Transcript of an interview I recorded with Minoru Niihara from LOUDNESS - 26/04/19. Full article here. MAL-
On the line right now Minoru from LOUDNESS. It's great to talk to you. MINORU- Hello, konnichi wa. Speaking from Tokyo, Japan. MAL- It's great to talk to you. Now, I first discovered lLOUDNESS way back when the 'Disillusion' album came out. MINORU- Wow. MAL- What do you remember about those days? MINORU- Even before debuting in the States? Oh, well, you know, I remember we were pretty much famous in Japan, then, you know, we've done so successful in Japan. And then one day, our manager came up to us and he was saying to, you know, he was saying that, now let's go, USA to play some concerts. You know, so we were freaked out, but we went to states. We released the four albums before 'Disillusion' album and which did the real successful? MAL- How difficult was it with English obviously not being your first language? How difficult was it doing vocals in English? MINORU- It was big, big difficult, very difficult. Still it is are very difficult to sing in English because, you know in Japan you don't have to speak English at all either needs English while you live in Japan. And also, I was not able to speak English at all when I when I was at 23 when we started the recording for 'Thunder In The East' album, which was released in 1984 in the States, and then I had to take lessons. It took me forever to take, you know, to be done songs in the studio, it's very difficult to sing in English all the time. MAL- Are there some songs that don't translate the lyrics very well from, I mean I'm assuming they're written in Japanese and then translated. MINORU- Oh, yeah. Sometimes I know I have no I did not know. English then so I did not have no any idea how good or bad but um, yeah, someone told me that some songs did not go well. It's not easy translated into English or from Japanese lyrics. MAL- Okay, now you left the band in 1988 or thereabouts, what did you do after you left LOUDNESS? MINORU- Honestly, I did not have anything to do you know, I lost my job. Totally. I don't know I was depressed but some record companies, they offered to make a deal with me to make some solo album. So I, I was starting to write songs for my solo album, right after, you know quitting LOUDNESS. So I was pretty busy to do those studio stuff. And no, yeah, and then after my solo I formed you know, a few bands try and stay away from LOUDNESS for a while. MAL- But you rejoined in 2000, tell me about how that happened. MINORU- Akira is guitar player. He was calling me up one day about 15 years ago, and he was saying that he wanted to do something for our 20th anniversary. So he was saying that reunited original guys LOUDNESS and they do something for our you know 20th anniversary so I thought that sounds good I thought that's a good idea to reunited LOUDNESS so I agree with what he said and then know since then we were here right now. MAL- Was it intended as just a reunion for the 20th anniversary, and then that be it? MINORU- When we started the reunion we had the plan to do only one tour. But after one tour, we did a pretty good tour and you know, fans go, you know, just just continuing your LOUDNESS not for only one tour. So we decided, well, let's do it. You know, we don't we did not know how go about the way we did anyways. MAL- Yeah, okay. So you've been very active since then album after album after album. And it brings us to where we are now. And we've got the 'Rise To Glory' album out, how was that doing for you? MINORU- And do you remember we got huge earthquake back in 2011 and, and you know, people were totally destroyed by a disaster and we're trying to make people cheer up and the 'Rise Of Glory', you know, don't give up you know and do act whatever you can do, you know? That's kind of a theme we have. MAL- Stay positive. MINORU- Yeah, that's our Yeah. MAL- How active is the band outside Japan these days? Do you tour much outside Japan? MINORU- Yeah, we are almost everywhere. Every year. We go to Europe. Especially Germany and Belgium, Holland, you know, those kind of countries. We played many shows in the festivals. And we did headliner shows, you know, you know, Europe and also, we played many shows in the states as well. But two years ago, we got a problem about our visa things. So they could not, they did not let us in the states two years ago. So since then we don't have any chance to play in the States. But yeah, we are busy to do many shows in Japan, even including South Asia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia. Oh, they're huge fans out there. MAL- Coming up very soon is something I didn't think I would ever see in my lifetime and that is LOUDNESS coming to Australia. How did this come about? MINORU- Took us 38 years to be there. You know, we always wanted to play in Australia because we love AC/DC. We love many bands from Australia, so also must be great country for rock music. So you know we wanted to play in Australia. But finally our dreams come true so excited to play in Australia. We cannot wait. MAL- Playing the 9th and 10th and 11th of May, so it's happening very soon. MINORU- We are ready to rock you. MAL- I tell you what, if you speak to any metalhead my age, and you say 'Name a Japanese Heavy Metal band', 10 out of 10 of them, all of them would say LOUDNESS. MINORU- Thank you. Yeah, we're gonna play many songs from our 80s albums for you know, upcoming shows are you gonna have a good time you you'll enjoy, even though if you're not LOUDNESS fan. Still, you can have a good time our show so be there please. MAL- Now is this tour part of a big tour? Where do you head to after Australia? MINORU- Right after Australia we are heading for Japan Tour and also we are going to play in Taipei in South Asia. And after they were going to Europe to do some shows in the festivals. And coming back to Japan, we might do some shows and the Japanese Rock Festival in summer. MAL- Right Minoru from LOUDNESS. It's been great, absolutely great talking to you. Thanks for your time. MINORU- See our show and enjoy our show and let's go crazy nights. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |