ーー In your latest production, when did you start to foresee “the kind of guitar I’ll play”?
H: That happens before making a new song. It’s like this when I make my demos, and it’s also the same when I receive Imai-san’s demos. Because everything that I need to do will be in it.
―― I’m driving into this a lot but, when you’re producing the song, at which point do the guitars come in?
H: The demo is made in the form of drums, bass, synth, then both guitars, but on the other hand, there are are also occasions when we write a song, starting with the guitars. Like, when the intro’s guitars surface first. This time, all 3 of the songs that I wrote had the guitar parts done first at the start.
I: I, too, have quite a number of songs that were written with the guitar parts first. There are times when I develop a song from a chord progression that I like, or from a riff, or from a melody, or from a rhythm.
―― That’s everything (lol).
I: Because if there’s something that hooks into me, anything can develop from it.
―― When you get into the mood of “well then, let’s write a song”, is that how it always goes?
I: The “well then, let’s write a song” thing is an action pattern that I hate though. The best scenario is when “ah, (an idea) sprang up!”. Anyway, it’s troublesome to start from nothing (lol). Well, the more I work on it, it’ll somehow work out. Maybe fiddle with the synth a bit, if I get a feeling or something I’d develop it from there and so on.
ーー Do you have something like a collection of ideas that you keep?
H: If I’m playing my guitar in the studio and something I like comes up, I will definitely record it.
I: In the past, LUNA SEA’s J (B) said to me, “I put recorders in the various rooms of my house and if I think of something I’ll immediately record it. It might’a be good for Imai-san to do that too”. So I bought around 3 recorders and tried doing that, and before you know it, I’m even recording things that makes me wonder “Huh, do I really need to record this?”.
ーー Because you can record everything at anytime.
I: I even recorded things that would normally feel embarrassed about (lol).
ーー At which stage do you decide on which equipment to use?
I: That depends. There are times when I’ve decided during the songwriting stage that “I’ll use this guitar for that”, yet there are also times when I haven’t made a decision even right before we start recording.
ーー If it comes to you right at the start, is it often a individualistic guitar that is chosen?
I: If I want the sound of a guitar that has a modulator built in it (POT), then that’s the only choice that I have, or if I’m looking for a soft and distorted sound then it’ll be the ES-335, and so on.
ーー Looking at the list of equipment that you’re using for your new work, unexpectedly, there’s quite a lot of orthodox equipment, isn’t there.
H: That’s right. From that we’d choose, like “if I want a single coil…” or “if I want a humbucker…” and such. I’d refer to the sound of my part in the demos that Imai-san made. And after that, I’d go to the recording studio and try playing a few. For example, even if it’s a single coil sound, I’ll have to work out which nuances I want to bring out.
ーー If it’s your own song, will Imai-kun come along as well?
I: Yes. If it’s a demo I made at home, I can’t really express things like whether it’s a single coil or a humbucker, or if it’s clean or distorted.
ーー The song “Barairo Juujidan -Rosen Kreuzer-”, that was written by Hide-kun (Hoshino) is a good number that shows the contrast between both of your guitars, isn’t it. It creates a situation where you can hear Hide-kun’s exemplar, clean sound on the right side, while on the left side, Imai-kun’s almost extremely noisy sound.
H: That song was made from having a Telecaster cutting and melding together with a distorted bass. In addition to that, I thought of having Imai-san playing freely, so I used arming and delays in the demo, then put in a guide of Imai-san’s part. But it’s just that I played it so fittingly that it’s impossible to copy, so in the end, I could only add in a guide that says “something like this” (lol).
I: The bridge* and the chorus are the parts that I have to play and it was put into the demo properly but the verse* was absolute bullshit so I did it that way as well (lol).
ーー Though I believe that there are times when you’ll have to pull though your own songs all on your own.
H: When Imai-san shuts himself up at home and can’t come out, then I’ll be like “All right then, I’ll play all of it” (lol). But recently we’ve been doing it through exchanges with each other.
ーー Through email?
I: No, I’d receive CDs. With those I’d attach handwritten tablatures.
ーー Whaaat, to that extent!
I: Looking at that, I can check and confirm, like “Ah, so in this part I’ll have to press like that”.
H: Though he’d add one more line to the staff notation, then draw the shapes of the fingers on it (lol). There are quite a lot of open chords so I figured those had to be conveyed properly.
ーー And for Hide-kun’s songs, it also appears that there are many that become difficult with chord name notation.
H: That’s right. Even I, myself, don’t know the chord names (lol).
ーー What about when it comes to the chords in Imai-kun’s songs?
I: I’ll play in front of him and show him.
H: That’ll be my musical score.
I: He’s a special guy.
H: With notations that only I can understand (lol).
ーー I would like to hear about you actual sound production too. For example, what is the mechanical sound right at the start of the album?
I: I think we processed the sound from the BOSS’ SY-300 (guitar synthesizer)?
ーー The SY-300 was also used in other songs, right.
I: That, unlike other guitar synths that require dedicated pickups, you can use it as if it was an effector. You can just press the shield, play the amp, and the sound of the synthesizer will be made. I thought that this sensation is interesting, so I used it in the end.
ーー The normal synths are also often used but what segregates it from the guitar sound?
H: The order has the synth coming in after the guitars, so it’s done in a way that makes sure that it doesn’t clash with the sound.
I: Though in “光の帝国 (Hikari no Teikoku)” and some others, we mixed and re-mixed them over and over to get that balance between the guitars and the synth, didn’t we.
ーー As usual, the beauty of the reverb from Hide-kun’s guitar stood out.
H: Though, that might also be affected by the blending of the reverb from the effector and the ringing in the room?
ーー During the interview from last month’s issue, Imai-kun touched on a characteristic of the new work that you referred to as “a sound that protrudes”.
I: I’m constantly conscious of a protruding sound, a foreign body sensation. This time, that naturally came out when writing the songs. Things that made me think, “huh, why did I play something like that?”. That was a strange feeling.
ーー So, going forward, you’ll be playing this sound live then.
H: For me, I suppose so, to some extent. As long as the atmosphere of the song is maintained, I think we’d have no problems at all with the live versions.
I: Like having the sound source play from the computer, then playing the sound anew live, right. Also, I think the guitar phrases for “Barairo Juujidan -Rosen Kreuzer-” changes everytime. Like today, I’ll play this part, or something (lol).
