Hyde
RR Music Interview March 2003
Translated by: perdita (gomibako@yahoo.com)

Q: What kind of year was 2002 for you, personally? You released your first album and starred in a film.
hyde: I did lots of things. If you think about it, the year before (2001), I stayed in my room the whole time writing music. Last year I really got out a lot. My album came out at the beginning of last year, and I did the promotion for that, and I went to the ski field and went to Taiwan. That's the general feeling.
Q: You were centered around those three places?
hyde: Yes.
Q: I understand two of those, but what's this about the ski field?
hyde: Snowboarding. I always wanted to do it, and the year before I spent all my time in my room and couldn't. This year I really wanted to go. So in the intervals in promotion, I went (laughs). I also went when I was done.
Q: Could you say that in part it was a reaction to having been trapped in your room for so long?
hyde: I think so. So I also drunk a lot! The year before I turned down a lot of invitations to go drinking.
Q: What? You even resisted that?
hyde: Yep. I decided to just do composition at home. At first I figured it would take about 6 months, but it ended up taking a whole year. I kept turning invitations down and I thought it was wrong. So last year I created a policy to go drinking with everyone who I had turned down.
Q: A policy... (laughs). So, if you were invited...
hyde: Of course I accepted. That's why I drunk so much.
Q: So as a result of that, did you meet new people and have new experiences?
hyde: Hmm... not especially. Ah! Darts? (laughs) But you don't really notice that kind of thing, and think "I can use this! (in songs)" I'm not influenced that way by the things around me.
Q: Ah... So "HYDE the composer" and "normal HYDE" are...
hyde: ...Completely seperate. But when I'm writing lyricsI recall things that have happened. I'm not writing lyrics right now so I don't really know.
Q: So you haven't written any new songs since the promotion of your album finished?
hyde: Ah... mostly not. Well, I've composed some from around autumn...
Q: You didn't actively make an effort to write.
hyde: When possible I did (laughs), but I had so many other things to do. I wasn't absorbed in it.
Q: You were more absorbed in the filming of the movie?
hyde: Yes, I spent most of my time in Taiwan. The whole of August I was there.
Q: Did you always have an image that you'd appear in a movie?
hyde: No. Even now I can't imagine myself projected on the screen (laughs).
Q: So why did you decide to do a movie?
hyde: I can't remember what started it... you know Gackt-kun? I call him Gacchan... I heard from a friend that he wanted to have dinner with me.
Q: So you didn't have anything to do with each other before?
hyde: Um... when he was in Malice Mizer, sometimes he came backstage, and if we were on the same TV show, we would chat a bit. But we hadn't really talked, even though I was interested. So, I went to dinner with him, and he asked me to appear in the movie.
Q: What? Just like that?
hyde: We were chatting... and he just asked suddenly. At that time... I'm a very closed person, so I don't socialise a lot. I like what I do, and I'm not the type to expand outside it, but when he asked me I thought it sounded like fun. (laughs). So until now I had no plans at all to appear in a movie. But listening to Gacchan, I thought I could do it. I didn't tell him yes or no at that time, though.
Q: But inside you felt like you would do it.
hyde: Yeah. I figured if I were to do a movie, this would be a good role to play. But... I'm not even sure myself why I decided to do it in the end.
Q: hmmm
hyde: And, I kept checking that there wasn't some kind of misunderstanding. "Is it really okay..." (laughs). I checked with Gacchan's and the staff over and over. I was worried, all the way up until the shooting. I wondered if they would even do a screen test to check how Gacchan and I looked together, and just be a bit more cool about everything.
Q: (laughs)
hyde: I wanted to cool down a bit and see a screen test myself. And lots of other people were also saying they wanted to see one. So we asked and they finally did one, and we didn't mismatch as much as I had thought we would. I think after that I gave my response. I felt like I wanted to do it, but I didn't commit right away.
Q: You were also attracted by Gackt's enthusiasm for the movie?
hyde: That's right. He's smart... an "idea man". He made the discussion more and more interesting. I understood that. For example, talking about the script he would give lots of ideas about how he wanted things to go. I became the "listener".
Q: (laughs very hard)
hyde: Like "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh, that's right... that's a great idea." (laughs) So like when I went to his house, and we discussed the script, it was a lot of fun.
Q: It was a kind of collaberation you couldn't experience in music?
hyde: Hmm... At first glance it's different, in practice it's the same. It's just the way you work with people. For example, in music, if someone takes a song they've composed, Ken-chan will arrange it with guitar. It feels a lot like that. It's only the method of expression that's different. Even so, that "difference" was refreshing.
Q: I see... But you've advanced into a difference field of expression, haven't you?
hyde: That's right. I'm think I'm very much the kind of person who will be prejudiced against something without having even tried it. But when I tried it, as I said before, it was very similar to what I already do. PVs are made in pretty much the same way. You don't know until you've given it a go, things like the difference between making a PV and making a movie. There's not much of a differene, so making a movie was like an extension of that. And in PV, we're not even playing the instruments, so you could say it's close to acting.
Q: But the impetus for overcoming your prejudice came from within yourself, didn't it?
hyde: Yes, but I don't know what it was.
Q: So rather than just trying to act natural, you had a sense of making an effort to play the role you had been given?
hyde: No, a sense of how hard it is to act "natural".
Q: Ah... it's actually harder to be "natural"?
hyde: It's hard! We live "naturally" every day, but there's no script... If you're told to act out the script in a "natural" manner, you go "huh?" (laughs) For example, go to the toilet, lift the lid, and pee. You usually do it naturally, right? You do it every day of your life (laughs). But if it's written in the script, you think "Huh? How to do that...?" "Eh? When I go to the toilet, what do I usually do with my left hand? Which finger do I usually use to lift the lid?" Stuff like that (laughs).
Q: I see. Because you're not usually conscious of what you're doing.
hyde: Somehow it's difficult to try and do things like that naturally from a script.
Q: Pro actors can do that naturally every day without flaw.
hyde: How can I say... I realized that it's not natural. It's different from doing your normal activities. But when it's on screen, it *looks* natural.
Q: How do you feel those around you wanted to play your role?
hyde: Sometimes I was told to be more expressive or emote more strongly, but mainly they just left me to it.
Q: You just acted it according to your personal image?
hyde: Something like that.
Q: What's your role?
hyde: My role is that of a person who has eternal life. He's lived for a long time. He's encountered normal people, and watched how they grow, and he worries over the difference between them and himself. In that time various incidents occur. Gacchan and the others are Mafia, so he gets involved in their disputes. And he matures.
Q: A person with eternal life! I see... Was that role part of the impetus to overcome your prejudice? If the role was just a normal person, would you have done it?
hyde: Probably not (laughs). I don't think I would have been needed in the movie for any other role.
Q: (laughs)
hyde: If I was just playing an ordinary role, I would think "Couldn't someone else do this?"
Q: A year ago when you did our cover, you did a vampire theme, right? At that time, had you got involved in the movie?
hyde: I think it was after that.
Q: So it's just a coincidence.
hyde: Yes.
Q: Even so... for your first screen role, that's...extremely fitting! (laughs)
hyde: It's good that it's a special role. If it was just a normal role, there are so many people more suitable than me. Truthfully, in part, the roles were cast to the actors. There was some talk about me doing Gacchan's role, but I didn't think there was much meaning in my doing that role.
Q: How did you remember your lines?
hyde: I read the script... it's a lot like remembering lyrics for live shows.
Q: Is it exactly the same?
hyde: It's very close. I remembered my lines by reading the script and saying the lines. For lyrics I read them and sing them to remember. You do it over and over again and memorise them. To begin filming there is a bell, right? It's a lot like the "one, two, three, four" of the drums. It feels a lot like doing a live show.
Q: Does entering your role feel like stepping up on stage?
hyde: Yes! The more I did it, the more I felt it was a lot like doing a live show. Even if you did one song, and then next did a song with a totally different feel, as soon as the count started for that song, you would enter into it. It resembles that a lot. With movies, when the bell rings, even though you were chatting normally just a moment ago, as soon as it rings you enter that world. I thought that was very similar.
Q: You could enter into the role very smoothly, without any sense of dissonance?
hyde: In that sense. It wasn't a situation I was used to, though. Even now, speaking lines was somehow different from what I've done before, because the lyrics of a song don't form a conversation. That's clearly different. How shall I say it... it's like different tools. No as different as, say, between a bat and a pen, but they are deceptively similar. It was trail and error the entire time. Had it been a song, I would have been a pro. But in this case, I'm a beginner.
Q: Did you discuss that kind of thing with Gackt during filming?
hyde: I did. Because if someone says to you "Smile naturally" , you can't smile, can you? That type of thing was really difficult. It's the first barrier in acting. It's also hard to act friendly with people you've only just met. Even though you've only met them a few hours before, according to the story you've been friends for decades. That was hard.
Q: Did it also resemble a live tour in that there was a large group of people working together over a period of time to create one work?
hyde: Ah~, I guess so. Like going to the provinces on tour.
Q: You said at the press conference that the atmosphere on set was fun.
hyde: That's right. After living this long, I've forgotten what I did in a specific summer and how it was, but this was definitely a memorable summer. Do you remember what you did the summer before last?
Q: Not at all!
hyde: But for me, last summer is one I'll always remember.
Q: So, you gave up your summer to do the movie. What was you first reaction when you saw it?
hyde: I was very nervous.
Q: (laughs)
hyde: I thought "What the hell are you doing!?"
Q: Did you have the sense that the person on the screen was a different person altogether?
hyde: No, not really.
Q: Since you've started solo, you also did CM for UNIQLO. You said at the time that you were too embarrassed to watch it.
hyde: Ah... It's quite similar to that. It's...unsophisticated (laughs)
Q: So if you were offered another role, would you do it?
hyde: If I got another role that I found that I found interesting, then it's possible. But I don't have any plans to keep doing movies. It's like the Olympics...
Q: Once every four years?
hyde: Possibly. It felt a lot like a live show. I've said a lot that music is like dominoes. You build them up bit by bit, and the most fun bit is when it's all done. It's the same with movies. You build it piece by piece with everyone else. When it's over, you can say "that was great!" That moved me a bit. I wouldn't like to think I wouldn't have the chance to do something like that again. Even so, watching the CM for the movie on TV, I think "Who are you? What are you doing?" (laughs)
Q: I hope the fans enjoy "Screen HYDE"
hyde: Yes, because it's quite interesting...
Q: (laughs)
hyde: My fans have always watched me, right? At live. They know me. I think that it's interesting for that person to to suddenly appear on screen and say "This is what I'm doing!".
Q: So fans can enjoy it from a different perspective?
hyde: Right. Recently Ken appeared on "Tamori Club", and just by him appearing, it became a totally different show. It's like that kind of enjoyment.
Q: Do you still hang out with Gackt since shooting finished?
hyde: Sure.
Q: Is his personality totally different from yours?
hyde: Completely different. He's very bossy.
Q: What are the similarites?
hyde: Neither of us have many musician friends. And...we're not similar at all... He doesn't sleep much. He's the type that forgoes sleep to do other things. I sleep a LOT (laughs). So he's like an "inventor". "Human Inventor". Every day he's doing something. Something that looks fun. He's that type of person.
Q: I see. So you've completed the work on the movie, and have been writing music since autumn.
hyde: That's right.
Q: And now it's 2003. What concrete plans have you made for this year?
hyde: Well... to release a single.
Q: When?
hyde: Spring? Even though it's already almost spring (laughs)
Q: What candidates do you have for a single?
hyde: I have a song that I would like to release as a single, so I'll release that in spring, and do some live shows. I want to do a lot of lives this year. The new songs I'm making are those I would like to perform live.
Q: Huh? So you worked on the presupposition you would do lives?
hyde: No, as I wrote the songs, I felt more and more that I wanted to do lives.
Q: Because you haven't done one for two years.
hyde: That's right.
Q: You felt you wanted to be up on stage again?
hyde: Yes.
Q: Not a "ROENTGEN" tour?
hyde: After I released ROENTGEN, and started writing new songs, I felt that to me, ROENTGEN was a part inside of me that had been finished up, and that even if I wanted to make "Part 2", I wouldn't be able to. Something inside was waking up. It's the result of years of stuff accumulating inside that came out at once.
Q: You didn't realize that while you were making it?
hyde: A little. I didn't realize that that's what I wanted to make. It's not the kind of thing you can make every single time.
Q: So you did realize that you were releasing years of built-up emotions?
hyde: Yes. So if I tried to make another like it... it would be like putting more hot water on used tea leaves?
Q: I see.
hyde: It's not that I couldn't do it again, but I just don't feel like it. In the same way that I balance the music I listen to, putting slash metal side-by-side with The Cardigans, Duran Duran, and so on. I want to have a balance.
Q: And ROENTGEN was the expression of the peaceful side?
hyde: Yes. Well, I also think I want to do a ROENTGEN tour someday. A peaceful one. But right now I want to do a different kind of live.
Q: You want to do a "raging" live? (laughs)
hyde: Yes, I do! (laughs)
Q: So the single you're releasing in spring will be a rock number?
hyde: Yes! You can dance to it... it has a "standing' feel. ROENTGEN had a "not standing" feel. To the extent it felt like "Don't stand!! (laughs)
Q: And from that you suddenly change to "Stand up!!" When doing lives, for example, what kind of image do you have for the composition of the band?
hyde: I haven't decided yet, but I would like it to be as simple as possible. Right now I'm thinking about ways to make it simple. 
Q: So before you had even thought about the concrete matters like that, you agreed to join in the SOAP tour?
hyde: I did (laughs). I thought we would do it in a much more light-hearted manner. (laughs) Last year, one time I gate-crashed their live.
Q: It was at the live house in your hometown, wasn't it?
hyde: Yep.
Q: What did you sing?
hyde: I sung some SOAP songs. And some ROENTGEN songs. Last year, occasionally I would go drinking with them, and I had made some songs that would be fun to do at lives. When we were out drinking, Sakura said it would be great if we could do a tour together. So we started chatting about doing a tour in spring, just in a really light, friendly way. I thought it would be fun to do in clubs with about 300 people in the audience. And before I knew it, the schedule was done. (laughs) The capacity became three times what I had thought. (laughs) I said to the manager that it's not the kind of thing we had discussed! (laughs)
Q: But with this schedule, the only single you will have released is the one in spring.
hyde: So I will only have one song...
Q: Will you re-arrange some songs from ROENTGEN to perform?
hyde: I haven't considered doing that.
Q: What!? So besides the single, all the songs will be new?
hyde:Yep! I'm not aiming to try and engage the fans with old songs.
Q: hmmm...
hyde: It's like I'm running forward and calling for them to follow.
Q: Wow!
hyde: Not knowing what kind of live it will be, or even what the songs will be, it's important that the live be cool. If they think the live is cool, and look forward to the next album being released, then that's great.
Q: So will there be the type of song where you might stage-dive?
hyde: I think so. But if my fans have no physical strength, then I can't do it. When I crashed the SOAP live, we had to stop between every song, and you just can't do a good live in a situation like that. I want to stop that kind of thing from happening.
Q: Are you looking forward to the tour?
hyde: A lot. I'm focusing seriously on making songs right now (laughs).
Q: But right now Laruku is not working together. In that situation, you wouldn't expect a couple of the members to go on tour together.
hyde: Right. I feel the same way.
Q: So how did it come about?
hyde: Well... it's all the fault of alcohol (laughs)
Q: Is it possible to say that, depending on how things are going that night, that you might crash each other's performances (ie, perform together)?
hyde: I've heard rumors to that effect...
Q: Woah... (laughs). So we can see you on both the screen and stage in May.
hyde: That's right. What a coincidence.
Q: So that's what you're up to in spring. What about an album?
hyde: In maybe summer? I don't know.
Q: And after that do you want to do live again?
hyde: Yes. I want to make this a year of lives.