Global Communication: GLAY News in English

"Live Talk"
"Yahoo! Japan," 8.11.2005

GLAYx EXILE appears on Yahoo! Live Talk, & fan signed by all ten members is our present to you!

The real-time live chat event on the net, "Live Talk." Every time there are big guest appearances from all kinds of genres, but the guest that appeared on 7.29 was GLAYxEXILE.

The big collaboration between the number one rock band, GLAY, and the number one dance and vocal unite, EXILE, was realized and took first place on the Oricon singles chart. They were good enough to show us the awesomeness of their power, ability, and popularity.

This is the last day of the GLAYxEXILE project as well. After their appearance on TV Asahi's "Music Station," they hurried to the Live Talk studio, Academy Hills. Usually Live Talk only lasts 30 minutes, but this time we stretched it out to a full hour event. They talked to the MC, GOW, and answered questions from fans. (These questions were gathered beforehand at the Official Site, and also during the telecast by chat.) They recollaborated, all the members signed a present, and with these two surprises, it was really a special hour.

"It’s fun singing together." (Teru)

It was a one hour special edition with all ten members, and this time we divided the program into two halves. After the open talk, we promptly split into teams. The first team was Teru, Jiro, Hiro, Matsu, and Atsushi.

YJ: Atsushi, some time ago you were in a band that copied GLAY's songs. How does it feel to do this collaboration?
Atsushi: When I first started singing, I was in a "GLAY copy" band that my friends invited me to join. So even just having a connection with them like this makes me very happy.

YJ: A question for Matsu. How did it feel to dance after you cut your dreadlocks?
Matsu: The main part of it was really no different, but of course my head felt pretty weird so I wore hats and stuff. Wihtout my dreads I really couldn't quite dance, so I wore caps.
Gow: I had dreads once too, but didn't they smell bad after a while?
Matsu: That's pretty normal, yeah. But you could almost say mine were like the cleanest in the world.
Hiro: Yeah, it's best to take good care of them.
Matsu: I washed them everyday.

YJ: A question for Teru. You were on the same vocal list as Shun and Atsushi, so what was your impression of them?
Teru: Shun is really top gear, a passionate singer. There are places in the song where he sort of pulls it out from under me. It's fun singing together. Atsushi has his own rhythm, and when we grouped up it was great. It felt very natural.

YJ: A question for Jiro. If you were a woman, which of these guys would you think was best looking?
Jiro: Why do I get that question? Who would it be? ... Hiro.
Hiro: Yeah! (And a round of applause!)
Jiro: He's really the most promising, and this group's success is because of him.
Hiro: I'm happy you said that. Thanks.

YJ: A question to Hiro. When you worked together this time, who was the one person who was different from your impression of him?
Hiro: That's out of GLAY, I suppose. It would be Hisashi. He has a kind a really quiet image, but when he talks he's a really interesting person. But I heard that all the GLAY members were good people before, so they all matched up with their images pretty well.

"For EXILE's 10th anniversary, we'll collaborate again." (Shun)

The final half was Takuro, Hisashi, Usa, Makidai, and Shun.

YJ: A question for Makidai. In the PV you were acting as DJ, so do you do the scratches in recording?
Makidai: This is a question I'm asked a lot, but... (In robotic voice, while hitting throat softly) Yes. I. Do. (Everyone bursts out laughing!!) Lately I've been too busy to do it, but it's because I've spun records at clubs and things before. If there's an opportunity to scratch I want to do it, so I'm glad I had the chance to do it this time.

YJ: A question for Usa. Where do you get your energy?
Usa: Dance. From dance. Even when I'm depressed in my room, dancing always makes me feel better. When I dance my energy goes up and I woder, "Why was I even depressed?"
(At this point Gow suddenly asked, "By the way, is there any food you recommend?" and all five band members present almost fall out of their chairs.)
Usa: (laughs) A food? I recently when to Okinawa, so I've been porking out on Okinawan food. Goya is good for the summer heat. Goya is the source of my energy for dancing.

YJ: A question for Hisashi. On the cover of "SCREAM," why are you yelling?
Hisashi: When you say yelling, you mean this, right? (does Hiro's pose) (everyone bursts into laughter)
Hiro: Hey, isn't that me? (laughs) That's me!
Hisashi: We took a lot of different pictures, but in one of them I pose screaming. "SCREAM" is the title, so I thought I should pose like that for one of the pictures.
Gow: So what were you screaming?
Hisashi: I think it was probably "Heeeey!" (once again, everyone bursts out laughing)

YJ: A question for Takuro. If you do this again, what do you want to challenge next?
Takuro: GLAY dancing, EXILE playing the music. Before this Teru got an email asking "Did EXILE show you guys how to dance?" He wrote back, "Why? Though I’d like to learn..."
Teru: I want to dance even more than I want to sing. (laugh)
Takuro: I'm always trying to think of something more fun. (laugh)

YJ: A question for Shun. Who came up with what ideas for "SCREAM"?
Shun: We got the name "SCREAM" from Takuro. I could see the lyrics in the title "SCREAM," and from there I wrote my lyrics, but I left the title as it was. GLAY and EXILE kept the meaning of wanting to show the things we wanted to with a scream.

After this we gathered all 10 together again, and talked about our thoughts on the collaboration. Then, from Shun, this surprise remark came out.

Shun: If EXILE makes it to a 10th anniversary, I want to do a special group again. I had a dream last night where I said this.
Gow: So when EXILE makes it to their 10th anniversary, you’ll do another collaboration?
Shun: (distinctly) Yes!
Everyone: Oh!!!

We passed an exciting hour, and the program finished. After the program, we listened to what each other the leaders, Takuro and Hiro, thought about the Live Talk appearance.

(*Hiro's comment was largely unintelligible to me, but I've posted my best guess below. Please forgive the Babblefish feeling it has. m(__)m )

"It was fun because I got to see members that I don't get to see often, as well as GLAY. It was also really cool to talk with the MC. It was a different atmosphere than on TV, so I think it would have been better to do it rough. It’s because we were going out between sources. I also want to challenge these things." (Hiro)

"You can't say this is the last thing we do as GLAYxEXILE. Although we just had an hour together laughing, besides myself there were nine others expressing their real intentions, and there were a lot of times where it occured to us, 'Ah, that's how it was,' and more than anything, Shun's words at the end made me very happy. Stating tomorrow we're going to break up into our separate groups again, but they won't beat us and we won't lose to them, though I want us to be friendly rivals. And because Shun dreamed of us getting back together, if we can work with them again on their tenth year, I want to do it. This has been an hour that drew up really new dreams for us all." (Takuro)

(Coverage and reporting: Takanobu Tanaka)