An Cafe Goes to A-KON

An Cafe made their overseas debut appearance at the anime convention A-KON in Dallas, Texas, USA the first weekend of June. Even though the band did not perform, they received a great big welcome from their American fans. The band participated in two autograph sessions and a Fan Question & Answer panel. During the second day of the convention, An Cafe was able to take some time to have an interview with JaME.

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First of all, please introduce yourself to our readers who may not know you yet.

Miku: I am the vocalist, Miku, and my main hobby is cooking.
Kanon: I'm the bassist, Kanon, and my hobby is watching anime.
Teruki: I'm the drummer, Teruki, and my hobby is watching the sunset.

An Cafe is known as an Oshare kei band, meaning your looks are colorful, cute, and youthful. What made you decide to have this visual appearance?

Miku: When we started doing lives, there were many bands with different types of appearances. We liked the style of the Harajuku area, so we decided to go with that type.

Considering your name in romaji is spelled as "antikku koohiiten", how did "an cafe" come about?

Miku: When you translate 'koohiten' it means 'cafe'.

The theme of 'cafe' is used, not only as the band's name, but also for your fans and your management; your fans are 'Cafekko,' meaning 'Cafe children,' and your management is known as "Red Cafe"; why the theme of 'cafe'?

Teruki: When we had our first live, we kind of had a theme of a cafe.
Miku: Our former member, Bou, was into horseracing and there was a horse named 'Manhattan Cafe' and he wanted the same name for the band. The rest of us thought 'no, that's not a good idea' (laugh). So we changed it and now it has become 'An Cafe', but actually there was no special relationship to cafes, it just happened that way.

Miku, you use a lot of interesting words such as 'nyappy', 'tiramisu', and 'poppoo' for example; how did you come up with these words and when are they mostly used?

Miku: Every word has a meaning, so we'll start with 'nyappy'. We want to make it a world standard language and it's used to communicate among the Cafekko, who are the fans, and us. For instance, if we meet up in Harajuku, they'll say 'nyappy' and we'll respond with 'nyappy'. 'Tiramisu' means 'have a nice day' (laugh). 'Poppoo' comes from 'hato' [translates to 'dove'], which is a symbol of peace and 'poppoo' is the sound a dove makes.

Kanon, who are some of your musical influences and how have they influenced your songwriting?

Kanon: The type of music I would listen to when I was young was Mr. Children. As I got older, I listened to other bands such as Glay and Fuji Fabric.
Miku: (Teasing) They helped with the music, melody... (Everyone laughs.)
Teruki: The rhythm patterns. (Everyone laughs.)

Kanon, yesterday during the autograph session, a fan asked you to sign her bass; how did you feel about that?

Kanon: I was very honored to be signing her bass, and at the same time it was kind of a reminiscence of when I was a fan and had that same kind of feeling.

Teruki, you were previously in a band named Feathers-blue; how is An Cafe different from that band?

Teruki: The main difference is the relationship between the band members. In my former band, we would have one member who would decide everything. He would do all the song writing and everyone else would follow, whereas in An Cafe we have a more liberal atmosphere where everyone gets to choose what should be done as a band.

You've modeled for various brands, such as Sex Pot Revenge and Angelic Pretty; how did you get these opportunities?

Miku: Those brands are from Harajuku and since we have the same Harajuku image, somewhere between Gothic Lolita and the punk fashion, they found us and we eventually started working together.

You have a young audience, such as those from Harajuku. Why did you decide to target this specific audience?

Miku: In the Visual kei scene, there are people who are more into the dark and gothic stuff, and there are also fans of Harajuku pop-y stuff, which is a scene we could relate to more. Since we chose to be more on the popular side, we thought the same type of fans would follow us.

What process do you have when creating your songs, from lyrics to music and arranging to recording?

Teruki: One thing I noticed when I was talking to some other musicians is that we spend more time creating just one song. For instance, when we come together to write a song, he [points to Miku] has his say of how he wants to make it, but at the same time everyone else has their opinion too. We spend so much time in the writing process before going into the actual recording.

Even though you all have different opinions, do you come to a compromise or does someone eventually step down from his opinion?

Teruki: I guess you could call it a compromise, but it's not actually a compromise; it's more about the teamwork. For instance, Miku and I do get into arguments quite often, but having said that, I do respect what Miku says. So within the conversation, if it happens to go Miku's way, I still respect that.

In 2003, your single Candy Holic ranked the second best seller on the Oricon Indie charts; how did it feel to have something like this happen at such an early point in your career?

Miku: I was surprised! I couldn't believe that it went into #2. Maybe because I was foolish or maybe because I assumed I knew a lot about Visual kei, but I thought 'this is easy'. Then the single afterwards didn't go high in the charts, so I realized we have to do things seriously.

The line-up of the band has changed and with two new members joining the band, will the sound of the band change too?

Miku: We won't go far off from the former An Cafe sound, but surely with the two new members there will be slight changes in the sound. Also, we want to respect what Takuya and Yuuki have to offer and maybe create a new feeling within the band.

Was Yuuki already taking care of the keyboards before officially joining the band?

Teruki: He had just been playing classical piano and doesn't have much of a career as a keyboardist in a band.

You made a movie Kyu~bonds, which was a bonus included in your photo book; did you write the plot yourselves? How did you come up with this idea for the movie?

[The band members talk and laugh amongst themselves when they can't exactly remember their memories.]
Miku: We wrote a little of the plot. When we were visiting various cities in Japan we thought of the word 'bonds', to have bonds with somebody else. So we thought we should make a movie about the actual bond that people share and to have a bond with everybody. We made the movie and went all over to shake hands with people.
Teruki: During that trip as a token to show the bond between everybody, we passed on red wristbands to everyone there. So we and the fans wear the wristbands all the time.

Do you have any plans to make another movie?

Teruki: We would love to make another one with our new members and we want to spread out with the bonds with people not only in Japan, but all over the world.

Some of your PVs are rather funny such as the one of Maple Gunman in which you dress up in various costumes like a dog or a police officer. Do you come up with these ideas yourself?

Kanon: The idea for Maple Gunman came from Miku when he said "the keyword is 'gunman', which means 'gun', which means 'policeman'". Then we thought about making a police story. [Miku hums a part of the tune.] And during the part Miku's humming, he wanted someone to get arrested. (Everyone laughs.)

You had a monthly internet radio show called "Radio Cafe"; do you still have this show? What are several reasons for having it? Do you think it makes you closer to your fans?

Teruki: We're still doing that radio show, but since we've been on tour we haven't been able to do it for two months.
Miku: If I had somebody I liked, I would want to listen to that person's radio show since it would make me feel closer to them. Just hearing that person's voice close to me would make me feel as if we were physically close to each other. In that sense, I want that feeling to be the same between our fans and us.
Teruki: Miku and I have a different radio program called 'Neo ID', which is once a week. The listeners send in their problems, which is then discussed between the two of us. There are several other corners of the show that are quite interesting, but I guess having these fans actually send in their thoughts to us and to be able to communicate is the most interesting, especially if they have problems where the both of us answer with a different thought. And sometimes we get in an argument during the show. (Everyone laughs.)

Even though you didn't perform at A-KON and weren't able to see how your overseas fans react to your music, how does it feel meeting them here in the USA for the first time?

Miku: At first, my perception of the fans was different. I thought that the people here would think that we were part of an anime or part of some sort of character, but when we actually meet the fans, they really cared about us and we could feel that they had been waiting for us. I felt honored.

At the Fan Question & Answer panel, did you expect the fans to be so bold with their questions?

Teruki: I was surprised to see them so enthusiastic.
Miku: We were very nervous and with the fans coming up with such questions, it helped us to become more relaxed. So we want to thank the fans for that.
Teruki: In Japan, we're known as 'anything goes with An Cafe', so even if we're meeting the fans or if we're just on our own, there is no difference. We can talk about anything in a very natural mode.

Now that you know you have a lot of American fans, are you planning to do more things in the USA, such as distribute your releases, sell your merchandise or even open an international fanclub?

Miku: So far we don't have a specific plan, but we do want to do it. Since we've seen the fans now, we need to talk about it more seriously.

At the end of June, you are having your first live performance in Germany. Are you excited about the show? Are there any expectations or worries you might have?

Teruki: I'm sure we'll face the language barriers, but since there will be four bands that will be performing that night and amongst all the Visual kei bands, we stand in kind of a unique position. Not just with our music, but also with our style and with that we want to be able to express both these aspects of An Cafe's uniqueness. There are several parts in our performance other than the actual performing such as the MC. That's an easy format that can be used to introduce what sort of personality we have, but in this case it will be difficult due to the language barrier. So with this we want everyone to have fun with the music.

For fun and on a more personal note, say something about the band member to your left.

Teruki: Miku's a mixture of a child and an adult. He's very pure when he's listening to music, but at the same time as an adult he's very professional. I always wanted to play in a Visual kei band, but we wanted to have something different. Miku was able to bring that difference from other Visual kei bands in terms of how he writes his lyrics, the way he performs live, and by the way he looks. The whole uniqueness of Miku is very unique. (Everyone laughs.)
Miku: Kanon's usually quiet. (Everyone laughs.) When we really need his help, he's "the man"; he's a trustworthy person. For instance, when all the members had a cold and we weren't doing so well at a live, he would think "I need to help the band move forward" and he would help out in doing that. So he's a very reliable person that we can trust.
Kanon: Teruki's the perfect figure of a serious person, and he's also always worried about many things. If we lose Teruki of Antic Cafe, we will not be able to go on as Antic Cafe.

Thank you for your time and please give a final message for your fans.

Teruki: Music can be a universal and global language. Of course there is the language barrier, but music itself can cross over to anywhere. This time, I realized that the visuals can be the same as well; when people have seen how we look, we can be connected to those people. We want to spread the word of 'being An Cafe' with the whole total visuals and images as well as the music.
Miku: Until I came to America, I hadn't been thinking about doing anything abroad, but having now been here, I was so moved that there were fans actually waiting for us. That has completely changed my mind, in the writing process of my future lyrics. Until now, when I had been writing lyrics, I wasn't the type to be very open-minded to others or a talkative person to express such feelings towards the fans or listeners who have had the same feelings. Now, I will try to do that not only for the Japanese fans, but everybody. Although there is a language barrier, I will try as much as possible to share that feeling with everyone in the world with even a gesture or anything.
Kanon: Where ever you are in the world, An Cafe and Cafekko, we're all family! (Everyone laughs.)

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JaME would like to thank An Cafe for taking their time for the interview, and Ken Isayama for making this interview possible.