Part II

Kaya's first single, which he stated was made with the thought that he "wants you to feel his expression of beauty and inner darkness from many different angles, like a kaleidoscope that can detect all different kinds of beauty as well", will be on sale soon, and this time we are going to make it the focus of our discussion.

[A music genre that crosses over the boundary line of gender discrimination...]

Were your first solo release, and the Another Cell CD released this April, made under this concept of a decadently aesthetic world that you're trying to express?

Kaya: In respect to that matter, the contents have become something like a commitment of mine, on top of my decision to continue on with music. From the time I first sang with a band I had been thinking to myself, "Why is it that I'm singing I wonder?" but during the time I was in Schwarz Stein some part of that became clear to me. In the two years since we disbanded I was called by other musicians to join their bands and the like, and I touched upon all different genres of music, and as I progressed, I began to get a clearer sense of, "Ah, so this is what I want to do after all!" And during that time I thought to write some lyrics out for future reference. In my case, I'm the type who makes my own life experiences and things I've felt the basis for my lyrics.

Oh, and so the contents of this are...? (laughs)

Kaya: yeah (laughs)

And the lyrics for [Kaleidoscope] are also grounded in your own experiences?

Kaya: Kaleidoscope also has a coupling song, and they're meant to portray a sense of the world that I want to express to the fullest extent possible. Especially for the second song, "Remains of Mind", where it's more like I pulled together bits and peices from the diary I keep, rather that having written lyrics (laughs) It's safe to say that "Ruins of the Heart = remains of mind."

And these phrases that are written in your diary....

Kaya: Of course that's not all that's there (laughs). There's stuff like "Today I went to a cafe, and the tea there was really good," or "Today I got in a fight with OOsan. I'll do my best" in there as well (laughs). And from everything there, I picked up the parts that best express my emotions. They're excessively straightforward, and so at first I thought it might be best to change them a little bit, but in the end I think I want to make clearly expressing my feelings, a sublimation of sorts, an important part of my style in expressing myself. Like, gonna write it all out, it's now or never!(laughs)

So it's raw and new, right? (laughs) Now that I've heard the song, and heard what you have to say, I'm even more surprised (laughs).

Kaya: (laughs) Perhaps it is an overall raw feeling. But it doesn't mean I was going for that feeling. I few days ago I had a secret live, and after it was over I received quite a few ankets back saying "You were much more true to life and vivid than I expected" or the like (laughs).

From your appearance you're beautiful like a doll, but what you're saying is that it doesn't mean "artificial," but more "pure" or "natural"?

Kaya: Objectively speaking, I consider [Kaya] to be both male and female. It's not that I won't make you see it as either sex, but that they are both there in tandem. Two times the taste in one, in a way (laughs)

"A candy with two tastes"....like that Caramel Candy catchphrase(laughs)

Kaya: certainly (laughs) Male and female, to be either means to be able to express myself from both points of view, doesn't it? In order to express my world of decadent beauty, I want to be able to sing with the ache of both male and female. Being both male and female, being sexually borderless, I would like to convey that I think this is a very important thing. I want to shake up the view of life where people think because your male you have to be like this, and because you're female you have to be like that. I want to uproot the listener's senses....though if I say that, it's probably an overstatement of sorts, but I think I want to show people how wonderful it is to be borderless. And of course I also find that important in the surface of my music as well. This time, when I thought of what I consider beautiful instruments, for example a pipe organ or an orchestral hit, I decided I wanted the to include the sound of bells in the song. But I didn't just request that, and there's a koto in "remains of mind", an impression of not understanding anything.

Why a koto?

Kaya: When you think of an aesthetic world through music, don't you have an image of the Western Rococo style? But as for a specifically Japanese decadence, I think it includes both darkness and beauty. For example, there's been an unbroken flow of inhereted beauty and civilisation in Kyoto for more than a thousand years, but at the same time isn't there a sort of darkness you can't put into words? I absolutely adore that kind of thing, and so I wanted to gather that and express it in my music.

It certainly is borderless.

Kaya: Yes, and I search for that even in my music, not just natural borlessness (laughs)

End Part II