X JAPAN - EXPERIENCE - YOSHIKIインタビュー × examiner.com その５

I pretty much listen to everything. I listen to rock like Muse or Slipknot, or recently EDM. Lady Gaga; Rihanna, I also listen to classical music, like Rachmaninoff a lot, Tchaikovsky a lot, Bach. I play Chopin a lot these days myself. I pretty much listen to anything.

How do you feel about Hayao Miyazaki retiring from making films?

I mean, he’s an amazing, amazing person. I’ve never met him, but he’s created amazing animation. I hope he keeps going, you know? But if that’s his decision, then I think we should all respect his decision. There are two types of artists in the music world: Some of the artists just keep going, such as the Rolling Stones and KISS, they just keep doing and doing, so I have much respect towards those artists, as well as someone who just says, “Okay, that’s enough.” So that’s their choice. I don’t know which category we fall into—we thought we were the second one; “X Japan will never reunite” or anything, but we’ve since reunited, so we’d like to try as much as we can. As long as there are fans, you know, they want us, so we keep going.

What do you feel is the secret to X Japan’s longevity?

I think I have to say two reasons: The most important reason is there are amazing fans throughout the world supporting us, so they’ve made us continue to exist. Also, when it comes to music, even though I do a lot of stuff outside of music, I’ve never compromised when it comes to music, the integrity of music. And no matter what our record company says, no matter what people say—“You should be doing this or trying this,” blah blah blah—I’ve never compromised the musical quality, so those two things are key, I think.

Since X Japan has already completed one tour of the U.S., what are some things that you thought went really well in crossing over to an American audience?

A long time ago, we toured throughout Japan many, many times. Even though these days the Internet is everywhere and people can choose their music through their computer or cell phone, performing live shows is another level, a different level. So, I don’t believe in shortcuts. We have to cross over boundaries and everything, we have to keep working, keep playing, show to show. Doing the U.S. tour only one time, I think that’s not enough. If we decide to do this, I think we should tour as much as we can, as many shows as we can. After all, X Japan is a live band.

I couldn’t agree more. When people see this show, if they’re unfamiliar with X Japan, their minds will be blown, they’ll love it so much.

[Laughs] Thank you.

Yoshiki, I have to be honest. I never thought you could put lasers and smoke and everything at a show at Roseland. I saw Lady Gaga’s show there before they closed the venue.

The last one, right? I saw some from the video. Was it good?

It was really cool, because she used the whole ballroom. It wasn’t just the stage, it was everywhere. But I have to say even though that was an amazing production for so small a place, it still wasn’t the same as X Japan’s show, and I mean that.

That’s such a compliment, thank you so much.

What things would you have done differently on that U.S. tour four years ago?

That was good. I mean, I hoped we didn’t take that much of a break between that tour and then now. I wanted to keep going, you know. That tour right after and everything, and a lot of inside problems and band management, so… That tour itself was very interesting, very intimate. We kind of like, how do you say, learned again how much we love to perform. Before that U.S. tour, the only place we’d been performing was Tokyo Dome and big stadiums, pretty much. So…that was pretty much our first time performing in front of 1,000 to 3,000 people—before, we were just performing in front of 50,000 people. So [I thought] that pretty much brought us back to the basics. That was great.

A fan asks: What do you really think of all the J-pop groups like AKB48, Exile, and all the rest?

I think they are part of the Japanese culture. I think I do have respect for much of what they do. I do have enormous respect toward the K-pop groups, as well. I mean, their style might be a little different, but they all work very hard. Even though we do rock, a different genre, I do respect all those groups.

Finally, what were your memories of playing New York with X Japan for the first time four years ago, and how does it feel to be coming back?

Again, the Roseland Ballroom show was one of the best shows I think I’ve ever performed. The energy from the audience was amazing. At an X Japan show, we create a show with the audience—it’s not “the band is performing and the audience is just watching,” so we create the show together. Because that show was very good, because the audience was amazing, then we are just really, really excited to go back to New York to create another memorable moment together. It’s going be a bigger place, and everything is bigger in scale, but we made the first floor of the arena, how do you say, standing. So we’re going to try to make Madison Square Garden like a huge club, a huge live house. It’s going to be a truly amazing show [laughs], and we’re just way too excited to get back to New York.

What do you see in the future for X Japan?

We’re a band that never knows what’s going to happen next, but I’d say that after the Madison Square Garden show, it’s going to be the next chapter of our band.

X Japan makes their debut at Madison Square Garden Saturday, Oct. 11. For tickets and show merchandise, visit www.xjapanmusic.com and www.yoshiki.net.

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