blog tick built up the overseas bt community from the ground up, starting with kame and cayce at ngs. ngs has been taken down, but here is the official reopload and a fan mirror site. us foreigners would not be here talking about bt if it weren't for cayce and her crew! ngs has beautifully translated hundreds of bt songs, many interviews, and more. blog tick provides some humorous updates and life changing insight into the masterful work of bt, especially atsushi's work.
i used the same things i always use, which you can find on the links page back at angelic convo or my bt shrine
"Yeah. …I think it’s more Japanese style. Bowie’s calculated androgyny was certainly surprising as a work of art, but when I act a role for myself, it’s the refined femininity of ancient Japan, but with power. That’s what I become. In fact, I have a number of friends and acquaintances like that. Men, but with women’s souls, something like that. When I look at people like them, I think… “it suits them so naturally,” or “I quite like this.” They also seem very gentle to me… what we were talking about, again? (laughs)"
"This was a song I’d already written back before “Datenshi,” when nobody even knew the word “corona.” Some news I saw about child abuse deeply affected me. Like, children have no place to escape to. It’s fine to say, stay positive and hang in there, but I think for some kids, that makes them feel pressured. So I wanted to say, “it’s okay to escape.” Escaping doesn’t in any way mean you’re a coward, if you’re doing it to protect yourself. From there on, it’s a question of how to live on your own. That was my image for these lyrics."
“I drink and there are times when I neglect my health, but music is what rejuvenates me. Music is the only secret behind my energy cycle (lol). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve come to think of the day-to-day life that I’ve led up until now as a miracle, so all I hope is to perform as many concerts as I can, and to keep making music for as long as it is possible.”
"Hmm… but the truth is, we tell lies to comfort people or children. Lies like, “Monsters will come and get you if you don’t sleep soon.” We do tell lies to reassure children and protect them, don’t we? I feel that’s the perspective that the lyrics are making use of. A specific example would be how we won’t say, “Missiles are flying overhead,” but instead, we’ll say something like, “It’s raining so we can’t go out.”"
"Even though I’m an old man (lol). But I like all flowers in general. The ones I have in my room now are probably callas, lilies? They’re flamboyant. You know, people somehow tend to associate roses and the sort with me, but I really love the more simple varieties too. Also…… I just recalled something while we were talking."
"When we debuted in my 20s, it was as I described earlier; we didn’t know left from right. We simply had vague notions that we should probably sing love songs or something. After that, my life took a 180-degree turn when I experienced loss with my mother’s passing when I was 24. It was so bad that I can’t remember a thing about the tour we were on at the time, but I made sense of it my own way based on the idea that with her life, perhaps my mother was guiding me towards the direction of what I should sing about. My 20s was really a time when I knew nothing and was trying to figure out what it is I’m meant to do. It was a period which really left an impact on my mentality."
"Our only understanding of the current war is through the news, but when we look at the situation in Ukraine, we see the mixed feelings that the mothers have about the soldiers in the tanks, we see civilians handing bouquets of flowers to the soldiers. It gets me wondering who these innate messages are supposed to go to. Would be nice if it did get through, though. Like what I said earlier, this song is really one of those which give the false impression that a cheerful song is finally here (lol). It’s got a gentle touch on the surface precisely because the music is cheerful. I think it’s good if the song gradually starts to sink into those who listen to the words."
