Zy 38: SID

SID released their long-awaited new album on February 20th. From March 11th, their national tour, including ten venues, began, the tour final being held at Kokuritsu Yoyogi Daiichi Taiikukan! Since they started the band, it has taken only three years to be able to do a one-man live at Nippon Budokan, showing just how much effort they made to gain such success. In this magazine, before making any predictions about them for 2008, each member will be asked about what they think, who has been doing all the hard work. Zy wishes for the readers to feel the members' strong beliefs, which are often not seen when just looking at their accomplishments.


Mao

First of all, I want you to look back over everything. Has it been hard?

Mao: Yes and no. Well, not hard all the time. At one stage we didn't have enough money, so that was kind of hard. But I just ate low-priced foods and wore cheap clothes...so it wasn't that hard.

I see. Basically, it was a time when you were working hard towards your dream.

Mao: It might have been harder with the band I was in before SID. It was not popular at all for a long time. But SID's audience grew quickly, so it was like going from strength to strength rather than feeling hard for me.

What you experienced in your former band was useful in this band. What was your secret strategy?

Mao: To increase the audience we did more live performances. New bands often appear in media advertisements from their beginning, but we didn't do that. I learned that in my former band. As we didn't have money or any connections, we couldn't advertise, but we made good use of the situation. We acted like a mysterious band; SID in our first year. We were probably thought of like, "SID has more people at their lives, but they are not seen very often, and they don't release their music." Even if our music was released, it was in small numbers, only about one hundred MDs at a time.


Shinji

Since SID started as a band, have there been any walls or difficulties that you've felt, Shinji?

Shinji: Well, simply said, it isn't easy all the time. It's hard to make songs. If I always had enough time, it would be better, but I don't have time and I have to make songs, and that is getting harder day by day.

Making songs...

Shinji: Sometimes when I let the other members listen to a song that I thought was great, it does not really work out as I expected. That happens a lot.

And of course, your standards are getting higher and higher every year too?

Shinji: Yes. We keep aiming higher. But the day that I write the song, I love it very much, so I always think any song that I make is good. After about three days, once I have calmed down, I listen to it again and if I still think it's good, that means that it is a really good song.

Then you must have many unreleased songs.

Shinji: I put almost all the songs I make into iTunes and the number of songs that I have never let others listen to keeps increasing.

They are treasures, aren't they? (laugh)

Shinji: Uh~n...But I don't want the songs that I don't think are that good to be listened to. But sometimes when they are listened to by accident, people say "It's good. Why did you hide this?" (laugh) I think that it's important that I'm satisfied with them more than anyone else.

If you are told by others that they want to use the song and work on it, what would you do?

Shinji: I'd somehow change the part that I don't like and bring it in for them.

Then what would happen if they said that the unchanged song was better?

Shinji: That sometimes happens. Actually, it happened recently. And I swallowed my tears. (laugh)


Aki

Have you experienced any hard times since SID was formed up until now?

Aki: Yeah, there are hard times, but I try to stay enthusiastic about everything that happens.

Oh, you are positive!

Aki: I think that you have to be that way. Nothing changes if you just roar, "It's hard. I can't do this." Before, I used to act like that and just worry about what I should do. Recently I think that that kind of thinking is a waste of time. It's useless. If you have time to roar, you would be much better off thinking about how to change things and make them better, even by just a little bit. So these days I try not to think about any difficulties that may present themselves.

Did you roar before?

Aki: Yes, I did. That was quite a long time ago though. Now, when I have time to think like that, I just play my bass. (laugh)

Can I ask you what you roared about before?

Aki: Perhaps I felt uneasy. It might seem strange, but I was scared somehow...even though I had every confidence in SID.

That is unexpected.

Aki: I didn't feel alienated from the band; moreover, our members are so friendly. But I felt like, unless I was strong enough, I wasn't worth being in this band. If I couldn't play bass just like this, I would be easily beaten by someone skillful who would come to us saying "I want to be in SID too." There was a time when I had anxieties like that.

You know, you appear more self-confident than that.

Aki: I will keep protecting my position in the band, but there was a time when things were scary. That way of thinking is not so cool though. To remove the anxiety, I have to increase my skill and have more confidence in what I do. Then I won't think that things are that hard for me.


Yuya

Since the band's conception, SID seems to have been going very smoothly, but how about you, Yuya? Do you think you had some difficulties that couldn't be seen by those on the outside?

Yuya: Yes. For example, before SID was represented through an office, we could do things our own way. But after we entered into an office it was difficult to know where to draw the line, mentally speaking, you know, to leave things up to others to do. But that turned out to be a good thing, so I have grown to accept it.

So you found that difficult?

Yuya: Yeah. Also there were things that I did not understand as we started taking the next step, one after the other.

Yes, it always takes time to trust others and build relationships outside the band.

Yuya: It was hard at first. But now we have learned various things, so I don't have those fears anymore.

In addition, Yuya, you basically have a positive nature, don't you?

Yuya: Yes, I'm positive.

I think your positivity has a good effect on the band, but are there not times where you are hurt?

Yuya: Ah. Yeah, at times. I think that it's because I have had various negative experiences that I can be totally positive about things now. Without them I would just be positive.

Totally positive! (laugh) That is a new expression!

Yuya: Do you understand? My positivity is what I keep holding on to all the time. It's useless being only kind of positive. People who have never been negative or haven't experienced negativity so much would be just kind of positive. They are different from the positivity that I am talking about!


For the rest of the interview, please refer to Zy 38.

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