[clairebear]

Thank you. XD

This interview x)



- So, I guess you could say that she become your first love, right?
Yeah, I guess so. But I don't remember her name or anything about her. (Laughs) Anyways, I was the type of kid who said mean things, but on the contrary, was disliked. (Laughs)

- When you were in grade school, did you take any sort of lessons?
Swimming, and from the time I was in kindergarten, I was going to the Kumon Center1. I remember quitting piano pretty much straight away, but thinking back on it now I feel that quitting so soon was foolish. From grade four I did stuff like playing basketball in an all boy's league, and I was the kind of kid who was relatively impatient. Also, this one time in middle school, I was on the train on my way to take an exam to go to cram school, but on the train home, I was in the same car as this girl who was preparing for the high school exam, and although I only rode with her for 12 minutes, I remember my heart fluttering so badly. (Bright smile)

- (Laughs) So, did you do basketball for your club activities as well?
Yes. But when I was a fourth year student, for some reason, I joined the cooking club. (Laughs)

- Were you on any committees?
I don't really remember any. But a good friend of mine was on the broadcasting committee, and I'd do stuff like play the music I liked as I pleased.

- What about memories from a trip you took?
A trip… where was it that we went?

- Was there something that you couldn't be without when you went on a trip?
I always brought Chapa Chups2.

- What flavours do you like?
Cola, etc. I get through them fairly quickly. So at that time, their slogan was, "Lasts for 30 minutes". If they did last for 30 minutes, then when we went on a trip and if we were on the bus for two hours, I thought if I bring four Chapa Chups I'll be alright, won't I? But, I have this habit biting the candy, or whatever, right away, so they didn't last two hours. (Laughs) And as for the field trip, I guess I remember a little bit of it. We went to Nara, and saw the large statue of Buddha. If I remember correctly, at night we had a pillow fight, but in truth it became a huge brawl. (Laughs) And we had a test of courage! We borrowed this scary mask from one of our teachers, and mingled around. I also made this girl I liked cry… (Laughs)

- You're really the type of person who teases others, aren't you～ (Laughs)
Yeah, I am. (Laughs) But because of that, the consequences are typically that it's a mistake...

- What were your favourite classes in school?
Chinese and gym. I always liked reading books. I'd be really energetic and play outside, but when I was by myself, I’d read.

- What kinds of books did you read?
Books that seems like classics in the library. When I was an elementary school student, I read books like "Gulliver's Travels" and "Tom Sawyer".

- Do you like legends and fairy tales?
I've read a lot of them. I also like Tezuka Osamu's manga. "Tell Adolf" and "Phoenix" are my favourites. I guess they have a considerable amount of influence on me. When I was in elementary school, because of my mother's influence there were spontaneously a lot of movies and dramas playing at home, so I watched them.

- Those kinds of things are probably somewhat related, aren't they?
So therefore, spontaneously not matter what I do, I get all these images in my head, you know?

- What was your childhood dream?
Even now I'm pretty fickle, but it was always constantly changing. I'd go to sleep, wake up and it'd be something different. (Laughs) I've said I wanted to be things like a professional soccer player, or a professional basketball player, even a doctor… At any rate, i don't really remember that much from when I was in elementary school. I'm sorry.

- Next, I thought we'd go into talking about middle school, but about when did your interest in music start?
It was around middle school. I had a good friend who was a dancer, and there were a lot of people who were getting into that kind of stuff, so in turn I ended up listening to a lot of music. I liked stuff like contemporary music and classical music.

- What kind of club activities did you do in middle school?
As expected I played basketball. (Laughs) I did it for three years, but in my first year od high school I went once, and quit. I guess you could say I didn't understand what the point of going anymore was…

- Do you remember going on any field trips?
We went to Kyoto. We saw tons of temples. At night, we snuck out, caught got, and were scolded. (Laughs)

- Where did you go?
I don't remember now, but at that time going out at night was fun.

- Was it a way of having some kind of thrill?
Yeah. And because of it, we were found by club activities adviser. And for the time being, I was the basketball club's captain.

- Well, you were pretty talented in basketball, weren't you?
Yeahh, I was. (Roar of laughter) The other club members angrily said stuff to me like, "You're the captain, what the hell do you think you're doing?" and "Don't you have even an ounce of responsibility?", and although it really is a funny story, they said, "Well, think about it, and come to the park tomorrow morning". I really couldn't do anything about it, so I woke up early and went alone. Then, carrying a soccer ball, came one of the advisors, and even though this was about the basketball club, he said, "We'll have a penalty kick match, and if I win, you have to resign". (Laughs)

- So did you have a match?
Yeah. I won. (Laughs) But because of that, being forgiven was quite a strange episode (Laughs) I don't really understand why he forgave me, you know. And I don't know why he let me off the hook. I guess, it was because of the penalty kick, or something. (Laughs)

- Takeru-san is this pretty mischievous guy, who has also done stuff like being the captain so he has a level-headed part to him as well, which I guess you could call strange, right?
Nah, it's not like that. Besides, I loved stuff like the culture festivals, so I'd be eager to participate in them. The culture festival was my first time to do a musical performance. At that time, singing a cappella was popular. And because on TV I had seen people who did voice percussion, and because I loved the showiness of it, I thought it was interesting and we too did an a cappella performance. It was extremely fun.

- Do you like to stand out?
Yeah, I do. I also like the things that I've made. I also liked writing scripts and stuff like that on my own. When I was in elementary school, we had this thing that was like a mini computer. My teacher, was the kind of person who totally loved stuff like that, and I feel as if I was like, no matter what I wasn't going to be outdone. So, I fought hard and in an elementary student's own way, I got a video camera, filmed stuff and showed it. (Laughs) If I remember correctly, I made a video about a curse. (Laughs) At that time "The Ring" had just started to become popular, and I remember wearing a white gown backwards, putting on a wig and videotaping at this place that was like a forest, then bringing it to school. I have a feeling it ended up being kind of like a video which parodied "The Ring".

- Watching dramas and movies when you were at home probably had an influence on you as well, right?
That's probably true. I think it was when I was in my third year of middle school, I performed a cappella on stage and at the culture festival in my first year of high school, I was also in a musical type of performance. It's like, when you put the songs next to each other, the words make sense and even though they're by different artists, when you listen to them they tell a single story. Between each song there are lines and various developments, and so when it comes to the songs, I tried to put the emotions into them.

- You've done a lot of things like script writing.
Originally there was a short period of time where I was directed towards theater which also has tons of commonalities to the scene I'm in now, so it really came to be advantageous to me. I think that although the method of expression is different, the parts that you display and have people hear are the same When I was in school and when there was a period where I had a bunch of various problems, I met this thing called music and even though it was my first band, I chose to portray it all on stage.

- Well, from hereon in, what kind of things have you been thinking about as far as your objectives as a vocalist go?
So far I feel strongly that it's good when I can say the things that I want to say, and even if I'm bad at it, if I've put feeling into it, it's good.But technique is necessary for doing the things I want to do and for the sake of portraying the things I want to convey, and going to the office really made me realize this. I don't want art just for the sake of art, but I want art that as much as possible portrays feelings and thoughts. Lately I've been hungry with good purpose, so I want to be able to have the technique of the things I've been thinking and the things I've been sketching in my mind to take shape.

- For the conclusion, please write a message to the fans.
Okay! I'm the vocalist, Takeru! This time around, I've talked a lot about when I was a kid, but there's a part of me that hasn't changed much since then. However, there's a part of me that seems to want to do music and be in a band. It's not because it's an interview like this, but as far as Takeru from SuG is concerned, I really want everyone become an adult without forgetting the heart of a child. Even though I'm writing that my favourite type is a "child who's a grownup" or a "grownup who's a child", I want to become the kind of beautiful adult with both faces

【Special Feature】Please tell us your favourite words!
"Great authority" It has a meaning like "Beat the best", but talking about something where you want to be in first place, it's my ambition to be a true man.