BEAT NAVIGATION:
Biography PT1
April 1998. It started from 'Downer.'
The drummer leaving, a break in activities, member change, a oneman, a collaboration oneman show ... Not a stable beginning by any means, .... and up till now, more changes have been made... this is the path that Fatima has followed these five years.
1997 - 1998
After 2 failed starts, Fatima finally forms.
Beat Navigation (BN): Fatima formed in April 1998.
Mizuha (g): There were two previous bands. The members changed. First off it was just me and Daisuke (ds), and we were like, 'What are we gonna do?' So we decided to go look for members, and we found Lay-kun.
BN: Where did you guys meet?
Mizuha: We met at a concert. When I saw him, I thought, 'He's got blond hair, he's got to be a bassist!' and so I talked to him (laughs). And then I found out that that was true (laughs).
Lay (b): It was fate (laughs).
Mizuha: Our schools were different, and so we hadn't had any contact up till then.
BN: What were your impressions of each other when you first met?
Mizuha: I thought he was a rock-type guy.
Lay: I thought he was a meek kid. Well, we're the same age, so we could relate.
BN: The same age? It doesn't look like that (laughs).
Lay: Who looks younger? (laughs)
BN: Mizuha-san (laughs). It seems like you'd be older than Mizuha by two or three years, Lay-san.
Lay: Really?! Strange .... I attended vocational school. (laughs) I wonder if that aged me? (laughs)
BN: No, it's not in your appearance, but... sort of in how you act (laughs).
Lay: Is it, ... on the inside, hm? (laughs)
BN: At that time, did your impression of Mizuha change?
Lay: It didn't really change that much. We spent a lot of time together, and it's not that we were friends from childhood, but it was a good addition [ to the relationship ] that we started to feel as though we had been (laughs). I haven't thought about it that much, but, that's how I understand it. And as far as being the same age, we liked the same stuff. We both knew what we'd like.
BN: What was the feeling you got from your previous band?
Lay: It was painful (laughs). I'll cut ties with it, I think (laughs).
(Everyone laughs)
Lay: Well, 'I was young so it's forgivable!' was maybe what it was like (laughs). It felt young and unsophisticated (laughs).
NB: Did you have any lives?
Lay: Yeah, like normal. We had about 3~4 a month. We did songs what are now Fatima songs. Now they've changed subtly, but they were songs like, "Blind" and "Love me."
NB: Sanaka-san had the chance of becoming a member of that band, didn't he? What did you think when you first met him?
Lay: I thought he was an old guy (laughs). He seemed like an old man (laughs). First off, at that time, he wore a suit. So, I was like, isn't he five years older than me or something? (laughs) And then, he had long hair as well. Basically "long hair = how long it is = he's had a long life," was how I thought about it. So, 5 years older (laughs).
Mizuha: He was also extremely underweight, huh? (laughs)
Lay: Yeah, yeah. He was skinnier than he is now, and he didn't seem young, so, maybe 3 years older than me? (laughs). In my head I couldn't come up with any reason to think he was younger than me (laughs).
BN: But what's the truth of it ? (laughs)
Lay: He's younger than both of us (laughs). But, considering his age, I feel young again. It's a good tendency (laughs).
BN: What did you think when you heard him sing?
Lay: I didn't hear him sing live, but listened to a tape instead. It was a voice that I really liked. The song was simple and he sounded skilled, so I thought, 'I'd really like to perform with him.'
BN: Is there anything that's changed now?
Lay: His voice hasn't changed that much. Maybe in how young it sounds. His way of singing has changed in various ways though.
Sanaka (vo): You say that but, Mizuha-kun had long hair as well didn't he? (laughs) Now, I can't believe it (laughs).
Lay: The proportion of people with long hair in that band was high, wasn't it? (laughs) Me and the drummer just had shoulder-length hair, but the guitarist and the vocalist had hair down to their waist. It was sort of a dirty feeling (laughs).
BN: But wouldn't long hair be a good thing? Sorta like the hard rock period of the 70s?
(Everyone laughs)
Lay: That.... not really like that, but.... (laughs). Well, I guess it was a suitable thing (laughs).
BN: Sanaka-san, after joining, what happened to your previous band?
Sanaka: I was only it in for 2~3 months before I left (laughs).
Lay: That band didn't really feel like it'd last long (laughs). It was probably going to break up soon (laughs). It couldn't have lasted a year.
Sanaka: The band changed its vocalist three times. I was the third person. So it was a short-lived band (laughs).
Lay: Well, less than breaking up, I thought I wanted to escape. I thought Mizuha and Daisuke were going to leave, so we started talking about breaking up or having a break in activities. It was really intense during that period (laughs).
Mizuha: Nothing was talked about in the studio (laughs).
Lay: It looked as though the band was already over to me (laughs). But just at the right time, I made "Downer." After making it, I had the other three listen to it and they were like, "I think I want to be in this band. Should we try it?" So Fatima had a reason to be. Because of this, Fatima really started from "Downer."
