author: Zy - translation: Non-Non

© 2010 Zy.connection Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Plastic Tree released their new album Donna Donna on December 23rd. The image of the title sounds a little sad, but what they wanted to express doesn’t seem to be so simple. We asked Arimura Ryutarou (he represented the band) about its production and their activities from 2009 to 2010. Our interview took place while they were in the middle of production, so we were able to get the latest and most direct comments about the band. If you read in between the lines I think that you can get a good idea of what they will be up to in 2010.


First of all, this is the 50th issue of Zy., and Plastic Tree has appeared in our magazine very often. Are there any shoots that you remember in particular?

Ryutaro: I remember all of the shootings. I remember the shooting when I went to Oume< (No.5), and the shooting in Jukai (woodland, No.9), and I remember the shooting of the cover (No.15) when my lips puffed up after I ate pop corn. (smile) That time I was very busy working and I didn’t sleep well, so I wasn’t in a good condition. And when I ate pop corn, my lips puffed up…it was really bad. It looked bad too… But I had to shoot for the cover of the magazine… So I covered it up by using lip stick. (laugh)

I remember you saying “I‘m fine!” at the shooting, but in all honestly you were far from it. (smile)

Ryutaro:...It was very hard.

You can tell us all about it now.

Ryutaro: Ha ha. (smile)

But looking at the photos, I didn’t really notice it. But I remember you had shots in various situations or scenes, which would have been difficult.

Ryutaro: Yeah, but difficult is not really a problem for me. I’ll do anything as long as the outcome is interesting. Even if I have done a particular shoot before, I want to do it again. After all, my favorite things haven’t changed from before. But I think that if we were to shoot the same theme we had done before, it would turn out to be quite different.

Moving on, you appeared in the Tokyo chikashitu chika 16 kai (Tokyo basement, the 16th basement, an event organized by cali≠gari) held in Zepp Tokyo on January 18th. You joined the event in a different unit.

Ryutaro: I have often appeared there personally. (laugh) I appeared in chikashitu (basement) after a break of several years.

It was just an event for musicians to have fun.

Ryutaro: I enjoyed it, I played with people who are very good friends of mine.

Your doctor and nurse costumes were very much like the unit Mikeneko Byouin Band (tortoise-shell cat hospital band), which appeared around that time.

Ryutaro: We wore costumes that we wore in the Tokyo chikashitu before. (laugh) Because we thought it wouldn’t be interesting if we appeared wearing normal costumes. (laugh)

It suited the event. By the way, will you also play in the event organized by Plastic Tree?

For the full interview, please refer to Zy 50.
© 2010 Zy.connection Inc. All Rights Reserved.