This is a translation of a reprint of an interview that originally appeared in PATi-PATi, October 1996 issue, shortly before the recording of True began. This was reprinted for the Box Set of The 15th anniversary in formation. The translation is based on the reprinted version.

BEGIN INTERVIEW

As intensely hot and sharp as he may appear on stage, the vocalist of L’Arc~en~Ciel is always surrounded by a fluffy yet mysterious air. Now, let us ask hyde for seven wonderful dreams…

—

Autumn

I like this time of year, when autumn turns to winter. Because somehow, human warmth becomes tangible during this season. For example, whenever someone goes out to eat, they’ll invite others, saying “Let’s go get something warm to eat.” I guess I like that atmosphere. It feels nice to sleep, too, you know. Makes me want to spend the whole day curled up in my futon. And I also like the sadness of it. Falling leaves and so on. I think it’s kind of romantic, too. What does autumn remind me of?! Uhm…. Bonfires, I guess. I like camping, I used to do it a lot. Bonfires are great to have when it’s cold out. Ah, I guess it reminds me of those nights. Oh, and sanma (1). Obviously, it goes with autumn.

—

Self

Right now, I’m mostly interested in recording the next album. Right at the moment, that’s all I can think about. When it comes to myself, if I were to analyze myself, I guess I’m a cold person. That, and an optimist. These days, I’m really trying to be more optimistic. But, I think that by doing that, the cold side of myself will end up having even more influence. For example, imagine there was someone at work that I couldn’t quite seem to get along with. When that happens, I tell myself “Well, that person still has good points, so there’s no helping it.” Then, if those good points turn out not to be good enough, I go “Oh well, forget it. I’ll just ignore that person.” Isn’t that cold?! (laughs) You know, I think I want to get better at speaking. I have a feeling my life would be more fun that way. It doesn’t occur to me to start talking to people, so my conversations go nowhere. So, I think the girls I date get bored. Because I don’t talk to them much. I wanna get better at speaking.

Space

A while back, there was a map of space published in Newton (2). Looking at it got my heart fluttering. There’s the Milky Way, you know, that’s the centre of our galaxy. The solar system, where Earth is, is just a tiny dot at the corner of the galaxy. Then, if you could see the galaxy from above, it would look round, but from the side it’s actually narrow. Like a thread. And then from Earth, we can just see the Milky Way. Because we’re looking at the centre from over in the corner. Isn’t that fascinating?! What if I could go anywhere?! I’d want to go to another planet that has life. You know, I used to be afraid of that when I was a little kid. In magazines made for kids, they’d draw faces on the planets and stuff like that, you know. Mr. Jupiter, Mr. Saturn, and so on. That always creeped me out. And aliens, that just wasn’t cool. What if I could only bring one thing to space?! ……..My bride.

Rain

When it rains, I feel rather calm. On rainy days, no one really wants to go outside, right? So instead, I get to look at the day differently, and wonder “What can we do indoors today?” It makes me very excited. When I was a kid, there was a park about five minutes away from my house, and I used to play there with a couple of friends there. This one time, it started raining all of a sudden, and it rained really hard, with thunder and lightning, so intense that I couldn’t go home even though it was only five minutes away. Plus, there wasn’t anything nearby that we could use for shelter, all we could do was huddle by the wall of the gym next door. There wasn’t anything above us so we got soaked anyway. The water went up to my knees, and it was running like crazy. I had to slosh my way through it. (laughs) Sticking to the wall. Then I saw this old guy come running up, sticking to the wall. Of course, he was having a hard time too (laughs).

Love (3)

I hate it. Koi have such an ugly face and they just hang around with their mouths open. It’s gross, you know? (Wrong koi! It’s supposed to be koi as in Love) Ah yes, you want me to talk about love. Love, to me, is a powerful drug. When I’m in love, my heart is pounding constantly. On the other hand, when I can finally calm down, it means it’s another kind of love. When I can relax, it’s a different kind of love. I think the passionate, exciting love is just a part of the greater whole. It’s just a piece of this great big bond (he makes a big circle with his hands) that connects people.

Dreams

I have a lot of dreams. I had a good one recently, but it’s kind of embarrassing so I won’t tell you (laughs). A while back, I realized that I was dreaming while I was still asleep. In my dream, I went “Hey, am I dreaming?!” and then started bragging to everyone else in the dream. “Hey I bet none of you realize this, but we’re actually in a dream right now.” And everyone answered “Oh yeah, I guess you’re right.” And, in my dream, I knew how to wake up. I could go “Hey this is a dream!” to somebody, then tell them “If you just do this, it’ll wake you up.” The trick was to just move my eyeballs upward without opening them. Then, in the dream, I woke up, and thought “Aw, I woke up. I should’ve taken the chance to do bad stuff,” like a naughty little kid. I was thinking of all the stuff I’d do if I had a dream like that again, then I realized “Hey, I’m still dreaming!” but then I woke up for real. I haven’t had another dream like that ever since. The coolest dream I ever had was like, I was at the top of a mountain, and there was a UFO battling an airplane. That was about two years ago. They were fighting right there, in the sky. With missiles and everything. I was just a normal person, watching from the ground, going “Woooow, awesome~”. It was so intense it was almost scary, I guess. Lately, I’ve been dreaming about Mount Fuji. About climbing Mount Fuji. A while ago, I saw this thing on TV about it, and they said that the mountain doesn’t belong to the government. Did you know that?! It actually belongs to a shrine. I think it’s called Asama Shrine, and it owns everything from the summit to I don’t know how far down, and then everything below that belongs to the government. Apparently they fought over it, in court, after the war. And the shrine won. Oh, and the shrine was given the mountain by Tokugawa Ieyasu(4).

My childhood dream?! I wanted to be Kamen Rider (5). My mom tells me I was really crazy about Kamen Rider, I had Kamen Rider stuff on my bike and everything, and I’d get bath towels to make a cape and run around the neighbourhood like that every single day. (laughs) Then, I’d jump down three flights of stairs, like Wooo~. Sounds like I really wanted that costume (laughs).

Mystery

I like mysteries. They make my heart beat faster. But you know, when I get around to looking up something I find mysterious, I get bored halfway through. But, it’s not good to want something to stay mysterious. Things need to be solved. We can’t just say “That’s the way it is, the end.” Obviously, I can’t expect to understand things when even the experts haven’t figured them out yet. I just get bored when I don’t understand. Well, I guess I get bored even when I do understand (laughs). Women are a mystery. I used to not understand them at all, but now, I think I basically understand them.

– Interviewer: Itou Aki
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Sanma is a type of fish that is in season during autumn and therefore is a typical meal of this time of year, in Japan.
Go back.

2. Newton is a scientific periodical, probably the most well-read of its kind in Japan. Incidentally, some of hyde’s comments about space and the galaxy are not quite correct.
Go back.

3. The word “koi” can mean either Love or Carp. hyde pretended he thought the question was about the fish, at first.
Go back.

4. Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the three warlors who unified Japan at the dawn of the 17th century. He even ruled the country as shogun himself for a few years.
Go back.

5. Kamen Rider is a live-action children’s series about a costumed fighter. In English, it is called Masked Rider.
Go back.