ItalianoIf I’m concerned with the opinion of the world, I can’t be GACKT
GACKT performed as the Fiend with Twency Faces in the anime 『TRICKSTER −Edogawa Ranpo 「Shonen Tanteidan」 Yori−』, wrote it’s ending theme 「Tsumi no Keisho ～ORIGINAL SIN～」, and has released it as a single. The brutal depiction of the blood splattered MV was a hot topic but also it hides a profound message of a person’s “life”.
[Problematic work is not an issue. I want to release it as radically as I please]
──「Tsumi no Keisho ～ORIGINAL SIN～」 , the first new song about a year after your album 『LAST MOON』 was released, is the ending theme song for the TV anime 『TRICKSTER −Edogawa Ranpo 「Shonen Tanteidan」 Yori−』. Did you write the content of this work after being inspired by a character after all?
The story behind the song talks about the emotions of the characters that appear in the tale of 『MOON SAGA』. To begin with, until I start going around for the world tour that’s scheduled for this year, I honestly planned to keep producing music. However, it became a topic of ‘why not just produce a few songs before the Japan triumphal tour anyway, then change the songs we’re going to perform in the live?’.
──Even so, the symphonic and gothic sound is great, the strong message behind the lyrics “Don’t run away from life” is great, the bizarre MV is great, it’s too sensational!
In my band era I’ve always done gothic stuff too, and in the first place I like edgy songs or songs with a message anyway. It’s just that until now, those in the media and various other areas were made with a sense of regulation in their heads and, I began to wonder, ‘is something like that really necessary?’. When I was in a recording company, I couldn’t really release MVs with edgy lyrics, and there would be modifications done to it but with the internet being so widespread now, those things are but a trifle now. You can even launch an independent label now, and more than just being able to do everything on your own, you don’t even need to bother about those regulations. From here on you can create a song, make a video, you can radically do as you please… This isn’t a new style, but is instead the original stance. I think that showing your identity and doing things your way is better. That’s why, I’m honestly not thinking of the question “will this be accepted?”. I don’t even know how many more years I’ll be active in music so even if it becomes a “problematic work” it’s fine…
──I see. As an ending theme song for an anime, it was extremely shocking since the usual songs have the image of being happy and are calm.
If anything, it’s become a rather edgy “ending” (laughs). The character that I’m acting as in the anime, the Fiend with Twenty Faces, is quite a damaged character so I decided to create a song that can be synchronised with that part of him. There was an order from the anime production team for that indeed said “Can you create a song that is happy and makes a person see the future?”, but I’m not a commercial writer anyway. I can’t deftly create something as requested, and I can only write about whatever comes up at that point of time. That’s why I said something like, “In any case, just listen to what I’ve come up with, and if you don’t like it, it’s still alright that it’s not meant to be right?” and got the director to listen to it, and he said “I’m surprised! It’s pretty cool!”, and I thought, that’s great. Though I still said “I’m sorry, I couldn’t come up with something along the lines of what you were thinking of” (laughs).
──(Laughs). No, no, it’s really cool. Earlier you mentioned the phrase “problematic work” but, the MV depicts a bishonen (handsome boy) and a bishojo (beautiful girl) who look like they’re the main characters, who then kill people one after another, so do you think that what is captured here is the same as what is expressed in the lyrics?
Yeah. Although the meaning is different in terms of eras, in the end, I think “Tsumi no Keisho (the inheritance of sin)” is something that happens in the past and is brought to the future so when it became difficult to bring the plot that I initially wrote to life, I changed the setting to the modern era. Of course, although they’ve said to me “But if we do it like this we won’t be able to broadcast it, is that alright?”, I said “It’s alright, I’m not bothered by that”… I was told that it was rated R, but it gets distributed online anyway. And I kept telling the director “I don’t intend to show people a drama”, and I want to depict the screams of the kids who appear in it as crazed so I told him it’ll be enough if he just focused on how to film it in an edgy style, and that we don’t need any explanatory elements at all. If it makes the audience think on their own “Is this what it’s talking about?”, that’s fine… I said.
──Indeed it makes you wonder if it’s just a number of bizarre scenes lined up together, and I could feel like hints that it was all related in one story were stuck everywhere. Instead, the only things that stuck were the brutal parts, and the message of the lyrics with the theme of a person’s sins.
It’s good that you would say that to me though. Actually, when I was working on the editing, I showed it to my friends on the other side in my home overseas and all of them said “It’s a problematic work isn’t it” (laughs). Just that they also added, “Because it’s also something that appeals to the problems that the modern society has, that’s that I think”.
[I do what I have to do. Because I can’t run away from it]
──In the first place, is does the “Tsumi (sin)” that is mentioned in the title defined as a “crime”?
Sin refers to… existence. To say it a little more extremely, it refers to people existing in this world. Today, I was watching a movie in the car and this line came up, “If you really want to rid this world of sin, you, go be an obstetrician. If you kill all the children who are born, then humans will cease to exist. As long as humans are around, there is no way that there will be no sin in this world”. I thought, “That’s deep…”. As a script it sounds rather ridiculous but it hits the core of things. Because humans can never stay completely clean.
──In the title, “ORIGINAL SIN” itself is a reference to the “original sin” mentioned in Christianity, which is the belief that humans are born already guilty of sin, but for GACKT-san yourself, is there something that makes you feel like it’s a sin?
For me, when I’m doing something as a volunteer, I often say “I’ve atoned for my sins” though. When I was a child, my heart was a little weak so I was weird for awhile. I would think about “Why are we alive in this world?” or “It would be better if there were no people in this world”… But isn’t that the inescapable reality? Since that’s the case, rather than thinking negatively, it’s better to look at it with the idea that there’s something we’re meant to do.
──Even if the existence of humans is deeply sinful, we continue to exist in this world. If we think of it this way, then it might mean that for all humans, to “live” is to atone for our sins right.
Looking at it and thinking about it like that ends up being very religious, but to look at it more simply, it means to “Do what you have to do!”. Because anyway, we can’t run away from “living”.
──In other words, “hold onto (your) sin, and don’t run away from the reality of living” is the primary message of the song, isn’t it. Looking at it from the other direction, it can also mean that there are lots of people who want to run away.
They don’t want to get hurt after all. It’s tough, and they don’t want to get attacked, and it’s troublesome, and they don’t want to get involved. But I think we’ve entered an era where we can’t say such things. We’re in a situation where we don’t know when the balance of the world will collapse, there aren’t many Japanese who think about the fact that we’re in such a world, or Japan’s economy, or what they themselves should be doing as a Japanese. I honestly think that it’s laughable that everyone only looks at the media coverage and at things at a superficial level. For example, with regards to Trump’s travel ban that prevents Middle Easterners from entering the US, everyone says that “It’s pitiful”. But because they’re not looking at the root problem that has led to this, no one can answer the question “What’s pitiful about it?”. I think that these are the things that reflect the present state of the Japanese people, and the people of this country are far too unable to see what’s going on inside something from the surface, that they think of the happenings around the world as someone else’s business. The main point is that they aren’t thinking much. Well, it’s like, are those people who simply react to the information given to them without thinking really considered “human”?.
──So when we receive the message that says “Don’t run away”, I believe that there will be people who then ask “Well then how do I live while facing reality like GACKT-san?”, and it feels like we’re able to see one of the answers, “By thinking”, from what you just said.
That’s why, saying something is “good” or “bad”, or “right or “wrong’, is a very local thing. Something that was correct 50 years ago can be said to be wrong now, or something that was wrong 100 years ago may be correct now. The main point is, it’s the same for trends. In the past this thing was considered cool but right now it’s super lame. Or in the past, something that was considered as uncool is now trending at present… that feeling is relatively unchanged. If you’re asking me, “so what should I do?”, in conclusion, isn’t it more like “what do you want to wear?”?
──Indeed!
It’s like, given that one key element of fashion is you expressing your identity, if you’re being influenced by the trends in the world, is that the real you? In other words, what is your self? Basically, “you have to think about it”.
──… That is deep. Knowing that the song has such a message embedded in it, I’ve realised that we can’t simply critique that it’s edgy or extreme and end it there.
Well, I don’t know. Like, how many people does this actually reach? But I suppose a piece of work is like that,and questions like “how will it be received if I leave it alone?” or “how will it be judged?”, I honestly don’t care about those things. It’s not like I wrote the song while thinking about that.
──Because of that, it’s not about trends, but about focusing as much as possible on “What does GACKT want to sing about?” right. Without listening to what others around you say or think.
Yeah. If I’m bothered about that, I can’t be GACKT. In a way, you could say that I became insensitive to it… I got used to it. A portion of media outlets mix fact and fiction about me together, and when you’re being hurt by someone else, there will definitely be a moment when you’re divided within yourself. If you’re being swayed by such nonsensical things, you’ll end up at the same level as them so, isn’t it better to just take it as a joke and laugh about it. This doesn’t only apply to me, but to the politicians and the other celebrities as well. Furthermore, most kids generally go onto message boards and such, and write everything, be it fact or fiction, as the truth and then get blamed for it. And, I think there are probably quite a number of kids out there who really do get hurt or go crazy from this. You can’t live if you get bothered by such things. But it’s because I’ve experienced a variety of things, including that as well, that there’s this present version of me, that’s what I really feel.
──If you don’t have much life experience, it’s rather difficult.
Instead, aren’t there many people who are exceptionally concerned about how the people around them look at them, then write blogs that are influenced by how they want others to think of them, or pretend to be this version of them for the sake of getting more followers? For such people, they are simply being chased by time before they disappear. It’s meaningless. What’s important is the answer to “What do I think?” and “What do I live for?”, things like “what are other people saying about me?”, are not known areas to me. Things like that don’t matter.
Source: okmusic.jp
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA