3rd post by AISAKU (English ver.)

This time I think I’ll write about things I rarely talk about such as about the guitar and the equipment that I use!!!

Chapter 1
“First Encounter with the Guitar”

I first came into contact with the guitar when I was in elementary school, around 5th grade. At the time, I listened to bands such as Porno Graffitti, L’Arc-en-Ciel and GLAY, and from their music came sounds like “gweeen” and “strum”. The sounds were so cool that I ended up asking my school teacher how the sounds were produced!
My teacher told me that it was an electric guitar and…
I remember being like “what…?”. Anyway, it was from a guitar!!

And so, I tried playing the guitar that was in the music room and
I remember thinking, “what an uncool sound…”!

Well, that was to be expected...
After all, that guitar was a gut-string guitar, lol (not that I have anything against gut-string guitars)
It’s not like it could go “gweeen”!!!

And so, since it felt so uncool, I stopped and for a while lost interest in the guitar!

Chapter 1
“First Encounter with the Guitar” End

Chapter 2
“♡ I want to be popular ♡”

After some time, I entered middle school and well… When you are in middle school aren’t there stuff like school festivals?

I saw a guy there who was in a band, and he was pretty much shining and really cool!

More than anything, the girls were totally mad about him and he was seriously popular, right?

And so, the feelings of wanting to play the guitar, which had died back when I was in grade 5, were revived!

In other words, I started playing the guitar because I wanted to be popular, lol.

Isn’t it a common story? lol

And so, to become popular, I needed a guitar!

Then, without understanding anything, I went to a guitar store (Shimamura) while clutching 10,000 yen in my hands, right?

When I got there, I was shocked!

Guitars are expensive!!
Of course, I wasn’t able to purchase a brand new guitar with just 10,000 yen so I headed straight to a second-hand store!

The store was selling a black electric guitar (Stratocaster) for around 10,000 yen and so I bought it right away!!!

With that, thinking I would also become popular, I was in high spirits all the way home but…
Hmm?
It doesn’t go “gweeen”… *cries*
Was how things ended.
I found out later, but at the time I was searching online with no knowledge of amplifiers, shielded cables and effect units so it ended up like as if I was looking for adult websites and so I was stopped. *cries*

Which was why I ended up going, “Guitar, die.”!!!

And my feelings of wanting to play the guitar died once again, lolol.

Chapter 2
“♡ I want to be popular ♡” End

Chapter 3
“First Encounter with Visual Kei”

Well…
Earlier, I mentioned that I listened to GLAY, right?

Since I was only in elementary school, I didn’t know what visual kei was.
In a good way, something felt off, and that discomfort was something like a dark atmosphere which somehow gave off a mysterious feeling.

I found out later that their makeup, music style etc. was…
Visual kei.

I can’t really express it well but it felt like visual kei wasn’t just someone else’s business. Rather, it felt like I would come to be involved in visual kei and it would stay with me for the rest of my life.

Well, it felt like destiny, lolol.

In reality, it has currently become an indispensable, important part of my life.

In middle and high school, girls who were fans of visual kei started appearing here and there.
In other words, “band-girls (バンギャ)”.
Those “band-girls” taught me various things like An Cafe and the “Kirakira (glittering)” styles of visual kei.
I liked them as well but as compared to the more over-the-top styles, I frankly didn’t quite get as addicted to them and started listening to bands like Lolita23q.

At this time, my friend, I, recommended X Japan to me and while it was a little different from our generation, I decided to try listening to it.

The moment I heard it…
“Wow! It’s really cool!”, and it became part of my foundation in music, lolol.

I’m finally going to talk about my equipment.
X Japan’s hide used a Fernandes Mockingbird guitar and the Mockingbird is from a brand called B.C. Rich…
Which is known for its atypical guitars!
I like hide but a part of me didn’t want to be using the same guitar so I went for the B.C. Rich Warbeast!!!

Chapter 3
“First Encounter with Visual Kei” End