February 2020 / Ongaku to Hito Sakurai Atsushi interview

text by Ishli Eriko

I personally also had rather intense emotional ups and downs You could call it a mental health issue, but I became a bit of a shut-in

―― First, let’s look back on the past year. After you concluded your 2018 show at Budokan, you started the year with preparations for Locus Solus Bestia, your one-man at Makuhari Messe, right?

Sakurai (S): Yes. In May. Talk about it started early on, and since we also had the keyword “beasts (獣たち / kemonotachi)”, we [decided] that we would release a single alongside the Makuhari [event]. We could already see our goal, you know? Since we weren’t holding a concert for a new album, it felt as if we were doing it just to show off the 2 songs from the single. So, although it wasn’t as if we had no pressure on us or had all the time in the world, but we did have a lot of time to think it over. The first half [of the year] was spent in meetings and all that.