(July 2007)
Original interview/Reiko Arakawa
Translated by Emma.
profile: Reo. Born November 3rd. A type blood. Guitarist. Following Lustair, kein, and GULLET, formed lynch. with Hazuki (vocals) and Asanao (drums) in 2004. They held their first live December 27th of that same year at Nagoya Club Quattro (as secret performers). In July 2006, Yusuke (guitar) was added, leading to the current member lineup (with a support bassist). Their second full album “THE AVOIDED SUN” was released April of this year.
Decision of Anguish
Reo, one of the key players of the present-day Nagoya scene. Despite forming a number of legendary bands, he continued to leave each one on his own, arriving at lynch. as his best band yet. A devout Christian1, he made a decision of anguish in order to live in a way that is true to himself. He speaks frankly on this today…
1 note: the man is literally Catholic as explained later so this intro bit is not quite right.
What do you remember about your childhood?
What I remember the clearest was around preschool.
What is it that you remember?
That I was fighting every day.
With whom?
My real name is Reo, so my friends made fun of it. I was fighting every day regardless of class. It only stopped when my parents came to intervene. I was really fighting every single day.
What does your family look like?
We’re a four person family – me, my father, my mother, and older brother. I’m a Catholic that was baptized as a baby, as is the rest of the family. That is why my parents named me Reo (Leo) after a saint… Since my values weren’t determined yet at that age, I’m just making a guess, but I think I probably had pride about the name I’d been given. So I think I got really irritated when it was made fun of. And so I fought every day. (laugh)
Even now it’s a rare name, but obviously it was even more so at the time.
That’s right. It was out of place. And when I got into elementary, there were more daily fights. Fights due to being teased… That was the early years. Then, in my 3rd or 4th year, things settled down for a bit since people understood that I would cause trouble if anyone nitpicked my name. Then when I entered middle school, my first year was all about fighting again.
Reo is indeed a rare name, but weren’t you rare in ways outside of your name?
The Catholicism was also a rare thing, too. On Sundays I’d go to mass, so I couldn’t play with friends. The people around me would play soccer or baseball, or join groups and organizations for kids, right? But I was the only one who had mass, so I didn’t join anything like that.
Because you were going to church on Sundays.
Right. I didn’t get bullied or excluded, but my relationships with my friends might have been weak. When everyone would go off somewhere on Sundays, I couldn’t join, so I wouldn’t go for all six years of elementary. I was an altar boy, or a volunteer who would help the priest with mass. In my altar boy uniform.
Were there other kids around your age?
There were. I had friends there… We were a community, but it was just every week on Sunday and we lived in totally different places. So we didn’t get together on other days to play… Rather than friends, they were more like classmates. This is rather gloomy, but I often played alone after coming back from church.
Did you play with your brother?
My brother was extremely serious about studying. Since elementary. Enough to go to a private middle school… He got straight As. I think he liked studying, but because that was all he did, I couldn’t get him to play with me. He’s just two years older.
As far as I can tell, you were a little bit different than the usual little boy I imagine playing outside.
When I really think back, I often played alone. Sometimes I’d go to the park alone and find someone and play together, but getting together and actively going somewhere wasn’t a thing… With that, I’m actually really not good with group activities. (laugh) Even though I’m in a band.
Oh?
That hasn’t changed. For example, even if I go shopping or decide to go out on my day off, I often do it on my own. Being alone might just be easier for me.
This is a little off topic, but do you struggle with girls who say they always want to be with you?
I can’t be with them. We both have to be ourselves.
Some people prefer that type of girl, right?
That’s up to your personal values so I won’t deny it, but it’s impossible for me. (laugh) My brother was clever so he went to cram school as well, and my dad worked so he came home late, so from elementary onwards I always ate alone.
This is starting to make me feel bad for you.
No, no need. It was normal for me… We only ate as a family a handful of times yearly, for Christmas or when we’d go out as a family.
But your mom would eat with you, right?
No, my mom… My father was born in Kyushu, a traditional Kyushu lad, so he was the most important of the family. The eldest son is second most important. Mom wouldn’t eat until everyone else had finished eating. They were both from Kyushu, so… That was a matter of their values, as well. But being a kid, I’d worry if she wanted to eat together, or if she was hungry, but she’d tell me she’d wait for me to finish… It’s really a cruel story. Women and children being lesser… Our household was one of male chauvinism.
Was your father the absolute head of the house?
Well, he was scary. The quintessential representation of this is that when we’d travel or go shopping as a family, my dad and brother would walk briskly at their own pace without looking behind them. My mom is short and small, so I’d walk slowly to keep pace with her, but gradually the distance would grow, and after they turned a corner we’d have no idea where they’d gone. (laugh) At the time cell phones weren’t something everyone had, so we’d get scolded for wandering off once we made it after getting lost.
Is this story hard for you?
No, but I thought that was normal, too. So I’d actually wonder if other people’s families were different.
When did you notice that?
When I entered high school… After my compulsory education. Until my compulsory education was over, I didn’t have my own money and I depended on my dad, and since he was scary, I couldn’t act like a brat in front of him…
So in front of him, you were…
A good boy. He was scary, I’m telling you. He ruled with an iron fist. (laugh)
Recently there’s incidents where children kill their parents, right?
Honestly, I couldn’t win. His height was about the same as mine (around 180cm), and he did judo. He also worked and was good with words… There would be no winning. (laugh) I went at him, but he got me. It’d be impossible until I grew up and our physiques became the same. I was forced to do judo too, but I figured it was impossible.
Maybe because you thought this as normal, you didn’t end up warped in such a strict household environment…
I thought it was normal, and before I could warp or not, I knew I had to be a perfect student, and I feel like I was forced into that. I had no choice. If I tried to break free from that mold even a little, I’d get put back in my place immediately. I was put back with absolute power, so I didn’t find myself warping. I just followed the tracks… Even if I slowed down, I had to run along those tracks.
Did you ever go off the rails?
I did sometimes get up to no good in school (laugh), but when I got home I had to be a model student. I’d get in trouble if my grades went down, and I was scared of that so I studied. I was studying against my will, so I forcibly ended up a straight B student, but…
I think kids have a rebellious period in middle school, right?
Yes, I did too. But my rebellious period was crushed entirely.
Oh?
I’m going back and forth in my story, but I had a lot of lessons aside from church. I did violin and swam. Well, I was forced to.
Well, as an elementary student you have to be made to do some things, so that’s all right.
Then, when I got into middle school, there was cram school.
How long did you do violin and swimming in elementary?
For six years. This goes back to the playing with friends discussion, but because I had lessons, I was limited in terms of days I could play on weekdays, too.
Right, you’d have to explain that you had violin practice that day…
Yes, exactly. I’d get grumbled at for trying to sound cool.
Kids do say that about the violin.
I did well not to go off the rails, I think. (laugh)
Did you not have any interest in the violin?
I was just told to do it. At my age now I can understand it, but from his point of view, I think he was looking around for some kind of talent in me. Trying to find if it was sports, art, studying. I understand at my current age that I was being given that type of opportunity, but… It also cost a fair bit in monthly fees. But I really didn’t want to do it at the time…
Did you ever say you were going for violin lessons, leave the house and then just kill time in the fields near your place?
You really know your stuff. (laugh) Then the teacher would say “your son didn’t come to today’s lesson”. I’d get found, playing by the river. When I got home, I’d get a flurry of slaps. I’d promise not to do it again. So that’s why I was scared. Truly scared. Regular kids will beg their dad for something they want for a birthday or Christmas present, right? I was too scared to open the door to my father’s room to ask for anything. You get your report card after the 2nd term ends, right? So if my grades were improving, I’d tell him “I need to speak with you, may I come in?” and show my report card… I’d be so scared as I told him what I wanted as a gift. (laugh)
Does anything he bought for you stand out in your memory?
A video game. And that was under the condition that I didn’t slip in my 3rd term.
I see. I think you must have felt like some of that was strict on a childlike mind…
I did feel envious of other kids, but… Hmm… He was kind in other ways, and I felt loved. So maybe that’s why I didn’t go off the rails. Although I’m completely dissing my dad right now. (laugh) But I care about him. And he cares about me. It’s just the way we care is different from other households.
That’s true, if he didn’t love you he wouldn’t have tried so hard. Did he ever tell you what he wanted or saw as ideal for you?
In terms of what he wanted of me, of course he wanted me to graduate from a good university and join a good company… I think as a father, he wanted most for me to end up like him. But I failed my entrance exam going from middle school to high school. I wasn’t able to enter a high school that I could have entered with straight Bs because I failed at the entrance exam. In my father’s mind, the bare minimum was a high school for straight B or higher students, so he told me it was all over. Probably I was no longer able to reach his idealized image for me, so he felt like “go ahead and do whatever you want, then”. (laugh)
(laugh).
Then I started to grow out my hair.
What was your brother doing then?
My brother was working to become a clergyman.
Is it hard to be a clergyman, or a priest?
Becoming a priest is hard. You need to speak several languages, and they’ll look into all your regular behavior. You can’t become a priest if your life is tarnished. And if you become one, you are only given the bare necessities by the association, including the bare minimum for food.
I wonder what people feel when they decide to become priests?
They just wish to serve God.
I see.
I think that any other desires wouldn’t be allowed.
…
I saw that life up close working as an altar boy. Desires are… How to put it, common desires? I might not have many of those. I never did have the desire to go spend time with various women. (laugh) Bandmen tend to be seen as those types of men, but seeing that ascetic lifestyle, I don’t really have those desires. Also I like being alone (laugh). I think the Catholic mindset is what influences my personality the most.
Reo, your values must have been strange to other kids, right?
Yes.
When did you encounter music?
I started to have an interest in music just around the time of my middle school entrance exam. My father was old-fashioned, so he believed that rock music was bad, and it was a really long time before I started listening to music. But around then a few bands called Visual kei gained widespread acceptance, and I saw X on TV. It hit me so hard I felt like they’d disavowed all my values. (laugh) But my yearning for that paralelled how repressed I was. But in front of dad, I was a normal kid until I graduated middle school, then I failed the entrance exam and got told to find my own path. I couldn’t get into a good high school and I’d lost the elite path my father had imagined… So I went to an average high school for those with average grades.
What did you think after you were told to find your own path?
From there I started to grow out my hair, and I found out about what they call indie bands. I turned into a high school student who bought “Band Yarouze” and “Rockin F” (magazines). But after entering high school… I couldn’t work a part-time job.
You weren’t allowed to work part-time?
Sometimes I’d get a one-off job. Summer was good but… That said, my dad was still strict, so he insisted that a student’s duty was to study. Well, even though I had gotten into a not great high school, I still got told to study properly. He also told me if I worked, people would think he wasn’t earning enough which would be disgraceful. So I couldn’t buy a guitar.
So when did you get a guitar?
I got my hands on a guitar after I entered university. I immediately started a part-time job when I got into university.
You sure had a lot of patience up until that point.
At the time, my father told me to graduate university. I thought I’d been freed, but I was still restricted in some way. He’d gotten lenient about the way I dressed, but insisted that I study while still a student. Said it was my job. Said someone who couldn’t study shouldn’t ask for privileges, that I had to fulfill my duties. Said if I could just graduate university, I could make something out of myself, so I’d better enroll. I think now there are a lot of universities who will accept student regardless of their standard deviation score, or those that will accept a score below 50, but when I was doing my university entrance exam, there were a lot of kids. So the difficulty even for a not great private university was pretty high, and I had to study properly. But I’d just gotten into high school and my dad told me it was a lost cause, so my grades plummeted… I joined a very average high school, and I was #420 out of 450 students in terms of grades.
So you were in a real mess.
The bubble was about to burst. My motivation stayed low… Even as I walked in the school halls, I’d wonder how many people had grades worse than I did. (laugh) I had a really negative mindset. Then my dad told me in year 2 of high school to get to university… I thought, hold it, I’m 420 out of 450. There’s no way I could get in. But I had a yearning for bands, and I went to shows.
What did you do about the money for that?
I used the money I saved from the work I was only doing over the summer break. So I had to be very selective about show tickets, basing it on magazine info. Around then, I quickly started feeling like I wanted to stand on stage too… It really built up more and more to match how repressed I was. I went to someone’s independent show and my yearning to try it for myself grew stronger. Well, someone in this case being Junji (bass) from Laputa. He was the high school star. He played regularly at live venues… I did vaguely feel admiration for his band, but I also felt admiration for Junji himself. He liked music just like I did, so we’d talk, right? He quickly moved to making it happen, giving it form, while I stayed repressed without making anything that I wanted to try happen. Then my dad tells me to go to university and that I can do whatever when I graduate… I had to go to university in order to start a band. (laugh)
That’s no small hurdle. (laugh)
For #420, no less. So I studied frantically. When I got to year 3 I was #1. After that I never fell below #6. I stayed in the single digits once I was in year 3. Then I got a recommendation for admission and got into university. I figured that’d be faster than doing the entrance exam.
You studied hard because you wanted to play in a band.
Yes. Then, since I got in on a recommendation for admission, if my university grades were bad in my first year, the number of slots for recommended students would be reduced. So I felt obligated to my alma mater, and decided I’d behave for my first year. I don’t want to say too much or I’ll just be bragging, but (laugh), I was #1 in university, too. Out of 700 people in my department. I was #3 in my first year, and #1 in my second year.
Bragging is beside the point – are you sure you’re not fundamentally on the wrong path?
That’s what everyone says. (laugh) In my 4th year, my prof was constantly introducing me to jobs. But at that time I was doing a band that was making original music, and my hair was pretty long, and blue. He’d ask “do you even want to get a job? I found a position for you and everything.” And I’d tell him sorry, I’m in university because I want to be in a band. (laugh)
Did you have any options aside from bands?
I hesitated. That’s why I took a one year break going from my third to fourth years. During that time I wanted to try testing the feelings I was wagering on my band and my ability to take action. So I took a year off of university and started a band with original music then.
Were you 20 at this time?
I was 21 when I formed that first band. I’d started playing my instrument after getting into university… at 18.
So you really only watched and listened in high school.
I wasn’t a player, yes. I bought a guitar with the money from my part time job after entering university, and at first I would just play by ear on my own to practice. Then I joined the light music club in my second year. More or less, I figured I was at the level where I could play with others, but everyone was worse than me. (laugh) Then I silently practiced alone, and though I don’t really get why, I mistakenly thought I could handle a band that plays original music. My misunderstanding was that I would practice playing with everyone in the light music club this year, then form an original band in my third year, and I’d be good if we could play a live venue. (laugh)
(laugh) So how did you get moving?
When I was recruiting members, I was invited by someone from a known band and went to the studio, but I was rejected on the basis of performance. So next I joined a band that was already active with a former member of that band. I was happy to be standing on stage for the first time, but…
What stage was your first?
Music Farm (in Nagoya). But I thought things were all wrong and quit. Or rather, someone approached me.
So then you worked with the one who approached you?
Lamiel’s vocalist Yuina and the 2nd bassist, Ruka… He also did bass for Lamiel, but he told me to join as guitarist when he was making a new band.
Did that pan out?
It did. Then, and I don’t know how, but we broke the attendance record for Music Farm’s open audition shows at the time. Somehow we got 80 people in just with our newsworthiness. (laugh)
Why were you such a hot topic?
Because we were a roadie band with a Laputa roadie and a Sleep my Dear roadie. We had the favor of our senpai.
I see.
And when we went to the studio, the music was hard with mainly shouted vocals… It was what I liked, and when I decided to play with them, we were popular from the start. We had over 100 people come by our third show.
What an amazing band.
It’s because at the time, Visual kei was flourishing. I quit due to a difference in opinion… But after that, the band played 2 or 3 more shows before it was over. It was active for about a year. That band was Lustair.
So then, next up was kein?
That’s right… Yukino (bassist, kein, deadman, GULLET, lynch. support, the studs) invited me to start a band with him when I was debating quitting Lustair. So then kein was formed after I quit Lustair. At first kein hadn’t decided on a vocalist, but the things I had doubts about or thought were outrageous over the one or two years since I’d started in bands were absent when I was invited to kein. Everybody was nameless, but… While my band at the time had 100 attendees, I felt like working with them, even if we started with only 20, there was potential to go up to 200, 300, even 400. So I joined.
So then kein really did climb in terms of attendees, but why did you disband?
kein was… This is entirely my own subjective opinion, but as leader I really felt that everyone’s objectives of where they wanted to go and their goals were all disparate. I can talk about it now that time has passed, but when you go on tour you to go to shops, right? We were walking down the Hiroshima shopping district, but Mako (vocals) and aie (guitar), who later formed deadman, and Yukino, they all just walked off somewhere without looking back. We were acting as a group and suddenly distance opened up, and Hibiki (drums) also went off somewhere on his own. I thought that we weren’t acting like bandmates anymore.. Now, in lynch., I ask where everyone wants to eat when we travel. If we want to eat separately, I ask when we’ll meet tomorrow before saying goodbye. That didn’t happen in kein. Everyone just went wherever on a whim… At that point I didn’t feel like we were bandmates. So I wondered why people like that were making music together… And for the music, if we were discussing the way a song would progress, nobody would concede anything. This includes me as well, but I think all of us thought “kein is popular because of me”. I thought this was less like a band and more like a session, and figured I’d decisively tell them I was quitting. I said, honestly, from what I see we’re all over the place, and if all of us have things we want to do, should we disband? I said I was quitting and asked if they wanted to disband, and immediately they said we should. Everyone was thinking the same thing…
Contrary to the circumstances, your attendees were growing steadily, as was the attention you garnered, right? Did that even make you want to hold out?
On the tour just before I broached the topic of disbandment, I was really having a tough time. The expectations of the audience and our fulfillment as a band were inversely proportionate, and I felt like our audience was flourishing before we were. I knew if we kept it up, things would go south for sure… Despite thinking that we needed to correct our course somehow, our audience was steadily growing…
Looking at it objectively, everything seemed to be doing well so the sudden disbandment announcement shocked me personally, but I wonder what the band lost sight of.
The biggest thing we lost sight of was our… original intention when we all started the band. None of us could see where we were standing. The number of attendees and staff grew quickly, so we were brought higher and higher, and our feet no longer touched the ground. Our conceitedness grew quickly as well, and we wanted the attention on ourselves. That’s how it was on stage. Everyone was the top batter, and all of us went full swing. (laugh) I think there are bands like that who have succeeded. But I didn’t think kein was that kind of band, so I thought we weren’t kein anymore. I thought that at that point it would be strange to do things under the kein name. Our pace for putting things out, musically speaking, was steadily slowing. People wouldn’t budge an inch when they disagreed, didn’t want to do something, or wanted to do something. Honestly… This might disillusion fans but in short, I hated it.
And so you disbanded in 2000.
I really did want us to keep going… If it would have been possible for us to keep going.
If you had been able to continue, everyone’s life would have been different.
Right. But the best answer I could think of then was to leave. We disbanded because of that…
Just hearing that fact, some might say kein disbanded because you left.
I can’t blame them for saying that.
And then after that deadman, formed with 3 kein members, immediately set to work. But it took time for you.
Honestly, this is cowardly, but when kein was done I thought I’d never be able to be in a band that surpassed kein… I didn’t keep up with guitar. I was scared. At the time, Lamiel’s guitarist Akira talked about doing a band with me, but while I was telling him I wanted to do it, I didn’t think we could make one that surpassed kein… And I was scared to be seen in public… I was full of anxieties. And before kein disbanded I got into an accident on the highway and seriously injured my arm, so I knew myself my performance skills had declined. But the more I thought about how I had to practice, the more I got tangled up in those anxieties… I was so scared.
How long did that go on?
Over a year, until I met Ryo (GULLET vocalist)… I was shrouded in gloom… I wondered what I could do, how much strength I had left in me to do it. This was the period where I was sulkiest. (laugh) I would show my face at shows I was invited to, but I’d wonder if I was someone who should really even be there… I was truly depressed. But even with that, letters asking what I’d be doing next or telling me they looked forward to my next band were arriving at the label we belonged to at the time. For part of me, my hurt was healed over time because of that, even though it related to the expectations of those in the industry and our fans.
So then you formed your next band, GULLET.
When I saw the band Ryo was in at the time, I thought “he’s the one!”. I felt real anticipation that with him, I could make something greater than kein, so I’d forcibly try to persuade him. And just when I was thinking that, Akira, who I was planning to play with, could no longer do band work due to family circumstances, so I was desperately searching for members… I invited Yukino, who was free after quitting deadman, and Yukino introduced me to the guitarist, Satoru. Then with drummer Aki, who was an acquaintance of mine from a while back, the five of us formed GULLET.
Your first live was in 2002.
So it took a full two years. I was lost for the first year, though.
Then you announced you would leave the band in Niigata on March 2004.
And then lynch. was from the end of 2004.
GULLET also ended up disbanding in May 2004 due to your departure.
First, I told the members I wanted to leave. At the time, I wanted to be in a low-tuned, heavy band, like what I’m doing with lynch. now. With mainly shouted vocals. Just like the music when lynch. kicked off. Hazuki did kick this off for me, though… I saw the band Hazuki was playing in at the time and thought it was something I wanted to try doing, that it was a sound I wanted to pursue. I talked about it with the members (of GULLET), you know, before I talked about wanting to leave. Of course, some didn’t want to do heavy music, and Ryo’s voice simply doesn’t suit a heavy sound, either.
Agreed.
But Satoru also plays the guitar intricately. If I forced that to shift to a heavier sound, we’d be losing his strength… So I really worried. Should I put my interests aside and stick with GULLET, or just go for it, quit GULLET and make a new band starting over from one again… I really puzzled over it.
You would, as leader.
Right. But what I was trying to do…
Had it changed from your musical sensibilities when GULLET formed?
I had changed in myself. And I felt that they were adjusting slightly to meet me. The compositions I was bringing at the end of GULLET were pretty heavy with shouts, and I had bandmates who would do that for me… That was really frustrating. They were compromising… I was really the only one down tuning for songs. At the end of GULLET, I was the only one down tuned by a step and a half. I didn’t like that, somehow… And Ryo, despite knowing very well his selling point and strength, was doing songs where he couldn’t bring those out for my sake.
I thought GULLET could keep going, that they were a band with potential. Things ended up with Aki leaving, then you leaving before they disbanded, but as a fan I fully felt like it had ended before it could even begin. Without even really understanding how it ended how it did.
I’ve concluded that it was clear what I wanted to do, and it was also clear what GULLET should have been doing, and we couldn’t reconcile the two together. I broached the subject and said I was quitting. And I thought without me that they’d be able to achieve a purer GULLET. Although that might have just been a selfish assumption. Intricate guitar absolutely suited Ryo, and I knew if he was just shouting to suit my compositions, he’d wear down his voice. I don’t want him to strain himself… So we ended up talking about me leaving.
To great complaint from the audience.
After we finished our Niigata oneman I came out on stage alone and did an MC where I said I’d be leaving after my last show on whatever date, and wished for their understanding. They were shocked.
People really didn’t understand.
On the contrary, I made GULLET and prided myself on being the one who understood it best. That’s why I thought it’d be better without me. I believed that if GULLET continued like this, they’d really become amazing. But that wasn’t what I wanted to do… So there was no reason for me to stick around, right? That’s very extreme logic, though. Honestly, I wanted them to continue. I wanted to hear a full GULLET album made by someone other than me. We planned to release a full album, after all.
Can you think of why the music you wanted to play changed?
Mm… It’s embarrassing, but it’s because I saw Hazuki.
Maybe you could have continued with them if you hadn’t met Hazuki?
Maybe.
He was impactful enough to shake your musical sensibilities.
Yeah. I just thought it was so cool. The songs he makes, his shouts. I wanted to play guitar behind him.
Was that when Hazuki was in Berry?
Yes, Berry. After that I kept trying to lower GULLET’s tuning. (laugh) Gradually lowering it… But when it’s lower it doesn’t fit Ryo’s voice.
So, meeting with Hazuki was big for you.
Well, I was also influenced by the music I was listening to on a regular basis… I also ended up liking loud bands with drop tuning.
But you felt that it was wrong to make your current band compromise to suit you.
I figured I couldn’t push forward with my ego, so I said I was going to quit. And then they said okay. So I started again from one… By leaving then, I betrayed industry contacts and fans, so… I wasn’t even starting again from one, but from zero. And after I heard they broke up, and I was surprised – in our conversation then, they had talked about doing it without me.
You wanted them to keep going without you.
They had Ryo, who is an incredible presence. I was acting as leader, but Ryo has the capacity to act as leader, too. Rather they’d be stable since he’d manage things better than I could… And then they ended up disbanding… I was shocked myself.
Everyone has their own thoughts and feelings, and these are just yours. But the key here is that you can’t lie to yourself.
Romantic relationships are the same: you’re involved with someone, but you might find another girl that you feel might work out better. Before I even approach that girl, I make sure to separate from the one I’m involved with.
That does apply to bands, too. You can’t formally approach the next band if you don’t leave your current one.
Yeah, exactly. I reached out to Hazuki and figured there was nothing I could do if he told me he wouldn’t play with me. I’d either find someone else or quit doing bands.
You considered giving up on bands?
I did.
What would you try to do after quitting?
Rather than thinking about quitting and doing something else, my dad was asking me how many years I’d been at it, and pointing out that I wasn’t getting results. (laugh) But he was right in a way…. If I couldn’t play with who I wanted to play with, I figured there was no meaning to being here. I was a child in that regard. I couldn’t do music as a job, and I couldn’t manage a band. Until then I’d just gotten lucky here and there and was able to play with the people I wanted to play with, and this is still true now, but I believe if I can’t do it with the people I want to do it with, there’s really no need to do it… I’m always wanting to be in bands with the best people. So looking back I feel pretty blessed.
Now you’re doing the music you want to do with the people you want to do it with.
That’s what lynch. is. And I just want to add to what we were just talking about, but I’m the one who created an opportunity for the bands I’ve been in up to this point to disband. But it’s a fact that I’m still in contact and getting along well with the people who’ve all gone their own ways after the disbandments. I think part of it is that everyone is being kind to me, but I also think that we have a relationship now because we were able to both agree to saying goodbye. If I just selfishly ran and forced them to disband, I don’t think we would have the personal relationships we do now. We’re building friendships where we can reminisce and laugh together. I leave bands with my own sense of justice and sincerity, and I think they understand that.
How do you want to proceed in the future with lynch.?
It’ll soon be 10 years since I started playing in bands, but if you ask why I’m still at it now, it’s because I haven’t seen my own end goal. So when I get asked how long I’ll keep at it, my answer is until I’m satisfied. I may never be satisfied for my whole life, I may be satisfied in a year. This may be an irresponsible way to put it, but sincerity towards the people supporting you means always being honest to your own feelings. I don’t think others are happy about me doing things against my will and listening to songs I forced myself to make. And even if they are, I’m not. I’ve got no use for that sort of “marriage of convenience”-like relationship. (laugh) I really will go until I’m satisfied… I have desire within me to show what we’re doing to more people now, so I’m always thinking… What should we be doing now, what should we be doing later? I’ll keep going until I can see that goal.