ItalianoGACKT exclaims 「You have to move the world！」！ Secret story of the creation of new song 「ARROW」 ／ Interview
■New Single 『ARROW』 Interview （1/3）
A song with a message that strongly reflects “GACKTISM”
On 7 October （Wed）, his first single of 2015 and 46th in his career, 『ARROW』 will be released. The title song is a masterpiece that is profoundly powerful, dramatic and deep middle tempo ballad, which harnesses the very best of GACKT’s transcendental singing techniques. It is little wonder that with production in full-swing for the concept live tour 『LAST VISUALIVE TOUR』, which will start from March 2016, it is a special song that was picked as the opening after repeated rigourous selection processes which included a number of other songs created. Singing ＜scatter beautifully＞, it is a poignant cry that ironically conveys the message to “live on”. Through the whole song, it is also, in a way, a song with a message that deeply reflects the life philosophy of his own that he calls “GACKTISM”. With strong feelings of expressing the release of an ARROW (矢), GACKT passionately shares with us the “spiritual baton relay race” that connects the next generation.
If you create the flow, your surroundings will flow too, then you’ll move an era
―― 「ARROW」 is a song that boasts a grand sense of scale. It gives the sensation that one is has watched a stage play to the end instead of just listening to one song, and it also makes us feel a variety of emotions.
GACKT： Intense （laughs）. The 『LAST VISUALIVE TOUR』 is already just around the corner, so even though thhis has been composed I was frantic… This is one of those songs. Since this is like a representative song for the opening of the 『LAST VISUALIVE』. I would like people to listen to it while imagining 「Will this become the opening?」.
―― I see. That is to say that aside from this song, you’re concurrently writing other songs right?
GACKT： That’s right. Until now I’ve always been writing them, because I’ve come to be able to see the structure and composition of the live, I consider various things like 「What standpoint should this song be in?」 or 「Where must this song be played?」, and find a balance while composing them. Now I’m in the stage of picking songs in a concentrated manner. Its not 「Because I’ve made a song, yes, I’ll use it 」, even if it’s made if it’s not useful for the live it won’t be used. As that’s the sifting through I do, what that means is that the power in the songs will naturally get stronger and stronger.
―― From where did you get the idea for the ARROW (矢) motif?
GACKT： An arrow can’t fly if nothing is done to it. Meaning that to fly, one has to strain their power. In addition, you won’t necessarily hit your mark just because you’ve strained. I guess it’s similar to people’s feelings. From the way to hitting the mark from that distance, until the the way it is received, all of it. I wonder if you can say that it is the manifestation of my own will. In addition to pursuing the ideals that I’ve drawn up, the things I’ve decided on and my resolution, they’ve all been put together in this song.
―― Arrows are unleashed with a focus, and they pierce, that’s the way they’re delivered right. As expected, it is not other weapons, but only the arrow that can be personified right?
GACKT： In the case of other weapons you’re not using your own power right? Because among all the weapons, it is only the arrow where you cannot reach your target unless you strain your power. You first have to pull on your bow.
―― For that you can’t use it either unless you have muscles right.
GACKT： That’s right. It’s like saying “are you really prepared to shoot an arrow unless its in the best cicumstances?”. As men are significantly more foolish than women, because they are simple-minded, they chase after ideals, they seek dreams, they live in those virtues. I thought, isn’t the balance between man and woman composed of women supporting these men while thinking “this is silly”? The world now has become filled with men who are dishonest and shrewd, to the point where it feels like this is impossible right. It’s because dreams were created and there were struggles that eras progress, and if that were lost, things will grow stagnant. Like how if you think about why a pond grows stagnant, you will understand that its because water has stopped moving, and similarly with the human world, if movements stop time will grow stagnant. In other words, to head towards the next era, unless there is someone who keeps moving something and forges ahead, we don’t get there. And I would like everyone to think of that as “my own”. Ask 「Is there something I want to do?」, 「Is there something I want to become?」, 「Have I ever felt the reason why I was born?」, if there’s a 「No」 to the questions, it’s like 「Then, why are you here?」. At the point when you can’t find that, it’s to say that you’ve stopped.
―― You’re saying, that the present Japan is in such a situation.
GACKT： Many people have become like that.
―― You’re thinking that we shouldn’t lament the stagnated mood, but instead open up an air hole right?
GACKT： I don’t think that I alone can open up an air hole. Just that I can show the appearance of 「Living like this is more fun, you see? You can feel “alive”, you see?」. For me, even if it’s just a little, I live my life while feeling like 「I, myself, am alive」. It’s not particularly about whether or not you want to be like GACKT, it’s about 「Is the present me alright?」. There are many guys out there who criticise such comments from me. It’s fine as it is. As long as you’re not just criticising other people, and firmly pushing forward for yourself.
―― So you’re saying that by asking yourself things like that, one can progress forward?
GACKT： Right, right. If you’re content with you yourself at present and say 「There’s nothing more do to」, I think as it is that person is blessed. If those words are said after something was done, then they are the words of those who are prepared for death. If those words are said despite nothing being done, there’s no change from the pond being stagnant. That’s why, I say 「Move it! 」. There’s also stagnation infecting its surroundings and spreading more and more. It’s when people get away from things by saying 「I’m fine just like that」. People don’t live alone. That’s why unless you live on an uninhabited island, you’ll somehow create some kind of influence, no matter how small. That’s why, I say 「If you’re stagnant, this world will turn stagnant」.
―― To put it the other way around, that also leads to hope right. To not give up when 「no matter what you do, nothing seems to change」, because if you just create an action, the ripples will grow, and bit by bit something will change.
GACKT： That’s right. If you create the flow, your surroundings will flow too, then you’ll move an era. Be it good or bad, people will always be influenced by other people so, I’m saying 「You have to move the world! 」.
I would like to leave behind what I can for the next generation
――Since the last 『VISUALIVE』 that was held was in 2009, right after that, Japan went through the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster, and I think that the era went through a great change. With that going on, along with GACKT-san tackling the next 『VISUALIVE』, was there any part were you felt a change? For example, a growing sense of duty of 「I have to say this」 or things like that.
GACKT： I would like to leave behind what I can for the next generation. Until I die, if I can deliver something like the “GACKTISM” that I have to the next generation or the one after that, I believe that it is a role that I have to carry out. In the end, as an adult, the number one thing you have to do is to convey your thoughts and feelings to the children who will build the future in the “spiritual baton relay race”. There will be shitty people who reject it. But if you get bothered by every single one of those things nothing will get done. While you’re shaping your own thoughts, you will suddenly notice that you may have been a brat. Because you don’t become more mature just by growing old right. The word “大” (big), it looks like a person is spreading his arms that;s why he’s “big” (大) right? In other words, it’s because a person has a burden that he starts to become an adult, so those who have no burdens at all aren’t adults at all.
―― As expected, you can only realise this when you’re progressing.
GACKT： Unless you move, you won’t realise it. It’s not as simple a thinking about it in your head, looking someone else’s article online, reading comments, and understanding from there.
―― Although I was allowed to cover your birthday event held back in July, with regards to your own age and such, awareness has been gained about questions like 「How much longer can I continue after this?」 and other things were previously not considered, including a change of frame of mind. As the years accumulate, what are the feelings that you want to leave behind for the next generation that have grown more intense?
GACKT： That, I have. When I passed 30, I started to think that I can’t keep living on thinking for only myself, and I started the motion with the thought “what can I deliver to the children of the next generation?”. Before, there was something really happy that happened. While filming for a drama, I met a female dancer who came for my live when she was in elementary school. Although she said 「Actually, I’ve met GACKT-san before」, I couldn’t tell because she had the appearance of an adult. When I asked 「Where did we meet?」, she said 「At the concert」. But because I know all of the dancers who perform at my lives, I said 「No, we’ve not met though… …?」 （laughs）.
―― （laughs）
GACKT： Though every time I will definitely have 2 children included with my dancers, those children have now become adults, and are working hard in professional work with what the dancers could teach them. When I see them, I would think 「I wonder if I encouraged them a little?」. If I became even just a tiny part of that starting point for them, I’m glad.
―― Instead of just a little, isn’t that quite a big starting point?
GACKT： Well, since normally elementary school kids don’t dance in front of thousands of people (laughs). Furthermore, not as backup but mains.
―― Even in a reunion in that form, as I believe that this can only turn into reality because GACKT-san has continued your activities for a long time, it really is an honorable thing.
Source: Excite Music
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
© GACKT ITALIA