~Yoshiki's A-Z - Shoxx magazine(vol. 49)~

Text: Fuzuki Watanabe | Translation: seastarsoup

America
I will conquer it! Something like that. (laughs)

Baby
I want a child. But it would be scary if it was a person like me… I don’t need that. When I plan to? Well, now is not the time. (laughs) …

I guess I’ll keep a pet dog. I like Dachshunds, my mother kept one for 15 years, but it recently died. I said I was going to buy another dog for her, but she said no, that “If you get a new dog, I will go visit my late dog’s grave”, she was against it. But… I know it doesn’t seem like me, but I love to help people. I really don’t seem to, right? I just don’t have persuasive power (laughs).

If someone hangs out with me, they’ll soon notice I’m the type to do anything and everything for them. So, if I get a dog, first I would get it trained then bring it to the studio with me, it would be there in the middle of recording… Just… Travelling to Japan and elsewhere would be difficult.

But, I’ll keep a dog. I’m looking forward to it.

Car
I love cars. I drive almost every day here(in L.A.). It's hard not to lose your mind with the reckless driving around here. But, I won’t drive if I drink (bitter smile). If that happens, I’ll even go home walking. Just because it’s too much trouble if you get caught driving drunk. 'Don’t drive, if you drink.’ It’s like that (laughs). That’s what friends say as well.

Dream
When I sleep, I don’t think I have any good dreams… When I sleep, I sleep talk in English. That means I’m probably dreaming about recording? (laughs)

Energy
I guess this is what you need, when you have a dream and you want to turn your dream into reality.

Face
Hahaha (laughs). … I don’t know. And I dooon't care. I pass this question.

Game
In the past, I really loved things like computer games… I’m the kind to get into them easily. If I start something, I won’t stop until I can finish it. That’s why I avoid them. As much as possible, I keep games far away from me. (laughs)

Housework
I like doing the laundry or cleaning the house, but I won’t cook or wash the dishes. Even if I want to cook for a girlfriend or a friend, I will call a cook to do it. But there’s a reason why I won’t cook. For the piano, right? I was always being told by my teacher “Don’t use your hands for some things”. So, since then, I couldn’t hold a knife so I didn’t cook… But, because I was always getting in fights, that's contradictory. (laughs)

Inspiration
Whether I'm strongly inspired or not, I don’t know. But, I do whatever I believe in. Well, in a good way… Whenever I see something and think that I want to do something in a way, it becomes an image in my mind.

“Things should go like this”, and then I do it in reality. As for the time it takes, sometimes it can take a few hours to one year later, or maybe 10 years later.

You know, before our debut, when I was interviewed I used to say, "Yeah, we’ll perform at Tokyo Dome", "I can already see it in my mind". People probably thought, "Oh, there he goes again", even I doubted myself, like what am I saying? And, that was before when we performed at Shibuya Kokaido.

Every single thing I thought about came true, up until now. But I don’t set any goals. But I don't sit around waiting. I work really hard for it. If I decide I’ll do something, I don’t think about the means… If it doesn’t hurt anyone, I’ll do anything. Then, it will certainly happen.

Job
I don’t think what I do now is a job… People often say stuff like, “What are you doing at work today?”, and it irks me. I don’t like the way the word sounds. I was a waiter when I was around 19, and it was fun in a way. But I didn't do it with the burden of the word "job"… When I hear the word ‘job’ it often reminds me of things like, employment problem, economical prospect in America...(bitter smile)

Keyword
First, ‘Binran’(disorder). Then… ‘Krueger’(laughs).

In English, don't you say, “let’s get ready”? The normal reply to that would be “ready”, but sometimes people joke and say ‘ready freddy’. You can understand the meaning only from ‘freddy’ but I like to add ‘krueger’ to mine.

Wasn’t that from the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ movie?

Among my friends, they say ‘ready’, but without ‘freddy’ they say ‘krueger’ after. But now, I am propagating this in America. My new saying. But there’s an opposition, they will say ‘ready freddie mercury’. That’s not funny. Maybe the new definition of ‘freddy krueger’ will be added in the dictionary in 1998. If you hear it anywhere, I invented it. (laughs)

Letter
Last year (1995), during the Dahlia tour at the Osaka castle hall, and Sendai got cancelled, I got a letter from a fan. The contents were very severe, like, “Because of you, I couldn’t go see X” and so on…

“Do you know how important the Sendai concert was for us? No matter what condition you were in, you should have played. Aren’t you a pro?”

When I read the letter, at first I was surprised, it moved me. Of course I had hurt feelings about it too.., well, extremely, I think. That’s when I started to think about the meaning of the word ‘professional’.

Does it mean starting a concert on time? Does it mean strictly following a schedule, and things going well with the recording company? If these things mean being a ‘pro’, then I am truly not a pro and I have no desire to become a pro.

Of course, I don’t want to cause trouble for anyone, but a lot of things happen behind the scenes… For example, sometimes the stage setup gets delayed so the rehearsal gets delayed as well. If everything was my fault, then very well… Like, if something happened, everyone would be quick to say, “That’s because Yoshiki is so selfish”, or something. I've thought about this kind of thing before.

I was supposed to talk about the word ‘letter’, but the topic went to this.

Marriage
Marriage… I have an interest in marriage, but I will probably never get married. The person who I would get married to would probably get their feelings hurt because of it. I'm not at home enough. And whenever I'd have an idea for a song, I would have to stop everything and go work, I think. But I've thought about suddenly getting married… I don’t know. (laughs)

Novel
For the last 3 years, I haven’t read any Japanese works. Maybe only once in these 3 years. In the past, my acquaintance who was debuting as a writer asked me to write a comment on their first publication.

Well, I've read English novels, but it’s so hard. In the past, I really liked history books. So I like to compare Japan’s and Europe’s history. For example, when it was the Edo period in Japan, In Europe, that means Bach was already a musician. Japan had a very large door closed in the past, but it's not that far back. Hasn’t it been only 50 years since World War II?

If I were born 100 years ago, I would probably have a completely different life. I think a lot of people might have wanted to make music and literature, but because of the situation of the time, they couldn’t express themselves. When I was comparing that to today, I think “How free we are”… Well, to an extent, there are constraints, but nothing too unacceptable.

Oasis
Now, I don't have one. There is an environment I long for. But it’s fairly specific. You see, I like tigers. I would like a meeting room to have one tiger and two black panthers. (laughs)

A circular room that would be surrounded in glass, and that would have a radius of 10 metres and in there a lounge suite, and a bar close to the windows. And then, around the room, there would be the tiger and panthers just wandering. Like, a reverse zoo. They would be looking at us. Of course, they would have an exclusive pathway door, and they would have someone to take care of them. In that meeting room, I'd like to talk about contracts with recording companies! (laughs)

Pet
I love tigers and since I was a child, I liked animals. At school, I used to do research about what animal was the strongest. But everyone just said “the lion is the strongest”. But lions are strong when they are in groups, so in reality, tigers are the strongest. And with that I became interested in tigers. But it’s said that, with however much affection you keep a tiger, they will always be wild. But, I don’t want to believe in that. If I had a tiger cub, I would try to raise it with all affection. And even if it wanted to eat me, I wouldn’t mind. Not as a 'gamble', but I would like to try and see if that’s true.

In the past I used to say to my mother “I want a tiger”, and she said “why are you not content with a cat that looks like a tiger?”

… I want a tiger, it is one of my dreams.

Question
I feel as if my own existence is a question itself.

Rock'n'roll
I like rock. But I get irritated when people put it in boxes with strange definitions like “Rock is this” or “Rock isn’t like this”. It is a thing of atmosphere and energy, I think.

Shock
Because of my nature, nothing causes too much of a shock for me. I don’t think there is anything that has shocked me recently.

Travel
There are many places I have been to… But I want to travel alone. What I like is the sea. Originally, I am from a coastal town, and even when I was in school, I always went to the sea when I was coming back home. Saying that, it doesn’t mean I like places like Venice or Waikiki Beach. Ah, I want to go to the moon! I’d like to go before I die. But, what’s the possibility?

(When he says that, he starts talking to a foreign staff member in English)

He(staff) says that there is a possibility of going to the moon, in maybe 10 years. It’s a very expensive thing, but it seems like the US is planning travels to the moon. I want to go. Going to the moon, I would like to see the Earth from up there.

Underwear
I like underwear, but please don't think I'm some pervert (laughs). I like men and women’s underwear. So much that I produced a line of women’s underwear. Isn’t it cool that you can’t see it, but it’s still fashionable? I would like to give them as a gift to a woman. And… I have a lot of underwear. (laughs) Various kinds of them. And speaking of color, of course I like black.

Value
To me, materialistic things do not hold much value. I place value in all kinds of relationships.

Wear
There are brands I like, but I like fashion itself a lot. I love seeing fashion magazines like American and Italian Vogue. When I choose something to wear, I always follow my own taste.

X'mas
I love Christmas. (laughs) Last year (1995), a very strange thing happened. Maybe you won’t believe it… We played the Osaka Castle Hall right on Christmas Eve. I was so exhausted. One week earlier, I collapsed at the Sendai live, but after taking an intravenous drip, somehow I could perform safely.

Then, I went back to my hotel room, and brought along my English tutor. At 12:30 I had a 2 hour English lesson. After that, I thought I would go have a bath, but I just fell on the bed and slept.

Then, a little before 6 in the morning, I woke up with the sound of water. When I looked outside, snow was falling. But, what amazed me… Is that when I woke up from bed, the bath was overflowing with water, and outside the window it was just all white. I was in the highest room of a tall building. So I couldn’t open the window…

But outside, on the veranda, there was an owl. A white owl with black spots, looking at me. At that moment, I thought, “I died and am now at another place”. I was always looking at the owl, for the 5 minutes it was there and then flew away. “What was that about”, I thought. I even slapped myself in the face a few times. Then, I went to the bath, at around 7 in the morning and went to sleep again, properly. I woke up at 10, and while I was going by car to the airport, I talked to the staff about it and none of them believed me.

But… I’m sure it wasn’t a dream! It really happened. And it was a lovely Christmas.

Young
Somehow, I am reminded of Hide. (laughs) He’s the oldest of us, right? Talking in detail about birthdays, I am the second youngest of everyone. I’m always treating Toshi and Pata and Hide like older people, but the oldest of us is Hide. At the time of his 30th birthday, he was always laughing and saying “Ah, I’m already a grandpa”. (laughs)

Zero
I don't regret anything I have done up to this moment. I won't say "I'd like to start over from zero"…

For some reason, I don’t like the shape of the mathematical number. (laughs)