Interview with [Alexandros] at JAPAN NIGHT in London

Since their formation in 2007, four-piece rock band [Alexandros] has been a frequent headliner in music festivals all over their home country. They have also played overseas at SXSW in the USA, THE GREAT ESCAPE in England and one-man concerts in Taiwan.

On July 10th and 11th this year, the band performed at JAPAN NIGHT at HYPER JAPAN in London. A few hours before their July 11th gig, [Alexandros] spoke to JaME in a brief interview where vocalist Yoohei Kawakami and guitarist Masaki Shirai delivered their answers in flawless English.


First of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of JaME for agreeing to this interview. I hope that your time in London has been going well so far. How did your performance at JAPAN NIGHT yesterday go?

Yoohei Kawakami: It was fantastic. I loved the crowd and loved the stage and actually the sound was really good. I don’t know why, but my amplifier was broken (laughs). His guitar sounded really good. Yeah, it was really, really fantastic.
Masaki Shirai: Yeah, we had a lot of fun at the night.

Your next performance will be in just a few hours. What are your thoughts about it?

Yoohei Kawakami: Yeah, it's going to be better, and I want them all to sing along. I’m going to grab their heart. In order to come back and make a tour, I want them all to love us. That is what's going to happen.

On June 17th, you released ALXD, your first full album in two years. Which is your favourite track from the album?

Yoohei Kawakami: My favorite? My favourite is actually Adventure. It’s the fifth track.

How has the reception for ALXD been so far?

Masaki Shirai: It’s fine. I think it’s great. We had a good chart ranking in Japan.
Yoohei Kawakami: Oricon Charts.
Masaki Shirai: Right.
Yoohei Kawakami and Masaki Shirai: (laugh)
Yoohei Kawakami: But we are not satisfied, because we want to be number one.
Masaki Shirai: Yeah.
Yoohei Kawakami: I assure you it was the best chart we ever made, but you know, number one is …
Masaki Shirai: Right. We’re not there yet.

Who is the last artist you listened to? Why did you listen to it?

Yoohei Kawakami: Last night, I was listening to Jay-Z to practice my English (laughs). In order to do English interviews.
Masaki Shirai: (laughs)

In JaME’s interview with you in 2013 when you still went by the name of [Champagne], Hiroyuki mentioned that you are the kind of band that does not reason things out. So, what was the last thing you did without reason?

Yoohei Kawakami: I had two plates of spaghetti (laughs). Well, maybe I had a reason because I was hungry. Actually, I sung Wonderwall last night because my amplifier was broken. I didn’t know why, but I was caught in this emotion and I had to sing that song. That was without reason, yeah.

You have always hoped to be the headliner at Glastonbury. Do you think you are getting closer to that goal?

Yoohei Kawakami: Yeah, little by little. But yeah, we have to get closer to it.
Masaki Shirai: We are getting closer, definitely, but …
Yoohei Kawakami: It’s really far.
Masaki Shirai: It’s like one out of a hundred or one thousand so we still have a long way ahead of us.

What goals do you have?

Yoohei Kawakami: Our goal is to play at the Pyramid stage of Glastonbury at the end of the day. Like U2 did, like Coldplay did, like Oasis did.
Masaki Shirai: And what that means is to become number one. We want to become the number one band in the world.

After JAPAN NIGHT, what is next for [Alexandros]?

Yoohei Kawakami: We’re going to perform at the Budokan.
Masaki Shirai: Oh, for the band?
Yoohei Kawakami: Yeah.
Masaki Shirai: Oh, next step for the band.
Yoohei Kawakami: I have to do my recording (laughs) when I get back to Japan. After that, we are going to perform at the Budokan and after that we’re going to be recording, and after that we have to go to a festival in Korea. So we’ve got no time to go shopping.

To round things off, can you please leave a message for JaME readers?

Yoohei Kawakami: We're a band from Japan but we are eager to go around the world by joining festivals, so please wait for us. Until then, please listen to our music on iTunes or Amazon or YouTube. Anything is fine, but please listen to it and wait for us. We will be waiting there.

JaME would like to thank the JAPAN NIGHT Executive Committee and [Alexandros] for making this interview possible.