Interview with KOKIA in London

Having just arrived in London three hours before, KOKIA was already prepared for her first live set in the O2 Academy Islington, London. She kindly took the time to speak to us about her impressions of the tour, her music and future plans.


Welcome to London KOKIA! So it's your first concert in the UK, how are you feeling about playing here?

KOKIA: I'm really looking forward to this concert because it's my first time playing here. I don't know what kind of audience I'm going to get, so it's very exciting.

Have you had a chance to look around London while you've been here?

KOKIA: Actually I only got here about three hours ago! I just came from France, and after this I'm going to go to Cologne, then to Paris and then back to Japan. So I'm going to be really busy and I don't know if I'll have a chance to go sightseeing.

It's been really tiring for you then!

KOKIA: Yeah! (laughs)

You've been on European tours before but this is your biggest one yet. How has it compared to your other European tours?

KOKIA: It is set to be the biggest tour I've ever done, but the concert venues themselves aren't really big locations. I didn't mind about not going to big locations though, it was more about going to as many places as possible. I say it's like “Hanasaka KOKIA,” where I scatter the seeds of my songs so that they are performed to as many audiences as possible. This is my aim on this European tour.

How were the locations chosen for this tour?

KOKIA: My promoter chose the locations. This time he chose different locations in France and other places I haven't played before, so it was more challenging for me.

It's the first time that you've played in a few of the countries, such as Hungary, Austria and Spain. How did you find performing in these places?

KOKIA: The audiences reacted to my music in different ways. There was a similarity in all of the audiences though, which was the way they enjoyed my music. They all had really gentle expressions on their faces while listening calmly and peacefully. I felt that even though they didn't understand the language I was singing in, they still understood my music and that was a nice experience.

Your last tour date will be in Paris. You've held the most live concerts outside of Japan in Paris. What significance does the city hold for you?

KOKIA: Well, I consider Japan my home country and home ground, but Paris, or not even just Paris but France, I consider to be my home ground in Europe because I've played there so many times. The audience there has also grown over the years that I've toured there. I feel really at home when I play my concerts in Paris and Brest and other locations in France.

When you've gone on world tours you've only gone to European countries so far. Have you considered going to other continents as well?

KOKIA: If I had a chance I would really love to do that, but I haven't yet.

If you had a chance where would you really like to go?

KOKIA: Maybe America?

I think your American fans would really like that.

KOKIA: (laughs)

For you latest album REAL WORLD you went to Tunisia and the Sahara desert. What sort of impression did these places leave on you and how did they influence this album?

KOKIA: I was really surprised by the wilderness of the Sahara desert and this wilderness really inspired me to write the music. All the inspiration I got from my experience there can be heard on all the songs on REAL WORLD.

One of the songs on REAL WORLD, U-CHA-CHA, was actually performed a few years ago before you even went to the Sahara. Why did you include it on this album?

KOKIA: I wrote this song quite a while before I went to the Sahara, but it didn't really fit in with the concepts for my other albums. I like to set a theme for each of my albums, and this song didn't seem to go. The theme for REAL WORLD is “Journeys” and this song fits this theme, so I put it in.

And it does really fit the theme well.

KOKIA: Thank you!

Also for REAL WORLD you did a photo shoot for it in the Tunisian Sahara. In the end you had exhibitions of these photos in Paris and Tunisia. How did you find this experience and would you do it again?

KOKIA: I found it really interesting as it was a different way to contact my fans, not in a musical form but with photos so it was a good experience. If there was another chance I'd really like to do it again.

You've often sung in the native language of the countries you've recorded in or visited, for example Gaelic in the KOKIA meets Ireland album. Were you tempted to sing some tracks in Arabic or French on REAL WORLD?

KOKIA: I'm inspired by the language while I'm in different countries. If I feel like writing a song in their language I will do so. Maybe after this tour I might be inspired to write some songs in French and also English; I'm thinking of English as a good language to be able to communicate with my global fans so that is a language I would like to write with more in the future.

You've written a few songs for game soundtracks in the past, the most recent being Road to Glory for the game Dragon Nest. Did writing these increase your interest in games at all?

KOKIA: I've written songs for various games, but I really like Dragon Nest. I was really intrigued by the game, I even stayed up late to play it! I really enjoy it.

What was it that you liked about the game?

KOKIA: It's an online game, so I'm able to meet my fans online. Usually I'm in a protected environment so I'm not able to contact my fans in my private life, but with the game I can go to the same places as them and communicate with them. It's a very fresh and new experience for me.

So your fans have been playing online with you and haven't realised it's you?

KOKIA: Oh no, they know it's me! My character has my name, and when I go online all my fans run to where I am in the game!

You've been to a lot of countries to find inspiration for your music, such as Ireland and now Tunisia. What other countries would you like to visit?

KOKIA: After I finish this tour and after returning to Japan, I'll be going on a trip to Thailand so that may inspire me to create more music. I'm going to get a license to be a Thai massage therapist.

Wow! So after this you'll be going on holiday to have a rest rather than more work?

KOKIA: I wanted to learn Thai massage as a hobby, so I want to go to Thailand to do this. And I want to ride an elephant as well! (laughs)

What would be your dream musical project?

KOKIA: One of my dreams is to spread my music across the globe. I would like to send my music to all countries one by one, either by going there to perform or by making my music available online since the Internet is a worldwide network. The Japanese music scene is quite unique as it is quite “top down.” Everyone listens to what everyone else is listening to. All the artists want to be number one or in the higher ranks. However I just want more people to listen to my songs. Even if there are only 10,000 people listening to me in Japan, if there are 1000 people listening to my music in another country and then this extends to another 1000 in the next country and so on for 20 countries for example, there may be 20,000 more people. I don't want to be number one in one country, just Japan, but I want to be able to bring my music to the whole world.

For REAL WORLD all of your single releases were digital singles. Do you think that helped you to reach that goal?

KOKIA: Yes, I do think so.

So would you do the same for future singles?

KOKIA: Yes.

A few months ago you released a mini album called Road to Glory~long journey~. One of your older songs from 1999, For little tail (used in the game “Tail Concerto”) is featured – what made you decide to include it on this album?

KOKIA: I was still a student when I sang For little tail. It was used for a TV commercial and it became very popular. A lot of people were wondering “who is the girl who sings this?” and “what's this song about?” after it was out. However I became a professional singer right after and it was difficult to get the song onto my first professional album. But because of the song I was able to sing for Dragon Nest as well: the person who used For little tail became the manager of Dragon Nest and when he was considering an artist to sing the theme song he thought that he should get me to sing again. When the theme for Dragon Nest was released we found that so many fans wanted to hear For little tail again that it made sense to include it on the album with Road to Glory.

On the mini album there is another version of For little tail which is very exotic. What inspired this new version?

KOKIA: The person who arranged this new, exotic version actually arranged the original version. Since it's been 13 years since it was first written we thought we should pool our experience and give a “grown up” taste to the song, and that's how we came up with this mix.

You also released an album of cover songs recently titled Musique a la Carte. There were so many songs you could have covered, how did you decide which ones?

KOKIA: I only just released the album in Japan as well so you may not know, but the songs I covered are all really popular and well known in Japan. I wanted to make an album that my fans could sing along to so I picked songs that they would know.

There's a QUEEN song, Teo Toriatte, on the album as well, which isn't really well known here. Is it famous in Japan?

KOKIA: No! (laughs) It's not really popular in Japan. Actually the song was not a new recording, it was recorded for my Christmas album but it fitted with the concept of this album so I included it.

Well, it might become more popular now.

KOKIA: (laughs) I hope so!

Was it difficult to decide how to arrange the covers, since a lot of the songs are very well known?

KOKIA: When I was deciding on the songs, I tried to choose those that were well known and also ones that were originally sung by male singers. I thought that it would be refreshing for the listeners to hear a female voice singing them as a male voice would have been more familiar to them, and it would be an interesting experience for them.

What other songs would you like to cover in the future?

KOKIA: There are a lot! I hope to release a cover album like this every few years. There are so many songs that I would like to work on but I can't think of any specific examples at the moment.

A lot of your Western fans would have come to know you through some of your anime and game songs such as Currents, Ai no Rinkaku and Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi which you don't seem to have performed live at your concerts before. Is there any chance that you would perform these in the future?

KOKIA: Probably not, it might be quite hard for me to sing those songs live. Ai no Rinkaku is like For little tail, it was from before I was a professional singer. I might decide to sing Tatta hitotsu no omoi. When I choose my set list I usually set a theme and want the songs in the set list to flow, but the anime and game songs don't really go with the flow so it's hard to include them.

Finally, do you have any messages for your fans?

KOKIA: It will be my live performance soon — I'd like to do my best with this performance and would like the audience to have a good time. I know that there are quite a few fans who couldn't make it to the concert today, but I'd like them to continue listening to my CDs and wait for me to come back and sing to them live as I believe that singing live is the best way to bring my music to my fans. I hope to be able to return and perform here again.

We would all like that very much! Thank you for taking the time to speak to us.

KOKIA: Thank you very much.


Many thanks to KOKIA, Xavier Norindr and Jay Sobczak for allowing this interview to happen. Thanks also to Rino Maeda for translating.