Published March 12th, 2018
Original Interview by Saori Yoshiba and Naho Imai
Source: https://www.baitoru.com/contents/geki/16.html
This interview is in two parts – one section is about the members’ past working experiences, and in the second section, the members are interviewed by a fan named Imai as part of a contest held by BOMS.
-Now then, today we will ask everyone about their part-time job experience. What kind of part-time jobs have you done?
Hazuki: First it was a family restaurant, then about four convenience stores, then a billiards place, then finally a cleaning company.
-That’s a lot of convenience stores.
Hazuki: Convenience stores are nice to band men. They’re nice about your looks, your hair, and from a schedule perspective, they’re pretty nice when you tell them you need to take a day off for a show. Lots of band men work at convenience stores.
-How about you, Reo-san?
Reo: I was always working night shifts at the convenience store, and I also handed out flyers and installed new pachinko machines. Because installing new machines was technical work, the rate was good. You had to wire and install them, but you’d make about 2,500 yen an hour even working afternoons.
Hazuki: Whoa!
Reo: It was tough work, though. But I’ve liked machines since way back, so I’d work from 9:30 pm to 6:00 am on the convenience store night shift, and then work from 8:00 am to 8:00 am installing new machines, making quite a bit.
-So, when on earth did you sleep?!
Reo: In between times, I’d also pass out tissues for a real estate agent, too. Thinking on it now, it’s unbelievable. I was attending university classes too, so my life was wild, I really do wonder when I slept. On the other hand, at the time I was sleep-deprived and often given a hard time on the job, so I experienced pretty much every bad thing I could. So now if things get a bit tough with the band, I can think, “well, better than back then…” Pretty optimistic. (laugh) It disciplined me.
-How about you, Yusuke-san?
Yusuke: I worked at a gas station, and at an izakaya for just three days—
-I’d love to know why it was only three days.
Yusuke: It was a kushiyaki place, so the cooking made my fingers get hot and I felt like I couldn’t keep it up. I also worked the kitchen of an Italian restaurant and worked in the warehouse of a rug wholesaler. I worked 7 or 8 years at that warehouse. After that was the cleaning company.
-Gas stations are tough. You need to yell and clean cars.
Yusuke: That’s right. This was right after I started high school, but I wanted guitar equipment, so I’d go to make money every day after school. The gas station tough me to be keen and nimble. (laugh) Our major clients were from corporations, so I had to remember who they were, if their vehicle takes diesel or regular, so I felt like I gained a sense of discernment. I also had to raise my voice a lot. (laugh) But I’m not good at customer interaction. My only customer service industry job was at that gas station, and after I did jobs with as little customer service as possible. The rug wholesaler was near my place, with a pretty good wage, and since I worked there for a long time, I started to get bonuses midway. It was just a few years after starting there that I joined lynch., so I started to tour and got rather busy. But even so, they were flexible, so I was able to keep it up for a long time.
-They were understanding of what it meant to be in a band.
Yusuke: There were a lot of people in music working there, so they were understanding, and it was easy to do. With the cleaning company after that, the wholesaler folded so I was just wondering what to do next when Asanao-kun was working there, so he introduced me.
-What other jobs did you do, Asanao-san?
Asanao: First I worked at a curry place, then a pizza place, then another pizza place – I did pizza delivery. After that I delivered for a sushi place, then maybe next was the print shop? After that was the cleaning job. For one day I worked in a refrigerated warehouse, but… I was like, I can’t be here. It was cold storage for fish, and I ran away because I couldn’t take it anymore.
-What were your criteria for picking part-time jobs?
Asanao: For the curry place, it was in the neighborhood. For delivery jobs, the big thing was that the wage was good. Well, money is the main criteria. You can’t ask your parents to pay your band’s studio fees, right?
-Do the things you learned from your part-time jobs come in handy now?
Hazuki: Well, convenience store work is lonely.
Reo: But, well, like I said before, now if things are a little tough, I can stick it out. I’m sure if you’ve never experienced it, it’s hard to imagine, but the night shift at the convenience store is busy. Given the time, there’s a lot of drunk customers, too. I felt physically in danger often. Delivery-related tasks pile up at night, so I was trained physically and mentally. A lot of aspects overlap with being at the bottom of the band hierarchy, too. Truly, the feeling that things are great compared to how they were then is rooted inside of me. But like Asanao said, you need to get some kind of income in order to continue the band. When you start your activities, all you do is spend money. My income from my jobs was my capital, and I felt ready to work hard for the band.
-It was a time where you needed that kind of thing.
Reo: Right. I’m glad I was able to stick it out in the early stages.
Hazuki: I don’t know much about the typical lifestyle, where you graduate from high school and go to university and then start a career, so I can’t say much. But I’m certain that experiencing part-time work before you go out into society is something you should do. I feel like almost everything ends up serving as a lesson. Thing like being mindful of time and having responsibility for work assigned to you. There’s an endless number of things that doing things for money has taught me.
-On that subject, convenience stores require customer service, and other place require communication with others, so how was that for you, Hazuki-san?
Hazuki: Deep in the night there’s none of that. I didn’t talk with customers; it was a battle with loneliness. From 3 to 4 in the morning, no one comes. During that time, I’d write lyrics or come up with melodies.
-Are any of you still friends with colleagues from your part-time jobs?
Reo: Just last month, I met up with the people I did the convenience store night shifts with after many years and went out to eat. Apparently, they just tried calling me to see if my number had changed. Then they suggested going out to eat, so we met up. We talked about how hellish it was back then. (laugh) Now there are some who have their own companies, or work high up in large corporations, so we’re always comparing how good we have it now to back then… But I think that’s really important. Creating a foundation while you’re young.
-Nowhere to go but up, right? Were there a lot of band men at the cleaning job the three of you did?
Asanao: There weren’t any others.
Hazuki: That place was insanely flexible.
Yusuke: No kidding. They’d give us pleasing shifts and stuff. I did it until we went major.
-It must be a happy thing, the moment where you can quit your part-time jobs and live off of your music.
Yusuke: Feels like becoming a permanent employee. (laugh) I’m grateful to be able to focus on music. Doing it while working part-time was good in its own way, but it’s good to be able to focus on music.
-It’s good because you’re working part-time to fulfill a dream.
Hazuki: This reminds me, did you quit the cleaning job?
Asanao: I never said I quit.
Hazuki: We might all still be in the books.
Reo: So, you just haven’t worked a shift for almost 6 years? (laugh)
Asanao: I get the feeling that’s it. Our last indies tour was pretty long. We couldn’t fit in any part-time work, so we didn’t go. I feel like that’s probably just how it is now. Even after the tour we were busy recording and doing other things, so we kept being unable to go to work, and suddenly we just weren’t going anymore. So, there wasn’t anything like “hey, as of this date I’m no longer working”. So, I didn’t really experience the happiness of part-time work being over for me. I just suddenly realized that was how things were.
-I see. But there’s no going back, huh.
Yusuke: Here’s hoping. (laugh)
Hazuki: But if we did, we’d get 10,000 yen. Cleaning jobs have good daily pay. We’d clean all kinds of places like convenience story food processing plants and stuff. We’d put chemicals and mops and clean up high. I was told if you got that chemical in your eyes, you’d go blind, but it dripped on me lots. I’d just clean while dodging it. That takes me back. Asanao-kun was the leader there, so he’d manage us. We’d listen to what he said and do it like “yes, understood”.
Asanao: Well, if I messed up the company would get mad, so I felt a sense of responsibility.
-I’m sure there are people reading this who are working part-time to fulfill all kinds of dreams, so please give them some sort of advice or message.
Hazuki: What I think is, you get paid hourly for part-time work, right? You’re selling one hour of your time for 900 yen or whatever. I think you should be aware of that as you work. That sort of sense of value is something I think you’ll understand when you don’t have to do part-time work anymore. When you’re able to use your time to do what you really want to do, the value of your time goes up. Or, well, you don’t have to sell it for 900 yen. (laugh) I’ve become more inclined to use my time wisely. Time is a very important thing.
-Thank you for this valuable discussion. Now I will pass the baton to Imai, from Dream Baito.
Imai: Nice to meet you. lynch. is coming up on their big 13th anniversary live at Makuhari Messe on March 11th, “-Xlll GALLOWS- [THE FIVE BLACKEST CROWS]” (this interview was done in mid-February), but I personally feel that bands tend to encounter bad luck every five years. For example, the direction the band wants to take will change, or their songs will change, and then fans will grow distant because of the change. Also, bands that I’ve liked will disband after five years, or have a member withdraw. lynch. has been active for 13 years, is there anything that is different or changing in terms of sharing thoughts on compositions and arrangements?
Hazuki: That’s a tough one. We don’t really have any issues every five years. But I’m a fan of a variety of bands. I’ve been passionate about LUNA SEA, Kuroyume, and others since I was young, so I understand how fans feel. There’s been a lot of instances where bands have gone a direction I didn’t want, such as a band that had been dark and hard suddenly going pop. I don’t want to make lynch. fans feel that way. Or feel that we’ve gotten boring. I’m always taking an approach where I want people to be surprised or impressed, so if we do change, we’re changing to make people happier. So, lynch. is not something I do with the thought that I’ll just do whatever it is I like right now. For example, I never think “well, I like hip hop now, so I’ll try to incorporate it into lynch.”. I think that’s the wrong way to do it. To me, what I want to accomplish with lynch. is whatever makes our fans more passionate, so that our passionate fans and us as a band enjoying playing that kind of music, as well as the people watching us, can release that passion for us out into the world. So, while we are changing, I’m careful that we don’t change in a disappointing way. That happens, right, where you think a band’s gotten boring?
Imai: I’m the type who gets attached to a single band, so even if there’s a change I wonder what’s the deal with the people complaining about it and keep pursuing them. But yeah, when you follow one band, you do get tired if it’s always the same thing. No matter how much you like them, that can happen, so I’m drawn to bands that can always show some freshness.
Hazuki: I see. That’s hard too. You can’t betray peoples’ expectations, but you need to keep finding new inspirations. That’s the thing. You definitely can’t get complacent.
Imai: Right. I’d also like to ask about deciding the setlist from an early stage for the March 11th Makuhari Messe show. I’m sure you’re in the middle of production, but do you ever think about changing the setlist or get new idea while you’re making new songs?
Hazuki: Not right now. The reason we pick out the setlist so early is that the staff will come up with performance aspects, like a stage construction plan. Like, if this is the song order, then this will look cool. We give the setlist early so they have lots of time to consider it. So, if I were to say I wanted to put in this song now or change this, that plan would fall apart. So, we can’t change it unless it’s something serious. I have to be prepared for that, so I do my best to choose the songs while fretting about whether it’ll work or whether I’ll have regrets. There may be members who actually do want to change it, though. (laugh)
Imai: Did you work out the setlist together?
Hazuki: First I think of it and send it out to everyone. I ask if they have anything they want to change and change it if they have any thoughts. It’s like that every time. There’s time there’s problems with swapping out instruments, so sometimes I don’t notice that certain songs can’t lead into other songs.
Imai: Thank you. Next is a personal question, but, I’m a student now, and in spring I’ll be employed by a company in Nagoya. What do you guys do to relieve the anxiety of starting something new?
Hazuki: Good question.
Yusuke: I think first of all, it takes time to get used to it. When I joined lynch., I wasn’t really good at personal relationships, so I worried about if I would fit in. But in the end, time solved that problem. Although I think if you’re the type who can be frank with anyone, it wouldn’t take much time at all. Also, I think if you steadily make use of your capabilities in the workplace, you’ll get a good reputation and people will see you as someone who is capable, and they’ll naturally gather to you. I think that’s about it.
Reo: Probably. Of the four of us, I’m told I’m the most sociable. But what I always keep in mind is that if I have even the slightest negative feelings towards someone when I’ve just met them, they’ll definitely sense it. So when I meet someone, I basically try to think of them in a favorable way. If you don’t think negatively about their appearance or way of speaking and find their good points when interacting with them, it’s likely to go well. I don’t think there’s many people who act negatively towards people who have goodwill towards them. That might be the way to build personal relationships. We’re off the topic of part-time jobs, but you have to interact with all kinds of people in customer service. Once I tried doing it like so, my stress went away. I’m surprised by how many good people there are. So this is my advice as an elder, when you go into a new environment or workplace, it might be good to try interacting in that way. (laugh)
Imai: This is very valuable. I also want to ask, what do you do on your days off? Has anything interesting happened lately?
Hazuki: Recently we’re in a production period, so I could say it’s all days off. If I frame it in terms of going to work, every day is a holiday. I typically only work during the day. I go from morning until evening, decide to stop when it gets dark, and try to rest. From there… I play Monster Hunter.
Reo: That was a long preamble to just say Monster Hunter. (laugh)
Hazuki: I’ve been working pretty hard at it, but I just learned Yusuke-kun is way stronger than me.
Yusuke: I’m hunting. I’m always home, so I do it to relax when my work isn’t going anywhere.
Asanao: I have time off too, but I produce merch and stuff. There’s some stuff I want to do personally during my time off, but recently the rhythm of my life is a mess. I wake up at 10:00 pm, and sleep at 9:00 or 10:00 am, constantly. (laugh) I can’t do a thing. Even if I go out, the shops are closed. So, all I can do is stay at home, living an unproductive life.
Hazuki: You should do something about that. (laugh)
Reo: Oh, so that’s why. I have dogs, so I’m up early. No matter what I need to wake up at 7:00 am or so and feed them. Recently I’d been thinking Asanao was responding to my messages on LINE really quickly. (laugh) It’s because you’re awake in the morning.
Asanao: Yeah.
Imai: Why is your schedule backwards?
Asanao: it’s because of the time off. Also, when I start designing merch and all that, I get stuck and I can’t rest. Because I’ll cut into my sleep doing it. That keeps happening and things get weird. But soon rehearsals will start, so I need to get back to normal. (laugh) We had to meet up early today. I was thinking I needed to fix things, so yesterday I planned to sleep at 8:00 or 9:00 am, but I gave up and just struggled to wake up.
Imai: Thanks for doing it for this interview. (laugh) I had fun talking about everything today.