not sure when this was i forget but i think recently. anyways, here you go oh and fair warning, its kinda long:
Since this is the day of your 7th anniversary, I would like to go with the theme of "Gazette's 7 Strange Points". Though it's okay if they aren't strange (laugh). I just would like to get to know you once again.
Uruha: So why is Kai-kun the leader?
Kai: I'm the one who wants to question this the most though (laugh)
Ruki: It's a wonder to everyone in the country
Aoi: Then let's just say I'm the best answer
Kai: Will the mystery finally be solved?
Aoi: I guess one reason would be his virtuousness
Reita: Definitely
Kai: Oh? What's with that?
Uruha: Virtuousness, capability, skill
Kai: Stop! Hurry up and drop it
- (laugh) So changing the subject, what about lives? Do you have any jinxes, or something you always do before a live?
Reita: First Leader confirms the setlist with the staff. Then lastly the other members get together and we talk about specific things to do during the songs or in between them.
Uruha: If we don't do that, then we won't be able to get worked up about it, right?
Kai: Though I think that more than anyone, I want to be the one to confirm it.
- So what do you do individually?
Ruki: Before I go onstage, I face the stage and clap twice then bow. As a courtesy.
Uruha: Like a sumo wrestler before stepping into the arena.
Reita: I sprinkle salt
- (laugh) Well I guess for an artist the stage is like an arena.
Ruki: I don't really think about it, I just do it. It's not even that it gets me pumped up or anything. I guess it's like a "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu for today too" kind of thing.
Aoi: I guess that's why their lives are so amazing.
Kai: So it's someone else's band, huh (laugh)
Uruha: As for what I do....
Ruki: Frisk? For me, whenever Uruha takes out the Frisk, I won't be satisfied until I have one.
Uruha: Seriously~ Even though it's my Frisk, for some reason everyone ends up eating them.
Aoi: Oh, those were yours? I never knew that. They were just sitting in a tray, so I thought it's ok to eat them.
Uruha: They're mine. I have to have some before a live. When I eat them I wake up.
Ruki: So you were tired before!
Reita: Also, if I don't stretch my Achilles tendon it could be kind of dangerous. But I think everyone does some kind of warm-up.
Aoi: I thought about it, but I don't do it.
Reita: Aoi-san drinks coffee.
Ruki: Ah, he does doesn't he.
Reita: Though he's always drinking it (laugh). Ah, and that. Aoi-san bumps fists with everyone, like a "yoroshiku" kind of thing.
Aoi: Well I think doing that shows teamwork. But Kai-kun is always up in front before we go onstage, so I haven't really done it with him.
- Do you think you've changed since 7 years ago?
Aoi: But there is one person we don't even know
Reita: Don't say that~ (laugh)
Uruha: He (the drummer) did change, though.
Ruki: A while ago I started watching our CD comment videos starting from before Kai-kun joined up until the recent ones. Watching those did make me think we've changed. Our voices got older.
Reita: And it's amazing how we messed around before.
Ruki: And it's our thing to say "We're the GazettE". We would go, "We're Ga, Ga, Gazette, Gazette~!" and purposefully not say it all together. If you listen to the recent ones we say, "(low energy) We're the GazettE..." like we're in a bad mood.
- (laugh)
Ruki: I watched that and thought we have changed. Like, ah, our noses are growing~
Everyone: Hahahaha.....
Ruki: We have changed on the outside, but I don't feel like we're that different on the inside.
- So what about the things you talk about?
Reita: I think that's something that hasn't changed the most (laugh)
Ruki: Because we can still get worked up talking about the same things!!
Uruha: What I think has changed when I look at the members is our money sense.
Reita: If you compare it to 7 years ago, now we can live off of music, and for the most part we have a decent living.
Aoi: Yeah, I can actually eat now.
Uruha: We seriously couldn't eat before!! We were living on the edge.
- So your lifestyle is on a higher level compared to then.
Aoi: We finally caught up to the crowd.
Reita: Before we sometimes didn't have part-time jobs.
Uruha: Back then even gyudon was a luxury.
Aoi: But it was charming in a way
Reita: Do you remember getting treated by Aoi-san? With nikuman or something.
Ruki: We did we did we did
Aoi: Nikuman is about 100 yen
Reita: No, at that time 100 yen was a lot
Uruha: Aoi-san worked the most, though
Reita: And when I was drinking juice I had bought with that scarce money, Ruki would ask for some.
Ruki: That hasn't changed.
Reita: It's okay now. At that time it was like I had to last until the next day on that one bottle of juice.
Ruki: For me, I would use the amount of money that juice would cost to buy a bento, then get juice from someone else.
Aoi: If you're talking about something you get from someone else, it's cigarettes.
Uruha: My cigarettes would run out about 3 times faster.
Ruki: Yeah, I did ask for cigarettes a lot.
Uruha: If I left a pack on the dashboard of the equipment van, all of a sudden the seal would be broken.
Reita: It was your fault for leaving it there (laugh)
- So your poor life has changed, and you've started living by yourselves, huh. Though Aoi-kun was already living alone when he came to Tokyo.
Reita: Yeah, at the beginning we were all family
Ruki: I wasn't a homeless middle-schooler, but homeless visual kei.
Uruha: That's awful!
- Would you switch between staying at other people's houses?
Aoi: Ruki was horrible~
Uruha: At that time we weren't really a band, though. We couldn't buy equipment, or guitars. We couldn't be picky about the sound. And it took a lot of work just to buy a QY (equipment with a rhythm machine and sequencer).
Reita: And wasn't it yours? (laugh)
Ruki: That was really useful, too. While using it I would think, "Wow, a QY can do this much!"
- So your early songs were made that way.
Aoi: Up until about 5 years ago, yes.
Uruha: Since it was small, it could make songs while I was asleep holding it.
Ruki: It was QY up until "Gama", right? But by "COCKROACH" we started to reach it's limit (laugh). At about that time we first bought computers I think. Oh yeah, and at the beginning I remember putting songs on it at karaoke boxes.
Reita: Ah, "Haru ni chirikeri, mi wa kareru de gozaimasu", right? Didn't we record that for our first interview?
Uruha: Yeah, yeah. We were told that they wouldn't get it if we didn't have songs on it, so go put some on. We brought an MTR (Multi-track recorder) this big (spreads hands apart) to the karaoke box (laugh)
Reita: And at karaoke the price is determined by the number of people, right. So Ruki and Uruha went, then Aoi and I walked around Shibuya. And got asked, "Do you want to try this new razor?" (laugh)
Kai: What was I doing at that time? I think was there during "Haru chiri".
Reita: Eh, were you there?
Uruha: I didn't think you were?
Ruki: Was it because we didn't include you?
Reita: Wahaha! Probably because we lived close to each other so we went together.
Uruha: But it wasn't like you were singing while the song was playing through speakers. I was holding the MTR and Ruki was doing his best to sing while wearing headphones, so you could hear me laughing.
Ruki: I reeally hated that
Uruha: (laugh) I was like, "Don't mind me"
Ruki: At that time, for a while I didn't like singing in front of people, so we didn't have songs on it.
Uruha: It was really funny because you sang it all just saying "La"....
Ruki: Isn't this the first time we've talked about that?
Reita: That's true!
- It seems like there are a lot more episodes that you haven't remembered. For example your fashion has changed.
Uruha: Aoi-san would drive while wearing platform boots, wouldn't he.
Reita: At that time we all wore them.
Kai: I didn't wear them. I went barefoot.
Uruha: Didn't you have shoes that looked like hamburgers? Because I had a fan point something out to me, too. I went into Rokumeikan in short pants and sneakers with no socks. I was told, "Uruha-san, that doesn't work", but I didn't get what was bad about it (laugh).
Ruki: But Reita wore aloha shirts with a towel around his neck. You totally looked like a guy who lived at the beach.
Reita: I was so cool back then~ (laugh)
Uruha: It didn't matter what people thought.
Ruki: Do you remember when you first met me?
Reita: I do. We were in different bands, and we had pink hair. Then we got really worked up talking about what we use to dye it. We decided to go home together, but then Ruki started talking to someone waiting to go onstage.
Ruki: Wahaha!
Uruha: That was Seventh Avenue, right
Ruki&Reita: It was DIMENSION
Uruha: No, it was definitely Seventh!
Reita: It was definitely DIMENSION!
- Your memories are different (laugh)
Ruki: And I mailed you when I dyed my hair blonde, didn't I.
Reita: Yeah, yeah. Ruki dyed his hair blonde first, and I also wanted it blonde, but before I took out the pink I remember mailing you and asking what you used to take it out.
- Like a middle-schooler (laugh)
Ruki: I dyed Uruha's hair, too
Uruha: That was fun
Ruki: Since we didn't have money to go to a salon. Aoi-san had blonde hair and wore Cowichan Sweaters. The red one with reindeer on it.
Aoi: Shutup! It was Jeans Mate (laugh)
Ruki: And after that, a long fur coat
Uruha: That had punch to it
Aoi: .........
Ruki: Ah, then it changed to a grey fur coat. That was pretty amazing, too.
Aoi: ......I don't think I like talking about the past.
Kai: Maybe we should get back to the present (laugh)
- Have you ever seen the members doing something really weird? For example at the hotel while you're on tour or something.
Kai: The strangest one would be Ruki. With the other members, even if our rooms are separate we'll still run into each other in the hallways, but I honestly never see Ruki.
Aoi: I saw him once!! He was in a knitted hat and wearing a face mask, also wearing the hotel bathrobe and slippers. I was like, "This never happens!"
Ruki: No, I just wanted to go buy some juice. And I didn't want to be seen by anyone....
Uruha: Wouldn't it be worse to be seen like that?
Ruki: I never knew that Aoi-san saw me (laugh)
- So what about any weird things you do during your daily life?
Reita: There is something that made me think, "Is this just me?". When I get out of the bath, I dry off my whole body with a hair dryer.
Ruki: Ehhh?
Reita: I dry off a little first, though. Then it feels really good to get completely dried out with a hair dryer. Your pajamas go on easily too, so you should definitely try it today.
Uruha: Kind of like that, I dry off before I get out of the bath. I swipe off the water on me with my hands, then ring out my hair.
Aoi: I wouldn't do that
- Anything else?
Kai: When I'm walking down the street I always want to walk in the narrowest areas. I'll purposefully walk between a wall and a telephone pole, or go to the corner in an elevator.
Uruha: I always move around so I don't look like a suspicious person.
Reita: That's being suspicious
Uruha: No, no (laugh). For example if you're walking at night and there's a girl walking in front of you and you start walking behind her at the same speed, wouldn't you be thought of as weird?
Aoi&Reita: I totally understand that!
Uruha: But reversely if there's a suspicious old guy walking behind me I start thinking, "What if this guy...."
- Are there any weird things you do when eating, or weird things you eat?
Ruki: There is something that I always do..... You know the candy called Happy Tan?
Uruha: Don't tell me, you lick it?
Ruki: Yeah. I'm not satisfied until I lick it halfway and then eat it.
Uruha: This guy loves flavors.
Ruki: I'll also just take the chocolate part off of Pocky.
Uruha: I get that! I also eat the chocolate parts of Kinoko no Yama first too. But it doesn't work with Takenoko no Sato.
Ruki: I don't feel the same about that one (laugh). I'll also eat just the middle of a cream puff first.
Aoi: So you want to make it twice as good.
Reita: That's thinking like a poor person.
Aoi: Definitely like a poor person.
- Then is there anything about Gazette which has just reached it's 7th anniversary that you reversely never want to change?
Ruki: Our mindset I think. Our attitude towards the band won't change. That we can be careless, weird, or serious won't change. In a good way we have no sense of being professional. That hasn't changed since before.
- What are some great points of the other members that you don't want to change?
Aoi: I think it's nice that Ruki-kun can talk well.
Reita: That's true~
Kai: That you can't hate him?
Ruki: I've never done anything to be hated by you.
Kai: Even if he does something wrong it's like, "Well it's Ruki so I guess it's okay!"
Ruki: Like if I skipped a song during a live?
Aoi: That we wouldn't forgive.
- What about a great point of Kai-kun that you don't want to change?
Ruki: If he'll keep forgetting stuff like always
Kai: I haven't done that recently though
Reita: That he's not very put together?
Aoi: I think it's great that he tries his hardest to take in everyone's opinions. ......I'm not sure if they're taken in or not, but he's working hard at being the leader.
Ruki: The first time I thought, "He's doing something leader-like~" was the mail he sent a while ago. He sent out a message to everyone connected saying that a meeting for the song selection was postponed. And it was a long message for once. [He said "long" in English]
Aoi: Say "long message"! [in Japanese]
Uruha: Wasn't that the first time he did something independently?
Aoi: But I don't have his number saved in my phone, so I didn't know who it was from.
Kai: O--i! Save it already! (laugh)
- What about Uruha-kun?
Kai: He goes by his own pace
Aoi: He might be the one who hasn't changed the most. I think because he doesn't waver regarding what he has.
Uruha: .....It's embarrassing being the center of attention!
Kai: The shy Uruha-kun.
Uruha: .......That's it?
Kai: You really don't change (laugh)
Reita: But there are things he gets worked up about. In the past, a roadie got into an accident and I got hit in the head and neck. I was taken to a hospital in Saitama, and Uruha called my parents living in Kanagawa, and they later told me that he offered to come pick them up. That sort of made me tear up.
Uruha: Though if they had said, "Ok, please do", I don't know what I would have done.
Reita: Hey! (laugh) Wouldn't it be better to not say that now?
Uruha: Ah, um, yeah!
Reita: Well in the end my parents came themselves!
Ruki: Then what's the point!
Reita: But, well, the thought made me happy
Aoi: Now let's move on to what hasn't changed about me
Reita: Am I last? I'll be like the butt of the joke.
Ruki: Aoi-san had more of an aloof image before.
Uruha: But isn't he the most human?
Reita: Aoi-san will treat us even now. A while ago, he.....what was it again?
Uruha: What was it?
Reita: You know, you guys shouldn't forget what people have done for you.
Kai: Then you say it.
Reita: Eh?
Ruki: He treated us at Royal Host.
Reita: He's always treated us to nikuman.
Ruki: How many times are you going to talk about nikuman?
Reita: (laugh) That generosity is pretty manly.
Ruki: Unexpectedly, he'll do almost anything for you if you ask him.
Aoi: Though no one really asks
Ruki: But if you do ask he'll definitely do it grudgingly
- That's really cool~
Uruha: Now you definitely can't refuse anymore!
Aoi: (laugh) But if someone asks, I really do want to honestly say "That's fine".
Kai: So you can't be honest (laugh)
Ruki: He'll definitely say, "I guess I don't have a choice~", and then do it for you.
- Though that's not bad, is it?
Ruki: Do mine over again. All you said was that I talk.
Kai: We said you were playful (laugh)
- Ok, let's talk about Reita-kun, then Ruki after.
Reita: Oh, so you decided to be the butt of the joke on your own?
Kai: It's very like Reita to think about the joke, though. Because he's funny.
Uruha: I can only think of things I want to call him on.
Ruki: I guess that he's pretty calm?
Uruha: If we went by "ROOKIES", he'd be Okada.
Reita: Who's Okada? You think it's okay to say if I don't know?
- (laugh) So Reita-kun softens the atmosphere then.
Aoi: No. When he's not feeling up to it, he doesn't do anything. I think getting the atmosphere going is his biggest job. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he gets paid for it. And there are times when he neglects to do it. I don't like that Reita.
Reita: I'll do my best~
Aoi: But before lives, he's the one trying the hardest to get everyone riled up.
Uruha: His network of information is amazing.
Reita: Say "information network". [Correcting each others' language again]
- But Uruha-kun also always tries to make people happy, right?
Uruha: No, it's not really like that....
Reita: He makes us happy with his natural cluelessness.
Aoi: You are well-informed, though.
Uruha: About things like martial arts or other sports athletes.
- Are you getting embarrassed?
Reita: ...........
Uruha: Eh, are you embarrassed?
Reita: ........... (blush)
- Then lastly, Ruki-kun.
Ruki: Eh, I was joking before.
Aoi: Ruki-kun does after all have the ability to bring color to the GazettE. .......We're being serious now, right?
- We've been serious this whole time (laugh)
Aoi: Because the vocalist is the face of the band
Uruha: Ruki-kun is thoughtful of his friends
Aoi: The conversation is totally different than before!
Ruki: Ah, I do actually have a lot of friends
Aoi: But you're not thoughtful of them at all
Ruki: That's not true (laugh)
Aoi: Whenever Ruki says to me, "Let's go clothes shopping", I always say "Yeah, let's go", but if I invite him he'll never go.
Ruki: (laugh) That's just a characteristic of B blood types. If I'm not interested in something, then I'm not interested. And I won't invite people. When I went with Reita it was a chance to do my own shopping as well, so I went.
Reita: I mailed him saying, "Do you want to go shopping?", but he didn't reply. Then he called me and was like, "Come pick me up".
Uruha: That's not a good conversation at all!
Aoi: .......He's a good guy
Kai: He got serious (laugh)
