Interview with m.o.v.e at Animecon 2012

In an empty room in Theaterhotel Almelo, the Netherlands, JaME met up with Motsu and Yuri from m.o.v.e. Stylishly dressed and in a good mood, the duo answered our questions, sometimes seriously, sometimes shaking with laughter.


Let's start off immediately! How would you advertise your music to people unfamiliar with m.o.v.e so they'd listen to it?

Motsu: Ah, that’s an interesting question, isn’t it?
Yuri: Yes it is.
Motsu: Well, it has a number of styles, but all of it is danceable music. Therefore, for us to be able to force people to listen to it, it has to be interesting.

When did you arrive at Animecon?

Yuri: I really don’t know. (laughs)
Motsu: Two days ago. Thursday I believe.

In that case, have you seen anything of the convention already?

Yuri: I myself haven’t really seen anything yet. I want to, though.
Motsu: I did a cosplay! (laughs) No, I just walked around in cosplay.

Did they recognize you?

Motsu: No… no.

Who did you cosplay?

Motsu: Ah, you don’t know him I think... Destroyer? An old school wrestler in Japan. He’s American actually, but very popular in Japan. At least he used to be. Destroyer.
Yuri: There was one guy though! (laughs)
Motsu: Ah yeah! There was one guy who recognized me, he was looking at me and said, “Hey! Destroyer!” But he was my DJ, so that’s why he recognized Destroyer.

And Yuri, wiill you look around later?

Yuri: Ah yes, I want to!

Have you had the time to see stuff outside of the convention too?

Yuri: Uhm, we looked around a bit in the neighbourhood yesterday and we went shopping. I thought it was really beautiful, very authentic. If you saw such a place in Japan it would seem so fake.
Motsu: This is really a place where you guys ride bicycles a lot, right?

All the time!

Motsu: Yeah, the shape of bicycles in Japan is really different.

Since 2009 you've been playing as a duo; how has your performance changed since then?

Yuri: Before, we performed with various artists, but now, as a duo, mostly the musicwriting process and the live performances have changed.
Motsu: Before, we only had a band, whereas we perform mostly with a DJ now. His name is Remo-Con. Nonetheless, we also occasionally still use a band.

Last year, you released the single Overtakers with SUGIZO and RYUCHI. How did this collaboration come about?

Yuri: We encountered them in a car-event and somehow got to talk to them. We really wanted to work together, so we asked them if they might want collaborate together sometime. Our first collaboration was for a movie.
Motsu: That movie is called “Gakudori.” It’s about drifting and students, something like that.
Yuri: Yeah it was a litte…
Motsu: A bit like killing two birds with one stone (laughs), to work together with them and do something in the movie business at the same time.

About the recording process then, did you record together in one studio?

Motsu: Yeah, together.

Now, about the album XII which was just released this March. Please tell us something about it!

Yuri: It’s the twelfth album. We had an idea in our heads of twelve months a year, two times twelve hours a day et cetera. Therefore, a lot of associations with the number twelve are made. We also made a song called XII on the album, which was the first song we wrote. During the making of the album the Tohoku earthquake also happened and we made a song to aid the relief efforts, so some of the songs are quite serious and heavy. Even though this is the case, I like the album a lot.

Which song is meant to aid the relief efforts?

Motsu: Native shout.
Yuri: About that, even though the song seems quite flashy or showy, to me it has a wonderfully earnest and sober feeling attached to it.

Is there a song that you really love to play during a show?

Yuri: When playing live I recently really like Fly High.
Motsu: We are also playing that today!

Why Fly High?

Motsu: Because I wrote that! (laughs) Last year, we went to South America and we performed at four different places. It was a really inspiring experience and that comes back a lot in the lyrics.

Do you have any anecdote about your going to South America?

Yuri: (laughs) There are a lot! My favorite is, I think, the fact that toilets work really different there, since you can’t flush toilet paper! Naturally, a lot of people didn’t know this, so that ended up causing a lot of trouble. (laughs)
Motsu: And the small shower! You know, in Japan they have something called a "Washlet," where you wash after you're done. Have you ever tried that before? I was so happy they have that in Brazil!

Most countries don’t have it. (laughs)

Motsu: Anyway, the small shower was not for the body, but to actually wash the room or something! But we didn’t know that of course, so we were wondering: “Why does this Washlet only have cold water?!” Since normally, they have mostly warm water for comfort. It was quite funny. (laughs) Also, we were really overwhelmed by the number of people that came. They were very enthusiastic. South America is a lot bigger, so people came from far away. The fact they were willing to travel so far made us really happy.

Yes, the South American fans are quite passionate. (laughs)

Motsu: Right, we felt that sometimes too! They were always quite loud. With YouTube and such, everything happens in a matter of seconds. But physically it's a long distance, so I understand many people can't always go. For us, it was so good, a really good experience!

Next is Vocaloid. Can you explain this for readers unfamiliar with the technique?

Yuri: First of all, it is a program in which there are a lot of voices available. By using the software you can create songs.
Motsu: You can type in lyrics...
Yuri: Yes, and so a song is created. I lent my voice for one of the characters named Lily.

How was the recording?

Motsu: So strange!
Yuri: Yeah indeed, the first recording was basic sounds like "aah," "eeh" and so on. The third recording was the speaking and singing of random words, which was a weird experience.
Motsu: Yes, and then there were the pitches.
Yuri: Yes, there were three, right?
Motsu: (continues to do different intonations of the words "mikan" and "melon" to illustrate)
Yuri: (laughs) Yes, exactly like that. Also, I could not use any habits or mannerisms. Meaning, I had to do it in a straight voice without doing anything else, which was really hard to do! It is amusing that even though it is my voice, and even though it still sounds like me, it’s just not quite the same.

So it’s not like you hear yourself when you listen to such a song?

Yuri: Everybody using Vocaloid and the Lily software can make songs that do sound like me, but it’s just a bit different and therefore funny to hear. It’s strange to hear the songs. There are moments I recognize my own voice, but I still get the feeling it is totally different. I imagine that probably everybody who has experienced it feels this way, this kind of discrepancy.

Was Lily’s design in any way influenced by you?

Motsu: We had a talk with Kei, the character designer. We had a few requests with regards to what the character would look like. For example, we asked him to attach a CD to her clothing and the tattoo was also our idea.

She’s the only figure that has a tattoo right?

Motsu: Yes, that’s true.

You made some anim.o.v.e albums. Lily is on the cover while the work is by m.o.v.e. Where is the line between the two?

Yuri: We want to see m.o.v.e separately from Lily. The character Lily came before the software actually. A few years ago, in 2008, we released an anim.o.v.e album, which was a cover album with anime songs. The character was already present there. The software came after that, and after that they wanted to add Lily to the Vocaloid setup.

You’ve traveled all over the world. Are you used to going abroad now or are there still things that surprise you?

Yuri: I personally enjoy the traveling a lot, especially when you get to go to an amazing place. The cultural and historical differences are really noticeable, which is a lot of fun to me.
Motsu: We got used to traveling long distances. America was so far, but because of those tours we get used to it. The culture, people and stages are so different, we really enjoy it.

How about the practical side of traveling; something you packed the first time but didn’t need at all, or vice versa?

Motsu: There are no countries, except Japan, where you can get cold green tea without added sugar. So now we bring packages of that and cold coffee with us every time.
Yuri: And the waiting…
Motsu: There are no stores open at night! So weird.
Yuri: Ah, and the time, you know?
Motsu: Ah yeah, in Japan the time schedules are very strict. Everything starts as scheduled, but when we’re abroad the big difference is people are more relaxed, there are more delays and such. We have gotten used to it by now, but our manager is still working on that. (laughs)
Yuri: Also, in Japan hotel rooms are very similar. When we’re abroad we always notice how the rooms are a little different from one another. Usually it’s subtle differences in decoration and such. I used to look around in the different hotel rooms we had for the differences, but now I’ve gotten accustomed to it. (laughs)

This year, you guys will have been around for 15 years, how are you going to celebrate?

Yuri: We definitely want to do something for the upcoming anniversary, but we’re still busy planning. We don’t know precisely yet but we’re definitely doing something.
Motsu: At the moment we also can’t say too much, since it’s still a bit of a secret. We’re planning to announce it sometime in July.

How about not so secret future plans then?

Motsu: Next month, we will be visiting Sweden! Also, we will be distributing albums during concerts and live events.

Final question: do you have a message for JaME's readers?

Yuri: I really want to perform abroad more and have people listen more and more to our songs and albums! Listening to our original albums helps us with that!
Motsu: There are a lot of different bands in Japan, and we would like to perform more with them and international bands. Hopefully in this way we can connect our cultures more and bring this music to Japan.

Thank you very much for the interview. Good luck tonight, and have a safe trip home!

Yuri and Motsu: Thank you!

JaME wants to thank m.o.v.e, avex trax and Jpop Foundation for making this interview possible, and Masami Striesenau and Maikel Tönnissen for their translation.