style's interview

© From: Style magazine

Special thanks and Credit to: Yumiko

K: Ms. Narumi Komatsu
Y: YOSHIKI

K: Yoshiki san, Congratulations of the completion of "The Last Live Video".
Y: Thank you. I have been thinking of releasing the video of the Last Live. I wanted to leave the best and nicest "X" so that it took lots of time for me to edit it. I think I could make it very beautiful. I'm satisfied with it.
K: It was surely very very beautiful field. Your new project will start at last since you finish editing this video.
Y: I will re-start my music scene as a band named VioletUK.
K: Wow, I'm longing for it !
Y: There are 3 recording studios A, B & C in LA. I do recording of vocal at A, recording of guitar at B, and editing video of X at C. I opened each door, I went back to the past, then went forth to the future. I felt like I was a time traveler.
K: At first you cried when you watch Hide and X in the film, right?
Y: Yes, I cried and cried.
K: You challenged to watch the video first, then you watched it so many times and edited it. You went back to the past and went forward to the future. I'm pleased to know there is the door of the future.
Y: Yes, I was proceeding my new project at the same time. I started editing the Last Live video about more than one year ago. Each time I watched the video, I always cried. I watched 100 times and cried 100 times. Those tears were very painful. I couldn't stop shedding tears just because I listened Toshi's voice or listened Hide's guitar sound. But when I started watching the video of our various concerts, I also cried but the tears became different kind from the tears of when I watched the Last Live. My heart cleaned by those tears.
K: What's the difference between those tears?
Y: I realized that my place is on the stage and I confirmed that I could recover and come back because I have been supported by each member, staff and fans. I feel like my source of painful tears are cleaned up by the tears shedding when I edited for the FilmGIG.
K: Then "FilmGIG" concert has a great meaning for you, isn't it?
Y: Yes, it is.
K: You came back to Japan in secret, and you played "Endless Rain" on piano at the end of the concert. Lots of your fans were crying watching you, and also you were shedding tears on the stage. How did you feel on the stage?
Y: I was very impressed at that time. I asked staff to make the hall brighten in order to that I could see their faces clearly.
K: That means you knew their tears?
Y: Oh, yes. I met fans there and that's why I could make decision that I should have come back to this scene definitely.
K: Prime Minister Koizumi came to FilmGIG. I was sitting just front row of him, I felt I was sorry to stand up all through the FilmGIG. I guess Mr. Koizumi could watch only half of screen.(laugh)
Anyway, I found that your fans were from all generation -- from teenagers to maybe 60's. I realized that the music of X was loved by all generation.
Y: I'm so blessed. There are children of fans of those days and boys who became fan listening CD after XJapan's break up.
K: You were convinced that you could go forward with fans sharing your grief and pain that you lost X and Hide even if you couldn't forget it.
Y: Yes, I came to think that I would live with that grief and pain. My present problem is that I still have some produce works remain which I had accepted during that period.(laugh) If possible, I want to do recording only my songs.
K: That means your consciousness shifted to your own project from others.
Y: I think my creativity exploded, the melodies came across my mind one after another, after I started editing the Last Live Video. I was inspired by watching my own concerts of the past.
K: It means that something frozen inside of you suddenly began to work?
Y: I surely had been working till then, but there were always with grief and pain. I felt those were all cleaned up by my tears.
K: I'm excited about we are going to know the "new YOSHIKI". What's the relationship between X and VioletUK?
Y: X is what I tried to do at that time, and VioletUK is what I try to do right now. Both are same attitude.
K: You were a drummer and producer when you were X, how about you in VUK?
Y: I will play drum and guitar, too. I'm now practicing to play guitar very hard and you will listen a new sound which is different from X sounds.
K: That will be the sound reflecting a present era and present atmosphere.
Y: Yes, I think so.
K: I heard that you were shocked by the terrorism on Sept.11 last year.
Y: Yes, I was totally shocked by that. I was watching TV every day without going out anywhere. There were interviews of bereaved families or sorrowful scenes on TV. I was so much involved in that tragedy that I thought I couldn't recover from that. I felt like I was their families. I remember my own grief by watching their grief. That was a bad chain reactions. Then I asked to myself what I can do now. -- I tried to do what I could do ..... that is to make songs. I made a song which theme is the day of Sept.11. I have a desire to create music again after I finished to make that song.
K: I think you make songs with your own experience, grief and joy. That's why your fans want to listen so many times. Musicians are great because music rules man's emotion.
Y: I'm not a woman so I can't give a birth, but I always make songs like a birth of a baby. There exists both pain and expectation at the same time. Even if I suffered from making song, I would be helped by that song few years after. I am still helped by "Endless Rain" when I was depressed.
K: Did you listen "Endless Rain" at the time of Toshi's secession and Hide's death?
Y: Yes, I did.
K: Hide died on May 2, 1998, right?
Y: When I first heard of the news, I definitely thought it was a lie. I thought Hide played a joke on me. But I watched the news in the plane on the way to Japan and I realized that it's a reality. I didn't remember anything at all. Soon after the funeral, I came back to LA and I blamed myself. I thought I would never come back to the music scene.
K: You were so depressed and your grief was so deep that you decided to quit your musical performance.
Y: Yes. Everything including Toshi's secession and Hide's death is owing to myself.
Especially my heart was completely crashed by Hide's death.
K: It was just 3 months after XJapan's break up.
Y: I could hardly think about the future after Toshi left XJapan. At that time only Hide said to me that we would find a new vocalist and reunite XJapan. Hide supported me for his dear life. --- Such Hide suddenly disappeared. I feared that I changed their destiny.
Then I stopped making music for myself, and I only produced for other artists. I kept myself in the time of the past.
K: I first met you on December '98 for the interview . You looked so emaciated and depressed. You couldn't think of your own future.
Y: I went to therapy to heal my heart. But I defied the therapist saying that he couldn't understand my grief. I seldom came back to Japan for fear of reminding XJapan.
K: That interview was very impressive for me. I was really moved by you. I understand you were suffered so much but you still had the passion for the music. I was deeply impressed what a gentle person you are knowing your love to your father who died when you're 9-years-old. I really understand that the root of violence in X came from your gentleness.
Y: I was also very happy to have your interview at that time. I realized that I was still living by talking to you what I never talk to others before. That's why I had an idea of asking you to write my biography when I began to think I would start my new project and play on the stage again.
K: I was surprised when I got an offer to write your biography from you last year. You said, "I want to tell you everything in my past. I want to draw a line between my past and future, and I want to make a new start by your writing."
You kept everything secret - your birthday, real name, birth place.
Y: I want to be reborn by telling the days of after XJapan's break up and Hide's death, and my childhood which I couldn't have told so far.
K: Why did you think so?
Y: I may want to see myself by what you describe about me. Then I thought I could go forward. The interview of Dec.'98 was very fresh experience and impressive for me, too. I was assured that you could make my fans to know exactly about what I told. I want to read what you are writing now.
K: I visited LA 6 or 7 times and made an interview for totally 100 hours. I also made an interview with X members and staff. And I spent with you in the recording studio for 12 hours.
Y: You are the first person who watch my recording except staff.
K: It's an honor. I made an interview with your mother and brother so I think there are some episodes which you don't remember. I just started writing with all interviews I had. It will be issued this fall.
Y: I'm anxious about what you will write about which I don't remember.(laugh)
K: Yes, I know a lot !(laugh)
Anyway, I'm so pleased to know that you will never quit making your own music.
Y: No, I won't. I was so foolish that I tried to quit making my own music. When I make songs, I use only pen and score. Therefore, that means I can be myself only with pen and score.
K: You said that when there were full of musics in your head, you could make music even when you were taking a shower hearing its sound.
Y: I got training of the absolute pitch so that I can make any sound into a musical note. For example, I hear this sound (he taps table), it's "D".
K: I made an interview with the mixer of your studio in LA. He said that you could play piano listening the sound of that the pen fell on the floor. There is no one like you in the United States.
Y: When I was training, all sounds I heard became the musical note in my head. It was very hard to stop those works during the training. I can now control it, though.
K: Your father was tap dancer and pianist. Do you think your talent affected by such circumstance?
Y: I think it's owe to my mother. She made me practice playing piano when I was 4.
K: Your mother said you suddenly asked to her that you want to practice playing piano. You were only 4.
Y: I thought I would be a pianist when I was only 5 or 6. I put off the light and played the piano with only a floor lamp every day.
K: You preferred to play in such an atmosphere as the concert.
Y: Yes, I was only 6 years old. And I think I composed at that time.
K: I heard that you composed when you were 6 or 7 years old. I was showed your hand writing score in your house by your mother. You met Toshi about that time, right?
Y: Yes, we went to the same kindergarten. We were 5 years old.
K: And you decided to become a professional musician when you were high-school student, and Toshi said that it's possible if we would try hard together.
You were brave to have such a violent music and costume of X, and you were brave to have your own opinion. Why do you think you could do all things?
Y: I think it's because I had an absolute self-confidence about our music. At first we were thought a visual band because of our appearance. If we didn't have self-confidence, we couldn't do like that. We didn't mind whatever surroundings said about us because we had a self-confidence. I had been studying classics so I understood music.
K: You decided not to enter an academy of music though you were accepted from the school. Your mother regretted it and your teacher tried to persuade you but you wouldn't change your mind. You practiced playing piano for hours at that time. That is the base of X's music.
Y: I think people who want to be a musician should study classical music. An elementary knowledge is important, and after that it's OK to go to the rock or jazz genre.
K: My husband, who is Hungarian, said he had a feeling that he listened the classical music when he listened X songs.
Y: I make songs without distinction between classic and rock.
K: I also heard that you suffered from asthma when you were a child, so that you used to read books.
Y: Yes.
K: You were put on a diet because of an allergy. You were not permitted to take a physical class. You were so skinny and you looked pale. Such a skinny and sensitive boy had grown a young man who created violent music and had an energy to destroy drums. Why?
Y: I don't know. (laugh) It's the energy from my heart, not from the body. I just exhaled my energy.
K: You mean only the person who has that kind of energy can be an artist?
Y: I don't know. I don't think I'm a special person because I have been making an endeavor. I practiced so hard to play piano and drums.
K: So you have the talent to be able to make an endeavor. You studied English very hard to do business in the USA.
Y: Yes, I did. English can be mastered if I try hard. I thought I should do if it's mastered with an endeavor. Regarding the field of music or art, there are something I can't do even if I make an endeavor. I sometimes just sit before the score and I can't make any songs. Compared with that, I can obtain the result in proportion to how much I studied English. If I have trouble with not be able to speak English, I should have study English. I want to fight at the next stage.
I think endeavor must be rewarded. Sometimes it may be rewarded after 5 years, but anyway I believe that any endeavor must be rewarded.
K: I made an interview with you for a long time for writing your book. And I think you are like "Shoutokutaishi".
Y: Why do you think so? (laugh)
K: "Shotokutaishi" is famous for being able to understand what 10 people say at the same time. He sent a messenger to china and made a constitution. You are also famous as rock artist. Besides that, you are the CEO of the recording company, you manage a music publishing company, scout for a new artist, and produce fashion designer.
You have such a many kinds of face.
Y: I'm just so curious. I'm always asking why?and why? On the contrary, I don't do anything I'm not interested in. For example, I don't remember my home phone number. I live alone so I don't need to call my house. I was arrested by drunken driving several years ago. The policeman asked me my address and phone number, then I could answer my address but I didn't remember my phone number.
K: You don't remember what you think you don't need to. (laugh) But once you are interested in, for example, you know about "copyright" much better than the lawyer and you give an idea to the lawyer.
Y: In Japan there were few lawyers who's specialty is copyright, so I just told what I have known.
K: I want the reader to know your various ability. You are not only musician but also CEO and you have a good sense of management and you have the knowledge of the law of the US. We don't have chance to know such as you.
Y: I just have been doing what I wanted to and what I needed to. I started studying about copyright because of X. We, the band member, play music purely at first, but since we made a debut and became famous, we usually have trouble with money. That's why I studied about law. I should know about the construction of the music business in order to play music purely.
K: To protect yourself?
Y: Yes, that's right.
K: If you wanted to know, you studied so hard.
Y: First I studied law in English. Even when I couldn't speak English, I read contract in English. I always studied and practiced very hard.
K: I realized that there is a genius who makes an endeavor. I think your endeavor is the base of your unbelievable power and energy.
Y: But I didn't have ordinary younger days since I spent all of my time in music and business. When I was X, I envied to see couples walking on Christmas Eve . I think I sacrificed many things.
K: Then what's your dream in the future?
Y: My dream is to retire.
K: What? Is that right? (laugh)
Y: Of course that dream is in future. After all I think I lost half of my life. Every day, I get up and then I go to the studio and have been working until I go to bed. I know that's why I could do many things in the music scene but...
If I will carry out my purpose to come back in Japan and make a debut and succeed in the world stage, I'd like to retire and live somewhere nearby the beach in Italy. I will compose classical music playing piano, and going to the opera.
K: Will it be with your family? Is there your child with you?
Y: Yes, it might be. Is it strange that my dream is to retire?
K: I would rather say you go forward too much.(laugh) Everyone is very happy that you come back now.
Y: I'm sure I never retire until I will carry out my dream.

© Copy Right by Endless Dream on May 07, 2002