Life's a journey, not a destination.
16.12.2011 в 01:46
Пишет Boku no Gisho:EXCLUSIVE: X JAPAN IN MEXICO, GÓTICA #56
Finally this magazine came up <3 I was waiting it for so long!~ It has a review about X JAPAN concert in Mexico and also an exclusive interview with Yoshiki.
I translated the whole article for you all.
You can repost my translation but this time credits are necessary since I spent a lot of time on it, please.
перевод интервью на английскийTOTAL REVOLUTION: X JAPAN IN MEXICO
By Yamamoto and Sandra Soriano
Photos by Germán García
Translation by a-pinkspider
Iron Maiden, Haggard, Kiss and even Lady Gaga gathered the last September 18th to enjoy the concert of X JAPAN in Mexico… at least in form of T-shirt, which shows the reach of the japanese band between mexican audience.
However the adventure didn’t start at “Circo Volador” , but rather the day before at the airport, where hundreds of fans waited patiently to the quintet. Unfortunately, nobody than the staff had the opportunity to see them, although Yoshiki tweeted with many people who were there.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th
CIRCO VOLADOR *there’s a mistake since Sep 18th was in Sunday*
From very early, hordes of fans gathered at Circo Volador waiting to enjoy the first X JAPAN concert in our country which also was the closing of their first tour in Latin America. Promptly at 7:00 pm, the doors opened, the queues that seemed endless gradually vanished from the esplanade.
Already in the main stage, mariachis appeared as a welcome to band led by Yoshiki. At the sound of “Cielito lindo” and other classics of our folklore, fans yielded a small tribute to the quintet.
SUDDENLY, THE LIGHTS TURNED OFF AND THOUSANDS OF SCREAMS MERGED INTO A SINGLE VOICE
8:00 PM, Jade started while a huge glowing X appeared at the stage, one of the most amazing and long-awaited concerts had begun. More than 3,500 souls was gathered under the same roof, sharing the same dream… enjoy the most significant and emblematic band of all Asia for first time in Mexico.
After his triumphal entry and “Drain”, the band formed in prefecture of Chiba for more than 30 years, expressed their gratitude to the Mexican audience with something that Haggard always makes, but this time was magic…
SUGIZO SURPRISED EVERYONE WHEN HE PERFOMED MEXICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM ON VIOLIN, this solo as Yoshiki’s solo left the audience in tears.
9:30 PM, after a short recess, the quintet were back to the stage. YOSHIKI on piano, PATA and SUGIZO on guitar, HEATH on bass and TOSHI as a bearer of legendary message. The five gentlemen kicked off one of their most emblematic songs, ENDLESS RAIN. Although parts of this song are in japanese didn’t stop the audience to sing the lyrics perfectly in unison that provoked YOSHIKI’s cry in more than one occasion.
LANGUAGE BARRIER WAS NOT AN IMPEDIMENT TO SHARE A NIGHT SIMPLY MAGICAL
Throughout 2 hours and 30 minutes of concert, Yoshiki stage-dived five times and to cap it all off, ART OF LIFE performed since the 2nd movement, its lyrics gives us a hopeful message of life, one of the key pieces of band’s career.
As a farewell, the also pianist Yoshiki, uttered one of the sentences which characterizes him most ≪WE FxxKIN LOVE YOU≫ to which the audience answered with the same proclamation ≪WE ARE X≫. With the song “Tears” the moved quintet left the stage, closing one more chapter in the history of our Circo Volador, receiving J-Rock and Visual-kei parents.
TALK WITH MEDIA…
At the beginning, the interview to YOSHIKI would be done at the end of the concert, nevertheless a press conference was opted, where the drummer and band’s leader talked with the media, which were TV AZTECA and for sure, Gótica magazine.
THE BLOOD THAT RUNS THROUGH MY VEINS, IS THE BLOOD OF X JAPAN: YOSHIKI
Which were the best moments and the more difficult of your career?
Y: The best moment is now, the worst was when we lost 2 members of the band and when the band splitted up.
You created your own record label to distribute your music. Did it was that visionary?
Y: We did that because no media was not interested in distribute our music, I don’t know if it was visionary or not, it was a necessity rather.
Is there a difference between old X JAPAN with the one who visits us now?
Y: We’ve changed but not too much, we’ve evolved because is something natural but we actually have the concept of the old X JAPAN mixed with the new tendencies.
What does it feel to be the protagonist of a Stan Lee’s comic?
Y: I’m so happy, is exciting, I never thought that I would be part of Hello Kitty, nor that I’d be protagonist of a Stan Lee’s comic.
Why do you believe Japanese music is having a great impact on the world?
Y: It is about time, because Japan is influenced by both, Western music as the eastern and that’s what set us apart from the bands that are created only with western influence, we’re influenced by what happens in all the world and when this converges a concept that pleases everyone is created.
Which has been your experience as a producer?
Y: When you’re a producer you don’t have to jump into the crowd and end all injured, but when you’re artist you’ve the opportunity to be in touch with people. I like more the part of being artist.
Why do you decided to record in Mexico?
Y: Because is the country of the tour’s closing and because we received a lot of requests on Twitter, we knew that it will be a big show, besides when I jumped into the crowd I was very fond.
What do you think about the free distribution of music and the impact of social networks?
Y: Thanks to this platforms we have fans around the world, social networks give us the opportunity to let people know us.
ROCK IS ABOUT FREEDOM, AS LONG AS MUSIC IS GOOD YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH YOUR VISUAL APPEARANCE
After all these years, How do you feel after Hide’s death? Would you like to share today’s happiness with him?
Y: Yes, we also lost another member, TAIJI. If it weren’t for the original members, we wouldn’t be where we are, we haven’t conquered the world nor anything like that, but we would like to share with people who isn’t here anymore.
Songs like “Forever Love” or “Art of Life” have a written message, What do you think about people’s reactions to these?
Y: I write my lyrics with the intention to be deep, I like duality, many artists talk about love but I like to talk about death as well. I like the idea that people translate and want to know of what these talk about.
THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING A DARK SIDE, IT’S BEST TO SHARE IT WITH PEOPLE
Do you believe that the dark side of the human can be used to create music?
Y: I was a person with suicidal tendencies: If I did that I wouldn’t be here today. There’s nothing wrong with having a dark side, it’s best to share it with people, I lost my father when I was 10 what had helped me is the music. Also to keep in touch with fans encouraged me to create music.
What are the plans after this world tour?
Y: A new album will be released worldwide and after this we’ll do another tour, but for now we are going to take a break since the concerts are very demanding.
What did you feel when met your Latin American fans?
Y: A lot of passion and lot of excitement, we love them.
Finally, Do you believe that over the time X JAPAN will be considered as an important part of pop culture just like The Beatles or Queen?
Y: It would be an honor, we will be so glad.
Definitelly the night of September 18th we saw that miracles exist: X JAPAN visited our country, showing that Mexico knows how to rock and appreciate music regardless frontiers.
CURIOSITIES
Yoshiki was tweeting since his arrival to the airport
Now, his favorite word in spanish is “Tequila”
The band also visited Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru
They received a lot of presents here between them a huge flower arrangement and a book with fans’s messages
Press Conference was held in Spanish-English
The only media that talked in Japanese with Yoshiki was Gótica, for sure.
For Yoshiki, with love
a-PinkSpider
©
X Japan's Yoshiki seeks a second coming
статья
By DANIEL ROBSON
Staff writer
The setting is an upscale hotel ballroom. On a stage in the center of the room sit two crystal-clear transparent pianos, facing each other, and a mic stand. In a circle around the stage, facing inward: an audience. We'll come back to them in a minute. An octet and backing band occupy sub-stages on opposing walls, but no one's looking at them; everyone's gaze is fixed on the guy at the piano and the guy with the mic. They are Yoshiki and Toshi from X Japan.
Yes, while the now-middle-age visual-kei pioneers' natural habitat is the stadium, Yoshiki Hayashi and Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama sometimes perform at highly lucrative dinner shows. This one, held a few months ago at the Tokyo Prince Park Tower hotel, was for an audience of just 1,000 — a tiny fraction of the 45,000-capacity Tokyo Dome crowd X Japan usually entertains.
For the privilege of an intimate audience with these usually hard-rocking visual superstars — Toshi crooning soulfully as Yoshiki alternates between pianos, ensuring everyone gets a gander — these diehard fans, who have grown up with the band and are now moneyed and middle-class, will have parted with ¥45,000-¥100,000 per ticket. They wear dress suits and evening gowns. After all, visual-kei fans relish any excuse to dress up.
"If you always play in front of 100,000 people, you forget how lucky you are," says X Japan drummer, pianist, songwriter and cofounder, Yoshiki, one of the most successful and influential rock musicians in Japan, as we chat in an adjacent function room after the show. He speaks almost perfect English, having lived in Los Angeles for many years — he moved there after X Japan split up in 1997, though the band got back together a decade later.
"When we broke up, we just took everything for granted," he continues. "Then, when we reunited after a 10-year break, we realized how lucky we are to have all those fans."
In Japan, Yoshiki can't walk down the street without being mobbed: His baby-soft skin, salon-perfect hair and ever-present shades give him away in an instant (even in his mid-40s, Yoshiki wouldn't look out of place in a "Twilight" movie). He once told an interviewer that he moved to L.A. because he missed being able to go out to buy ice-cream. And yet here he is, with the re-formed X Japan, trying to break the States; to achieve world fame; to ditch his anonymity all over again.
"I love the challenge," he says of X Japan's 2011 world tour, playing "small" venues that hold between 2,000 and 6,000 fans in places the group could never have played before it split — in Britain, South America, Asia and the United States.
Nearly 30 years after its inception, X Japan is basically starting all over again in those markets. But Yoshiki craves the attention, and despite being a voting member of the Grammy panel and mates with Marilyn Manson, he knows he's not yet a household name outside of Japan — and he wants to be. He wants to be, and so he's working for it. But if he were to attain genuine global stardom — the sort "enjoyed" by Michael Jackson or Madonna — wouldn't he lose the ability to buy ice-cream all over again?
"Well, that's what we are trying to do," he replies. "We are trying to lose that. I'll worry about it when it happens. Not so many people can do this kind of thing twice in their life."
Yoshiki has already outshone his bandmates, finding success not only as a solo performer while X Japan was on ice but also as producer of such bands as Dir En Grey, and as an entrepreneur. He now has his own Hello Kitty doll (Hello Yoshikitty), a branded Visa credit card and a line of kimonos (Yoshikimono) that he debuted this year at Asia Girls Explosion, in collaboration with Tokyo Girls Collection.
He doesn't seem to worry much about being considered a sellout. When asked how he might have reacted if his childhood hero David Bowie had released a Hello Kitty doll, Yoshiki candidly responds, "I might have hated him. But it depends on how he'd do it."
Of course, it all hinges on the music — and that's where things get sticky. In January 2011, X Japan signed a North American distribution deal with EMI and announced its first album since 1996's "Dahlia" — the band's first to get a global release. The typically epic six-minute single "Jade" followed in June (it was originally slated for March 15, but was delayed following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11), gracing the iTunes Top 10 in several countries. The album, however, has yet to materialize.
"It's 99 percent done, just editing, mixing and stuff to go," insists Yoshiki. "It's gonna have 10 songs. About 50 percent come from our old hits and 50 percent are new songs, and it's pretty much all in English — even the old hits. For us to be worldwide, we have to sing mostly in English."
You can forgive Yoshiki and co. for taking their time. The fans have waited 15 years already, so what's a few more months? It's important to get this album right, because most of X Japan's intended audience — average Joe American — have no idea yet who the band is.
Whether or not the genre goes mainstream in the West, visual-kei is already a global force, with Japanese bands such as Dir En Grey and L'Arc-en-Ciel pulling large crowds overseas, and local bands even forming in other countries. While X Japan was out of action, Yoshiki lent his support, organizing Stateside concerts to help younger visual-kei bands (most of whom held X Japan as a major influence) to gain traction there.
It was a shrewd move — soon X Japan's back catalog was notching up worldwide sales by association, and when the band re-formed, it had a new audience already waiting.
"Without bands like Dir En Grey introducing the visual-kei genre abroad, I don't know that we could have done this year's world tour," admits Yoshiki. "I really have to thank them.
"Visual-kei means freedom to express yourself. A lot of industry people hated us (in the early days), but we don't play music for our label. We play music for our fans."
In shirking the conventions and the constraints of rock music, Yoshiki and pals have not only made their millions: They've helped reshape Japan's and the world's perception of Japanese pop culture. Not bad for a bunch of blokes in makeup, right?
©
Waxing on with celebrities at Madame Tussauds Tokyo
статья
Shoji Ichihara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Take a picture with AKB48's Yuko Oshima or put your arm around the shoulder of Jackie Chan.
You can do both at Madame Tussauds Tokyo at Decks Tokyo Beach commercial complex in Tokyo's Daiba area until Jan. 4. On display are life-size wax figures of celebrities from around the world.
A model of music producer Ryuichi Sakamoto welcomes visitors at the entrance. On the day I visited, the real Yoshiki from the visual-kei rock band X Japan was taking a picture with his "alter ego" to celebrate the unveiling of his wax figure.
"It looks so realistic that it's a bit scary. I might see it in my dreams," Yoshiki mumbled.
The production of the Yoshiki figure started in June. Between his busy schedule on tour in Europe, staff took between 150 and 200 measurements of Yoshiki's body in Paris and London.
"I had to stand still, but it tickled," the band leader said.
Based on the measurements, dozens of workers molded and colored the figure, spending about three months and 19 million yen to finish it.
Being displayed at Madame Tussauds means being recognized as a global celebrity. It is considered an honor to have a figure done by them, even though the models are not paid.
The figures on display in Tokyo are true superstars--Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga, just to name a few. The display also features popular fictional characters such as Spider-Man and Astro Boy. The realistic and lifelike figures look as if they have just stepped out of a movie or manga.
The 20 figures, including Yoshiki, in the display are not cordoned off from visitors.
Tony Morris, global customer experience manager at Merlin Entertainments, which operates Madame Tussauds, said visitors can take pictures with or touch the figures to enjoy the feeling of meeting real celebrities.
"Madame Tussauds Tokyo" runs until Jan. 4 at Decks Tokyo Beach in Daiba, Minato Ward, Tokyo. Admission is 800 yen for adults and 500 yen for middle students or younger. Call (03) 3599-5167 or visit www.madametussauds.com/Tokyo for more details.
(Dec. 16, 2011)
©
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Finally this magazine came up <3 I was waiting it for so long!~ It has a review about X JAPAN concert in Mexico and also an exclusive interview with Yoshiki.
I translated the whole article for you all.
You can repost my translation but this time credits are necessary since I spent a lot of time on it, please.
перевод интервью на английскийTOTAL REVOLUTION: X JAPAN IN MEXICO
By Yamamoto and Sandra Soriano
Photos by Germán García
Translation by a-pinkspider
Iron Maiden, Haggard, Kiss and even Lady Gaga gathered the last September 18th to enjoy the concert of X JAPAN in Mexico… at least in form of T-shirt, which shows the reach of the japanese band between mexican audience.
However the adventure didn’t start at “Circo Volador” , but rather the day before at the airport, where hundreds of fans waited patiently to the quintet. Unfortunately, nobody than the staff had the opportunity to see them, although Yoshiki tweeted with many people who were there.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th
CIRCO VOLADOR *there’s a mistake since Sep 18th was in Sunday*
From very early, hordes of fans gathered at Circo Volador waiting to enjoy the first X JAPAN concert in our country which also was the closing of their first tour in Latin America. Promptly at 7:00 pm, the doors opened, the queues that seemed endless gradually vanished from the esplanade.
Already in the main stage, mariachis appeared as a welcome to band led by Yoshiki. At the sound of “Cielito lindo” and other classics of our folklore, fans yielded a small tribute to the quintet.
SUDDENLY, THE LIGHTS TURNED OFF AND THOUSANDS OF SCREAMS MERGED INTO A SINGLE VOICE
8:00 PM, Jade started while a huge glowing X appeared at the stage, one of the most amazing and long-awaited concerts had begun. More than 3,500 souls was gathered under the same roof, sharing the same dream… enjoy the most significant and emblematic band of all Asia for first time in Mexico.
After his triumphal entry and “Drain”, the band formed in prefecture of Chiba for more than 30 years, expressed their gratitude to the Mexican audience with something that Haggard always makes, but this time was magic…
SUGIZO SURPRISED EVERYONE WHEN HE PERFOMED MEXICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM ON VIOLIN, this solo as Yoshiki’s solo left the audience in tears.
9:30 PM, after a short recess, the quintet were back to the stage. YOSHIKI on piano, PATA and SUGIZO on guitar, HEATH on bass and TOSHI as a bearer of legendary message. The five gentlemen kicked off one of their most emblematic songs, ENDLESS RAIN. Although parts of this song are in japanese didn’t stop the audience to sing the lyrics perfectly in unison that provoked YOSHIKI’s cry in more than one occasion.
LANGUAGE BARRIER WAS NOT AN IMPEDIMENT TO SHARE A NIGHT SIMPLY MAGICAL
Throughout 2 hours and 30 minutes of concert, Yoshiki stage-dived five times and to cap it all off, ART OF LIFE performed since the 2nd movement, its lyrics gives us a hopeful message of life, one of the key pieces of band’s career.
As a farewell, the also pianist Yoshiki, uttered one of the sentences which characterizes him most ≪WE FxxKIN LOVE YOU≫ to which the audience answered with the same proclamation ≪WE ARE X≫. With the song “Tears” the moved quintet left the stage, closing one more chapter in the history of our Circo Volador, receiving J-Rock and Visual-kei parents.
TALK WITH MEDIA…
At the beginning, the interview to YOSHIKI would be done at the end of the concert, nevertheless a press conference was opted, where the drummer and band’s leader talked with the media, which were TV AZTECA and for sure, Gótica magazine.
THE BLOOD THAT RUNS THROUGH MY VEINS, IS THE BLOOD OF X JAPAN: YOSHIKI
Which were the best moments and the more difficult of your career?
Y: The best moment is now, the worst was when we lost 2 members of the band and when the band splitted up.
You created your own record label to distribute your music. Did it was that visionary?
Y: We did that because no media was not interested in distribute our music, I don’t know if it was visionary or not, it was a necessity rather.
Is there a difference between old X JAPAN with the one who visits us now?
Y: We’ve changed but not too much, we’ve evolved because is something natural but we actually have the concept of the old X JAPAN mixed with the new tendencies.
What does it feel to be the protagonist of a Stan Lee’s comic?
Y: I’m so happy, is exciting, I never thought that I would be part of Hello Kitty, nor that I’d be protagonist of a Stan Lee’s comic.
Why do you believe Japanese music is having a great impact on the world?
Y: It is about time, because Japan is influenced by both, Western music as the eastern and that’s what set us apart from the bands that are created only with western influence, we’re influenced by what happens in all the world and when this converges a concept that pleases everyone is created.
Which has been your experience as a producer?
Y: When you’re a producer you don’t have to jump into the crowd and end all injured, but when you’re artist you’ve the opportunity to be in touch with people. I like more the part of being artist.
Why do you decided to record in Mexico?
Y: Because is the country of the tour’s closing and because we received a lot of requests on Twitter, we knew that it will be a big show, besides when I jumped into the crowd I was very fond.
What do you think about the free distribution of music and the impact of social networks?
Y: Thanks to this platforms we have fans around the world, social networks give us the opportunity to let people know us.
ROCK IS ABOUT FREEDOM, AS LONG AS MUSIC IS GOOD YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH YOUR VISUAL APPEARANCE
After all these years, How do you feel after Hide’s death? Would you like to share today’s happiness with him?
Y: Yes, we also lost another member, TAIJI. If it weren’t for the original members, we wouldn’t be where we are, we haven’t conquered the world nor anything like that, but we would like to share with people who isn’t here anymore.
Songs like “Forever Love” or “Art of Life” have a written message, What do you think about people’s reactions to these?
Y: I write my lyrics with the intention to be deep, I like duality, many artists talk about love but I like to talk about death as well. I like the idea that people translate and want to know of what these talk about.
THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING A DARK SIDE, IT’S BEST TO SHARE IT WITH PEOPLE
Do you believe that the dark side of the human can be used to create music?
Y: I was a person with suicidal tendencies: If I did that I wouldn’t be here today. There’s nothing wrong with having a dark side, it’s best to share it with people, I lost my father when I was 10 what had helped me is the music. Also to keep in touch with fans encouraged me to create music.
What are the plans after this world tour?
Y: A new album will be released worldwide and after this we’ll do another tour, but for now we are going to take a break since the concerts are very demanding.
What did you feel when met your Latin American fans?
Y: A lot of passion and lot of excitement, we love them.
Finally, Do you believe that over the time X JAPAN will be considered as an important part of pop culture just like The Beatles or Queen?
Y: It would be an honor, we will be so glad.
Definitelly the night of September 18th we saw that miracles exist: X JAPAN visited our country, showing that Mexico knows how to rock and appreciate music regardless frontiers.
CURIOSITIES
Yoshiki was tweeting since his arrival to the airport
Now, his favorite word in spanish is “Tequila”
The band also visited Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru
They received a lot of presents here between them a huge flower arrangement and a book with fans’s messages
Press Conference was held in Spanish-English
The only media that talked in Japanese with Yoshiki was Gótica, for sure.
For Yoshiki, with love
a-PinkSpider
©
X Japan's Yoshiki seeks a second coming
статья
By DANIEL ROBSON
Staff writer
The setting is an upscale hotel ballroom. On a stage in the center of the room sit two crystal-clear transparent pianos, facing each other, and a mic stand. In a circle around the stage, facing inward: an audience. We'll come back to them in a minute. An octet and backing band occupy sub-stages on opposing walls, but no one's looking at them; everyone's gaze is fixed on the guy at the piano and the guy with the mic. They are Yoshiki and Toshi from X Japan.
Yes, while the now-middle-age visual-kei pioneers' natural habitat is the stadium, Yoshiki Hayashi and Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama sometimes perform at highly lucrative dinner shows. This one, held a few months ago at the Tokyo Prince Park Tower hotel, was for an audience of just 1,000 — a tiny fraction of the 45,000-capacity Tokyo Dome crowd X Japan usually entertains.
For the privilege of an intimate audience with these usually hard-rocking visual superstars — Toshi crooning soulfully as Yoshiki alternates between pianos, ensuring everyone gets a gander — these diehard fans, who have grown up with the band and are now moneyed and middle-class, will have parted with ¥45,000-¥100,000 per ticket. They wear dress suits and evening gowns. After all, visual-kei fans relish any excuse to dress up.
"If you always play in front of 100,000 people, you forget how lucky you are," says X Japan drummer, pianist, songwriter and cofounder, Yoshiki, one of the most successful and influential rock musicians in Japan, as we chat in an adjacent function room after the show. He speaks almost perfect English, having lived in Los Angeles for many years — he moved there after X Japan split up in 1997, though the band got back together a decade later.
"When we broke up, we just took everything for granted," he continues. "Then, when we reunited after a 10-year break, we realized how lucky we are to have all those fans."
In Japan, Yoshiki can't walk down the street without being mobbed: His baby-soft skin, salon-perfect hair and ever-present shades give him away in an instant (even in his mid-40s, Yoshiki wouldn't look out of place in a "Twilight" movie). He once told an interviewer that he moved to L.A. because he missed being able to go out to buy ice-cream. And yet here he is, with the re-formed X Japan, trying to break the States; to achieve world fame; to ditch his anonymity all over again.
"I love the challenge," he says of X Japan's 2011 world tour, playing "small" venues that hold between 2,000 and 6,000 fans in places the group could never have played before it split — in Britain, South America, Asia and the United States.
Nearly 30 years after its inception, X Japan is basically starting all over again in those markets. But Yoshiki craves the attention, and despite being a voting member of the Grammy panel and mates with Marilyn Manson, he knows he's not yet a household name outside of Japan — and he wants to be. He wants to be, and so he's working for it. But if he were to attain genuine global stardom — the sort "enjoyed" by Michael Jackson or Madonna — wouldn't he lose the ability to buy ice-cream all over again?
"Well, that's what we are trying to do," he replies. "We are trying to lose that. I'll worry about it when it happens. Not so many people can do this kind of thing twice in their life."
Yoshiki has already outshone his bandmates, finding success not only as a solo performer while X Japan was on ice but also as producer of such bands as Dir En Grey, and as an entrepreneur. He now has his own Hello Kitty doll (Hello Yoshikitty), a branded Visa credit card and a line of kimonos (Yoshikimono) that he debuted this year at Asia Girls Explosion, in collaboration with Tokyo Girls Collection.
He doesn't seem to worry much about being considered a sellout. When asked how he might have reacted if his childhood hero David Bowie had released a Hello Kitty doll, Yoshiki candidly responds, "I might have hated him. But it depends on how he'd do it."
Of course, it all hinges on the music — and that's where things get sticky. In January 2011, X Japan signed a North American distribution deal with EMI and announced its first album since 1996's "Dahlia" — the band's first to get a global release. The typically epic six-minute single "Jade" followed in June (it was originally slated for March 15, but was delayed following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11), gracing the iTunes Top 10 in several countries. The album, however, has yet to materialize.
"It's 99 percent done, just editing, mixing and stuff to go," insists Yoshiki. "It's gonna have 10 songs. About 50 percent come from our old hits and 50 percent are new songs, and it's pretty much all in English — even the old hits. For us to be worldwide, we have to sing mostly in English."
You can forgive Yoshiki and co. for taking their time. The fans have waited 15 years already, so what's a few more months? It's important to get this album right, because most of X Japan's intended audience — average Joe American — have no idea yet who the band is.
Whether or not the genre goes mainstream in the West, visual-kei is already a global force, with Japanese bands such as Dir En Grey and L'Arc-en-Ciel pulling large crowds overseas, and local bands even forming in other countries. While X Japan was out of action, Yoshiki lent his support, organizing Stateside concerts to help younger visual-kei bands (most of whom held X Japan as a major influence) to gain traction there.
It was a shrewd move — soon X Japan's back catalog was notching up worldwide sales by association, and when the band re-formed, it had a new audience already waiting.
"Without bands like Dir En Grey introducing the visual-kei genre abroad, I don't know that we could have done this year's world tour," admits Yoshiki. "I really have to thank them.
"Visual-kei means freedom to express yourself. A lot of industry people hated us (in the early days), but we don't play music for our label. We play music for our fans."
In shirking the conventions and the constraints of rock music, Yoshiki and pals have not only made their millions: They've helped reshape Japan's and the world's perception of Japanese pop culture. Not bad for a bunch of blokes in makeup, right?
©
Waxing on with celebrities at Madame Tussauds Tokyo
статья
Shoji Ichihara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Take a picture with AKB48's Yuko Oshima or put your arm around the shoulder of Jackie Chan.
You can do both at Madame Tussauds Tokyo at Decks Tokyo Beach commercial complex in Tokyo's Daiba area until Jan. 4. On display are life-size wax figures of celebrities from around the world.
A model of music producer Ryuichi Sakamoto welcomes visitors at the entrance. On the day I visited, the real Yoshiki from the visual-kei rock band X Japan was taking a picture with his "alter ego" to celebrate the unveiling of his wax figure.
"It looks so realistic that it's a bit scary. I might see it in my dreams," Yoshiki mumbled.
The production of the Yoshiki figure started in June. Between his busy schedule on tour in Europe, staff took between 150 and 200 measurements of Yoshiki's body in Paris and London.
"I had to stand still, but it tickled," the band leader said.
Based on the measurements, dozens of workers molded and colored the figure, spending about three months and 19 million yen to finish it.
Being displayed at Madame Tussauds means being recognized as a global celebrity. It is considered an honor to have a figure done by them, even though the models are not paid.
The figures on display in Tokyo are true superstars--Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga, just to name a few. The display also features popular fictional characters such as Spider-Man and Astro Boy. The realistic and lifelike figures look as if they have just stepped out of a movie or manga.
The 20 figures, including Yoshiki, in the display are not cordoned off from visitors.
Tony Morris, global customer experience manager at Merlin Entertainments, which operates Madame Tussauds, said visitors can take pictures with or touch the figures to enjoy the feeling of meeting real celebrities.
"Madame Tussauds Tokyo" runs until Jan. 4 at Decks Tokyo Beach in Daiba, Minato Ward, Tokyo. Admission is 800 yen for adults and 500 yen for middle students or younger. Call (03) 3599-5167 or visit www.madametussauds.com/Tokyo for more details.
(Dec. 16, 2011)
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@темы: сканы, фото, ссылки, X JAPAN, Yoshiki, инфо, Йошики, translations
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16.12.2011 в 18:11-
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16.12.2011 в 19:27-
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16.12.2011 в 19:31-
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16.12.2011 в 19:35-
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16.12.2011 в 23:52-
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17.12.2011 в 01:33-
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17.12.2011 в 16:19Ничего, осталось немного. )