Interview ~ MUCC: December 10, 2008
Los Angeles, CA
We caught up with MUCC as they made their fourth appearance in the USA, perfoming lives in both New York and Los Angeles.
Your recent single, Ageha, has some pretty vivid lyrics. Could you tell us what you were feeling? What went through your mind while you were writing it?
Tatsuro: The theme of that song is a little bit erotic. It was fun. It was a different theme.
Ken from L'Arc~en~Ciel produced your next single, Sora to Ito. How did you guys become involved with Ken, and has his producing style changed the direction of your songs?
Tatsuro: First of all, the reason we got involved with Ken is that we have the same management, but the song itself we had already used for the Taste of Chaos Tour. When we came back, the staff and us were listening to it and Ken happened to be there. He listened to it and said "It's cool! Let me produce this!" and that's how Ken got involved. His producing style was that he doesn't want to change the style of the songs at all, so he gave us advice more like "If you change it this way, it might be cooler". He gave us another view of the vision for that song.
MUCC is about to release Live Chronicle 2, a new single, and a new album in March. Can you tell us more about these releases?
Yukke: We haven't released a live DVD for a while and this is the second time that we will be releasing one. We wanted to do it because it's for the new fans of MUCC who didn't know the old live or the newest live, so this is the live footage that nobody has seen. So it's kind of a rare live footage that we collected together. We will release that with the Live Chronicle DVD.
MUCC has been going through many changes throughout the years. You had a rather heavy sound for Kuchiki no Tou, a softer, cleaner sound in Hoyoku, and now a more rave-inspired sound with Shion. What can we expect from the next album?
Tatsuro: Probably more of a rock sound. The song we are making is more like rock. We of course didn't make anything intentionally, but we were doing a lot of tours with a wide range of artists and were influenced by those people. If we don't become influenced by those people, what are we doing?
At the NYC show, you made the audience sit down and then jump up for one of your songs. What's the significance of this?
Tatsuro: It's fun! (laugh) The first time I saw someone do that sort of thing was Slip Knot and Atreyu, and then some band in Japan did it. We do that in Japan as well, so if we do that in Japan why not in the United States? We'll try it this time, and we hope that the audience will get used to it so that they'll do better.
Yukke, you really like mangos huh?
Yukke: (laughs) They taste good! I have 10 mangos backstage right now!
You guys prank'd Miya in the Ageha DVD.
Tatsuro: If you guys see Live Chronicle, you can see them all.
So you guys pulled more pranks?
Yukke: Maybe... you don't know; we might be tricking you.
What is the strangest gift you've ever gotten from a fan?
Tatsuro: Many fans give handmade dolls.
Yukke: And there was one whose face looked exactly like me! And I have instincts with the paranormal, so that I believe that the dolls kind of suck up all the bad energy. Like they're protecting me.
What is the best gift you've ever recieved?
Tatsuro: The difference between Japanese fans and American fans and fans in Europe is that the American and European fans give fanart and it never happens in Japan! So we've been touring everywhere and we get tons of portrait pictures from the fans. It's very unique.
(surprised) I had thought that Japanese fans would really like to do fanart! Have you ever seen a fanart of yourself and you thought it was really weird, strange, even felt embarrassed?
Tatsuro: I did a fanart of Yukke and it's really really funny. So that's one of the fanarts.
What can we expect from MUCC's concert tonight? Newer songs or older songs?
Tatsuro: We just released the album, Shion, so we will play many songs from Shion. And we've been touring a lot as Taste of Chaos lately so we still haven't shown enough from us. We combine new songs and old songs so you can see them all!
You guys like to pick on Yukke a lot! Why?
Tatsuro: (to Yukke) I don't know why! Do you know why? Are you a masochist? (laughs)
Yukke: (to Tatsuro) Why? I don't even know! They only pick on me!
Tatsuro: Well, Yukke has an aura like 'Tease me! Tease me!' But he's not only teased by the MUCC members; it's even true with people who meet him for the first time. They tease him too!
Can we tease you? (laugh)
Yukke: OK!
I'm glad! What message would you like to give to your fans in America?
Tatsuro: Japan is very far from the United States, but the feeling is very similar. Japan is about 40 states and United States is about the same. I feel so close to the United States. I really hope that the U.S. fans can come to Japan to see us more often!
What places would you like to visit in the U.S. that you haven't been able to visit yet?
Tatsuro: Hawaii!
Your song Fuzz played in the movie Cloverfield. How did your song get chosen for that movie?
Tatsuro: The director of Cloverfield likes Japanese music and the Japanese scene so he really wanted to use a Japanese song. That's how he picked us.
So after this tour, will MUCC be coming back to the US? What are your plans for the future?
Tatsuro: We don't have international dates yet, but we've been touring a lot recently, so hopefully we'll be coming back again soon.
Thank you so much for the interview!
Tatsuro & Yukke: Thank you so much!
interview by Antonia; translation by Yaz; photos copyright MUCC
Thank you to MUCC for taking the time to answer our questions.
links
MUCC Official Website
MUCC Official MySpace
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