X JAPAN Press Conference

The press conference of X JAPAN for the Japanese media was held on April 3rd. YOSHIKI, TOSHI, PATA and HEATH appeared at the conference. YOSHIKI, the band's leader, announced that X JAPAN will do a live in Paris on July 5th, and also one in Madison Square Garden, New York, on September 13th.

The press conference opened with the host asking the band several questions, and then the press was given the opportunity to ask questions as well.


Everyone, it has been a long time, it's great to see you again. First of all I would like to start with YOSHIKI, the leader of X JAPAN, who will announce band’s planned concerts.

YOSHIKI: Thank you very much for coming here today. In addition to the Paris live, which I announced a few days ago, we decided that X JAPAN will also perform in Madison Square Garden, New York, on September 13th.

In the Tokyo Dome live concerts, many foreign fans came to see you, and it seems that your fan base is increasing overseas. With the completion of the X JAPAN 3 day live, could each of you tell us a little about your impression of the concerts?

YOSHIKI: Just a little is enough? (laughs)

PATA: Well, I just thought that once we had started it would end as any concert does. I was just tired, that’s all! (laughs)

TOSHI: You know a lot of things have happened since we last played in Tokyo Dome ten years ago, so I was really moved that I could do another concert with these members. Furthermore, the concerts were all sold out, so I'm really pleased that so many people came to see us. I think I have been sending out various messages to people, so I got a variety of reactions telling us to keep our purity, and not to give in to the pressure of bullies, so I'm also really happy about that. I really think we've been able to pass on our messages to so many kids around the world.

YOSHIKI: I really felt anxiety from all the pressure, but I was supported by the fans and those who came to see us. The flood of voices that I heard cheering for us really helped us get through those three days. I am so thankful - thankful that we can today release future concert dates, thankful that by doing those three days I realized we could play together again. And for me to say this may sound a little strange but, looking at the faces in the band, I really think that X JAPAN is amazing. (laughs) I really think the concerts were impressive in many ways. I'm not 100% satisfied, but I think they've enabled us to go onto that next step.

HEATH: So many things happened leading up to the concerts, and even once the shows started we had a lot to do, but we got through the three lives and I think that they were good. I really felt from the stage that people had been waiting for us for a really long time; I was so thankful and wanted to play my best for them. I think that these concerts are just the start of something bigger to come, so please continue to support us.

During the song I.V., Tokyo Dome was like a live house with the audience becoming one, singing together. After the world release of I.V., you confirmed your overseas concerts, so I don’t think it'd be an exaggeration to say that you are about to make your dream of entering the world music scene come true. How do you feel about that?

PATA: We have been saying that we would do it for a long time now, so I’m very happy to be able to play overseas as X JAPAN.

YOSHIKI: Well, we have all played overseas, right? PATA, you played in Paris, right?

PATA: Yes, I did.

YOSHIKI: TOSHI, you go to Southeast Asia often, don’t you? As for me, well, I live in the U.S. so I don’t really...

PATA&TOSHI: You played in Los Angeles, right? (laughs)

YOSHIKI: Yes, I did, but not as X JAPAN. How about HEATH?

HEATH: I played in Korea.

YOSHIKI: Each member has played overseas, but as X JAPAN, we haven’t done that yet. Well, I feel like we already did. (laugh) Ah, I remember now! We had a press conference in New York sixteen years ago! I said, "We’ll debut in the world scene," but we haven't done so yet.

YOSHIKI, it was in Rockefeller Center, wasn't it?

YOSHIKI: I remember we went all out for that. We attracted reporters from all over the world.

And we waited... (laughs)

HEATH: I feel that we can finally prove now what I said before, that "music goes beyond borders." I really want to send wonderful sounds to everyone.

TOSHI: I don’t know what concerts we will do, but as HEATH said, I want to make concerts that reach the minds of many people, beyond languages and borders.

Don’t you feel nervous like you are in unfamiliar territory? Or do you feel calm?

TOSHI: I can’t really imagine it yet, so I managed to do these Tokyo Dome lives quite calmly.

YOSHIKI: We don’t feel like we are in unfamiliar territory. Wherever we go really is unfamiliar. (laughs) But really, X JAPAN is not something that belongs to any place. There are certain words that try to stick us somewhere, such as visual kei, but we don’t belong to them, so wherever we stay I feel like I’m visiting, and I also feel like I’m at home wherever I stay.

YOSHIKI, you are living in the U.S.A., which is really your "home." How do you feel about doing live concerts there?

YOSHIKI: About Paris and the U.S.A., I went to Paris last year actually, and did an autograph session there. About 6,000 people came and I realized I should do a concert in Paris. And I've been living in the U.S. for more than ten years now, so I should do one there too. But why are we playing in New York? Maybe it’s better to play in Los Angeles... (laughs)

Why are you going to play at Madison Square Garden? Could you tell us how you decided to do these concerts?

YOSHIKI: Madison Square Garden was chosen because it’s easy to understand, I think. I've been organizing different events for about two years now, inviting Japanese bands, doing various things, and I feel that it's the right time now to play there. When we changed our name to X JAPAN ten years ago and we considered advancing overseas, we had something in us that was in the way, which we couldn’t convince or change, and then we disbanded. Now we've revived, and we're happy to go with the flow. We were asked to play there, so we decided to do it, all of which was really just a coincidence. We didn’t decide it a year ago, but just the day before yesterday, when we finished the Tokyo Dome lives. Just like that.

HIDE joined in with the band through his images in the Tokyo Dome lives, but will he also join in the Madison Square Garden, New York live concert? What do you think, YOSHIKI?

YOSHIKI: What do you think, TOSHI?

TOSHI: (laughs) What do you think, PATA?

PATA: (laughs) What do you think, HEATH?

HEATH: Um...I wonder what will happen... (laughs)

YOSHIKI: Well, the set is so big that I think we'll need about five jumbo jets? I’m not sure. I heard they are making bigger planes lately, an airbus or something; it's enormous, so maybe about three of those.

Even using an airbus you still need three!? So are you going to bring all of your sets?

YOSHIKI: I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking about it. However, in many ways it’s hard to play with HIDE. (laughs)

Aside from the images of HIDE there were also huge ornaments.

YOSHIKI: We work hard to make them like that. (laughs) However, the capacities of the venues aren’t as much as Tokyo Dome's. New York is about 17,000 - 18,000? Paris is about 20,000 - 30,000, I think, so if we bring a huge stage there, it would take up the venue and leave less seats for the audience. (laugh) But I’m trying to bring as much as possible.

YOSHIKI, when you visited JAPAN EXPO last July, you shook hands with about 6,000 fans. You announced this Paris concert in France on July 5th, and in Madison Square Garden, New York, on September 13th; How about other places? Are you planning to do other concerts?

YOSHIKI: TOSHI, we have to go to Asia, don’t you think so? (laughs)

TOSHI: Well, Asia is wonderful.

YOSHIKI: So we'll go on a world tour. (laughs)

Eh!? Is this press conference going in that direction?

YOSHIKI: Um, if I confirm that, I'll be scolded again. (laughs) Well, it seems possible; different things are determined every day.

TOSHI: We don’t usually make plans beforehand.

YOSHIKI: I heard that people make plans about one year in advance, generally. (laugh)

TOSHI: Yesterday, I heard about this by phone. And also about this press conference. (laughs)

YOSHIKI: The day before yesterday, I said "GO," you know, all this talk came to us. But after the concert, we were so stiff. (laughs) We couldn’t decide things about today in such a condition (laughs), and I wasn’t sure I could recover. It was like I said "GO," and then we would do a press conference with the members, and gather once before I head back to LA.

We can really feel that you'll do anything if you think it's possible. However, I’ll ask the journalists here not to write today’s title as 'The World Tour.'

YOSHIKI: You can write it. (laughs)

I heard that in the Tokyo Dome lives, you had a press conference for more than 150 overseas media, and more than 15,000 foreign fans came to see you. Overseas, many fans are waiting for X JAPAN concerts. Could you say anything to these fans?

YOSHIKI: How about HEATH? HEATH? (laughs)

HEATH: I’m looking forward to seeing you.

PATA: Please wait a bit. (laughs)

YOSHIKI: I’m very happy. Concerning these Dome lives, I really thank the fans, since we were able to reunite because of them, and we could make a world tour...ah, I shouldn’t say a world tour yet (laughs), but I want to go to lots of places, wherever we can go.

After your three days at Tokyo Dome, you made a series of announcements on your activities, some concerning your emergence in the world scene. Can we expect that X JAPAN will continue that from now on? If you have plans to release in the future, please let us know.

YOSHIKI: Now we are making the "best of" album for both Japanese and global release, and that will include our new song. Regarding the question of whether X JAPAN will continue or not, even if I say we’ll continue, who knows? Nobody knows what will happen next, so we don’t look too far from this spot; we climb the stairs in front of us step by step. As I often say, we climb up one step and see the next - we are usually like that. We don’t know when we’ll finish, or how we'll continue, so I’ll say our plans are uncertain.


Next, questions were asked by the media present.

This year, Japan Expo 2008 will be even larger in scale because of the 150th anniversary of diplomacy between Japan and France. When did you actually decide to perform at this Japan Expo 2008?

YOSHIKI: Last year, I went there. At that time, I was invited by the Japanese embassy in France, and I was told, "Next year will be the 150th anniversary, so could you do an event for it?" At that time I didn’t know X JAPAN would revive at all, so I said I would think of some event including a few Japanese bands. Now we are revived like this, which I told them, and they asked us to do something.

During the three days at Tokyo Dome there were many people from overseas who came to see you. I heard that 15,000 overseas fans were at the concert, and obviously X JAPAN is very, very popular now overseas, and there is a lot of excitement about you. How do you feel about that?

YOSHIKI: Well, I can’t say it all in one word, but I’m so lucky. But um, I don’t know, first of all, we as X JAPAN announced at Rockefeller Center, I guess it was 16 years ago, our arrival into the world music industry. Then visual kei spread all over the world and stood at the forefront of Japanese music, and now X JAPAN has reunited. And it’s so hard to describe how I feel about this support from all over the world. Um, as you know, as I said in my Myspace that I opened two to three years ago, suddenly, I had a flood of fan messages on my site, and I was like, "Oh my god!" A lot of people asked, "How are you doing? What are you doing now?" So for the first couple of years, I was just researching what was going on, and now we realize it’s by chance that X JAPAN has reunited. So it kind of happened naturally. It wasn't something forced or planned by my management or anyone else, but just came very naturally. I think it’s great that so many foreign fans could come because you know that Tokyo Dome is a hard place to perform a quality show in; we may never have done it, but I hope that everything went well in the Tokyo Dome. I want to save our energy for the next lives too. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there. I hope that we can continue beyond these two countries; we can probably do more, such as Southeast Asia, more places in Europe, even South America.

It has been ten years since your last live concert, and now you are preparing to make your step into the world music scene. I would like to ask each of you if you have something to say to HIDE about all of this.

YOSHIKI: How about "we envy you because only you won’t get older"? (laughs)

PATA: Yes, yes. (laughs) I used to say "you are one year older than me" but now I say "I am nine years older than you. (laughs) But I will do my best. (laughs)

TOSHI: This time in Tokyo Dome, his image was projected continuously on the stage screens, and I had an ear monitor so I could listen to his sound. Because of that I played the same way I did ten years ago, so I don’t feel like I want to say something special to him.

YOSHIKI: It really felt like we were playing with him. Up until the concerts, we worked very hard to edit his images, but when we played, it seemed like he was really there.

TOSHI: Yes. I think our feelings will never change wherever we play as X JAPAN - in Japan or anywhere else.

HEATH: During our concerts, I felt like we five members stood on the stage together, so I think we can say that they were great concerts.

YOSHIKI: I forgot that we were playing with only four members. If I made the same mistake here, I think HIDE would scold me. (laughs)

Are you going to keep HIDE as a member instead of looking for someone to fill his place?

YOSHIKI: It might be possible to have a sixth member, and keep HIDE.

YOSHIKI, ten years ago, you decided to try and step into the world music scene, and now, finally, you have an upcoming concert at Madison Square Garden. How do you feel about that?

YOSHIKI: I went to Madison Square Garden when KISS reunited, and thought "I want to play here sometime." I really thank our fans for giving us this opportunity. This time I received messages from X JAPAN fans in their teens to fans in their forties. They all say, "Thank you for making our dream come true," but I want to thank them back, and thank our foreign fans. Thank you for making our dream come true.

While you released only one song, I.V., into the world market, you are still able to perform at Madison Square Garden. How do you explain that?

YOSHIKI: We haven’t started selling the tickets yet. But I have a certain feeling about it. I think it's spread by YouTube a lot. I want to release the world edition by then, and then go from there.

After you finished the Tokyo Dome lives you climbed up to the next step. After you finish your world tour, what do you see as the next goal of X JAPAN?

YOSHIKI: I haven’t really thought about it. (laughs) This time we won’t set goals to work towards. We don’t set goals that are far away from us, we make goals that we can see in front of us. Even if they are not so realistic, like doing Tokyo Dome three days in a row just after we reunited, or being the first Japanese band to play at Madison Square Garden, we just work towards goals that are close by. It may end suddenly, or it may not.


And finally, we would like to ask each of you for a message for your Japanese and overseas fans.

PATA: Please wait a little bit longer. Thank you very much. That’s all.

HEATH: After we finished the three days in Tokyo Dome, I was really energetic, so I’ll keep that energy and turn towards overseas. Please wait for us.

TOSHI: For these ten years, I toured in different places, working hard in the background. I went to various places, meeting old people and children in orphans' homes. I think the accumulation of these experiences has become my central root, enabling me to play in a venue as big as Tokyo Dome in Japan, and Madison Square Garden overseas. I got so much power from them, so I think I can continue to do my best from now on. I really thank the people who supported me, and I’ll work hard to improve my abilities even more.

YOSHIKI: Thank you for your support in Tokyo Dome over these three days. I hope that we can keep sharing our dreams with all of you. For overseas fans, "Thank you for your support! And we’ll see you guys very soon!"


(After the photo shoot for the press, TOSHI added some comments.)

TOSHI: I forgot to say one thing! In the first live at Tokyo Dome, held on March 28th, the live was delayed more than two hours, and we're very sorry we kept so many people waiting. I said on stage that "YOSHIKI was late," just as a joke (laugh), but I should really, if only for his honor, say that he wasn’t late that day. He was actually the first one there. That day we had many technical problems and the rehearsal was also delayed. We'd put so much work into our preparation, so we wanted to have everything perfect for you. So that’s why we started a little late. Um... it wasn’t a little bit (laughs), we kept you waiting for a long time, so we are very sorry about that.

YOSHIKI: People like blaming things on me! (laughs) Well, that’s fine. It was all me. (laughs)

TOSHI: ...so I beg your forgiveness. (laughs) We’ll continue to work hard from now on, so please keep supporting us. Thank you very much.