GARNET CROW Hitoshi Okamoto Guitar Interview: “Player’s rhapsody”

To spotlight Hitoshi Okamoto as the guitarist of GARNET CROW, “Player’s rhapsody,” a feature in which players talk about their dedication to their instruments, returns after a long absence. He gives off a somewhat easygoing air, yet onstage he unexpectedly (?!) shows an aggressive expression that draws the audience in. What kind of particular standards does he have when it comes to recording and guitars? When we asked him, we found someone who has his own convictions and policies, but also a surprisingly flexible way of thinking. That flexibility is another part of his charm. We asked Okamoto to introduce three guitars he is especially fond of right now.

When I was in junior high school, there was a guy who was really good at piano, and he was writing songs too. Seeing that made me think instruments were great, and that it might be nice to be able to play something. That was what got me started on guitar. Starting piano in junior high felt a little late, so I wondered what else there was. At first I thought drums would be good, but you need a lot of space, and you can’t make that much noise at home, so I decided on guitar. It was also the time of the band boom, with things like “Ikaten” and “Hokoten,” so the background of the era made it easy to get into it. I started in my second year of junior high. I don’t have the guitar I bought then anymore, but it was a set that came with a YAMAHA guitar and amp, around 40,000 or 50,000 yen at the time. If you went to a bookstore, there were instruction books and band scores for popular songs, so I read through those one after another, copied things little by little, and built up my knowledge. For a guitarist, I’m unusual in that I don’t really have a guitar hero. When I first started playing, I copied all kinds of songs, but there wasn’t one specific guitar hero for me. In a sense, maybe all the guitarists in the bands I copied back then became my guitar heroes. The guitarist in a band can be someone playing hard at the very front of the stage, or someone who looks cool playing off to the side. I’m attracted to that kind of presence. Around the time of my solo album, I had discovered the fun of using strange effects, recording sounds, then editing them on the computer; of thinking about how to cook the sound. So I spent far more time sitting at the desk and messing with my own sounds than actually playing. In current recordings, I often use the ES335 I’m introducing here, my Telecaster, and also Furui-san’s Telecaster (laughs). Lately I’ll borrow someone’s guitar on the spot and try playing it, so I’m not the type to say, “I won’t play unless it’s this one.” Narrowing it down to one guitar is cool too, but I change guitars flexibly according to how I feel at the time. It refreshes my mood, and because that feeling remains in the form of sound, it makes me happy later when I listen back and think, “This was the guitar I borrowed then.” It feels a little luxurious.

(1) ES335 (Gibson)

This is the red guitar I’m holding on the jacket of my solo work. I bought it about two years ago. It’s a current reissue model. Usually, good guitars become more expensive as they get older, but this is a reissue that uses present-day technology to copy the good points of older guitars as closely as possible. Until then I had mainly used a Telecaster, but this one has a thick sound, and I use heavy 11-gauge strings on it. Because there’s a height difference between the bridge and the body, it was hard to play at first, but because of that you really feel the vibration; you can sense with your body, “Oh, it’s ringing,” and that feels great. Also, this 335 has holes in the body, so it resonates there and the instrument itself makes quite a lot of sound. Because it has those holes, it looks classically austere, and since the body is big and bright red, it’s cool enough to become furniture when you leave it sitting there. For a guitarist, looks matter too. I play it all the time in recording, but since I’m not that tall, a large guitar throws off the visual balance on me, so this guitar hasn’t appeared onstage (laughs).

(2) US FAT TELE (Fender TELECASTER)

(3) YD304 (S.Yairi)

This is a domestically made acoustic guitar, a bit of a vintage piece from the late 1970s. It’s about the same age as I am. S.Yairi comes from the Yairi brothers, S.Yairi and K.Yairi. Both of them made guitars in their own way, guitars that were highly regarded around the world, but there was a period when production stopped. This S.Yairi guitar was made before that blank period. It was a copy of an old Martin, which was S.Yairi’s concept at the time, and it uses Brazilian rosewood, so it’s a fairly valuable piece. In the 1980s, import and export of Brazilian rosewood became restricted under the Washington Convention, which is why it’s rare now. I happened to try it at a music store, thought it had a few scratches but sounded good, and bought it. The sound has a bit of character. Old Japanese-made guitars were built after really studying Martin guitars, so there are many good instruments that were made with real care. People often say that old guitars “dry out” in sound, and when you use them for many years and the moisture leaves the body, they ring better; the older they get, the louder they resonate. In the old days, even comparatively inexpensive guitars were carefully finished with a thin coat of lacquer, so moisture could leave easily, and over the years they came to have a dignified, dry sound. In practice, when I record this guitar, its distinctive character gets emphasized too much, so I don’t use it very often.

As for guitar stories... maybe that they’re tougher than I expected. There’s a guitar that’s retired now and sleeping at home, but long ago I had it in front of me on a motorbike. When I went over a really big bump, the guitar flew from around my feet, went whoosh through the air behind me, and landed flat on the ground. I thought, “I’ve done it now!” But when I opened the case, it didn’t have a scratch on it. It was only a thin soft case, yet it was completely unharmed. That really surprised me. At home, whether it’s the music I’m listening to or anything else, I keep guitars standing on stands in a room with sound, so the body vibrates and the moisture leaves. I do end up touching and playing them all the time. I think guitarists often get told, “You’re always playing guitar!” For me, a guitar is something like “a lover in the world of objects.” I do know people who give names to their guitars, but I don’t go that far (laughs).