オトガデッド　(Otogadead) announced at their live on Sunday night that their guitarist Ryouki would be leaving the band after their live on April 18th at Takadanobaba AREA.

Yuuki posted the following on the band’s blog:

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who came to today’s live.
And, thanks to everyone who played tonight for their hard work at amber gris’s sponsored event.

We announced it at today’s live, but on April 18th after our live at Takadanobaba AREA, our guitarist Ryouki will be leaving the band.

Honestly, I personally don’t feel as if it’s real.
But, we’ve known about his body being injured, it seems really hard on him, and we’ve seen it with our own eyes.
Although we’re both guitarists, we have different styles and it’s been really fun making music together.
He’s a really great guy, and an awesome friend.

There are a lot of things I’m thinking [right now], but we still have a bit of time left where Otogadead and Ryouki will be making music together, so this is all I’ll write for now.

We really will miss him.
I think that everyone will miss him.

There’s still life left for Otogadead and for Ryouki.
We still have the songs that he’s written.

We’ll keep on going.

Thank you very much for today.

We’ll be waiting for you on April 18th.

Ryouki wrote a comment about his decision to leave in his personal journal:

For starters, I want to say that I’m really sorry for the unexpected announcement.

From the start, I’ve been having pains in my my cervical spine, and since autumn of last year it’s been getting worse. There have been a lot of times during lives where I get really intense pains.
It’s just that I really love performing and it’s a lot of fun, so the feeling of the fun outweighing the pain is strong, which [makes it feel] like I’m not suffering [while I'm performing]. However, doing periodic lives over so many months makes it grow worse, you can tell, and continuining on in a band has turned out to be dangerous.

So with things how they are, it’s started to feel like there’s a difference between the music that I really like

and Otogadead’s music. I wonder if it’s the feeling of the atmosphere rather than the music? In Otogadead, I’ve been able to do the things that I’ve wanted, and I really do love Otogadead’s music, but maybe it’s the atmosphere or something, that seems a little different now. With my body breaking down a little like it has, I’ve really started to feel it strongly.

These are the two biggest reasons [why I'm leaving the band].

I probably won’t be doing a lot of musical activity anymore, but in the future I won’t be breaking my ties with the members of Otogadead or music.
Even afterwards, I’ll probably go out drinking and stuff with everyone! (Laughs)

At any rate, I’ll give my body a rest, and do music as best as I can.

Our next live will be my last, but I’ll put all my power into making it the best!

Source: Otogadead Official Blog, Ryouki’s Blog

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