Interview with lynch.

After an electric kick-off to their 2008 THE DIFFUSING IDEAL one-man tour, JaME had a chance to interview the young, but experienced Nagoya kei band, lynch.. We spoke about their most recent singles, ADORE and Ambivalent Ideal, as well as the workings of the band and their goals.


Could you introduce yourselves please?

Hazuki: I'm Hazuki, vocalist.
Reo: I'm Reo, guitarist.
Yusuke: I'm Yusuke, guitarist.
Asanao: I'm Asanao, drummer.

First, we would like to ask you about the new single, Ambivalent Ideal, which will be released on November 15th. The title song, Ambivalent Ideal, begins with a mysterious mood, then develops into a hard and beautiful melody, having a lot of contrasts such as hard and soft, fast and slow. It is very "lynch.". When you created the song, what did you have in mind?

Hazuki: I made that song after we had a meeting discussing what kind of song we should make for the next single. We decided to make a song that has a dark mood with a sinking feeling, which we have often made before, but this was not to be something that you could work through. I didn't think about contrasts that much at first, but as we advanced it we decided to hold ourselves back in places and let ourselves go in others where we thought it would be better to do so.

Your former single, Adore, was rock with a lot of momentum, but this song is quite different, right?

Hazuki: Yes. Adore was that kind of song, so this time we made this kind of song. Frankly speaking, Adore is a song which lynch. is best at now, but there is no use to do the same thing twice, so we decided to do something different.

What's the concept of the lyrics this time?

Hazuki: About the lyrics, the title is "Ambivalent Ideal" so I thought of "ambivalent" and I wanted get the message across that if we look at things from different perspectives, we can see things quite differently. This song is about a murder. A murder is a crime and the general impression associated with it is like, "Someone hates someone else and kills him," I think, but there may be a case where that someone doesn't hate the other person. I thought it may be possible to kill someone out of love, and I made a main character around that and wrote comparing views from the outside and inside of him.

Oh, that's what the lyrics are about!?

Hazuki: So the main melody is like an expression of love but it's actually a murder scene.

Is it like "I killed you because I loved you?"

Hazuki: No, not for the main character in this song. Murder is no different to him than sex.

You shot the PV and there are particular things in it, such as a woman sitting in a wheelchair and Asanao has really heavy make-up. Is that linked to the lyrics?

Hazuki: Yes. And the woman in a wheelchair is actually me. (laugh) I brought in the concept then we discussed together what we wanted to do.

Reo: I heard from Hazuki about the flow and development of the story, and we decided smoothly as it would link to the lyrics.

Did you have the idea of a woman in a wheelchair from the beginning?

Hazuki: Yes. It was already in the planning or drawings before the shooting.

Reo: When Hazuki showed the drawings to members, there were quite a lot of impressive scenes and I thought they reflected to the content of lyrics quite well. This time, I didn't really present any ideas so he presented his to members. It's up to us what we do in our PV and I think that what Hazuki brought to us suited the content.

How was shooting the PV?

Asanao: Personally, I was surprised. It turned out to be quite beautiful. (Laughs) And so were the images we took.

I heard you did your make-up by yourself.

Asanao: Yes. I did my make-up to match the mood of the song and I imagined myself to be 'dirty,' with Hazuki like that.

Asanao, so you had the image of 'dirty.'

Asanao: Yes. But the images we were shot were unexpectedly beautiful, so I thought "I'm glowing. " In the planning phase, there were various ideas, and some of which we could do but some of which we couldn't do. Actually, we had some scary trouble in the shooting...

Can you tell me a bit about that?

Asanao: Well it was mostly machinery trouble, really. It's a little bit of a pity we couldn't do some of our ideas because time was limited, but when we saw the completed PV, it was very good, and so I'm satisfied with it.

The PV is very powerful. The contrast of the violence of the live images and the quietness in the hospital scene is awesome.

Yusuke: I intended to produce a different performance to that of real lives. This is the second time for me to be in a PV, and I tried to play while reflecting on what I had done before... but you can't really see my face because of my hair.

Hazuki: I did not know that you were concerned about that. (Laughs)

Yusuke: Asanao said we had some troubles, and in my case, my guitar strap broke during the shooting. The place made me think that there was something else there...

Do you believe in such things?

Yusuke: Um... I try not to believe in such things, and I'm not to be able to see them, so I'm alright. Well, we had many problems, so I just thought, "There is something here... " (Laughs)

Did you think, "We should be purified."

Yusuke: Yes.

About the coupling song, DOZE, it's a hard song, sort of like punk rock, and it also has a quiet part with clear guitar playing, then ends hard again. How did you make this development?

Hazuki: In the original song, there wasn't the quiet part in the middle, and it was just a crazy song. (laughs) When I brought it, I thought, "It's good to be like that." However, after the members listened to it, they said that they wanted to make the song something that only lynch. could do, so we decided to put the quiet section in the middle.

I see. In one single, there are 2 different types of songs, and you also put that variation in one song too.

Hazuki: Ah, yes. They are totally opposite.

This tour began with the live in Ebisu LIQUIDROOM on October 24th. That live was so exciting that it didn't seem like the first live in the tour.

Hazuki: Yes, that live ran high like a tour final. But we had a meeting afterward to reflect on things that we needed to work on. Usually the first live is quite difficult because the flow of the set list hasn't soaked in yet as rehearsals are not enough. Honestly speaking, that venue was too big to do the first live of the tour. (Laughs)

The audience was just chaos.

Hazuki: It was also our revenge live, so what we wanted to do was quite big. We had our ideal vision, but I think we had a little more to go before we got there.

Asanao: Last time, we played in Ebisu LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo too, and we might have a feeling that, "It will be alright," so we weren't so nervous. On reflection, I don't think that it had a good result. That live wasn't bad especially, but if it had been a tour final live, I think that it would have been quite different.

Yusuke: I felt like we were beaten by the audience. We had to heat them up but the audience ran high before we did.

This time, fans already knew that the first live in Ebisu was your revenge live. So didn't you feel that they tried to do that?

Hazuki: That's why it turned out so well, I think, because if only we played well, lives couldn't be good. While we couldn't release 100% of our power, the audience had 120% to 200%. Then people said that the live was good, so in the end it was alright. About our stage performance, we weren't bad, but I think we could do better.

On this tour you have finished 4 lives, how were they?

Reo: We discussed our lives after the first live in LIQUIDROOM, and as Yusuke said, we had to think about developing a way to do our lives so that the audience reacts to us. After that, we changed the menu from the first day and went on to the second live in Sapporo. From there we really felt their response to us as we did more and more lives.

Do you change the set list a lot every time?

Reo: No, we don't change so much, but even a small change could influence the flow of the live. Even though I said our lives are getting better as we do them, it doesn't mean that the lives in the first half of the tour were bad, we release 100% of our power in our lives every time. As a result, I think that our lives are getting better.

And every time you play a new song at a live you get used to it more.

Reo: I think that they are in some ways raised by the audience. They have listened to the songs and understand them.

Are there any songs that people in some localities like better than others? Do you think about where you are playing when you make your set lists?

Hazuki: Um, we have played all over in Japan since we made our band. But there are places where people run really high and like harder songs (Laughs), so we add hard songs in the menu there.

Reo: We think about how the audience will react, but I think about the structure of the venue too. We make variations if the venue is large and has a beautiful lighting system so play songs that match, and if the venue is small and has a thin air about it, we play denser, harder songs. We decide our menu taking into consideration the qualities of the venue.

Has anything humorous happened?

Hazuki: On the first day. (laugha) Let me see... in the middle of the live when we were going to play a new song for the first time that we hadn't released yet, we started with 1-2-3...but Asanao couldn't get himself started. (Laughs)

Ah, I remember that! (Laughs)

Asanao: Oh, no... I don't want to remember that... (Laughs)

All: (burst out laughing)

Hazuki: That was in the middle of the live when the mood was heavy, so we couldn't glossed things over. (Laughs) It was at that moment when we were going to change the mood and make the live really take off and then... he made a mistake. (Laughs)

I didn't know that until you told me.

Hazuki: But I could relax from after that.

Are there any other interesting episodes?

Hazuki: In Niigata, when it was Reo's birthday, they prepared a birthday cake!

Reo: And there is another thing... when the venue becomes dark and the SE starts at the beginning of a live, you can hear people calling for Hazuki... but they are mostly men. (Laughs)

Hazuki: Yeah, everywhere they were men.

Reo: Men are faster to respond when the lights in the venue are turned off. They call like "Hazukiiiiii---!!!" (laughs) (Reo mimics the death voice calling for Hazuki)

Hazuki: I wrote it in my blog already. (Laughs)

That's cool!

Reo: I think that it is good.

Which do you like more, playing in one-man lives or in events which many bands play?

Hazuki: If I said which was better, I think that I like one-man lives much better because we can play longer. (Laughs)

I think there are good points in multiple band lives too.

Hazuki: Hmm, this is my personal opinion but I feel like "I'm working in business" in those lives. I feel a duty like "I have to gain more fans!" I think that in one man lives I can do things with more freedom and really let myself go.

In one-man lives, the audience comes to see only lynch.. In lives with multiple bands, there are various fans and their responses are different.

Hazuki: Well I think about that, thinking about the kind of staging I should do for the audience and how I should sing to them. I know this kind of thinking is necessary and all, but I don't want to have to think about it. But I suppose I like both kinds of lives. (laughs)

Do you find it difficult to work with totally different kinds of bands?

Reo: On the contrary, I find that I really go off!

Hazuki: For me it is like playing in an away concert, I feel like 'Okay this is it! Let's go!"

Which is easier to work with, bands that are of the same kind as you, or totally different bands?

Reo: I don't think about which are easier to work with. But I get annoyed with bands that don't come on time. (Laughs)

Hazuki: (laughs)

Bands who talk too much in the MC? (Laughs)

Reo: That's against the rules, I think. It's like giving a punch when the bell sounds. (Laughs)

The tour title is THE DIFFUSING IDEAL this time. Who decides the tour title each time?

Reo: This tour title was decided before the song title Ambivalent Ideal was determined. In our autumn domestic tour, we thought about what we should do in our one-man tour which includes 12 venues, so we decided to clarify our ideal nationally by making it the tour name.

So after you made the tour title, you thought of using the word 'ideal' in your song title?

Hazuki: I just thought it's a good idea. (Laughs)

Reo: Hazuki thought about the world view of the song and the concept of the lyrics, because the lyrics were made before the song title.

Hazuki: I do that with songs when title hasn't been determined yet.

Reo: As a result, we decided on Ambivalent Ideal. About the tour title, when we went on tour with events in summer and autumn, we thought about our one-man tour where we wouldn't have time limits and people would come to see just us, and how we would do our lives. We made the title as we wanted to find to an ideal way to diffuse the ideal of lynch. nation wide.

Hazuki, you DJ on radio programs, Live Cast, etc. How are they going?

Hazuki: I enjoy it. It's one of the things, which I wanted to do from before. I like talking.

Your image is more of someone who doesn't like to talk.

Hazuki: I'm not like that actually. I think I'm rather talkative, but only to people who I know well. I don't talk at all with people I don't know.

Ah, you are? Reo, you have a lot of friends, so you talk with any kind of people, right?

Reo: Well, when I'm spoken to, I talk because I like talking. And I think it's good for me to meet with various people and talk about various things.

Hazuki: As for Live Cast, we record that by ourselves. We do it completely by ourselves. For example, magazines have restrictions such as the number of letters, and other radio programs have time limits. We don't have to think about that, and we can talk about whatever we want to talk about, so I can say things that I can't usually say.

Do Asanao and Yusuke talk there, too?

Asanao: If I was asked to I would, but... I don't know how it would work because I don't have many friends. (Laughs)

Hazuki: Don't worry, I talk to myself these days. (Laughs)

Reo: Last time I did it, I talked alone for the whole time. (Laughs) But it was better.

During your tour, do you record many programs?

Reo: No, I record them in hotels. I record in my hotel, edit it alone so it is about 30 minutes, and deliver it myself. (Laughs)

Kaine, who is a guitarist of SIX-R, appeared as a guest. Is he your friend?

Hazuki: (laughs) He was my senior when I was in junior high school. He is an important person in my band career, which was kind of unexpected. When we rented a city hall to play just for fun, we weren't playing in live houses yet, so we said, "Let's pay money and play together." When I stood on the stage for the first time, Kaine was the real organizer. (laughs) When I played the live, he liked me more, and I came into a larger circle of friends, and then it became like it is now... so if he weren’t there then, I wouldn't be here now.

How does it feel to know six of your ten releases have been completely sold out since the beginning of your career?

Hazuki: I don't know, really. Um, that includes the first limited editions. But honestly speaking, I don't feel anything.

Don't you ever realize or feel a sense of achievement? Didn't you aim for sold-out releases?

Hazuki: I don't think anything. What are sold-out are mostly our first limited editions. It's not good if first limited editions aren't sold out. (laughs) Regular editions are still sold though. It is not really a number that you can get carried away with, so I think that it's pretty normal.

What is the meaning behind the English phrase "Monster Barker" in the song The Universe off the album THE AVOIDED SUN?

Hazuki: My answer might disappoint you, but honestly speaking, it doesn't have an especially profound meaning. Usually I think about the chorus a lot, and I hate to put strange meanings into words and make them sound bad making them hard to sing. Those who play the chorus have to play other parts too, so they can't concentrate only on the chorus. So I think about easier words to shout, and the termination of both "Monster" and "Barker" are a line in Japanese, which is easy to say and shout. And I also compare them with other lyrics and chose what is not so different from them. So the sounds are a big factor even if I can't understand all the words that well. (Laughs) But there are other things besides the meanings that are more important for me.

You've said in the past that English titles connect better with the theme of lynch.. Is this the same reason you use so many English lyrics in your songs?

Hazuki: My way of singing doesn't match Japanese that often. It's a little bit strange when I listen to it, and I have some difficulties singing in Japanese. For example, it's so hard to shout in Japanese. In this way English is much easier to use, so I use it often.

So there is no intention to enhance your music by using English lyrics?

Hazuki: No. It's just easier to hear.

Yusuke, you joined lynch. later, is there anything you are conscious of now that you are in the band?

Yusuke: With my playing, I don't think that I am that conscious of anything. My good points were known when I was invited to join, so when I entered the band, I really wanted to apply my skills to help the band advance. Before I entered the band I saw their lives several times and I understood the color of the band. So I thought that I could bring different aspects and add a new color by joining.

You are guitarist, the same as Reo, so what do you think about Reo?

Yusuke: I know Reo from his former band before he started lynch., so I was nervous at first. I wondered if it would be alright for me being his partner. (Laughs)

Then Reo, what did you think of Yusuke as a guitarist?

Reo: He is totally a different type to me. He said before "By joining, how can I progress the band?" And I feel like he could really do anything, as he has many experiences and achievements. We changed from a three-member band to a four-member band, so now we make music through four members. I don't want him to feel as though he has to hold back, but rather have him play freely and say things like, "I think that this phrase should be played like this..." etc.

So, you didn't suggest to him that you should share certain parts, but you both were more "I want to play like this..." right?

Reo: We showed each other "I want to play like this," then discussed how we would match and not clash in the song. But from the start we never really argued about anything.

Asanao, your drumming style is calm and cool. Are you conscious of your drumming style?

Asanao: No, I'm not really. I have been doing this style for a log time. lynch. has an image of violence, but I'm not going to be that violent, and I have been thinking that from the beginning when I started lynch. and I'm not going to change. But lives are a completely different thing...

Really?

Asanao: Well, not really. (Laughs)

All: (burst out laughing)

Reo: We do what we want to respectively, and that mix is lynch., I think. If we all release our good points respectfully I think that we can move forward. So he doesn't hit the drums "calmly," but his way of hitting the drums seems calm compared to others. We can say the same thing about Hazuki, that he writes songs which he likes, then listeners find them catchy, melodious, or hard. We just make what we think cool, together.

I think that your stance to your music is cool.

Asanao: I think that we all know where we stand respectively in regard to music.

Reo: We have worked together for about four years, so we know what we should do, and we work on it, moving forward.

Is there anything in particular that you want to challenge?

Asanao: I don't want to change a lot. I want to keep this mood, and make good songs and do good lives continuously.

Yusuke: Personally, I'm a guitarist and I just play the guitar now, but if we had songs in where I needed to play other instrument other than guitar, I might play other instrument in future. I might play the synthesizer or something special. (laughs) But this is just my personal interest.

Are you preparing for that?

Yusuke: No, not really. (Laughs) If I could do something like that, I think it would be interesting though.

Reo: I think that now that there are four of us, it gives me more confidence to widen our range of songs... You know I just realized that... (Laughs)

Now Hazuki makes almost all of your songs, but is there any possibility that other members will make songs?

Reo: Maybe. It might sound strange, but it's interesting that we play other types songs too. For example, R&B, surf rock, melo-core, there are many music genres. If we were to arrange them to match the music of lynch., the possibilities for the band would be larger, I think. We have confidence that if we did do that, no one would say "It's not lynch."

That makes it hard for the vocalist though. (Laughs)

Hazuki: Yes. (Laughs) R&B is difficult... (Laughs) I do what I like, so I don't especially have any new things that I want to do. I think that I will just continue doing what I want to. You know, I want to take an artist photo one day without make-up. I don't hate make-up at all, and I do it, as I want to do so, but I really love artists who take photos without make-up, and I have never done it, so it would be nice to do it in future.

You might make a song with that kind of mood.

Hazuki: Yes. I think that we can do it even now in our present songs, but I think that we have to think about the flow of things too.

Do you feel any prejudice when people say that you are "visual kei"?

Hazuki: I don't know what visual kei is precisely. If it's not a music genre, and is decided if you are wearing make up or not... then I suppose that we are visual kei. But I don't care, because we do put on make-up. (Laughs)

Reo: If people say that we are visual kei because of our music, I'm angry about that. (Laughs)

Hazuki: I think when people say visual kei generally, they think of a low standard of music. I think that it is a shame if people associate us with that. But if we are allotted to that genre just because of our appearance, I would have to agree.

Your CDs are sold in the visual kei section in CD shops. How do you feel about that?

Reo: Such genres are just categorized by listeners arbitrarily, and we are just doing what we think to be cool, and if they categorized us visual kei, we won't say anything against that. You know, a band, which is thought by the world to be a punk band, might think themselves to be a heavy metal band in their hearts. (Laughs) A band whose CD is put in the corner of loud rock might be hard rock. A band whose CD is put in heavy metal corner might think themselves, "No, we are power metal!" (Laughs) It's categorized by people unwillingly, so we don't say anything. I think that it is better to use that energy on other things. (Laughs) I think that if we continuously present better music and lives, such walls will gradually disappear.

Finally, could each of you give us your aspiration for the following tour, and a message for foreign fans, please?

Yusuke: The contents of our lives are getting better and better. I hope when we finish the tour, the band is prepared to go up to the next step, so I want to enjoy each and every live. We may have a chance to go overseas someday and do lives there, and I think the lives would be so exciting, please wait for us. We look forward to seeing the day when we can finally meet you.

Asanao: We put our souls into our lives every time, and we are certainly growing as we do lives, so I want this tour to succeed. I have never done a live concert overseas, but when I hear from people who have done, they tell me "The air is different from Japan." I can't say anything because I have never actually felt it, but I want to do it someday. I can't stop imagining how the live of lynch. overseas would be, but I'm very interested what it would be like.

Reo: I think that each member is able to concentrate in this tour, so we want to keep our tension from day one and put 200% or even 300% into our performance. I heard about lives overseas that the air is different and so on, but I simply want to go overseas and play for you. If you have a chance to see our lives, come and see us. I am sure that you will enjoy a lynch. concert.

Hazuki: This tour is our one-man live tour in twelve different venues, many people come to see us, and I think that we will be able to give a good performance every time. Now I feel this situation is quite close to the vision that for this band when I first started out. I'm looking forward to making this dream come true. I hope I can share some time with you in our final live, so please come and see us. About going overseas, people say to me "Come over soon!" more and more often (laughs). I can't say when, but I can say that I really want to go. Our next work would be a very big volume, if you'll listen to it, I'm sure you'll understand lynch. is totally different from visual kei, so look out for it when we release it.


JaME would like to thank lynch. for making this interview possible.