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8/5/2011 - Conversation

ESP Guitars Artists Series – the GazettE Uruha Special Interview

• ESP: Thank you for coming to the interview. First, please let us hear about what motivated you to start learning guitar.
• Uruha: It’s Sugizo. It was sometime between after Luna Sea’s “Mother” first went on sale, and right before “Style” came out.
• ESP: In what area did you receive influence?
• Uruha: In the beginning, there was a strong image of scariness. Sugizo’s attitude was very sharp at that time, wasn’t it?
• ESP: Which means, the first guitar you bought was…
• Uruha: It was a GrassRoots Sugizo model, Horizon type. Then I tried copying Luna Sea’s songs. My first band that was formed was a band for the school festival. The band members were friends from class and we all got together in a studio and practiced.
• ESP: Actually, on the ESP homepage, there is an interview I did with Sugizo. I had known before that he is a remarkable person, but after hearing the actual story from him I am even further convinced of his greatness.
• Uruha: That… I read it all. (heh)
• ESP: For reals?! Thank you! But the contents of that interview were amazing huh?
• Uruha: That was great studying material for me; I learned a lot from that!! The more I got to know him, the farther I felt the distance between him and my existence was.
• ESP: So that is to say, Sugizo is what triggered Uruha’s knowledge of ESP.
• Uruha: Yes. In the PVs I saw his guitar with the ESP logo, and I thought “Wow, it’s so cool”. From there, there was a chance connection, and I got to meet someone from ESP through a person I knew at the studio. He told me “Next time I will take you there,” and so he brought me to the ESP shop at Ocha-no-Mizu. The first thing I bought there was a blue ESP Horizon. I still use it even now. It was a 2-humbucker guitar. The boss of the ESP store gave me a huge discount.
• ESP: So from GrassRoots, you skipped over Edwards and bought ESP directly eh? What was the feeling of trying out and playing the actual guitar?
• Uruha: From when I first used it, as I expected, it was different from GrassRoots; the FloydRose was stronger and more solid, and the tuning wouldn’t go crazy. “Man, as I expected it was waaay different,” were my thoughts at that time.
• (Note: GrassRoots is not the original FloydRose, but the FloydRose licensed bridge is included. As expected, the original FloydRose is better.)
• Uruha: So my relationship with ESP started after that. From GrassRoots, I got a second ESP Horizon. Until then I had always used GrassRoots in lives. I didn't know anything about the sound, as long as it was crooked, it's fine I thought. (heh)
• ESP: I see.
• Uruha: If you play a lot, you can hear the sound's flavor come out, and rather than buying a lot of guitars, I played this one a lot. It was with this Horizon when I started in the GazettE.
• ESP: Oh! Then that Horizon must be very important to you, huh. So you played it quite a lot. Then the next guitar after Horizon is...?
• Uruha: A Spalted Maple Potbelly that I bought from the ESP store in Ochanomizu.