Interview with BLACK LOVE FANTOM in Moscow

JaME was fortunate to have two interviews with the members of BLACK LOVE FANTOM. The first was with ISAWO, the vocalist and the programmer of the band, before their European tour started in late November.


Before the Tour:

Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

ISAWO: Hi everyone. My name is ISAWO. I do vocals and programming and I play keyboards. I’m also the main lyricist.

BLACK LOVE FANTOM has quite a unique name with its reference to the “Phantom of the Opera”, and the words black and love mixed in. What was the initial concept behind the name and what meaning does it imply now? What is the concept of the band now?

ISAWO: I thought about the name of the band with Kondo, our ex-guitarist, who was the first member of BLF. We intended to come up with a name that would seem to be crazy back then. When thinking about the band name, I cried out "Black" and he cried back "Phantom". We thought that a name like that would sound good. So that’s how "BLACK PHANTOM" was selected. Then I thought it sounded like "The Phantom of the Opera".

I changed the name afterwards whenever there was a member change. When Naoyuki joined the band, the name turned into "BLACK LOVE FANTOM". I thought the design of the logo was very good. And that was it. Then it actually matched our romantic side with our dark side when I put "LOVE" in between. The music I make is entirely love songs basically. Various kinds of love…

You started playing musical instruments at the early age of three, right? Was it under the influence of your parents? What was their role in your establishment as a musician?

ISAWO: I liked Un homme et une femme of Francis Lei. "Dabadabada, Dabadabada…" My mother had a great influence on me. I could turn on a record player by myself since I was three and I’ve listened to Un homme et une femme several hundred times. The record was full of scratches.

And I learned to play piano as a child, I've been playing for ten years. I willingly played Frederic Francois Chopin, Franz Liszt and Claude Achille Debussy. Their music is romantic. I like romantic music.

When did you decide to devote yourself to music? Did you do other work besides music? What are they and for how long?

ISAWO: I started a band when I was a high school student. I played keyboards. I did various jobs - a waiter at a restaurant, a sales person at a CD shop, a security guard… I was a guard at concerts of DURAN DURAN and Prince. I pretended to keep an eye on the audience, but I was watching their concerts. I used to watch a lot of concerts while I was a guard.

Could you please tell us a little about each of the band members? How did you meet Naoyuki? How did you decide to make a band together?

ISAWO: I met Naoyuki at university, he was my senior. I started a cover band of BUCK-TICK with him. We founded separate bands after graduation, and when his band dissolved, I tempted him into BLF.

You started your music career with gothic music. Why is that? And why did you gradually change to your present style? What were the limits of gothic music for you?

ISAWO: I liked BUCK-TICK, Soft ballet, ISSAY… Their music has different styles, not just gothic. I grew interested in it, and I have been influenced by it. Gothic is black. However, the music I made had different colors.

How would you describe your music to those who’ve never listened to it? What is special about it, what makes it different from other bands?

ISAWO: For example… Our genre is "old visual kei". "Old visual kei" is completely different from "neo visual kei" going around in the world recently. We are completely different from them. "Old visual kei" has been influenced by punk, new wave, glam rock, industrial, alternative…

You name lots of bands and artists among those who inspire you, however you especially highlight the influence of David Bowie. In what way did he influence you? What is so special for you in his works?

ISAWO: Bowie is special for me. I prefer Bowie above all other artists. He expressed "Space" for the first time as a rock artist. Bowie made music in a number of genres, and he changed styles like a chameleon at every age. The challenging spirit of his works is wonderful. His work is always pungent, I like all of his works. My favorite of his songs is Space oddity.

You say you like many western bands. In what way, in your opinion, is western music different from Japanese? What are the strong points of western and Japanese music?

ISAWO: It is the melody that differs. The rest is the same. I think that the melody of Japan is peculiar.

You’ve said in one of your interviews that you’re inspired by books and movies. What was the last book or movie that inspired you? What was it about and why did it move you?

ISAWO: Michael Jackson's "This is It". I was really impressed by it.


After the Tour:

After the European tour of BLACK LOVE FANTOM finished, we managed to ask them a couple of questions following the final concert in Moscow, Russia.


Good evening, could you please introduce yourselves?

ISAWO: I am vocalist ISAWO.
NAOYUKI: I am guitarist NAOYUKI.

How did you get the idea to create the band?

ISAWO: I started this band four years ago. NAOYUKI was my senior at the university. We played in different bands for a long time, but when my band-mate left BLACK LOVE FANTOM, I decided to invite NAOYUKI. Now we are working together.

Did you have any projects before BLACK LOVE FANTOM?

ISAWO: I started BLACK LOVE FANTOM and now I'm fully absorbed in it.
NAOYUKI: Before BLF I was a guitarist in maitreya.

Who writes the lyrics and who composes the music?

NAOYUKI: ISAWO writes all the lyrics, and he writes 80% of music. I write the remaining 20%.

Do you have a band leader?

ISAWO: Well, I started it, so I think I am its leader. (laughs)

Are there any interesting facts about the band?

ISAWO: (laughs) Basically everything is monotonous, everything goes very quickly. First we are here, then we are there. We give one concert, and then we go to another without any break.
NAOYUKI: We liked it in Russia very much. There are a lot of interesting things here.
ISAWO: Yes, we have seen a lot of interesting things in the cities where we have performed.

Does your work affect your life?

BLACK LOVE FANTOM: No, music is our life.

Today you played the final concert of the European tour. What are your impressions?

NAOYUKI: We have visited three countries: Russia, Poland, and Hungary. But today we have had our final concert in Moscow, and it was especially good. We are very happy and we are going home with only good impressions.

On your MySpace it says you heard the Russian audience is "very hot and wonderful." Where did you hear that, and it did it turn out to be true?

ISAWO: Yes, very hot. (laughs) We made up this phrase ourselves, because we receive a lot of messages from the Russian fans. Unfortunately, our concert in St. Petersburg was canceled, but we have gotten a lot of messages from people there. They wrote that they were sad the concert was canceled, but they would be waiting for us and hope that we come again. So, the Russian fans give us warm feelings.
NAOYUKI: We love the Russian fans very much.

Today at the concert you introduced your friend Scary. Could you tell anything about him?

ISAWO: He is a BAKA (an idiot). (All laugh) Well, we call him that. He went with us to all the different countries: Poland, Hungary, Russia, and in Moscow we decided to give him a gift and to introduce him on the stage to our fans.

It was very funny.

(All laugh)

ISAWO: (In Russian) Thanks.

You have released the mini-album DEAD LOVE ALIVE this year. How did you choose the name?

ISAWO: At first we wanted to call it "dead or alive", but as all our songs are about love and the name of our band also contains the word "love" in it, we decided to use "love" instead of "or". So, that's how the name DEAD LOVE ALIVE came about.

Did you have any problems recording?

ISAWO: Yes, we had a lot of problems.

How did the audience react to your songs at the concerts?

ISAWO: It seemed to us that everyone enjoyed them.
NAOYUKI: We did not tour a lot of countries, but everywhere we performed we were cheered up by the fans.

The cover of your mini-album is very interesting. Who designed it?

ISAWO: We worked on the design together and then shared our ideas with Satsuki-san, a friend of NAOYUKI's, and she helped us with the cover.

Could you tell us something more about your cooperation with Kazutoshi Yokoyama?

ISAWO: We met at the concert last year. I really like BUCK-TICK, I have always been a fan of theirs. And this acquaintance helped us a lot and advanced our band. We became good friends after that concert and decided to record the album together.

Could you leave a message for our readers?

ISAWO: Thank you very much (in Russian). A lot of kisses for you. I do not say "goodbye", I say "see you again".
NAOYUKI: It was a lot of fun and we will come back to Russia.

Thank you!

BLACK LOVE FANTOM: Thank you!


JaME would like to thank the band, the interpreter and J-Concert Agency for making this interview possible.