“At that age, it’s hard to find somebody like him who is so pure and has such a good personality….” Sugizo told me about Yuna. He met Yuna about 7 years ago, in the autumn of ‘97. Sugizo made an solo album “TRUTH?” and met various people during that period of time. Yuna was one of them. He was still a teenager that time. Sugizo became his mentor. He didn’t think Yuna was great but felt strange feeling…

He couldn’t stop talking to Yuna. Although they have a 10-year age difference between them, they could talk about anything from the world situation, astronomy, chi kung and power stones.
… Sugizo thought; “why am I talking so much?”

Naturally, they can talk about music too.

“Yuna’s impulse of rock began Lenny Kravitz. It’s surprising, isn’t it? (laugh) I guess he encountered Lenny Kravitz at a very early age. His music is mixed with rock, funk and soul. I didn’t think that I could start the project with him at that time, however, I recall what we talked before was the image of the music which we can create together in the future…”

Nothing progressed smoothly. Sugizo had a mission to restart Luna Sea, and Yuna made a project on his own and began performing on an indies label. But Yuna never forget about Sugizo and they were connected with a thin string. Yuna kept going to see Luna Sea, and had dinner after the lives together…

Yuna had special thoughts about Sugizo. He likes groovy rock sounds with guitars. He was not only impressed Sugizo’s skill to create music, but also surprised with “the vision” that was exactly the same as Yuna’s.

While indies, Yuna began to be known as an “aloof vocalist”. He didn’t want to be, there just wasn’t anyone he could talk to freely what he was thinking. He talked sometimes, but everyone wasn’t interested. However, Sugizo was different. He was much older than Yuna, but he accepted his thoughts and he even told him to expand the vision.

Destiny is strange thing. If they were successful with their own projects, they would never have started the project together as The FLARE. Yuna was stuck in his situation and Sugizo was facing a big wall.

“After Luna Sea ended 3 years ago, when I was a little silly, I began my solo career as well and collaborated with “H-ART-CHAOS”. I made music for them and also I played on stage. That time, I thought, “I made extremely brilliant music! It is great! It will remain for the future!” (laugh) But when I calmed down a bit and thought about it and realized the artists in “H-ART-CHAOS” were performing in a world with music such as Stravinski’s “The Rite of Spring," no matter how hard I try, I cannot go beyond him. (laugh) I had to raise my white flag. I like looking at the orchestra’s full score. I can read it if it's Beethoven or Holst, but Stravinski’s score includes full of irregular times, fermatas and the symbols of changing the meter so I end up incapable of finding the rhythm of his music. I’m not as good as Stravinski.”

You are a rock musician so you don’t need to compare yourself with Stravinski though, Sugizo. And he began to point his hardness toward himself. “I thought my skill for singing was at a child's level. (laugh) So the music doesn’t get to a higher level. I gradually couldn't stand the fact….”

I love his song “Dear LIFE”. The song is simple yet deep that only Sugizo can create. His voice is good, too. Music is not only good skill of singing but soul, existence of real energy. That’s most important.

But Sugizo is a magician who scales the music at an orchestra level. He became stuck with the sounds created within his voice range. At the same time, he had a trouble with his management company (which went bankrupt). The year 2003 must be his worst nightmare. During that difficult time, he made an album “C:LEAR” with the meaning of “to press the reset botton”.

“I had to abandon all the things that I kept like a treasure…funny thing is, I had never known what were the most important things for me until then.”

They were music, and his fans.

“I felt I have to bear myself in right way. For my fans. And for some friends who supported me during that time. So I decided to start at a very primitive stage, start from zero. I thought I had to do it.” He said he had several offers last year. All of them from first class artists. If he accepted, it would have been quite big news, but he didn’t choose to go that way. When he was in big trouble, the thing that came up to his mind was Yuna’s vocals. He [Sugizo] couldn’t forget his [Yuna's] pureness from his mind. He thought “Yuna is the right voice for me…”

“Yuna is not perfect yet, but I feel there is unforeseen potential in him. By touching his pureness, it causes a catalyst. It may bring something out inside me. I feel that Yuna has that sort of ability to bring out the hidden possibility in people.”

The FLARE. Explosive energy of the sun. The biggest chemical reaction of the solar system. They laid their wishes in a drama of an astronomical body as they united. The first single INNER CHILD was written lyrics by Yuna and the sound was created by Sugizo. They placed the message, "No matter how dirty you are and how deep the pain is that you feel, you must have some pureness like a child in your heart.”

The FLARE decided to start to sing it for themselves, and for all the listeners.