Interview with LM.C

On July 17th, LM.C had their third show in Brazil at the Anime Friends event. JaME had the opportunity to find them a few hours before the show and talk about their new single, visit to Brazil, anime, their 10-year career, and their plans for the future.

Good afternoon! So far, we have not had the chance to interview you each time you have been in Brazil. It is nice to meet you and to have this opportunity.

maya: Thank you.

It has been four years since your last time in Brazil. What memories do you have of South America?

maya: Well, it takes some time to get here from Japan, so that was my first impression – it’s far. Once we got here, I felt like it would be very warm, with hot temperatures and good weather. This time, though, it’s much cooler.
Aiji: Well, I guess it was on our first trip to Brazil – a lot of fans came to see us at the airport, so that left a huge impression. Moreover, the enthusiasm was amazing! It gave a very strong impression. I felt that even the audience during the live show really wanted to freely enjoy the music themselves, and that was quite impressive as well.

This year you released a single in March and another one now on July 20th. However, your last album, PERFECT RAINBOW, was released back in 2014. What have you been doing in the meantime?

maya: In 2014, we put out two mini-albums after whittling down the number of songs, and then we put those together into one album. We had two albums, PERFECT FANTASY and PERFECT RAINBOW, and combined them in the 2015 album Over the Fantasy, Under the Rainbow. We also did a corresponding tour. Without putting out a new album or single, we held a tour so that we could perform the songs from the Perfect series one more time. That was the main thing.
Aiji: After that, the single we’re putting out this year…
maya: The production of that, yeah.
Aiji: We did the production and recording for that, too.

What can you tell us about your new single, RAINMAKER?

maya: As a singer, the words and the message came from what I’ve been thinking over lately regarding what it means to be alive, and then I put those feelings into words. As a theme, we’ve gone with ‘rain.’ It’s about the relationship between oneself and the past. I tried to illustrate what I feel about that.
Aiji: For the composition, it turned into a song unlike what we’ve been doing so far. However, it’s a very ‘adult LM.C’ rock song written with all the good feelings and significance that come with LM.C turning 10.

What are your plans from now on?

maya: Ah, our plans. The release hasn’t been officially decided yet, but we’ve been recording with a new album in mind since last year.

Are there any release prospects you can tell us about?

Aiji: About that, we haven’t announced it in Japan yet, so we can’t say anything beyond ‘the near future.’ (laughs)
LM.C: (listens to the translation of ‘the near future’, repeatedly says the phrase and laughs)

You are reaching 10 years of your career. How are the celebrations going?

maya: Well, I’m happy to have been able to continue our activities for 10 years. We’ve been to Brazil many times, three I guess, and I’m glad that through these 10 years of activity we got the opportunity to come back here like this.
Aiji: We’re not quite at the 10-year mark yet, that’s in October, but with that in mind we’re doing a tour in Japan. We and the fans are hoping for some exciting performances, so I think we’ll be able to ring in our tenth anniversary properly.

This time, you'll be performing at an event with an outdoor live show, quite different from your previous gigs. What do you expect from tonight?

maya: How does it feel? First of all, we’ve never been to this kind of big festival-style event in Brazil, so it is something we're really looking forward to. It was fun to do so-called ‘LM.C-only’ shows at live houses, but we're really looking forward to such a different, anime-focused event this time. It’s spacious, the weather’s good, and we don’t have these kinds of events in Japan, so we have especially high hopes.
Aiji: Yes. The past two times we performed solo shows, but there’s a particular feeling that this kind of event has. We're looking forward to experiencing the charm of being able to perform in front of people seeing us for the first time.

Since you are in an anime event, do you like anime?

maya: I like it, but I’m not well-versed. I’m interested in anime culture, so seeing Japanese animation go worldwide is… I wonder why it’s so top-class, in a sense, so I like it. I’m interested. But again, not well-versed. I don’t know much but I like it.
Aiji: I like anime, too. I’m not too well-versed either, but whenever I can, I try to watch an interesting one, I think.
maya: Weren’t you watching something?
Aiji: Well, I like "Evangelion".
maya: "Eureka 7", too.
Aiji: "Eureka 7"… That’s the one that FLOW did the theme for, right? Hm, what else…

It looks like to me you enjoy sci-fi.

Aiji: What is sci-fi? Stuff like science fiction?

That's right!

Aiji: If we’re talking about movies, I like "Star Wars". Stuff with robots, too. Like "Gundam".
maya: What’s popular in Brazil right now?

"Naruto", "Bleach", "Card Captor Sakura"...

maya: "Naruto"? Nothing newer than that?

There is "Sailor Moon", "Attack on Titan" also.

Aiji: "Sailor Moon"?

Yes, "Crystal".

maya: Oh, the new one. What about "Youkai Watch"? Do you know about that? You don’t have that here?
Aiji: It’s not that they don’t have it, they can watch it.
maya: Oh, okay. It’s uploaded online in Portuguese, isn’t it?
Aiji: It’s an anime like "Pokémon"… called "Youkai Watch".

Watch online, yes.

maya: They do it that way, too?

It is not that popular...

maya: That’s fine. "Pokémon"’s good.

What about "Pokémon Go"?

Aiji: It’s not out in Japan. It starts around the end of this month there. Are you playing it?

It is not out yet here.

Aiji: What a pity!

We came to know that Asian audiences are quite different. What do you like most about Brazilian audiences?

Aiji: Like I was saying before, in Japan enjoying music is a bit more passive, but here the audience feels like they’re more spontaneous. It’s like, if we do something, the reaction comes very soon after. That’s a big difference.
maya: Hm. It’s very easy to see that everyone wants to enjoy the live show together, and it comes across in a very simple way. I don’t know about all of Asia, but in Japan people are a bit shyer, so over here I have this image of people expressing themselves more directly.

This being your third time here, have you learned anything in Portuguese?

maya: "Olá" (Hi) and "Obrigado" (Thanks).
Aiji: There were more, right?
maya: It was a long one.
Aiji: It was something like “Como está?” (How are you?).
maya: I forgot.

Now you have learned "futuro próximo"!

LM.C: Yeah! Futuro próximo!!! (repeat many times and laugh)

Wrapping up, can you leave with a message to our readers?

Aiji: We were invited to Anime Friends this time, but we’ve been coming to Brazil for four years now. It’s a place we were conscious of not being able to go, but we got the chance thanks to companies like Yamato and everyone in Brazil and South America who asked for us. The scene and LM.C’s fans here are so lively that if all of us demand it, we may be able to come back again. Thank you. (laughs)
maya: I’m happy we were able to come back here again. Also, since this is LM.C’s tenth anniversary, we’ll be waiting for you all in Tokyo. We’re having a live show in October, so by all means please come. It takes a long time, but we’d be happy to hear from you through letters, SNS, Twitter, or anywhere. We’ll happily wait for messages like “I’m going” or “I came to see you.” Really, we’re waiting. I think it’ll be fun. Really.

Thank you for the interview!

LM.C: Thank you!

JaME would like to thank LM.C and Yamato for making this interview possible.