Magazines: Rock & Read feat. Aoi from the GazettE Pt. III

Hi everyone!

How many of you read the title and thought “Oh! About time!” nervous laugh

I checked the last time part 2 was posted and I thought “Wow, it's been quite sometime...yikes!” Anyhow, after letting it sit for some time I've finally have part 3 done! Hooray hooray! This time around Aoi tells us his motivations for getting into music, and many other things that came after that.

As usual, please link back to us and do not copy and paste this entire English translation to your personal website/blog/etc.

Without any further ado, onto Aoi and what seems to be his brother complex.

For those who haven't read the previous parts or need a refresher, the links are below.

Part I
Part II

Enjoy♪

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I: And now back to the original question. I would like to ask about when you first started music. Did you have many experiences in music back when you were little?

A: I had my older brother's used record player but I didn't have any records to play (laughs). Sometimes in kid's magazines there are supplementary vinyl sound sheets attached and so I'd listen to those.

I: Did your parents like music and did your sister and brother listen to music at home often?

A: My parents...well it would have been nice if they liked classical music but they were Enka* fanatics.
They like to sing really loudly and even bought a karaoke system.
*Enka is traditional Japanese ballads, for those curious to hear how it sounds like check this out. Aoi also mentioned his mom loved singing to Teresa Teng (featured in the link), who is a famous Taiwanese singer who was prominent all over Asia during her generation.

I: Oh! You even had a karaoke system at home!?

A: We did and I even sang Enka with everyone (laughs). I've never heard any music coming out of my sister's room, but my brother always had music blasting from his room. He was in a band, and he played the guitar. He did Jun Sky Walkers covers, in the mornings he'd play a “don doko don doko” CD. It was a nuisance, but a good kind of nuisance (laughs).

I: Since he did covers of Jun Sky Walkers, your brother was pretty into the classic bands that were popular then. Can you recall any other bands?

A: X Japan...and some Western bands, mostly heavier-sounding bands.

I: When you say a “good nuisance” was that the main factor that influenced your interest in music?

A: There was a time when my brother was playing a song and I thought, “That's a cool song”. I asked him, “What song is this?” “It's X Japan's Kurenai” and I thought “I want to play it too!”

I: So you weren't interested in singing, but instead, you suddenly wanted to play the guitar?

A: Singing wasn't anything special to me. I mean I could sing karaoke at home, and at school I could sing in music class. But guitar is different, there's a special kind of feeling, and I thought it was cool. And also, my brother said he would lend me his guitar.

I: You weren't interested in bass or drums?

A: I wasn't. My brother played the guitar and that was my main influence, so I wasn't interested in the bass or drums(laughs).

I: And your brother lent you his guitar and taught you how to play?

A: Nope, he never taught me anything. The first guitar that he gave me was an acoustic guitar.

I: Was it because he didn't use it very much? (laughs)

A: Yeah(laughs). Which is why no matter how much I played I couldn't produce the sound I wanted.

I: Ah, so that's how it was. It wasn't an electric guitar (laughs)

A: And he also gave me a guitar chord book with various songs in it along with the first guitar. He handed it to me and said “All you need to do is memorize this, now go and do it.”

I: You did as he told you to?

A: I did. On the other hand, my brother's friends were nice to me. They taught me a lot of things (laughs)

I: After starting the guitar did you talk about it with your friends? Guitar-related things or X Japan?

A: I didn't. I didn't have many friends that played instruments in our first year of junior high. So there weren't any conversations about guitar or anything related to music. Which is why I felt, “Wow, I didn't know such an awesome band like X Japan existed!”

I:Ah, so you—-all by yourself—-were really into music.

A: Yeah. Another band my brother covered which I thought was really cool and got really into was Metallica. I went to him again and said, “Give me a guitar!” (laughs)

I: Were you like, “Don't give me an ordinary guitar this time! Give me an electric guitar!” (laughs)

A: Yeah! Even though I had an acoustic guitar, he still wouldn't lend me an electric one. Anyways, around the end of first year of junior high my brother gave me an electric guitar. It was a broken electric guitar, but I didn't know that. He told me “It needs an amp.” and of course I saved up New Years money to get one. I held on tightly to the money I saved up, and I asked my mom to take me to buy an amp which was about a 30 minute drive away. The amp was small, so it was easy to transport. After I bought it and connected it to the guitar no sound came out of it, and I cried (laughs). My mom was mad and scolded my brother “Why did you give your brother this broken thing!” “Give him one that works!” and I finally got an electric guitar!

I: Before that you were using the acoustic guitar, but after getting the electric guitar and hearing the sound from the amp, did you feel that, at that moment, something incredible happened?

A: I was really happy when I heard the distorted sound that came out. It felt so satisfying!

I: What kind of songs did you play during that time?

A: For the time being I played X Japan's “Kurenai”. But, well...I couldn't play it well (laughs) It was fun pretending that I could play the song.

I: Did you start talking about music with you friends?

A: I did around the second year of junior high. It just so happened that I was talking to a friend whose older brother also seemed to be in a band. “I want to play guitar too because of him!” “I want to play too! Let's practise together!” was how our conversation went and basically how it all happened. It was mostly like, “Hey let's do a cover of the song together!” As for things like “what kind of bands do you like,” we didn't talk about things like that.

I: What kind of songs did you and your friends cover?

A: I was really into the X Japan boom, but for some reason I thought Seikima II was really cool (laughs). I worked really hard to practise Seikima II's songs.

I: Was listening to Seikima II also due to your brother's influence?

A: It was. My brother is the kind of person who listens to a wide range of music (laughs). Seikima II's songs are simple and pretty easy, even for beginners. My friend and I practised really hard to match the rhythm, even though we had electric guitars.

I: You must have overworked your amp (laughs). Did you keep up with various other types of music?

A: No, not really. Other than Seikima II, I really like Western music. There were only around 5 other bands that I kept up with. I mainly listened to heavy metal because I thought the riffs and stuff like that were really cool.

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Phew (wipes sweat) My motivation levels for this section were really up and down, but I'm glad it's over. So what did everyone think? Some of the topics have been talked about before so you guys might not find this to be new information. Aoi seemed so intent on getting stuff from his brother...I wonder if it was because he wanted to be like him, or he just didn't want to pay for his own equipment.

Just two more sections to go, and this RR series will finally wrap up★

As always, please leave us your thoughts on this entry below!

We're looking forward to reading it!

Posted in: 2011,Magazines,RockandRead,the GazettE