Rock and Read 39: 圭
In this post I mentioned some things from the interview with kei.
I’ll go ahead and repost them here:
Kei actually mentions Clarity and pre-baroque kannivalism in Rock and Read, basically saying that baroque was the first serious band because before that it was like one day it was part-time job, the next it was a girlfriend with the previous bands he was in so they weren’t committed and didn’t get much done etc but with baroque there wasn’t any of that going on
…
Kei also talks about how he was the very last member to be added to baroque, that he joined maybe three days before the recording of Mと積み木遊び (M to tsumiki asobi).
He talks about how old he was when he first joined baroque (16) and at the time he was like “I’m an adult.”
He also talks about when he switched to being the lead guitarist and he didn’t have the confidence. He thought Akira’s parts were too difficult and Akira had to sit him down at his own house and teach him. I didn’t quite grasp why they switched (I had been skimming the interview without looking up kanji). It was around Anakuro Film that the member shuffle happened.
That’s all I remember right now of the Rock and Read (39) with Kei. I haven’t finished skimming it and haven’t gone back to look up things I didn’t understand, but it’s definitely interesting so far.
Furthermore, the interviewer brings up how baroque started oshare kei + baroque’s early influences/approach.
Kei says that they didn’t intend to start oshare kei when they started baroque. They thought visual kei was cool but it seems they quickly developed a bad feeling about it and even thought it was scary (he comments on how it was very dark and how the sound was heavy with screaming etc) and decided they needed to change visual kei.
As for the early approach of baroque, or really how they became oshare, Kei cites liking Green Day, as well as saying they tried a hip hop-like approach (limp bizkit and other rap metal that was out at the time), but he also says he doesn’t know if they ever did hip hop (like, he wasn’t sure it ever showed in baroque’s music). He said if he had to cite visual kei bands it would be The Mad Capsule Markets.
※I’m maybe halfway through skimming the interview and this is the information that I have gleaned from it thus far. It’s a lot easier on me to summarize what I grasped than to translate word for word, mostly because I’m not reading the interview trying to grasp every single word but instead I’m just trying to get the gist of what he’s saying and move on.
※If I find anything else interesting I’ll reblog this post and let you guys know.
