X JAPAN leader YOSHIKI and director Stephen Kijak held a press conference after a private screening of “We Are X” at Cosby Hotel in New York City on September 19th to discuss the film and YOSHIKI's future plans. It was in a small theater room, where the press and some fans had an intimate conversation with YOSHIKI and Stephen Kijak.
Stephen Kijak: I’ve never heard of this band before I made this movie. I got a call from my beloved producer John Battsek. He literally went “How’d you like to make a film about a Japanese rock band?” And then one Google image search convinced me. I mean this, the costumes, the hair … I mean, whatever that is, I want a piece of it. And then I met a very special person, YOSHIKI, who, hello, is with us today.
(audience applauds)
Stephen Kijak: So, we’ll do a quick little Q&A …
So with everything in your past, is everything now clear? Is it cleared up now to the point where you now see a new direction? What’s on your mind?
YOSHIKI: Right now we just finished this film, right? Also X JAPAN is back together, so we’re going to be playing some shows. Actually at Wembley Arena in London this coming March.
Stephen Kijak: There’s an album that’s taken 20 nearly years to complete.
YOSHIKI: Yeah, because we had 10 years blank, yeah, brainwashing and all those things.
Stephen Kijak: And then at the last minute, you decided to come up with a new song for the end credits, which came out so great that you wanted to stick that in the new album. It’s the first song you hear when the credits start. It’s fucking great. So there have been delays and more delays. But it’s almost ready, right?
YOSHIKI: I’d say it’s 90% to 99% done. The album. And then, I’m just going to mention today that I’m also playing at Carnegie Hall. (audience applauds) Thank you. Here in New York of course, this coming January 12th and 13th. Two nights, with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Stephen Kijak: There’s a little video. Would you like to run that?
(YOSHIKI's concert promotional video plays, audience applauds)
Stephen Kijak: What’s great about the classical show is that you incorporated a lot of X JAPAN songs. Which reveals, you know, this is a band started by a child who was a classical prodigy. A lot of the speed metal actually has like a classical philosophy in its composition. So, tell me a little bit, about how … the compositional technique I think is fascinating. We actually don’t touch on it enough in the film.
YOSHIKI: To be honest, I think every musician should know about music theory. Playing with the vibes is cool too. But, it’s kind of like the alphabet when you speak English, right? So, if you know that theory, you can use it for jazz, punk rock or anything. So classical music can be kind of like a basic thing that can take you to your next level. You know, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, or rock, metal or something like that. This upcoming concert I’m going to be playing some classical music as well.
Stephen Kijak: We did a studio visit just last week and you said something to everybody that was really cool, like how you write. You know what I mean? Like, if you just write something on the piano you’re sort of confined, but if you’re just … you literally compose everything on the score, first. Whether it’s classical or … this stuff. You write it out literally before anything happens, right?
YOSHIKI: Yes, I write every single note on the score. Even X JAPAN songs, like the drum and guitar. I actually give it to the members, and the members are like "… What the fuck?” Then it’s like “Ok I need to play that, then I play that guitar solo or whatever and then give it to hide", or … yes, I write everything on the score. Because when you play the piano and compose, you’re kind of limited to how you can play. But if you’re using just the brain and heart, to, you know, renew your sound, you can write, you know, anything. Any melody. And then you can figure out how to play that melody.
Stephen Kijak: And voice it with the other band members or whatever.
YOSHIKI: Yes, exactly. Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense. I will need like, two bands together or something like that. So yeah, I write everything on a score. So when I compose, 99% of the time I don’t use any music instrument at all.
Stephen Kijak: So, Carnegie Hall. Now you, sir, you had a question.
So great concert in the movie we got to see, in parts, that a lot of us got to see in person. Are we going to see that whole thing as a release and a live album? Because it was just so amazing to witness. Is X JAPAN going to put that out as a separate release?
YOSHIKI: I think so. I think we’re going to release a Madison Square Garden live video. However, right now I’m just concentrating on this …
Stephen Kijak: First things first, this needs to get out to the world. Yeah, the concert was incredible. You know, I’m glad we were able to stick a little mini concert in the end credits and people stayed and seemed to enjoy it. But yeah, the show was great. Right, you were there. Amazing.
YOSHIKI: I thought that was very good because I kind of gave everything to Stephen. I try not to say anything. I’m usually a control freak when it comes to, you know, recording something like this. But this film, I just, you know, gave everything to Stephen. So then, I saw, you know, and it was almost 95% like this.
Stephen Kijak: Yeah, we got it into Sundance before you saw it. It was a tricky little schedule, but you were fully on board with the cut.
YOSHIKI : Yeah, exactly. I was thinking "How am I using the Madison Square Garden show?" while watching my film. For the Madison Square Garden show, all you see are rehearsals. But at the end roll … I thought that was really cool. At the beginning I was really confused. But, it was such a cool way to …
Stephen Kijak: My favorite parts of the whole movie. Anybody else?
I have a question for both of you, kind of. Stephen, to have a band, an artist like this, must have made the creation process so long. How did you get a movie like this down to such a good length? YOSHIKI, was there anything in the movie that you wish wasn’t in the movie?
Stephen Kijak: I’ll answer my question first, and you can think about that. This is movie number seven for me. I mean, it’s a process. It’s always just, you know, you have a relationship with an editorial team and you kind of know the barebones of what the story is. There was almost no pre-production. We really were thrown in, observing them, rehearsing and building this whole thing up. We just started, which was kind of great because we weren’t penned in by any preconceived notions. You kind of know the beats of the story in advance, but by just kind of getting thrown in and just observing the rehearsals and looking at this whole world, it starts to suggest other things to you, you know, and other ways, and other things that could be. So you have all of those kind of banked up in your head too. And it really is just a process. A filmmaker I once worked with on my very first movie, "Cinemania" … My co-director Angela, who also cut it, said, "God, it’s like pouring the ocean into a tea cup" when we were confronted with all the footage. And you get used to it. We miraculously landed at a solid two-hour rough cut. So there wasn’t much to take down. We sort of miraculously found the shape pretty early on. And then just refined it. Was there anything you wish, maybe wasn’t in it or anything that you think should be in it, that isn’t?
YOSHIKI: I want to create Part 2 … (laughs) We’ll see.
Stephen Kijak: (laughs) X JAPAN, mini series (laughs).
I guess as a film lover and music lover, or just your everyday audience, I just want to commend you both on your making of this film. Because I think it’s so important to hear about, and to learn about, you know? It’s also an experience, you know? It’s an "Xperience". It’s really just an extravagant experience. So, thank you. I think it’s a great movie that you guys created together.
Stephen Kijak: Thank you very much. I mean, like when I said, when I first saw the image of the band … and you see it on the screen at one point. In the early days, you put a bunch of stickers out. The slogan of band, and I love this "Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock." I was like whatever that is, that’s it, that’s the thesis of the movie. I mean I gave my graphic designer props. And actually, the prize we won at Sundance was for “Excellence in Title Design”. Pretty amazing.
YOSHIKI: That’s South By.
Stephen Kijak: South By. Yeah, what did I say? Sundance? South By. I’ve worked with the same designer on four or five movies, and that was the brief I gave her. I just said, “Psychedelic violence crime. Whatever that means to you, do that.” Because I felt like this band, just on the visual aspect alone was this bottomless pit of inspiration and could really become something cinematic. But also something super emotional too.
YOSHIKI: You know what, I’m glad you said that, because my agent, WME, William Morris Endeavor, in Los Angeles … Head of Music, Marc Geiger, he and I have been friends for a long time. He kind of started saying several things over five to six years ago: "It’s great, you need to create a documentary." I was like "Woah … that’s too heavy." You know, I don’t open that door. Because you know, X JAPAN is already reunited. But, I don’t want to go back to every single moment because it’s too painful. So I kind of said "no" … A year later: "YOSHIKI, you need to tell this story. It’s really important, you should do it." I can’t, I just cannot … there’s footage from our last live, which was … we disbanded before you know, then 10 years later we got reunited. I started crying after watching that last live. It’s like, how can I even create a documentary film? Then eventually, Marc of WME convinced me. Then I said, “I cannot even touch this … If there’s a great producer, great director … " So then, my agent found John Battsek. Then John Battsek found you (Stephen Kijak) … So I’m really happy that you said that it was really important to talk about this story, because I was not 100% sure when this was done, if this was the right move or not because it is still very, very painful to watch this.
Stephen Kijak: But I encountered a fan base that, I mean, it could sound cheesy if you tell people like "Oh yeah, X JAPAN heals people. The fan base is so devoted." But they really are. You see them in the end. I mean, there’s an outtake of a woman who was a fan. I think she was from Puerto Rico. She and her boyfriend came to the Madison Square Garden live and claimed your music put her cancer in remission twice. Terrible footage, it wasn’t recorded well and we couldn’t use it. But, I mean, it’s like that kind of thing, over and over and over again … you feel it. It really … it’s like I didn’t know who they were, but something just kept telling me, it needs to get out there. It’s a story about a rock band, yeah. But it has this weird transformative quality, like people really gravitated towards some of the themes and messages in it. And it’s just been a lot of fun to work with. The subtext in a documentary for a change is, a lot of great, great visual story telling that works against, and with the main story. And it’s just a trip …
This is a question for YOSHIKI. When you lost hide, and ToshI left the band, how did you remain true to your soul? How were able to stay positive through that?
YOSHIKI: That’s a great question. I don’t know if I was positive? I tried to keep being positive but … It’s like anybody, you know, is confident, not confident. I’m always trying to be just 50.001% positive than 49.009% insecure. So as long as you cross that bridge just enough, that fine line, you are positive. But around that time I was on that really small fine line. I was like on the edge. I could fall either way. If I fell the wrong way, I didn’t know if I even exist. I had kind of like that strange … you know … since my father died when I was 10 years old … I was always thinking what it’s like, what’s the reason we exist here. So I was always in that state of mind. And then when I lost hide and ToshI got brainwashed, I was thinking, "What should we do? What should I do?" Back then I was always like that and I’m going to always be like this, but I’m trying to always be more on the positive side. This film kind of made me go on the positive side.
Stephen Kijak: Yes! We did it!
JaME would like to thank YOSHIKI, Stephen Kijak and RESONANCE Media for the opportunity to participate in this press conference.
"We Are X" will be available for screening at select theaters from October 21st in Los Angeles, along with Q&A sessions with YOSHIKI and Stephen Kijak for several shows. There will be additional screenings in New York City and other cities, the details of which will soon be announced.
Special Events at NuArt Theatre in Los Angeles
- Friday, October 21st, 7:30pm show w/Q&A w/Stephen Kijak and YOSHIKI
- Saturday, October 22nd, 7:30pm show w/Q&A w/Stephen Kijak
- Sunday, October 23rd, 5:10pm show w/Q&A w/Stephen Kijak
