el:cid will release their first album, In the Shade, on August 18th.

Vocalist Shigeta sat down for an interview with writer Nagasawa Tomonori (長澤智典) to talk about the decision to release the album after its songs had been dormant for 30 years. Today we bring you the exclusive translation of that interview.

The sealed “wine” was opened for the first time in 30 years. What has the aged music showed us...?

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el:cid will release the album In the Shade on August 18th. I heard that the songs on the album are all made in the past.

[Shigeta] All the songs were recorded in the late 90s. Initially, we planned to release them via a certain label, so we recorded a lot of songs (even more than are currently released on the album). Then that certain label disappeared. Years passed and after a while, I started to talk to the other members about what we should do with all the music we recorded back then. el:cid wasn't active anymore, since we had disbanded in the late 90's, so our music was sleeping all that time.

Actually, in the last few years, I'd been interacting a lot with NAGANO (from BEAST) in various ways. I also sent some el:cid music to him. One day he returned a mysterious item: he had mastered one of the sleeping songs, and fixed some parts (laugh).

At the beginning I wasn't thinking of releasing it; it was just a single interaction with NAGANO. However, while we were talking to each other more, I mentioned to him “Someday I'd like to put more of our dormant songs into a proper form.” And because of COVID-19, I had a lot of spare time. So NAGANO suggested to me “Why don't you use this time to finish that album?” And when I asked him to help out to master the tracks, he kindly agreed.

In the midst of the busy schedule of BEAST's activities, we finished about 20 new sound treatments, from which 15 songs were selected to be put on the album. The album In the Shade will now be released through the HAUNTED HOUSE RECORDS label.

When I listened to the songs on this album, I felt that they were mainly 90s UK guitar rock songs with elements of shoegaze. In addition to that, there are also elements of gothic rock, with the so-called “sad melodies” of 90s visual kei woven throughout.

[Shigeta] el:cid itself is a band that was active before the birth of the genre called visual kei. We did all our make-up and hairstyles ourselves. At the time, I adopted the sense of BOØWY, BUCK∞TICK, ZIGGY, JUN SKY WALKER(S), and other bands who, regardless of genre, wore makeup and styled their hair straight up. In addition, I liked so-called “positive punk” bands such as Bauhaus and The Cure, so I created music under their influence. [Ed.: positive punk is the Japanese term for early gothic bands.] However, as we were doing band activities we noticed our fanbase became more and more composed of girls dressed in black vkei styled clothes. So, before we realized it, we were active in the visual kei world and dragged more and more into that category. However back then we didn't really think of ourselves as a visual kei band at all.

Oh, so that's why a lot of your music had the color of gothic and guitar rock and other styles that were popular back then. Did you adopt the visual kei style into the music as a way of keeping up with the times?

[Shigeta] There were several reasons for this. The first is that we are a band, not a solo act. If I had been doing it alone, the music would have only been able to reach a few maniacs who were deeply immersed in my hobby. However, as a band, it is important to play music that all the members are satisfied with.

Most of the members of el:cid have known each other since elementary school, and we are all childhood friends and playmates. We formed the band as an extension of that friendship, not because we had the same musical tastes. And because we were all friends, we could talk to each other honestly without hesitation. That's one of the good things about us.

For a while, we performed songs that only expressed only my personal tastes and preferences, but it gradually became harder to play only dark pieces all the time. So eventually we thought “why don't we start playing some more cheerful songs?” Our visual kei songs, such as Crying Limit and Cry for the Moonlight (which are on the album), were written when we got the chance to play against GLAY at the beginning of their debut. The other members said “Let's play some songs that GLAY fans would like.” For that reason we also started to play more pop-like visual kei songs.

So the band was revitalized as a result of that diversity?

[Shigeta] Yes, that was a big part of it. There's also that certain members of the band were sensitive to the trends of the time, so if we created songs that caught the favor of those members, the songs would automatically be in tune with the times. In this way we did so-called “market research” while composing songs.

As for the shoegaze/guitar-rock songs, the reason for those is that I myself am a shoegaze fan, but if we were to do them as straight shoegaze it would clearly show my likes and dislikes. I myself like melodic songs, and no matter what the tone of the song is, I always try to keep that as the core of my music, so I tried to make the guitar rock songs easy to listen to while skillfully incorporating the shoegaze atmosphere.

It's true that the emphasis on melody is one of the factors that attracts people to el:cid's music.

[Shigeta] That's right. I myself get bored listening to songs that are not melodious, and I like songs that allow me to insert my own emotions between the lines of the lyrics and the melody, so I would like to keep that in mind for the future too.

Shigeta's lyrics make me feel very lonely, or rather, they convey a painful emotional state in a painful way. I like that too.

[Shigeta] Lyrics by real people are not interesting to sing or listen to, and to be honest, I can't listen to them (laughs). Many of the songs included in the album were made while I was still a high school student. Especially in those days I tended to be strongly attracted to things that were being oppressed by the world.

Besides that, most of us encounter a time when we feel mentally not strong. So I've always thought that it would be nice to have lyrics that go along with that.

There are people in his world who can find support from painful lyrics, right?

[Shigeta] That's right. People's lives have ups and downs, don't they? When you are cheerful, your heart can afford and accept anything, however it's important to know how to raise your spirit when you are feeling down. When you feel depressed, it is not the bright emotions which will support you, but the feelings in your heart when you are sinking in depression. For that reason I like to write lyrics that support such depressed heart feelings. That way I naturally plant my own sluggishness and dark side into it (laughs).

Anyway, how do you feel about the completed album In the Shade now?

[Shigeta] It felt like I was reading an old diary which was released as a one-piece digest story. Also it was an opportunity to look back at myself.

I think the universality of music lies in the fact that it doesn't feel old at all.

[Shigeta] I guess it's like wine. It's like opening the seal and listening to the work that was prepared 30 years ago, now that the market has matured. You can enjoy the tracks because they have matured in a good way because the music style wasn't just chasing trends.

Moreover it's the same if you take a look at the lyrics. For example, the lyrics do not use words that reflect the times, such as pager, but rather expressions that universally resonate with people's hearts, no matter in which era they've listened to it. It's like “reading between the lines;” my lyrics have a lot of room for your own imagination.

I've always been attracted to that kind of music myself, and all the songs on this album reflect that.

Now, about the future of el:cid...?

[Shigeta] Some of the members want to do a concert, but we're still not sure how to do it the way we want because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So we're still deciding the future. Actually, there are still a bunch of unreleased songs, so we're planning to release those too. Of course, I'm also motivated to write new songs.

You said it's like aged wine. I have the impression that these songs are more likely to touch people's hearts in this day and age.

[Shigeta] As the sensibilities of people listening to music have become more diverse, we are no longer in an age of chasing after the mainstream, and there is no need for those who express themselves to follow the lead of the mainstream. In the days when we were energetically active, we had a strange pressure to chase the kind of music that was selling well. That's actually one of the reasons why we sealed the band back then. By opening the seal in today's age where “it's good enough if it appeals only to the people it's supposed to appeal to,” we were able to be accepted more. Now we feel that our music is spreading with more freedom than back then. To be honest, it was the right decision for the band to break the seal in this age when SNS has become mainstream.

As a band, you're not in a hurry to get things done; you're working at your own pace, aren't you?

[Shigeta] That's what we do, and that's what we will continue to do. As I said earlier, there are still a lot of songs which didn't fit the world of In the Shade so we're planning to release those songs together next. But we will continue to do so at our own pace. Going forward, we'd appreciate it if you could continue to follow el:cid.

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el:cid's first album, In the Shade, is available for purchase now through HAUNTED HOUSE RECORDS. If you order before August 18th through the official web shop you'll get a bonus disc with even more rare tracks from the band. If you live overseas you'll need to use a proxy to get it, so act fast!

In the Shade is also available at CDJapan and other national stores.

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