Interview with LM.C
4. February, Cologne @ Werkstatt
When LM.C came to Germany during their Europe tour, Jrockradio had the opportunity to talk with them in Cologne.
They arrived at the early afternoon, later than planed, with their tour bus directly from London at the hall and although they hadn’t even a breakfast they took the time for our interview at very first. With their winter jackets and behind their sun glasses they came a little bit sleepy up to me.
We welcomed in English: „Nice to meet you.“ and sat down in a small room down the hall.
It's great that you are here in Germany. How was your journey?
Aiji: We just woke up, so ... maybe we don’t seem very excited about the tour but until now the tour was great.
You were in Paris and London the last 2 days. I heard on radio news about the bad weather, storm and snow. Did you pass everything well?
Aiji: When we arrived, it was ok. But maybe some Fahrenheit too cold for the venue, but there was no problem.
You came by ferry? So you had no problems with planes and canceled planes?
Maya: No problem.
Did you had already some time for look a bit around in Europe or was it just concerts playing and bus driving?
Aiji: We almost hadn't time to visit anything, but when we travel by bus it's almost like sightseeing.
And did you gain any experience in Europe? Maybe with food or people?
Maya: I had never been to Europe before, so everything is surprising to me. Everything was new experience. The fans, which came to the concerts, their passion and their energy during the live is very different from the bands in Japan and so far the most energetic public was in Paris.
So there is a real difference between Japan and Europe?
Maya: Yes, there is a difference between both cultures. None is better than the other, but it's just different and of course the faces!
Can you introduce each other with some words?
Maya: This is Aiji … Silence … then everybody started laughing.
Aiji: This is Maya. He writes all the lyrics of LM.C songs and he loves drinking water and … He is representing people, who couldn’t grow up.
N: Like Peter Pan? (A Japanese woman of the stuff chipped in.)
Aiji: Yeah, like Peter Pan, he loves drinking water and he is like a child.
Maya: We know each other for 10 years. Aiji is being very good to me and he’s been offering me diners many times since we’ve known each other and he's very helpful.
The main members of LM.C are you two. When you are live on stage you always work with support musicians. I could imagine that's really very difficult. So it's not a real band, isn't it better to work with real members?
Aiji: There are a very few difficult things when we have to play with support members, but there are still a lot things we only can do together. So it's more practical to work together with no other people.
Maya has the part of the singer and on stage he never plays guitar. Mostly when there are recordings he plays, but don't you miss the playing on stage and in front of your fans?
Maya: I don't really miss playing guitar. I don't imagine myself playing guitar as a LM.C member during the live and I'm already very busy with singing. So I have played for all diverse promotion videos, music videos. I want to play in front of the fans, but I prefer to concentrate in singing.
Your music is very special. It's a mixture of several styles. Do you choose styles you like, you love or also use very new style, genres you normally don't listen to? Just to see how it will sound.
Aiji: Basically we use genres we like because we listen to many genres of music. We don't try something just to try. We really do what we like.
Your style is very special for you. I don't know any band, which makes such music. Would you like to have it's your style or like other musicians, other artists say 'OK, it's a good idea, I want to do something similar.'
Aiji: There would be no problem that people copy our style, but a real band with many members couldn't do what we do. For the drums, we first use electronic beats and if a band would try to do what we do, there would be trouble with the drummer. So it's very difficult.
In what situation do you have ideas for songs? Do have special things you need to have an idea? Sit down and take a coffee or so? Or are there very unusual moments, when you have your ideas?
Aiji: I don't have anything special to be inspired. I can write music anytime.
Maya: It depends on my mood. A sento (Japanese bath house) is good for my inspiration. When I create music I'm watching videos, films.
All lyrics come from Maya. I can imagine Aiji has although things to say, want to tell them to the fans. How can you do this? Can you say to Maya, 'I have an idea, can you use it?' or how can you do this?
Aiji: I don't have any ideas, but I shouldn't write any lyrics. So it's no problem. I only have ideas for music, no lyrics for me.
So you couldn't imagine to write a lyric and sing it yourself anytime?
Maya: Maybe for the next album.
Aiji seemed not to agree really with that and mad some protesting noise.
Your last CD came out in November. At the moment what are you doing? Do you work for the next CD or just concentrate on lives at the moment?
Maya: We are concentrating on the tour, currently.
Aiji: But we live with the pressure of having the next projects to work up on.
When you write a new song, do you sometimes not agree about text and music? Was there ever a song you couldn't release, because not both of you say it's OK so? Was there ever one?
Aiji: We did have this scared experience, because when we do the recording the song is already good for us. We choose songs we like from the beginning, so there's no problem.
So you work together from the very beginning?
Aiji: First, we work on our side and each one of us creates the songs and then we share what we have done. So we don't work together from the beginning. At the beginning each one of us creates songs on his side.
It is difficult to have first the text and the song and then bring it together. Do you first have the idea, the theme of the song and say then 'Now, let's start!' or starts it with the music and then you think over how you can do it how can we make a song?
Maya: Basically I write lyrics after I've listening many times to the music. So I decide the theme when I listen to the music and start writing and sometimes I just write a list of ideas and I check the list to see if there is within a theme matching the music I'm listening to and I have to write lyrics for, but basically I first listen to the music many times and I write after that.
Do you have ever free time or is your whole life music?
Maya: I really enjoy and love planning lives, so we can say our whole life is about music. We couldn't say that we have really free time. We use it for music.
You play together since 2006, about 3 years now. It's not really long, but you already play international. Did you have ever thought over playing international, did you work for it or did it just happen?
Aiji: We when created LM.C, we thought about going to Asia, but we never thought about going to Europe or even to South America, so that’s just happened.
Jrockradio was started in Costa Rica, so we are from Latin America with the main idea to make Jrock more known there. Of course we're still happy when we hear bands go to Latin America. Can you imagine going there and playing for your fans like here in Europe?
Aiji: If we are invited to Costa Rica, of course we would go, but if we are not, we won't go.
Is there any stage all over the world where you want to play, it's your dream to play there?
Maya: We will be in many countries during this tour. We don't have… really a dream to go in a particular country, but if we can go on every continent, if we can play in Africa … we would like to go in the whole world.
Aiji: I want to go to Australia and every continent.
Do you have a final message for your fans and our readers?
Maya: Our first album has been released in Europe so I’d like people to listen to it. And we don’t come tour in Europe very often, so if you have the chance to be around when we play live, please come to see the live and if you don't have the opportunity to come to a live this time maybe next time you have the possibility to see us play. Listen to our albums and come when we will play in your country.
Aiji: We'll keep creating original and nice songs for you. Please wait for our next songs.
As Maya said, we can not do a world tour so often, so when we are in your country, please come see us. We don't come so often to Europe. If you can come to our lives, it would be great.
I hope you will come back in summer next time. I think it's also better for the fans outside, who are waiting since very early in the morning.
Maya: We feel in the same way. Actually we have to take a shower each time.
Many thanks to Aiji and Maya, which took the time for our interview. Also a great thank you to Sae of soundlicious, who helped us not only as interpreter and to the guys Weird World, which made all this possible!
author: noi