Interview with Ken Lloyd

FAKE?, who played in USA a year ago, have recently made their latest album SWITCHING ON X available overseas. JaME had a chance to talk to the frontman Ken Lloyd about this and previous releases, as well as his other band OBLIVION DUST and more upcoming projects.


JaME had an opportunity to have an interview with you a year ago when you came to the AnimeNEXT convention to the US. Could you fill us in on what you have been up to since then?

Ken Lloyd: With regards to FAKE?, two days after AnimeNEXT, I was back on a plane to England, where I recorded the last FAKE? album SWITCHING ON X and stayed there pretty much for six months. Came back, released the album, and did a few shows in Japan. And from there we've pretty much been discussing and working on getting the band out overseas, which is a pretty high priority for me right now.

Your latest album SWITCHING ON X is available to overseas audiences. Some can perceive “X” as a variable or unknown. Can you explain the meaning behind the name chosen for the album?

Ken Lloyd: Because “X” is so broad you can go with anything. And I like that, I like that people can get their own meanings from things. But initially the whole concept with “X” is about planet Earth and space and all that stuff. The major meaning for “X” is, you know Planet X? There’s this mystery planet that is supposedly going around in orbit in space but no one can find it. It’s like this mysterious planet that supposedly has a lot of meaning to do with the Earth but no one can find it so they don’t know if it’s real. The concept for the album is loosely based around that. Although I didn’t go too much into detail because a lot of that stuff is conspiracy theory. But that was the main reference behind “X”. But it could be taken in any way. I usually have two meanings, three meanings, and I don’t usually say “Hey, this is what it’s all about” because I like people to have their own meanings for songs.

The cover art of SWITCHING ON X depicts you blindfolded and screaming. What is the meaning behind this cover art?

Ken Lloyd: It’s the first FAKE? cover that I’d been on personally, where I’ve shown my face, although I’m hiding my eyes. Rather than the concept with the artwork it’s more that I was really comfortable with showing myself on the album cover this time. I’ve never been comfortable with that, I’ve never liked showing myself because I’ve always had this thing where the music comes first. All the image and showing that side did not appeal to me. But I kind of had a change of mind. I was really comfortable with showing myself this time because I felt that we’d just made the best FAKE? album that we’ve ever done. I think it’s the best album I’ve done period. It's also an album that I think best describes my inner world without any kind of distortion. So that’s the reason. It was an album that I felt comfortable truly showing myself, rather than having to do with the concept theme of X.

Many fans were anxious over how well the previous album, MARILYN IS A BUBBLE would compare to Switching on X, often favouring previous work. You said you think it is the best album so far. Could you tell us what is special about it? What makes it different from previous releases?

Ken Lloyd: I think that every artist thinks that their latest album is the best. But this time, it's because I went to England and worked with all these musicians who are really great in their own way. For example, I worked with Youth, who is one of the top producers in England. The drummer and the guitarist, the programmer and all those people, they have been doing really great bands and they’ve seen it all, in terms of the worldwide thing. I’ve been in Japan and I’ve worked with lots of famous musicians over here so I know the Japanese perspective. But I’ve never really properly worked with top foreign musicians. And they were saying “Why aren’t you over here, why aren’t you in England doing all this stuff?”. So that was a big boost for me, because I’ve never tested out my music. I never knew we even had a foreign audience until we did the MySpace page for OBLIVION DUST and then did the MySpace page for FAKE? and we had all these people writing things like come to Chile or Russia and so on. I didn’t know, I didn’t realise because for about twelve years I’d been concentrating on doing music over here. I never even knew there was this whole audience overseas. That was another reason why I wanted to do it in England.

So you feel that it's more global than the previous works?

Ken Lloyd: I think all of our stuff is global, but in terms of testing it out with global people, I think it passes the test. During the whole recording process, I knew I was doing something good. Sometimes when you are recording an album you’re like “hmm, I don’t know...” but then it turns out well so you’re happy, but with this album, from the very start I was just really comfortable, really relaxed about how it would turn out. It just felt like it was the right album.

In your previous album MARILYN IS A BUBBLE, you sang the song Butterfly as a duet with Tsuchiya Anna. Are there any artists you would like to collaborate with from now on?

Ken Lloyd: Yeah... There are so many musicians that are so good that you can’t really fit everyone in, so you have to kind of pick... And if they want to work with you - great, lets do it, that’s my vibe. Usually I work with people I know really well. Because making music is really intimate, you can’t just grab someone that you think is cool as a musician, because you don’t know them at all, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the studio. I’d known Anna for a long time before that, I knew she was really cool and had the right voice for the song, so that’s how that came about. Right now I have two more things going on with other musicians. I can’t talk about it much, but that’s another thing I’ve been busy doing this year.

So we can look forward to more collaborations?

Ken Lloyd: Yes, definitely. But these musicians aren't in the same vein as INORAN, Tsuchiya Anna, BUCK-TICK and so on. It’s a totally different kind of thing and just another new direction I want to add into what I do.

Although some years have passed and FAKE? has made several releases with the current line-up, some fans still relish the loss of INORAN. What are your thoughts on this?

Ken Lloyd: I understand it. When INORAN decided to leave he left a big hole. On the other hand it’s a little bit frustrating for me because when INORAN was in the band I still wrote like 70% of the songs, and I wrote all but one single. I understand that people are like “INORAN should be in the band” but it was his choice and there’s nothing I can really do about it. it's also a little frustrating that some people are like “No, FAKE? used to be better with INORAN“ because in terms of song-writing it hasn’t been that big of a difference to be honest. With MARILYN IS A BUBBLE and SONGS FROM BEELZEBUB, which were the two albums I made after INORAN left, I made a conscious decision not to fill that hole that he left with. Rather than going the route of “What kind of guitar would he play here?” and so on, I decided to go the opposite way and totally change the sound quality. I made it rough and gritty and experimental. Those two albums were really raw compared to the glossy sounding previous albums. That was a conscious decision, but unfortunately some people took that as “Oh INORAN left and so they changed this much”. I do understand that some fans miss him and the way they feel about it, but I also have to move on with my life and music, you know?

So how do you feel about creating music by yourself versus with a partner? Do you feel it is more stimulating to have a partner or do you prefer being more independent?

Ken Lloyd: I like both. That’s why I have two bands. FAKE? is where I can push the music 100% the way I want it to go. If I wanted to make some cartoony song, I’d have no one to oppose me, or if I wanted to add techno or rap or whatever, I can do that. With OBLIVION DUST I get the enjoyment of working with other people, bouncing ideas off each other. I’m fulfilled in both ways and I think you need both of that. Sometimes I take what I’ve learned in OBLIVION DUST and use it for FAKE? and I’ve brought stuff I’ve learned in FAKE? to OBLIVION DUST. I think both are really important and I’m just really lucky to be able to do both.

Your music combines many, often unlikely genres together to create something new. What techniques do you use when creating your style?

Ken Lloyd: Just listen, listen, listen... Listen to everything and anything, I listen to music that I don’t even like. For example I'm not really into classical music because my parents liked it and it was on all the time. I’m just a bit sick of it. But even classical music, there is so much you can learn from, so I try and listen to it as much as I can handle. I think that’s the secret, because if you only listen to one type of music, that’s the only influence you’re going to have.

So what genres would you be listening to most for inspiration currently?

Ken Lloyd: Dance. I try to follow what’s new, I don’t really listen to too much heavy metal, thrash, death metal, whatever, that’s too heavy for me. I guess right now it would be the dance scene.

Who would you consider your biggest musical influence generally?

Ken Lloyd: When I was in highschool I used to listen to Manic Street Preachers, but I kind of liked them more for their attitude. I liked all the bands that had a “fuck-you” attitude, like The Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers, Rage Against the Machine, all those bands that were really angry and full of emotion. But I think in general, my main influence is what I get from interacting with people. Just talking to people, watching them move, watching movies, I get more influence from the outside world than music itself. Musically, it’s more subconscious. It’s like I’m influenced but I don’t realise it.

You mentioned movies. Are there any movies you can watch over and over for inspiration, or are you always looking for new movies to draw from?

Ken Lloyd: I watch the PIXAR movies all the time. I’m not like one of these guys who are like “Oh yeah David Lynch...amazing”, I don’t try and go out of my way to try and be avant-garde, I kind of like the simple ones, like children’s animation or books, or children’s movies. Just because it’s a free for all, there are no rules in those stories. Like Alice in Wonderland, who would have thought of something like that? And the only people that can really accept it are children because they are so open-minded because and completely free in their way of thinking. That’s why I like the PIXAR movies, because they are made for kids, even though adults can understand them and relate to them as well. I watch those movies all the time. Just to keep me pure, you know (laughs).

Back to the music, in 2008, you released the successful Girl In Mono single as OBLIVION DUST. Do you have any other plans following that single?

Ken Lloyd: We were supposed to make an album after that. But K.A.Z suddenly joined VAMPS so that kind of threw those plans out. But next year, I think, L’arc~en~Ciel are going to be moving so that gives us a chance to work with K.A.Z again. This year has been a bit of a weird year of mostly working behind the scenes and getting ready for next year, because I’ve got two main bands to do, and I’ve got these other things I’ve mentioned. Next year we’ll be doing shows because everyone wants to see us live, so we'll probably start with that and then see what happens. I think we’ll release something, it might not be an album but who knows. I’ve got to talk with K.A.Z and RIKIJI about that.

How you balance work between the two projects?

Ken Lloyd: It wasn't supposed to be too hard. The way I thought of it three years ago when I decided to reform OBLIVION DUST, we all had our thing where we’d do OBLIVION DUST one year and the next year we’d go do our own separate stuff and we’d just keep doing it in cycles. Hopefully we can get back on that because that was the original plan we discussed. But FAKE? and OBLIVION DUST, because we’ve reached a certain level we are not the kind of bands that just go out and do fifty shows at small venues, it’s more spread out, we take our time with things, recording takes time... So there’s always time to pop in a few things. I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a problem, once we work out some of the details.

You don’t play fifty shows in small venues you said, do you not miss playing at smaller live houses?

Ken Lloyd: I do, but it’s kind of hard because if you do small places people aren’t going to be able to get in. I’d rather do one big show, because we don’t play live as much as we probably should, I’d rather have everyone happy than have people not be able to get in and then they won’t be able to see us for another year. Maybe we’ll do a whole bunch of small shows, you never know, it depends on everyone else in terms of OBLIVION DUST, that’s something I can’t decide on my own.

It is impressive how you can keep the musical style of OBLIVION DUST and FAKE? different. How do you manage it?

Ken Lloyd: I don’t try to. For example if I’m writing in a studio It's not like “Ok, I’m going to write an OBLIVION DUST song” or “I’m going to do a FAKE? song”, I don’t do that. When I start writing I just start writing. When the song is done, that's when I decide “Well, this seems like OBLIVION DUST, I’ll keep this for OBLIVION DUST and play it to K.A.Z next week” and if it seems like a FAKE? song I just keep it as a FAKE? song. I’m always writing, I’m constantly in the studio, so gradually it builds up. And then when you’ve got to do an album you just look back and you pick out all the ones that seem to fit and that kind of separates the two. The original writing process is not a conscious thing.

You seem to be using many social networks on the Internet and I have read about you saying that with the advancement of the Internet the world is becoming more borderless. However, on the Internet, there are also such things as illegal downloads and the like. What are your thoughts about this and the influence of the Internet on your work in general?

Ken Lloyd: This gets me into trouble, but I’ll just be honest. Because I didn’t know that we had an audience outside of Japan until really recently, I didn’t really care too much if people were illegally downloading or not because at least people were listening to the songs. As a musician your main thing is that you want as many people to listen to your songs. And if they’re not able to listen to it without illegal downloading than fuck it, just do it, just listen to it. Now however, we do have our stuff out in terms of SWITCHING ON X being a worldwide release, so of course I want people to legally listen to our stuff. That’s my honest answer. But I do sympathize, because when I was 15, 16, 17 I went through the same things like not having the money or not being able to get music from overseas, the record store didn’t have it and so on. I understand how people might feel it’s not such a bad thing, so I try to be as fair as I can with that stuff. But that’s why we worked really hard to try to get it overseas, so people could get it legally and so it would be good if they could get it legally (laughs). But as a musician I want as many people to listen to it. Put it this way though, if you dig the music of a certain band, especially an up and coming one, and would like to keep hearing new material from that band, you should pay for their music because that's the only way they're gonna be able to continue making music. Without that, they would all die out.

Your Facebook page shows interaction between you and your listeners. What is the importance of it and do you perhaps draw any inspiration from your fans?

Ken Lloyd: When I came to Japan, I came without a goal, I didn’t really have aspirations to be a musician and I kind of stumbled upon it. I came to Japan because I wanted to meet people. I mean that’s why most people travel right? You travel to meet people and learn about other cultures, and like everyone else that’s why I came to Japan. By going into music, I thought that I would be able to meet lots of people and interact with them. But it’s a weird business in Japan, they want you to keep a certain distance from fans, it’s weird and I had trouble with that, a lot of trouble. I was told it’s the Japanese way to not be easily accessible. So I had a big problem with this for a long time. It's only recently, after I’ve gotten out of certain companies and contracts, that I've been able to be completely free, as a musician, and even as a businessman. And so I wanted to get back in with meeting people. There’s no real objective for me doing that stuff, it’s not like any kind of conscious business decision or anything like that, it’s more that I want to talk with people and I want to see what people think, and I want to hear what they think about the album, and I’m just really interested in how people live their lives. I just want to know, how is it working out for you? Like, hey this is how I’m doing it, how are you doing it? And that’s been much easier to do with all the Facebook, MySpace and Twitter sites on the internet. I really enjoy it, but it’s got nothing to do really with music at all. I mean, people know me because of the music, so it’s a big part of it, but in terms of my motivation for doing it, it’s more of a personal thing. I sincerely enjoy hearing about what people do and how they are getting through their lives, what kind of new ways they have, and that inspires me. To hear things like “I’m doing this right now”, “I spent a year in Sri Lanka”, stuff like that inspires me and I enjoy it, and I’ve got no one telling me not to do it anymore.

You have also got a personal deviantART account. Is this just something you like to do as a hobby?

Ken Lloyd: Yeah, well I met these fans that were really artistically minded through the web. They wanted to do stuff to promote FAKE? or OBLIVION DUST in their own artistic way so they set up a group. It kind of goes back to the last question, but I just thought "yeah that sounds cool, I’ll do it, can I join in as well?" I had been meaning to get back into art, because I’d been concentrating so much on the music for the last fifteen years that I hadn’t been able to do anything else. When I was back in England recording for SWITCHING ON X, Youth was always drawing in the studio, and that inspired me, I was like "man, I really need to get back to doing my art." It was just perfect timing, these guys said “we set up a deviantART group” and I was like “What is deviantART? Wow, can I do it?”. That's really how that all began. I haven’t been able to spend as much time on it as I want to recently, but at least I’m in there. I'm in a community and if I have a week off or something I can go in and do stuff. Becoming part of their deviantART group has got me learning new things such as Photoshop and Illustrator, which has now got me starting new things and coming up with new ideas for FAKE?. Everything eventually connects with what I do.

So do you have any plans to branch out of the music industry, for example into art or acting?

Ken Lloyd: Not acting, no way, no. (laughs)

Why not?

Ken Lloyd: This is like a pet peeve, but I really don’t like it when musicians try and act, and I also don’t like it when actors try and do music. I think it’s a little bit disrespectful to the people that are actually musicians and actors. That’s one of the reasons I would never act, because I feel actors spend their whole lives working on it, it’s like an art, it’s like a craft, and just because I’ve released a few CDs and someone offers me a job because I'm a little bit known... I mean there are so many other people who can do that job better than me. Another reason is, I can’t be bothered (laughs). But the main reason is that, and it’s the same way I feel about actors who have become really successful and a record company offers them to record an album, and most of the time they don’t even write the songs. It’s their life and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I would never do it. There are so many young bands looking for contracts, and they deserve that contract more. I feel like it’s a kind of cutting in the queue thing. The same goes for acting, there are so many actors that would be a million times better than me that I’d never do it. But if people want to do it, that’s fine, I’m not gonna protest it, it’s just something I wouldn’t want to get involved with. As for art, yes sure, if I can find the time. The music is my main thing, and if that’s cleared and I have time off, I’d love to do some art.

I’ve heard that you are a big American football fan, how did you get into the sport, considering you grew up...

Ken Lloyd: In England? I was very weird from when I was small and I never liked things that people liked. I would always chose stuff that no one was into. And in England everyone likes football, like the “normal” football, soccer. One day I was watching TV and I just decided I think I like this sport. There’s no real big reason, I just thought wow I’ve never seen anything like this, people knocking against each other in helmets, and there are those monsters that are like 300 pounds, wow ok I like this.

And do you play it yourself?

Ken Lloyd: No. I played around in highschool, but I was too small. Originally I wanted to be a football player, but then when I was fifteen I realised no, I’m too small for this, gonna get my head ripped off.

You are one of the few musicians with a half-Japanese parentage. Has it affected you as a musician? What are the upsides and downsides of it?

Ken Lloyd: The upside is that I have a unique prospective on things. I can always look at Japan from the outside and I can look at it from the inside, and I can also look at England from the outside and the inside. Looking at your country from the outside gives you a more balanced perspective because you’re not so attached to it. So you can see all the good and bad things about a place that some people might not be able to. So I see that as the good side. The downside is, you’re not really accepted. No matter how close I get to Japan, there is always going to be a part of me that feels like a foreigner. And then you go to England and it’s the same way. You’re always struggling to find where your home is. But that’s something I’ve always had inside of me and that’s one reason why I’m not patriotic, I really don't consider anywhere to be my home. And that’s probably why I was able to leave England just like that and come to Japan. I was like “Hey, I want to see the Japanese half of me”, rather than “I want to stay here! I’m English, I’m here for the rest of my life.” I love England, I love Japan, but I just don’t feel attached to either. So that’s a possible downside I guess.

So you’re not more at home in England or Japan?

Ken Lloyd: No, they’re the same. I mean I’d probably be just as home if I was in India if I spent two-three years there. My view is that we are on this planet Earth and because of the internet, because we have planes, communication and so on, I think the barriers and borders are disappearing. You look at England and there are so many different nationalities there, I love England for that reason, because it’s so open and accepting. I think it’s becoming less meaningful to be patriotic. I mean you can love your country, there’s nothing wrong with that, but just love your other countries as well, you’re living on planet Earth.

Can you tell us the plans FAKE? has for the near future?

Ken Lloyd: We have one remaining FAKE? show at the end of the year with RIKI from OBLIVION DUST playing bass for us, so we're really excited about that. With OBLIVON DUST starting back up next year and some other projects in the works for me, next year is going to be pretty busy for me. So we're spending most of the year getting ready and scheduling things out so I can do all of these things in a smooth way. Hopefully we can announce some things before the end of the year. Other than that, we'll continue working on the whole overseas thing, including merchandise and so on. This year I've been pretty low key, working mostly underground and setting things up, but I will definitely make up for it next year.

Finally, could you give a message to our readers?

Ken Lloyd: All power to the readers of JaME because I think they are a really open-minded and borderless group, so more power to you. Keep checking FAKE? and OBLIVION DUST, and other stuff I do, and hopefully I can help be a part of leading the way to creating a borderless community.


JaME would like to thank FAKE? and their management for making this interview possible. Special thanks to Farah, jessieface and anna.