X JAPAN - EXPERIENCE - YOSHIKIインタビュー × examiner.com その４

I think so. We shot a lot of places; not only the U.S., but of course we shot in New York, in England, Mexico, Brazil, we shot Paris, London, Berlin, so we shot several shows, also in Southeast Asia: We shot Bangkok, Shanghai, Taipei, so we have a lot of footage. We also had three days of reunion shows at Tokyo Dome; we have not released those yet…we’ll start releasing those little by little.

Do you have any future plans for your supergroup S.K.I.N.?

Yes. When we are together, we go to dinner or something, we talk about [it]. When we formed S.K.I.N., at that time X Japan was not in my mind, because X Japan was not there. Right after we formed the band S.K.I.N., Toshi from X Japan called me from out of nowhere, and it was pretty much the first time I talked to him in 10 years. We started talking about reuniting the band and everything, then also each member of S.K.I.N. had their previous commitment and engagements, they were doing their own stuff, so it’s kind of hard for us to get together. I think it’s a little more like my fault, because I was not planning on doing X Japan at that time, then I started doing X Japan. So I became pretty busy with X Japan, too. But we talk about it here and there, so there’s definitely a possibility we will be together, but at this point, we don’t have any specific plan.

Will any of the songs from that tour be released at some point?

I didn’t think about that, actually. Hmm. We’ll see, yeah.

Good answer.

[Laughs]

Do you have any favorite anime or manga?

I liked Mazinger Z. Of course, Saint Seiya. Also, I like, how do you say, Attack on Titan.

That’s very popular now, even in the U.S.

Yeah. I like that. Evangelion. I like Bleach. I like One Piece, too. It’s so hard to name a few.

How about movies?

I don’t know, actually….Recently, I’ve just been working day and night. The only time I watch movies is in the airplane, I think. These days, I’ve even been composing on the plane [laughs]…

Your life itself is probably more interesting than most Hollywood movies these days.

[Laughs] We should create our own movie.

A fan asks: How do you fight jetlag? Is it the power of the models that you seem to take with you everywhere you go?

On tour, every time I wake up in a different country, before jetlag hits, I’m already in a different country. For some reason, wherever I am, I’m very nocturnal. Jetlag doesn’t really hit me—I’m staying up all night, and I go to bed when the sun comes up. That’s the style. That kind of supersedes jetlag.

How did that tradition start of you taking fashion models with you on tour?

First of all, they are friends of mine. I don’t go out that much, so, people I meet are usually at the video shoot or something like that, so they became friends. [We invite each other out], so that kind of happens organically.

A fan asks: What kind of hair treatment do you do?

[Laughs] I don’t know. I just have something from Japan, actually, that my makeup artist gave to me. I don’t even know, yeah.

This might help answer this next fan question: Is your beauty a curse for you?

I don’t know. Of course, during the tour or something with the makeup, usually I don’t do anything. I don’t even dry my hair, just take a shower and go to a meeting or to the recording studio…

It’s just natural for you.

Yeah. I mean, I care about music completely, so everything else in my life is secondary.

Do you study martial arts?

When I was in high school, I used to do judo for three years. I was no good, though [laughs]. Also, several years ago I was doing karate. It was not a good idea, because I play piano. So—

Dot dot dot?

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Since X Japan’s international tours, what have your feelings been about your and the group’s popularity growing in overseas markets, and where do you see the most growth?

I don’t know. I mean, we toured in the year 2011 [to] 15 countries, so they were equally good….Even though it wasn’t a huge arena tour or anything, we played at capacity of somewhere around 2,000. In Southeast Asia we played at capacity of a little over 10,000 or so. So the music is spreading just little by little equally throughout the world. It’s very interesting and we are very fortunate.

In the next year, would there be any plans for X Japan to play new countries or new cities in the United States?

I think so, but I think it would all depend on how the Madison Square Garden shows go. Right now, our focus is just MSG, MSG, MSG.

A fan from Minneapolis said she hopes you can come there.

I see, I see. We’d love to, yeah.

This year also sees the release of two new X Japan greatest hits packages. Since the band hasn’t recorded a complete studio album since 1996, do you have any idea why so many of these collections have been released so far?

Hmm…

Or to put it another way, do you or the group have any input on any of these collections that have been coming out for the last 10 or 15 years?

Usually, record companies suggest something like this. Then, I would say sometimes okay, sometimes not…something from Sony, they have the rights, so they can release regardless. After Sony, we do have the rights, so if it sounds or original or something, that’s cool. As long as there’s a need, you know, we kind of provide that. I know we should release a new studio album, so we are working on it. I’m just too picky, yeah. The perfectionist thing is kind of killing me, too. Like, I’m always fighting every day….Recording is a process of compromising [laughs]; a compromising process.