Yoshiki was at the recording studio in LA "as usual."
When he was asked if any dinner plans being made he said said his management is already coordinating some details with the winner. A type of cuisine has not been decided, but Yoshiki said "One thing for sure is that it will not be a ramen noodle."
There will be a choice bet LA and Tokyo. When he was asked when it's going to be, Yoshiki answered "It will probably happen within this year." He said that it will most likely be one with an individual room with a piano.
Then he was asked , "What if the room has a drum set?" Yoshiki laughed and said "I'll beat it if there were sticks."
The guy at the studio acknowledged Y♡'s continuing charity works with respect. Y♡'s willing to appear again in the show in the future,

ThanX to Mika about this translation in her Twitter.

English translation: Keiko Hamaguchi
Credits: Link

I:　Hallo 
Y:Hi, this is YOSHIKI
I: wow, your voice is so soft.
Y: (laughing)
I:Nice to meet you, this is Shitara from NON-STOP . Thank you for calling.
Y:Thank you.
I:Where are you now?
Y:I'm in Lololo Los angels,now.
I: It is so cool ,you are in L.A.  So you are in the recording studio,right?  Are you recording now?
Y: Yes, I'm recording now.
I:So, what time is it noe in LA? 
Y:It is around 6 past...little bit. 
I:so evening. 
Y:Yes.
I: Now we are talking about the news of your charity dinner and watch the video .
Y: Uh-hum
I:the winning bidder can chose the dinner place L.A or Tokyo,right?
Y:Yes. Well I’m often in LA or Tokyo. So,,,,
I: I see.  Well, and Will the winning bidder be able to chose the dinner ?
Y: (laugh) Well, It is better to chose the dinner which  both of us want to eat. (laugh) I don't know ...
I: But, you haven't dicided to chose ,right?
Y:Not yet.
I: So , after talk together (about the dinner )
Y:Yes.
I: So If she or he want to have french course at the VIP room, you will go ,right ?
Y:Yes
I:Otherwise, if she or he want to have Ramen with YOSHIKI , Will you go?
Y:(laughing) Ramen....???(laughing)
I:Yes.but Dinner will continue 90 minutes so ramen supposed to.......
Y:I don't dislike ramen, but.... bidder supposed to pay 1,000,000 yen, so.... Ramen is too (cheap)
I:The winning bidder will get the right to have dinner with YOSHIKI, but who will pay for the dinner?
Y:I'm going to pay for it.
I:Wow, you will pay for the dinner !!
Y:Yes. 
I: So, the contract price will be donated to the charity , so it means you will pay for the dinner for the winning bidder !!
Y:Or it means I will donate for the charity.
I:Ah, you are so big-hearted . So the winning bidder should chose haute cuisine 
Y:hahaha , so maybe not Ramen (laughing)
I:Do you have plan what you want to do with the winning bidder?
Y:If there is a piano in the private room, I will play 
I: Really??? Will you play piano there ???
Y:yes, but what if there is a piano ... Do you think there is a such place
I: I think there are (the restaurant which has a private room with piano)
Y:Yes.
I: Wow, YOSHIKI's piano playing is so valuable by itself, wow. it is so preciaous! so the winning bidder may faint with excitement! What topic will you talk? How do you feel? It must be the first meeting, right?
Y:I will be nurvous when I meet with stranger,...
I: Everyone will be nurvous at that situation. You will play piano, so the winning bidder should shose such place (the restaurant which has piano)
Y: Yes, there may be some good places .
I: Will he or she be able to drink alcohol?
Y:Yes if he or she is older the the age.
I:Will he or she be able to touch you?
Y: (laughing) hahaha, well....shaking hands are OK　hahaha
I：So you mean, Most of the thing are OK　within the bounds of common sense,right?
Y: hahahah
I: Will you extend the dinner time if both of you come alive ?
Y: extend.... it sounds differnt meaning （laughing)
I: it is just 90 minutes. Who will be able to go to dinner with YOSHIKI-san. Thank you for calling today .
Y: You're welcome !
I:Good luck for your recording
Y: I'll do best for the recording.

Japanese interview done by Mr. Takuya Oyama for NATALIE: Here
English translation: Mika @mikaxxxxxxxxx.
Credits: Link
Pictures are taken from the official Facebook pages: Yoshiki and X Japan.

X Japan's Live DVD "The Last Live ~ The Uncut Version" has been released. This is the uncut full edition of the video capturing the last live (concert) held at the Tokyo Dome on December 31, 1997. The legend is still alive, and we can fully experience the revival of the last live (concert) through the DVD. In honor of the sale of the DVD, NATALIE conducted an interview with YOSHIKI (drummer/pianist) who was visiting Japan. Since X Japan got reunited in October 2007, he has been vigorously active and has just recently finished the world tour. We asked him questions in different topics.

I always feel that "there will be no tomorrow"

- Congratulations on your great success of the world tour!
Thank you.

- How is your condition?
I've over-done it, I think. I'll be hospitalized for a checkup after going back to the states. But I think I’m fine.

- The tour was quite intense.
I had surgery on my neck over 2 years ago. Since then, three of my fingers (my left middle finger, ring finger and pinky) have been numb, and they have not been cured. So I am still on medication to treat the numbness. My doctor tells me, "Stop drumming." I try to hold back myself at the beginning, but as soon as a concert begins, I no longer care!

- You get too into it?
I've been doing this for a long time almost feeling "There will be no tomorrow." I don't want to think too much ahead by holding back myself. It is really do-or-die for me every time.

Our future can change our past

- In the middle of all this, "The Last Live ~ The Uncut Version" DVD has been released. You yourself probably had not seen the live video for a long time, I assume?
It's true. Normally I think a DVD is released right after the concert. But I was not able to watch it at that time. About 2 years later, the president of the record company said, "You'd better release it," so I began to try to edit it, but could not finish it. I could only go as far as "Endless Rain." I kept crying while watching it. Then 10 years passed. By going to different places on the world tour, I was able to face my past. And that enabled me to think that I want to move on to the future. Because the last live (concert) became the very important turning point of my life.

- How did you come to realize it?
I think I am now able to face my past because of what I have now. Back then, I was hitting a dead end. The last live (concert) was done as the very last thing of everything in the middle of sorrows and pains. Especially when HIDE passed away afterward, I never thought X Japan would be reunited as a band. I had decided to change my career to become a producer or a composer. I could not imagine myself performing as an artist again. That period of time lasted for a really long time.

- Yet, you have officially begun to be active again as X Japan.
It feels like a dream.

- Moreover, you have broken into the world market, a dream you could not accomplish back then.
You're right. Back then, I deeply regretted we had to end it before advancing to the world market. That was the very first moment in my life that I felt frustrated. What I always think of failing is... at the moment we give up, that's a failure. So if we don't give up, we will never fail. But the fact we did the last live (concert), it turned out to be an ending without accomplishment. "Ah, we couldn't do it." I thought.

- You have been embracing your regrets all this time?
Yeah. But after some 10 years passing, I am now able to reach the world. In a previous interview somewhere, I once said, "Our future can change our past." If I had not been able to have what I have now, that past would have just remained sad. But because I am now moving on, I can now think that the last live has just become my turning point. It was not a period (".") (of a sentence), but a comma (",").

- Isn't it a wonder if you think of it? Things that you could not accomplish before are now being accomplished so effortlessly.
Really.  I wake up always thinking I must be dreaming. I am living a happy life. In the course of 10 years after the band broke up, technologies advanced, and X Japan's music spread through YouTube. And because other Visual Kei rock bands became so active, the Visual Kei (genre) itself became so well known in the world. And before I knew it, there were X Japan fans everywhere in the world.

- So the seeds of flowers X Japan was planting then are now blooming.
I once boasted by saying, "Music has no boundary among countries, ages and races." It even took me by surprise that it really became true. At the last live (concert), I thought I was dead then, but now the love of my fans' are keeping me alive. I am living by always thinking that way, and therefore, I have become fearless.

So, the chorus has to be sung "KURENAI NI SOMATTA"

- The world tour was so successful in every country, but why do you think X Japan is so supported by overseas fans?
It may sound ordinary, but efforts will always be paid off. It's probably because I have been always taking music seriously. I produce music that I want to share with all my heart. I have always put my entire body and soul into our every single live performance, not just doing our norm. Of course, I sometimes get strategic, yet at the end, it is how much I can purely put myself into music. That will strike people's hearts, and therefore, I believe I can go over the walls of time and races.

- What do you think of your music elements? I think X Japan’s music has a Japanese feel to it or "Wabi Sabi" (equivalent to the Japanese aesthetics of being simple and serene), and this is why it is being fully supported by overseas fans.
I do agree with you. I am largely influenced by western music while I am equally influenced by Japanese music. X Japan's music is simply a fusion of the two, I think. I listened to a lot of Japanese pops and classical music. I, of course, listened to all of western hard rock, punk rock and heavy metal music. I first absorbed all the music in, and what came out of it was X Japan music. That seems so new to western music fans.

- By the way, I heard that you were mixing both Japanese and English lyrics in the world tour.
At first, we began the North American tour all in English. But later we discussed that "this song is better in Japanese." For example, there is the song called "Kurenai."  In the middle of the North American tour, we changed the chorus to Japanese lyrics "KURENAI NI SOMATTA" deciding that would have been better. Or the song called "Rusty Nail" is all sung in English in the new album to be released, however, it was sung partially in Japanese in the latter half of the North American tour.

- That's interesting.
In the same way we tried to learn English very hard because we love western music, our international fans study Japanese and sing the chorus with us in Japanese.

- Such Japanese element is playing a core part of X Japan, I feel.
You see, because I am..."KURENAI NI SOMATTA KONO ORE WO..." (laughs) Every part of me is Japanese.

Before the band's break up, I was forgetting something very important

- It's been 4 years since the band got back together. I believe X Japan has since been participating in many music festivals, including Lollapalooza, Summer Sonic and a-nation. In the 90's, you almost never participated in joint events with other bands, and had the strong image of being proudly secluded. What has happened since to change your mind?
To simplify it, we were able to go back to where we started.  To exaggerate, we feel we could perform on the stage with just one light bulb as long as we have our audience. That’s how we felt about our world tour this time. So many things went wrong as we went to so many different countries. Equipment was not delivered. Power was not readily available, so we had to use a generator. There were no dressing rooms, etc.

- That would never happen in Japan.
In the past, we never performed anywhere other than the Tokyo Dome till the last live (concert). Every year, we only performed at the Tokyo Dome. To be extreme, we saw the full course French meal waiting for us when we walked into our dressing rooms. Something like that. (laughs) If I put my feet on the desk, someone put boots on me. There were three drum sets standing by. So if I destroyed one set, another one was brought in. It was gotten to that point.

- I see.
Even the conversations between the band members were done indirectly through our managers while we were all sitting right next to each other. In the middle of all that, I feel I was forgetting something very important. That is...how happy we were to be able to be in the environment where we could perform music.

- I suppose it is difficult to notice when you are famous.
The band broke up once. I was once apart from ToshI. In the middle of the 10-year hiatus, I finally came to realize how grateful I was to be able to be in the situation back then. We participated in Lollapalooza before the kick-off of the North American tour. It was just an event, so there was no rehearsal on that day. We had to perform unrehearsed. I had to check the drum set myself prior to the performance, and I had to perform while I was trying to fix the drum set. (laughs) Starting with that, there were so many things that went wrong during the North American tour. But I feel, that made it possible for us to go back to where we started. When we used to perform at live venues, only myself and HIDE had driver's license, so either myself or HIDE was always driving. We drove on our own and brought all the equipment on our own. We feel that we can now finally go back to the state of mind we were in at that time.

- During all of this, you participated in the huge music festival.
The reason why we participated in Summer Sonic is because I was introduced to the staff of Summer Sonic when I was invited to dinner by my friend. So I said, "I want to participate in Summer Sonic." And the reply was "Would you really do it?" "Yes, we will." Something like that. So it happened. Festivals are great. It suits us quite well. Because we felt being off of our home turf, we tried to charm people who saw us for the first time and make them become our fans. We were like that before, and now we are enjoying that again.

Our band is a rookie in the global market.

- Especially in the late 90's, X Japan itself was an enormous project. In comparison, we get the impression that you are now doing this with more flexibility.
Overseas, some say, "Who the hell are you?" Occasionally, our pride is torn into pieces. Yet, if we want to move forward, we have to go back to where we started. At the global market level, our band is a rookie.

- How do you think the relationship among the band members has changed before the breakup and after the revival of X Japan?
I suppose it's changed. When we are on the world tour, we spend the ample time together. We have limited number of staff on the tour, and this has enabled us to get closer. We drink together on a tour bus. We are more like a band now.

- We can look forward to your future activities then.
Honestly, when we did the 3-day concert at the Tokyo Dome after we got reunited, at first, I was not sure if we were going to continue X Japan or it was only for the time being. Because the last live (concert) was too intense, all I had was pain. So that live show was only meant for us to get back together and to end with a great success, so that we can put a period at the end. But to the extent possible, we just did not want to just have a reunion-like live show. We want to be always progressing. So, on the tour we have just finished, our song list contained 50% of new songs and 50% of old songs, thinking we want the audience to see the present X Japan, we don't want to be in the shadow of X Japan of the past.

The new album is almost complete

- By the way, how is the new album coming along?
I intended to complete it before the European tour. (laughs)

- Does it mean it is almost done?
Yes. I'm done with the vocals. Recording on drums is almost done. I want to add one more song, but I am still thinking about it. But basically, it is done.

- How does it look like?
It's a mixture of new and old songs. I am hoping to release the all-time best ever album of X Japan. We are a rookie overseas, so I want to make this album our business card as if we were saying "THIS is X Japan!"

- Did you record the old songs in English?
I was intending to do 100% in English prior to the North American tour. However, in the middle of the tour, I began to think it would be better to deliberately include Japanese language. Yet, I don't think more than 20% will be in Japanese.

- I assume there are new songs which we have not heard yet.
Yes, there are. I think you can really feel X Japan of the moment.

- When are you going to release it?
If you tell me to release it tomorrow, I could release it with what I've already recorded/edited...

- But you cannot decide the last song to add?
That's right. I also think that the meaning of the album has changed over the years. Nowadays, the digital downloading of the music is mainstream. So it is the question of how to get the concept of the album across.  I also say to myself, “Is the album really important?" to begin with. That is troubling me a bit.

Deliberately adding Japanese accent to the English lyrics

- The recording has been taking a really long time. Why do you think it is taking so long?
I know I have to say, this is it, at some point. (laughs) To be specific, we digitally released "Jade" recently. After that was done, I asked four of the top professionals in the world to do mastering of the song.

- Wait, so you have 4 versions of it completed?
I'll select the best version out of them. I think the fact that I have the best recording environment in my own studio is having a negative effect. (laughs) Because I have so much equipment, it's taking me too much time to pick the right equipment for recording.

- That's a luxury problem. (laughs)
Yeah, but we have been known as a band who takes too much time. We pay too much attention to detail. At times, we cannot see the complete picture. But when we see the complete picture later, we say,  "Let's do it all over." Take the vocals for instance, ToshI has to mainly sing in English, so he's making such an effort in English pronunciation. Yet, we are not English speakers, so we feel that we should sound a bit Japanese with the accent. So we have been continuously selecting what we like for a while now.

- Trying to sound deliberately Japanese with the accent?
That's right. Instead of simply singing in clear English, we deliberately try to add some Japanese accent on certain words.

In the 90’s, I could not see a wall that I could break through

- After the band got reunited, have the musical elements changed?
I'm not consciously intending to change them. I just want to write the best possible song. If the song does not touch my own heart, it will be not possible to touch others’. So I want to write a song which will touch my heart when I listen to it.

- While the band leader is you, Yoshiki-san, we see each member's strong originality in each song. Do you think Sugizo-san's jointure influenced the sound in some way?
I think so.  He plays the violin, so I believe it widened the sound. I asked Sugizo to play different versions of "Jade" solo on violin, or taking timbre for another example, I said to him, "Add some noise as you wish around here" and chose the one that I liked afterward.

- You are in a band.
Yeah, whether it's guitar or bass, I basically leave it up to them in creating sound. But my instructions are also quite detailed. (laughs)

- As I am speaking with you, you seem to be enjoying it a lot.
You're right. Because I am now reaching the world, I am able to think positively regardless to how painful it is, I think.

- I feel that the tragic sentiment that existed prior to the breakup is diminishing, and the happy side is now appearing.
Back then, I even said "X Japan is no longer a band" without any hesitation.

- You no longer think so.
Consciously, I am trying to make us a band. Otherwise, we would not be able to put on a great show.

- So I guess something has changed in you.
For example, there is a wall. When I am going over the wall or breaking the wall, I get really fired up. But in the 90's, I was not able to see a wall that I could break through. I was at a loss not knowing what and how I should fight for. But now, whether the wall is high or thick, I can think that I will break through it regardless. It is so important that I now know what my objectives are.

Basically I am spending my time either in the hospital or at the studio

- By the way, how are you spending your day now, Yoshiki-san? I am curious to know your typical day.
I have been on tour, so it's been a mess. Basically I'm suffering from insomnia, so I cannot really sleep. I only sleep once every other day roughly.

- What? Once every other day?!
Yes. As a result, I have 4 assistants in the U.S. who are able to support me any time I am awake. It does not matter if it's night or day. I go to my studio 2 o’clock in the morning to work. Though my doctor says, "That's not good."

- I agree with him. (laughs) Are you basically spending your time in L.A. now?
Because my residence is there. But from now on, I want to spend more time in Europe and Asia.

- When you are not on tour, what do you mainly do when you are awake?
Basically I am either seeing a doctor or recording.  I am not in good health, so I am getting an IV every week. Otherwise, I am at the studio.

- Any hobbies...?
I used to love cars. What do I like now....? Ah, having the world tour, I got interested in different languages. I've been studying French for a while now. Recently I've added Spanish and Chinese.

- So you'll never have enough time.
When I am learning new language, I don't have to think about anything else. I feel at ease 'cause I can just focus on that. If I am not doing anything, I keep thinking of recording or about touring, and I end up getting tired. But when I'm learning a language, I can relax.

- Now, I am looking forward to the new album. Are you planning on playing live again after that?
I think so. We will be on tour with our new album.

I will try to live with love… with dreams… and forever with tears..


You may never have heard of X Japan, but they are one of the biggest rock bands in Japanese history.  They’ve sold more than 30-million albums, singles and DVDs, and have filled the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome 18 times.  Yoshiki, the band’s spokesman/songwriter/producer/drummer/pianist, is considered as one of the most influential musicians to come out of Asia, with one Japanese writer stating, “Yoshiki is to Japan what Bono is to the UK.”  We had a chance to sit down with Yoshikli and talk with him about the band, the music and, with their first North American tour about to kick off, their plans to conquer the West.

SEPTEMBER
25 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
28 Fox Theatre, Oakland, CA OCTOBER
1 Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
3 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC CANADA
6 Riviera, Chicago, IL
7 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON CANADA
10 Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY

After so many years of just focusing on your native Japan, what brings the States to your sites?
It was always our dream to come here, it wasn’t like one day we just decided to come here, we’ve always been thinking about this.  We lived in Japan, but we were always thinking about the world.  And, I’ve been living here [in Los Angeles] for more than 10 years.
A long time ago, people from Sony came to us – at that time we were just called ‘X’ – they wanted to have us debut in the U.S. but we felt we weren’t ready.  Then a few years later, Atlantic Records came to us, and said we should debut in America, and we said ‘sure.’  We were going to start recording here, but we didn’t speak English, so we thought we weren’t ready, so we didn’t release anything.  Then, we were about to debut here, but we broke up [this was in 1997], then reunited 10 years later, we are now ready.

Being in such a huge band in Japan, is there an element that you can appreciate about revisiting breaking into a new market, or playing to fans that are unfamiliar with your music?
It’s a challenge, but we feel really luck to be doing this all over again – it’s not exactly the same as when we first started in Japan, but it is kind of like doing it all over again.  We love breaking into a new market, it’s so exciting.  It’s kind of like … it’s not so easy to maintain who you are, then where you are, in Japan, you always have to keep moving forward.  Now we have America, Europe, Southeast Asia to break into – we are so lucky to have this kind of opportunity and we will enjoy every single moment, every single success or happiness or failure – everything we will enjoy.
When we first started in Japan, people asked “who are they, what are they?”  So, we say, “we are musicians, I play drums, I play piano,” – what are you talking about, you play drums and piano, what do you mean?  So, it’s the same thing again here in America.  Of course now in Japan, you say ‘Yoshiki’ or “X Japan,” and even if you’re 18 or 80, people say, ‘oh, yes, I know who they are, I saw you play for the Emperor of Japan, or whatever.  But, a long time ago when we were first starting, people had no idea who we were, so we are doing the same thing again.

Had you guys written a lot in English before, or was this mostly for an American push?
Personally, I have been writing a lot of songs in English the past 7 or 8 years, so it comes naturally.  I dream in English, when I had anesthesia [for neck surgery] I was talking in English, when I talk in my sleep, I talk in English, so it’s natural for me now.

30,000.000 albums sold, and being able to regularly sell-out your local 55,000 capacity venue. What is there left to prove or accomplish? What is your biggest driving force now?
You can’t measure your happiness or your satisfaction by numbers, so 50,000 audience or 10,000 or even 100,000, either you’re happy or you’re unhappy.  We’re very happy with our success in Japan, but we want to go outside.  Our driving force is to try and break down the boundary with our music.  There is still an invisible boundary, an invisible wall between East and West, so I would like to break down that wall.

What have you noticed about playing in the States that’s different from Japan? I know set times are usually shorter here. Are you guys having to modify your usual set, and stage show for a US tour?
Well, we are headlining this U.S. tour, but as we are not doing a huge, stadium show – yet –  we have a limited time to perform.  But it’s going to be a little harder, the set, than the Japanese version I guess.  Our U.S. show will be more about back to basics, more music driven, not a lighting or production driven concert.

X Japan took a break(-up) in ’97. What changed in the years between then and when you guys decided to regroup? Was X Japan missed by you a lot?
Yes, yes, we just took everything for granted, we didn’t know how…I realized after this reunion just how good our vocalist, Toshi, sounds.  We grew up together, we were always together, so I just took him for granted, not only Toshi, but all of the members of X Japan.  I missed X Japan a lot, but during those almost ten years, I didn’t want to say the name of the band.  Also, we lost Hide [X Japan's guitarist who died in 1998] after the band broke up, so I couldn’t even want to think about the X Japan, every time I thought about X Japan, it made me so sad.  So, I buried X Japan six feet into the ground, even deeper than that, I put the thought of X Japan into the grave, and tried not to even visit that cemetery.  But, for some reason, my mind always stayed in that cemetery, and finally, we resurrected X Japan from the fucking ground.

I heard there was a studio you wanted to track some drums in, but it was booked, so you bought it. If so, that totally rules. How did this all come about?
I was in Los Angeles and everybody was talking about this studio, that it had the best drum-sounding room and I tried to book it.  Metallica had booked this studio for almost a year straight [for their "Black" album], so I asked, ‘how about after Metallica,’ but I was told there was a list of bands already who had already booked the studio.  So I asked ‘how can I get in?’ and I was told ‘buy the studio’ and I said, ‘OK, I’ll buy it’ and I bought it.

When does the new album come out? Is there a title yet, and who is releasing it?
The band’s new album will be out in 2011, no title yet, haven’t announced the North American label yet.  The first single, “Jade” will be available starting October 1.

You also went back and converted some of your back-catalogue to English as well, correct? How was this process? Were there some parts that just had to be re-structured, lyrically?
Yes, for some reason, I could not just translate Japanese to English.  It depended on the songs, but I had to almost rewrite the lyrics entirely, but keep the same message.  English have more words than Japanese, for some reason.

What are you most excited to see on your first American tour?
I don’t know…we feel like we are going to into something unknown, something we’ve never experienced.  We are just confident that we can nail you, in a good way.

I know you are a classically trained musician as well. Besides drums, what instrument do you find most lends itself to creating the paths you hear for songs, and why?
Ninety percent of the time when I write songs, I don’t use anything, just a pen to write the music notes.  I use very old-style methods.  I create everything in my head, and just write, that’s what I do.  Every single drum I play, it’s written out note for note.  Sometimes I’ll use the piano or the guitar, but 90% of the time, I just write, the drums, the guitars, the bass.

Do you structure a lot of your songs this way first, and then just crank up the drive and volume on them?
So, these days, I use the computers as well, so then I come to the studio and start programming everything and do my changes there.  Usually, my imagination is a much better place, recording is a process of compromising.

You also recorded a solo album of classical music with Beatles producer George Martin. Were you a big Beatles fan? Were you prodding him for stories for the whole session?
I’m a pretty big Beatles fan, but I tried to concentrate on what we were doing during the recording, so I didn’t ask him anything.

How has the aggressive music scene in Japan changed over the last 20+ years you have been making music?
It’s like a circle, rock’s been gone then coming back.  I always feel that good music survives, regardless of genre.  Seems like there is less excitement these days.  People might be being too realistic, including artists, they should be more ambitious.  I run a business as well, but people think too much about business these days.  People and labels have become too tame.

So, is X Japan your retirement band, or do you see yourself in a post X Japan life someday? I know you dabble with a vineyard that you own, and have composed several “less rock” pieces, even for members of your own Government. What do you still have to do and see that inspires you?
Everything inspires me every day, every single moment.  We are doing this North American tour, we will release our new album, we have plans for next year, but I don’t think about that far ahead, so I don’t know if X Japan will be our last band.

Any final thoughts to the kids of America before you come rock their faces off?
Be ready.

Credits: Ampmagazine