Interview with Onmyo-za

Actually we wanted to meet up the day after the concert at the Hotel Monopol near Frankfurts main station, to interview the 5 members of Onmyouza. After the amazing concert we were anxious to hear the opinions of the artists about the tour. The interview was supposed to begin 4 p.m. but due to cancellation of various interviewers and a great lack of fans at the autograph session we were able to start 2 hours early. It seemed that we would be able to ask all of our questions. Matatabi (Bass & Vocals) answered most of our questions, the other members remained fairly quiet.


Good afternoon, we are from Jmusiceuropa, a website containing lots of information about the Japanese music scene and their artists. Thank you for finding time to take this interview.
Everyone: It's a pleasure.

How has the tour schedule been for you this far?
Matatabi: Umm.. like a forced march! (laughs) (they had a very strict schedule without any time for sight seeing)

How were the Belgian and French fans?
Matatabi: I think I'm speaking for all of us when I say that
it's not really a matter of comparing between fans. Wherever we went to play, we really got a feeling of being received by people who have been longing to see us.

Did your expectations for the European Tour come true?
Kuroneko: We had our expectations, even though were a little worried at first, but it really has been better than we thought,
we have had so much fun, and I'm really glad that we have had contact with the fans and all. Our
expectations have come true, in fact it has been a lot much better than we ever thought it would be.

Which beer did you like the best, Belgian or German?
(everyone laughs)
Matatabi: Hmm.. German Beer. For myself I would say German Beer.
I think everyone of us like it the best.
(Maneki nods.)
Maneki: Japanese people seem to like German Beer.

Do you have any plans on opening a section of your fan club, Shikigami Kurabu, in Europe?
Matatabi: Frankly, before coming here we didn't think there were people who liked Onmyouza this much in Europe. But now, seeing how there are fans here with the same burning enthusiasm as our Japanese fans, I think it would be a good idea to open one.

Will you start selling your albums here?
Matatabi: Yes, we are planning to!

Keeping in mind that you are writing very complex lyrics, and that you create a very special feeling with them, would you consider translating them into English or German, or rather include
a small background explanation for each song?
Matatabi: If people really are interested in understanding our lyrics, I think it would be great to be able to include something like that when we release our albums here.
But since our lyrics, and especially the ones I write, are really hard to understand even for native Japanese, it would be very difficult to translate them to English, German or French. Nevertheless, it would be great if we can write a little something to clarify things.

Do you plan to release any footage you took on this tour on a Japanese DVD?
Matatabi: Oh my... (everyone laughs) We don't know if it'll be released as a package or not, but I think it'll be available for viewing somehow since we have so much footage from the tour.

Interpreter: Maybe it will turn up on the Internet?
Matatabi: Maybe... and maybe not.
Kuroneko: We haven't really decided anything yet.

Interpreter: But you expect it to be available in some form...
Kuroneko: Yeah...

When did you guys start making music?
Matatabi: There isn't really a time in my life which I can point at and say, "I started _here_",
but I would say sometime in high school.
Kuroneko: The first band I was in, just for fun, was in my junior high days.
Matatabi: Haven't you been singing since you were born...? (everyone laughs)
Kuroneko: I've loved singing since I was a little kid.
Maneki: I wasn't really in a band, but I started playing the guitar in high school.

But you joined bands later?
Maneki: Actually, this is my first band.
Karukan: Same for me.
Tora: I started with music in junior high, when I was 13-14 years old. Then I started playing drums
when I was 17.

At this point, after only 15 minutes, they told us to conclude with our last question, even though we only finished off the basic stuff and wanted to become more detailed now. Nevertheless, we had to decide, so we chose a question asked by the official fanclub as our last one.

This is a question from the Shikigami Kurabu members who came all the way from Japan to see you in Europe: Have you considered making a regular member of your keyboard support member?
Matatabi: Basically, the band is just us five. We are content with having support members do the parts we don't play, so we aren't really looking for anyone to join the band.

Everyone: Thank you very much!

Special thanks go to Nemuri from Onmyouza.org who supported me during the interview