Interviewer: Hiroko Yamamoto

- When have you thought "Oh dear, I'm dirty!"?

u~m...when I became an adult and had lived as a part of society for a while I ran into a lot of different things very quickly. As a child I would say anything that came to my head until I began gathering knowledge and I started becoming more intelligent, but when I look back on it there are times when I think I was impure...as the years rush by I feel like I'm rotting away (laughs). Already, it's all black. My body, it seems (laughs)*.

- Yeah, we certainly don't think "If I say this how will everyone else react?" when we're kids.

Well...kid've got their own ways of thinking, but then they start caring what they say. That means their way of thinking broadens so it's not a bad thing. Still, there's something good about they way children think. I wanna be an old man with the heart of a child...but that's already been squeezed outa me (laughs).

- Hahaha. Already squeezed out?

Well, um, now I've gotta have a certain image and behave a certain way, stuff like that.

- An outward appearance and principles, ne?

Yeah. Nowadays you can't be a part of society based on your true intentions alone. I realized that from the experiences I had, which worries me.

- Comparing being an artist to being a typical member of society, is it a position were you have to have relatively few motives and set principles?

No, not at all. I don't know if people think being a in a band is like "I like music and I do what I want; let's go live it up, rock and roll!" or "Let's get drunk and go on a rampage, baby!", or things like that (laughs), but really, there's a lota stuff to being a musician. There is with any job. Even being homeless is complicated. As an artist, when I was picked up by the company I became their employee. It's "Greet people properly" and all that. They say I'm rude (laughs).

- They say you're blunt?

Yeah. (will ask sensei about this sentence). Reticent people seem like they have an angry or indignant image. But it's actually a lot more subtle than that.

You say it as if you don't speak for just yourself (laughs). Perhaps that kind of thing gets rubbed out by society?

I think so. When

* "hara ga kuroi", literally "my stomach is black," means someone is a bad person. So if he's all black then...