyway, one of the technicians and Osaka and Nagoya told me "getting a loud sound of course uses alot of power, so its bad if you use your muscles. Hit it with gravity." I knew this from reading various books but in my head I was thinking "if I use gravity, will a loud sound come out?" Like how you don't believe in ghosts until you see one. (smile)

31) Q: You didn't believe it?

A: Yeah. Its true that various drummers have been saying to hit it using gravity but, I thought "Is it really true?" (Shin-chan used Osaka-ben! he said "Honma ka yo tte" ) But when the technician who closely watched me play said it, I thought maybe I should use gravity after all. That person was a first rate technician. He told me this at a live rehersal before the Osaka live.

32) Q: But hitting with gravity is hard to understand. I thought that if you use strength the sound is louder, and there more attack to it too.

A: That's truel. (smile) To me, the people who watch also like that style. So because of that, I wanted to surprise them more, but it reality, I was wasting energy by using excessive strength. From the viewpoint of the customers, it didn't look any different, but I was aiming for something different from the fundamental, and trying my best. Nevertheless, it was impossible to not fall down and change my style.

33) Q: I see. So you pretty much blocked out from your head the female-only lives, and the male-only lives. Instead you were thinking I have to evolve as a drummer, and there was also the new songs.

A: Yes it was like that. Because individually they had lots of tasks. So I played by listening to the points the technicians from Osaka and Nagoya made, and slowly changed.

34) Q: But in the end, did you enjoy the lives themselves?

A: Well, it was fun but, I couldn't see what was next, at Osaka and Nagoya.

35) Q: What do you mean?

A: There wasn't any lives that made me feel satisifed.

36) Q: Even the male-only live that you had wanted to do?

A: When I was doing it, it was fun but, after it was done and I look back, theres nothing really special about it...

37) Q: In the end, it didn't really feel like a special live right?

A: Yeah, in the end.

38) Q: What about the Shibuya couples-only live? That one had new songs too right?

A: Yeah. Before that, a technician from the Osaka lives told me that the high hat should be set more to the left. Up until now, I've been careful to suddenly change the setting in the middle of a tour. Before we released [Macabre] there was the tour "The type of Deity." At that time, I did the settings by trying them out everyday. The result was a live that wasn't very good, so after [Macabre], during a tour, even if I felt like I wanted to change a setting, I decided to not change it. But this time, I didn't really feel satisfied with Osaka and Nagoya lives. Iplayed the same as normal, but I didnt' feel satisfied for some reason. And then at Shibuya AX, I tried changing the setting of the high hat. When you suddenly change the setting and you're not used to it, its hard to hit. Buti it came out good. Thats why Shibuya AX's live was good.

39) Q: When you say you changed the setting, what kind of change did you make?

A: My form. Up until now my left hand was crossed with my ring arm, so no matter how much I tried, I could only raise it a little. But when I changed the position of the high hat, I could raise my left arm well. In that case, gravity's force became greater too, right. When possible, a stick falling from a high height produces a loud sound.

40) Q: Not limited to only the high hat, you refined some of teh setting this time right? There was a case where, even after you set up the chair you fell off it right?

A: Thats right. I should've put the seat closer towards me. I was trying to get closer to the drum set. But suddenly changing the position of the chair is impossible. I have to change the way I step on the kick pedals. Next time I'll change it within my limits. Since just changing the position of the high hat was good.

41) Q: So you don't remember anything from the couples-only and the fan club-only lives at all?

A: They didn't have anything to do with each other. Since at AX, it was different people from the end of the Yaon live. (smile) I've forgotten Yaon already. How I was then, the feeling was different enough to say it wasn't even me.

42) Q: During these 6 lives, did you change as a drummer?

A: Yes. I've changed 180 degrees from before. After the second day was over at Shibuya AX, I was talking to Craze's Kikuchi Tetsu. When I asked him about my drum play, he said "Although your movements are big, the sound isn't is large as those movements, so its getting lost somewhere isn't it?" He had told me the same thing as the technician, so I thought "So it is that isn't it." It cleared up my thoughts in my mind very clearly.

43)Q: Getting backing from such a power drummer, doesn't it open up many doors of feelings as a drummer?

A: Its just like that.

44) Q: Right now, you're in the process of evolving as a drummer?

A: That's right. I'm in the process of researching various things.

45) Q: Did you get a response that showed that the other members saw you differently?

A: I still haven't gotten one yet. Right now I'm still changing my own level. I haven't reached the point where I can say I changed. I felt the change would start at the same time as 2005 did. That's why I think this time, it was really good for both the new songs and myself.

46) Q: Do you think you have changed alot recently because you have been watched closely?

A: Yeah, thats most likely. Right now, I've returned to the beginnning, and am in the midst of reboiling everything together again. From the very step. Figuring out whats good or bad about the way I hit the snare, one shot at a time.

47) Q: So you did that and revolutionized yourself, and the shape of this is going to be realized in 2005. You're looking forward to it yourself aren't you?

A: Yup, its like that. I've started over once, so please watch over me warmly again. (smile)