Interview with Calmando Qual

Continuing the series of interviews with artists from the label Starwave Records, JaME sat down with Calmando Qual during the Starwave Records label festival at Ikebukuro Cyber on November 8th to talk about the changes the band has been going through since the last time we interviewed them and more.


JaME has had the opportunity to interview Calmando Qual several times, however this is our first time meeting MAYA. Could you please introduce him to us?

Calmando Qual: He’s the drummer, MAYA (laugh).

Hibiki: Once in a month he interacts with aliens in a riverbed (laugh).

For readers who are not very familiar with you, could you please introduce your music? Is there a release or a song that represents Calmando Qual best?

Hibiki: Something that is very much like us is the recently released Negative Mustard. I think it would be easy to understand what we are like if you listen to it.

MAYA: Since we change as time goes by, in a way what is being released at a particular point in time is what best represents Calmando Qual; the way we are at any given moment. I would recommend everything (laugh). All of our releases represent us. Personally though, I do like the very first releases, for example Killer Fiction.

Tak: If I had to pick a song, it would probably be ANTI FLAG.

MAYA: Right, there is a song where you go like this (members raise their arms) “Hai! Hai!” (note: those familiar with Calmando Qual will know that this interpretation of the lyrics is modified for foreign audiences.). It’s a song called ANTI FLAG where you do this dance in the bridge.

Tak: We always play this song at the end of our shows, and if we had to pick a song that the fans get quite enthusiastic about it, it would be this song.

MAYA was distanced from the band for a while and then he rejoined. How did it happen that he joined the band once again?

Hibiki: He went for training into the mountains, to be the apprentice of a stronger master. (laughs)

MAYA: If you stay in the mountains for several years it becomes quite hard, so I came back (laughs). The band itself wasn’t active for a while. There was a period with a name change when they played as Twisted Clock, and when they decided to restart Calmando Qual they called me to join. I was at first a support member, and before I had even noticed I had rejoined the band (laughs). When joining Starwave Records, the members asked me whether I would join or not and I said “I will!”.

What changed for you after joinging the label, Starwave Records?

Calmando Qual: There was no huge change and we are enjoying the freedom to be able to do our thing.

Tak: We have had more chances to watch the bands of our friends and our label mates and we learn from it. Through the competition we were able to think and progress positively, and we are happy about that.

Today you participated in the Starwave Records label festival, how did you feel about it?

Hibiki: It was fun! Every time we have the opportunity to learn from the live performances of others, so we are having fun while learning. It’s no good if we don’t have fun. It’s not like it’s a contest where we have to win, although that’s also not a bad thing (laughs).

To change the topic, this year there was the Tohoku earthquake disaster that shook Japan, and Calmando Qual released a charity single this summer because of this. Could you tell us how you were affected by the disaster?

Hibiki: To be honest, since I never had had such an experience, I was very surprised. When something like this suddenly happens, I felt there is nothing we can do...

Kenka: We actually had a gig that day. However since the trains had stopped we could not get to the venue. I really realised the gravity of the matter then.

Hibiki: It was really bad on the streets...

Tak: People in the north like Sendai were certainly affected, but people in Tokyo were too and for a while everyday life was completely disordered. Several of our lives got cancelled, and it was not just our lives, many live houses could not be opened so many lives got cancelled. We had worries whether there would come a time when we would be able to continue band activities. So for being able to play lives normally like today, I am very grateful. Things that seemed natural before, I learned to be grateful for them.

Kenka: To see people from all over the world worrying about Japan made me very happy, it was a big encouragement. I want to send this: Thank you. We will do our best. Japan will do its best from now on.

Thank you. You released another CD this summer. It’s name, Negative Mustard, is rather interesting. How did you choose it?

Hibiki: We chose it because it is funny (laughs). It’s negative but somehow also spicy. So we wanted to take this negativity in a positive direction in a way. I thought it was interesting and I wondered whether such a thing exists so I searched on the internet and found that negative mustard actually existed! It’s like a species of a flower of an orange tree with the same name. We thought that it was quite good. Its aroma has a relaxing effect when there is a negative time, so this meaning got added later (laughs).

Last summer, Calmando Qual held a tenth anniversary oneman...

Hibiki: In Tokyo Dome (laugh).

When you look back on your career, how was the time when the band was founded? What kind of goals did you set for yourselves?

Hibiki: At first, we were aiming to become a gothic band that would be active around the world. We didn’t have goals like wanting to play at a certain venue, for example wanting to play at Budokan, no, we wanted to play all around the world.

And you were able to achieve it...

Hibiki: (laughs) There are many places in the world we still haven’t visited. North Pole, South Pole, Africa, if you call us we will go anywhere.

In your ten years of activity, how did your thinking about the band, the way the band works change?

Hibiki: It didn’t change at all. Our attitude of 'Let’s do interesting stuff!' was one we had from the start. We didn’t think that we wanted to become like someone, we wanted to continue being ourselves. However recently we started to become more conscious of our audience. Before we had this “watch us as you like” attitude, but recently doing visual kei, we have started to do lives that are more conscious of the visual kei audience. This is a way of thinking that we have gained very recently.

Tak: Originally it was just the two of us, then the bassist Kenka and the drummer MAYA joined and having become more of a band we were able to do more things, so we have changed in this way. But our feelings, like how we want to do things that people around us don’t do, how we want to take things that we like and express them as a way of entertainment, these feelings have not changed. The feeling that we want to present something that the audience would want to see under the name of Calmando Qual has not changed at all.

What about your influences, did the change throughout your career?

Hibiki: At the start, I used to like BUCK-TICK and Bauhaus. Now I still think they are great, but now I’m back to listening to artists that I used to listen to when I started listening to music, during my high school times. “Ah, this is nostalgic, after all they are cool!”, these sort of feelings.

Kenka: I wasn’t actually in the band ten years ago. And comparing the band that I was in at the time, and Calmando Qual, it feels like I am "really" in a band now (laughs).

Hibiki: He used to play in a comic band.

Kenka: It was fun.

Tak: For me, the things that I like haven’t changed. I still listen to things I listened to ten years ago. The surroundings are changing though, there is new music, there are new trends, and these do get incorporated as our influences. But things that I like, they haven’t changed.

MAYA: I became more serious, I have more willingness to learn. For example like today, I want to learn from watching good points of other bands. In regards to music, I was originally an omnivore, I listened to anything. Or rather, I like to listen to music that can live inside me.

If you imagine Calmando Qual in ten years, what do you think you will become?

Hibiki: We will maybe become like Yazawa Eikichi (a Japanese rock musician active since the seventies). (laugh)

Calmando Qual: Wait, he’s alone, what does that mean? (laugh)

Hibiki: If we could become like Rolling Stones it would be cool. I think we will be more like "musicians" than we are at the moment.

When you started, you had quite strong visuals. Then later you tried to distance yourselves from visual kei, for example in our interviews you would say “We aren’t visual kei!” or “We want to distance ourselves from visual kei”. Recently you came back to this scene, and today you mentioned that you are in fact a visual kei band. Why did you want to distance yourself from this phenomenon and why did you come back?

Hibiki: We hate the way of thinking about music in visual kei. The kind of thinking that since the fans are seeking a certain image, we have to do the same thing as everyone else, the same thing as people who are popular, in order to make the fans happy. Although the artist is creating something that they want to create, it becomes “please watch us”. I really didn’t like that. I thought, “I don’t want to be doing it like those kinds of guys”. This way of thinking still hasn’t changed actually. So we didn’t like that and we were wondering what doing music was all about. So we decided to distance ourselves from visual kei and simply just do music. We were able to make good music and we learned a lot, in Twisted Clock, which we did for about two years. “We have become able to make good music, we really progressed” I thought, and one day I felt “it doesn’t really matter if we get called visual kei, it isn’t bad”. So we thought we would try expressing ourselves in this way once again, so we talked about reviving Calmando Qual. We restarted with a kind of horror style that we were told looked a bit Tim Burton-like, and that was a kind of revolutionary style for Calmando Qual. With that our consciousness changed. There is an audience and there is an artist, and there is a balance that we were able to seize with that style. Now if we get called visual kei, if we get called any style, even if we get called folk, it doesn’t matter. Decide as you please.

You mentioned Twisted Clock, would you like to revive this band any time?

Hibiki: That band name is cool, isn’t it (laughs). We just want to use that band name again because it’s cool (laughs). I do feel like Twisted Clock and Calmando Qual are different though.

Kenka: We sometimes do still play the songs of Twisted Clock. At that time, we were more oriented towards music, however now we have progressed and have become able to perform the songs of Twisted Clock with Calmando Qual in a different shape. So I personally don’t feel the need to purposefully wash off my make-up and perform them. I feel it is a positive change to be able to perform these good songs with the help of expression that make-up allows us to.

Since you’ve been active together for a long time, you probably know a lot of interesting things about each other...

Hibiki: We don’t actually interfere with each other much. We don’t even know each other's zodiac signs, blood types or birthdays (laughs). We only ever talk about music, so we wonder “What kind of hobbies does this guy have”, we really don’t know anything about each other (laughs).

MAYA: Since we’re all writing blogs now, if we look at them we understand more or less each others’ interests, such as, “this guy likes these kinds of things”...

Hibiki: Like “this guy’s weird!” (laugh). I found out his birthday this year! (points at MAYA) We have known each other for so long and I just found it out this year. That shows just how much we’re not interested in each others' personal affairs.

Calmando Qual have been releasing a number of singles and mini-albums, however it’s been a while since you released a full album. When can we expect your next full album to come out?

Hibiki: No way, it felt like we just released one a couple of months ago (laughs). We want to release one, and we hope we can do it next year!

It’s been about three years since your last European tour. Would you like to go overseas again? Where would you like to go apart from Europe?

Calmando Qual: We want to go!

MAYA: Next week, or even tomorrow, I want to go!

Hibiki: We are ready to go anywhere they would call us to. Korea, China, America or Australia, we want to go everywhere. If we are felt to be needed, we want to go to those places. If you need rock, call us! (laugh)

Calmando Qual: Even to Africa or North Korea (laugh).

Please tell us your plans from now on.

MAYA: Next spring...

Hibiki: He will get married (laugh).

MAYA: (laughs) No, that’s not what I was going to say. We would like to release a CD in spring, with a pre-sale in March.

Finally, could you give our readers a message?

MAYA: I have never been to Europe... I have in fact never been overseas with the band, and I really want to perform overseas, so please call us. And thank you for always supporting us! Please look forward to the upcoming CD.

Kenka: As I said earlier, I think that currently people in the whole world are kindly worrying about Japan, but we will not lose. We are happy that you have been supporting us. This time, in a different shape using music we would like to repay you for this support. We love you.

Tak: It’s been ten years, but for these ten years we have been doing what we wanted to do and it has passed really quickly. We get told by surrounding people “It’s amazing that you've been going for ten years already!”, but we have simply been doing our thing and these years have just passed by. We want to meet our 11th year too doing what we love, and of course we want to tour overseas, and with these members we would like to aim at our 20th anniversary. We will do our best.

Hibiki: If you feel like you need Calmando Qual, we are happy to go to your place, no matter where it is. If you are interested in us, call us (laugh). We will keep doing music from now on, so please continue supporting us. And… as for presents, I like beer (laughs).

Tak: I like anything but beer (laughs).

Kenka: I am looking forward to the beer from all over the world! (laughs)



JaME would like to thank Calmando Qual and Kiwamu for making this interview possible, as well as Non-Non for help with transcription.