Psycho le Cému's DAISHI, Plastic Tree's Masashi Hasegawa, 0.1g no Gosan's Tomoyuki Kawamura, and ENVii GABRIELLA's HIDEKiSM Discuss How to Enjoy Himeji Shirasagi ROCK FES DAY2 Ten Times Over: "The Most Important Thing Is Conveying the Heat"
This interview was originally published in Japanese on barks.jp. Translated by VK Chronicle.
Psycho le Cému × Plastic Tree × 0.1g no Gosan × ENVii GABRIELLA Round Table: Making the Most of Himeji Shirasagi ROCK FES DAY2
Psycho le Cému established
This eclectic lineup defies categorization—diverse in musical style and generation, united only by the fact that each member is a powerfully individual artist forging their own path. Hasegawa Masashi (B) from Plastic Tree, Kawamura Tomoyuki (G) from 0.1g no Gosan, HIDEKiSM (VOCAL / MARKETING / MOOD) from ENVii GABRIELLA, and from Psycho le Cému (the organizers), DAISHI (Vo) and seek (B), gathered to discuss the festival’s highlights and their relationships with one another.
■Hoping We Don’t Cause Any Trouble…■ I’ll Be Ready to Apologize on My Knees in Himeji (laughs)
**Q: The second edition of
seek: Last year was our first time doing everything, so we ourselves wondered, “Did we properly welcome everyone as hosts?” and we’ve had a lot of time to reflect over the past year. The original motivation was that it was our 25th anniversary as a band, so we wanted to create an opportunity to give back to our hometown of Himeji. The biggest emotional factor was that we were able to invite the bands we’ve met over these 25 years because of that history. I recently went back to Himeji, and over the past year, I’ve felt that the response from the first event is gradually reaching the people in our hometown. I’d say we successfully kicked off something significant.
DAISHI: The festival was a huge success, but we were really particular about holding the festival finale on May 3rd, our anniversary date. Since May 2nd was a Friday, we held it over Friday and Saturday. But this time, we’re not fixated on that—we’re moving it to Saturday and Sunday so more people can easily attend. And seasonally, it’s wonderful that people will visit Himeji in spring when the cherry blossoms are beautiful. It’s truly stunning, so I really want fans to see the cherry blossoms and Himeji Castle before the shows. That’s part of what makes our festival special, which is why we moved it to this time of year.
Q: Right after last year’s finale, seek, you posted on SNS saying “Bookings start tomorrow.” How specifically did you approach offering slots to everyone here today?
seek: We did reach out to everyone who performed last year, saying “If you’d be willing, we’re thinking of doing this again next year.” At that point, we hadn’t finalized the venue yet, so we couldn’t say exactly when, but you could say the booking process started that day. During last year’s festival, I was in the wings seeing everyone off and welcoming them back, and I could really feel that all the artists were having a great time. That became a big part of our desire to do it again, and many people gave positive responses, which made us really happy. That said, everyone’s obviously busy, and scheduling was difficult—it went right down to the wire. We were still adjusting things until around November last year. That’s one of the big challenges of organizing a festival like this.
Q: ENVii GABRIELLA is performing for the second time, following their debut appearance.
DAISHI: ENGab is such a unique act—when we had them perform the first time, we were seriously nervous backstage.
HIDEKiSM: I mean, thank you so much for inviting us! We’re a unit of three queens in heels, singing and dancing. We’re not even a live band. We do sing various genres, but we were totally in enemy territory (laughs).
seek: They actually came to the venue the day before the event. I think they wanted to get a feel for the festival atmosphere, but by coming early, I feel like it only increased the pressure and raised the stakes for them (laughs).
HIDEKiSM: It was basically a festival of heavy hitters. With Psycho le Cému’s significant 25th anniversary event, we were filled with anxiety thinking “Is it really okay for us to be here!?” But we thought “Since we’ve been invited, let’s give it everything,” so we went in with the determination to really amp things up right from the start.
DAISHI: You came in with MC right away, remember? You don’t usually see “play the SE and go straight into MC.”
HIDEKiSM: Right, right. We played this super cool SE, the three of us came out on stage, and went “Hey~!” (laughs). Above all, we wanted the band girls to accept us, even a little bit, so we approached it with the attitude of “Thank you so much.” And the fans welcomed us so warmly and gave us so much praise.
DAISHI: It was absolutely wild.
HIDEKiSM: I really felt that was thanks to Psycho le Cému and their fans.
Q: Was that style of opening—SE into MC right away—unusual for ENGab?
HIDEKiSM: Yeah, it was unusual. But we decided to go for it with the determination to “really grab them!” It was a gamble—we could’ve totally flopped.
DAISHI: For this year, maybe you should just come in hot with a song? The visual kei scene definitely knows about ENGab now, so you’ll be fine.
HIDEKiSM: Alright, maybe we’ll just blast in this time?
Q: Plastic Tree will be making their debut appearance this time. Hasegawa, you have a long history with Psycho le Cému, right?
Hasegawa: We did—at one point, we were even under the same management. What I always hear from them is “When we started Psycho le Cému, Plastic Tree was one of the bands that inspired us.”
seek: I was actually a Plastic Tree fan from the beginning. I named myself seek after Plastic Tree’s major debut album “Hide & Seek” (released July 1997). That’s how much of a fan I was. There’s a live house in Hyogo called Himeji Beta, and Plastic Tree played there for the first time in December 1995. I saw that show and became a fan.
Hasegawa: That’s incredible. We had just formed, and we did a release tour for the first solid material we’d made as a band—and we went to Himeji Beta. The fact that you saw that show…
seek: Himeji Beta opened in November 1995, so they came on tour just the next month.
Hasegawa: That was actually our first time going to Himeji. I think we arrived the day before the show. We had some time, so we thought “Why not do some sightseeing?” and went to Himeji Castle. All the members said “This is such a nice town” and “It’s beautiful.” I still remember that.
DAISHI: I always thought “Plastic Tree always properly comes to Himeji!” Were there bands like MASCHERA, ILLUMINA, and TRANSTIC NERVE that made you want to come?
Hasegawa: Yeah, exactly. Having those connected bands was a big factor.
DAISHI: There really was a Himeji visual kei scene back then.
Hasegawa: And when we actually played Himeji Beta, the crowd’s reaction was amazing. Since that was our first real tour after making a record, it left a deep impression on us.
seek: You kept coming to Himeji through your early touring days, so I always went to your shows. Given Himeji Beta’s capacity, it’s been tough to ask Plastic Tree to come back, but this time we can properly invite you to a hall venue where we can fit a lot of people through a festival like this. It’s a dream come true.
Hasegawa: We’re really happy to be participating this way.
Q: 0.1g no Gosan is also making their debut appearance. How did you first connect with Psycho le Cému?
Kawamura: Two years ago, we did a two-man tour with Psycho le Cému—the <ライバルズ> two-man tour run across Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka organized by Psycho le Cému. After that, one thing led to another, and now seek and I are just regular drinking buddies.
seek: For the last festival, it was through Midorikawa (Hiroo / Vo) as the contact, and me and YURAサマ (Dr / Psycho le Cému) sent out the invitation.
Kawamura: Right.
seek: We’d seen each other face-to-face through the two-man tour promotions, but the whole bands meeting for the first time was at the Osaka opener. In the green room right before the show, we were talking—”Oh, you came the day before?” “Does the 0.1g no Gosan team drink?” (laughs)—and then it became “Let’s grab drinks sometime.” That two-man tour was so packed with intensity too. The generations were totally different, and it was an offer where we were thinking “I’d love to do this together,” but every stop on that tour was so heated. That connection continues, and honestly, they might be the band I’ve hung out with the most over the past year.
Kawamura: I’d say the same. Psycho le Cému are our seniors, so at first we were pretty cautious doing the two-man tour. But after the final show in Tokyo, all of us went to the after-party together, and—we’d never really done that before, you know? We all just hung out and talked, and I realized “These are really cool bandmates.” At first we were nervous like “What if we get yelled at?” (laughs).
DAISHI: Before that get-together, I went to dinner with Midorikawa, and he doesn’t drink, right? So it’s more the other members who get wild when they drink.
seek: They really do drink pretty intensely.
Kawamura: Yeah, we go pretty hard (laughs).
Q: What was your initial image of Psycho le Cému as visual kei seniors?
Kawamura: I honestly thought they were celebrities. Of course they’re seniors in the band scene, but before that, they were “people I see on TV.” I never thought we’d end up in a situation where they’d ask us to do a two-man or a festival. I’m genuinely thrilled to be invited this time and to perform at such a meaningful festival.
DAISHI: Actually, I invited you last year too, but May 3rd is “5 and 3,” right? That’s “Gosan” (5-3), which is literally “0.1g no Gosan.” So part of the reason we moved the date away from May 3rd this time was because I wanted Gosan to perform (laughs). Combined with how the two-man felt, I was determined to have them at
Kawamura: Really…sorry about all that (everyone laughs).
DAISHI: No, no (laughs). In the band, Midorikawa is actually the oldest, but the other members act like the older brothers. Even when everyone’s drinking and going wild, the one acting completely out of control is Midorikawa, who’s not drinking at all (laughs). I love that—his sensibility is genuinely wild in a good way.
HIDEKiSM: I’ve actually seen Midorikawa on SNS and thought “That’s amazing! So people like this exist?” He teases fans pretty regularly on TikTok and stuff.
DAISHI: That’s the scary part—he does all that completely sober. He’s definitely going to go wild at the live.
HIDEKiSM: Seriously!? That sounds amazing~.
Kawamura: I’m just hoping we don’t cause trouble for the other artists and the audience…
DAISHI: We’re used to it, and honestly, that’s part of why we invited him, so we’re good.
Kawamura: I’ll be ready to apologize on my knees in Himeji (laughs).