syuuu…

“At that time, I didn’t even know if it was read “hi-de” or “haid”.”

I first met hide when I was with [the band] Dementia. We did a band battle with hide’s Saver Tiger at the live house “Kagurazaka Explosion”. Later, when we settled the bill for the gig, we exchanged words for the first time. I got complimented on my hair by hide: “Hey, the way your hair stands up is great!” That was when I was 19 years old.

We did that band battle in the first place because I had asked for it at one point. At that time, I didn’t even know if his name was read “hi-de” or “haid” [Note: As in, the English word ‘hide’], but when I saw Saver Tiger’s leaflets, I was immediately compelled to. Hide was just too cool, his aura was different from any other band, so I asked for a reservation. So the first time I met hide was when I was sharing a stage with him.

I only saw hide’s performance from the very back while doing my make up, but I was charmed by his meaningful and appealing, really overwhelming performance. Guitarists at the time were all about how fast, how technical, how difficult their play could be, but hide was different. Her was aware of the entire picture. From the beginning, hide was focused on going in that direction, and he never really changed at all.

At that time, I heard from hide that Saver Tiger was doing a performance with MURBAS [Indie band active from 1981 – 1986 and 2005 – 2009] next, so I told him, “You won’t lose to them.” At the time, MURBAS was the much better band.

Hide didn’t talk to me about our performance at that time, but the fact that he addressed me must mean that I left some kind of impression. It was at a time when Dementia was also swiftly gaining momentum.

There were many bands that I was introduced to by hide, starting with Steppenwolf. That I’d come to love Steppenwolf’s “BORN TO BE WILD” is thanks to him. It’s like I learned that from him. I’d always listened to heavy metal and was strongly influenced by it, so I didn’t get what was supposed to be so great about Steppenwolf. Now I can see what a great song that is, but then I didn’t understand it at all.

In response to hide’s high praise for them, I said, “That band is incomprehensible, it has no technique or anything.” When I listen to it now, it’s cool, but then, I didn’t get it. Hide wanted to bring that goodness into his band and elevate it to the next level of coolness. He was someone who understood the importance of the show from the start. And it just became more and more important. Eventually, it turned into something amazing. The sound that hide liked already had such nuances back then. Therefore there wasn’t anything I could compare it to in my own band. There were similarities in costumes and such, but it felt like we did different genres.

“Anyway, I thought it made a good sound. Definitely a sound that was indispensable for the band.”

The next time I met hide was after I joined X, when his name came up, a-propos of nothing, while we were looking for a guitarist. Since hide had left an impression with me, I remember thinking that it would be good to have him as our guitarist. So I started by drinking with him, but he didn’t listen to a word I said at that time (laughs). What I think is that he must have wanted to work with TOKIHIKO, who was the bassist for Saver Tiger. That’s probably why he wouldn’t talk. TOKIHIKO was that good, and hide was particular about his bassists. I guess he thought he couldn’t accept a bassist he didn’t like himself. In that case, there was no way he would accept someone like me who he had never even played with. The bass lines of Dementia and X were completely different.

In any case, I thought hide’s guitar sounded great from the moment he first entered the stage. His sound resembled Anthrax, definitely a sound that was indispensable for the band. The backing also being excellent, I thought that the guitars made the band amazing. I also thought that he put the band as an ensemble over his ego as a guitarist. I guess that is why the bassist was so essential for hide. Dementia was also a band with a good guitar sound, but when I was in the studio with hide, I was surprised there was a guitarist who produced such powerful sound. I knew that the sound of the band being so good was tied to hide’s fantastic backing. The way of thinking behind that was the same as mine.

At that time, I wanted nothing more than just to watch hide. Besides, I thought I could absolutely make him say that I was a better bassist than TOKIHIKO. Seriously. Even when it comes to playing the bass, I can say, “Look what I did, wasn’t that good?” all I want, there is no guideline or correct answer. But hide gave his okay, saying, “That right there, that’s all you need to play.” Having originally been a guitar player, I had decided that the bass was a lame instrument and only did so much with it; it was hide who helped me approach it with the guitar mindset of “Play freely, no matter what anyone says!” It takes courage to change the way you played all the time, and changing your concept can become embarrassing if you’re not careful. So, in my case, instead of stripping it down to the roots, I figured I could just harmonize, and said to hide, “I think we should harmonize, how do you feel about that?” With that, hide finally came to give me recognition. The bass solo before the solo in “Sadistic Desire”? It was when we were making that that he really acknowledged me. Up until then, he wouldn’t even hear what I said (laughs).

But, that I had been recognized by hide I only realized just before he passed away. I read an interview in which he said, “I suppose my favorite bassist would be Taiji.” Until then, I had wondered if he would ever take notice of me, so that made me very happy.

“The respect had nothing to do with age. Hide was like an older brother to me.”

When we came to stand on stage in the same band, it wasn’t enough just to play, we also had to perform this time. You have to play the strings while moving around and being enchanting. Anyone can do it standing still. So, you have to be able to play while spinning around, while facing the audience. That, too, was hide’s influence. While moving around was somewhere on my mind as well, hide was calculating the perfect movement.

About the running around during the X era, hide said to me, “It’s a show, so we have to perform.” For entertainment. He predicted the necessity of that kind of expression.

Even in small live houses, he said, “Just spin around,” and did as much as was possible there. We practiced playing while spinning when we didn’t know how. What can we do during a break to make it more lively?

He taught me more about being an entertainer than about playing. I think without those skills, I wouldn’t have been able to stand out. Everyone was surprised when I changed what it meant to be a bassist and by how cool that made me. Just, performing like that for real and playing it live was terrible (laughs).

But if I didn’t do that, hide wouldn’t have recognized me. It was about being respected, regardless of age. Outside of music as well, there were words, and funny ideas. Hide was like an older brother to me. Even when he was trying to calm someone down, calm as he was, he would talk about different viewpoints, perspectives that others did not notice.

The way hide made arrangements was different from mine. My arrangements were made from the skeleton. I started at the foundation and made drastic changes from there. I think hide made arrangements that skillfully decorated those foundations. I’d deliver a good foundation, sometimes even changing the cord progression, and hide worked from there. Hide was aiming to make the bass line more fun, he was always thinking about the bass. “Why don’t you try it like this?” he’d say. If I was just told something, I wouldn’t understand it. But if you don’t even try to understand it, you get it even less. So we would actually explore things together, say things like, “Almost there,” and “Oh, just like that!”, that’s how we did it. While I played my notes on the bass, hide would play at the same time and create a section by harmonizing with the guitar. We did arrangements like that as well. I also gave my opinion on the guitar.

“I thought to myself, I’ll never be the kind of person who understands this (laughs).”

We started “GIVE ME THE PLEASURE”, which we created together, from the bass, but first we had to talk about incorporating slapping. That was at a time when slapping simply did not happen in heavy metal. I wanted to break those customs, and so I discussed incorporating it with hide. Doing so created an occult-like sound. We added the melody of “GIVE ME THE PLEASURE”, and it changed to 16-beats halfway through. Looking back, I’d call it funk now. Hide liked that kind of music as well, so he was like, “That’s great!” It was like playing catch ball. You throw the ball, and it’s played back to you with alterations. And then you change it and play it back again. Since that was before the digital age, it was played right in front of you. So miracles happened right in front of you. I was constantly surprised, going, “That just happened!”

With “XCLAMATION”, I developed the bass phrase and hide added the melody from there, even giving it an intro. With those two songs, I made the phrase and it developed from there. Also, hide’s guitar for “DESPERATE ANGEL”, which I had composed, was perfect for it. It amazes me how, no matter how I want him to play, that’s what he gives me. When it comes to his solo, it’s OK no matter how many takes you record. It’s so cool. Whatever he plays is perfect, because he has always loved Rock’n’Roll.

When it came to recording, hide didn’t just show up at the studio to record with headphones on, but rather worked at the console. He wanted to work alone so he didn’t get distracted. Sometimes, I’d pop my head in and say, “Wow, amazing!” in surprise, and he looked happy. He was the type who became friends with the engineer before starting to record. On the other hand, it was hide who encouraged me when I was somewhat lacking confidence: “TAIJI, you can do more than that!”

During his solo acts at X concerts, hide’s solos went far beyond what you’d expect a guitarist’s solo to be (laughs). “What the hell is he going for?” I’d wonder, and it always was amazing. I thought he was someone I’d always struggle to understand (laughs). I guess he thought, “So what?”, because to him simply playing the guitar all the time just because it was a guitarist’s solo wasn’t cool enough.

For me, it was different. To me, playing the bass was about how close I could get it to the guitar.

Hide wasn’t a person of many words, but when we recorded his song “MISCAST”, he said to me, “The bass makes this song sound cool.” He was the kind of person to give compliments like that.

“Words alone cannot express the appeal hide had.”

After I joined Loudness, we didn’t have any contact at all. But after a while I saw on TV that hide had registered as a donor with the bone marrow bank and thought that was amazing. I did not have the time for something like that, being so focused on the band. When I started D.T.R. there was no contact either. Yet I was shocked when hide released his solo works and I listened to “ROCKET DIVE” and “Pink Spider”. I was amazed by this amazing stuff he had made. I thought, finally, he did it. It made me happy.

While D.T.R. had a laid back style, what hide did with his solo works and hide with Spread Beaver was the exact opposite (laughs). D.T.R. was laid back and hide was extremely cyber. It was cutting edge.

The era of rock during the time of D.T.R. was ill defined, and laid back could be considered cool. It seems that in that formative era, hide went in the opposite direction with cyber.

The first thing I noticed when listening to hide with Spread Beaver was how good hide’s singing was. He had grown so much. Even compared to the time when he released his solo song “TELL ME” it was completely different. His growth as a vocalist was amazing.

When we were doing the chorus during our X days, I used to think that hide’s and my voices were somewhat similar. Harmonizing with him on the chorus had been easy. But by the time of “ROCKET DIVE”, hide had reached an entirely new level as a vocalist. He wasn’t just a great singer, he was also very expressive. I think he must have put a lot of effort into it.

I think that in his solo career before hide with Spread Beaver, hide hadn’t yet fully accomplished what he had wanted to do. I feel like it wasn’t the right time for him to really express what he wanted. I guess he must have felt the same way. I also can’t deny that his songs felt like they were pandering to someone. But, when I listened to “ROCKET DIVE”, I felt like he had let go of that completely. It felt like he had become defiant, while bringing out all the good qualities that he’d had from the beginning. Behind the scenes, he must have worked really hard on it. It’s music that sounds simple but requires a lot of thought. I feel like hide taught me how difficult it is to make something simple. It’s not like by making something complicated you’re making it better.

Generally, I liked the cyber-look as well, so I felt like we were connected even though we were far apart. It’s something we have in common. I suppose our ideas and the way we feel are similar. It’s been the same since the first time I felt it at Kagurazaka Explosion. That common ground I saw between us never changed.