original text from motto2 vol. 32, released july 5th 2019.
translation by Emma
lynch. are being pulled in many directions, now crossing the boundaries of genre and receiving multiple offers from large-scale music festivals and events hosted by the seniors they respect. It goes without saying that they have a high profile in the scene. Of course, much interest is also being showered on Yusuke, who has established an androgynous role among the stern members of lynch., giving off a unique charm. In this interview he speaks of his public and private life based on keywords. We believe one or two of these stories will be new to even the most passionate Yusuke fans.
CHIYU
[Note: CHIYU is the ex-member of SuG who was featured alongside Yusuke in this magazine, including a joint photoshoot and interview.]
Having done a joint interview with him, I feel like I got to know Chiyu-kun’s temperament all over again. It’s fun doing a joint interview with someone who’s good at talking. Looking at the boyish smile he sometimes shows in photoshoot, I feel like his fans must be head over heels for that smile (laugh). It was our first time seeing each other in a while, but as always he’s a good, fun guy. I want to go drinking with him again someday.
YUSUKE
It’s hard to talk about yourself, isn’t it (laugh). Hmm… How am I as a musician…? I’m happy my fans tell me all sorts of things, and I reference their words. I’m grateful for their support.
But for myself, I think Yusuke as a musician is nothing impressive (laugh). I think because the ideal I’m pursuing is high. How do I put it… I think I can get better at enchanting fans in a way that makes them happy. I’m a person who fundamentally has no self confidence (laugh), so maybe I’m always being haunted by uneasiness and my lack of confidence.
On top of that, recently I’ve been getting really hard on myself. For example, about my guitar play and the way I produce sound. In the last few years, we’ve been able to play together with the bands and artists we look up to, so maybe I’ve gotten unnecessarily harsh on myself. Or rather, I push myself – I should be able to do more, but I’m not doing more.
At the time that I’m being interviewed, we’ve finished 7 of our performances for our 2019 tour “UNDEAD SOULS #2”, but there’s not a single one I’m satisfied with. The fans seem to be enjoying it, and of course this is not to say that I’m not having fun, but some other aspect is leaving me unsatisfied.
On stage, everyone has demands being made of them, and there’s a pressure to respond to that. I would hate for someone to think “he has such a long career and that’s the level his live performance is at?”; I have uneasiness about that.
The goals I establish for myself are so lofty because the people I have watched and looked up to have the perfect way of capturing an audience. I think in comparison to that, what I’m doing is all too inadequate, and I feel like I haven’t reached anywhere near that level.
I try to put my hands on my guitar every day if possible, in order to drive away that uneasiness. If I don’t have my guitar in hand every day, I can’t relax; if I don’t play my guitar every day, I’ll lose all my skill – I’m almost plagued by this sort of unreasonable compulsion. So then I play too much, I start to doubt myself, I lose my confidence… Sometimes I’m like hey, this is the complete opposite effect! (laugh) That’s the troubling part. So if I were to express the musician Yusuke in a few words, I’d say he’s a “ball of anxiety” (laugh).
What is my role in lynch.? This year lynch. will have its 14th anniversary, and it’ll be the 12th year since I joined, so I feel like my appeal in the band has been established to some degree. In terms of my position as a character, I think I’m the only one capable of androgynous appeal in the band.
Because all of our members are very stern (laugh). Long ago, I tried to fit in that way. But I suddenly realized there’s a limit to how much I can do that. So I changed my perception when we dropped the makeup after going major and then started doing makeup again – I took that opportunity to instead leverage my distinctive characteristic and the areas that I have a complex about. My way of capturing the audience changed greatly from that point. Because I think the other members would struggle with this androgynous mode of expression I’m doing now.
Looking back, I grew up looking up to artists who had an androgynous presentation. For example, SUGIZO-san of LUNA SEA is slim with slender body lines. I wound up thinking, surely there are presentations that only someone like that is capable of, which means maybe I can, too…
Someone once said that capitalizing on your complexes will make them into your greatest weapons. Hearing that, I started to think that it was a bad idea to run from the parts of yourself you have a complex about.
However… my legs are still too thin (laugh). I think that every time I go into the bath and see them in the mirror. Like, what is wrong with this body, it’s so creepy (laugh).
lynch.
I think lynch. is in a unique position in the visual kei scene, isn’t it. Maybe that’s why we don’t really socialize with other visual kei bands (laugh). Well, I think another reason for that is that we live in Nagoya. I have kouhai that look up to me, but that’s only become a thing recently.
Maybe because of our position as that sort of band, we’ve been invited to a variety of festivals outside of just visual kei events recently, for which I’m grateful.
I might get flamed for saying something like this, but… I think the visual kei scene has gotten kind of uncool compared to how it used to be. What kind of bands are there? Not to say I know all of them, but I feel like the number of bands chasing after a unique coolness is less now, and I don’t really sense much originality.
At this point, is lynch. a visual kei band? Some might also view us as having already crossed that border, but I think lynch. is a visual kei band. Our vocalist currently says he wants us to be the best of all the make-up wearing bands, after all.
From the start we wanted to continue the band long-term, so we asked ourselves how we should develop the band, having members that can properly plan and take command. Our leader Reo-san is like that too, and Hazuki-kun has a vision of how he wants the band to be. I get on board with their opinions pretty frequently. It’s not to say I don’t think at all about those things, but in terms of the role division in the band, we all have our right fit, so I trust them and leave it up to them. I think because we have members who are focused on thinking about lynch.’s future, that why lynch. has built this current position for itself. Of course, if there’s something I don’t agree on, I say no. We think of a new plan if even one of us says no.
However, regarding that incident in 2017*, our opinions were split. Hazuki-kun felt really strongly that he didn’t want to stop with the band, right? On the other hand, I thought it’d be fine if lynch. were to stop, if I’m being honest. So then, what was the right thing to do? I think neither of us had a clear, correct answer. I did understand why he didn’t want to stop the band. Even though I got stubborn and insisted that I wanted to stop, that I didn’t want to take action, but if that was the majority decision, my only choice was to go along with it. The members’ thoughts, the staff’s thoughts, the fans’ emotions… While all kinds of emotions were writhing around, I was trapped between a rock and a hard place. I was really pushing myself in a lot of ways during that time.
When our band was in a pinch, we had a lot of senpai who helped us. Starting with when I felt all over again that, oh, lynch. is loved by so many people, the feeling of defeat that had hardened in my heart started to melt away bit by bit.
A lot has happened while we’ve been continuing our activities, but as of May, we entered the Reiwa Imperial era (laugh), and since then I’ve entered a mode where I want to do nothing but make fun memories. As one part of that, lynch. is going to having its first fan club trip. So… what even is a fan club trip, and what do you even do on them? (laugh) Although we’ve announced it, I still don’t really get it (laugh), but since it’s a rare opportunities I want to think of ways for everyone to have fun and make them happen. And the trip is going to be in the birthplace of the highly respected GLAY senpai, Hakodate. Can I ask HISASHI-san and tour the GLAY studio? (laugh) …Well, I suppose I’m just talking about where I’d like to go personally with that. (laugh)
Right… lynch. is soon going to have its 15th anniversary. Honestly, I don’t really care about anniversaries (laugh). More importantly, I just want us to persevere without lowering lynch.’s quality. And I want to share fun spaces and fun times with everyone. Everything said and done, bands are entertainment, after all.
*Refers to Akinori’s marijuana possession arrest and subsequent departure from the band.
BIRTHDAY
I live without any awareness of my own birthday. Basically, I don’t really feel like I want my birthday to be celebrated by anyone. The other day, our CLUB CITTA’ Kawasaki live was on my birthday, but that was a coincidence. It’s like, when we’re putting together lynch.’s schedule for the year, we’ll do that if we can fit in a venue easily at that time. It’s not like we do a live because there’s a birthday. It’s just, on this day, we booked a venue, so how about we do something birthday-ish? I don’t think there are members who really want birthday lives, either.
It was a coincidence that last year and this year my birthday overlapped with shows. Because lynch. tends to tour relatively often in May, there has just continually been shows on the day of my birthday.
For this tour, we had a concept where each member would come up with a day’s setlist for all 10 shows, so each of us thought of two setlist patterns. I was a bit selfish and told the members I wanted to do the setlist I thought up for the show on my birthday. Because of that, we adjusted whose setlists we’d use for the ones before and after. We had a plan where we’d decide the order and then the members would think up their setlists, but because I asked to do May 11th myself, we ended up talking about considering dividing them up irregularly. Rather, there was no expectation that because it was XX’s setlist, next will be YY’s – we did it without any preplanned harmony. We wanted to make the fans wonder who came up with the day’s setlist as a surprise factor, so in the end, I think it was good.
So on my birthday, I simply just lined up songs I like and wanted to play, and thought of songs the fans would want to hear and put it together with balance in mind. Honestly, I’d intended to pick the best of the songs I wanted to do and the songs I figured the fans wanted to hear. Another thing is that because the setlist I can up with for Kanazawa EIGHT HALL had a slightly higher proportion of my own songs, I focused mainly on purely songs I like and wanted to play.
I shut down the surprise plan to bring out a birthday cake during the encore this time (laugh). I’ve experienced it countless time before this, and I thought it was boring that it always felt the same. In the end, I didn’t have to shut it down, because the staff couldn’t coordinate and failed the surprise anyway (laugh).
I mentioned this a bit in my MC, but every year, both of my parents get in touch with me. This year, I messaged my mom on LINE and said “thanks for giving birth to me”. It’s obvious, but at the foundation of it all, I have what I do now because she gave birth to me. We tend to forget even something as clear as that as we live on, don’t we? As a kid, I felt like, “give me some kind of present because it’s my birthday”, but as I grew older and approached the age where my mom birthed me, eventually passing it, the feeling that I needed to be grateful that she birthed me gets more important.
In the past, I used to unable to express gratitude because it was embarrassing. Men are like that, aren’t they? But I think that’s no good; now I try to convey it in words. So that no matter what may happen, I don’t have any regrets.
FAMILY
When I was 20, my parents divorced. Only children tend to end up on one parent’s side, don’t they? I didn’t really have any awareness of anything like that… Even though they’re my parents, I connect with each of them as individuals, both my father and my mother. When they divorced, my grandmother pestered me. “You’re their son, why didn’t you step in and oppose to stop them from divorcing?” But I didn’t think I needed to stick my nose in my parents’ business. My parents married out of love, and their marriage was an extension of their love, so I accepted it feeling that they’d just split with the same feeling that a dating couple does when they break up. Maybe I was seeing them less as my father and mother and more as a man and a woman. I wasn’t a kid at the time, after all.
When I got to high school I immediately quit school and moved out, but my mom was moving out at the same time. Our family all went our own way at the same time. From that time until I was about 20, I didn’t see my parents. Then when I saw my mom for the first time in so long, she’d become a tattoo artist (laugh). That’s pretty funky from an outsider’s perspective, huh? Actually, maybe because of her job, I think she’s young at heart. Now she’s hooked on K-pop, and recently she’s gone to Korea by herself (laugh). How much must she like them to go to Korea to see them live (laugh)?
It seems my father’s hasn’t been traveling abroad as his hobby lately. Originally the way my father got interested in travel abroad is because I brought him, my completely hobby-less father, with me on a trip to Beijing when I was about 20. From there he suddenly got hooked on traveling abroad.
Now our family of 3 is scattered, but recently my dad and mom seem to be friends. They come together to see my shows. They’re probably in contact with one another, then. In that case I think they should just get back together already (laugh).
I say that because my father and mother both live by themselves, and as their son, of course I worry. What would I do if they died alone? Even when I reach out to my dad, he doesn’t always answer (laugh), and when he does, it’s late. My mom is my mom, so even if I guess when she’ll be home and message her on LINE, she doesn’t always answer. Then I get worried – they’re not young anymore. So I’m trying to regularly keep in contact with them.
After saying all this I can’t say we’re an average household (laugh), but we get along in our own way (laugh).
TATTOO
The first one I got was this, on my right shoulder. I used a sketch of the cover of the first “Multiple Personality Detective Psycho” tankobon. My mom asked me to let her practice and used me as a practice partner (laugh).
If you ask me if it’s like Dr. Katsuya Takasu* from Takasu Clinic, the one who uses himself as a guinea pig for his cosmetic surgeon sons, then, yeah (laugh). Well it’s because you don’t have to fuss if it’s family. If worse comes to worst and you fail, you don’t cause trouble to anyone else, and it won’t turn into a big deal if it’s family, right?
Since then I’ve gradually gotten more tattoos and been her practice kit. I pick what I want to get and she gives it to me. By the way, everything I have now was done by my mother. She was good at drawing from the start, so I put my trust in that. When she was practicing on me, she did it for free, but as she’s built up her career to a degree, I pay her properly. Although she’s my mother, seeing as she’s doing it as a pro in the field, I think that’s only natural. But a few years ago her health failed and she stopped. So I’m still incomplete.
*Katsuya Takasu is a cosmetic surgeon known for his “rejuvenation project” where he decided he would undergo a series of cosmetic surgeries to “share the pains with patients”. He is a noted philanthropist but also a big Holocaust denier and all-around jerk, remaining a controversial semi-celebrity in Japan.
COOKING
If it’s not too elaborate, I can make just about anything. Now we have those websites, don’t we? Cook*ad and the like (laugh). Looking at those, I can make most of the stuff there. So I wouldn’t say I’m super skilled at cooking, but I can do it.
Recently I’m busy so I can’t make much, but… Oh, the other day, I made “Ninjin Shirishiri*” for the first time (laugh). You cut carrots thinly with a mandolin, and use canned tuna, eggs, and shiro-dashi.
Dashi really is one of the fundamentals of cooking (laugh). I like making miso soup, so I pick my dashi and miso based on the ingredients I’m using at the time. Do I use kombu or bonito dashi? Red miso or awase-miso*? Aka-dashi made using red miso, the soul food of Nagoya, is delicious. On the other hand, white miso is not really… I don’t like using white miso in miso soup, with that sweetness it has. It’s better for fish simmered in miso, Kyoto-style grilled fish, but less so for miso soup. Akinori drinks miso soup made with white miso and says it’s like corn soup, (laugh). Well, I get why he says that, but corn soup has a totally different flavor (laugh).
*Ninjin shirishiri is an Okinawan carrot stir-fry dish. Awase-miso is a mix of red and white miso paste.
NAGOYA
My birthplace is Kasugai, beside Nagoya. Since I moved out I’ve lived in Nagoya by myself, but my hometown and Nagoya aren’t that different now. Recently my hometown has progressed with development and is quite replete with shops.
When I say that my hometown is Nagoya, my friends will often say “I’m going to Nagoya, any good restaurants there?”. This is the question that stumps me the most (laugh). Because Nagoya has no famous products (laugh). Our good restaurants have opened branches in Tokyo recently, too. Famous restaurants like Misen* have expanded into Tokyo, right? I’ve never gone to Misen in Tokyo, but although I imagine that it’s tastier in its home of Nagoya, I feel like the sensation people have where they want to go to Misen whenever they go to Nagoya is fading, and the value of Nagoyan food has dropped.
The lively spots are around Nagoya station to Sakae, and the rest is honestly annoying to travel to without a care. In comparison, in Tokyo, you can just walk a bit and find a variety of shops, and there’s more trains running. So when it comes to the charms of Nagoya… there’s not enough for me to discuss. (laugh)
That said, I like Nagoya. If we’re talking ease of living, Nagoya is far and above Tokyo.
*Misen is a Chinese/Taiwanese restaurant chain that is very popular in Nagoya, and the originator of “Taiwan ramen”, a Nagoyan specialty that does not actually exist in Taiwan proper.
Additional trivia: Hazuki is also from Kasugai, and Akinori was raised in Kasugai. Those two are sometimes referred to as the “Kasugai Brothers”, but the terms never includes Yusuke, for some reason.
GUITAR
I don’t really have anything I’m picky about with the guitar. As long as it can make a sound that echoes in the minds of the people listening, it doesn’t even have to be guitar (laugh). If the phrases I make on the keyboard can grab the listener, then the keyboard is fine, is my feeling. There’s that, and recently I make things by popping what I’ve played with a synthesizer into a plugin that’ll convert it into a guitar-like sound.
What made me become a guitarist was seeing guitarists by chance, being impacted by that, and then just thinking I wanted to start playing it. I don’t have any concrete goal like, oh, I want to be this or that kind of guitarist. Now playing guitar is just part of my life. The act of playing guitar itself feels the same as breathing.
That said, I do want to be a guitarist who can play phrases that get stuck in the listener’s ear. Since the guitarists I like played impressive phrases in the music I listened to. I also don’t dislike guitarists that have tons of technique and play complex things. But if I ask myself if I want to pursue that, I don’t. Of course, it’s obviously better if I can play skillfully. But that’s not all, I also want to express something. There’s lots of guitarists who play phrases that hit you right in the heart even if the playing isn’t difficult at all, right? That’s what I’m after. I’m not sure if I’m becoming that kind of guitarist right now.
However, I feel like recently I’ve finally become able to play Yusuke-like guitar. Having said that, listening to the sound, I feel like I’m not yet at the point where you can instantly recognize it like you can if it’s the sound SUGIZO-san plays, or if it’s INORAN-san’s sound, or L’Arc~en~Ciel’s Ken-san’s. I think it’s amazing that the guitarists of that era each had their own sound. In that aspect, the guitar play I’m doing is being done by other artists. So where do we show originality? I feel like sound is the only answer. Also, I’m currently standing on stage as the guitarist of lynch., so I feel like I should establish myself as the guitarist Yusuke, live performance aspects included. I will keep being diligent.
PHOTOGRAPH
The feeling that I want to do anything where I can express myself, regardless of the means is something that’s in my roots. Although I’m a musician, it’s not that it has to be an expression focused in sound. In reality, there are musicians who do art direction for their CD jackets, and having a direction for make-up and outfits are part of expression too. I think that expressing what you want to express from different angles such as aurally and visually will show the truth of the person expressing themselves.
What you can sense aurally and what you can sense visually are entirely different things, right? That’s why I think that hearing things and being moved, seeing things and being moved, and being moved by all of your five senses is wonderful. Because of that, I wanted to do photography.
Even though I’m calling it “being moved” for short, to me, being inspired is different from thinking a good song is cool or that a photo is cool. The part that hits you in the hear when you’re being emotionally affected aurally or visually is different. So I started my photography exhibit hoping to emotionally move fans in various ways. Also, in my position, unlike photographers, I can express a single theme in music as well. I think my forte is that can I approach an idea both visually and aurally. I’m still just a newbie to photography, though (laugh).
Even if your technique is shaky, the abilities of cameras and equipment has gotten amazing. If you use good equipment, you can take good photos like it’s nothing. So what comes into question is if your taste is good or not. Actually, I don’t use an SLR. All the photos for the exhibits are taken with my phone. Compared to old phones, the quality is miles ahead, as is the pixel count. Although there are some things that make me uneasy about using that data on a bigger scale, if we’re talking about the size of panels for decorating a photo exhibit, there’s no problem. A cellphone camera is a valuable thing for someone like me, who wants to handle the photo he’s taken immediately and on the spot.
For example, if I take a picture of flowers, I’ll erased everything except the flowers and green leaves, keep the flowers their original color, and make the rest monochrome. I like doing that type of finishing touch right now.
Before I was doing that workflow by taking a photo with the SLR, uploading it to my PC, processing it Photoshop… but it was really annoying that the workflow had so many steps (laugh). Now I can finish it just on my phone. I have tons of apps, and on the phone you can intuitively use your fingers to do the work.
Also, I suck at using a mouse (laugh). And track pads. What is it about them… I don’t like feeling like I’m working with something between me and the photo. In that case, it’s quicker to take the photo on my phone and mess with it right then and there, isn’t it? I can play around, and if I think the composition isn’t good or that the lighting isn’t working, I can immediately retake it, too. When I try to process the photos I’ve taken later, it does happen where I feel like none of them are any good, and when I’m processing them I often feel different than when I took them.
In a way, that’s kind of the same as music. It’s surprisingly often that I’ll think of a good melody, record it on my phone on the spot, and when I listen to it later I think it’s not any good at all. I think human sensation is something that changes from moment to moment.
What do I want to take photo of in the future? Hm… People interested in cameras often ask me if I’d take pictures of people. I think portraits could be interesting. I do take pictures of myself, like selfies. I can do that because I know myself. If you do take pictures of people, it tests your ability to bring out that person’s appeal, doesn’t it? That’s a bottleneck for someone with no communication skills like me… (laugh) But, someday I’d like to try it. I’ll have to bring out the SLR again when that time comes..
FASHION
Generally, I only wear black clothes. That way I don’t have to worry about coordinating outfits. When you add color, it’s harder to achieve balance. Also, I don’t really like bright colors. I mentioned it in the previous section on photography, but when I take a picture of flowers, I remove the leaves, because I hate the color green (laugh). I’ll never wear green, orange, or yellow clothing (laugh). Also, I don’t own any brightly colored clothing (laugh). Grey, white… Monochrome colors are relaxed. If I’m going to use a shade of color as an accent, red is about it.
For a silhouette, I prefer relatively loose fitting clothing recently. Even with pants, my style is to pick something more wide.
I’m generally wearing a hat. Because then you don’t have to worry about your hairstyle, right (laugh)? Even in my personal life I think doing my hair is a pain. With a hat, all I have to do is arrange the ends of my hair that stick out from the hat a little and I’m good (laugh).
I’m wearing a beret today, too. Before, I figured that a beret was something I absolutely couldn’t pull off so it was an item I avoided. But when I tried it on, it was surprisingly fitting, and recently I wear berets more often than not. This is related to the complex I mentioned I have earlier, but it often happens where even though I think something won’t suit me, it’s surprisingly okay if I give it a shot. I suppose maybe it is good to try things regardless of age after all. In order to find a new iteration of yourself.
Generally, I don’t wear accessories. If it’s a silver accessory with a design that’s simple and streamlined without a bulky design, then sometimes it’s okay. But I can’t do rings. I play guitar, so it’s irritating when there’s something on my fingers.
COMPOSE
I’m not good at composing (laugh). I personally don’t think I have any composing talent.
When I do think of a song, it really comes a long, but when I write a song for lynch., I often can’t fully grasp what kind of song I’m being asked for at that point in time. We have a main composter, so I feel some difficulty in also composing. Even if I think I’d like to do more of this or that kind of song, there are times where I can’t do it with lynch. because of timing or because of the direction of the piece. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was frustrating.
But recently, when I hold exhibits, I can release that frustration in the BGM that plays in the venue or the CD that comes with the photobook, so I have achieved balance inside. I want to achieve even more balance in the future. I strongly feel like I’d like to do more outside of the band as well if I get the opportunity.
MALE, FEMALE
If wanting to take care of people is a maternal characteristic, then I might have strong maternal instinct. As long as I like the person, I’m always offering to do chores for them, or to clean and do laundry for them. I mean, it’s like if I’m going to do chores myself, I may as well. I think I keep my place relatively clean… Is that a girly thing to think (laugh)?
…Oh, and when I sit on the floor, it might be easier for me to sit with my legs to the side, rather than sit cross-legged.
On the other hand, I have rough aspects too. For example, if I go drinking with a junior, I’ll pay for it. Isn’t it annoying and unpleasant to split it down to the single yen in front of the register (laugh)? I hear that now splitting the bill is popular even for dates, but I feel like why not just cut out all the busy work and have the man pay for the whole thing! (laugh) If you can’t pay for all of it, you can pay at one place and they can pay at the next, or you have them pay the next time you go drinking – that’s roughly close enough so it’s good, right?
Well, everyone has their personal financial situation, so I understand why you might split the bill, but in that case, I end up thinking that it’s fine for whoever can pay to go ahead and do it. Maybe that “close enough” sensation is masculine.
FIRST LOVE
This is a typical pattern, but my first love was my kindergarten teacher. She was really beautiful. Even if I call her my first love, it’s just kindergartener talk (laugh).
One day, I told my mom “I really like XX-sensei from kindergarten” and when I did, she got really mad at me (laugh). I remember that intensely to this day (laugh). Could It be that my mom was jealous? (laugh) Mothers will say that their sons are cuter than their daughters. Maybe I’m special to her, or rather, it could be those are the feelings of a mother with a son?
CLUB ACTIVITIES
In elementary I was in the drum and fife club, and in middle school I joined the basketball club. When I entered middle school, the anime “SLAM DUNK” was just getting popular, so I was influenced by that and part of the so-called “SLAM DUNK generation” (laugh). But I didn’t do it very well, and I’d started guitar at almost the exact same time and got obsessed with that. So I was less a member of the basketball club and more a member of the “go home right after school” club (laugh).
CAT
As a kid, I had a cat. But one day, it suddenly disappeared. It would come and go between outside and the home, so it was half-wild, so maybe it just went off somewhere else.
My favorite kind of cat is any cat that doesn’t have too much fur (laugh). That said, the type of cat with no hair at might kind of not be my cup of tea. I like extremely normal cats. Calicoes and the like are so cute.
I’m not an extreme cat lover. I like dogs too, I’d even say I love all living things. But I suppose I don’t have any plans to own a pet. I’m often out of the house, so I wouldn’t be able to look after it. And it really hurts to say goodbye.
FUTURE
What’s closest our appearance in the SUGIZO 50th Birthday event, “HALF CENTURY ANNIVERSARY FES”. SUGIZO-san often reaches out to me in private, and last year he invited me to view the sakura in Kyoto, so we drove, and then went to eat at Tenkaippin, which he loves. A while ago, I never would have imagined we could spend time together like that. It’s to the point where I want to brag to my younger self (laugh).
INORAN-san is on the same label as us, so before we went major, we were invited as guests to his solo Nagoya show. Being invited in recent years to play with band members I looked up to is a huge happening in my life, and I’m very grateful for it.
Also, we’ll be participating in “ROCK IN JAPAN FES 2019” on August 10th. I’m very happy to be able to play in an event I dreamed about playing some day. I’d always wanted to play a festival like that before I joined lynch. Actually, after joining lynch, I’d half given up and figured we probably never would… I thought there was no way a visual kei band would play this festival. Since then 10 years have passed, and finally, the era has come. That alone is deeply moving, after all.
Although I’m just happy to be playing it, I’m sure the audiences that come to music festivals have keep ears, so I do feel a bit of pressure. When we appeared in “Rockinon’ presents COUNT DOWN JAPAN 18/19” we got a relatively good reception, so I do have a bit of confidence. But there’s still a lot I’m uneasy about.
Also, when I think carefully, this is an outdoor event, right? And at the peak of summer. Isn’t it crazy that lynch. will be appearing the middle of such sweltering heat? (laugh) If we show up in all black when it’s already hot, I guarantee people will think we look like we’re burning up (laugh). The audience shows up in t-shirts and shorts for festivals, right? Then I want to come out in a t-shirt too (laugh). Crossing over the fence of genre and flourishing is one of lynch.’s challenges. I want to dispel any misunderstandings about lynch., draw in even just a few more fans, and drag them into being hooked on us. This isn’t limited to just this festival, but since we were invited, I want to create results and make it lead to a step up for the band.