Yamamoto Kyōji's Dream Session Interview Vol. 13 / Guest: DAITA
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Until the formation of SIAM SHADE, and even after the break-up, you have been following Kyōji.
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A basketball playing boy awakens to the “roaring sound”.
Yamamoto: Everyone is bound to have some turning points in their lives. I think it's fair to say that for you, joining SIAM SHADE and its break-up are big turning points. Did you have any points before those, where your life took a big turn? DAITA: It's gotta be the time when I started playing the guitar. It was when I was in the 3rd grade of junior high school. Yamamoto: Where was it again that you were born and grew up? DAITA: In Setagaya Ward, Chitose Karasuyama. I lived there until I was 18. When I was little I was made to learn the piano with my older sister. Yamamoto: That's high society. Did you continue on the piano or did you get sick of it? DAITA: Yeah, I totally grew sick of it. My parents made my try different sports too. Starting from soccer, with baseball at the side and swimming too. And then there was the piano, so it was very tough. Then, in 4th grade in elementary school, the first sport that I chose myself was basketball. Yamamoto: It was the time when basketball comics were popular. DAITA: That's true. From there, during the 6 years until the 3rd grade of junior high school, it was all basketball. Yamamoto: Why did such a sports boy pick up the guitar? DAITA: When in junior high school, I was also in the basketball club. In the 3rd grade, I was the captain. A while after the 3rd grade started, one of my friends started skipping the club activity. Because I was the captain, I had to find out why he was absent. And I found out that he had started a band. Yamamoto: Go on. DAITA: Then, I thought that I'd make him resume the club activity even if I had to drag him and I went to take a peek at the studio. It had a great impact on me. The first time I heard the roaring sound of the instruments, I thought “What is this sound!?”. That's when I awakened. It was like the saying “you go for wool and come home shorn”... Yamamoto: In my case I was in gymnastics club during the 3 years of junior high school. I was thinking of continuing even after going to senior high school, but after seeing a rock movie I was awakened to music. Then I started skipping club activity like your friend. You really won't forget the excitement of the first time when you connect to an amp and hit the strings. You know how you build up some weird stress during the middle and senior high school. It makes you want to shout in a loud voice. And when you are armed with a guitar and an amp you can shout all you want. Then you become addicted to that feeling; it becomes your catharsis. DAITA: That's true. The sound of an electric guitar, if you don't mind the cliché, is the “shout of your soul”. Of course, there are people who feel the soul of the sound of drums and bass, and that's all fine. Yamamoto: Back when I was young, there was the folk song boom. You know with the folk guitar it's just “chang!” and there's no sustain. If you liken that to a shout, it' would be like “Ah!”. But with an electric guitar it's “Uwaaaaaah!”, long and fierce. It really feels like it's voicing your feelings. That's gotta be what makes you lose yourself in it. Yamamoto: By the way, do you remember the first time when you heard the sound of an electric guitar? The first times when I saw it on TV, it was the surf rock guitar sound. Or with distortion, it was the fuzz sound. So my first impression wasn't really that good. How was it for you? DAITA: I thought that it was cool. Though I didn't really listen to rock that closely before I started playing. I think that I was listening - because of the influence of my sister - to Wham!, that was popular at the time, and the popular top chart music that would play on FM. And also, the theme of the movie Rocky, that we were made to dance to at an elementary school sports day. And, what can I say, maybe also JOURNEY's music. I found out that, what felt: “that sounds cool”, in the music that I naturally listened to, was the sound of the guitar. Yamamoto: Oh, that's right, it was already the time when the beautiful refined sound of the rock guitar was popular with the public. So that is where the roots of your current sound are. Falling off the stage at the Budōkan break-up live! Yamamoto: What kind of music were you playing in your high school band? DAITA: “Beat rock”.(1) I guess. It was the time when that was popular. In Japan it was Boøwy and such. Also it was the time when the word Japameta [Japanese metal] was born. I would practice by looking at magazines and copying what the people who were in them were doing. It was like, “I see, so this is how you do it”. As a guitarist you are going to search for music that has a prominent guitar sound. Yamamoto: You can say that again. So, were you also listening to instrumentals? DAITA: Yes, a lot. There were a lot of instrumentals in those magazines. Yamamoto: Wasn't that the time when fusion and studio musicians were attracting attention? DAITA: That's right. There were also a lot of albums where fusion musicians were doing rock-ish stuff. That kind of stuff was main in the magazines. As a guitarist it is attractive as practice material. After seeing it in the magazines, I would go straight to practicing. Yamamoto: Since you had the experience with piano, copying was easy for you wasn't it? DAITA: No, not at all. It was not that kind of easy material. I didn't also know the proper way of playing. I was doing it by trial-and-error one after another. “This is where you play with a pick and here you hit with your left hand finger”. Back then there were new words like “sweep” coming out. Like, what's economy picking? (laughs) Yamamoto: Is that picking that's good to the environment? (laughs) Hahaha, I still don't know all that well. DAITA: I think that that came to be when one played like one wanted to. But the magazines would carefully explain those, and when I couldn't do them I felt like a culprit and I would feel down. I started guitar late, and I wasn't among the best players in our group, so they would say to me: “what, you still can't play that?”. There was a kind of “to him I can't stand losing” battle going on in our neighborhood. Yamamoto: Hahaha, I can understand that really well. Those who become pros are those who really can't stand losing. Also, were you performing live when you were in high school? DAITA: Back then you were still allowed to play during “hokoten”. So I performed quite a lot. It was also the time of the “ikaten” boom. (2) Yamamoto: By the way, were the songs original? DAITA: Yeah. The guitar had a little hard rock in it. Rhythmically it was 8th note rhythm. It was punk and hard rock mixed. Yamamoto: That reminds me, there was a time when you worked as a model. Was it at that time? DAITA: No, it was a little after that. I was asked to join a band, that was the band that preceded SIAM SHADE, when I graduated high school. This band – it was called POWER by the way – had my friend from junior high school playing bass and it won the first prize at the Yokohama hot wave festival. I quit it after half a year though. I was working as a model after I quit that band. Yamamoto: Is that so? When in a band there are lot of things like human relations, monetary affairs, dreams and musical directions. It's like the human life in microcosm. You say you weren't that good at the guitar in high school, so was it hard to keep up the motivation to continue playing? Were there times when you thought that “being a model is enough for me”? DAITA: Actually in the contest we took part as a band, I won the guitarist prize. It wasn't that my technical abilities were praised, more like “you got good taste”. After that, the attitude of the people who had treated me as a bad player changed. Yamamoto: Oh, they started to acknowledge your superiority. It's important to be praised. It makes you feel good, and gives you a lot of enthusiasm and confidence. DAITA: And, your influence in VOWOW on me was also great. I kept listening to you even after you went to England. I was thinking that it's possible even for a Japanese to play guitar that is accepted by the world. After high school, it was my dream to stand together on stage with VOWWOW. Yamamoto: Oh my, this is an honor. DAITA: I watched the Sunplaza video hundreds of times. Stopped and watched, stopped and watched. (laughs) The tape was all used up. Yamamoto: Oh, that was released on DVD recently. DAITA: Really? I'm definitely gonna buy it. The first time I bought tickets was to see you at Budōkan and I got goose flesh all over. Yamamoto: I didn't fall off the stage though. Hahaha. You did, didn't you? From really high. You suddenly just disappeared. I was really worried that time. DAITA: I really thought that I was going to die. It must have been about 3 meters high. I fell down face first. The support that I tried to grab was made of papier-mâché and I fell defenseless. While performing, I was full of adrenaline, thinking that this is the break-up, so I didn't feel that much pain. I took part to an encore just like that. The next day half of my body was all black from internal bleeding. Yamamoto: Whoa... SIAM SHADE, the truth about the break-up? Yamamoto: This is taking the story back, but could you tell about the circumstances of the formation of SIAM SHADE? DAITA: OK. After I quit the “predecessor”(3) band I talked about earlier, I worked as a model for about 3 years. One day I received a call that “let's play in a band together once more”. I thought, “why not?”. And when I went to see them, they had become a make-up band. What you call “visual-kei”. Yamamoto: Oh, I bet you looked very pretty when you put on make-up. DAITA: No, I'm absolutely no good with things like that. But I got into it just thinking that I'll help a little and before you knew it, we debuted. (laughs) In SIAM SHADE, there was my classmate from long time ago, but also such people who had been leaders of their own bands in Shizuoka and Kanagawa. Yamamoto: So in a way, it was a super band? DAITA: Calling it super would be a little embarrassing though. Each of the members had strong opinions of their own, so we though that after we had our major label debut and had gotten it going well, we would do what we each wanted to. But it ended up continuing nearly 10 years. Yamamoto: Is that so? A good band is not just an assembly of good friends. It's best when strong personalities collide and melt together and something is born from there. DAITA: It's indeed tough being in a band. You tend to spend more time together than you would with your sweetheart. When you collide without respect there will be dissonance not in the music but elsewhere. Yamamoto: You said it. But, you tend to get calmer when you grow older. For example, the reunited BOWWOW. In the beginning there was all kinds of conflicts, but now it feels that we've risen above them. When you get over your period of rebelliousness and become an adult you become kind to your parents too or so. Were you a good kid at home? DAITA: No no, I was fighting back all the time. Yamamoto: I thought so, because I was so too. (laughs) To get back on track, bands can somewhat resemble a love affair. On the stage, that is to say, when eating out, you look like a good couple, but the moment you return home you start fighting. But no matter how much you fight, when you get on stage the band members are connected by the love of music. If that is not there then you're not going to pull through. In any case, eventually there came the time when even the band SIAM SHADE that had its break and became big, lamentably broke up. DAITA: During our break-up concert I had the strong feeling that “this is the same Budōkan where Kyōji was at. I wonder if I'm walking the same road as him?” Yamamoto: Hahaha, we really have very many common denominators. DAITA: That makes me glad. I think that's why I came to like your playing. Yamamoto: Our senses must have many resemblances. So, what was the biggest reason for the break-up? DAITA: Oh, if I say that a chill will fall over everyone, I think I can't reveal it. Yamamoto: Wow, is that so? Umm, is it that bad? DAITA: Well, most bands have the same problem. When there are as many as 5 members with strong personalities, there are going to be those with good humor and those with bad humor. That's all. Yamamoto: You could say that that is the fate of all bands. DAITA: We felt that “the time that was bound to come, came”. To be more specific, the height of the “bar” of where to head from here was different with everyone. There were those who wanted to do this overseas, and those who wanted to continue within the country like before. It's not about who is correct; when the height that you want to jump over is different with all 5 people, you can't jump together anymore. Yamamoto: I see. It may now seem trivial, but at that time it was a big problem, right? It is a shame because it was such a good band. So, what kind of activities are you into now? DAITA: I haven't announced this elsewhere, but actually, behind the scenes, I have started a project - a band or a unit with vocals. I wrote most of SIAM SHADE's songs, so I would like to make something feeling similar to those. Also, I'm going to perform together with Himuro and GLAY again this summer. And also, I haven't released original work in a while, so I'd like to release one or two objets de vertu. Within a few years time. Yamamoto: Just as I thought. The more we talk the more common denominators we have. Your older sister played the piano and mine played violin. That was our first experience in music, after that we both managed both a band and instrumental solo work. And like you perform with Himuro that you listened during your amateur period, I also perform with Ei-chan(4) from time to time. DAITA: It really seems like there is a direct line down from you to me. (laughs) That's right, I also really want to perform overseas like you. Like when looking at videos of BOWWOW performing overseas; and during the amateur period when I had just started to play the guitar, I still have the dream “I want to perform together with the world's greatest on a stage like this”. Yamamoto: I see, you haven't performed overseas yet, right? DAITA: I have in Korea, but I've yet to experience Europe and America. Yamamoto: It does feel special when you perform over there, for example London. To illustrate, when with your lover or wife with whom you have been for a long time, you know each other and can talk calmly and naturally. But performing overseas feels like you're talking to a beautiful woman you meet for the first time. You've got to use all your tricks and put out all your good sides at once. (laughs) You know what I'm saying? Well, in any case, it's just an illustration. (laughs) Anyway, you'll also receive new incitement to your playing, so I definitely suggest going. DAITA: Umm, even without going overseas, I already feel that I understand how it feels. (laughs) Yamamoto: Was it easy to understand? Well, let's form a Japanese G3 with me, DAITA and someone third and go tour overseas. DAITA: By all means! Yamamoto: OK, let's do our best and set that as the goal. Thank you for today. |
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Interview postscript
It happened quite a long time ago, but when I first met DAITA, he was a lot younger - of course - lightly-built rock boy. But I'm glad that the frankness and strength of heart that I felt that time never change, no matter how many years pass and no matter where we meet. As we are both few of the comrades that pursue the rock instrumental sound in Japan; as we both were enchanted by the magnificence and depth of the guitar's expressiveness, we'll continue putting out that kind of sound that will stimulate us for the rest of our lives, I think. (Yamamoto Kyōji) |