Shoxx vol.171 Alice Nine Interview (Shou)

Shou

How is Shou recently?

How am I?(laugh) Well, these days I think I have become more manly in how I think. I went back to my former way of thinking, I guess. I preferred hard core music which I listened to and played in a band. I was wanting to be a ‘’manly man’ and once I had been in such a world, I was quite manly in my character and how to think. But since I met the Visual kei genre, I became delicate in how I think.(laugh) That’s just ‘being influenced’, I think.(laugh)  

Yes. The world of lyrics is totally different. By having a different take on things means you see or feel many new things, and probably the way you interpret these things change in you, Shou.

Yes. It was really like that. In my adolescence, I didn’t have many experiences in the world, so I was easy influenced by something new. In an extreme story, I wasn’t influenced at all until yesterday and I rather resisted against it, but after an unexpected prompt I became attracted and absorbed in it. Well, my character itself won’t change totally, but as you said now, because the angle or take on things changed, my way of thinking also gradually changed.

At around that age, it’s the time when the things that influenced you the most return to you. It’s easy to see, as it also influences your taste in clothes.

Yes! I used to be really manly in my appearance, too. I liked street wear, and wore such clothes always. I’m sorry to say badly, but at that time, I thought Visual kei was girlie. If my high school friends would see the present me, I’m sure they would be surprised, saying “OMG! You are doing the Visual kei scene?”.

But Shou, you said you were influenced by LUNA SEA, didn’t you?

Yes. In my junior high school, I respected LUNA SEA very much. At around the same time, I really like THE MAD CAPSULE MARKET, too. For me, LUNA SEA wasn’t Visual kei, but ‘a rock band which cared about their Visual appearance as well’. So I didn’t think I was addicted to Visual kei. But once I was addicted to it, my clothes and my thinking changed. Is there any better way to say it? Saying girlie might be misleading…..

It’s like you to take care in how you say things, Shou. Being careful not to offend anyone. But it’s OK, they understand you. Instead using the word ‘girlie’, it seems to me that they expose their inner weakness in their lyrics. Visual kei seems more delicate than punk style.

Yes. I agree with you. I felt like I became interested in the Visual kei scene later than others, so when I became a vocalist in this scene, I tried to catch up to the world around me. So I didn’t wear street clothes anymore. Then I became used to it.(laugh) But recently, I became more natural again, not enough to wear street wear yet, but I listen to music which I used to, and my way of thinking has become more manly, I think. No real reason or cause really.

It might be because you could connect to your inner-self, so you could come back to your original self. Before you tried to fit yourself into an image, but now you have confidence yourself.

Ah, that may be true. I don’t think I have a feeling of oppression like ‘I have to be like this.”, anymore. alice nine.played a big part in this. Last year we had only 2 tours, then I had several moments when I thought “I can make the rounds without being forced to.”. Before then, as I told you in previous interviews, I felt like “I should be likethis as alice nine..” so strongly that I forced myself to do different things. But I could see “This is enough.”, then I could be a little more relaxed and thought “This is us; alice nine. as we are.”. When we showed ourselves as strong, putting on a bravado, our inner selves were very week. We don’t need to do that now, I feel our inner-selves have become very strong and we have come back to the original us. When I listened to hard core music before, I was attracted to the emotional and open parts, not the aggressive parts. Now I’m feeling so, very open.

You don’t worry about the small things in life, do you?

Well, ….it’s my nature to tend to look around too much. For example, as I said before, when I sleep I think in my bed about “Did I hurt anyone by what I said today?”. I still think about these things now.

So how have you become manly?

I don’t think about myself and my music as much, because I have a strong confidence of “this is good”. Before, I was thinking about it too much.

I see. Before in your adolescence, what did you think about most?

I grew up having special education for gifted children since I was about 3 years old. I went to a cram school 5 days in a week. So my grades were good in public school, but once I entered into a private junior high school, there were older kids there, then I found I didn’t have my own personality or couldn’t express myself for the first time. Then I wanted to die thinking like “Is there any reason why I’m living? Where is my personality? Who loves me?”, because I thought I wasn’t loved by my parents, because I couldn’t live up to their expectations. I was doing my best until around the 4^th grade of elementary school, then I started to skip school secretly. I think back now and think that humans try to find a way to protect themselves and escape. I think I made my balance by escaping from it, not going against it. But now when I see that time standing one step to the side, I understand that my parents made me study hard because they loved me. My parents made me study hard not because they are doctors or they wanted me to be a doctor, but they are common people so they wanted me to have something, and made me go to a cram school.

Well, we often understand love and meaning of things afterwards.

Yes. I really think so. So I don’t want to miss a thing now. I want to live holding important things dear and doing my best. Especially as I met alice nine. and many others because of them, I really want to sing my best too.

I’m very impressed the phrases of “Could you make me sing beside you?” in the lyrics in this new single [JEWELS]. I think that your lyrics really say your feelings as you did now.

Yes. That seems to be everything for me at the moment.

So if the present Shou gave fans advice ‘how to live’, what would he say?

I’m not really one to give advice because I’m not so experienced and still immature, but now I really feel that “We can’t live alone.”. I found that through my club activities and alice nine., I want fans to have many experiences so that they can feel connections and bonds with others. As for the shooting of the cover, there are editorial staff who composed the set for us, writers who organize and make drafts from my incomprehensible talking, designers, make up artists, and many people who help us to be here, which we thank very much. I want to feel all these people’s love everyday. I will never forget it and want to grow too.