987.6-1989.1
In the hustle and bustle since their debut, what must they have been thinking about?
They made a start toward their new dream.
The record company executives who had seen Buck-Tick’s live at the Toyoto Public Hall began to make moves to sign the band to their various labels. Sawaki conducted the negotiations in lieu of the members themselves, and met with countless different directors. He carefully negotiated with the various record companies that wanted to sign Buck-Tick, taking his time and evaluating their plans, enthusiasm, and terms in detail. The band themselves had a few terms that they refused to compromise on, no matter how good their offer was.
First they said, “Never make us change our hairstyle, makeup, costumes, or anything about the general image we’ve had up till now.”
Second, “The members are the five of us and that’s that.”
Third, “When we record, never appoint us studio musicians.”
Fourth, “Don’t give us a producer; we want to self-produce.”
The members didn’t want to go professional if these terms could not be accepted. They were so sure of it that if the terms weren’t accepted, they didn’t want to make a major debut. They felt this way because they’d heard stories of bands going professional, only to have their members scattered, their images changed beyond recognition, and their music twisted into something that would sell, but that they didn’t want to play. Their feeling was, if it wasn’t the five of them, it wasn’t Buck-Tick. Even if people thought they were being arrogant, they did not intend to allow their wills to be bent.
In the end, a number of record companies had to fight it out. Two different sections of Victor, “Studio 5” and “Studio 2 (Invitation),” put forth offers almost at the same time. Tanaka Jun’ichi, the director of Studio 5, who had seen Buck-Tick’s live at the Toyoto Public Hall, felt that the band’s live style and character were “necessary for music creation from now on.” Among an indies scene full of bands that lacked the talent to express feelings to their audiences, Buck-Tick stood out as a band with the talent and vitality to really bring their music across. The members each made their individual personalities clear, and rather that fitting into any preexisting genre, they wanted more than anything to stick out. Tanaka soon decided he definitely wanted to work with Buck-Tick.
On the other hand, Takagaki Ken, of Invitation, had also made contact with the band. Both sections of Victor had been very forward in their approaches to the band, but the two did strategically combine their powers at least as far as they had to to compete against other companies and make sure Buck-Tick didn’t get signed by someone else instead. Of course, all the negotiations would have to be in addition to the acceptance of the terms laid forth by the band. The days passed, full of meetings between the band and the staff of various record labels, as well as meetings of the members themselves. Meeting the executives was all well and good, but once the members began talking to them, they realized that the labels would not even meet the first of their terms. Nothing went as the band expected it to. No matter how good the contract money was, if they had no guarantee that they could continue with the five members the way they were, there was no point in signing. Their resolution on this only grew stronger than before.
In the midst of this, the band met Takagaki. On the first floor lobby of Victor Aoyama Studio, he looked the band members straight in the eyes and talked about what an individual and attractive band he thought Buck-Tick was. “That’s why I want the five members as they are now, and that’s why I want the band as it has been,” he said. He accepted the band’s terms without changing them. He put his schedule at their mercy, saying, “From tomorrow, I’d love you to start using the studio here.” He even offered it as a practice space.
That night, the band members held a meeting to make their final decision. Out of all the record companies whose representatives they’d met with, which one would let them operate most to their own liking? The answer was Victor Invitation.
★★★★★
It was June 16th. Six hundred people had gathered for “BUCK-TICK PHENOMENON II,” that was happening at the Shibuya Live Inn. The whole place was blocked off with yellow ropes. The security was very tight. The small live house was jam-packed, and even before the band members came onstage, the seats were shaking in waves. These were all people who had come to know Buck-Tick through their record release and their second sticker campaign. They had also gotten a tiny bit of magazine exposure as “a notable band in the indies scene,” and some people had come to the show just because they had been interested in the article.
Even though their much-longed-for ticket to becoming professional was right before their eyes, they felt a little strange for some reason. It had only been two months since they released Hurry Up Mode. When they thought about the time since then, they realized it was all something that had happened in the blink of an eye. In a moment, the resolution, “We’ll go pro. There’s no way we can’t!” that they had held for so many months and years had become a reality.
“Is this what it feels like for a dream to turn into a reality?” Imai thought. But even if the indies and the major scenes were different, that didn’t mean that Buck-Tick had to change. Higuchi, however, felt that with going pro, his sense of responsibility toward the band became bigger than it ever had been before. The thought of “professional consciousness” became very important to him. Onstage, looking at the seething crowd, Hoshino thought that here, again, was a new start for the band. He thought, “It all starts here. It’s not like our dream is ending.”
Due to the waves of people pushing up against the front of the stage, the live was interrupted again and again. Although it was a very dangerous situation, Yagami felt very happy when he looked at the power of the crowd. After the show had been stopped for the umpteenth time, Sakurai announced that the band had signed a contract with Victor Invitation. He finished by saying, “Please support us from now on!”
★★★★★
From July 26th to August 18th, the band went into recording for their first album since their major debut.
“We’ll do lots of different things and make sure we’ve got variation.”
“Since this is our first major album, we really want to go “Bang!” We want to surprise people.”
“We want to make something with a lot of energy that has a live feel to it.”
“We want to make record to really stir up the Japanese music scene,” they thought, and set about cutting these various ideas into this one album.
The release was set for November 21st. But before that, they planned to release a live video of the performance at the Live Inn on June 16th. They were thinking about visual impact. This was why they decided to combine their music with the appeal of their lives through video, to really make an impression. With the video “ Buck-Tick At the Live Inn,” they made their visual debut before their album was released. It started at number 4 on the “Original Confidence” (Oricon) industry video charts. Even now (1989) it is long seller that people continue to buy.
With the success of their debut, there was one more thing that Buck-Tick had to quickly decide about: their administrative office. Up until now, Sawaki had taken care of all their external management and negotiations, but now that they had made their professional debut, they would have much more scheduling and financial business. Of course, it was getting difficult for Sawaki to handle it all. Sawaki had an old acquaintance of his, Masuoka Yoshihiko, become an advisor for Buck-Tick. At the many lives of the band that he had been to, he had been charmed by their individuality, even though they were still rough around the edges. He felt that this kind of strong individuality was necessary for new bands. After Buck-Tick’s show at the Live Inn, he set about establishing an office for them.
Both the members and their understanding staff members felt that the establishment of this office was a big step towards their future. They wanted to join hands with many different people and do bigger and broader things than they had before, and that was why they named the office “Shaking Hands.” On September 3rd, their personal office was born.
On their 18-stop national “ Buck-Tick Phenomenon Tour,” the band went to Tohoku for the first time. When they went to new places and performed for people who had never seen them before, they couldn’t help but notice that the strange mania about them that affected Tokyo had not spread elsewhere.
“The next time we come here, let’s get ten times as many people to come see us,” the thought. Rather than feeling regretful, they learned how much further they still had to go, and they felt filled with a powerful drive.
On the other hand, their first concert in Tokyo after their major debut had been set for December 11th at the Nihon Seinen Kaikan. Could they possibly fill the 1,360-person capacity hall not two months after their debut? They’d made it onto the charts, and they’d begun to get coverage in magazines, but on their first professional 9-stop tour, the only place that they could manage to play a hall live was Tokyo.
They thought “We’ve got no choice but to put out all the power we have now.” Selling out the hall wasn’t really their goal. Their live spaces might have gotten prettier, their number of fans might have grown, and the stage might be wider, but the five of them were still the five of them, and Buck-Tick was still Buck-Tick, so they didn’t care.
It was in mid October that some better news than they’d ever expected reached their ears. A mere two days after going on s