Matenrou Opera’s guitarist JaY departs with final livestream concert

It has been announced that guitarist JaY will withdraw from Matenrou Opera on December 14. On the same date one last live titled MATENROU OPERA CHRONICLE 2016-2020 will be held, commemorating his four years in the band. The live which doubles as a sendoff will be livestreamed through ZAIKO, giving fans around the world the chance to see his final performance with Matenrou Opera.

The unfortunate news was addressed by each member with mournful comments on their official website. Below, JROCK NEWS’ very own translator, Dorian, has provide them in English, giving us some insight into JaY’s decision to leave. From what we could gather, motivation, or lack thereof, is the reason or at the very least played a part.

Guitarist Jay

To our fans,

I am really sorry for such an announcement.
However, I think that this decision I took isn’t a mistake. I believe in the way I will build from now and will keep going on that new path.
The time and space we shared together are my treasure.

Vocalist Sono

Despite numerous discussions with JaY in order to boost his morale, the impossibility to continue the band together has been confirmed. His will is strong, and we arrived at the decision to accept his withdrawal. I also judged that forcing him to stay wouldn’t be a good thing for our music.

No matter how the lineup of Matenrou Opera hectically changed, you all kept supporting us, therefore announcing such a decision is particularly painful.

From now, I feel like we won’t be able to create the same works which brightly reflected JaY’s identity like Human Dignity or Chronos. To speak frankly, I don’t have the willingness to welcome a new guitarist at the moment. However, just like we talked during the show from the other day, the music I want to create still lives in me. We won’t stop Matenrou Opera, and all four together, we will keep creating music. That is the path of life we have chosen, for the four of us that are left.

Even though it has turned this way, JaY helped Matenrou Opera for four years and showed us new possibilities. I don’t know what kind of future awaits him, but I would be happy if you could send him your constant support. In my heart, I also wish that you will keep expecting from Matenrou Opera, who decided to not give up, one more time. We will walk towards the potentiality of changing for the better. I am sure that a future in which we will all laugh together awaits.

Keyboardist Ayame

Including his time as a support member, JaY walked with us since 2016. Thanks to his excellent sense of music and his extraordinary expressive power, Matenrou Opera was able to keep going.

For Matenrou Opera and for him as well, and in order to preserve the best shape in our respective musical activities, his withdrawal has been decided.
We have betrayed your expectations, fans, who were supporting us as a five-piece band. I am truly sorry about this.

From now, please keep supporting Matenrou Opera, and also JaY in his next activities.

Bassist You

During these last years, Matenrou Opera received a succession of violent shocks. We always overcame these situations, in which being crushed wouldn’t have been surprising. But Hibiki joined us last year, and when we were finally able to properly walk again, the coronavirus crisis happened. In a time of such suffering, in which we all wonder how long this nightmare will last, we rubbed salt on your wounds. To our fans who are worrying about us, I express my deepest apologies.

Our career as a band is pretty long, but there are many things that we still can do, and want to do. 2020 will end that way, but Matenrou Opera won’t stop and we will walk into 2021 and keep going with fresh and new feelings, step by step.

Drummer Hibiki

First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone for such unpleasant feelings.

Including the time as a support member, I’ve been working with JaY for about two years, and I can say he is the best guitarist ever. He’s not only amazing from a technical point of view, his outstanding sensibility makes his way of playing guitar so unique that I have never met a guitarist with such skill level before.

Since we are close in age, we easily got along well, in a different way comparing to Sono, You and Ayame. He was a great senior to me.

Since when I joined the band as an official member, we kept using the expression “all five together” and speaking frankly, there were still so many things I wanted to do “all five together”, therefore I am full of sadness.

But “Matenrou Opera” is a band. It’s not a hobby, we’re as a team, not just the members but the staff also, we are all working hard to achieve our dreams and complete our tasks. Our activities as artists are possible only thanks to your continuous support, Matenrou Opera fans.

That’s why the members of the band will continue their activities with all their strength, I think this is the least we can do in terms of gratitude and courtesy.

The current situation caused by the coronavirus crisis prevents us from continuing our musical activities as properly as we would like, but combined to the fact that JaY does no longer wants to participate in Matenrou Opera’s activities, it felt ungrateful from us to you, supporting fans, to continue in these conditions. We judged that it would be harmful for both parties.

As Sono said, we had numerous discussions and we tried our best to motivate him, but eventually we had no other choice than to walk different paths from now.

I am truly sorry that we have betrayed Matenrou Opera’s fans that way.

Our structure will change, but Matenrou Opera will keep walking straight forward.

Please trust us and come with us.

From now on, please support Matenrou Opera and JaY as well.

In 2016, JaY joined Matenrou Opera as a support guitarist, filling in the void Anzi left when he decided to part ways. On March 2, 2018, he became a permanent member and contributed greatly to the band’s new, invigorated sound. While his time in the group was short, he helped create some of their best work. We thank JaY for everything he’s done for this beloved band and wish him success in all his endeavors.

Don’t miss your chance to see him live for the last time with Matenrou Opera.

MATENROU OPERA CHRONICLE 2016-2020 (Livestream)

• Date: December 14
• Time: 19:30-20:00 JST
• Archive: Available until December 17, 23:59 JST
• Price: 4,500 yen
• Ticket URL: https://matenrou-opera.zaiko.io/_item/332573