Zy 39: MUCC

When this issue is released, MUCC will have completed their new album, which was released on March 26th, as well as their American tour "TASTE OF CHAOS." However, when they had this interview, they were far from this point, with the titles of songs for the album still not yet decided. There were songs yet to be mixed, orchestra had been put in, but vocals had not, and even some lyrics hadn't been written. That was because this work started rather unusually and was supposed to be two mini albums including only FUZZ, which was one of the releases following their previous album Gokusai, but suddenly it changed into a full album. This is a personal interview in which we completely delve into the present minds of Tatsuro, Miya, YUKKE and SATOchi!


Tatsuro

In your last interview you said, "The next album will have many strong songs," but how strong they are?

Tatsuro: They are like a flood of lives. It's like they formed tight roots and the trunks grew from them.

What kind of lyrics did you put into such strong songs?

Tatsuro: I didn't write the lyrics like I was driving toward the future. They're like, "Here is the conclusion," not "I'll see further than that."

Houyoku had the theme of "Further than that," didn't it?

Tatsurou: Yes, yes, yes, yes. There were many songs with that kind of theme, but this time it was something different. I listened to Houyoku recently and thought, "Houyoku has many good songs." There are many songs that we listen to carefully..

I thought this album was close to 6.

Tatsuro: I think that the sound is close to 6 and Gokusai, while the content is closer to Houyoku because they are more personal and I don't sing about the band. I sing about very personal things.

Up until now, when you wrote lyrics, you did that as a spokesman of the band, didn't you?

Tatsuro: Yes. As I represent the band, I can't help but think about them and I think that those nuances were put in somewhere, but this time I didn't think about it at all. I thought it would be OK to be free and do what I wanted to do.

However, it doesn't mean that all of the songs are dark, does it?

Tatsuro: No.

But they aren't songs full of hope either.

Tatsuro: No. They're not really down or up, not hopeful or hopeless.

You didn't really confirm or deny anything.

Tatsuro: No. I think that when I wrote them I was in that kind of mood. For example, I thought it's not so bad to run away from what I hate. There might be people who say that it's just an escape from reality, or "You're just running away!" But I don't think it's so bad to have such a place. I think it is up to you, not others, to decide what is good or bad for yourself.


Miya

I heard that this album was supposed to be two mini albums, but it turned into one full album.

Miya: Yes. We were going to put totally different things into them.

Were the "different things" heavy metal and dance music?

Miya: Yes. Metal and dance. We use both to get our ethnic concept across.

In the last interview, when you said, "In the next album, there will be many songs that will fill you with vital energy," you meant ethnic music?

Miya: Well, ethnic music has so many elements that really make you feel that way, especially a lot of percussion that gives you a feeling of raw heat. Actually, this time we invited a percussionist and he was very good. He really had a heat that drummers or guitarists don't have.

Ethnic music used to be the music played before soldiers went to fight, when they sang and danced together to boost morale.

Miya: Yes, and to pray for rain.

How did you get interested in such music, which affects people like this?

Miya: I listened to such music when we released Gokusai. I like ethnic instruments such as the sitar and sanshin, so when they are incorporated into the music, I can imagine the country the music is portraying. This time we made use of such instruments to give the songs better images.

Oh, you made the concept after you wrote the songs?

Miya: Yes. After I listened to the melodies I realized that, "This melody matches with the sitar. Not guitar." Other instruments gave me the same feeling as, "Not electric guitar, but acoustic guitar." I often use such an approach when I play instruments, but not so much in the melodies, so I felt that it was interesting. It was interesting to do songs whose melodies aren't of the Japanese style.

Do you mean you pay more attention to the melodies in this album?

Miya: Not really, but I make a point of the atmosphere. This music is not really where a vocalist would go forward on a stage and a spotlight would be put on him, but more of a fuzzy or obscure image would be projected for people to see.


YUKKE

In the last interview, Tatsuro said, "There are many strong songs in the next album." Did you think that too, YUKKE?

YUKKE: I thought so. This time, many songs were selected and we had to choose only a handful from them, so those that made it to the final cut are quite strong, I think.

Do you mean that the songs emphasize strength?

YUKKE: Yes, I think so. This time we made songs that have various people's opinions in them, such as the arranger and others, so we felt that it was fresh and listeners would feel a newer MUCC, I think.

Among the various people you mentioned, I heard NARASAKI of COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS was involved.

YUKKE: Yes. He previously said to me, "Why don't we work together?" and I said, "Sure!" Then we worked together and it was interesting.

Which song did you collaborate on with NARASAKI?

YUKKE: It was Shion. At first, when I was asked, "How do you like this?" and listened to the demo, the song showed many colors that we didn't have in our band. At times there were sounds in it that were a bit like a frog croaking.

A frog croaking?

YUKKE: It is not in the CD, but I could imagine a very colorful oriental picture, maybe a shop that smells of burning incense, and that, I felt, was new.

I'm sure Shion smells like incense. (laugh) So it is because you collaborated with various people and started to make two mini albums with no connection to your former work.

YUKKE: I think so. We released 6 before, and this work was a kind of an enlargement of that. We started this album being conscious of putting more songs into it and gradually we thought, "We want to make a full album," and then we went in that direction.

So what you are aware of when making an original album and mini albums is totally different then?

YUKKE: Yes, it's different. Well, whenever we make an album, I make quite a lot of songs.


SATOchi

This time I heard you made your album in a different way.

SATOchi: Yes. While it's an album like 6, even if singles were put in, it wasn't an album in the same flow as the next album, Gokusai. As we worked like that, I feel like that even now. (laugh)

So your feeling and mood was different from what was in your usual albums?

SATOchi: I think it's a little bit different. The method of making songs is different somehow. 6 felt maniacal. So I suppose that is the natural outcome.

You seem like you are talking about someone else. (laugh)

SATOchi: I can't make songs being conscious of everything.

So you were working as usual?

SATOchi: Yes. I made songs from what came to me.

Is it easier to bring songs that you made by yourself?

SATOchi: I think so. The concept was like we made songs naturally, so it was easy to bring songs in. If I was told to make a full album beforehand, maybe I would have thought about the balance a lot. Like, the first song is like this so the next song should be like that, then a fast song should be here...

So you could make it without thinking about the flow.

SATOchi: Yes. When we presented songs, we didn't create the same kind of songs. Our music tastes and our hobbies are different from one another, so we didn't have to think so much about that.

Which song did you make, SATOchi?

SATOchi: I made two songs. The titles haven't been determined yet, but one song I worked on with Miya.

Was it like SATOchi brought the idea and Miya developed it?

SATOchi: When I made the melodies, it was complicated. I united melody A and melody B of separate songs and brought them together, which sounded like two songs even though it was only one song, so we changed it.

I listened to the song while it was still being worked on and I thought it was quite metal.

SATOchi: Because that was the concept, Miya gave me a topic or style, such as metal or upbeat dance, whatever I wanted to do as long as it was a new song, so I decided to make a metal song.


For the rest of the interview, please refer to Zy 39.

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