1
News / Re: News about X members activity
« on: November 20, 2020, 04:44:16 PM »
What reasons do people have to believe Yoshiki and Toshi are still feuding? Didn't he and Toshi sue the new source that released that info and shouldn't we believe the rift was fabricated or exaggerated because of that? Yoshiki did state that one of the reasons recording takes so long is because he has to be respectful of other members' schedules and family life.
Anyway, I already posted most of this on discord but I made a list of interesting tidbits from Yoshiki's members-only portion of his birthday broadcast for those of us who don't have membership.
Kiss the Sky Specific:
He also made 2 Yoshikimono masks that will be released soon (one is red and black with black silk ties and the other is purple and red with red silk ties). His photobook was released today in the same spot he and Bill Gates did an X Box release in Shibuya years ago and weighs more than 5lbs . There will be a new Japanese and English Yoshiki.net website coming. In about a month Under the Sky will premier and everyone on the chat was really excited for it. I'm looking forward to it too and actually think it will be quite a spectacular extravaganza. There was no word on whether it's going to be a series or an all-in-one event but the release date near Christmas makes me think it will be the latter. I could be wrong though.
Edit: It was just reported via Consequence of Sound on Yoshiki's Twitter that Under The Sky will be a live streaming event starting at 8pm JST/6am EST on Dec 23rd. Yoshiki said they are still working on the final cut but are very excited they can finally announce this project. So yes I'm pretty sure it'll be a single film.
Anyway, I already posted most of this on discord but I made a list of interesting tidbits from Yoshiki's members-only portion of his birthday broadcast for those of us who don't have membership.
- Yoshiki said La Venus is a lot easier to play in G tuning for everyone (pianist, strings player) but things have to be centered around the vocalist. So when it gets shifted to the proper key it becomes much harder to play on piano and violin (this part might have been during public broadcast)
- The Rolling Stones, Rihanna, Neko Case and Janet Jackson have all recorded at Yoshiki's studio.
- He has an electric grand piano that acts like a synth. Yes it is as big and in the shape of a traditional grand piano. He says he has this because regular electronic keyboards hurt his hands more/more quickly than pianos do.
- Along with recording booths in Yoshiki's studio, there is also 2 visual editing booths/rooms.
- We all know he scores 90% of the music before it's made, but he actually makes scores (strings, drums, guitars, bass) daily like they're a daily diary. He also does this with lyrics. He'll then have a pile of lyrics and things that he'll see if he can use in anything. He pulled out a few folders full of these things to show us. One of the scores was solely dedicated to just the symbols on the drums. Another score was dedicated strictly to the velocity of a piano piece (how hard or soft you touch each note, which is not typical at all).
- One of the folders he showed us was lyrics for Kiss The Sky and had about 50 pages worth of lyrics. Most pages had notes scribbled on them detailing different things.
Kiss the Sky Specific:
- Yoshiki said the song is made up of about 1000 tracks. He's right. I counted 37... of the ones I could see. Says it's definitely another Art of Life and that Art of Life also took several years to record.
- The bass line is AWESOME. It's intricate and musical and definitely an instrument within the song instead of just filler. Heath must be very happy to play it.
- There is a twin guitar solo that is also AWESOME. Part of it reminds me of Blind Guardian.
- Yoshiki plays some of the guitar on the song and if the part that played was his, it's very cool. It's like noise and punk, but clean so it sounds modern so it's nice to see his progression as a musician and doing something different with rock.
- They are indeed incorporating the "woah woah woah" parts that were recorded around the world. Yoshiki said he spent "like 500 hours" listening to them all and then arranging them together. It sounded really powerful and took me back to the 90s stadium audiences because you can hear the difference between male and female voices coming together to harmonize.
- Toshi has a difficult vocal part where he belts "we will kiss the sky" in a high register in what I'm pretty sure is detached voice so... woah. But what can we expect from X's vocalist? I really think he might be the best male singer in the world.
- There's a heavy drop/interlude part with guitar, bass and piano that makes me want to do dangerous things
- I think everyone's going to be verrrry happy with this song.
- Numerous guests wished Yoshiki happy birthday from around the world. Baby Metal, Gackt, Inoran and Sugizo from Luna Sea, HYDE, etc.
- Yoshiki said Inoran is the best drinker of Luna Sea
- Sugizo said they're both in their 50s now and that he never imagined this is what 50s would be like. He appreciates their relationship and wants to see Yoshiki in Japan soon. Yoshiki said X reviving would not have been possible without Sugizo and that back during SKIN times they had talked for hours one day about their future and dreams.
- Gackt said he hopes Yoshiki continues to see him as a dear younger brother forever and that he was very thankful that when he was going through a hard time once, Yoshiki told him to call him at any time because Yoshiki would be there for him. Yoshiki said that even though Gackt is like a younger brother, that because Yoshiki isn't always logical but Gackt knows a lot about many things, that Gackt ends up being like the bigger brother a lot of the time.
- Something funny happened that sent the group chat into a frenzy when we all suddenly learned Yoshikitty can speak. There was a part during the stream when Yoshikitty played Happy Birthday on piano for Yoshiki, got up and then verbally wished Yoshiki Happy Birthday and gave him well wishes. Yoshiki later said that it nearly gave him a heart attack and made him forget his birthday because he never knew Yoshikitty could speak.
- His birthday cake was in the shape of the piano and even the bench and floor were cake. He was given those red oreos as well, but they were red bean flavored instead of red velvet which makes sense for Japan. He also had cookies made to look like his Yoshiki credit card and he liked these much better than the red oreos. He took several bites of multiple credit card cookies even though they were all the same flavor.
- I'm sure you all noticed this but Yoshiki set up gift donations. He said, "This is the first time I'm doing the super chat as a gift. I've been saying, I don't need anything but please donate to any charity you support. Everything that comes to me goes to that charity through Yoshiki Foundation America... so that's what we are doing. This is the first time so I hope everything goes well."
He also made 2 Yoshikimono masks that will be released soon (one is red and black with black silk ties and the other is purple and red with red silk ties). His photobook was released today in the same spot he and Bill Gates did an X Box release in Shibuya years ago and weighs more than 5lbs . There will be a new Japanese and English Yoshiki.net website coming. In about a month Under the Sky will premier and everyone on the chat was really excited for it. I'm looking forward to it too and actually think it will be quite a spectacular extravaganza. There was no word on whether it's going to be a series or an all-in-one event but the release date near Christmas makes me think it will be the latter. I could be wrong though.
Edit: It was just reported via Consequence of Sound on Yoshiki's Twitter that Under The Sky will be a live streaming event starting at 8pm JST/6am EST on Dec 23rd. Yoshiki said they are still working on the final cut but are very excited they can finally announce this project. So yes I'm pretty sure it'll be a single film.