#usen

alternative:

─ Please tell us in a little more detail about the reason why they clash.

“That's simply because the technical aspects differ greatly. Of course if the band puts amplifiers on stage, and live drums, and the orchestra performs behind them then the sounds are sure to interfere with each other. When the band in front of them begins to perform, the orchestra can no longer hear their own performance. There's no way it can be comfortable. And from the rock bands point of view, many of them have the feeling that the orchestra should play following along with their performance. Recent bands often put strings and stuff into their songs to the extent that they can, but when you hear it on stage, the volume and auditory image of the orchestra is big, and then the music becomes difficult to hear, the good aspects of the band are lost, and it’s just plain noisy. The problem of not being able to find a good balance of sound output occurs in reality.”

─ I had the opportunity to listen to the audio for this release, and I didn’t get the feeling that you had those problems at all.

“There are several reasons for that. One is that since I’m also from the world of classical music, many of my songs themselves are compatible with classical music, and I made the set list for this show out of the songs among those that were particularly compatible. Next, when performing with an orchestra, there’s more flexibility on the rock band side. Because, in rock bands, in the first place, the members aren’t really thinking about how to adjust their output. 

─ I have the impression that’s the sound engineer's job.

“Yeah. But for this show there are 70 people in the orchestra, 6 in the rock band, close to 80 people on stage, and it’s impossible in the first place for the sound guy to adjust everyone’s sound. So the first thing I decided was that we wouldn’t put any amplifiers on stage. Then we made the drums electronic, and connected it all with direct lines. If you do that then the sounds on stage don’t interfere with each other. You can reduce the burden on the orchestra. In other words, we completely created a situation where there was no sound on stage besides the orchestra and all the instruments were coming through the preamplifiers. And we didn’t have to place soundproof boards for the drums, which would have interfered with the look of the stage and the performance.

─ That’s a way of doing it that I haven’t really heard of before.

“Right. On top of that, I listened to the audio data that I’d received from the orchestra beforehand, and when I analyzed the audio image of each instrument, there were a wide range of sound bands, from low to high frequencies, but even an orchestra doesn’t fill in all of the sound frequency bands. I searched each of the orchestra’s songs, “There must be at least some gaps in the sound, so where are they?” and I started with the work of creating the band’s sound based on that. Specifically, if you leave out the rhythm that holds it all together, there’s no point. But it can’t be too loud either. I started with creating the sound so that the bass drum and snare could find its way through the gaps in the orchestra instruments.”

─ Don’t tell me you did that for all the instruments… Did you work on the bass and guitar parts the same way?

“Right. So when I decided on the basic sounds, then I moved on to adjusting each song one by one, fitting it to the orchestra’s intonation. For example, increase the bass by three decibels here, now turn it down 5 decibels. I did that kind of back-and-forth for all songs and all instruments. This job took me about one day for each song.”

─ It makes me dizzy just hearing it, but do you have prior experience doing this kind of work?

“No, no, no one does this (laughs). Because it takes an incomprehensible amount of time. It's usually unthinkable to rehearse for nearly a month for just one day of performance. That's why the fusion of rock and classical is not as easy a job as it seems to those watching. If you just stick an orchestra on top of a rock band, like I said before, there will definitely be the problem of it not being pleasant music for the listeners. Rather, you have to aim for all of the sounds to be audible from the seats in the venue even if the volume is loud. It was absolutely necessary work to achieve that. At first the engineers and band members were confused by it, but when we got one song together, everyone understood, “So this is what you mean!” From there we single-mindedly concentrated on proceeding with that work.

─ What do you think you gained from the “GACKT PHILHARMONIC 2025” that you held after going to such lengths to prepare?

“What we gained from working with the orchestra this time, thanks to doing that detailed work, was rock music of an incredibly high quality… In short, the most valuable thing was that everyone was able to gain awareness that we can put finishing touches on  the music that serves as the foundation. We were able to gain the awareness that, even though it was rock, we should have been doing this detailed level of output adjustment all along, and from now on we'll probably do it thoroughly even when there's no orchestra. If we do that, the music will become higher quality even if it's a heavy show.”

─ And this concert was the first step towards that.

─ Hearing what you've said up until now, I came to understand why this release is a music-only CD rather than a Blu-ray or something with video.

“I wanted people to listen to the high quality music first.”

─ So that was the aim.

“I want people to feel that the fusion of rock and classical can reach this level of high quality as music. If the sound was at a level where it was unbearable without video, it would be pointless. But it’s impossible to take it to a place where it stands on its own, just listening to the music, unless you do that level of detailed work. I suppose it’s the fact that, as a result of doing what we ought to do, we were able to bring it up to this quality.”

 ─ However, the actual show also had a lot of work put into the visual performance, and the audience was encouraged to “dress as if they were going to a Black Mass”. What kind of feelings did you put into the theme for the day?

“That’s because, in the end, it’s entertainment, not just, ‘Please watch us do stuff with an orchestra.’ Because I’ve always had, ‘defying expectations, and fulfilling hopes in a big way,’ as a fundamental concept. I think, when people hear there’s going to be an orchestra, there’s a certain way that they imagine things would normally be. But to take that and prepare for the audience a worldview that is so overwhelming they are speechless, is the performance that I have to give, and how I fascinate. It’s a method of expression that only I can do. Cause I didn’t do an MC on the day of the show…”

─ It’s not that you cut the MC part when making it into a CD, then.

“Right. The music goes for 90 minutes straight. Those 90 minutes have such an impact and gravity that it feels like, 'It was over in the blink of an eye.' And it’s heartrending, ephemeral, it has many faces. It was a gamble on, ‘Is it truly possible to realize that with just music?’ but when I was able to realize it, it also had the implication of searching the possibilities, ‘I guess I could think about doing this as a tour in the future?’ The truth is that there were a lot of circumstances on the day that prevented the performance plan that I had been imagining in many ways. But as a trial it achieved what it was supposed to achieve, and on the flipside, it wasn’t 100%. It gave me assurance that I can make something even more amazing. I think people will be wildly emotionally moved when they actually see it in person, and when I do it in the same form as a tour in the future, I want lots of people to see it.”

─ The success of this “GACKT PHILHARMONIC 2025” performance, including the sound creation, seems like it will lead to an evolution in the songs that GACKT creates, and I’m looking forward to it.

“That’s right. I’m always thinking about, if I’m going to do it, then how can I make the show something only I can do? If it’s a show that someone else could do, then there’s no need for me to do it. I was thinking about that, and hoping it would turn out well, but since the results were better than I expected, I want you to look forward a little to what comes next.”

─ You’re known for your stoicism toward anything you do, but do you feel any pressure from the expectations that “If it’s GACKT, he’ll do it”?

“Expectations, huh…? This is something that I said to all my staff about this concert, but, you don’t know if you can do something or not until you try it, and it might bring forth the reality that you tried and didn’t achieve results, so let’s not suddenly plan a tour. First we’ve got to test what we need to clear our current objective, or we really will fail. But my staff are thinking of fusing rock and orchestra as an easy job. In particular those who don’t do music think of it as easy, and in the end the price of that is paid by the band members and the orchestra.”

─ From GACKT’s point of view, you want to be music-first more than anything else.

“If I’m not, it’s pointless. We’re doing this to deliver music to the audience.”

─ Perhaps that feeling of creativity being like a mission is also reflected in the fact that GACKT himself will produce the “GACKT Demon King Birthday Feast 2025” to be held on July 4, the day of GACKT's birthday.

“Well, I do this 'Demon King Birthday Feast' every year, because it’s really a once-a-year event for my core fanbase. I don’t do a dinner show or anything like that. It’s a birthday feast, so everyone is there to celebrate with me, but every year, I think about doing this and that, in terms of the question, ‘How far can I go in creating something that will make people glad they came?’ It says that it’s all produced by me, but that’s because everything always has been (laughs). It’s just the way that I always do things.”

─ That said, I think there are times when it puts a bigger burden on you because you produce it yourself. Despite that, you pull through. What's GACKT's secret for maintaining your motivation like that?

“Right…I'm not deliberately trying to maintain my motivation, I'm just doing what I should do — creating themes and works that no one else can. That's the mission that's been given to me, perhaps I'd call it a duty. It's the only thing, and greatest thing I can express. For example, if I’m working on a movie, I’m just along for the ride. At those times, what I view as most important is how much I am able to respond to the world the director creates, and I take a stance of answering to what the director is asking for at a level that goes beyond what they imagined. But when I’m working on a live performance, it becomes a question of, how far can I go beyond what was imagined in creating the themes that I am after? And those imaginings go overwhelmingly beyond what my fans imagined, and that's why they come to see me. And the only thing that I can give back to all those fans who keep on chasing after me is of course, my works. Being in a position where they can feel, 'I’m glad I kept supporting him, I’m glad I kept chasing after him,' is the way I ought to be for them. If it wasn't for that, wouldn't people be like, 'I should have gone to see some younger people perform!'” (laughs).

─ Hmm… I wonder (laughs).

“But aren't there a lot of powerful musicians out there? If there were musicians who got older and didn't have the kind of feelings I was just talking about, then people would be like, 'No, no, don't go see those old guys, it's better to see younger performers.' That's what I'd be saying (laughs). Cause they wouldn’t be answering to the feelings that their fans have for them, like that. Without a doubt, the fans have expectations towards the artists. Because if nothing else, the artists are people who are walking ahead of them, and having some kind of an influence on their lives, so you can't let that become past-tense. Rather than, “They were good back in the day,” isn't it the mission of an artist to be someone who still pulls people forward even now?

─ As long as GACKT continues to hold these feelings, the expectations of his fans will only get higher and higher.