Interviu An Cafe APRIL 11, 2009 LOS ANGELES, CA

An Cafe made their third appearance here in the US as part of their world tour, with three stops in California. We decided to ask them a little about their travel experiences when we sat down with them this time.



A lot of these questions came from reading your blog of the tour! So lets talk about those experiences! Our theme is travel!

TERUKI!

Teruki: YES?! (band laughs)


Teruki, I heard you lost your digital camera in Mexico?

Teruki: (laughs) Yeah I did. I was really flustered when I discovered it, like "Oh no, where's my camera at?" But I was uploading photos throughout the trip so I only lost two days of photos.


Also, in your blog you stated that the tour has brought out your sound more and that each member's thinking has changed. What did you mean by that?

Teruki: What I mean by that is not so much that the sound has changed, but throughout the tour the members' mindset has changed. Each member is playing with their own feelings and the sound and performance each member gives kind of reflects that change.


Last time we asked you about what Jpop you listen to. What music have you been listening to a lot of on this tour?

Yuki: Kumi Koda

Miku: Ayumi Hamasaki, T.M. Revolution

Kanon: (long pause) Um, Otaku music... (band members laugh)


Otaku music? You mean anime music?

Kanon: Yeah, well it's like... Songs from anime, like furi songs. Or um, basically theme songs.


OK. Takuya?

Takuya: Glay, and a lot of other various stuff. I listen to a lot of music.

Teruki: Sofia, and Takui Nakajima. Have you heard of him? He's a visual kei artist.


I went to one of your shows in Japan. And there was the underwear check segment during Duck no Magical Adventure. Do you incorporate things like these into the international shows too?

Miku: Yeah we're always doing Duck no Magical Adventure in our international shows, so when you go to the show you can see it. But um, as for the underwear check, we don't do this internationally. (laughs) It's our policy. And we even stopped doing the underwear check in our live shows in Japan too.




Your outfits for this tour are the same as the ones you wore in the AROMA music video. Every single has a new set of outfits. How did the ideas come up for the outfits?


Miku: We pick out whatever clothes we want to wear first, but then it's always based on what the single is talking about.



Do you have a favorite set of outfits so far?


Miku: My favorite is the "Nyappy in the World" outfits we wore in Osaka!

Yuki: "Cherry Saku Yuki"

Kanon: The costume for the Gokutama Rock Cafe album.

Takuya: "Cherry Saku Yuki"

Teruki: Um (laughs) Shikisai Moment.



Now you've reached the USA. What's your favorite English word? And you can curse if you want. It's ok.

Miku: (immediately) Garfy!

(whole band bursts out laughing)


Girlfriend?
(Note: Garfy kind of sounds like Ga-ru-fren-do, the pronounciation for Girlfriend in Japan)

Miku: (laughing) GARFY. It's like a slang word.

Teruki: It's a slang word between the An Cafe members.

Miku: They totally don't know what it means, huh?

Teruki: You should explain it to them!

Miku: Ok. (points to Yuki) He is Garfy!

Yuki: Why?? Why are you pointing at me? (band laughs) I'm not!

Takuya: (laughing) Yuki is the symbol of Garfy.

Yuki: I don't really understand this! (to Miku) You are more so than me.


Garfy. What does that mean?!

(band laughing)

Miku: It means create pornographic novels. (pause) (more laughing)


Pornographic... I see! How do you spell it?

Miku: Garfy. Y-U-K-I.

(band laughs and points at Yuki)


Was there a concert on this tour that really stood out among the others?

Yuki: I think the Mexico tour stop really stood out. The air was so thin there that we had to really limit our movement, and we also had to put a lot of effort to show our dynamic there.


So far, what's been the most difficult part of the tour?

Miku: The air in Mexico being so thin. It was so thin honestly! I was inhaling oxygen through a mask.


And what's been the most rewarding part?

Miku: In Argentina some fans were waiting in front of the hotel where we were staying at. They gave us a letter and it says "Thank you for creating the word Nyappy." It made me think, because Argentina, geographically, is on the opposite side of the world from Japan. But even though we're on the other side of the world the word nyappy reaches everywhere. Even people in Argentina know about it. When we created nyappy we didn't care, like, it was for fun and we didn't realize at the time what it would be. But now we realize the importance of nyappy.


Ok, up to this point, you've traveled a lot. So what's the funniest thing that's happened on this tour?

Miku: (laughs) Yeah, actually, that happened in Chile.

(other members chime in: Chile!)

Miku: Ok, Chile. There's this strange guy, like we don't know him, and he just jumped on stage and hugged me.

(band laughs)

Miku: But you see, he jumped from the second floor balcony! It was totally unexpected!


Where was the security?

Miku: Oh they were there! The security guard apologized to me later. (laughs)


Did you bring any manga with you to read? I read in earlier blogs you really like to read manga. Like Kuroshitsuji...

Yuki: I brought NANA.

Miku: Rudo Vihhi Kakumei (Ludwig Revolution)


And Miku, actually, you cosplayed Ciel from Kuroshitsuji right?

Miku: I absolutely love Ciel and I love Kuroshitsuji. Ciel's my favorite character. A magazine offered me the chance to cosplay so I was really happy about that.


What is something that a Caffeko has done or given to you that has really touched you on this tour?

Miku: There were some Caffeko who attended all the Europe shows and the one in Russia. They gave us a huge flag. It was like 10 meters long! And they collected signatures for it from all the shows. We were really touched and impressed by that!


Tying back with the travel theme, our last question: What airline would you recommend?

An Cafe: AIRLINE?? (band laughs)

Kanon: (thinks seriously) Airline... What airline.... Singapore Airlines.

Takuya: Air Canada.

Teruki: Lufthansa!


Ok. Well, actually our last question is for Yuki. Yuki last time we asked if you were a fan of DJ OZMA. Today we wanna know are you ever going to take off your wig and sunglasses and reveal yourself to the world?

(band laughs)

Yuki: I might take off my wig at some point. It gets hot. But the sunglasses, I can't. They are attached to me. They're like a part of my body!

(band laughs harder)

Teruki: So you can't take them off!

Yuki: Yes! This I really, really cannot do.

Miku: (laughs) They are very close. Yuki and his sunglasses.




I was hoping for a different answer...

Miku: Why? Why??



I was hoping he'd say "Yes, I'm going to reveal myself to the world."

Yuki: Maybe if I kiss a girl then I have to take off my sunglasses?

(band bursts out laughing)

Teruki: I think this is the wrong time to bring that up! (laughs)


Ok! Thanks so much for the interview!

An Cafe: (English) Thank you!!