Interview with el-Ethnic Legist- in Luxembourg

The rather young visual kei band el-Ethnic Legist- came to Europe for the first time this September. JaME sat down with them before their show in Luxembourg to talk about the background of the band, their impressions of Europe and more.


Please introduce yourself to our readers.

yuma: I’m yuma, the vocalist of el-Ethnic Legist-.
el: I’m el, the guitarist.
HIGE: I’m the bassist, HIGE.
sin: I’m the drummer, sin.

Could you explain the meaning of your band name el-Ethnic Legist-?

el: We would like to spread our way of thoughts and senses through our original style. This is the meaning behind el-Ethnic Legist-.

There are many songs in your discography that have names related to mythology and religion. Why did you chose this theme?

el: We like the musical scale, the songs from India, Egypt and the like. The feeling of the scale and the atmosphere created by the sound. This is one of the things we like, so we create a story based on these myths and feed our experiences and feelings into it.

So it looks like you’re interested in Egyptian and Hindu mythology…

el: Does it look like we are interested in them? I’m not sure you can say we are interested in them…
yuma: We are, well Siva and the like…

You aren’t interested in them? You do have many songs named after the gods…

el: Well, there are original Indian and Egyptian sounds in Egypt and India respectively that are created by the folk instruments, for example. So this is what we use as our basis and we use the names of the gods to insert a story into it. We are interested in it, but we are not such religious people.

I see. But do you have any favourite gods or legends, for example?

HIGE: Hmm, favourite god… That’s difficult, since we’re originally not religious. We are interested. (laughs)
sin: There isn’t something like “I like this god,” but if you hear some of the gods’ background, hear about the kind of things they did, “Wow this god is cool!” I’ve had this kind of thought before.

About whom?

sin: Durga…
yuma: Horus…
sin: Yes Horus, for example.
el: But after all the greatest gods are us!
el-Ethnic Legist-: (laugh)

Although there are songs that are tied together with mythological or religious themes, your music is sometimes quite heavy and dark. Why did you decide to combine these kind of themes with this kind of music?

el: In the first place we came together for the purpose of revenge… This is why the atmosphere of our songs is heavy and dark. We want revenge.
HIGE: (in English) Revenge.
el: (in English) Revenge. That’s right.

In earlier interviews I’ve read about Gento. Could you tell us more about him?

el-Ethnic Legist-: (laugh)
el: (laughs) When they say Gento, it’s about me.
HIGE: (In English) You are Gento.
el: (In English) I am Gento. Well, when I create songs, write lyrics and do such things related to creation, I go by the name of Gento. As the guitarist of el-Ethnic Legist-, I go by the name el.

Why do you separate the two?

yuma: Well, partially, it has to do with this concept that we have.
el: Yes, it is related to the concept, but…
HIGE: There is a concept that we are continuing what Gento was originally doing.
el: You see, Gento died…
el-Ethnic Legist-: (laugh)
el and yuma: That’s right, it’s been decided that he’d died. (laugh)
HIGE: It’s because we’d all died once.

So el-Ethnic Legist-’s members are four apostles from 2500 BC that are reincarnated in the modern world. Where did this story come from?

el: It’s related to what we were talking about just now. On the 11th of September 2008, the original us died—meaning our previous band split up. A year later on 11th September 2009, to come back into this world, souls from 2500 years BC planted themselves into our bodies and that’s when we came back.

You came back in the form of a visual kei band… Why did you make this choice?

el: Well… We didn’t consciously chose visual kei… It’s to express our concept. We put on bandages, wear make up, so it became visual kei.

So what is the meaning behind your costumes?

el: We died once and were resurrected. Since the souls from 2500 BC are nested in our bodies, we are mummies?
HIGE: (In English) Mummy? (laughs)
el: (In English) Mummy. So that’s why our visual concept involves us putting on bandages.

And who designs the costumes?

el: It’s generally done by Gento.

So let’s talk about your overseas activities. A big part of the audience overseas knows el-Ethnic Legist- through MySpace, YouTube and the like. Many bands are avoiding this. Why did you chose to share your music and videos online?

el: Well, we just wanted people to know about us. We just wanted to promote our works. We didn’t think about it much, we just wanted different people to hear our music.

The band was formed just over a year ago, so you are quite a young band. How did you get the opportunity to do a tour in Europe?

el: We were approached by Ramen Events and were asked, “Would you like to do this?” and we said, “We will!”

Were you surprised? Were you anxious at all?

HIGE: We were surprised!
el: Yes, we were surprised.
yuma: We weren’t anxious at all.
el: Rather, we’d like to make activities in Europe, or rather just overseas, our main target.

You certainly should.

HIGE: Certainly. (laughs)

Your new mini-album, limited to Europe, was released on the 10th of September. It includes both new songs and re-masterings of older songs. How did you pick the songs for this release?

el: First of all we wanted to include some songs that are known, popular songs of el-Ethnic Legist-. Then we wanted to put in the new songs to let the audience hear our latest works. So that’s how we chose the songs.

Please tell us your impressions after your first European live.

sin: The response of the audience was more than I was expecting. I was first surprised, but I thought, music crosses borders after all.
yuma: To be able to cross the sea and have people even in places where our language is not understood, listen to our music and share time with us, I thought it is a wonderful thing. And yes, I was surprised. European, well people from overseas, transmit their feelings so honestly through their voices and their attitudes. Since we are also like this, it felt really good. After all, European people are so passionate, that’s what I thought.
HIGE: It was awesome! That’s it.
el: It seems like we were the first Japanese rock band to play a live in Portugal. So I was really happy that we were able to share such a memorable experience together with European people.

After the live in Portugal you had quite a while before the live in Luxembourg. Did you do anything interesting? Any sight-seeing?

el: Supermarket…
yuma: We did shopping in supermarkets…
HIGE: Buying lots of meat…
sin: I was shocked by the hugeness of the ham.
yuma: We ate lots of meat…
el: We ate nothing but meat. (laughs)
yuma: Yeah, maybe we ate nothing but meat. (laughs)
el: We went nowhere but to supermarkets.
el-Ethnic Legist-: (laugh)
yuma: That’s not true.
HIGE: That’s not true, we went to France. To the city of beer.
el: We all did individual practice. And we went to the supermarket. (laughs) And bought food.
yuma: We bought food and we cooked it together… And drank bottled beer.
el: It was lots of fun.
yuma: Lots of fun!

I was going to ask you about food and drinks here, but it seems you only had meat and beer? (laughs)

el: (In English) Oh no, no, no, it’s alright! (laughs)
yuma: It’s alright!

So what food did you like most in Europe so far?

el: Currently, it’s Belgian waffles.
yuma: Yes, Belgian waffles.
HIGE: For me it would be chocolate. (In English) Chocolate.
sin: Blue cheese! (laughs)

What about drinks?

el: Monster! An energy drink.
yuma: It was surprising, wasn't it?
HIGE: For me it’s sugarfree Red Bull.
yuma: Beer!
sin: I generally just drink beer, so it’s beer.

What are you looking forward to most on this tour?

el: Well, we would like to make a connection to our next tour… For the future, we would like to have many different people come to see our performance.

So you want to return for another tour in Europe?

sin: Absolutely!
yuma: Of course!
HIGE：(In English) Of course!

What other places would you like to go to?

el: I want to go to Germany.
yuma: I want to go to different places.
sin: To everywhere all over the world.
HIGE: I want to cover the whole map.
yuma: Yeah! Like “I’ve been here, I’ve been here,” I want to cover it all.

Please tell us about el-Ethnic Legist-’s plans from now on.

el: Currently, we don’t have any release plans… Well, we are going to record a single in Europe and release it. And on the 18th of November we are going to play a one-man live in Japan.

Finally, please leave a message for our readers.

HIGE: In any case, come see us once!
yuma and sin: Yes! (laugh).
HIGE: el-Ethnic Legist- is waiting for you.
el-Ethnic Legist-: (laugh)
HIGE: We’re waiting. (laughs)
el: We love you.
HIGE: (In English) I love you.
sin: (In English) For ever.
el-Ethnic Legist-: (burst out laughing).

Thank you.
el-Ethnic Legist-: Thank you!


JaME would like to thank Ramen Events and el-Ethnic Legist- for making this interview possible. Special thanks to Chiyomi, Lara, jessieface and LuCioLe.