Radio Magazine WHAT’S IN? interview 1998.08
New song “Zetsubou no oka,” from Plastic Tree – the band with the peculiar worldview – is FM broadcast “Radio Magazine What’s In?” feature song for July. Having already performed the song live, the energy of the members right now is tightly packed. And at the same time, anticipating the album released a month from now, which will include this song among others. We listened to vocalist Ryutaro and bassist Tadashi discuss this song.
———“Zetsubou” [despair/hopelessness] is a pretty serious word, isn’t it?
Ryutaro: Sorry. I’m really sorry.
Tadashi: But you don’t sing “Why is this despair?” If I were to put it another way, it’s just “despair” …… There was anxiety assumedly over the vagueness of the interpretation.
———-Still, the word choice is different for ordinary people, right? Ryutaro, I think you’re a person whose lyrics are influenced by mental conditions, but were you going through a troubled time when you wrote these lyrics?
Ryutaro: Definitely a state of profound sadness (laugh). It was depression within depression. But since I’m not much of a positive person to begin with, I feel like it’s inevitable, but saying “despair” doesn’t mean “it’s already hopeless!” That’s what I got from the feeling of the song…… I only wrote it like “I feel like I’ll reach despair if I keep pressing on.” I felt like I’d get back at those things again (laugh).
———Ye~ah… Along the lines of being honest, the sound also has a very honest feeling.
Tadashi: This time the opener was all over the place, and when we realized that we were the ones who were judging it, we managed to get it out! I think that’s the band’s original way of thinking. The idea is that we want to let people hear what we think is good. Strangely, if we restrain ourselves, it ends up a bright, almost pop-like song like this, and I guess that doesn’t match with the band’s image. … I think maybe we had decided that last year. Last year we had been aiming at a sound that felt closed off, like a secret room, that said very little, but this time it’s a bit more liberal, nice and open, and we didn’t want it feeling very humid either.
———-Why did you want to do that?
Tadashi: That humid, damp feeling didn’t have a particular aim. Naturally, it looked like we liked it, but it only seemed that way. However, this time we wanted a feeling that faced the outside, and when we make something emotionally heavy or low, isn’t that somewhat of our area of expertise? That sort of humid sound, secret room atmosphere. For that reason, we wanted to try to challenge ourselves by venturing outside of our area of expertise, and I think we also wanted in part to set off an explosion.
———I see, and so there’s a powerful sense of energy. Well then, as a final question, what would you like first-time listeners of Plastic Tree to hear in this song?
Tadashi: I think it’s a song that’s easy to cling to on a first listen, but it might be fun if there was part “ugh!” when looking at the lyrics (laugh). Think “surely he’s singing about the bittersweetness of youth,” and when you look at the lyrics, it’s all wrong!
Ryutaro: No, it’s youth (laugh)!
Tadashi: That was the feeling I had when I wrote the song. I wrote it like the ending theme for a teen movie…… but the lyrics are the lyrics (laugh).
Ryutaro: It’s youth!
———But it’s not bittersweet.
Ryutaro: Ye~ah…
———Fairly young memories?
Ryutaro: I don’t have very good memories (laugh). But maybe I’ve written in my own words what everyone else is thinking, too, and maybe it would be nice if you realized that.
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