Global Communication: GLAY News in English

"POWER PUSH"
"Yahoo! Japan," 7.12.2005

Part 1: "We feel that a truly new group was born here"

YJ: To begin with, what are the details of how this project got started?

TAKURO: Just drinking like normal, in the beginning. And then...

HIRO: We really hit it off, all at once. After that we started drinking together.

TAKURO: When we were drinking together, the relationship was really warm. (laugh) Hiro, would say, for example, "So what should we do with entertainment now?" and "About our activities together..." We're people who can talk on a basic theme. At any rate, our conversations got warmer.

HIRO: After that, I basically asked if EXILE and GLAY shouldn't do something together to surprise everyone. Anyway, in my heart I was thinking, "I want to do something with this man and his band."

TAKURO: After that, until the beginning of 2004, a lot of things were beginning to solidify in Hiro's mind. This kind of sound, that kind of music video, announce it to the world like this...those kinds of things. The image was coming together.

HIRO: When you say it was "coming together," it makes me happy that I seem smart. (laugh) It was just a simple conceptualization. I wondered what kind of thing EXILE and GLAY could produce if we worked seriously on it. I thought it would be awesome. Because a so-called artist collaboration would be on a different level. Since GLAYxEXILE is a 10 person group, we feel like a truly new group was born here. I personally was thinking that I really wanted to see it.

TAKURO: That's the feeling that's hit most people. Because Hiro's first idea was almost 100% perfect, from the release method to the image, I thought about what I could add in terms of the sound, tune, lyrics, melody and that kind of thing, and we began to put it together while having various discussions about what to do with the elements.

HIRO: My conception really wasn't like a musician's conception. Even though I was thinking of the image, I didn't think of the sound. It was a picture-like image, a strategic image. But when I tried the idea on Takuro, he gave it a musician's point of view and precise understanding.

TAKURO: This was a new experience for me. Because I had never made a visual image piece. Even now, when I write songs, I try a melody on the guitar and then turn it over to Teru, because that's what feels best. But this time, didn't I also make use of the dance performance? However good my songs are, they're no good if people can't dance to them.

Part 2: "We were bursting. Anyway, we totally went for it"

YJ: Did you make the song at first?

TAKURO: At first, inside myself, I thought, maybe we'll make this kind of song if we get together with EXILE, so I wrote two or three songs. After that, when I thought, "Let's try this song on GLAY!" I reworked it and remade it, and redid the project. Little by little I wanted to give them a demo tape of that song. Nevertheless, there wasn't a good response from Hiro...

HIRO: No way, that's not true. (laugh)

TAKURO: What, you gave me this feeling like "Not this. Something more different." (laugh) At first I thought I had written a good song. I was thinking, the melody's good, the lyrics are good, it'll be good to write a song I can get an evaluation out of everyone for, but I realized that that the was absolutely the wrong way to think about it. It was a piece made from the energy produced by the two groups, EXILE and GLAY, and so I couldn't write it alone. This was a truly new discovery for me. Writing good songs is a difficult hurdle to jump, but there's always a theme inside of you that's easy to see. But that wasn't it...

HIRO: I wasn't aiming for either EXILE or GLAY - we weren't participating with GLAY, and GLAY wasn't participating with EXILE. We were bursting with energy, but were aiming for something to do together, rather than for one band or the other. Anyway, we totally went for it. Was it an image that released all my energy? But the result was that we made such an awesome piece as this. I can't be thankful enough. Besides, the lyrics are really great.

YJ: After you composed the music, did you write the lyrics?

TAKRUO: That's what I did, like usual. First, I composed something to go with the music as it came to mind. Then I made a demo with Teru. From there Atsushi and Shun came in. Then, when the melody was working itself out, I thought, "I should give some of the lyrics over the Shun," and anyway, that's what I thought. It's because Shun really can really spin out words. Then, after Shun had a chance to work at them he said, "I don't care if you totally ignore these lyrics, or even if you take the theme from this, but anyway, anything is okay, so do you think you could write words that work with the melody?" After that it went very fast. We communicated closely for about three days. The lyrics I had written originally changed a lot, and eventually became what we have. The moment I finally read them, I knew they were perfect.

Part 3: "Without our friendship, it wouldn't have been a feasible project"

YJ: In terms of the lyrics' theme, did you decide what kind of feeling you'd go for?

TAKURO: No, I didn't decide at all. Shun said, "I wrote it on my own feelings about the world today."

HIRO: Weren't we fine-tuned to each others' feelings, though? It's not that we talked about the theme of the lyrics, but I think we all had a common recognition of it. Takuro and Shun saved us very skillfully with that. The important thing was that the final lyrics were something that reflected the feelings of all 10 of us.

TAKURO: Yeah, that's really it. When I read the lyrics that Shun wrote, the feeling of them really struck me. We wrote lyrics with that feeling, and when they were finished we began recording, but Hisashi, Jiro and I had to release some of our frustrations as players. Whenever GLAY records, we play about three times and it's okay, but with this we had to play it five times. (laugh)

HIRO: Seriously, we had a lot of power. That two groups who've come together could play with so much power...

TAKURO: And not just the members, even the staff showed unbelievable power.

HIRO: I also really want to emphasize that.

TAKURO: There was a strong festive element as well, so the staff was also excited and a lot of ideas came out. If it was the same as usual, I wonder how it would have been? Even the things that were impossible were effective. The impossible things were just a premonition of what we'll do from now. Also, it was a project that we didn't want mistakes in, but don't both the members of GLAY and EXILE like to drink? (laughs) So we thought up at lot of things while we were out drinking, and we'd get lost in "Well what about this?" and were really able to discuss things, and everyone was good enough to give their answers.

HIRO: The result of that was that, although we're very happy with the finished product, I'm even more happy that I've gained good friends in GLAY.

TAKURO: Definitely, I think so too. Without our friendship, this wouldn't have been a feasible project.

(Interview: Lit/Music Writer: Akira Saiki)