ROCKS ON THE ROAD
-Firstly, I’d like to probe a little into everyone’s backgrounds; as for Sono, what music had you been listening to?
Sono: When I first heard X JAPAN I thought ‘’I want to make a band’’. After that I listened to LUNA SEA and PENICILLIN etc. and from that I came to listen to HELLOWEEN and ANGRA and such as well.
-And what influences did you have to start songwriting and singing?
Sono: As for songwriting it was YOSHIKI and for singing it was Inaba from B’z.
-Continuining on for Anzi it was Yngwie and…
Anzi: Yes, that’s right. Because I learnt how to play the violin, classical music is my number one roots. However, truth is, I didn’t really fit into the classical style that much, but, during my high school time I was accidentally introduced to heavy metal by a friend, and listening, noticing how in that style the classical melodies where played in a very rough way, I started playing with the guitar thinking how cool it was. At first, my parents were opposed to me getting an electrical instrument. ‘’That loud stuff is bad’’, in such a way (laughs). Me being in my rebellious phase, that only seemed like an invitation to me, ‘’go buy one and take it home!’’.
-So you were a bit of a spoiled child, hm? (laughs)
Anzi: No, it wasn’t like that at all but, since my dad likes classical music I’d been taught any instrument he wanted me to, it was like that.
-Can you name any artists that specifically gave you that ‘rough’ type of feeling?
Anzi: When I first started getting into metal it was IRON MAIDEN, however it was Yngwie Malmsteen who got me thinking ‘’I want to play the guitar like a pro’’ in any case.
-And what got you into Visual Kei?
Anzi: I loved LUNA SEA. Especially SUGIZO playing the violin as well, I think he must have been raised with classical music and so feeling close to him I got that influence.
-And how was Ayame?
Ayame: For me Komuro Tetsuya was the reason to start with music. At that time it awoke in me as a hobby of making music on my own and submitting it on the internet… Because at the time it had not occurred to me yet that having a band would be a dream at all. After that I came to like game and movie music and the realization of a band came way after that. I like classical music as well.
-As for keyboard arrangements and songwriting, was Komuro your inspiration for that as well?
Ayame: in relation to Matenrou Opera it was definitely Komuro as well, but also Kiyo from Janne Da Arc and so on and I was also influenced by foreign symphonic metal bands such as NIGHTWISH and WITHIN TEMPTATION.
-Have you heard NIGHTWISH’ latest song?
Ayame: I have! I listened to it on the train today as well (laughs). It had a really musical-type feeling this time and a lot more artistic elements than last time, right.
-How did you feel about the singer switching from Tarja to Anette?
Ayame: The core fan group says they prefer the Tarja era however I like the music from after it switched to Anette.
-What about Yo?
Yo: The first time I got into music was with J-Pop, I did a bit of copying here and there, but after that was a time I came to listen to western bands like BON JOVI and MR. BIG, DREAM THEATER and ANGRA etc. Listening to their albums at the time I was in high school I thought it was cool. I like the style in which John Myung placed the bass so…however ‘’although I was like ‘I’m gonna copy it’, I couldn’t’’, so it seemed. (Laughs)
-As for being a bassist, was there any else who influenced you?
Yo: Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big and the first ANGRA bassist Luis Mariutti and so on.
-How about Yu?
Yu: I first started with the drums because of YOSHIKI from X JAPAN. After that, listening to visual kei at the time I said ‘’is there no fierceness in visual kei?’’ and a friend brought me METALLICA… Even now I really love METALLICA and I think Lars Ulrich, hitting the drums, must be god. He plays the drums with his face, doesn’t he (laughs). Still, for me HELLOWEEN is number one and I love ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part2’ most, as always. I don’t think there’s any album that surpasses my love for it. The people who greatly influenced me to become a drummer were Ingo Swichtenberg and Ulrich Kusch, I often used to copy their phrases.
-Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen came back together and started a new band, right?
Yu: It’s out of this world, right? I love Helloween but I like Michael Kiske especially and so two years ago I saw AVANTASIA’s Japan concert (in which Michael Kiske participated) together with Sono and, it was epic, right.
Sono: Kai Hansen is great as well, right.
Yu: I’ve seen Kai Hansen before as well but, his aura is terrific!
-It seems like everyone has heavy metal in common when it comes to their roots, however, when forming the band did you gather the members with the plan of ‘’let’s create a metal sound’’?
Sono: There wasn’t any intention but because Yu was already active in the metal scene he had a lot of connections like that so we naturally gained these members, so I feel.
Yu: Anzi and Ayame joined us afterwards however we already worked with Anzi before doing Matenrou Opera. When we succeeded in forming Matenrou Opera, I called out to Yo with whom I had been in yet another band…. I first asked ‘Do you know any bassists?’’.
Yo: That’s right. I looked for about 3 weeks but unable to find one I ended up feeling like ‘’well, how about me?’’.
Yu: Turning to Yo again I was really respectful, wasn’t I?
Everyone: (Bursting into laughter)
Anzi: How wrong, that. (Laughs)
Yu: (Laughs) With such a back-and-forth, we gathered everyone. At the time of the formation, we thought of fusing a heavy sound with the beautiful music we’d get from the keyboardist and also felt like combining it with the band name ‘’Matenrou Opera’’ as well.
-Could you tell me what particular concept your band has?
Sono: Naturally, I’ll point out the band name; the symbol of the modern day, the ‘’skyscraper (Matenrou)’’ is the modern rock sound and the ‘’Opera’’ from back in the day representing the classical and piano-like beautiful sound, and with that it’s a concept that we were able to fuse these two together.
-This time it’s your first full album since the Major Debut and so for the first time you’ve gotten the chance to be able to express the world of Matenrou Opera in full length, however, having created it, do you have any thoughts in particular?
Anzi: Having finished the work on this album, there’s a concept of the arrangement being so that every member of the band is ‘’standing up’’. Because, things aren’t right in the current band-scene, that being that there are no ‘’band heroes’’, I think that’s the cause of it. As such I think we should become heroes. So we don’t become a background band who puts out only its vocals, quarrelling over the sound with good intentions all the instrument players play and stand up, with such an arrangement is how we create our music; such a theme lays as the foundation.
-Has Sono encountered any new challenges in regards to being a singer?
Sono: Up till now the width of my expression has been through using singing techniques like clean singing, shouting, and using the falsetto, however, this time I became aware of how I could express myself in various ways if I broadly used my softer and louder range. As a result, I feel like I’ve come to be able to express my emotions more abundantly than ever.
-Has Ayame tried anything new with his keyboard parts?
Ayame: This is going to be a little bit of maniacal story but I became aware of the ‘’distance of sound’’, alright. It being a synthesizer up till now I’ve used the reverb(eration) tool to deal with the span of the sound but, this time when it came to sampling the sound for the foundation, I used the off mic/on mic*methods and such and played adjusting the position of the mic. I made it in discussion with the engineer so that the sound isn’t too close to the ear, clinging to it, but spreads out naturally. I think the magnificence comes out now more than before.
-And what about Yu?
Yu: There are a lot of double-bass songs however of all the eighth song ‘’AGE’’ had the challenge of the ‘’slow double-bass drums’’. I said to Anzi, the composer, ‘’I’m gonna have to try and see about this type of double-bass’,’ but it went wonderfully smoothly, so I wonder if we opened up to new grounds.
Anzi: ‘’If those regular guys are doing something, I have to reject it. This way of hitting the double-bass, only I can do it, yeah!’’ or so he said suddenly (laughs).
-Certainly, the center of Yu’s drums is very much at the bottom and therefore very stable, and like that it resembles the drum style of Mike Teranna, I think, but…
Yu: Ah, I love him a lot (laughs). Mike Teranna and Jörg Michael and so on, I love them so much so I copy them. There aren’t a lot of of people in Japan who can hit the drums like they do, are there, but. Don’t say ‘’there are none’’’. (Laughs)
Anzi: There’s Mike Teranna and Jörg Michael and..
Yu: Me, perhaps (laughs).
Anzi: You say it so loudly, that (laughs).
Yu: That loud noise is a little…hmm? (laughs) Next the 11th song ‘’New Cinema Paradise’’ changes in tempo abruptly, the intro and the hook have the same tempo however the middle of the song is completely different. Even up till now there are songs that have tempo changes and the all have sensible changes, but since every part of this song is disconnected but at a nice tempo, it’s a fine challenge. Even when recording, I was able to continue on without stopping midway, feeling like ‘’yay!’’. It feels good to be able to go on without disturbing the groove, right. Right now I’m practicing with the lives in sight, looking forward to playing this song. If it goes well, I want to try and leave again without anybody noticing me like, ‘’well done, everyone!’’ (Laughs)
-What about Yo?
Yo: Probably, I think there are a lot of people who you could call bassists who play hand-music who stick to the root of the sound but, I play the bass, realizing the J-pop-like idea of ‘’singing the bass’’, and I experimented with that this time as well. An aspect of playing is to play while fixating specifically on each sound one by one and up till now I’ve not become all that aware of what I was doing with my right hand but this time I’d been challenging myself with playing with two or three fingers.
-There are bassists who can sing like Billy Sheehan, is there something like that in Yo? (Laughs)
Yo: No, no (laughs). In Apoptosis (after the B melody after the solo) I had a Billy Sheehan moment but…
-Next up, I’d like to ask about the artwork; it has a pentagram and the Eye of Providence…, it’s the Freemason symbol, right?
Sono: No, it didn’t have that specific intention but (laughs) this expresses the ‘’Eye of Justice’’ at the end of the lyrics of ‘’Justice’’, my own eye of justice I should hold faith in. However…hmm, they look alike, right (laughs).
Ayame: The pretext from the designer was that this is the result of him interpreting the ‘’Justice’’ album in his way, as if it were the world in the image of ‘’Genesis’’ (Translator’s note: referring to the Bible book, not the song of the same title).
-Could you tell me the reason for naming the album ‘’Justice’’?
Sono: The (song) last made on this album was ‘’Justice’’; it became the song that greatly linked all the songs together as a sort of large container, and so the album title became like this as well. The contents of the lyrics correspond like this as well and I sang about how ‘’the ‘justice of oneself’ exists only in as large a number as there is people, and so, how many people believe and live by their own justice?’.
-Talking about justice, that’s very difficult, right…
Sono: Without being washed away by people’s respective justices, I stick to my own justice, that’s what I sang about. Not imitating the aforementioned or being subjugated by the rule of the majority, I believe in the justice I hold myself.
-‘’Justice’’ is about this as well but I got the feeling as well that these lyrics had a lot of messages you’re raising to society, was this intentional?
Sono: More than the things that hold messages like this that were made up till now, there’s a lot of story element in the lyrics but, this since this time all the songs are made in the aftermath of last year’s earthquake disaster, I was thinking it’s not gonna change by itself, is it. The first song ‘’Helios’’ and the song ‘’Kizuna’’ that was made for the sake of the earthquake disaster and so on alone hold the intention of a message but the other songs really hold no such intentions. It’s a feeling of if I don’t sing about this, that’s wrong, so it gushes forth from within me naturally.
-Next up, I’d like to ask about the finishing process of the songs; as for the composers, do you bring something to the others when it is almost finished?
Sono: It differs per person but, as for me, while playing the guitar or piano I sing the melody and show it to the members, just that; I bring it to the others with the feeling it’s about good.
-At first glance, ‘’Apoptosis’’, I thought was written by Anzi; this is a song by Sono, isn’t it?
Anzi: The arrangement was done by about everyone. Specifically only the chord progression and melody were something Sono had brought in as a song, then there were the guitar riffs and backing instrumentals that had to be picked. About ‘’Apoptosis’’, since only the melody and chord progression had been done, listening to the song was like ‘’we’re just doing it like this?’’ and so it was like everyone brought in something.
Yu: First, it was brought to us with this foundation of ‘’this song is ballad-like’’, however, when Anzi and I listened to it we said ‘’eh, this is not a ballad, is it?’’.
Anzi: Indeed, it was like ‘’there’s the sound of just double drums here and there…’’.
Sono: It was finished, thinking ‘’good grief, these guys…’’ (laughs)
-‘’New Cinema Paradise’’ is a unique song in that it progresses extremely intensely, but was this one also finished in a completely different form from the stage in which it was brought to everyone?
Sono: This song was quite the way it is now. Because it had a fuzzy tempo at the time I showed it, it had a feeling of ‘’because I want to express what I want, only the hook changes in tempo’’; the other members as well said ‘’well, let’s do it like that’’.
-Incidentally, is this song related to that famous movie?
Sono: It is. At the stage where I’d finished writing the music, because I thought it was a song that held the grief of being made to feel the last of one’s life. I thought I wanted to write lyrics that were like looking back on a person’s life. And so, remembering the movie ‘’New Cinema Paradise’’ I’d seen a while ago, since that movie as well shows you a person’s life completely from start to finish, I gave it this title. There are other songs with this kind of outline as well but, after basing the lyrical content on something, you get a lot of options for titling it, right?
-‘’21mg’’ gives the impression of an 80’s metal-like guitar riff, so this song as well has an extremely unique composition, right?
Anzi: When Sono brought this song to us, naturally, this arrangement rang inside me. Because it’s somewhat big, I wanted the composition to be so that the music was a bit sandwiched together, and so it was finished; the riff being somewhat deep, it came out like that naturally without having thought about it. In this album, because I had personal desire to put in a lot of impressive guitar riffs, this is one of the results of that.
-This song has a particularly positive message, however, more concretely, what are you singing about?
Sono: Everybody holds this conflict of ‘’is it fine like this?’’ with their everyday lives, but depending on how you think, holding the thought of ‘’can it be changed into whichever way’’ is what I sang about. In this wide world, even if I were to disappear from it, the world won’t change, and even if I enjoy myself with all my heart by myself, the world won’t change at all. Well then, more than disappearing from this world, living with all my heart, having fun with all my heart, that’s the best way to be, right? That’s the message I put in there.
-‘’Helios’’ ends with a major chord only at the very end, but did you intend this song to have a positive message as well?
Ayame: Having thought of a number of patterns to end the song with, at first we thought of ending it with a scary feeling but after finishing the sound effects, it was rejected after I was told by the members that ‘’this is too scary.’’ However, thinking about it now, if last year’s earthquake disaster hadn’t been, might there have been song endings to it like this one… Because it became this finishing arrangement inspired by the lyrical content at the end of looking toward the light, it might have realized that type of meaning.
-‘’Mermaid’’ as well is Ayame’s song, so this has a positive vibe as well, right?
Ayame: There are a relatively large number of dark messages in Matenrou Opera songs; from the start of the production on this album, I thought I wanted to create songs with a fast tempo and major key, I feel like I accomplished that this time.
-‘’Designer Baby’’ is an Ayame song as well, but, it was treated as a bonus track, right?
Ayame: This is without a choir performance, done all with electronic implementation. Actually, during the ‘’Abyss tour’’ we did last year, since we’d just announced the song, Sono stood on the stage singing it all by himself. Originally I made this as a backing track for a live in 2009, and it was made into this song as Sono said he wanted to make a melody to this.
-This music you made, is it an echo of Komura’s work?
Ayame: There’s that as well, there is the echo of the instrumentals of movies and anime as well. I think there’s an echo of Kajiura Yuki and Kanno Youko from ‘’Ghost in the Shell’’ as well.
-Even so, I felt the totality of the sound; although the music has a modern metal element to it, recently bands, when they reach the stage of mixing, they don’t tend to mix these two together, to purposefully maintain their lively groove, so it feels.
Yu: That’s right, the recent bands, when you listen to their CDs it feels beyond refreshing, but, as is the case for Matenrou Opera, actually, we also purposefully leave in the parts that aren’t necessary; I think that doing this it allows it to have the warm hard rock sound from long ago.
-Is this an intended dedication to the bygone hard rock/heavy metal?
Yu: It wasn’t any particular intention, but I wonder if it is how we differentiate ourselves from other bands. Certainly, if you play perfectly, it’s cool, but everyone will sound the same, right. That’s why even purposefully leaving a lively sound is fine, isn’t it?
-Recent bands, when they’re doing their mixing, matching the timing and so on, they incorporate the wildness of their live performances, but Matenrou Opera does not do that, is it because you can’t find enough confidence while you play?
Yu: …Yes (laughs).
Yo: I think there are a lot of bands as well who think from the drums especially the perfect ripples are formed and then you match the perfect timing to it; Matenrou Opera does not work this way.
Yu: Our director as well I think worked like this: ‘’take the rhythm seriously’’.
-Next I’d like to ask about the things hereafter; are there things Matenrou Opera is aiming for now?
Anzi: It’s like I said before, I want us to become a band-heroes. Because I don’t think there are any right now. Everyone has a favorite band respectively, hearing about that I have the intention to be a band of which people think ‘’that’s cool,’’ however right now with the number of bands who are entering the charts dwindling down etc. I don’t think the band scene is doing well. With that I mean musicians who are in a band have a responsibility: bands who have a vocalist set up and devote themselves to being the musical companion to him, they don’t gain fans with just that and you wouldn’t think ‘’I want to play the guitar’’, would you? When the members stand there all five of them, a big chemical reaction is born; because that is the biggest allure of a band, I want us to become a band like that, that’s the theme.
-Surely, with technology advancing, there must be a lot of bands I think who create their songs by themselves, composing and doing the arrangement; band members being able to present their own elements respectively is becoming the biggest weapon of having a band, right.
Anzi: I’ve had enough talks with other bands and listening to Matenrou Opera’s music, it may seem like you get the image of music constructed in very various detail, working hard to produce it; in reality when it comes to songwriting we’re surprisingly irresponsible (=not using our heads to think).Because we seemingly have a stance of entering the studio for about an hour and getting one song done during the session, we do it like ‘’I want to do this part without ruining it.’’
Yu: I think the impression you get when you first hear a song someone brang is really important, because in Matenrou Opera we have a lot of good things being born out of the members each presenting the things they feel about it. I understand for the greater part what everyone does however, so that we don’t get stuck in a rut I think I want everyone to gain a lot of knowledge to widen their arsenal.
-Have you also had moments where you made a song having entirely no ideas upon entering the studio ?
Anzi: We have.
-Are there any on this album?
Ayame: ‘’IMPERIAL RIOT’’ is a song like that.
Sono: That was a song where we had only the hook; we made that song having basically nothing else upon starting on it.
Anzi: ‘’Nurashita Kuchibiru de KISU wo shite’’ was a ‘’there’s no such song, is there?’’ song we made with a feeling like that as well and so we made it at the studio from zero to finish. Because the shape of the song was made like that as well the ideas came up saying ‘’the drums having this type of beat is good, right?’’ and when we somehow created the world view for this song, we created this song together that floats on a somewhat not so mellow melody under these ‘drifting’ conditions.
Yu: It’s fun to create songs together with all the members, right? (Laughs)
-Lastly, could you please tell me one by one what message you have about this album for hard rock/heavy metal fans?
Sono: This is our first try, isn’t it (laughs). Eh, I think there are a lot of people who love heavy metal and hate visual kei; if you’re an exception to this, I think I’d like you to first have a listen to the sound. If you’d be as kind as to give the hook to the first song ‘’Justice’’ alone a listen I think our metal soul will come through to you.
Anzi: Such a thing as a genre is stupid and since it’s there, because strange prejudices and biases are born, if you just broadly categorize you can only play your favorite type of music. Because I think heavy metal and hard rock are cool and they are my roots as to why I started playing the guitar, I think you’ll be able to get the feeling of that music in our songs and I’m confident you’ll think it’s cool for sure. Without taking genre into consideration, please have a listen right away.
Yu: Just now Sono said ‘’people who like metal dislike visual kei’’; I used to be that kind of person as well. However, when I entered the visual kei scene there were enough people who like metal as well, there were people who thought metal was cool as well. If you give us a listen once I think you’ll understand we love metal, I think there’s a lot of shared feelings.
Yo: First and foremost I would like you to listen to us not thinking about genre; if we’re deliberately talking about hard rock and heavy metal, if you’re someone who likes melodious hard rock, LA metal, Scandinavian metal and German metal etc. I think you will like it.
Ayame: If I’m talking deliberately about genre as well, because I’m adopting a lot of influence from symphonic metal bands, although Matenrou Opera itself is not a symphonic metal band, I think the people who are starving for a sound like that should definitely give us a listen once.
*Translator’s note: Off mic is a mic on the person’s body or instrument itself, on mic is a mic that is placed near one, like on a stand.