Interview with auncia Before Anime Expo

Presented by CURE, visual kei band auncia was invited to perform at this year's Anime Expo. A few days before Anime Expo started, and the day before the vocalist TATSUKI's birthday, we were able to sit down for an interview with auncia at their hotel to have a more in-depth look at the band. Smiling and laughing throughout, the members talked about going major, their experiences overseas and more!


Please introduce the person next to you and share an interesting fact about him.

hikari: (gestures to the person sitting next to him) This is bassist yosuke. He is neutral...peaceful. The three of us fight all of the time, but he calms everyone down. He is also the youngest of the band, but is the most mature.
yosuke: This is the vocalist, TATSUKI. He is very selfish. He expresses himself, and sometimes is even too expressive. (everyone laughs) He is the face of auncia.
TATSUKI: This is the guitarist, JIN. He loves guitar. He has a lot of knowledge about guitar and music. He can teach us a lot about music. I play the acoustic guitar and JIN teaches me.

Do you play together?

TATSUKI: Never! (auncia laughs) JIN just teaches me.
JIN: This is hikari, the drummer. He is the band’s leader. (long pause)
hikari: Is that it?
(more laughter)
TATSUKI: Interesting!
JIN: He is the leader. He has to be the mood maker. (another pause)
hikari: Is that it!?
JIN: He’s the mood maker; he has to be as the leader. He makes good decisions for auncia. Even though we fight all the time, we always trust him.

How did you come up with the name auncia? Does it mean anything special?

hikari: auncia comes from a Spanish and English word. It means bonds. In Japanese, there is a phrase: "working together makes results." With the band’s name, we wanted to show what this phrase means.

Why Spanish?

hikari: I thought it sounded cool. Our music is connecting Japan and the world, so we wanted something not from English, but something cool from another language. We looked at other language dictionaries to find the word. It comes from the Spanish word ‘uncia.’

How did you first come together as a band?

hikari: yosuke and I played in a previous band together, and then began to think about starting a new band together. That is when we met TATSUKI, who was friends with JIN, and we all started auncia.
TATSUKI: hikari and yosuke have been friends the longest! Six years! They know each other so well.

How do you feel about this trip? Is it your first time to ever visit America?

hikari: This is my fourth time. The other times were for vacation. I've been to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

So you know your way around here?

hikari: Not at all! (laughs) The last time I came here was eight years ago.
yosuke: This is my first time here. I have been to Korea on a vacation. I ate lots of Korean food. In Korea, everyone looked similar to the Japanese, so it wasn’t weird. But in America, there are many different kinds of people, it’s very diverse. It was kind of a shock.
TATSUKI: This is my first time out of Japan. My birthday is June 30th, which is very soon. To go overseas to have a live and for it to be my birthday, I’m so glad to be here.
JIN: This is my first time in the US, but I have been to Korea as well, and New Zealand and Australia. When I was traveling in New Zealand and Australia, lots of animals, like sheep, followed me around. So far, I don't have that problem here in Los Angeles. In Korea, I got lost, so I don’t want to get lost in Los Angeles. Right now I’m just following everyone around.
TATSUKI: We like to play the video game "Grand Theft Auto," which is set in Los Angeles, so we expected Los Angeles to be like the game!

When you first heard that you were going to perform in the USA, what were your thoughts?

hikari: We can be famous worldwide. We appreciate the opportunity to come here. auncia means to connect, and being here, we get the chance to make it happen.
yosuke: In Japan, having a live in the US is huge news! Also, I’m looking forward to meeting the fans in America and I want them to have fun at the live. I hope the experience will be good for our future.

What part of your music excites you the most?

hikari: Lives. They are totally different from our music on CDs. auncia’s music is heavy rock music. In our minds, CDs and lives are totally different. At lives we are focused on having fun with our fans, and CDs is what connects auncia to fans.

What made you want to become a musician?

hikari: I always listened to music and was very interested in it. So I wanted to become a musician to entertain other people.
yosuke: My brother played guitar, and I thought he looked so cool, so I wanted to play guitar like him...and also to get girls! (laughs) And I love music.
TATSUKI: I love karaoke, and singing is really fun for me. All of my friends said I was good and told me to be in a band. I wanted to be popular, and because the vocalist is the face of the band...
JIN: I wanted to be a guitarist because of Kyoshi of hide with Spread Beaver. If I had never discovered Spread Beaver, I would never have become a guitarist.

Do you think things have changed for you since you've gone major?

hikari: Once we went major, everyone expected us to be professional, so we're under a lot of pressure to not sound indies. We wanted to become distinguished between indies and major because becoming major is a big deal in Japan. We still try our best to make the best music, but we just have lots of pressure to succeed.

Can you tell us about your first major single, KeyCase? What kinds of tracks are on it?

hikari: It's very fast, very up-tempo music, sort of positive rock with pop influence...KeyCase is like us opening the door to a new world through our major label. It's a very cool song.

Can you tell us how you interact with overseas fans? What are some things they can expect from this live?

hikari: We got a lot of messages from fans in California.
yosuke: About convention centers...
hikari: And our fans on the East Coast told us they wanted to come.
yosuke: Fans in America only know us from our CDs, but we sound so different at lives. They'll come to know us as a live band.
hikari: They'll realize our appeal as a live band.

Tell us something you want to achieve through your music.

hikari: We want to encourage fans through our music.
yosuke: We want fans to know that music is fun. They should enjoy our lives and love auncia more.
hikari: Our message is sort of like "life will be good."
TATSUKI: The two of them already said everything. (laughs) Well, I'm confident that we are professionals and will make everyone enjoy our lives. Our music is great, and everyone will think we're cool.
JIN: Without giving a literal message, our live performances can express what we feel. Even without sharing language, the fans will still have fun at our lives.
hikari: Music is the universal language.
yosuke: Yeah, we can't speak English, but we still want to reach out to our fans.


JaME would like to thank auncia and the staff at JSHOXX, including Akie for translating and Shion for helping us set up this interview.