Some time ago we wrote a concert review on Zeroshiki in Den Hague, a show organised by Avo, and we finally had the chance to speak to the bands leader Mugi. He took his time to answer our questions. Which all the more proves how amazing this band is and that you should be listening to them any time you can. Below we’ll add all their social media once again for you to follow if you haven’t already.
Q1. For the people who don’t already know you, could you introduce yourself in your own words?
Q1. まだバンドの事を知らない方々に向けて自己紹介をお願いします
We are ZEROSHIKI, an alternative rock band based in Tokyo. We are mainly focused on creating melodious music in our writing process.
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu.
東京を中心に活動しているオルタナティブロックバンド、ZEROSHIKIです。歌に重きを置いて曲を作っています。よろしくお願いします。
Q2. 長い間続けていますが、どのように音楽を始めたか教えていただけますか？
At the last show of my first band, my friend from high school who was there said that he was really moved by my playing and asked me to be in his band next. That’s how I started.
自分は最初違うバンドでベースを弾いていたんですが、そのバンドの最後のライブに来てくれた高校の友達が、ライブに感動してくれて、是非自分もバンドをやりたいから一緒にやってくれとお願いされて初めたのが最初ですね。
Q3. 今ZEROSHIKIはオリジナルメンバーを含めて新しい2人を入れて活動していますが、彼らの話を聞かせてください
I am fortunate that every member I’ve ever played with have all been great. And since these two current support members, Toki (guitar)
and Hikari (drums) have joined, we’re an even greater band than before. Toki helps us with recording and arrangement of our new songs. He is like our producer. He is really talented and keeps putting his effort in on many levels. Toki introduced us to Hikari. Hikari used to play drums in the metal band called “abstract”. Now he plays in multiple bands in a variety of
musical styles. On one hand, he is extremely passionate about his technical skills and on the other hand, is a really playful and fun person as well.
Q4. 曲を作曲、作詞している時、何がまたは誰が大きく影響しますか？
Melodies often come to me when I’m driving. Other times I listen to music that moves me and become inspired to write new music
myself. When it comes to lyrics, I write when there is something that I really want or need to say. Otherwise, our vocalist Dai is in
charge of writing lyrics.
Q5. ZEROSHIKIは明確ではっきりしたバンド名ですが、どのように生まれた名前でしょうか いきさつを教えてください
I used to love Hyakushiki at that time, so much that I had no doubt in my mind that our band needed to be named after that.
However, when we were about to put the album “Attack to Japan” onto the Japanese market, in order to avoid trouble with the legal
rights, I simplified the meaning to starting from the beginning, hence changing our name from Hyakushiki (Type-100) to Zeroshiki
(Type-0). A few years ago we decided to change the way we write the band’s name from its original Japanese kanji to
Zeroshiki?
Q6. ヨーロッパツアーが終わりましたが、世界のどこであったとしても次回観に来られるお客さんはZEROSHIKIのライブに込められた何が期待出来ますか？
as much as the band is.
Q7. 数ある楽曲の中で、ライブで演奏して一番好きな曲はどれですか？
Of course, I love playing all of our songs, but I can honestly say there are 2 songs that I like to play live the most.
One is Blue-ray. I personally love the songs 6/8 rhythms. I get really into it.
The other one is “ROU”. It is the most technical song we perform. I love it because I really have to focus playing my part to the point
where it begins to feel almost like slapping my own back really hard.
Q8. 今までやってきたライブ中起こった出来事でどんな事が最高だった思い出で一番印象に残ってますか？
Especially when I see the big smiles from the audience. Watching them getting into us gives me a sense of real satisfaction.
Q9. Is there anything memorable that happened at the show in The Hague?
Q9. デン・ハーグでのライブで起こった一番印象的だった事は何でしたか？
A lot of shows we play are only 30 minutes long. But we had a chance to play a longer set that day, so I really enjoyed that we could
play more of the songs we wanted to play. Maybe this is a little too personal of a memory, but oddly during that show, Toki’s guitar head hit my shoulder really-really hard! It was
quite painful! Haha!
通常は大体が30分という時間でライブをしています。デン・ハーグでのライブは持ち時間も長くやりたい曲も全てやれて最高でした。お客さんも楽しそうに聴いてくれていたのが嬉しかったです。1番印象的というと、個人的な話になってしまいますが、ライブ中にTokiのギターが思いっきり、肩にあたって本当に痛かった事ですかね 笑
Q10. Could you tell us Zeroshiki’s plans for the future?
We would love to tour in Asia, Australia, and of course Europe again too.
We are definitely open to playing shows in new and exciting places, wherever adventure offers to take us!
東南アジアや、オーストラリア、もちろんヨーロッパでもまたツアーをしたいですね。
後は、呼んでくれればどこへでもライブをしに行きます！
Q11. 今後ZEROSHIKIが一緒にコラボしたいと思っている事、人は誰かいますか？
members from Textures! Whenever I listen to them I get the feeling of being transported to somewhere else in our universe… I really love them so much
regardless of the band having broken up. The other band is “Rise of the Northstar” from France. They love Japanese animes and mangas and are really good at putting these
ideas into metal music and making it great. I would love to collaborate with them if given the chance. I love what they do.
Q12. これを読んでいるリーダーに何か特別なメッセージとなぜZEROSHIKIを今聞くべきかをお伝えください
We might not have any big “claim to fame” achievements to speak of in particular from these past 20 years but it has never made me
want to hide the fact that being in pursuit of the things I still would love to achieve.
Ever since I started to play with our current members, not only has the quality of our music improved but the band started to tour the US
and Europe. I want people to see a person who has spent his life believing in one thing.
Although I am not young anymore, I want to show that there is something great waiting for you when you really try hard and have faith
in yourself. As people listen to our musical material I want them to pay attention to what our band is evolving into.
Please come and see us play if you have us in your mind. We’ll be back in Europe someday for sure.
ZEROSHIKIは、20年も活動してきました。
20年もやってきて、これといった大きな実績があるわけではありません。もちろん色んなチャンスはありましたが、結局自分の信じたモノを曲げてまでそれに乗るのはおかしいってずっと思って活動してきました。でも、今のサポートも含め今のメンバーになってからアメリカだのヨーロッパだのってツアーも出来ているし、いい音源も出来てきています。 なので、自分が本当にこれだと信じ切った人間の生き様を見てほしいですね。消して若くないけど、自分を貫いた先は必ず最高のものがあるっていう事を証明していきたいですね。ZEROSHIKIがどーなっていくのか。それを曲を聴きつつ見届けて欲しいです。皆さんに。そして気になったら、ライブに来てください。必ずヨーロッパに帰ってきますので。
Zeroshiki – HP, Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Thank you Mugi for taking the time to answer and to Sho for taking the time to translate. It was great seeing you play, meeting you really quick after the show and for this interview. We look forward to new music and seeing you play again.
