Magazines: Shoxx vol. 128 feat. The GazettE

Here we are, resuming our translations...and we bring to you a promised project! A 9th Anniversary tribute to the GazettE.

This was actually supposed to be posted the weekend following their official anniversary, but we wanted to pay our respects with a moment of silence to the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake. Our sympathies are with those who experienced loss in this disaster.

The interview is finally here though, and it's very amusing--especially if you like reading about the members and their experiences with love. Yes, that's right, love!

Credit for the scans go to >rawkstarr.

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This time's topic is about a 「Collection of questions from A to Z」. But this “A to Z” won't be focusing on the singular topic of their music...with that said, at the root of each of the「A to Z experiences」, the 5 people have told us their about a variety of their episodes.

With this the GazettE interview, there will be moments when your first thought will be, 「Eh~! Is it ok to talk about it to that extent?」, so please savor it and enjoy it!

A to Z Shocking Experiences

Kai: In high school, there was a girl I thought was 「pretty cute」, and when I peeked at her in class, our eyes would always meet. I thought, 「This is it!」, but even though I mustered up my courage and invited her out by saying, 「Let's go home together,」on that day, she said, 「I can't」 and shot me down. And then the next day, the parent-teacher conferences were held, so she rejected the invitation and said,「It's because I'm going home with my mom.」 On the 3rd day, we finally went home together. At that time, she asked me, 「Why are we going home together?」, and I couldn't think of anything good to say, like 「What exactly do you think of me?」, so I blurted, 「Because I like you」 and confessed to her. After I did that, the next time we met, she told me 「(This stuff about me and you et cetera) There's nothing to discuss,」 and we went back to the way things were before. And, like that, I had the shocking experience of me taking the wrong guess about love.

Aoi: When I was together with a girl I liked, every time we had to split up to go to our own houses, I always felt the painful throb of love in my chest.

Ruki: When I was a middle school student, I went on a date to Disneyland and rode the “It's a Small World” ride. While we floated around in the ride, when the girl put her head on my shoulder, I thought, 「This girl--she's totally in love with me.」(Laugh).

Uruha: When a really cute dog I had died, that was the first time I truly realized how much I loved the dog, and at that time, I cried uncontrollably in front of the dog house.

Reita: It was when I was 18 years old, but I was contacted when I was with the band at the studio, and the news reached me about my grandpa, who had always been overly caring since I was a kid, passing away. At that time, I flew back home while crying the entire way, but while I was on the road, I wondered, 「Did I ever manage to respond to Grandpa's love?」

Reita: When everyone listened to the finished sound, that was the moment when I was move moved. Especially when I listened to the ballad, I got these incredible goosebumps, and it seemed like everyone got goosebumps too (laugh).

Ruki: When I was in my middle school health class, we were studying AIDS, and when I saw the movie, 『My Friend Forever』, I was so moved that I cried so hard I shook.

Uruha: When I was still in kindergarten, I went with my family to play at the sea, and the two of us, my sister and I, rowed a rubber raft out to the open sea, but the raft collapsed. My sister was frantically swimming towards shore, but I still couldn't swim, and I was drowning. My dad jumped in from the beach and swam to save me, and I was really moved by that.

Aoi: For me, it was this time I was taking the night bus to head back to the capital, but at that time, a bunch of my friends came to the bus stop, and they sent me off with a, 「Do your best,」 I was really moved by that.

Kai: I was touched by the end of the『Final Fantasy X.2』video game.

Ruki: When I said, 「It's already time to say bye, I'm sorry」 to a person I liked, I felt this painful tightening in my chest as I cried.

Uruha: I broke up with a person I really liked when we got in a fight, and I frantically tried to get back with her, but it didn't work out. At that time, I didn't go to my part-time job, and I caught a cold, so I only dragged everything out with a broken heart.

Aoi: When I was returning from my parents' home to Tokyo, my parents were standing at the entrance to send me off. At that time, my heart was already leaning towards stopping and going back to them.

Kai: Even though I got broken up with, I didn't realize at all, so when the cellphone number changed all of a sudden, I was honestly really shocked.

Reita: When my sis graduated from high school and had to move into the company dorms, the day she had to move, my sister suddenly started crying and hugged me. At that time, I also started to cry, unfortunately, but...soon after that, she would leave the dorm and go back and forth between our parents' house and the dorm (laugh).

Reita: All of the members ask me to do gag jokes. But the reaction I get from everyone when I do it is, 「Lame.」 If it's going to end up like that, I feel like they shouldn't have asked me from the very start!

Ruki: There are also times when a certain member that is also being introduced in his magazine interview stays over. When I have to run errands, I leave the house earlier. And then when I get back, there are crumbs all over the carpet—to the extent that it's all white, and there are old neglected cigarette burns from when the cigarette was left as is, and the hair iron's still plugged in with the chord left all tangled. When I came back to this scene, I thought, 「Just forgive him~.」

Kai: I'm sorry...please forgive me (laugh).

Uruha: I joined the soccer club when I was in middle school, but even though it was a nice club when it was just in name, when people really started to participate in it, it suddenly transformed into a really sports-oriented club, and we broke into arguments because of that, but we always went, 「We forgive you.」

Aoi: I've always thought about forgiving people, but I didn't.

Kai: This is about the day I got a reply about joining the GazettE as a member, but actually, the next day there was a live, and suddenly Ruki tells me, 「Play the drums tomorrow,」 and I was frantically trying to remember the songs. As expected, on that day, my heart was pounding. When even the fans said, 「He's so pitiful,」I cried.

Aoi: It seems like it’s been printed in several magazines, but when my mom said,「Good luck,」 to me over the phone, I kind of cried...that’s to say, I did cry.

Ruki: When I went on tour, I left my bike in my hometown’s parking lot, and after a while, when I returned, it had disappeared. On that day, I was about to return home in tears. Somehow, I couldn’t tell my parents the truth, and I lied and said,「I lent the bike to a friend.」But there was a day when my parents said to me,「Lend us the bike,」 and, right away, I lied and said, 「I lost the key,」then they said,「Since there’s a spare key, give us the spare,」 and I ended up having to tell them the truth then, and they were so pissed...the next day my parents went to the police and came back and said, 「The bike’s there.」 When I saw it, I was fumbling, and when I saw the number plate...I cried at that time too.

Reita: There was a day when I thought, “I’ll drive today,” and I went to the neighborhood parking lot, but I saw that my car’s 4 tires had been stolen. I went to the police, but when the policeman in charge just gave me an 「Hn?」 and had this indifferent attitude, I was so mad that I wanted to cry.

Uruha: When I was in elementary school, and we had an early-morning marathon, for some reason, we snuck into a sporting goods store to play. When we did that, the store employee found us, and called our parents. At that time, when I saw my mom’s tears as she cried and apologized, I also cried. I didn’t want to see my parents’ tears ever again.

Kai: I get embarrassed when I'm walking by myself, and I trip over nothing.

Uruha: This was when I was in high school, but I ate lunch early during class, and I fell asleep. At that time, I dreamed that I scaled a multi-story building that was under construction, but I fell off the building, and for some reason, my body jerked backwards, and it surprised the girl behind me, who went 「Kya!」 I used to pretend to be cool all the time at school, so I thought, 「Crap!」 and I pretended to fall asleep again while hearing the girl giggle behind me. I was really embarrassed at the time.

Ruki: This was at the Hokkaido live, but at the time, for some reason, I had on shoes that were too big for me, so I tied it on really tightly, but in the middle of a particularly intense song, my shoe suddenly twisted to one side, and I got super embarrassed when it fell off in front of the people who came to see us. And I was just as embarrassed when I fixed my shoe on stage.

Reita: When I was only wearing plain regular clothes and a merchandise wrist band, and I switched the sofa and monitor around and pretending to sing the vocals, my sister suddenly opened the door and saw me. I was super embarrassed.

Aoi: When people look or listen to the old live videos, I get super embarrassed.

Uruha: In middle school I borrowed my friend's porn mag. I thought, 「This is awesomeeee!」 when I looked through it. For some reason the pages were stuck together. As it turns out, the book had actually been 「used」 before, and when I realized it as expected I went 「What?! Are you serious?!」

Ruki: This was when I was in elementary school. Occasionally I'd forget to flush after I peed. Once, when I forgot, that my mom went into the bathroom after me. And then she suddenly came into my room and said, 「Your pee is foaming up like beer. Are you sick?」 I was really nervous when I said, 「What?! Are you serious?!」

Reita: When I was in second year of elementary school, puss came out of there. At that time, I thought「What?! Are you serious?!」but after going to the hospital everything was fine. The next day there was a school trip to the pool and I needed a medical note to excuse myself, so my parents wrote a note about happened. 「You were touching it weren't you.」 my teacher retorted after reading it. I thought「What?! Are you serious?!」(laughs).

Kai: I've gotten better since then, but recently I was hospitalized because I suddenly went temporarily deaf. My reaction was 「What?! Are you serious?!」But the fans put together a thousand origami cranes for me and wrote me lots of letters, and that really gave me courage.

Aoi: I forgot my guitar strap in the countryside and the next day there was a live. I realized it in the middle of rehearsal and thought 「What?! Are you serious?!」 I immediately went to buy one. When there wasn't an instruction manual included I also had that 「What?! Are you serious?!」 feeling.

Kai: In elementary school, there was this time I forgot my gym clothes. I was looking for someone who would be willing to lend me gym clothes, fortunately a girl from the next class was nice enough to let me borrow hers. I was touched by her kindness. I went to gym class wearing red gym clothes and, of course, everyone laughed at me.

Uruha: This one time when I lost my bike, one of the upperclassmen helped me look for it. The moment I saw how sincerely he was helping me find my stolen bike, I could feel his kindness.

Ruki: It's something that happened in middle school. On the way home from school with a friend, we found a cat that was run over and was laying across the road. I wrapped the cat in the jersey I had with me and carried it to the side of the road. At that time, I felt my own kindness.

Aoi: When you're living alone you'll definitely feel lonely. So being able to laugh with everyone like this, to me that's when I can feel everyone's kindness.

Reita: Ah well that's how kind we are (laughs).

Ruki: My girlfriend in high school was a huge Johnny's fan and she had lots of posters up in her room. Every time we had a conversation she would ask, “So and so is so cool right?” and each time I had to listen to that I'd get pissed off. I did get angry once. Instead of having Johnny's as a rival a bigger part of it was more about 「Hey! Pay more attention to me!」(laughs).

Reita: I've known Uruha for over 10 years, but even now there are a lot of times when I don't want to lose to him, and I end up competing with him. Well, it's a good kind of rivalry.

Uruha: I absolutely feel the same way about Reita. Another rival that I have is a good friend from my elementary school days. We were on the same level in sports and studies, and I remember we were always competing with each other.

Kai: I played soccer in middle school and one of my friends was really good at soccer. I saw him as a rival but he completely didn't treat me as competition. Due to some circumstances, I had to quit the soccer club and everyone signed the soccer ball. That time my friend he wrote,　「You'll always be my rival.」 I felt really happy knowing that I was recognized as a rival.

Aoi: I'm definitely my own rival. Compared to the feelings of not losing to others, the feelings of not losing to myself are much stronger.

Uruha: As I get older it feels like my innocent smile fades. Now, looking back to my elementary school days, I feel that I laughed at some things innocently.

Ruki: In high school during the school commutes, for some reason there was a determined vehicle for every student. Our school was in the first car. I would go from one place to another in my neighbourhood while wearing my school uniform. Those were the kinds of things I do around that time, and it was a refreshing sort of fun. Those are the memories of my youth.

Reita: I've gotten pretty stiff, but in the past I was pretty flexible and I'd imitate those weird positions of mollusks just to make everyone laugh. Uruha laughed to the point his stomach hurt. Making weird postures and being able to make everyone laugh, to me, were good times during my youth.

Kai: Spending time with everyone in the GazettE are definitely my funnest and happiest days. Which is why my youth is now.

Aoi: There's no doubt that I am having fun right now. But in my junior high days, arguments and stuff like that--just going about experiences in an innocent way. Those were the days that really make me smile.

Reita: During the time when my last last band was performing, I told one of the members, 「I 'm not going to perform with the band again.」I even told my parents, 「I'm quitting the band and going to get a job.」 But during that time the band said to me, 「We'll have to ask you to play because it's the end of the year and there are a lot of gigs,」 so I reluctantly agreed. The band was going to break up around the end of the year. The next band I joined also disbanded pretty quickly. After that was the GazettE. Looking back at it now, the thought of quitting a band makes me go 「Hn?」 but now I definitely don't want to quit the band

Ruki: In the past, I was a drummer and the thought of that makes me go 「Hn?」(laughs). When I was told to be on vocals I was a little 「Hn?」 while also feeling really happy. But during that time there wasn't a band member that really understood me, so I was kind of, 「Hn?」

Uruha: If I go to the instrument store I always end up impulsively buying something. Because of my impulsiveness, I'd think things like, 「Hn? What am I going to do about next month's living expenses?」 when I was headed home.

Kai: From way back, I've been the type to fiddle around with things, and even though I knew that myself, it's still fun. In the past I was frustrated by that kind of personality I had, but when I think about it now, the fact that I thought that about myself makes me feel, 「Hn?」

Everyone: Hn?

Kai: Hn?

[End]

Did you like this interview? Since it's old, it's difficult to find, but Shoxx is printing a GazettE volume that's available for sale here.

Happy Anniversary to the GazettE! It's a bit late coming, but it's here. This interview was originally published in 2003, when they released Cockayne Soup. It's definitely interesting (and freaking hilarious) seeing how much they have/haven't grown since then.

What do you all think about the interview? I hope you realized that when Reita referred to "there", he meant the...ahem, area around his "family jewels". I really can't believe that he talked about that in a magazine as big as Shoxx, but I guess when you're just starting out, anything and everything is up for grabs.

Please let us know what you think with a comment! We're looking forward to reading them! ヾ(*'∀`*)ﾉ

Also, fyi, we've got some posts lined up that we'll randomly release over the next few weeks with no notifications elsewhere, so be sure to keep checking here...edited the preview and, well, let's just say that the GazettE never fails to amuse.

Posted in: 2011,Magazines,rock,Shoxx,the GazettE