Magazines: NeoGenesis Vol. 50, the GazettE - Ruki

Haha, well, here's the man you've all been waiting for--and a day early as a X'mas present to your fans!!

Can't believe how many requests we go to translate Ruki, even though we said a bunch of times that we would. I bet you Ruki fans are on the verge of peeing your pants while waiting lol.

Enjoy~

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Interview was taken from magazine scans provided by rawkstarr23 at LiveJournal.com in the GazettE Daily Community. Header themes were made from screencaps from orishimeinoue posted at GazettE Media.

Do not repost this entire interview anywhere else. Please review our policies regarding plagiarism if you're unclear about what this means. Also, if you find this re-posted somewhere else, please contact us.



A free talk about the words picked up from the lyrics of the single「Pledge」. A talk ranging from a mature philosophy of love to thoughts about society today and the music scene, and memories of being disinherited by his father—Ruki gives us a frank open talk from the beginning to the end.





I (Interviewer): What brought tears to your eyes lately?

Ruki (R): Lately, I've been into period dramas. A drama called「JIN」brought out my interest in the Shinsengumi, but when I read a currently serialized manga,「Sidooh – SHIDO*」, I cried. Out of all the manga I've read up till now, it's the most interesting one.

I: Is it going to be made into an anime?

R: No, but if it gets made into an anime, I definitely want to be allowed to do the theme song (laugh). People within the group are steadily being killed off, but when you're reading it, you're like, “This guy guy can't die”, but that same guy gets cut down and killed, and stuff like that.

I: Like, the idea of a fleeting existence that can easily be scattered.

R: Right. Since it's Bushi, this was the final blow for me, and I cried when the person got cut down.

*Sidooh is an 18+ historical manga. Proceed with caution. Lots of mature themes/scenes. It really is a good story though. I personally love it, so check it out if you're 18+!

I: For Ruki-kun, what are the differences between love and passion?

R: Passion is wanting to be together, to embrace each other, that sense of your desires overcoming you--those sort of things. For me, 'love' is when you live for the sake of the other person. Wanting to protect that person, save that person—a feeling that's kind of like family, I guess. A brief “I love you” kind of feeling is closer to passion. Seeing a future together, that's a feeling closer to love. For example, seeing moments when I become an old man and my partner becomes an old woman, and we're tidying up together. Even if there are some lies, it's a relationship without shame or embarrassment. I think, more so than receiving, love is about providing for and giving.

I: That's an adult's way of thinking, but when did you start thinking that way?

R: (Laugh) I wonder when, eh. But during『STUCKED RUBBISH [sic]*』, my thinking was more warped, so I think my values might've been different, and with『DIM』, it was, again, different—I didn't want to sing about things I didn't understand. With that sort of thing, it would've been reflected in the lyrics, so the philosophy I have towards love now is most pronounced in『PLEDGE』. Being together just because you're lonely isn't “love”, and that's what I've thought for about a year, I guess. It's a more definite thing. For example, in regards to the fans who come see us, their thoughts are concrete, so it might be called “love”, but if they see it in the future, it's a transitory feeling, and maybe that's “passion”. That's just my own opinion though.

*Stacked Rubbish was originally misspelled in the article as "Stucked Rubbish".



I: Do you get lonely easily?

R: That's right. Basically, I don't like being by myself. But, since I'm an independent person, I can go out shopping by myself and stuff—it depends on the day.

I: So it's influenced by mood. Well, when you're feeling lonely, what course of action do you take?

R: When I've got no choice, I call the staff. I'm not free enough to go around right now saying I'm lonely and stuff like that though, and on the other hand, when I'm tired, I do have their company. Even if I'm complaining. It can't be helped that my complaints build up.

I: You're the type that releases stress by talking.

R: That's it, huh. Like, if there's a problem, I'm the type that won't want to do it as is. Even during tour, if it's only a round trip between the venue and hotel, it gets stifling for me. Because of that, I want to eat out before the live and after the live. I want to be tuned in to a lot of places, so I want to go out as often as I can.



I: What're some dreams the band has?

R: What is it, eh. Lately, because our dreams are on Tokyo Dome, there hasn't been anything in particular for the near future. For example, “we want our CD to sell”, “we want to be more famous”, etc, we've run of out of those. Well, not quite, in terms of our desired images, of course we want to be more famous, but we want to achieve perfection more than fame.

I: Perfection?

R: Of course with the songs or lives, we definitely want a more visual front, and the artwork for the CD—all of us want for everything to be created perfectly. We've been trying to do that the entireee time, so maybe that's our dream. We've always had 100 goals at any particular point in time, and it's more like, “Where do we continue till?” Since maintaining a static status quo is no good, we've always wanted to continue with a burning passion.



I: What's something you want to destroy right now?

R: I wonder what, hm...? For me, up till now and throughout my life, didn't I want to change society, and humanity, and a lot of different things? Right now, though, I feel like I'm heading down a path that I don't particularly like. Like, take clothes for example, I prefer fast fashion over brand, cup ramen over real ramen. I can't express it well, but it isn't creativity, and it isn't a burning passion, it just doesn't feel fiery. I'm not looking for the genuine thing, and there are lots of people making it, but I haven't gotten a close up feel for it. Music too—I feel like I look for easily understandable things, and get attached to them, unfortunately. It seems like it's the case for the iPhone overseas, isn't it like people are really quickly submitting to new things? Compared to that, Japan protects conservatism.

I: I wonder if it's because we've in an environment that makes it difficult for new things to be born and created.

R: Even if it gets noticed, it becomes obsolete really quickly. More so than good things, fads get focused on and, after using it for only a moment, it gets thrown away and disappears. I want to destroy that kind of a system.



I: Are there also lots of things you're trying to control in the middle of tour?

R: Taking care of my voice and stuff—there're lots of things. I'm always trying to keep control during lives. The On and Off stuff. Lately, my MC's have been bordering on the plain side.

I: The MC at the Nara live was also really interesting.

R: Lately, I've had that sort of feeling the entire time, but I'm a person that keeps going on and on— songs are songs, MCs are MCs, I have that sort of a distinction between them. As expected, one of the MC's points is that they're also people that bring up the tension, talking about certain things seem like I'm doing a weird kind of advertising and it's like lying to your audience, so you can only talk about necessary things, but the MC, in my opinion, is also entertainment.

I: Within the context of the tour, you want to control your communication?

R: Right. There are times when I lose my own tension, or when I get distracted by something. But, even so, I don't show it, and I try to recover from it.



I: What are some burning memories that you can't let go of?

R: There're a lot, but I remember this time when my dad got mad in the past. When he found the ashes from when I was secretly smoking in my room, right after I got home, I got kicked out at the front door (laugh). After that, I was disinherited until I was about 20. At the time, since I hadn't returned home for a while, my room had gotten messy, and I thought, “Eh?” when I saw a long sheet of calligraphy paper placed on my bed. Something along the lines of, “You can't enter this house anymore, our family ties are cut off” was written vertically and formally on it. After that, I left the house, and, like that, I couldn't meet my parents' face-to-face even if they died. Because of that, I didn't have a home to live in for awhile, but some years later, my parents called our office and were like, “We'll be in your care.” They were told to call our manager of the time, and we reconciled, but our first meeting after a long time was at the Shibuya AX live. At that time, my dad saw my live for the first time and cried. It was a little moving.

I: It seems like a male bonding story, eh~.

R: If this gets printed, I'm going to get a phone call again, you know. They're going to say, “You shouldn't be so specific, and don't go around talking about this kind of thing” and stuff (laugh).

-END-

In case you didn't realize, all of the question themes in this interview were from the band's newest single, Pledge. This concludes the NeoGenesis Vol. 50 translations.

Did you miss Uruha, Aoi, Reita, and Kai's sections? Take a look!

There will also be a surprise interview released in segments, starting on New Year's Day, although snippets will also be leaked around on our channels, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, whose interview was your favorite and why?? Do let us know in the comments below : ]

Merry X'mas and thanks for reading~!

Posted in: 2010,Magazines,Neo Genesis,rock,the GazettE