#nack 5

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Next, they talk about Takumi’s new synthesizer. He uses synthesizer a lot when recording and he had quite a ‘vintage’ one - he thinks older ones have better quality sound. It was quite troublesome when he had to take it to concerts as old synthesizers are quite big and heavy, like 20kg, and he doesn’t have a case for it. But he needed to use a good quality one. So after thinking about it he got one he can use for shows, also an old one, that he can use to recreate the older sound. He used the new-old synthesizer for recording for INFINITUM.

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Then, they talk about the release dates and editions of INFINITUM.

Kyo: Have you listened to it yet?

Arai: I skimmed over it.

Kyo [(ー_ー)!!] Skimmed over?!

Arai: I was wondering when I will receive it, and I only got it last night!

Kyo: So you could have listened to it many times!

Arai: But I had other things as well… But of course I listened to it many times… skimming over. (changing topic xD) How was the recording and production this time, was it tight?

Kyo: Yeah, there’s always a lot going on. During dir’s tour I was recording singing, but the recording time was not decided, we can do it anytime, even in the middle of the night, when the mood strikes.

Arai: Did you have a theme when writing songs

Takumi: We had an idea what direction we’d like to go to since we released previous work ADORATIO. Kyo shared with us many keywords and hints. Really since 2 years we expanded various images we had for this work, like 'this would be interesting’.

Arai: When writing songs were there images for each song, like this song is for dancing and so on?

Kyo: No, it was all quite rough. Like thinking of 80s atmosphere or something like that. (…)

Takumi explains that they had several songs in pre-production stage, some from even 5 years ago when they were dismissed. So the current sukekiyo could remake them.

Then Hiroaki asks Kyo about lyrics. There’s nothing decided, Kyo just writes them then and there when recording the music.

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Arai talks about the GBS edition and the collaboration songs. Kyo explains that for artists to participate he wanted someone who he gets along with well, people he likes, it was so he could enjoy it, he wasn’t thinking what other people would think, it was only for his personal enjoyment.

They talk about Shokichi from EXILE. Kyo says Shokichi is a big fan of dir and he even came to their concert recently, they had fun time chatting. It’s the first time Shokichi sings so high, but he said it was actually easy. Kyo was the reason for him to start singing and he even used to be in DIR copy band.

Arai comments that Kyo has a very wide range.

Kyo: After a fashion.

♪ただ、まだ、私。♪

They talk about tour FORTY.

Arai: what will the next tour be like?

Kyo: We haven’t started the rehearsal yet, so I don’t know, but so far we’re thinking of performing all songs.

Arai: And for standing shows?

Kyo: It’s totally fine to move. But please stay absolutely quiet. No noise allowed! -when performing as sukekiyo noise is very annoying.

Arai: And for seated shows?

Kyo: You must not move. Out of question. - Kyo compares this to watching movies in the cinema; he hates when someone in front of him stands up to go to toilet. From the stage he can see the door, so when someone leaves and doors open even for a moment there’s light from the outside and it drives Kyo mad.

So request from Kyo: please go to toilet before the show.

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Next, they talk about heavier songs and fans response during the concerts. Kyo recalls (again, I think he talked about it for sukekiyo interview videos at the tour last winter, he really feels strongly about it) the time he saw a female fan at dir show, she was in the first row in front of him, but she was doing 'air drums’ even during ballads. Pure bewilderment.

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Then they talk about July’s schedule (Sugizo’s show and Hong Kong).

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Next is quiz thing that we could watch on the video from twitter - they drew a word from the box and were supposed to give hints what word it is.

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After that come questions from fans:

Q1. What are you looking forward to with the upcoming tour?

Kyo: To visiting various cafes. I’m going to various places, I don’t post pictures from all of them, I just walk around the city, check the place and go in. -Takumi also likes sweet food.

Arai: Have sukekiyo members exchanged contact details and hung out together in private? (kyotaku: at another radio interview with Arai they talked about dir members 😂)

Kyo: We know each other contact details, but we only went out when celebrating completing projects etc. If sukekiyo members went to Disneyland together wouldn’t that be like super cringy? It would be absolutely weird.

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Q2. As Takumi is known for collecting various sound samplings, was there any special samplings used for INFINITUM?

Takumi: When we did the photo shoot for Mind-V, there were various things in that building, I thought many could be used to create various sounds. At the time INFINITUM was not finished yet. There was a broken piano that I used. (Kyo: it was really great) Real broken piano and normal piano sound distorted on computer are totally different.

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Q3. How long does it take to complete one song?

It was difficult to answer for both Kyo and Takumi as the period they worked on this release is so long.

Arai: Which song took especially long?

Kyo: Hm? All of them took time, so… all of them.

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Q4. Your hairstyle is always changing. What are you planning to do next?

Kyo: It depends on my mood, each day I arrange it different way, slick back, parted on the side, if I feel like shaving it all again I’ll just do it. I don’t plan my hairstyles. Even with face piercing I once just decided to get it on the day ee had a show.

Takumi: I’m not changing my hair, I’m keeping this style forever.

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Q5. In the lyrics of Waizatsu there are references to two movies. Which scenes did you like the best in those movies?

Kyo replies all, but in Creep Show he liked how scary was the scene in the end when the title comes up. In the Toxic Avenger he likes the main monster.

Arai: Do you watch horror movies a lot?

Takumi: Not really.

Kyo: I can really recommend GOT, the world created there is great. It’s not a horror, but it’s pretty shocking, characters just keep dying. I don’t watch movies where no one dies.

Arai thanks them for coming and they announce the last song. Goodbyes.