In the fall of 1990, Buck-Tick went back to the studio to work on

In the fall of 1990, Buck-Tick went back to the studio to work on their sixth studio album, Kurutta Taiyou . They spent 800 hours making it, much more than any of their previous albums. The difference was noticeable as the sound is much deeper and more sophisticated, using many more studio production effects than they did previously. It was at this point that the direction of the band began to change subtly, as Sakurai began to write almost all of the lyrics. Sakurai’s mother, whom he had been very close to, died, and due to the band’s busy touring schedule, he was unable to visit her before the end. In interviews, the singer said that the pain he felt from these events strongly influenced his lyrics, and that this was when he started writing about real emotions, rather than what he thought was cool. Subsequently, he changed the first kanji in his name from the standard character ” 桜 ” (“sakura”) to the older version ” 櫻 “, and from then on brought a continuously evolving sense of melancholy and psychological depth to the band’s lyrics.