MUSIC INTERVIEW: SUGIZO OF LUNA SEA
Guitarist of Japanese Rock Group Talks About Reforming the Band & Coming to the USA
Since the release of their first official RCA Victor-labeled album, Image, in 1992, Luna Sea continued to open doors in Japanese rock music until they disbanded in 2000. After performing a one-night-only concert at Tokyo Dome three years ago, Luna Sea laid low; however, starting from November 27th in Germany, they have begun their world tour, visiting the United States and performing at the Hollywood Palladium on December 4th. Sugizo, the guitarist for Luna Sea, talks about their much anticipated world tour. First off, he explains why Luna Sea has decided to restart the band now:
"When we reunited for the one-night-only concert three years ago after seven years of hiatus, I really didn’t want to do it because working as Luna Sea was such a nightmare. I was sort of forced (to reunite). However, once we got together, it sounded amazing. It was like magic. So I thought, 'The Japanese music scene needs us. Our band is too valuable to them.'"
After Luna Sea disbanded, Sugizo worked as a solo musician and later joined X Japan, who recently did a U.S. tour. The rest of the members had also been working on solo projects, and Ryuichi (vocals) became an actor, appearing in television series and movies. Their post-breakup experiences could possibly have caused the magic Sugizo saw.
“We started to care about creativity more than our egos and stupid competitions after we reached our late thirties, and now we are in our forties. Since Luna Sea disbanded, we’ve all worked solo so we know what it’s like to be our own bosses. At the same time, Shinya (drummer), Ryuichi, and I have also worked on projects where we have people other than us in charge. That means we have experienced it both ways; controlling others and correctly expressing the things our bosses want from us. We finally understood when we should express ourselves and when we should just focus on bringing out what others want. We had been fighting over and over because we all had our own opinions and we didn’t want to listen to others. Everyone is like that when they are young. But now each member knows when to express ourselves and when to repress.”
Although this will be the first time Luna Sea performs in the U.S, Sugizo is confident that his band has lots of fans in overseas.
“I think Luna Sea's music is a combination of American rock bands like Aerosmith and Nirvana, English bands like Oasis or David Bowie in the old days, and Japanese pop music. To tell you the truth, each member of Luna Sea has very different tastes in music. Some of us like Japanese pop music. I was influenced by U.K.’s punk, gothic, progressive music. Our drummer, Shinya, has a background of playing Taiko, Japanese drums. We create music combining our favorite elements. There are many Japanese bands that are very popular in Japan but not so much internationally. That’s because they are doing the exact same things as The Beatles. But Luna Sea takes in the good elements from overseas, adds some Japanese tastes, and creates original music. It’s what Japanese people are good at. Also, I’ve heard that people overseas are interested in us because our style is like Kabuki.”
Will Luna Sea debut new songs on the tour?
“We want to show fans the Luna Sea they want to see, so the songs we’ll perform on the world tour will be a collection of our hit songs. Those songs were written in the 1990s but don’t sound old at all. I realized that our music was not worn out. But we want to add some new elements too, so there might be a new song. That’s going to be a part of our strategy for the next step.”
Luna Sea is playing at the Hollywood Palladium on December 4, 2010.
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