#twin gate

➖What significance does the title “TWIN GATE” have?

miko: The origin is a story Jyou heard a long time ago. Before a person is born, they seem to choose between a “gate of life” and “gate of extinction”.

Jyou: For example, whether a kid will up with some future flaw, and one day end up in an accident while riding their bike around; it’s like they were asked, “What will happen after this is still unknown, but will you still be born?”

➖So after being told that you’ll be following some kind of fate if you’re born, you can choose whether to be born or not?

Jyou: Right. Although you still won’t be told how you will die yet. When I thought about how we would form a band in the future, I wondered if we were asked “What will happen after this is still unknown, but will you still be born?” and all said yes. And so, wasn’t that our first decision? We made our song “DECIDE” the first on the album to establish a theme of “decisions”, and as we remembered the story of how we met almost 10 years ago, we drew the title from there.

➖We’ll be hearing about what kind of decision you’ve made recently a little later, but please tell me about how you balanced 6 previously released songs among the 10 songs on this album.

miko: Okay. If all of the newly written songs this time are symbolic of decisions, I think these 6 songs are existences that gave us support to make those decisions. Like, because of these 6 songs we were able to make our decision now.

➖I see. Of those songs, if each of you would elevate one song above the rest for us to consider in particular, which song would it be?

miko: For me it has to be “unforgive you”. It’s a song I wrote for someone who became the reason I took a step forward into this world, and we’ve played it live a lot, even in Europe, and every time we play it, I’m saying to that person “I’ve made it this far!!”. Because of that, it stands out strongly to me.

Jyou: For me it’s “VANGUARD”. It’s always been along with us members, and along with my awareness as vocalist you could say I’ve noticed the importance of how this song draws everyone in. And so, I’m sorry everybody, but this is my own theme song.

Naoto: For me it’s “RESONANCE”. As someone who dared to seek out something so dark and negative, this song allowed me to think that it’s ok to not be like that too. When I think about that now it was a really big deal for me.

Jyou: Naoto’s definitely become a little less dark.

miko: The dark things about her haven’t changed. Or should I say, the darkness. It feels more like, some light has been added in too.

Omi: For me it’s “‘Owari no nai sekai’”. When miko first brought it to us its sound was so cheerful that I was really worried about whether it would be ok for us, but when we played it live it was like the wall between us and the fans was gone and we really became one with everyone. I was able to think again, I want to go live in “A World Without End” with all of you.

Mally: For me it’s “KNIFE”. The first place we performed it was Europe, but while you’re living your life as usual you’d never think you’d have people all the way from Europe cheering you on, right? We got tons and tons of encouragement from them, and of course our fans in Japan support us as well, but this song made me want to perform all over the world, not just in Europe, and gave me the courage to think we’ll do well no matter where we go.

➖Will you explain each of the new songs?

miko: Okay. The first song, “DECIDE”, was actually made at the same time as “KNIFE”, and I was going back and forth about which one to release as a single. The impression it has is different between back then and when we recorded it this time, and when we perform it for the first time in July during the oneman tour it will be different again.

Omi: Along with the lyrics “Put up your hands, show me proof of progress~”, I’m hoping we can feel the things that tie us to our fans more and more deeply.

Naoto: Or you could say, more and more clearly. And so when we play it next, rather than the consciousness of the listeners and the musicians becoming more and more different, won’t we be able to have even more powerful feelings together?

Mally: As for something you should listen for, the guitar solo has 2 levels. Omi plays the first half, followed by a short bass bridge and then miko plays the second half, but in the middle of that there’s piano coming in and out. It’ll be easiest to hear on headphones, so definitely try listening with headphones.

miko: I wanted to make the song so aggressive that it was like everyone’s instruments were crashing into each other, and when I was arranging it I also told everyone, “Do anything you want!!”. That took the form of a guitar solo played by both of us like we’ve never had before, and with Omi and I switching back and forth playing the main phrase, I think we were able to bring out another new side to us.

➖What about “Neverland”?

miko: I think you’ll already be imagining Peter Pan from the title, but I wrote it as the feelings of a boy who wants to be like a child forever similar to Peter Pan. But the story itself is also like that story about the two gates from before. Even though he made the decision to live as himself and to be born, hasn’t he abandoned living?

➖When you say it like that, he really did!!

miko: And so this is a song where we’re singing to people like that, “If you decided to live then come on and live your life properly!!”

Jyou: When I heard that I was like, “it’s a cute song and yet it’s really harsh”. Because we’re telling people who are denying their lives to live.

➖There’s nothing as bitter as that.

Jyou: Right. But no matter what kind of person you are, and no matter what happens, I want you to live. So I sing this song while thinking that I hope I can give people like that some support.

Mally: I’m the opposite of Jyou, because performing this song is a really good feeling for me. It gives me the sense of being a familiar scene, and because I’m able to play it while really feeling the story, if I can give you a feeling like the protagonist’s wavering heart with my drums then I’m happy.

Naoto: For me too, the hook has a light image of soaring into the sky, so I’m also really pleased with it.

➖Isn’t this that light in your darkness we were talking about earlier coming out? (laugh)

Naoto: Ah, there definitely may be something like that. I don’t think I would have chosen this phrase a while back.

Omi: For me, I really like this part in the bridge where there’s a burst and the atmosphere changes. The 2 guitars together with a clean sound give a bit of a mature feeling too, and I’m able to link with miko in a way we haven’t before which is nice.

➖What about “Blaze”, with music and lyrics by you, Omi?

Jyou: The feeling it gives me inside is similar to “Neverland”. In the end they’re both saying “you were born, so live!!”, but “Neverland” gives your back a push so you can fly into the sky while “Blaze” pushes you so hard it beats you back down.

➖The protagonist of “Blaze” is a negative person no matter how you look at it. But if you have to say that the protagonist is Omi-ish then they definitely are.

miko: But I thought this was really different. Before now Omi’s lyrics had a lot of hopelessness, but this time you could say it’s fully facing forward and continuing on, properly opening your eyes and seeing the world.

➖ Omi expressed that world as “a world that shakes with illusions”, but why is the phrase written in quotation marks?

Jyou: There’s actually a song Omi wrote a long time ago called “Under mind” that uses that same phrase.

Omi: Although when I wrote it I didn’t realize at first.

Jyou: In “Under mind” you came crashing down to earth, but in “Blaze” you can feel the intention of wanting to live properly after all. Because I thought there was a change there, I presumed to add the quotes myself.

Mally: Conversely, in the drums, there’s a turn towards hope at the end but in the first half it’s still gloomy, so I thought it would be good to express that feeling by having the same drum beat always repeat.

Naoto: Since the drums were simple like that, I thought, then I’ll use detailed movements, so I did things like play the guitar phrase from the intro and first verse during the second chorus, and because I could do things freely like that, this song might be the most fun for me to play.

➖The last song “Cradle” is just generally really good.

Jyou: Thank you. Since the title is “Cradle” and the lyrics say things like “the ocean becomes your mother”, I put all the gentleness I could now into singing it so you could all sleep peacefully, which was really difficult (bitter smile)

➖But it’s not just gentleness, I think that parts where you can feel a lot of power are really amazing.

Jyou: That’s what was difficult. Truly a powerful foe. A gentle, powerful foe.

➖I think the expression is really good.

Jyou: But, since it was good to discover another new me there, I want to sing it live properly in a large open space.

miko: To say something audacious, while I wrote this song I had an image of Jyou singing while watching over everybody in places like Yoyogi National Gymnasium and Yokohama Arena.

Mally: And that’s why for me too, with energy to the extent that “There’s really nothin’ I can do!!”, I only carved out a beat that was completely one-sided the whole time, and trusted all of the inflection of emotions to Jyou.

Naoto: Conversely I played a sub-melody to the vocals on bass so I could support Jyou, and that phrase I like itself came out smoothly, but since there are cellos and violins included there too it was really difficult to achieve a good balance.

Omi: I was thinking it’d be good to try to add a little flavour, but the very last hook kind of has the lingering smell of old man……

Jyou: Could this be Omi’s “refined masculinity”!?

Omi: Yeah (bitter smile)

Everyone: (bursts out laughing)

➖I thought, I wanted you to just keep on playing that guitar solo like that until the ending, forever and ever kind of like “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos (laugh).

Omi: No, actually it’s that, I want you to listen to this song as Jyou’s song.

Jyou: You’ll have a chance next time, ok? (laugh)

Omi: Yeah (bitter smile)

➖I definitely want to hear it live (laugh). Speaking of lives, starting on November 20th you’ll be beginning your 2nd Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka oneman tour “DECIDE”. As the tour title states, will the meaning of the “decision” we talked about at the beginning of this interview become clear now?