Interview of Yoshiatsu (DADAROMA) 『Part-time jobs are places where you get to know your different suitabilities. Results we get, facing the things we want to do, should lead to a « work ».』【Our talk about work vol.23】
Visual Kei’s artists and bands continue fascinating fans day and night with their sophisticated rhythms and melodies. They are active on stage but often faced painful experiences that led them to grow up. In this series, we will go deeply into the past work experiences of these artists and get them to talk about topics they have never talked about.
DADAROMA, with his catchy hooks and heavy musical pieces with strong metal taste, is impressive. We wanted to hear the part-time jobs experience of their vocalist, Yoshiatsu, during his student days. We will deliver an interview that is also dealing with the roots of his currents lyrics, talking about part-time jobs at night after he arrived in Tokyo and that thoroughly shoke his sensitivity up.
“I thought that I was feeling at home at the sweets corner of the conbini.”
TOWNWORK
Please tell us about your part-time jobs experiences until now.
YOSHIATSU
It was usual stuff. It was at my home area during my student days, like working in conbini, supermarket, factory, etc…
TOWNWORK
Was your first part-time job to work in a conbini?
YOSHIATSU
Yes. When I was 1st year high school student, I wanted to buy a birthday present for my girlfriend of that time, so I started a part-time job 3 months before her birthday. After that I continued, but during a little less than 1 year or so. Regarding part-time jobs themselves, anything was okay as long as I was able to get money, so I applied for a part-time job at a conbini near my parents’ home.
TOWNWORK
What kind of duties had you at that conbini?
YOSHIATSU
I was the cashier or the one displaying the merchandises, but I liked the sweets corner (laughs).
TOWNWORK
Because you liked them? (laughs)
YOSHIATSU
They had their precise place, so I was obsessive about that and I lined them up beautifully of my own accord. Moreover, I was in a rural area which differs from cities, so there weren’t many customers in a row, so each time one item was bought, as soon as the customer was gone, I immediately jumped there and replaced it to keep everything perfect (laughs). If a place was empty, it ended to make me feel uneasy… even at home, the place of the remote control and such is settled and I dislike when it is out of place. Regarding the sweets corner, since I considered it like my own house, it was my territory (laughs).
TOWNWORK
Were you particular only with the sweets corner?
YOSHIATSU
Yes. But of my own accord, I get absorbed in the layout of the magazine corner too, like “I wonder if it won’t look more beautiful here…” (laughs). Anyway, maybe I’m the kind of person that decides arbitrarily “it’s better like that”.
TOWNWORK
So you already had a creative mind at that time.
YOSHIATSU
Saying so, I take it in a cool way then (laughs).
“I thought that I couldn’t face a job where you repeat the same thing.”
TOWNWORK
On the contrary, were there things you weren’t good at?
YOSHIATSU
Because I have got a flighty temperament, more than the content of the work itself, I’m bad at repeating the same thing over again and I started to feel from that time : “I can’t face routine work”.
TOWNWORK
Were you in a band at that time?
YOSHIATSU
My both parents were doing music, so I naturally had interest in it. When I was a senior high school student, I already had a band, but at that time I wasn’t thinking about having music as a work in the future yet. Later on, I worked in a factory in which I’ve been invited by my friend and that had a good hourly pay. I wore work clothes and worked continuously in an assembly-line system from early in the morning until the evening, it is at that time that I clearly noticed : “Ah, I’m not suited to routine work”.
TOWNWORK
What you were feeling at the conbini was confirmed.
YOSHIATSU
Yes. I can have 0 to 100 thoughts at the same time, so I ended to think : “It’s impossible that I repeat the same thing over again = I’m not suited to work” (laughs). If I exaggerate, I would say that I already had some kind of identital crisis, thinking : “Why am I living, to do what?”. Time is really important, and I ended to think while becoming an adult : “what I want to do, that’s not that!”
TOWNWORK
So you became conscious of the fact that you were “working”, that’s right?
YOSHIATSU
Yes. So maybe my general idea regarding the fact of working slided a little. I think that it could be nice if continuing what I want to do was related to the fact of working, and regarding me, it was being in a band. Of course, it is everyone’s wish, and I think it is not something easy, but if I don’t do that, it seems that there is nothing else I can do. So even now, I am not playing in a band and making music with the feeling of “being working”.
“I refused my entry to a beauty school and took the big decision to go to Tokyo.”
TOWNWORK
By the way, when graduated from high school, what should do a young man who is not suited to work?
YOSHIATSU
In actual fact, I was planning to become a hairdresser, I passed a beauty school. But the night before the school entrance ceremony, while on my futon, I started to think : “From tomorrow, I will take the path to become a hairdresser?” then I thought : “Ah, I’m wrong!”… Maybe it was unreasonable, but my heart decided “I want to make music, so let’s go to Tokyo”. It was the first time of my life that I was disobeying to my parents, but the next day I went to Tokyo.
TOWNWORK
But wasn’t becoming a hairdresser your own wish?
YOSHIATSU
In the past I used to cut my hair myself, or my friends’ hair, it was one of the things I liked the most, but it wasn’t a decisive blow and I made my decision according to the course of events.
TOWNWORK
What was your situation on the very day?
YOSHIATSU
I got a phone call from my parents saying : “Only your seat is empty at the school entrance ceremony!” and I said back : “Sorry, I won’t become a hairdresser”. At that time, they told me : “Then you don’t have any place to come back anymore” and I replied : “I understood”. But I couldn’t feel daunted if I had chosen to go that far, I was determined. Even if I left for Tokyo, I didn’t have any acquaintance doing music there, nor place to go, but at that time becoming honest regarding what I wanted to do and getting to the heart of that main thing was the best thing to do, in my opinion.
“My part-time job in Kabukicho thoroughly rocked my sensitivity.”
TOWNWORK
Could you tell us your part-time jobs experience from the moment you went to Tokyo?
YOSHIATSU
My friend from Tokyo was working at night and told me : “Why don’t you join me?”. At that time, I had no band project in sight, and my current situation was such that I couldn’t live if I was doing nothing, so for the time being, I decided to have a go.
TOWNWORK
You really had nothing, right?
YOSHIATSU
Right, I had nothing at all. But I still wanted to do music, I came to Tokyo thinking that it won’t ever start if I don’t plunge into that world. So right away after coming in Tokyo, my nocturnal part-time job life started, but it was days that thoroughly changed my sensitivity. I worked in Kabukicho in Shinjuku, every day I met really different people, maybe I shouldn’t say it, but I experienced nothing but people talking about what they have in their heart. For me who has been raised in the remote countryside, it was a quite deep personal experience. But while having such days, I thought : “Aah, there’s such a world too” and once again I realized : “Aah, I’m not suited to that” (laughs). Although I was working in the hospitality industry, I wasn’t the kind of person who was good at telling lies and flatteries, you know (laughs).
But after I left that part-time job, I tried to be a bartender still in Kabukicho, I saw various kinds of people, and there my desire to sing hardened. To say it in a cool way, I thought that there are many people who seems to feel lonely in this society, so I thought : “Wouldn’t I be able to help even a little bit these people who have sad thoughts and are lonely? I want to sing songs that resound in such people”. This is the starting point that led me to sing in DADAROMA now, or rather that’s all it is about now.
“I think that Visual Kei is the embodiment of creativity.”
TOWNWORK
For example, before creating music, did you get possibilities to create different things meeting with another kind of creativity?
YOSHIATSU
I wonder… Maybe there were possibilities, but the lucky part of being in a band is that it is full of various creative components. If you want to draw, then you can do it for the jacket of your own CD, if you like clothes or design, you can make goods and outfits. And with the make-up, you can express your personality in various ways. Regarding Visual Kei, it was the embodiment of creativity where I could do all I want to.
TOWNWORK
For example, what advice do you want to give to the people who will start a part-time job after this?
YOSHIATSU
First of all, I think that it is to try anything. I think that it is good to know what you are not suited to. But it might be better to decide that by thinking about the reason why you think you are not suited to this, you know. Because you won’t gain any profit by just thinking : “I don’t like it, but I don’t know why”. For example, in my case, I wasn’t good at repetitive works, and also I wasn’t good at receiving orders from other people (laughs). That’s not because I dislike receiving orders themselves, but while I was thinking : “Eh? Isn’t there a better way to do this?” I felt that I wasn’t suited to patience. I think that it is great that musical activities are opposite to submission. Even if I fail with what I decided by myself and with how I behaved, you will understand me, won’t you?
“Turning towards the shop manager asking my true motive, I shouted: “It’s to be in a band!!” (laughs)”
TOWNWORK
Finally, tell us about an unforgettable anecdote you got through your part-time job experiences!
YOSHIATSU
When I was working in a supermarket, around that time I was part of the band of a senior high school student, so we needed funds. But my face was full of piercings, so one day I have been called out at the supermarket office and the shop manager shouted with all his strength : “What’s the most important for you, band or work?”. I answered shouting with a twice angrier voice than the shop manager : “The band!!” but….. I thought I was saying the answer inside of me (laughs). But from the employer, he was : “Hey, you! What are you saying?” (laughs). As a matter of course, I was said : “If it’s the case, leave”, but I knew it (laughs).
TOWNWORK
The result of shouting back……
YOSHIATSU
Of course this day was the last one (laughs). It was very close to my house, so after that it was very embarrassing, you know. But now, maybe I would like to meet again that shop manager. I want to tell him : “Sorry for that time, but you know, I’m still in a band.”
Source : https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/c_oretachi/50533/
