The interview will be separated in two parts and credits for the interview translations are mentioned at the bottom. 

 

Here's an interview about Kenzo from his personal life to his career as a successful drummer of famous visual-kei band, Ayabie.

 

Kenzo's personal interview part 1

– Kenzo was born and bred in Tokyo, right?
I moved to the suburbs for a period of time in elementary school when my house was undergoing reconstruction, but otherwise I’m a city dweller, born and bred in Shibuya-ku.

–How did you play, as a city kid?
I was introverted as a kid. Well, it’s still the same way now, but I was an otaku, and used to love anime, figurines, games, that kind of stuff. My house had a garden, so during my kindergarten years I used to play there. I also played and fought with my younger sister, who’s three years younger than me.

–Three years’ difference; that made her a perfect partner to play and fight with, didn’t it?
Yes, exactly. I still remember a fight we had in elementary school where I was stabbed in the head with a scissors. At that time I thought I was going to die……

–You had such violent quarrels?
We did. We’ve only recently become close, actually.

–In any case, that you lived in a house with a garden in the Shibuya-ku district, doesn’t that make you a veritable “young master”*?
……you can say that (laughs). But I’ve never been able to call myself a really rich person, per se. Well, that’s what I might seem to be from the viewpoint of the casual observer, but I myself have never really had any money up to now.

– (laughs) So, living in that house were the four of you and?
At first we were living with my grandfather and grandmother, three generations of us living together. Afterwards, my cousin came to live with us as well.

–And so, what kind of obocchama life did you lead? [obocchama/obocchan = young master]
My elementary and middle schools were private. In elementary school I took tests, and passed by chance.

–Eh, Kenzo, you “sat for tests”?
I did. I sat for tests (laughs). I don’t remember what they were testing for, but I think they were something like IQ tests.

–Did you find school fun?
It was fun, but it was far from where I lived. Looking back now, I’m thinking, I commuted quite a lot, didn’t I~.

–Taking the train on your own?
Yes.

–Being a city kid is like that, isn’t it. The sight of small children commuting to school by train is a common one. Their commutation passes dangling from their school satchels.
Yeah, yeah. It was just like that (laughs). At first I was afraid of taking the train on my own, but I got used to it almost immediately. Only, the school premises were really big. I had to walk quite a bit from the train station. I got tired just getting school.

–Even so, you went to school as you should have, didn’t you?
From that time, I wanted to be able to keep to whatever I’d decided to do. Though I couldn’t do things that other people had decided for me at all.

–To do what you’d decided to, was your parents’ teaching?
No, no one actually told me to live that way. The things my parents made me do, piano and swimming and cram school, that kind of thing, I didn’t hold any interest in them if I myself didn’t want to do them. But at that time I didn’t know what defiance was, so I went for them anyway.

–How long did you play the piano for?
From elementary school to around the third year of middle school. As for swimming, during the first year of elementary school I tried it once and stopped right away, then started going again in the first year of middle school. Because I didn’t dislike swimming.

–Was your upbringing strict?
My parents themselves were lenient, but I think in their own way, they were strict. They made me go for extracurricular lessons, and wanted me to take the path of the elite. Both my parents were chefs, though. They didn’t want me to take any untrodden paths. But even so, I became this dork… you could say.

–We’ll talk more on that later, so let’s hear a little more about your life as a cute little boy first.
Hahahah (laughs)

–I’m interested in your commutation to school by train; weren’t there any instances where you were tempted into taking detours?
There were, there were. In my senior year of elementary school, I alighted at a stop on the way to mine with friends, kind of like “It seems like fun so let’s go”. At the interchange, we’d take routes we’d never taken before.

–Your adventurous spirit was fired up.
It’s not as if there was anything special there, but going to new places with friends was fun.

–Boys generally spend their childhood making secret bases in the mountains and things like that, but you lived in an environment where you couldn’t do such things?
Ah, I did when I was younger. When I went to the house of a friend who lived in the suburbs, nature was all around. We made a secret base in the woods and caught rhinoceros beetles, things like that. In retrospect, I seemed to have been an outdoors type. My family had a villa……

–Eh, a villa? Doesn’t that make you completely and unquestionably an obocchan?
That’s true (laughs)! Every summer holiday, my parents would take me to the villa. I thought that was normal. All my friends had these things, too.

–You had good summer breaks, didn’t you?
My father is an outdoors type, so he wanted to make me do everything. We went to the river to catch fish, things like that, and enjoyed the clean air.

–What kind of child were you in school?
In elementary school I studied things like English plays, so I did things that involved performing in front of people.

–You did this of your own volition?
No, I was made to do it. It wasn’t fun in itself, but it was fun going there and talking with friends. That became part of my life.

–When did you stand on the stage for the first time?
Ah, that was at a piano recital. During first year of elementary school, in a small hall. I was very nervous…… I made a lot of mistakes (laughs). This happened recently, but at the Tokyo Kosei Nenkin Hall (2007-01-07) I felt that same nervousness for the first time in a long while. It brought to mind that time in the recital hall~. At the Nakano Sun Plaza (2006-03-31) I wasn’t nervous, but at Kounen…… I think it was because I had a drum solo. Because of that extra part I made mistakes (laughs)!

–Piano recital, part deux? And at this juncture of your life, too (laughs).
But come to think of it, at that time I was reading from a score, but now I’m not.

–It’s a waste (laughs). At the piano recital, you weren’t awakened to the thrill of playing in front of people?
I wasn’t. Elementary school was the most fun time for me, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Having my own volition, it’s something I’ve only recently acquired.

–“When I grow up, I want to be XXX”, you didn’t think about that at all?
I liked cars so I wanted to be an F1 racer, and in grade 6 of elementary school I wanted to be a game producer. But these were only vague dreams. So really, because I didn’t have my own will or volition, I want to erase all my memories before my first year of middle school.

–You hated it to that extent?
Well, about that, I didn’t like myself. I didn’t think I was dependable. For example, I thought that I, who didn’t go against the classes my parents made me go to, was a really weak specimen of humanity. In elementary school, when I didn’t like it I would cry. ……recently, my parents asked me, “At that time, when you cried, were you trying to say that you hated it?”

–That was probably it. I don’t think you had any other means of expressing that. You cried a lot?
Yeah, I really cried a lot. And from grade 4 to grade 5 of elementary school, the gap between the time when I was being bullied and when I bullied others was really bad.

–How were you bullied?
In a one-on-one circumstance I was able to fight back on an equal standing, but there were one-against-many circumstances. At that time I felt humiliated, so I cried.

–But in contrary, there were times when you bullied others?
There were. I thought they were annoying.

–What did you do to them, when you were annoyed?
During soccer games, I’d kick the ball at their faces on purpose, and during dodgeball, I’d aim for their faces on purpose, things like that. Also, during lunch break when we were running and playing in the schoolyard, I’d definitely chase them. It was this kind of trivial things.

–They were trivial, but mean (laughs). But they don’t seem spiteful.
We did do things like ignoring the other person. When commuting to school, if there was an annoying guy we’d push him out onto the platform in the moment when the doors were closing.

–That’s dangerous.
But you know, I understood. The person who gets bullied is wrong. The people who bully are naturally also wrong, though.

–What do you think you were doing wrong, when you were being bullied?
I didn’t have my own volition…… is definitely the reason, I think. I couldn’t communicate to the others my sense of purpose. Which is why I hated myself, and I didn’t know what to do to change myself. That continued until around second year of middle school. I was always thinking, “What am I doing?”

–From that time, possibly you were always looking for the reason for your existence.
Perhaps.

–Did you ever transfer schools?
I did, in middle school. Around that time I disliked school in general, and in middle school aren’t there people who are sitting for tests seriously?

–So it was because a disparity was formed.
I thought that it was pretty bad. I had the strong feeling that I wasn’t suited to studying.

–Eh, were you able to study in elementary school?
No, I wasn’t very smart or anything, but I did study for subjects that I liked. Also, in elementary school, you can’t exactly fail.

–(laughs) When you transferred schools, or graduated from elementary to middle school, did you ever feel that in the new environment you could become a different person than the person you were that you didn’t like to be, and tried to change?
I did, I did. It was fine when I moved up to middle school. I became more mischievous, and the chances for me to do stupid things with my friends increased. But in the second semester of my first year of middle school when I transferred schools, I thought, “I’ve been done in”.

–Did something happen?
My second school was a school in my hometown, and there was a guy I was friends with who went to the same cram school as I did. I was set up by that guy. I transferred to that school and he beat me up. I said that I became more mischievous in middle school, which might have been why he accused me, “Aren’t you getting cocky?” But afterwards we became friends.

–Eh, why?
In that school, it seems that there was no one who dared to go against that guy and his group. But I didn’t know that, and naturally I didn’t want to lose in a fight.

–So it was like that. He probably wanted to show that he was the strongest.
Yes. He only said this recently, but on his side, it seems that he felt “There were people whom I picked fights with, but there weren’t any people who were strong enough to pick fights with me”, and we’ve always been close since then.

–Do you think transferring schools was a good thing, for you?
It was good… probably? No, it was definitely a good thing. I met those guys, and I made friends in my hometown.

–Did you become a new person?
I think I did, in the very end. In middle school I wasn’t bullied, and those years passed quite quietly.

–What happened to the self who was unable to express his sense of purpose?
In second year of middle school I still hadn’t changed. It was in the third year of middle school, when I found music, that I was able to express my own purpose.

–Just now, when you were deciding on the drinks menu, you said “I’m indecisive so I can’t decide”; was the root of that your directionless childhood?
What could it be? For example, if there are two kinds of pasta I want to eat, I’d order both kinds, because I can’t decide.

–If you’re unsure, you’d just get both, right from the start. It’s true that if you do that you won’t have any regrets.
Yeah, I don’t want to have regrets.

–What comes to mind, in terms of what you played during middle school?
It was all gaming. From that time I was already an indoors type. Ah, but in the school grounds of the university nearby I played survival games. Also I played soccer as a soccer club member from grade four of elementary school to first year of middle school, but I quit and joined the shogi club. [shogi = Japanese chess]

–That’s a very rude change.
I got tired of sports.

–Wasn’t that a bit early, to be tired of sports?
But outside of school, I was also going to swimming school. So, in school I was in the shogi club.

–Actually, you didn’t do anything for club activities, did you?
That’s right (laughs)

–Were there any girls you liked?
There were. In elementary school there was a girl I liked, and at a class reunion I told her, “I liked you then,” and she told me, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

–(laughs) Which is to say, “To think that I liked you back”, isn’t it?
……(nodding silently)

–That was regrettable, wasn’t it?
It was (laughs). But even having said that, confessing as an elementary school kid just wouldn’t do, would it?

–So, in middle school?
There were three girls (laughs)

–At the same time?
No, it was spread out. I went out properly with one of them. I didn’t date the second one, but up to now we’re still good friends. We’re on good terms, to the extent that I think, “Friendship between a girl and a boy, this is probably it.” And the last girl, there’s a funny story behind that one. In the third year of middle school, I confessed over the telephone.

–The home phone?
Yeah. So, the girl’s mother picked up, and I asked, “May I speak to XXX, please?” and she said, “Hold on,” and the girl picked up. So I confessed, saying, “I like you, so-“, but I was refused. And then, goodness knows how many days later, I told that close female friend of mine, “I was rejected.” She was friends with the girl who’d rejected me, and it seems that she had heard of it from that girl. But that girl hadn’t known the confession was from me. It appears that her mother had given her the wrong name.

–Ehhh (laughs)! Okaasan, how terrible. [okaasan = mother]
That’s how it was. My friend said, “The name was wrong, but that was Kenzo, wasn’t it?” And then when she asked, “What will you do?” but I said “Never mind, it’s fine not telling her!” (laughs)

–If she’d known it was Kenzo, it might have gone well……?
I wouldn’t know (laughs). But in middle school I was very introverted, so I really can’t say.

–But in any case you would definitely express your feelings to people you liked.
Yes, I did!

–So, let’s hear about what it was that turned your life around.
KISS!! [the American rock band]

–Eh, all of a sudden, KISS? Was the music that you’d been listening to up to then Western?
It was. My parents liked The Beatles. What was generally playing in my home was The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, King Crimson, and so on. Billy Joel.

–So that was Kenzo’s daily music. You didn’t listen to J-pop?
I did. Amuro Namie, Southern All Stars, and so on. The first CD I bought was Downtown-san’s Eccentric Shounen Boy and Kondo Masahiko’s Midnight Shuffle.

–So, where and how did you get into KISS?
I really loved American comics, like Spiderman, X-Men, Spawn. I was collecting their figurines, and at that time KISS had just re-formed and the figurines had been made, and when I saw their figurines for the first time I thought, “These figures are really cool~”. And then when I looked at the picture beside the figurines, it was of the same people.

–The window to KISS was figurines…… (in shock).
So, these are people who’re playing music~. What kind of music do they play? Was what I was wondering, so I listened to them and was taken by their music.

–You started liking KISS through figures…… (laughs).
It’s rare, isn’t it? From then on it was really terrible. AC/DC, Van Halen, and other music that can be called hard rock; I listened to all of it, and when I got my pocket money, I used it all on CDs. My lunch money also disappeared the same way.

–And when that happened, your life was changed.
Yes, that’s how it was. Everything I liked was related to hard rock, for example silver accessories, sake, motorbikes and so on. And leather jackets and pants, too. From my first to third year of high school, I was also caught up in the fashion, and dressed in leather and in satin shirts, like a chinpira [chinpira = yakuza punk] (laughs)

–And of course, you were also interested in KISS’ make-up?
I did it. I bought white face paint at Tokyu House and did the make-up, then took pictures. Now that I think about it, I started in Visual Kei from then.

–Everyone around was shocked by this change, weren’t they?
But my parents understood it. They were the ones who kicked it off, actually. They found out where to find leather pants. That was the first time I went to Harajuku of my own will.

–Oh, so that was the first time you moved according to your own volition. But looking at it from an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like Kenzo became a delinquent, wouldn’t it?
You could also call it a high school debut, but yes; the people around me must have seen it that way (laughs). Well, to be precise it was actually around the third year of middle school. Thanks to meeting KISS, one core part of who I am was formed.

–What instrument were you interested in, at first?
It was the guitar. Actually, I liked KISS’ Gene Simmons, so I wanted to play the bass. But my parents told me, “If you want to play the bass, it’s better to start from the guitar”, so I started on the guitar. But I couldn’t play it (laughs). I couldn’t hold down a normal guitar cord. I thought, I’m a person who can’t play the guitar… which is to say that I most likely can’t play the bass either. But I wanted to play an instrument no matter what, and it just so happened that at that time I had a hundred thousand yen in savings. I thought, “This is definitely a test from the god of music.” With the determination of a lifetime, I bought a drum set. Even though I’d never so much as touched one.

–You just bought it suddenly (laughs).
And then I told my parents, “I bought a drum set, so I’ll be playing it here (in my room)”. My very understanding parents just said, “Okay.”

–But your neighbours probably had something to say about that, didn’t they?
They did, very much so. At that time my cousin was living with us, and my grandfather and grandmother lived on the first floor, so I think I must really have been a nuisance. But my grandfather is someone who doesn’t really say things directly, so my grandmother was the one who told me that he said “If it’s something that he likes, then I have no complaints whatsoever.”

–You have a wonderful grandfather, don’t you~.
I do! He’s cool, isn’t he? And the fact that he didn’t say it to me directly is another level of coolness. I respect him a lot.

–And so you practiced hard?
The drum set came, and was set up. And then I tried it, and I could play it right from the start.

–It’s your calling.
I watched videos of KISS and imitated them, thinking, “It’s something like this”, and at the start my hands and legs were all over the place. And I thought, “Oh, I might be able to do this!” – that was my initial misinterpretation (laughs). That’s how it started.

–So predictably you only played hard rock?
That’s how it was in third year of middle school, but in high school I had a lot of friends who liked punk. Melodic Hardcore was popular then; High Standard, Rancid, (Sex) Pistols, Green Day and so on. It was faster and more intense than hard rock and I thought it was cool, so I formed a punk band with a friend. We did covers of the Pistols and High Standard. It was very fun. We played at livehouses like Koenji’s Ritz and 20000V.

–By the way, what was the first live you’d ever seen?
What was it? ……ah, a friend I met in high school liked Van Halen and more maniacal metal bands. At that time I didn’t know much about metal but I listened to Racer X and Mister Big and thought “What is this guitar?” (laughs). And after that when I listened to Stratovarius I thought, “This is it!” It was like a fusion of the hard rock I liked and the Final Fantasy music I’d liked since I was a kid.

–You like dramatic music, maybe?
Yes, that’s right. Fantastical, grand, sad melodies. And fast and intense. So, from that time I thought metal was the coolest music in the world, and from then on I was lost to metal.

–Which is to say that the very first music you were influenced by was Final Fantasy.
Yeah. The world of Final Fantasy music created by Uematsu Nobuo-san. That’s my number one. [Final Fantasy music is really the best!]

Kenzo's personal interview part 2

–So, what was the first live you saw?
It was Stratovarius. It was at O-EAST, and I was thinking, “A band that can rouse an audience of this size in a place this big is great! And on top of that a band I like is playing right in front of me!” The sound was also very impactful, and that was the first time I found out about the double bass. It goes doko-doko-doko-doko, doesn’t it? “Amazing!” I thought, “This, you can’t be a drummer and not play it!” and before I’d been playing the drums for a year I’d installed twin pedals, and from then on I’ve always been playing double bass.

–So that’s how it was.
And on top of that it was like “It’s not a three-point set!” [a set with only a high tom and no low toms] (laughs). Thinking, “There are 6 toms, and there are lots of cymbals!” I played on my own, by trial and error.

–After getting a double bass, your noise became extra loud, didn’t it?
Yes (laughs). Though at first I couldn’t play it at all. But at that time I thought, if I could understand it by sensation, I’d be able to do anything.

–Since you’d become engrossed with music, how did school go?
It was a gone case. In first year of high school I was discovered smoking and was suspended, and when I returned to school I was found out again, and when I was being forced into a decision about whether I would quit school or continue with it, I got annoyed and made the decision “I’ll quit”. In the next half year I didn’t do anything but part-time jobs.

–Your parents, who wanted you to walk the path of the elite, weren’t they sad?
My father was very angry……

–What kinds of jobs did you do?
At first I was with Mister Donut, but I quit after two days.

–Ehhh (laughs).
I couldn’t come to an understanding with the store owner (laughs). So, after that I was taken care of by a tavern in Shimokita for about a year. In that time, I discovered a high school where you could do music studies and thought, “Okay, let’s go!” and went back to high school. But you know, when I went there I was shocked!

–Why?
The place was full of yankees [delinquent youths], gangs and music otaku.

–Kenzo, you adapted to it, didn’t you?
At first I was thinking, what is with this place? But before I’d noticed I’d made friends. At that time, around me, there were excessively many people with pink hair.

–hide-san’s influence?
Yeah. Everyone had the same sunglasses, and they all had pink hair. I was wondering who it was, and that was my first knowledge of X Japan and hide’s existence. “Ah, there are cool bands in Japan who play something like metal”, I thought, and began to like them and listen to their music. Then, around that time, I found out about all the famous rock bands in Japan. Grey, Laruku, Luna Sea, La’cryma Christi, Shazna and so on.

–Visual Kei, so to speak.
Yes, that’s right. After that was Boøwy, and such. I started going to that high school, and in the first year there were a lot of bothersome things like fights, but after that I met friends who liked music, as well as friends who changed my life.

–What kind of meetings would those be?
Kazu, a friend I’m close to even now, with him it’s not just about music; he also thickened the wick of my humanity. That might have been the first time I’d known about passionate friendships, I think? Naturally, my bond with my middle school friend from my neighbourhood was strong, but with this guy, it was the first time I’d thought that I could actually make other friends that I could trust. I was betrayed a lot, so before then I didn’t really trust others. But when I met this guy, I understood the concept of depending on others. So then, I started a band with him. We played together for about four years.

–A metal band?
As to that, the genre changed. There’s also a genre called heavy rock, isn’t there? KO?N and so on; it had just begun to appear. So we played this kind of music, originals, and at the end we were quite popular at livehouses. But we didn’t know anything about how to make CDs or about marketing. We just played recklessly.

–Didn’t the school teach you this kind of thing?
Somehow, in a strange act of rebelliousness, we didn’t want to rely on the school for such things (bitter smile). During the period where, having such a school life, the two of us were playing in a band together, my grandfather passed away.

–Is that so……
Actually, at that time, I was thinking of quitting school. I wanted to become a professional musician. But earlier I’d made a verbal promise with my grandfather that “I’ll graduate properly from school”. Then, before I’d quit, he passed away, so all I could do was to graduate. Which is why I graduated properly from high school.

–You decided to do it, because of the promise you made with your grandfather.
Yes, that’s right. And then, though it wasn’t his dying words, it seems that he said to my grandmother, “For his coming-of-age ceremony when he’s twenty, prepare the drum set that he wants”.

–Your grandfather is so cool……
I thought that my grandfather was really cool. Saying “He’ll be alright”, he was always supporting me from the background. That was really…… (emotional)

–I would have liked to meet him.
His way of living, it’s not something you can imitate.

–So, you received it at your coming-of-age ceremony.
That’s the drum set I’m using now.

–So that’s how it is. It’s a touching story.
At that time, my music was changing, and by my father’s influence I started listening to progressive rock, and at that time I found out about Dream Theatre. Until then there weren’t any drummers I particularly liked; I liked a bassist. But after seeing Dream Theatre’s drummer (Mike Portnoy) I decided, “It’s him! I’ll become him!”

–(laughs).
So, there was a monstrous drum set that Mike Portnoy used at that time, and I got a set exactly the same. I can’t talk about the passing of my grandfather and grandmother.

–With this, you had to succeed as a drummer, didn’t you?
Which is to say, on the contrary I might have been tied down to it, by my grandfather (laughs). Something like “If you don’t do this well you won’t be forgiven”.

–He probably understood, that Kenzo had this kind of personality.
Yes, that’s so. After that I practiced endlessly. That was the first time I’d practiced the drums on my own. Up to then I’d been saying “I’ll become a pro in a band”, but I didn’t really have such a strong sense of it.

–Your grandfather’s spirit made you serious about it.
But that band disbanded in 2002. The bassist who was playing with us when we were 18 passed away, and we kept playing, feeling that we wanted to continue for his sake. We played at livehouses where visual kei bands made appearances, such as Takadanobaba Area, Meguro Rokumeikan and Ikebukuro Cyber. But we had some things wrong, and our popularity didn’t rise; we returned home, and after a final performance at Kichijouji we disbanded.

–After disbanding, did you feel uneasy?
No, around my neighbourhood, at the time, I was the only one who could use the double bass. I had quite a few invitations, but in the end I formed a metal band with my juniors. After that, I was thinking that it was about time I tried visual kei.

–What do you mean, “about time”? (laughs)
Well, everything I wanted to do had been shattered one by one. Up to then I’d tried punk, metal and heavy rock. So then I started visual kei. The first band disbanded because we couldn’t get along together, but after that I formed another band on my own. But the vocalist didn’t have any drive. So it didn’t work out. Around then, I was living with a member.

–Eh, which is to say, you moved out of your house sometime before that?
Ah, it was when I formed that band. I was thinking that I couldn’t depend on my parents forever, so I moved out and lived while doing part-time jobs on the side. That was probably the lowest point of my life.

–It’s because up to then you were brought up in a wealthy family that could give you anything you wanted.
I didn’t want that. Thinking that having already found the core of my life [meaning what his life’s built around, i.e. music], I wanted to do everything by my own strength, so I jumped right to the bottom on my own.

–Was it bad?
I hadn’t won at slots yet……

–It was that kind of life? (laughs)
When I won I was alright, but when I lost I ate beansprouts.

–It was because you invested your pay from part-time work in slots?
Yeah. I didn’t like doing part-time work. I only earned 100,000 yen a month. Also, since we didn’t have any activities, that band also couldn’t make it and disbanded. The people I met around that time were Hittsu (Hitsugi) and ZOZZY-san (YOMI = in Nightmare together) and Tenten (ex-KuRt) and so on.

–You found kindred spirits.
I thought, “Amazing!” I didn’t think that there would be such passionate people in visual kei. Actually, the impetus for me to want to try visual kei again was Hittsu.

–Which is to say?
It was before I met Hittsu. I wanted to study some things about visual kei, so I went to Like an Edison to find CDs and what was playing at that time was Nightmare’s DVD. So, there was someone with red hair and as I was thinking, “This guy, he probably likes hide~” and watched him, he spit into the crowd while playing the guitar!

–(laughs)!
It was like “Eeh?” (laughs). Hittsu has make-up like KISS, doesn’t he? I thought, “Currently visual kei has some cool guys, doesn’t it!”

–Have you said these things, to Hittsu?
I did, the first time we met. Hearing it, he was happy, and from then on we’ve been friends. Among all the bandsmen, I’m the closest to Hittsu.

–Well, you’ve been drinking together, haven’t you?
We have (laughs). Speaking of which, we were together up till just now.

–You were drinking ‘till morning? (laughs)
When we’re not on tour, I’m with him about 3~4 times a week (laughs). Meeting Hittsu made me revise my feelings, to realize that the way I’m living is not wrong. Since way back, I’m glad to say that I have a tendency to be able to find interest in older people. Within that, I’ve lived with the belief that the relationships with both older people and people my age are the most important things in life. So recently I’ve been thinking that this isn’t wrong.

–So, what did you do when your band was disbanded?
At that time, Tenten told me, “There’s a band called Ayabie, and since they don’t have a drummer shall I ask if you can play for them once as a support drummer?” I’d known about Ayabie from before. Ryohei (current Megamasso)’s songs were unique, and I thought they were cool. And so we met for the first time behind Area.

–What was your impression of the members, from that time?
At that time they’d already had lives at O-EAST and so on, so I thought they were really amazing people. Then Tenten introduced me to Aoi-kun, and it was kind of a “Nice to meet you~” feeling.

–Aoi-kun had a humble feel.
He’s always that way (laughs). So, I also went “Ah, nice to meet you!” And with that, I became the support.

–Did meeting Ayabie change your life?
It did. Naturally that was the biggest thing, wasn’t it? Up to then I’d had meetings that strengthened the core of my life, but Ayabie was different. Of course it did strengthen my core, but…… what is it? Well, it’s definitely the turning point of my life.

–Well, the members all have a different aura from other bands, don’t they?
That’s true. Seeing them in magazines, there’s a kind of mysterious feeling. I thought that people with the same aura are people who I can make friends with, as a human. Then, Ayabie had a completely different atmosphere, and instead of saying it’s cosy…… it’s all inexplicable (laughs)

–So with that, did you think “Can I do this?”
I did, very much. Intetsu has that kind of speech pattern, and Takehito didn’t speak at all at first. Ryohei was never in the studio, and Aoi was always fussing over me; I was wondering, “What should I do?”

–(laughs)!
But when I was told “We’ll leave the support to you”, I worked harder than I’d ever worked in my life. I put a lot of emphasis on the mood up till then, so I wasn’t used to drumming with a click. At that time, there were more than 40 songs, so I memorized them in 2~3 weeks.

–It’s amazing that you could remember Ayabie’s complicated songs in such a short time. Around when was it that, as a support drummer, you decided “I’ll play with Ayabie”?
When I was the support, I was already having a lot of fun. It was a completely different world, but it was a world that I could be in, and I also had the confidence that I could do it, so I wanted to do it right from the start. And, I was playing for other bands while playing for Ayabie, and I felt that I didn’t want to play behind anyone other than Aoi-kun.

–Why was that?
Somehow, I’m able to calm down behind him. Of course, there’s that he can sing well, and he gives me a sense of security. I dislike people who just ride the lyrics on the melody when they’re singing. Aoi-kun’s a person who can sing using his feelings even for other people’s lyrics, so when I’m playing it puts me in a really good mood. That’s why I thought that I wanted to play in this band. Just at that time, it was at the period where Ryohei wanted to become more hardcore, so I formally joined the band. It was the biggest change of my life. In an RPG, instead of travelling to the next town, it would be when the world disappears, and then you go on to a new world?

–(laughs).
It was really fresh and fun. I felt for the first time that this might be a space where I can live with music as my axis. From way before, while I didn’t have a foundation I had the confidence that “I’ll definitely be alright.” Since I found my core, whatever it was that I wanted to do, if I was determined to do it I would be able to do it, and I was sure that until I died I would never have problems with money. I thought, “I will definitely succeed”.

–I think that, while a lot of it is backed up by your own experiences, the root of your being able to live with such peace of mind had a lot to do with the existence of your grandfather and grandmother and your parents. This is to say that they created an environment where you could live carefree.
Yeah. Well, that’s true.

–Kenzo, you always had this kind of chivalrous personality, didn’t you?
Aah~……

–As a kid when you thought “I’ll go through with what I’ve decided to do”, I think it must have been because you had the confidence that you would be able to do what you had decided to.
My parents have been telling me “You resemble your grandfather” since I was young, but I didn’t know what exactly about me resembled him. My grandfather was tall, but I wasn’t very tall, and it wasn’t as if I didn’t speak much.

–It wasn’t that.
(laughs) is how I thought as a kid, but now that I think about it, what you said was what my parents probably meant.

–That you’re similar in terms of spirit.
It seems like my grandfather thought, “In terms of living, I won’t lose”.

–Perhaps it’s hereditary.
I wonder?

–Kenzo today is somewhat different from before. During interviews of Ayabie as a band, Kenzo’s always the one getting bullied (laughs).
That, that’s fine as it is. I’ve accepted that in Ayabie, that’s my role (laughs).

–That’s fine as it is.
Well, maybe I wouldn’t say it’s fine exactly…… (laughs). From the outside, they’re manly and have an image of being hot, but from pictures, instead of Takehito, you can see it more from the Aoi-kun and Intetsu and Yumehito side. But Takehito is actually really cool, isn’t he.

–Hahahah.
It seems like I have both sides.

–Kenzo’s really frank.
I’m told that a lot.

–The way your honesty shows in everything you do, it’s a mix of natural and spontaneous.
I’m like that in everything, but I really don’t like it when I’m not the main character. But in a band, the main character’s the vocalist, isn’t it? In that case, I’ll be a person in the shadows.

–……you really don’t give the impression of a shadow.
Hahahaha (laughs)! Well, in games, it’s the coolest person within the sub characters. Something of a shadowy, mysterious feeling? I want to hold that position in Ayabie.

–Now, are you happy?
Looking at it overall, I…… am happy. I’m doing what I want to do……

–How do you feel about this tour?
It was fun. All over Japan, I’ve been able to go to places I haven’t been to before, and I’ve also been able to go overseas; I think that being able to go to places where there are people waiting for you is a really happy thing. Also, being able to share music with these people in the same space, it makes me very happy. This action, in itself, is what I think of as music.

–Music is communication?
Yeah. What’s important is for the artist and the audience to share the sound, and to enjoy it together. To me, that’s what a livehouse is, and the intrinsic meaning of a livehouse. To be able to do that all over the country, all over the world, it’s an amazing blessing to me. This is why I would like to increase the number of people I can share music with. It’s not just us pursuing something; it’s something that the other party’s pursuing too, that we can share, and because of that I want to work harder so that they’ll want it even more.

–It’s going to be Yaon soon, right? (6th October. This interview was conducted in early September).
That’s right. It’ll be October, so the air will be a bit cool and it’ll definitely feel great~. We’ve been able to hold an event there before once, and as expected it was great.

–The view was good?
Everything was good, but mostly it was because I could see our customers who were having fun with us. In livehouses, because I play the drums, the position doesn’t really allow me to see much. But in halls and at Yaon, I can see everything.

–And this time it’s an independent live.
At Yaon, you can see the sky, can’t you? Music, to me, I really like it, so I’m doing it for myself, but up till now, playing music, I have a friend who’s passed away. I want to be able to communicate it to him with the sky as a medium. From inside a box, it might be difficult to do that.

–Your grandfather is also watching you, isn’t he?
He’d definitely be following behind me. With my grandmother. That’s why, no matter how little time I have, I always visit their graves. My grandfather and grandmother are definitely right beside me, and my friend who passed away as well. ……I’m not really saying that I’m playing for the sake of these people. I just think that if they’re watching me, I’m happy about it. I want them to watch me climb the stairs of success, without ever giving up on music.

–The sight of you working hard.
Well, I’m not exactly working hard (laughs). Naturally I’m doing as best I can, since I think when you’re trying to communicate something to someone, you have to do it with all your might. But to say that I’m putting in effort to communicate it, or working hard to communicate it, to me that’s an image of trying too hard, and I don’t like that.

–But, well, while watching Kenzo there isn’t a feeling that you’re trying too hard. Your personality doesn’t let you do that. I think you’re a person who does what he’s decided to intently and earnestly.
Ah. But you know, communicating my thoughts from the stage, it’s difficult. It’s been two years since I’ve entered Ayabie, and even after two years that hasn’t changed. But difficulty in communication, it’s not just from the stage (bitter smile)

–It’s also hard during interviews?
Mm, interviews are……

–(laughs).
I’ve always been someone who doesn’t say everything he’s thinking about (bitter laugh). The drums are like that, too. At recordings, I play the drums with my feelings at the time. That’s why at lives it’s also different each time. It might cause trouble for everyone, though (laughs). As for interviews, if it’s about me like today’s I can talk quite a bit. But sometimes I’m asked about the band as a whole, aren’t I? At those times~. I become something like “What about it?”

–(laughs).
Well, because you’ve interviewed us many times, Misawa-san, you probably understand what kind of person I am so you just keep the flow, saying “Ah, is that so. Next~” (laughs)

–Ahahah!
But I think within Ayabie, it’s fine if I’m like that. If I have anything to say, I’ll say it without prompting. So if I’m asked, “Please give us your thoughts about XXX!” I’d say “There’s absolutely nothing!”

–(laughs) I’m glad; today we’ve heard a lot of things we don’t usually get to hear, and were able to see Kenzo as an individual.
I’m happy to hear that.

–Perhaps the biggest thing is the manliness you have at your core.
Iyaa~, I wouldn’t know about that (embarrassed)

 

  Credit to translation interview by here