Personal interviews for TOUR 2008 L’7 ~ Trans ASIA via PARIS ~

Only two months after the conclusion of TOUR 2007-2008 THEATER OF KISS, the follow-up TOUR 2008 L’7 ~ Trans ASIA via PARIS ~ is set to begin on April 19th, passing through the seven world cities of Shanghai, Taiwan, Paris, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Osaka, spanning ten concerts in magnificence.

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ken

If there are people who want to listen, and if there’s a way we can head toward them, then of course I want to do it.

– TOUR 2008 L’7 ~ Trans ASIA via PARIS ~ seems like it will be quite the large-scale tour.
[Yeah, it’s about twice as big as last time, when we had a tour in Shanghai and stuff. I’m happy.]

– It will also be your first concert in France.
[“We are L’Arc~en~Ciel.” I’m not even sure we’ll be able to get that across…]

– You mean because your pronunciation isn’t correct?
[Yeah, yeah. Of course, it’s in French to begin with, but I don’t think they’ll understand with our accents (laughs). Oh well, it feels great to get to go somewhere I’ve never been before.]

– Do you feel you’d like to do more and more concerts overseas?
[If there are people who want to listen, and if there’s a way we can head toward them, then of course I want to do it. But, I think there needs to be a balance, too. I want to play in Japan, too, of course, but it’s no good if I get so tired that I can’t practise guitar. “Tour, tour, tour,” I’d like a chance to be creative, too, but I can’t create anything if I’m exhausted.]

– Your audience might be expecting some new stimulation, too.
[But, music and songs, I think your perception of them depends a lot on your personality, you know? To put it another way, no matter how much you try to cover something up, for some people it’ll always stand out. That’s why I need to play my music properly…]

– ……That’s deep.
[Once in a while, I’ll be playing my guitar and go “Oh wow! If I play like this, it sounds awesome! What a discovery!”. But then, if I stick with that discovery, then I’ll unconsciously forget how to do what I was doing before. That’s why I need to practise, after all.]

– But, performing is fun, too.
[It is fun. “At home or at the studio or on stage, it’s all the same,” that saying is true, in a way. It’s always special, but it’s all the same… That’s how I feel, now.]

*****

hyde

It’ll be a day that lives in L’Arc~en~Ciel’s history, right?

– How do you feel about this overseas tour?
[Naturally, I’m happy to get to go to places I’ve never been to before. When we went on tour before, a lot of fans asked “Why won’t you come to Taiwan?”. So I thought it would be nice to go there too, sometime. I felt bad because there are people there who’ve waited just as long for us, and to them it was like we were favouring the others. Then there’s Paris, of course. Our band’s name is in French, yet I’ve never been there (laughs). Not that I’m not interested, but I would rather go to Greece first, and England because we skipped it despite having done recordings there. I wonder how the timing worked out for us to go to France. It bothers me.]

– Are you nervous about taking your first steps there?
[I’m thinking about doing my MCs in French, so that makes me nervous (laughs). Will I manage to learn? ……. Yeah. It feels like it’s about time for it, so it’ll be a day that lives in L’Arc~en~Ciel’s history, right? I’m pretty sure I can say “We are L’Arc~en~Ciel” properly.]

(Both laugh hard)

– I’m sure it will be a historic moment (laughs). Is there any place you particularly want to visit?
[The Louvre museum. And some churches. I want to visit a lot of those.]

– Now what about Taiwan?
[It’ll be my first concert there. But actually, Taiwan is the one place overseas where I’ve spent the most time. I was there for a whole month and a half. There are a lot of fans there, and I think it resembles Japan. And so it always bothered me that we’d never gone there.]

– Are you thinking up your MCs for Taiwan?
[I can still remember all the Taiwanese I learned. I might just repeat all the Taiwanese I learned during that month and a half.]

– Any words for your fans waiting in Japan?
[The tour will end on our homeground, so that will be a nice sort of festival, won’t it?]

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tetsu

For a band like us, it’s complicated, doing overseas concerts.

– As the title of the tour, “TOUR 2008 L’7 ~ Trans ASIA via PARIS ~” suggests, this will be an amazing tour covering Asia and France, right?
[Well, it’s not just Europe, we’re going to Taiwan and Korea and China too, and it’s not like we can just say “We’ll go overseas”, there’s a lot to take care of. For a band like us, it’s complicated, doing overseas concerts. We need to have everything in place, or it won’t happen.]

– I see.
[For France as well as Asia, plans were being made years in advance. Now it’s done, the plans are made, and the timing worked out so that this is what we get. In France’s case, it was the European side that contacted us first, an agent of some sort made the connections, that’s how it got started. Of course, it took a lot of time.]

– Because you had to start from scratch?
[No, it wasn’t from scratch. L’Arc~en~Ciel already has fans all over the world. But even if they say “We want you to come to our country,” it isn’t that simple. It’s not like we can just get the members on a plane and forget about our equipment; talk is cheap. It can’t just happen, you know.]

– I see. Would it be okay to think of this tour as the start of new action for L’Arc~en~Ciel?
[….Well, as far as the things we’re doing for the first time are concerned, I think it’s okay to take it that way. It’s not that unusual for Japanese bands to play overseas, though, and I don’t think this tour is going to break new ground.]

– What do you have in mind as an image for this tour?
[No, nothing yet. We’ve barely started thinking about it. That’s coming later.]

*****

yukihiro

I want to do my duty to the fans who come to the concerts.

– How do you feel about the overseas tour?
[Well, you know, if we’re gonna do it, I’ll do it. I’d be fine if we didn’t do it, too (laughs). It’s just that what I do doesn’t change, no matter where we go.]

– Is there a place you’re looking forward to visiting?
[I’m wondering what Paris will be like. I’ve experienced Asia several times, but I wonder how it is in Europe?]

– Do you admire it?
[I really like British music, even more than American. So, I really admire England because of that. I’ve never been to Paris though. In a way, I’m looking forward to going.]

– But you need to work, and do the concert there (laughs).
[There are things I’m not looking forward to (laughs). Once we start, I’m fine, but I get really nervous until we do. But I’m not excited quite yet.]

– Are there any foods you want to try?
[No, I don’t understand food. I’m not interested in food. I don’t go sightseeing either…… (laughs). I don’t take many trips, even for fun. So I guess if it weren’t for this tour, I’d never go to Paris, or Taiwan or Hong Kong.

– In that case, it might be your first and last time in Paris.
[It might be, yes. But I’m only going for the concert.]

– Is doing a concert overseas any different from doing one in Japan?
[I don’t think it’s very different. Basically, it isn’t, but some things will be agitated, in the rhythm, in the instrument that is the drums. I think it’s necessary. I want to do my duty to the fans who come to the lives.]

– At the last show in Japan, will you be showing off how you’ve grown while overseas? (laughs)
[But I’m not going to (laughs).]

Translated by Natalie Arnold.