I was reading Haru’s blog and she was kind enough to transcribe a passage from Kirito’s radio show Brain Trip Night from March 22nd regarding the controversial choice to play PIERROT songs again.

Here is some of it translated with my commentary.

I think there are many people who see this differently. Some who are happy with it and others who feel conflicted. But playing these songs again at this time was something the band members decided together. It was brought up during the tour and discussed amongst the members, both Kohta and Takeo agreed with the idea so we began rehearsing them.

I’m not sure the “controversy” was ever sparked by fans thinking that this was Kirito’s solo brain child. It was more concerned with the affront to the missing PIERROT members who made that band’s music what it was.

I believe many of you know this already but, for many years we were all in a band called PIERROT, which suddenly broke up, and from that storm Angelo was born and has continued along that path. Unlike most bands that break up, we have a unique sense, of how one flows to the next.

I think the basic gist of his ramblings here is that he doesn’t see Angelo as just a new band but as a natural continuation of PIERROT. I’m skipping over some of it but he also says that “Angelo is a band trying to do something new, but it stems from that flow,” and more importantly, “even though the name has changed the spirit remains the same.”

Here’s the part I was waiting for. Backpedaling.

During my Solo Orchestra concert following PIERROT’s split, I made the statement that I would never again sing PIERROT’s songs. And in doing so I forced the fans to think “Well, if he says so, I guess we’ll never hear PIERROT’s songs live again.” When I thought about how one thing I said meant that these fantastic songs would be lost to the darkness, I saw that I was going back on what I once said. In my business, going back on what you say is absolutely not cool. I don’t want to do it, I want to keep the promises I make, but there may be more important things than that. So what if I take back what I said? Even if people then say, “Kirito keeps changing his mind,” I’m still the only one who can say it. I don’t want to go around forcing that on people to make them think, “Well Kirito said it, so that’s how it is.”

I think that’s truly what it means to not be bound to the past, and to move onward. When our band broke up we were the ones who made this taboo that we shouldn’t bring it up, we shouldn’t talk about it. It was us who said those things that put shackles on the fans. Well, we’re done with that.

While true that the band were the ones who made the taboo about PIERROT following the breakup, I worry whenever a public figure says things like “don’t believe what I say when I say it” because it makes me, you know, not trust them anymore. Still I admire the spirit of saying, “I don’t care if this hurts my credibility because it needs to be said.”

What we did in the band, is what lead to Angelo, and there is no more taboo and truly, for the fans, for those around us, for everyone, there is no reason to goose step around this anymore.

I won’t even say that I buy into Kirito’s ideaology but I’ve grown to enjoy his rhetoric in much the same way I enjoy Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. He truly is a charismatic speaker and he’ll give anyone a run for their money in spin.

Kirito goes on to speak about how the seal has been broken, but that doesn’t mean they can expect to hear PIERROT songs. It is what it is.