[TRANSLATION] club-Zy: Long interview special edition | All 4 parts serialization: Aoi (the GazettE) | Part 1

Photographs by Takehiro Suganuma / Interview by Ayano Nishimura

Part 1: [DIVISION], the album that was born at the 10th anniversary of the GazettE’s formation

-- The new album [DIVISION] was on sale starting from August 29th. The previous work, [TOXIC], was (released) only 10 months before this. The method also came as a surprise, where all the compiled songs (in total of 14 songs for the first time, whereas usually only 12 songs) were new songs. Firstly, please tell us starting from the motivation of this production.
Aoi: the GazettE had our 10th anniversary March this year. The idea came from RUKI, where (he said) we should release something in accordance with our 10th anniversary. What would become of the album was not determined yet at the onset, but at the end of last year up to the beginning of this year we had another discussion, and the image hardened into ‘let’s continue the flow of the previous album, [TOXIC]’… sort of feeling.

-- In Aoi’s thought, was there a part of you that wanted to create this kind of image and the likes for this album?
Aoi: That’s right. Because this time we are marking our 10th, I was thinking I had to freely let out something that I didn’t have within me, the music that was born from inside of me. In LIVES, recently, more than just as the so-called the GazettE’s Aoi, I’m thinking of standing there on stage as myself.

-- The album’s Limited Edition has 2 discs, the first disc is the [Rock Side] and the second is [Digital Side]. Being varied into those categories, it’s really interesting that you’ve revealed this kind of overview. I was surprised to find that the orders of the songs in the Limited Edition and Regular Edition were different. How attentive!
Aoi: We changed the orders of the songs in the Limited and Regular Edition to make the flow nice, that’s the idea. When we put the songs that were divided into two discs in the Limited Edition into the Regular Edition’s single disc, we thought about changing the order of the songs.

-- Which song has the greatest emotional attachment to you?
Aoi: It’s [Ibitsu]. It describes about greed among other things, the truth about human being. It’s kind of like mud.

-- [Ibitsu]’s PV is included in the Limited Edition’s DVD. How did the shooting process go?
Aoi: We shot the video in a film studio, but the main focus is a monochrome performance scene. The shooting was exhausting because we pushed ourselves to the end.

-- Coming here despite being tired, I notice the gloomy look on your face (lol).
Aoi: Right.

The second part will be uploaded at club-Zy’s site at September 12th. We hope you will be looking forward for it.

credit to: theGazettE_INA