I really gotta apologize @nika24u for taking such a long time with all my translations T___T Anyway, here it is. Dadaroma is a very new band for me (actually any bands later than 2011 would be considered new to me lol) so this was a pretty interesting interview. Yoshiatsu kind of talks like a kid sometimes (well I’m guessing he’s pretty young anw) and I get the feeling he is also pretty talented (just by reading the interview, havent listened to them yet). In any case, among the vocalists’ interviews I’ve translated so far, his was the easiest. (THANK YOU! XD)

R&R Vol 63 Dadaroma Yoshiatsu

[ ] <— my comments/notes ( ) <— what’s in the interview

So your hometown is in Fukushima Prefecture.

That’s right. Fukushima city in Fukushima Prefecture.

What kind of child were you?

I loved going on adventures. I would pick up a metal rod nearby, head into the mountains or forests and make a cave in a cliff-like area.

Do you get lost in the mountains?

I do quite often (laughs). I would go deeper and deeper into the forests, then it would get darker, and that’s when I realized, Crap! I gotta get back!, but the forests were quite vast. My feet would get caught at the trees, and I’ll be half-crying while finding my way back and all.

That is pretty scary (laughs).

Even now I’m like that, I would head right into somewhere without thinking much, and before realizing it, I would be utterly lost.

Yeah. But that’s nice, being surrounded by nature.

When I was young I was forced to learn the piano but I definitely preferred playing outside.

When did you start learning the piano?

I don’t really remember, but I think when I was 1 to 2. [me: what?!] I learned it with my younger sister, but I really hated piano recitals. I would be surrounded by my parents, then I had to step out on my own and perform a piece, I would get so scared and couldn’t move and would make a scene for about 5 minutes. At that time I was quite afraid of standing in front of people (laughs)

And now you are a vocalist (laughs). Do you practice earnestly? [for piano]

Yes. But I also hated it. As the day for the recital approached I would cry and make a fuss about wanting to quit, but my mother would go, “You can quit, but only the recital”. She’d say, “If not you will always be trying to escape things”. However even after the recital, I would somehow manage to continue; when I entered middle school, I stopped because of curricular activities in school. My younger sister quit around the same time, and went on to doing hip-hop dance instead.

Ohh!

At one time, she asked, “Do you want to try dancing too?”, but for some reason I didn’t. If I started dance that time, I might have ended up following that path.

Yeah you might have ended up in that cycle. But with piano and dance, your family is quite music-oriented isn’t it?

Yeah. My parents are divorced but I’m on good terms with my dad and we are still in contact. He was originally a band man too. As a bassist. Now he is a government worker, but when I asked him on the details, it seemed that he lived the same life as I am.

That is quite amazing.

When a PV gets uploaded, he is always the fastest to give me a response. He’d go, “I saw your PV!” And, “To be better you can do this and that” and so on, even though I don’t reply to him much, he would be sending me mails like that one-side (laughs). I guess he is supporting me that way.

So he is a passionate listener as well as a mentor (laughs). Your mother is into music too?

My mother has always been playing the piano and works in a kindergarten, and it seemed that she would perform there and all. We are a family that dabbles in music, so I feel that it is inevitable that I got interested in bands.

Indeed. At home are there always music turned on?

Yeah. My father likes jazz and rock, my mother likes classical music, so their musical tastes don’t really match up (laughs)

Hahahaha. You mentioned earlier you stopped playing the piano because of activities in middle school, what were they?

I was in the tennis club, as the vice president. I was intent on tennis those 3 years. It was nothing to be proud of but since middle school, I was the only one who dyed my hair brown, and they got really mad at me. For some reason, I just want to do something rockish like that

And so you decided to try out bands?

I did want to but there was not a single person around me that wanted to be in a band. I thought I would be able to find such a person after entering high school, so for the time being I was only listening to music. That time I wanted to form a band like Mr Children. But now I’m in this (laughs).

But you already wanted to play music since then.

Since I was basically forced to learn the piano, I don’t really like it, but as a kid it seemed that I would just create random original songs. Because of the piano, I do have somewhat of a music sense, and be able to understand harmonies right away, and I would be able to play the anime theme songs I hear on TV right away. My parents would be impressed, “Aren’t you amazing”they said, so I simply thought maybe that is my forte. Gradually I thought perhaps band is the thing for me.

And the starting point being?

During my time, Bump of Chicken was popular. Rather than JPop, I would be more taken in by music that are passionately conveyed through shouts and growls. And so I wanted to be in a band.

Did you manage to form a band in high school?

I did. For starters, I thought I’ll play an instrument after entering high school, but since I had no money, I only have the drums that are in school.

Ah, I see. In the music room

Yep. I realized that the brass club have drums. I, with dyed brown hair, would go to such a brass club that has no other flashy people like me and play the piano (laughs). Every day after class I would practice earnestly on the drums. When some of my seniors heard about that, they asked, “We are doing a live, do you wanna play the drums?” and that was my first live.

So your first role in a band was the drummer.

That’s right.

How was the first live?

As you can imagine, for a high school live, all the audience are your classmates. So they would all go “Woooh” for the sake of it. I remembered it being a really fun live.

You didn’t get the “this was so bad….” feeling?

We were playing songs by Sum 41 and Ellegarden so they were pretty easy songs, hence the live was simply fun. In the midst of continuing all that, people liking visual-kei started gathering around me. “Listen to this” they would say, and what they lent me was Dir En Grey. When I listened to it, I was like, “What is this!?”

Before that, you had no idea?

I didn’t. I had no conceptual idea about visual-kei or make up. And then I listened to the CD and watched live videos, and those had a strong impact on me. I thought, “I want to do this!” and so formed a visual kei band.

Did you continue playing the drums?

I did for around 1 to 2 years. In the end, because of university choices, that band ended, I myself took the exam for a beauty school and passed. After that, everyone went about their own paths…On the night before the school entrance ceremony, just as I was about to sleep, I laid on the futon. I was casually thinking, “I’m gonna be a beautician starting tomorrow huh…is that really alright?” Then, “No, I still want to be in a band!”, in the end, I didn’t attend the entrance ceremony and headed straight for Tokyo.

Eh?

That was my ultimate lack of filial piety (laughs). It seemed that my seat was the only empty seat during the beauty school’s entrance ceremony. My parent were really mad at me, saying “Don’t ever come back again!”, but I thought that’s fine. I had 1 or 2 friends in Tokyo so I thought I’ll just go for starters.

That is indeed your case of being reckless ne.

It’s the same as the forests (laughs). I enter first before thinking.

What did you do after going to Tokyo?

I had a senpai in Tokyo, who was in the band since1889. He let me stay at his place and took me to various places. And then one day, suddenly their guitarist left…since1889 was my favorite ever band. So I pleaded, “Please let me in as the guitarist!”

You could play the guitar too?

I had never played before.

Seriously!?

My senpai too was saying, “What are you talking about?”, but I replied, “I’ll practice like crazy so please have faith in my fiery passion and let me in!”. And then he replied, “I’ll think about it if you can play all our songs by that day”. And so I borrowed a guitar and practiced earnestly until the day of that ‘exam’. And I got the feedback, “you’re pretty decent at it!”

How long was it until that ‘exam’ day?

I think it was about a week. Because I love them, of course I’d know all the songs; luckily their songs were metal style, rather than chords, they are backed more by the 5,6 strings [plucking], so it was a rather smooth process. Hence, my first role in a band in Tokyo was the guitarist. Even though I had never done it before (laughs).

But it’s amazing that you managed to get into a band you love.

For me, it felt like a huge success.

What did you like about the band?

Everything. I coincidentally went to see them when they came on a tour to Fukushima, from the first song, I was like, “what is this?!”. The band is cool, their songs are cool too. The biggest impact was the presence of the vocalist. Even now I still respect that person a lot; when I watched his live, it was the same impact as when I listened to Dir En Grey. After that, I earnestly chased after them. After since1889 disbanded, there are people who asked if I want to join them as their guitarist, and so I did go to the studio, but as expected, I couldn’t find someone who could surpass that [vocalist]’s presence. I was like, “I’m very sorry but the vocalist is a little weak and all…” and I would raise the hurdle like that.

Even though you are the guitarist and a newbie (laughs)

Hahahahaha. Even though I couldn’t play at all, I was like “Can’t do with this vocalist”. However at that time, I was told, “in that case, you be the vocalist”. After that, I formed a session band with them and became a vocalist for the first time.

In other words, until now, bass is the only instrument you haven’t tried.

In high school, I had played around with it, but it was kind of tiring (laughs). It was heavy and I don’t have strong grip power

Even then your father was a bassist wasn’t he?

No, my father was huge. I’m like my mother who is small, and that can get a little difficult for me. I feel that our Tomo-chan is really amazing. Since he can swing it about freely.

Indeed (laughs). So that is how you started being a vocalist.

So following on, from the session band, my companions increased, and the band that was formed was Crazy shampoo. That band has no fixations on technique or performance abilities, all they want is to find people whom they can get along with and have fun doing stuff. So it was a bunch of that kind of people gathered around and they can’t play instruments at all (laughs).

It was all just fun.

Yep. It was really fun. We are always sticking together, even now we would meet and have fun, but in the end, we were saying, “Aren’t we better off not being a band?”. Rather than continuing until we get tired of it and start getting on bad terms with one another, it’s better to just end it right there. But I don’t feel satisfied with that. It’s not that we were never properly a band, but I wanted to be in a real band once again and so I started searching for members.

And that was how Dadaroma started.

The people that I took notice of when I was in my previous band are the current members. However I didn’t have their contact information, so I sent a DM over on twitter to the drummer Yuu-chan, and then asked someone else to pass the message to bassist Tomo-chan. The guitarist Takashi-chan is Yuu-chan’s acquaintance but he is also a really good songwriter. All of a sudden he would send tens of song data over to me, when I heard them, I can’t imagine anyone else besides him. And then the four of us went to the studio and everyone’s performance skills were so superb that I thought, “This is the one!”. Hence I thought I want to do this with vigor and this time it might be good.

Indeed that is amazing.

I often get told “Yoshiatsu is someone where no matter what happens, the people around you will always help you and somehow unknowingly follow after you, and without realizing it, everything will seem to go smoothly”. If everything goes too smoothly, it can also be scary.

Has it been like this since you were a child?

It might have been. Whatever that I wanted to do, somehow I would start doing it. It will be good if things continue the way it is….

Let’s continue this way (laughs). How do you write your songs usually?

I wanted the band to be one with no boundaries, and be able to say anything it wants, do anything it wants. Takashi-chan can write a really wide breadth of songs so I think the songs he writes are corresponded to my willfulness, where I’d say, I want to do this kind of songs and all. In fact, when I asked, “I actually want to do it this way, do you think it’s alright?”, he’d always go, “OK!” just like that. Because I always do whatever I want to do and say whatever I want to say, someone else is working hard for my sake, I just realized this while talking about it (laughs).

When you actually talk about things, you do realize things.

Indeed. Thinking about it, I realize people are willing to do things for me. I’m really grateful.

In terms of pronunciation , I feel that the band name Dadaroma is one that easily comes out.

For the band name, there was no meaning to it at all. Actually at first, I wanted to be DADAMORA.

Dadamora?

Yeah. But the rest of the three said, “I don’t like it”. I was like, WHY!? it’s DADAMORA you know! And then I used an oil-based pen and wrote it down. “Look at the word form! Seee!” but it didn’t catch on. “Fine, then how about DADAROMA?” and somehow I got the reply, “Ah that is fine!” (laughs)

[Dadamora: probably a word play from dadamore which means excessive leaking of fluids, information or videos etc etc. Easier to understand if you just google dadamore. You might find some language explanation]

I see, so there was such a story (laughs). I’ve listened to Oboreru Sakana, and I felt a strong sense of nothingness….But listening to your talks, I get the feeling that Yoshiatsu-san is actually a really hot-blooded person.

I wonder….People around me tells me I am a passionate guy. But maybe it’s exactly that reason that….Dadaroma’s lyrics have a lot of libel/criticizing in them. Like complaining over things, or not being able to accept some things and all. For instance, when I watch TV or the news, there are things that will make me feel, “Wait, that’s not right?” and I will feel like stopping it. I don’t know if it got to do with me being hot-blooded or anything, I can’t hold myself in. And perhaps that comes out in my lyrics.

So the basis of that song is not so much of nothingness but anger?

Not to the extent of anger though…..It’s more of sadness. For instance, there are people who simply can’t get things to go smoothly, and even though they know things can’t continue the way it is, they end up slowly slipping away and falling into the abyss, when I see people like that, I feel sorry for them, like you are actually a good person, you aren’t wrong in any way but…Ame no Waltz was a song born from such sentiments. I wrote lyrics along the lines of, “You should haven been better evaluated, you should have been happy.” This might not be the best way to put it, but I feel pitiful for them.

This seems to be the case of two sides of the same coin, because you are hot-blooded, you have a colder side as well.

That might be true. When I write lyrics, rather than thinking in terms of symmetry, I think more about contrasts instead.

Do you think that way consciously?

Probably unconsciously, where my views sort of end up getting mixed into the views of someone who is the exact opposite of me. It’s not the same as saying irresponsibly, “you are not alone”, it’s more of, “I think the same way sometimes, so I believe difficult times such as that occur too, but I don’t think you are in the wrong”. If it’s not expressed like that, I feel it like a lie. I’ll think, you are definitely lying. Maybe this is not the best thing to say, but in the lyrics of many visual kei songs, there are often lines that say, “I’ll love only you” or “I’ll always be thinking of only you”….I’ll think, you are definitely lying right? (laughs). I dislike smooth lyrics like that. That is why I focused on lyrics that has a deeper message in them. I don’t write lies. In the calm tension of telling you, “I think it’s alright”, I’ll sing the songs with passion.

That does seem like a good balance ne.

Until now, everything seems to be a happy smooth ride, but it was because of various things that happened that fixed the current state. So rather than irresponsibly poking too much into matters, I want to watch over at the side. It is important to have such a distance between people. For instance, being willing to leave someone to do as he pleases because you trust him, or in a good sense, uphold the principle of laissez-faire. I guess that point of view and my current relationships with band members are reflected in my lyrics.

In that case, if the current sense of distance is not you have described, you want to grasp that distance sense and that’s why things are the way they are?

Yes.

How did you come to think that way? It doesn’t seem to be the result of happy stuff.

Simply put, probably my love stories till now I guess. Because I’m really selfish….(laughs) To put it in rather childish terms, I’m the type to restrain someone a lot. But because of that, relationships end up breaking apart. When I think about why I do the things I do, I figured it may be because I don’t really trust others. Hence I shifted gears to stop restraining people, and rather than not saying willful things, I decided to trust people more. Hence that’s how things become what it is now.

I see.

I’m the same towards the fans, in a good sense, i trust everyone. For instance, there are some obvious rules in visual kei concerts, even if some people break them, I trust that you guys [the fans] won’t do it. That is why, recently I start throwing my costumes at the audience (laughs).

Ohh

Things simply got really fun, so I thought, I don’t care about the costumes! and I’ll end up throwing them. After a while, when I looked down at the stage platform, I found my tops returned to me (laughs)

Ehhhh?

I really felt that our fans are amazing. If I go see a band I love, and their tops come flying to me, I’ll think, I can take it home!, but for our fans, they feel bad receiving them and end up returning them, I really thought that is amazing. This kind of trust is built among the members well. People who are supposed to write songs write songs, people who are supposed to write lyrics write lyrics, and other members don’t interfere. Because there is trust among members, that is how this relationship can form. Even though we haven’t even been together for a year, I am thankful that we can have this bond.

Indeed, while listening, I was thinking it is pretty quick that you can come to this point.

We have many recording and PV shooting sessions, and the pace was faster than what we all imagined so we are together almost every day. So we fought a lot as well, and then we start understanding the kind of person each member is and consequently able to build trust among one another. Even though the times we are together are short but those were rich times. Maybe that’s why we were able to bond so quickly.

You will be holding your one anniversary oneman live soon in Shinjuku Blaze, what do you want to be in the near future?

Right now we simply want to continuing doing what we think is cool in real time, so whether in a good way or bad way, we don’t have an ideal structure. However, I want to always continue doing what we want to do at that point in time no matter what others tell us. I get the feeling that is a stance we should not waver from. Rather than asking ourselves what kind of band we want to be, I want to be the band that knows we are cool just by being in this band.

I see. Final question, why did you choose to do the photo shoot in Ikebukuro?

I came to Tokyo without much thought, so my starting point can be said to be Ikebukuro. The shoot was done near the path a short walking distance from the south gate of the train station, that was actually the same route I took when going home in the past. Also band rehearsals and the places where my senpai took me out for meals are also in Ikebukuro, my first one man live in Tokyo was also in Ikebukuro. I guess this is a memorable place for me.

So there is no like or dislike to this place.

It is a place where I feel calm I guess. I have the impression that Shinjuku and Shibuya are scary places (laughs). Ikebukuro is the place where I wandered around when I was still a minor, so I know about the security around the area well enough to feel safe. Well, sometimes there are strange people around as well.

That means there are scary people as well though (laughs)

Well, I’m a guy (laughs)

Indeed (laughs). However, you coming to Tokyo out of the blue, if your senpai wasn’t here, if there is no place like Ikebukuro, you would probably be in a really bad position.

That’s true. Even now, having come so far, I would vaguely worry what on earth I was gonna do if things don’t go well. People around me tell me that I got the essentials down so I would be alright, so I guess I can somehow manage. However, after today’s conversation, I realized rather than the insecurities, it was better to realize the things that I should be thankful for.

Yeah. After all you received a lot of help.

Yes. I am really grateful for everything.