Interview with Sel'm

Shortly after the completion of their successful first tour with their new line-up, JaME had a chance to interview the ambitious band Sel'm to introduce them to our readers and talk to them about some important changes that the band has gone through recently.


Please introduce yourselves to our readers.

MANJ": I’m the drummer; MANJ".
Tsubaki: I’m the guitarist; Tsubaki.
Nagi: I’m the guitarist; Nagi.
Tora: I’m the vocalist; Tora.
Takuma: I’m the bassist; Takuma.

How did you originally meet and how was Sel'm formed?

MANJ": Takuma and I used to be roadies for a senior band, and we spent those times together. I told Takuma, "Let’s do a band together." I would be the drummer and Takuma would be the bassist. Tsubaki was training under another senior band, and we knew each other. When I was looking for members, I thought Tsubaki had a very serious image, so I made an appointment, met and talked to him. As for Tora, my acquaintance introduced him to me, and I went to see his live alone, which was the last live of his band at that time. I thought, "Ah, he will be able to fit the colour of Sel’m well." I wasn't seeking perfection, and Tora was still very young at that time (laughs) but I could see he would become much better. Then we settled with the 4 members and started Sel'm.

MANJ", was seriousness your standard to chose members?

MANJ": Actually before Tora and Tsubaki joined, we had another vocalist and guitarist. However, as we talked about various things, we realized there was a gap between our ideas. Inside of me I felt, "Sel'm is not like that." Then, fortunately, I was able to meet Tora and Tsubaki.

Tora and Tsubaki, how did you feel when MANJ" asked you to join?

Tora: I met him several times, listened to songs made by MANJ", and we talked about various things like "I want to create a band with this kind of concept." My band had already disbanded at that time, and I wanted to face forwards, I wanted a place where I could sing. I wanted to go towards music, so I decided to join in quite quickly.
Tsubaki: I also listened to his songs. I somewhat knew his drum sound, so I decided to join at a rather early stage.

Takuma, you have known MANJ" for quite long time, so did you decide to continue together with him that way?

Takuma: When we were roadies, I heard him say, "After I graduate I’ll make a band called Sel'm." I said, "Sounds good." After he graduated, I was left alone, and when I graduated as well, I was asked, "Why don't you join me?" So I answered, "Yes, I will." (laughs)

What does the name Sel'm mean and how did you come up with it?

MANJ": The meaning is 'serum' in English, and the letters are coinage. Well, to be honest, I gave it a meaning later. (laughs)

Why did you choose 'serum'?

MANJ": I wanted to think of a name which isn't affiliated with anything. I wanted a band name that could be used commonly no matter what musical variation we might go through.

What is the concept behind the band?

MANJ": Inside of me I could already see the color and the band’s image. When I start talking, you might also think it's inconspicuous, but I imagined the band color to basically be 'black' and to have black hair. Ah, my hair has now got some blond in it. (laughs) Rather than selling through visuals, from the beginning I wanted our band to play music seriously.

So you wanted to appeal through your music, not making use of your looks and appearance.

MANJ": I thought we could learn how to show ourselves gradually as we performed lives. My image of the band was dark.

What are your musical influences and inspirations?

Takuma: I listen to various music, such as Western rock, Japanese rock and pop. I like music itself, and am interested in many different things. I listen to movie music and instrumental music as well.

Why did you choose to play bass?

Takuma: I like the sound. I liked the sound of bass and started to think "What instrument does that sound come from?" and wanted to play it. I got introduced to bass and started to play after I entered high school.
Tora: My first encounter with a band was X JAPAN, since my mother used to listen to it at home. But I didn't start on vocals, I played drums at first. (laughs)

Influenced by YOSHIKI?

Tora: No, I just kind of wanted to play them. (laughs)
MANJ": He is really good at it!
Sel'm: (burst out laughing)
Tora: I just dipped into it. (laughs) When I started to do a band in my high school, I listened to the music of my senior and said, "I want to do vocals!" Then I became a vocalist.
Nagi: I started thinking of doing music seriously when I listened to LUNA SEA. But recently, on the contrary, I am trying not to listen to music, because if I am influenced by it too much, nothing except it would come out. I make songs from what comes out of me naturally, so there is no particular music which influences me these days.
Tsubaki: My prompt to start making music was X JAPAN, and I used to like metal more, but recently I have been often listening to J-pop within which I listen to the melodies and the harmonies most.
MANJ": In recordings, he is the professional for putting harmonies in.

Does Tsubaki come up with all the singing?

MANJ": No, no, he comes up with the melody chords. If all of the singing was done by him, all of the lyrics would be "Nya~ nya~"(the sound a cat makes in Japanese). (laughs)
Sel'm: (burst out laughing)
Tsubaki: I don't like music without instruments, such as trance and rap, so I don't listen to it. I like music with a real instrumental sound.
MANJ": I try to take in good things, so I'm influenced by the good points of bands who we played with at events, and I get inspiration from such things. The prompt to start playing drums was that my elder brother played drums, there was a drum set at home, and I could hit 8 beats smoothly from the beginning. Going smoothly I became like this now. (laughs)

MANJ", what kind of music do you listen to usually?

MANJ": I listen to all kinds of music, from Western heavy rock to Japanese popular music. I let them play in the background. From that music good things are left in me, so I refer to them when I make songs.

Do you listen to drum sounds specifically?

MANJ": No, I don’t listen to drums. Melodies and guitar phrases come into my ears. When they play difficult things, it makes me think "Huh?" I rewind and listen to the part again. (laughs)

When did you decide to do music professionally?

MANJ": It was when I was around 19 years old. I was in Gunma prefecture, and when I went to Tokyo to be a roadie I decided.
Takuma: I did when I was in high school.

How did you end up doing the style of music you are doing now?

MANJ": Even now we are always going through trial and error. I think a band cannot just determine to do one thing, they can never just settle down. A band changes because of the environment at a point in time; what members like and the sort of music that the members want to make changes. What's more, we don't want to settle down.

However, you imagined the color of Sel'm at the beginning, and you are approaching your ideal, aren't you?

MANJ": Of course we are. And Nagi joined in November last year, so I could see that more clearly in me.

For 4 years you have been successfully progressing as 4 members. Why did you decide that you need to become a 5-member band?

MANJ": After the tour of our first album brilliant force in 2008, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have the sound of one more guitar?" Then we discussed it, to be able to add more reality to the sound of our lives, so each of us started looking for another talented man. I knew about the relationship between Takuma and Nagi: they did a band together in high school, so I invited Nagi.
Takuma: I played with Nagi in a band when we were 16 years old.

Did you play the same sort of heavy music as you do now?

Takuma: No~ we played extreme visual kei! And we put on heavy makeup.
Sel'm: (burst out laughing)

Did you feel Nagi brought changes to the band's sound?

MANJ": Of course! We have another guitar, and I knew his former band, but Nagi himself I felt was a very fascinating person. When we got to play in a studio for a trial before he joined us, we immediately thought "Ah, that's decided." He created phrases that reached the target that we wanted and we felt his seriousness, so we probably all thought, "This will make Sel'm much better."

Did you feel a sense of refreshment?

MANJ": At that time in the studio we reaffirmed what another guitar brought us, "Ah, this is what we need." We felt refreshed! (laughs)

Nagi, how did you feel joining Sel'm? Was it difficult to fit in to a band with an already established reputation?

Nagi: It was my first experience to join a band after its establishment, so I felt anxious during the period of studio practices before we started the lives. I felt insecure about the reactions to me by the fans who had been following the 4 members until then and such.

Could you get along with the members smoothly when you practiced in a studio?

Nagi: I didn't feel any difficulties with that.

How did you play in the songs originally made for 4 members to play?

Tsubaki: Actually, the parts I play haven't changed much, while Nagi played to fill the gaps. Ah...Nagi will explain the details.(laughs)
Nagi: Ah, that was difficult, as you can guess. I listened to their music in which I felt the sound was already complete. As I would add one more guitar, I would play unison in parts that required unison, and put my colours in existing gaps and such. I played Tsubaki’s phrases as if there were 2 guitars on recording.
MANJ": He would also play the twin parts in lives. I think that expressed the rawness of sound really well.

Nagi, you have experience playing in a couple more bands before joining Sel'm. Do you feel Sel'm is special?

Nagi: Yes. The band in which I play now is the best. Even though I don't compare Sel’m to the other bands in which I used to play, Sel’m is the best!
MANJ": Oh, you are so hot!
Sel'm: (burst out laughing)
Nagi: Yeah, I said a good thing. (laughs)

How do you usually create songs?

MANJ": We make songs individually, but recently we have been making songs at home, bringing them to the other members and doing the arrangement that way, so songs gradually get changed. I kind of long to compose songs by coming together in the studio and making them together from scratch, by jamming. In the future, if we have time, I would like to try doing that.

So you bring your demo tapes, select songs, and each of you makes the parts of your instruments in selected songs?

MANJ": Yes. For example, I make a song and tell Takuma "Please arrange the bass." I just make images of songs and I think it's all right if those become prompts from which other members can develop them.

Do you write lyrics later?

Tora: Yes. After there is a song, I listen to it again and again, and from the image that comes out I write the lyrics.

Tora, what are the main themes in your lyrics, where do you get the ideas for them?

Tora: Sometime I write about my personal experiences, and quite often there are rather pessimistic lyrics, but I want to write lyrics that would bring up an image in the reader's mind, that is my main theme. I like writing lyrics thinking about what I could make people imagine when they read those words.

During lives you sometimes change some lyrics compared to the recordings. How does that happen? Does it come spontaneously?

Tora: Uhm, as instrumental parts change and develop during lives, so do the lyrics. (laughs)

The song dusty doll seems to be one of the audience favorites at your lives, however, although you have been playing it for a while, it hasn't been released yet. Do you have any plans on releasing this song?

MANJ": Of course, we are thinking about that.
Tsubaki: Currently we are thinking about our next work, so please wait for it's release at some point.

You have also just released your first CD in the new line-up, Creature. The sound of it is quite different from Sel'm's previous releases. What was different in the creation of this CD?

Takuma: The fact that Nagi joined was of course the most influential difference. It was our first recording after the new member joined us.

It's more of a bright catchy tune, isn't it?

Takuma: We pursued a sound easy to listen to.

The second song is quite different, it's quite a large-scaled tune, that's a good combination, isn’t it.

MANJ": They were primarily aimed to be released as a single, so that's how all of us created them to be.

You have just returned from your first tour as a 5-man band. How did it go? What were the new experiences or unusual aspects compared to previous tours?

MANJ": I really enjoyed watching our live footage in a hotel room with everyone after the lives.
Tsubaki: We had a day off in Toyama, and I had a walk with Nagi and Takuma around the town. We came back to our hotel, took a bath... then we found out that Nagi can drink a lot. (laughs)

Nagi, are you strong with alcohol?

MANJ": He is really strong! (laughs) He never changes and stays just as he was before! Neither his face nor his way of speaking changes. When I drink, I become like this - (mimics being drunk and sways his head). (laughs) I really admire him! I always thought Tsubaki was strong with alcohol...but actually when he drinks he becomes quite a fool. (laughs)
Tsubaki: I talk a lot when I'm drunk, and I say many unnecessary things. (laughs) Then the next day I regret it.

Nagi, don't you get drunk?

Nagi: Yes, I do.

But you don't change?

Nagi: Well, inside of me I think I do change. (laughs)

But it doesn't show on the surface, right?

MANJ": I admire that. Takuma mostly talks and laughs a lot, I think. Tora also becomes quite a fool. (laughs) There's a large gap with him.

Nagi: Well, speaking of the tour...it made me tired.

Mentally? Is it to do with being with other members?

Nagi: Not really, as there are 5 members with different personalities, you would guess that staying with them would be mentally tiring, but I didn’t feel any of that. A first tour is a time when you worry. It was a tour in which I, as the only joining member, worried about things such as how to present myself best.

As the tour finished, did you feel changed? Did you feel like there you have grown?

Nagi: I had a breakthrough, mentally. Like, without thinking of an answer, a "for now I am myself!" sort of feeling.
MANJ": I did feel guilty as it must have been difficult for him. I invited Nagi and even before he definitely decided to join the band, we had already planned the oneman lives in Meguro Rokumeikan (on November 9 and 10, 2008). Before we did those oneman lives, he had to memorize all of our songs and do the arranging, he also had to do the recording and arrangement for our new songs. What's more, we decided the tour already. We were worried whether he would be all right as we forced him into a state of such mental pressure.

That was such a short period of time, right?

MANJ": It was a very short period. I think a normal man wouldn't be able to do that. So I think he must have become stronger and gone up a level.

So after the first live in Rokumeikan with four members, when you played the first live as five members on the next day you must've been in a sort of state of panic.

Nagi: I was really nervous! (laughs)
MANJ": I understand well what he said about breaking through in a good way. If I were him, I wouldn't be able to do it in such a short period of time. Yeah, we were really forceful! (laughs)
Tora: As we became 5 members and went on the tour, each live seemed so fresh. When we did rehearsals, I listened to the sounds of Sel'm from outside and I felt the freshness of the sound. During our lives, some of the venues were quite small live houses, and since we used to have room on stage before, we bumped to each other easily. My consciousness during lives was different and all of them felt fresh.
Takuma: As Nagi entered, my position on stage changed to be a bit more at the back. So my view point changed and I could see the members just by standing normally. I could see the two members who I didn't see much before, so it was like "Oh, they’re giving their best!" (laughs) I felt like I couldn't lose to them, the other members motivated me.

As Takuma stands towards the back, there are fans who feel lonely, I think.

Takuma: People wrote about it in letters and live feedback notes... but it's not like I left the band. (laughs)

You also come to the front of the stage during lives.

Takuma: I do. (laughs)

MANJ" is the leader of the band, and Takuma seems to be driving the band van quite a lot...do all the members have assigned roles outside of creating music?

MANJ": Well, I have never really said "I'm the leader" myself. However, the responsibility of inviting the members to the band does lie on my shoulders, so you would think of me as one...really, he is the shadow leader! (hits Tsubaki’s shoulder)
Sel'm: (burst out laughing)
Takuma: I usually manage the van. During tours, MANJ" and Tsubaki also drive the van on the highways.

On tours, you spend a lot of time together so you must know each others' behavior quite well, can you tell us some habits of your fellow band members?

Tsubaki: When Takuma goes to sleep, he doesn't get under the covers but falls down on the bed and sleeps.

Because you are so tired, you just collapse and fall asleep?

Takuma: No... I just don't like to get under the covers.

You usually do that? If it’s in a cold season, aren’t you afraid you might die?

Sel’m: (burst out laughing)
Tora: And MANJ" likes very spicy food. When we eat together...
MANJ": Ah~ so that’s why today I’m feeling kind of...

Do you eat such spicy food that it harms your body? (laughs)

MANJ": Yes. I eat such spicy food that while I eat it I become deaf for a moment.

You seem like you’re challenging your boundaries. (laughs)

MANJ": Yes, I think so. (laugh) And I like sweating. I eat red pepper in such quantities that it's rather painful. I like things that would stimulate me.

Takuma, your hair is quite impressive. When did you decide to start growing it so long?

Takuma: When I was in high school. My hair wasn’t as long as it is now at that time, but it was still the longest amongst the schoolboys.

What do you do to keep it in such condition?

Takuma: I actually don’t do anything special. I’m often asked "which kind of hair care do you use?" and such, but in fact I don’t use any special hair care.

Have you ever dyed your hair?

Takuma: Yes, I’ve dyed it in the past to be all blond.
MANJ": When I met you for the first time, wasn’t your hair that way?
Takuma: That’s right. I didn’t dye my hair again since then, so as my hair grew out I gradually cut it and that's how it became this way.
MANJ": In the photo on Takuma's previous driving license his hair was green.

Were you able to get your driver’s license with that? (laughs)

Takuma: Well, I could get it all right. (laughs)

What do you like to do in your free time, what are your hobbies?

Takuma: I like watching movies, mostly foreign movies. I watched "The Dark Knight" recently, I liked it so much that I'm thinking of buying the DVD.
Tora: I usually just space out.

Tora, don’t you like people watching?

Tora: I love that. And I like go up to high places, so I used to go to the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government office often and went up to the top alone. I also like books, I buy different books and read them. I like books written by female writers, and I like Kei Yuikawa, Kaori Ekuni and such.
Nagi: I watch movies and anime. I watched "NARUTO" recently, but now I’m watching "DRAGON BALL" from the beginning. (laughs)
Tsubaki: I sleep when I have time. I always just continue sleeping. (laughs) And I drink alone before I sleep, beer, sake and shochu.
MANJ": I have been neither playing games nor watching anime for a while now.
Takuma: You cook, don’t you?
MANJ": Cooking is done in a matter of moments. (laughs) Well, but yes, I do cook.

At your tour final one-man you have announced that another release is planned for spring. Can you tell us more about it?

MANJ": We'll double-cross you. Creature is a straight and catchy simple song, isn't it? Next time we are thinking about creating something more elaborate and we will always offer something that would betray everyone’s expectations.

Is there any objective that you want to achieve with the new Sel'm?

MANJ": From the listener's perspective, we want to be a band which will always betray one's expectations in a good way. I want us to be such a band that even a kid could think "Ah, they are so cool."
Tsubaki: As we are 5 members, I think there are 5 different views on Sel'm. I think if each of us could exceed those views, it would be good. I also want the band to be able to become stronger.
Nagi: I want to be popular! (laughs) I would like it to be so that if someone said "Sel'm," anyone would know what they are talking about.
Tora: I have always been thinking "I want to become a fascinating vocalist." So, I think I want to polish my skills and be able to grow even more this year.
Takuma: This is what I think every year, but I want both the audience and us to be able to enjoy ourselves. Whether doing lives or creating music, if we can’t have fun, it's no good, I think.

Would you like to perform outside of Japan?

MANJ": If they tell us that they want us to come, we would like to go anywhere.

Finally, please give your message to our readers.

Takuma: We are Sel'm. This year we will continue doing various activities, and we will work hard to make people who didn’t know us until now get to know the name Sel'm.
Tora: Recently, looking from the stage I am really happy to see that foreign fans come to watch Sel’m's lives. I want us to continue activities to raise the name of Sel’m and give a chance for many different people to be able to know us.
Nagi: I joined the band on my own, so please support me. (laughs)
Tsubaki: I want to go overseas as part of Sel'm. If you stir up enough, we might be able to come and play where you are, so please stir up.
MANJ": For you who read this all over the world, we really want to do lives in your countries, so please wait for that day to come!

Thank you very much for this interview.