MiA for ROCK AND READ vol. 48
Translation: Ariane & Seisohime
Translation: Ariane & Seisohime
- It’s your first appearance in our magazine, that’s why I’d like to speak about everything from your childhood until now.
MiA: Pleased to meet you. It will be the first chance to take a look on my family record. My home town is Chiba, but I think the place, where I was born was Shibuya’s Hiroo. But when I was in kindergarten we moved to Kanagawa. And this is where I grew up. My family is my mom, dad and me – so 3 people in total. Both mom and dad are typical parents (laughs). It’s really, really typical family (laughs) But in the past dad wanted to work in industry connected to entertainment.
- He wanted to be for example an actor?
MiA: Nope. The backstage staff. He wanted to work on something not connected to front stage like production or management, backstage works, in this kind of job. But he married my mom really early, he was about my actual age, so he gave up on his dreams. If he was working in entertainment, his working hours would be irregular, he would have to go on business trips and even in view of money it would cause many hard times to my mom, that’s why he decided to go to normal work.
- Didn’t dad try to fulfill his dreams with you, MiA-kun?
MiA: Not at all. But when I started saying that I want to play the guitar, he didn’t stop me. But he didn’t support me enthusiastically either (laughs), he rather understood me.
- Your high school, it was Hinode High School, right?
MiA: Right. It was my dad, who recommended me to go there. It’s a school attended by many young people aiming for working in entertainment business, so he thought I could study guitar well there. But I anyway wasn’t able to study (laughs). In junior high school my report card was full of 1 (laughs). I was so bad in studying that there is nothing to brag about. That’s why, when my parents saw I got absorbed by guitar, they calmed a little bit (laughs).
- What was your dream, when you were a child?
MiA: When I was a child I wanted to be a K1 fighter or SDF member. Since I wanted to become strong, from first year of elementary school I was training karate.
- Why you wanted to become strong?
MiA: I wanted to exercise, but I also didn’t like guys, who were bullying weak people. Of course there are such guys also at school, so deep in my heart I was thinking „One day I will get it out their heads”. And this was the reason I wanted to become strong. So I was training, the more the better, and was able to become strong, but I also liked karate. But I put the dream of becoming martial art master away because of PC games, by which I was attracted (laughs). On 6th year of elementary school I was so addicted that I didn’t nothing but played games in the Internet. I stopped caring about karate, K1 or even SDF (laughs). And till the moment I met guitar - the end of 1st class in junior high school – I only played games. My grades were bad, but my results in games were great (laughs). I was even leading hundreds of people teams and I became 1st player from thousands users on the server! It was a game about castle sieges (laughs).
- Internet games……? It’s their age now. What was the reason to look for the guitar?
MiA: I became really attached to Do As Infinity’s “Honjitsu wa seiten nari”, when I listened to it.
- MiA-kun, you like western heavy metal and hard rock, that’s why you wished to become the guitarist of that kind of band?
MiA: No no no, the truth is that the reason I started playing guitar was Do As Infinity. When I went with a friend of mine to game center, they’ve added this song to Drum Mania, so we played it and I became attracted by the sound of guitar. Unusually for Do As Infinity, guitar in this song was really distorted and cool. I thought “Oh, this song, I want to play the real guitar!”. And at the next day I went to CD shop to buy CDs and scores. I absolutely wanted the guitar, I didn’t mind if it’s cheap or not, so I begged my parents and they bought me one. From that moment I started seeing only my guitar, nothing else, so of course I stopped playing Internet games. Each day I did nothing but played the guitar. I loved it, I loved.
- Did you want to start a band?
MiA: I thought about it. I really wanted a place I could play, and I put up “Band Member Wanted” ads online for people to contact and join that way, but because of my age I was turned down by all of them. I would get contacted for writing “Aiming to Go Pro,” but because my age was so young no one would even meet me. I said, “Dammit! Just f—king hear me out!” I was so vexed. So, I gave up on searching for band members online and formed a band with some friends from my hometown. In the summer of my second year of middle school, we entered a contest put on by Yamaha, but it was the first live we did.
- Did you guys write your own songs from the start?
MiA: No. We started out as a copy band. The vocalist was a guy, but because of my ego we did Do As Infinity covers (laughs). After that, I wanted to learn guitar from the basics, so I went to a guitar class. The teacher was a big metalhead and taught us to practice materials by copying musicians like Ozzy Ozborne. From that I started to like metal too, and started doing Deep Purple in addition to Do As Infinity in our copy band.
- That’s another huge swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction (laughs).
MiA: The truth is I wanted to be in a band that was genuinely original, but because I didn’t have any members who would make a band like that with me, from my second year in middle school until the end of my third year I only did that copy band. We would perform at contests and sometimes we would play at a venue and get our friends to buy tickets normally. But, even though everyone said they seriously wanted to be in a band and go pro, after we got to our third year in junior high school, they said they had to study for entrance exams and then they stopped coming to practice altogether. I got so mad and said, “do you even seriously want to be in a band?”
- Did you have your own definite vision for yourself?
MiA: I wanted to make enough of a living playing guitar to be able to get food to eat, but during that time I wasn’t really thinking that I wanted to be in a band. I wanted to be a studio musician and a composer who provides music, because I wanted to play guitar somehow. I mean, you can’t really be in a band by yourself, right? There are people with different kinds of personalities, and for that reason you can put out sounds together, completing a song. That’s really hard work. To the point that if someone says anything extreme, I want to do everything by myself (laughs). That way it feels so much easier because you can do everything 100% to your own satisfaction.
- It seems like you like music more than being in a band.
MiA: Yes. Genuinely putting all my might into doing a good music performance is probably the number one state I want to be in. Because of that, because I wanted to be active as a pro musician, when everyone was studying for entrance exams during our third year of middle school, I joined an agency. If I hadn’t entered an entertainment company then it would be difficult to get in during high school.
- In that entertainment agency, did you join as a guitarist?
MiA: Yes, I did. Because I entered as a guitarist, I was told that a band called Xiongmao was holding auditions for a support guitarist and that I had to try out, and from there I was selected and had my major debut. That’s when I was 15 years old and a freshman in high school. At Hinode, there are tons of students who balance celebrity work and school. In my class, and even now, there were a lot of kids who were really active as TV personalities and pop stars and so on. If they didn’t come to class, it meant they were busy with work. Missing school a lot had meaning, it gave you status. In that manner, even though I didn’t have that much work, I would miss school by saying things like, “I have band practice today so I can’t go.”
- I see. So you didn’t really have a typical high school experience, then.
MiA: That’s right. Being called the internet generation, there was a “school noticeboard” kind of thing that was like a 2channel for ordinary schools, and on it there was some malicious bullying and stuff. But because it was a school for celebrities, if there was a message posted about you or something there was no special meaning attached to it. Actually, you felt that you were getting recognized if your name was written there, so rather than get depressed about it or feel like you were the target of bullying, you just wondered if it was because it was a unique school. It was commonsense to everyone that being the topic [of such a message] was the best. I think that’s the way to accept it.
- It sounds like it. The only way to accept it is to change your feelings for the most part.
MiA: Everyone had a different kind of occupation, but I think that I had an awareness of rivalry somewhere. In that, for some reason even if I absolutely sold, there was nothing about me, so I would get really depressed everyday when I heard stories about everyone. Where I worked, if you’re pro you can get someone to play the guitar for you, so there’s no leniency and it’s really strict. Rather than pursue my own playing style and perspectives like that, I worked as hard as possible to catch up with general demand.
- You didn’t want to run away from it all?
MiA: No, I didn’t think like that. It was really painful for me, but I loved the guitar. Besides, I like driving myself forward by being hard on myself. That way will never be ineffective. It’s the same with karate, because I struggled against myself. I really like that kind of pain.
- I would have thought there would be the alternative option of putting together an independent band. You didn’t want to do that?
MiA: When challenging myself, I wanted a place to play the guitar, but I didn’t have an extreme desire to put together a band. But I wanted excitement and I would show up at live houses where band guys got together and I would do a lot of sessions. That’s where I first became good friends with some band friends who I’m still really close to, and later on when I decided to be in a band, that’s where I met the members of Toon Factory.
- I understand now. Did you have an interest in the Visual scene?
MiA: After I got into western heavy metal, I did some research to see if there was the same kind of scene in japan as well, and I thought the Visual-kei scene put out the closest sound. Because of that, I went to places where there were a lot of people from that scene, put together a band, and did lives and that sort of thing. Everyone comes to look for members that way, and I was able to meet a lot of people and have fun.
- Did you get into Toon Factory just by saying you wanted to join?
MiA: Yes. They were short exactly one guitarist and were looking for a new member, so I ended up joining.
- However, Toon Factory was a pop-sounding band, wasn’t it? There weren’t any elements of metal or rapid shredding. Was there any opposition to your musicianship?
MiA: No, there wasn’t. Overall I was happy I could play the guitar, and beyond being a guitarist, I wasn’t picky, I just thought I had to be playing something. On top of that, I started because of Do As Infinity, so I like pop things, too. Inside, when I make music I’m not only aware of how heavy it is, but I’m also generally conscious of how catchy the melody is. Personally, I enjoy songs that are heavy through and through, but I want to write songs that will fit anyone’s preference and I know I can’t do by writing only hard and heavy songs. Besides that, back in the day Toon Factory was popular, it seemed like I could learn with the aspect of disciplining myself, so I thought I had a chance. After I joined [Toon Factory] we really had a lot of chances—we were often covered in magazines, we performed in V-ROCK FESTIVAL… But the cap of reality and the actual state of things couldn’t put up with the pressure.
- ”The cap of reality and the actual state of things?”
MiA: Yeah. We started appearing in magazines and we had more and more bookings, but people would show up late to practice, and there would be times when practice would be cut altogether……Just like the band I put together in junior high school, I had the same feeling like something just wasn’t right. I said, “Guys, you say you’re willing to give it everything you’ve got to go pro, but do you really have the motivation to take this band seriously?” I didn’t think that they were truly doing it out of interest alone. Because of fans and being covered in magazines, locally the number people who knew us increased and everyone supported us, but we still had to try harder. At the time my stomach began to ache as the idea that we were betraying the people who supported us grew stronger and stronger. But I had joined the band later than the others and I was the youngest, so I couldn’t voice my opinions; I had no idea what to do.
- You didn’t think of quitting?
MiA: Since the time I was selected I was going to see things through to the very end. I thought surely I must be able to do something.
- Because you were able to play the guitar?
MiA: There was that, too. As far as Toon Factory is concerned, the band had a set color and style of music and so on, so they told me not to wail on the guitar. I did get a little stressed that I couldn’t shred (laughs). But it was okay for me to let off steam that way when practicing by myself or doing sessions, so it was no big deal. Later, around this time, I kept myself busy like I had too many things to think of doing, and it was only because of that that I didn’t have to worry about my focus. I’m the kind of person who thinks it’s best to do a lot of things if you have free time when you’re having problems and feeling down, so I took it upon myself to stay busy. I’d say, “There’s no way I’m going down yet! I can take this!”
- That sounds like you, that inner will to fight that you keep to yourself. You’re always proactive and the feelings you show aren’t violent, so others don’t sense your will to fight.
MiA: Right. Because outwardly, I’m not usually the type to put others down (laughs). Maybe it’s weaker, but I think I seem like the type who is easily overwhelmed and soon depressed, and I shy away from saying even a little. I guess you could say I’m seen as being flighty.
- Unfortunately there are a lot of people who judge by appearances. If asked, I’d say I’m the same type as you. I totally get what you mean. Similarly, I don’t show my will to fight outwardly, I deliberately laugh like an idiot but I think and live inside like, “someday I’ll show you!”
MiA: I’m the same. Even if you put pressure on people or threaten them without any real capability, it doesn’t do anything to help you. Someday the mask you use as a disguise is going to come off. Besides, what you do to others is going to come back to you. People who truly have real capabilities don’t do small-minded things. People are vast. I respect them, so I think that even without threatening them or stringing them along with intimidation, many will come together and support you, and they will stay to the end. But people who aren’t like that can’t survive without threatening others. It’s the same with people who are entirely reliant upon others, I think they’re superficial. I guess because it’s easy to see. There are tons of people out there who think “It’s fine if this guy suffers from getting picked on.”
- Those kinds of people are the ones who do a complete 180 in front of people of position or who have made a name for themselves.
MiA: That’s right (laughs). Honestly, it’s almost funny how easy it is to see what they’re really like! If it’s a person who finds themselves difficult to approach, they can’t see themselves doing it. Because of that I think it’s a good thing to have this (my) kind of character. When letting the person I’m with pick on me, I can show them I like them and think, “Oh, he’s this kind of person.” So, I’m fine accepting those kinds of actions. Actually, in those times I think “Just you wait and see!” and I try harder and am able to improve myself. So, I don’t actually hate this character I have of being the guy who gets picked on. Instead, I can think of it as I’m gaining something.
- You’re quite the philosopher (laughs). I didn’t think of that as something enjoyable until I reached the age of 40. When I was young I was always so vexed, I couldn’t bear it. Many times my writing was replaced because I was told male writers are expected to write sentences that are hard-liners. In the past people from various places in charge who were depended on, such as editors and publishers, also began to replace themselves as the writers.* Each time that urge to fight would well up in me and say, “Just you wait and see, you assholes are gonna get it one day!”
MiA: I completely understand what you mean. I’m the same. I’ll be smiling on the outside, but there are so many people I’ve killed off in my heart of hearts (laughs). But I think an individual grows through that feeling of vexation. You won’t try your hardest if you don’t have that feeling. For me, I don’t waste time and I keep myself thoroughly busy all the time to avoid any open intervals for this reason. I want to do things in one year that others spend ten years doing. If I were to say more, I want to live now with the knowledge of a 60 year old.
-Heh. That sounds just like you. Speaking of, what else did you do while you were attending high school, doing Toon Factory, and doing session bands?
MiA: I was working part time at Rockmaykan in Meguro, I was also accepted to do work as a roadie, and apart from high school I wanted to gain expertise about guitar and music theory, so I was also going to the vocational school I just had a photoshoot with today (MI JAPAN)—everyday was full of activity for me. I at least wanted to properly manage everything. I think it’s really fortunate, having a packed schedule. While being thankful there, I want to better myself.
- So you’re the type to run for the long-haul while putting out the exertion and speed of someone running short-range.
MiA: That’s right. If I don’t, I get anxious. If I’m not busy I can’t help but feel anxious. It seems like I’ll be no good as a person. I always want to discipline myself, and I feel like I can change if I do my best.
- That’s absolutely true. I feel the same way. Being in Mejibray, you can just tell them what you want to do, right?
MiA: Yes. With Mejibray I also joined after becoming a member, but now I can put out the things I want to do, like the style and the musicianship. The members also really see eye-to-eye by going all out in their abilities in regards to music.
- What would you say is your ultimate goal?
MiA: Of course, with Mejibray I want to play packed shows at big venues, but my bigger dream is that I want to put on a performance. I don’t want to just be in a band, I want to aim for a much more vast form of entertainment. Composing good songs, getting dolled-up, staging everything so it’s really flashy, putting on a good musical performance—naturally everyone aims to do those things if they intend to go pro, but it seems like it’s way too simple and boring if that’s all you do. The lyrics Tsuzuku writes are really conceptual, and I think Mejibray is a group with a really definite character to it, so it should be easy to put on a good act. That’s why I want to pursue that world view more and more, and embody it as well. I want Mejibray to become a comprehensive entertainment group.
- A theatrical touch in it? Like rock opera and progressive rock?
MiA: Yeah, like that. Something like Alice Cooper. There are so any things I want to do! I haven’t given up on my dreams of being a studio musician or a producer yet. There are so many things I want to accomplish that I’m worried I won’t be able to do them all before I die.
- How about your feelings concerning the guitar?
MiA: They’re definitely there. Because there are so many things I want to do, I want to practice the guitar and expand the things I want to do. I have to be good. I want to get to the point where play the guitar in a profound way, as if everyone were interested in what I’m playing. As someone who expresses themselves through their music. Someday I want to try to present comprehensive entertainment with what I have inside me now. I’ll do my best!
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* Previously in Japanese business culture, the company was seen as being more important than the skills and qualifications of an individual, as opposed to Western business culture where personal achievement is highly valued. It would not be considered strange for a person’s name to be replaced on an article with the publishing company’s name or title of a person of high-rank who works for said company in Japan. While it may be frustrating from a Westerner’s perspective, this is seen as contributing to a larger whole (the company), reflecting Japan’s group culture philosophies. Therefore, even if the original writer’s name is replaced on the article, the fact that he/she worked for such an outstanding company should be (according to Japanese thought) status enough in itself. Recently, however, this idea is changing, and more people in Japan are starting to value an individual’s talents and work ethic.