Global Communication: GLAY News in English

"TOPICS: GLAY"
"Lawson Ticket," 1.15.2006

GLAY celebrates the 10th anniversary since their debut. It's been one year since their amazing anniversary tour. And now they're finally hitting the stage! In this interview we learn what’s in the heart of GLAY, now that the live is right before their eyes!! Interveiwer/writer: Hideki Taya

We want to do a live where you can see what GLAY is thinking, what we want to transmit

GLAY is returning to the stage. It's been almost a year since they finished their Dome Tour last March. The stage: the Nihon Budoukan. Three days. "After the dome tour, there was GLAYxEXILE, Jiro worked on THE PREDATORS, and Hisashi was musical director at a fashion show, but we never planned on ending GLAY" (Takuro). THE PREDATORS is an explosive rock trio made up of the pillows' Sawao Yamanaka, Straightener's Shinpei Nakayama, and Jiro. "THE PREDATORS became a disordered stimulus. Working with different musicians and doing sessions with them was in itself a fresh experience, and I re-recognized GLAY again. It was nothing if not a good experience. I think you can see it in the Budoukan performance this time" (Jiro). "We've been recording since August of last year. I've also been thinking since we made 'THE FRUSTRATED.' Because the song that makes a suitable response to it already exists. I think it's good for us to go on this way. Please expect it of us" (Takuro).

You can see all 360 degrees in the Budoukan, and you’ll see the very nature of GLAY

GLAY's started working. They were already working last December at the two day long "White Band FES" held in Saitama Super Arena, they showed us an energetic live with new songs, and on the final day of EXILE tour they showed us the meeting of GLAY and EXILE on stage. This was like a preview for their February performance in the Budoukan. "Our 40 minutes on the 'White Band FES' stage were short, but it had a really lively feeling, which was great. The truth is, we already knew what we'd play at the Budoukan by that time. From this quick grade we had the feeling that our vision was firmly fixed, so even though there were things different about rehearsal from the beginning, the basics never changed. We had that fighting spirit" (Jiro). "When Hisashi first came up with the title 'ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLE,' the word 'swindle' carried a certain sharpness, I think. It became kind of a drawn out, slow song. Because we four are also the producers. We talk every thing out. You can see all 360 degrees in the Budoukan, so how do we make a set that won't obscure anyone's view of us? Like I said, we talk everything out" (Takuro). "ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLE." "Swindle" means "to cheat" or "fraud." It's a word used by punk bands to express their cynicism toward the rock business. "In terms of the Budoukan, when GLAY first played there the impression we had was very strong. None of us will forget that feeling. We've seen many things, and we know what we need to do. Dome tours and EXPOs don't just come packaged and ready, so what can a band like GLAY show us? You can see all 360 degrees at the Budoukan, so you can see the very nature of GLAY. In the title we use a so-called bad word like "swindle," but we'll end with a huge bang to kind of say, "Thanks, see you later," so you can feel the dynamic things that are rock and entertainment. That impulse and the coolness of rock are things that we've always been thinking of, since the band first formed" (Hisashi).

We want to do the best live possible to begin our story

In 2004 GLAY came to the end of their 10th anniversary, and took their first step toward the next summit. They've become producers, perhaps a sign of that determination. "This year GLAY will be out on the stage. Even the set for the stage will be simple, but for all the talk about it being elegant and high quality, the music is well spoken of too. This time about half of the staff are new, but they make suggestions and tells us that they understand GLAY. There are people who say they watched the EXPOs, and there are some who even went to Beijing to see us. It makes me happy" (Takuro). "In the EXPO we worked together with overseas creators, and it's a great stimulus for us to transcend the frame of our expression like this. We've ended our 10th anniversary, we're looking for ways to make even better stuff from here on. We're going to achieve our vision of this Budoukan live being the quintessential GLAY live. So then we're going to do the live with staff that we've never worked with before. There'll be a slow song suited to the mind of GLAY right now, a live that I think will express what we're thinking right now, and what we want to transmit, so please come and have fun" (Jiro). "Once we finished the 10th anniversary, we closed it in such a huge place as Tokyo Dome, and I think it was a place where we were able to take the first step toward our essence. We didn't want to show some abstract thing to make people think, 'What kind of stuff will GLAY do now?', it was more like 'This is GLAY!' From there we want you to be able to feel the next GLAY movement. We want to do the best live possible to begin our story, so before the live we'll fill up the nerve even more than always, and when we have the live I think it'll be even more fun than always" (Teru).

The beginning of the next story, from the Budoukan. "We’ll remove a huge weight from our shoulders," Takuro said. GLAY, finished with their 10th anniversary. Now they have a refreshing freedom.