L’Arc~en~Ciel Live in Paris: Press Conference Before the live!

L’Arc~en~Ciel in Paris, Press conference, Thurday, 8th of may, 2008

Bonjour L’Arc~en~Ciel, welcome to Paris.
First of all, could you please introduce yourselves?
hyde: “hyde desu”.
ken: “Bonjour, ken desu”.
tetsu: “tetsu desu”.
yukihiro: “yukihiro desu”.

Thank you very much. I’m sure you haven’t had time to look around yet, but what is your first impression of Paris?
ken: We didn’t do a lot. We took a walk to the Tuileries, it’s a nice place, that was yesterday. It looks like a Japanese park called Yoyogi Koen, it looks very nice and it was very relaxing.

Is it your first visit to France?
hyde: It’s my first time.
ken: It’s the third time for me.
tetsu: First time.
yukihiro: It’s also the first time for me.

Do you have any particular places you would like to go while you’re in Paris?
hyde: There are many places I would like to go, like some small and retired island like Mont Saint-Michel. I really hope I could find some time to go there.
yukihiro: Yes, I would like to see the Mont Saint-Michel too.

“L’Arc~en~Ciel”, the band name, is French. Do you have special feelings for France?
hyde: I’ve always wanted to come to France. I’m really happy to be here.

In comparison to your previous international tours, you are visiting more countries ; you are doing a Trans Asia tour via Paris. Is there a special theme for that tour?
hyde: Well there is a big ship called L’Arc~en~Ciel and it’s shipping to all the countries. We fell like we are on board of this ship.

On this tour you have performed in Shanghai and Taipei already. You also have chosen to perform in Paris. Why this choice?
ken with lots of enthusiasm: We had a lot of opportunities and we talked a lot about it. At first we were saying “Maybe we should go to Stockholm, or any other German cities, we could visit many countries…” Then suddenly it became clear: “no, no, no, that’ll be Paris ! There’s only Paris, right!?” Of course there are other cities, but in our minds, it was Paris. Paris, and nowhere else. Plus, there’s the link between our name, L’Arc-en-ciel, and Paris, L’Arc-en-ciel in Paris, all that, it sounded great.
hyde: Absolutely!
ken: So we thought “This is it! We have to come to Paris at least once!” So that’s why we chose Paris as the first place to ship on the boat.

Are the fans reactions different in Japan and in France?
yukihiro: Yes they are very different. In Japan, we have already performed a lot of shows, so we kind of know how our fans will react and what they expect. But for the places that we have never been to… Well we are very excited and we welcome this event.

Tomorrow’s live show will be broadcasted in five theatres in Japan. Is there a special meaning for doing this?
tetsu: This is the first time for us to perform in Europe, so we wanted to share the excitement with the Japanese fans. It’s the first time that a Japanese artist experiment this!

Have you planned something special for tomorrow’s show?
hyde: Well… it’s the first time we are performing in Paris, the first time that European people here will see us on stage. So what we want, is that everybody understand well what is L’Arc~en~Ciel. That’s what we will aim for.

Which song of your new album Kiss (released in Europe a few days ago) is the more fun to play on stage?
hyde: Pretty girl. We have so much fun on this one.

Will we hear the song about Christmas (Hurry Xmas) of the last album?
hyde: Well… we had an issue about the Christmas song: should we play it in summer? [It’s very hot in Paris, today !]

hyde, why is the title of the album “Kiss“?
hyde: A kiss is a beautiful thing. We thought about shaking hands, but to shake hands could have different interpretation, even a political one, or something else. But a kiss is more intimate and more beautiful. I wish that people all over the world can connect and make such magical things as kiss each other. That is what this title means.

Is the concert in France the first one of a long series of concerts in Europe and all over the world, just not only in Asia?
yukihiro and ken begun simultaneously: Hmmm…
Everybody laugh. Finally yukihiro spoke.
yukihiro: We don’t have any plan yet. But yes, this is a great opportunity to go outside of Japan. I think we definitely work on it.

Did you know that you were one of the most wanted and awaited Asian bands in Europe, and more specifically in France?
ken: We check regularly the internet and we didn’t thought we have that much fans in Europe. Are you sure? Can we trust you on this?
Press: Yes! [L’Arc~en~Ciel was top ranking in several categories of the French Asian MUSIC eXtreme Awards 2007, included second best rock album with Kiss, and third most wanted Asian artist/band for a live show in France. The vote was made on a panel of about 800 French people]
ken: So if we have fans, you can tell them to write messages to us, we’ll check them. Please!
Press agrees and smiles.

Does it feel weird for you that European people listen to Japanese music?
tetsu: Well we grew up listening to international music, so it’s the same thing with people who listen to Japanese music. So I hope the people here will accept Japanese music.

You have an old song called C’est la vie. Why did you choose a French title for this song?
hyde: It’s a very old song. It is a very catchy and nice song. We thought that the sound of the expression “c’est la vie!” matched perfectly the dynamic of the song.

Will you play it tomorrow?
hyde opening his eyes wide open: Waoh!
Everybody laugh.
hyde, joking: We’ll have to practice before…

After more than fifteen years of career, what do you musically want? Do you want to go on with the same sound or do you want to re-invent everything?
tetsu: I believe that with the last fifteen years of experience and, time passing by, we feel that it’s really cool at that point. We will continue to find the way to make good stuff. So probably, during the next phase, we’ll always have to find what is cool, what is the right thing to do as a band.

You produce songs for anime and video games sometimes. How do you choose the animes, why do you agree to compose for such and such product? Is it because you enjoy them?
hyde: It doesn’t matter if I create music for an anime or purely for music. When I work for an anime song, I imagine myself as the music director of the anime or movie. So, I’m more into what’s behind the story set, that’s how I make music for it.
yukihiro: I’m not really into games or anime, so I make music for music. However, I don’t dislike it when our music is used for this kind of products. I’m quite happy of it actually.

What surprised you the most during your tour so far?
yukihiro: We’ve done two shows in Asia until now but today this is our first time in Paris and I’m really looking forward for tomorrow’s live show.
tetsu: We haven’t done the third show yet but, so far, when we performed in Shanghai it was outside and it was pouring loudly, we were in the middle of a big storm, and I was so afraid that somehow I could have an electric shock.
ken: Well the second show in Taipei it was also outside and it is so comfortable to play outside. But the surprise happened in the plane, during the flight on our back from Taiwan to Tokyo, I watched a movie that I wanted to see for a long time, and the movie was horribly boring. That surprised me.
hyde: Well nothing in what happened really surprised me but during the last two shows, I already felt like “Ok, this is it! We are worthy to go out of Japan because of our hard work”. If you come tomorrow, you will see the best show ever. So please come and see us tomorrow.

Do you know some French bands or music?
hyde: Vanessa Paradis.
ken: Jane Birkin.
tetsu: Charlotte Gainsbourg.
yukihiro: Daft Punk.

Will there be a live DVD of tomorrow show?
hyde: I don’t know when it will be release but yes, there will be a DVD of the show.

Thank you very much for the press conference.

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