History of XXXX

Unable to catch a breath since they've started activities, Moran continue at an astonishing pace. In their first cover interview, the band reveals sides of the members that only they know, reflect on their first release which is soon to go on sale and talk about their first musical beginnings. Here's a chance to get a look at an unexpected side of each of the members and get a sense of what Moran really is.

- This time, to get to know Moran in more depth, can you give us your impression of each of the members?

Hitomi: That's a rather difficult question (laughs). Soan: Try to get to all of my good points. All: (laugh)

- Let's start with Soan.

Zill: He is very precise! When business mails come in for the band, he will reply to everyone, and I think because of thim Moran's affairs are kept in order.

-He's an indispensible human resource for the band.

Soan: if i werent in Moran, nothing would ever get done (laughs). Zill: The pace of our activities would certainly slow down. Hitomi: Or we would sign on to do a ton of lives without thinking (laughs). i've known Soan for a very long time already and he's a friend who knows me really well. He always brings comfort to a situation. Well, he sometimes brings a chill to things as well, but... (laughs). He's also the most masculine member I would say. He's the one who looks best in sunglasses! All: (laugh) Velo: He also has a lot of friends. He's not very shy and he is sociable, but actually he is surprisingly a caring person. He's basically sadistic, but with his friends he is more... Zill: ... you make it sound like he is a masochistic around his friends. All: (laugh) Hitomi: But mentally he has a very sensitive side for sure. Soan: I feel happy when someone praises me!

- Next is Zill... Zill, you always look glommy (laughs).

Zill: What are you talking about... Velo: I see him so often that nothing comes to mind straight away. But he manages to be a hard worker. He never talks about trying hard, but behind the scenes he is always working. Hitomi: I agree. He remembers everything easily and he absorbs things extremely quickly, or maybe it's that he is always working hard in the background. I cant really tell whether he's a genius or a hard worker.

-Zill, what do you think personally?

Zill: I would say i'm a genius (laughs). All: (Laugh) Soan: ...This involves the other members too but if you were to describe Moran as a game, I would be the person holding the controller and Zill would be hand-to-hand fighting software. Velo is a brain training type game, Hitomi is an RPG... and sometimes Hitomi is the person who pushes the game reset button (laughs)!

- If you put it in that way, its easy to understand all of you (laughs)!

Hitomi: Or i'm the person who gets his leg tangled in the cord. When Soan is wrapped up in a game he goes, "Aa!" (laughs). All: (Burst out laughing). Soan: That's right! But i'm not doing it to be malicious so... (laughs). Yeah, i guess Zill would be a hand-to-hand combat type game... He's naturally very frank, and wild in a good sense of the word. He has a wild image.

Hitomi, how does Zill seem to you?

Hitomi: First of all, he is so skinny! Zill: No, i want to gain weight but... Hitomi: I feel he looks like i did years ago. I'm 174cm and i used to weigh only 48kg.

- You fall ill if you're that thin...

Soan: That's becoming too unhealthy and in fact he did become sick. It's also because he doesnt eat vegetables! Hitomi: Far from eating vegetables, at that time i only ate things like eggs and udon (laughs). But doesnt everyone in a band go through a time where he's that destitute? Zill: I used to eat yakisoba that only contained the noodles everyday. Soan: That's so rock and roll... All: (Laughs). Hitomi: Oh, he looks good with blonde hair! If Zill were an animal, he would be a monkey. Zill: In animal fortune telling, I was told i'm a monket too... Wait, or was I a black panther? Soan: Zill, you were a black panther, werent you? I was a lion! Velo: I'm pretty sure I was a tiger... Hitomi: Oh, everyone in Moran but me is a wild cat. That's so cool.

- Hitomi, you seem like you would be a Pegasus. I think that image suits you perfectly (laughs). Next how do all of you see Velo?

Soan: When it comes to music, he follow his intuition, but in facat he's a clear headed person. As for his personality, he can be calm but in some ways he is spontaneous. Velo: I'm not calm! I just dont talk much. Hitomi: He's cool, or perhaps a litle shy... Velo: I'm shy. If i become close to someone then I can talk normally, but even if there is someone I think I want to talk to, I consider a lot of things before I speak so before the words can come out of my mouth it takes a long time. That's why sometimes the person I want to talk to has already left before i get a chance to talk...

- That's tough... (laughs).

Hitomi: Also, Velo looks good in skinny jeans (laughs)! I think his taste in clothes is similar to mine. Not that I've influenced him, he's always been that way. Zill: And he's very punctual. Velo: No, that's just normal (laughs)! Zill: While the rest of us sometimes oversleep, he's the only one who is never late. Indeed, his personality is cool.

- OKay, last is Hitomi.

Soan: It sums it up perfectly to say he's the person who pushes the reset button! For example, if the band is an RPG and it gets to the point when you realise you'll be annihilated, of course it's Hitomi who pushes the button, but even when you have a chance to escape, he'll go ahead and push the button anyway, All: (Roars of laughter) Hitomi: Because those kind of circumstances dont concern me. My legs simply got tangled up (laughs). Zill: Oh, its good when he can be on time sometimes. Hitomi: Why isnt anyone saying anything good about me? All: (Laugh) Zill: But it's also because you have this free personality that makes me think you're a genius. Velo: Hitomi can grasp things in a multi-facated way. Us 3 are players and as you can expect our viewpoint is somewhat different from that of the listeners, but Hitomi can see things from many angles, not just from the point of view of a musician.

- You certainly seem to be able to understand yourself in a lot of ways, but Hitomi, how do you feel personally?

Hitomi: It's the same with the Cure photos this time, but I feel there is a gap between how I am on the inside and how I look on the outside. For example when i looked at one of the photos this time I thought, "This picture looks cute." In fact if someone sees this picture and thinks the same thing, when she comes to our live it will be very different from what she expected.

- That's for sure (laughs).

Hitomi: That's why when some people see us on stage, they really feel a gap from what they've seen in photos. Usually you can get a good sense of what kind of music a band makes when you see their photos, but with Moran you wont be able to imagine what our performance is like. So I hope people who havent watched us play yet, will come see us live soon.

- Because you are all so different, I’d like to hear from each of you about how you got into music.

Soan: I got my first start with piano… I’m not exactly from a family of musicians, but my older brother played the violin, my father sang and played the flute, and my mother played the koto. So I started playing piano when I was three.

- How long did you study piano?

Soan: Until I was around 16 I think. But it’s not that I wanted to become a pianist, and at that time I had no interest in music. In fact I really hated practicing and only did it because I had to.

- So what made you decide to join a band?

Soan: …It was YOSHIKI. I learnt of X because of my older brother. YOSHIKI’s a drummer who can play piano and his performance on stage is also very wild… He had a big impact on me. At that time I thought, “this gap can be a theme in my life!” and I began to study to the drums.

- I see. When you found an interest in bands you found a theme to live by at the same time. Zill how did you get your start?

Zill: When I was in middle school, I saw an ad in a magazine for a beginner’s guitar set. Until then I had only done sports and I had no interest in music, but when I saw that ad I thought it was cool and decided to buy it. But I didn’t realize the guitar is so hard to play! There are 6 pegs in the head and I thought if you push them the sound will come out (laughs)! All: (laugh) Zill: So when I went to buy the guitar I was really surprised (laughs). I was confused so I started to study by correspondence course. Until then I was constantly playing soccer, but once I bought my guitar I returned home straight away everyday and practiced for the rest of the day. A small amp came as part of the set, and the sensation I felt when I was able to produce a sound for the first time, or the sense of achievement I felt when I became able to play a song made everything about the guitar so fun for me. Hitomi: You played the drums too, didn’t you? Zill: Yes (laughs). But when I began to play guitar I didn’t tell anyone. I practiced on the sly and then all of a sudden I gathered my friends to play for them and they all said, “Amazing!” and I actually influenced a few of them to start playing instruments. From there I made a lot of friends who were in bands… that incident was quite fun.

- That episode is so typical of you, Zill. (laughs) Velo, what about you?

Velo: My story begins when I received a mountain bike. Soan: This is another amazing start (laughs). Velo: I would ride my mountain bike through the neighbourhood a lot, and one day while I was riding I thought it would be nice to have some background music, so for the first time in my life I went to buy a CD. I thought anything would be OK, so I randomly chose 3 CDs that were on the top of the charts and one of them happened to be a LUNA SEA CD. I liked it best among the 3 I had bought and it was the only one I listened to thoroughly and it made me decide that I would like to be in a band.

- What made you choose guitar?

Velo: When I was wondering about what instrument to play, my father happened to have an acoustic guitar. He let me touch it a bit but the strings were stiff and I couldn’t pluck them at all which made me very frustrated at first. But I had heard that the strings of an electric guitar are softer so I started there. I went for lesson and practiced all the time. Hitomi: …The first guitar I bought was a Megadeth model. I wanted to be a metal guitarist. All: (Uproar of laughter).

- You have a shocking past… (laughs).

Hitomi: I bought it in middle school but in high school I joined the light music club and there were too many people who wanted to play the guitar. So they decided to test everyone to see how well we could play and I gave it a try too but there were a bunch of guys better than me. Then I thought about myself and realised I couldn’t join a band at this level, and then switched to vocal as there weren’t many people who wanted to do it in the club.

- But that is of the fateful incidents that brought about the vocalist Hitomi we know today. Before that what first got you interested in music?

Hitomi: Hmmm I guess it was movies. I really loved movies and I would buy film magazine and rent soundtracks and that’s how I first got an interest in music. I really liked the soundtracks from “Top Gun” and “Back to the Future” in particular. I was in love with the “Back to the Future” soundtrack and I’m no Velo, but I used to listen to it while riding my bike faster than I should have been (laughs). All: (Laugh) Hitomi: While I was listening to soundtracks, I realised how uplifting music is for me. When you’re a kid you watch characters in movies and want to be like them, right? That’s what prompted my interest in movies, but at some point my interest shifted to music. Once I was aware of it I thought that maybe I wanted to make music myself. I mentioned it a bit earlier, but when I was in middle school I was interested in metal and I wanted to be able to play guitar really fast. Even though you should begin with the basics, I skipped all of that and only played what I wanted so it was always metal. At that time in feeling only I was already a master (laughs).

- But when it comes to beginning to play an instrument, I think everyone feels that way (laughs).

Hitomi: Everyone goes through that, doesn’t he (laughs). I think before guitar everyone definitely pretends to play on a tennis racket or a broom. You start with image training (laughs). Also I started going to watch visual kei lives in middle school, but even though I was still set on becoming a guitarist, my eyes always went to the vocal and at that time, I realise I actually wanted to be a vocalist. With just one word the vocal can get a reaction out of the whole crowd and it was this power to influence that I thought was amazing and maybe made me really want to become a vocalist myself.

- Do you remember what happened at your first live?

Hitomi: When I was 15 I gave my first performance at Kashiwa ALIVE. I had formed a copy band with some other guys I knew. Even though it was just a copy band, from our first live, we had bought costumes and put a lot of effort into how we looked, going on stage in full makeup. The other bands playing were quite good and we had a decent response from the crowd. The songs were all copies, but I already performed them as if they were my own and when I did the MC I thought, “The audience is mine!’

-You’ve had splendid debuts ever since your first live.

Hitomi: But at that time I didn’t have an equipment van and the green room was very small so I left the house in full costume and full makeup and went to the live house by train, played as I was, and then went to an after party just like that… (laughs). All: (Laugh) Soan: I played my first time at Machida Act, the members were m seniors, my part was drums. But the firs time I wore makeup was really terrible. My hair was teased such that my face ended up looking like broccoli (laughs). All: (Roars of laughter). Soan: A lot of people say this, but while I was really nervous, the experience was also moving. That people are getting into the sounds that are coming from me. Zill: My first live was the cultural festival I talked about earlier, so my part was drums. My home town is quite country and I couldn’t find members to form a band, so my first performance at a live house was after I came to Tokyo. That band broke up quickly, but I got to taste how fun this genre is. Velo: I was 14 or so I think… The first place I played was Jusco! Jusco’s special stage (laughs). We played one song, LUNASEA’s “TRUE BLUE”… That was all I could play (laughs). All: (Laugh)

- I imagine Moran’s first live is still fresh in your memory, so can you talk about your frame of mind on that day?

Hitomi: The first time the four of us stood on a stage together was about a year ago at Takadanobaba AREA as part of the event I hosted, but the day that is really memorable to me is when we started activities under the name Moran.

- The live was on March 29 of this year, also at Area, wasn’t it? You must have had a lot on your minds the night before.

Hitomi: I kept thinking about how soon the live would be and couldn’t sleep. Finally I had a new band and I could get in front of fans again and say, “I’m back,” so there really was so much that was going through my head. That day was a completely fresh start. Soan: But despite what Hitomi was going through, Velo and I were able to sleep like usual (laughs). Velo: I was able to sleep like always. Zill: I wasn’t able to catch even a wink either! Soan: My schedule had been really hectic leading up to that day. The day before I was exhausted and had no problem sleeping.

- What about you Velo?

Velo: I wasn’t particularly tired… I thought, “This will be fun. Tomorrow is and early day so I’d better sleep early.” All: (Burst of laughter) Hitomi: Well, more than being nervous I was really excited and that’s why I couldn’t sleep. Zill: Me too, I was too excited to sleep. I had already played a live with these members before, so I didn’t feel any strange sense of excitement.

- When this issue comes out, Moran will be about to release your CD, followed by another release a month later. Right now do you have a clear vision of how these 2 works will turn out?

Hitomi: With these 2 releases, which span 2 months, you’ll get to see every side of Moran. We could have released the songs as a mini album, but if we make a mini album we want a clear theme and we wouldn’t want it to be half-hearted, so we thought with maxi singles we would have more freedom in putting it together than with a mini album, so that’s how we decided on it. We plan for each CD to contain 3 songs, all with a very different taste, so maybe people listening to it for the first time will wonder, “So what is Moran exactly?” as it’s hard to understand. But so that we can convey our music thoroughly, we felt doing it this way is the best for us… Maybe there will be Moran fans who only like some of our songs and hate others, but there will definitely be songs that capture them so we’re grateful if they look at our many sides.

- Lastly, can you please tell us about the ideals you hold for Moran and what is indispensable to you as a band?

Zill: To continue liking our songs and the other members, and also having fun is an absolute must for me. As for our lives, I’m concerned with how I can bring part of myself to the songs. When I begin to create an atmosphere that has this, I’m creating Moran as well. Soan: I think I have to use sound to create not only a stimulus to the five senses, but I must do something that is moving in some other way. Because if I can’t do that, then I think I have no reason to continue music. Velo: I think that if I don’t have pride in the band, I’ll have nothing to show the fans. So I feel I must continue to express this pride as well as continue to create it. Hitomi: I think that having pride and our own policy is most important for the band. We are, after all, a rock band, and I want to place importance on seeing how sharp we can become. I think we’ll lose if we become too mild… we are a band called “Moran” but I want to think of us as one living organism. Because that organism produces a vast theme of “total art”, to categorize each part one by one is very difficult. The hurdle of how we can express this is very high to jump over. But with unwavering conviction we have to challenge ourselves to see how far we can go.


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