interview by Oscar Cabrera
“Our life story is almost like too crazy to be true — too painful to be true.” Yoshiki
They say that pain can either make you or break you. For rock star legends X Japan, pain has done both. For starters, the band broke up in 1997. Shortly after, guitarist Hide took his own life and vocalist Toshi joined a cult which “brainwashed him,” according to drummer Yoshiki. For Yoshiki, pain and misfortune are no strangers and have kept him company long before X Japan. At the young age of ten years old, Yoshiki witnessed his own father lying dead on the floor having committed suicide. From that moment on, he was never the same. Yoshiki tried turning to music as an outlet to release his emotions in order to cope with the pain and anger he felt as a result. But, all he knew was classical music; that’s all his father ever taught him. And classical music didn’t quite provide that particular release he longed for. Shortly after his father’s death, Yoshiki’s mother bought him a set of drums. This is when X Japan came to fruition and when Yoshiki began a quest to find purpose in his life. “Instead of breaking things, I started banging drums,” he said. X Japan was formed by Yoshiki and Toshi, who grew up together, when they were in their mid teens. In their early 20s, the band signed to Sony Records. In 2007, the band reunites and their fanbase grows beyond their expectations. Fast forward eleven years, X Japan recently rocked out at Coachella 2018 with special guests Marilyn Manson, Guitarists Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) and Richard Fortus (Guns N’ Roses), can this be X Japan’s long awaited international comeback?
Coachella Magazine spoke with X Japan’s drummer and band leader Yoshiki via phone on April 4, 2018.
Oscar: You guys recently announced the release of your first new studio album, right… in over twenty years?
Yoshiki: Yes, actually to be exact it’s gonna be the first album in 22 years.
Oscar: Oh wow! What can fans expect, you know, twenty-one years later? Or twenty-two.
Yoshiki: Well… our band disbanded, almost twenty-two years ago. The vocalist got brainwashed and then right after that one of our guitar players passed away. But the vocalist came back and we decided to reunite the band. So we did the Tokyo Dome Show for three nights. I thought that was a one time reunion show. But, because our fans asked us to go all over the world, which is amazing, at that time we didn’t know we had so many fans around the world. We decided to keep on going and we did a world tour. Then while we are touring the world, we decide to create an album. Since then we’ve been recording and recording and it’s finally coming together.
Oscar: That is awesome. How long has it been in the making?
Yoshiki: Thank you. Well, it’s almost, you know, I didn’t record like every single day, but it took almost ten years.
Oscar: Wow.
Yoshiki: I write a lot of songs, but only a few songs can make it to the album. I’m extremely, extremely picky. I wanted to put like all the emotion, you know? (The past twenty years) we lost a member, and then all those things happened. I wanted to put our entire emotion into the new album.
Oscar: That’s gonna be an incredible album.
Yoshiki: I hope so!
Oscar: So Coachella 2018, congratulations first of all.
Yoshiki: Oh, thank you.
Oscar: It’s marking your return to the U.S. right? And not only that, but your return to playing drums since your surgery. How does that make you feel? Does it make you a little nervous? What are you feeling aside from the music.
Yoshiki: Everything happens for a reason. Last year, I played my classical show at Carnegie Hall. I thought that was amazing, then everything was going well. Then right after that, X Japan played at Wembley arena in London. You know, I started feeling a huge pain in my neck. So I went to see doctor, then doctor said, ‘if you don’t do anything you’re going to be paralyzed.’
Oscar: Oh my god.
Yoshiki: It was a matter of time. So I kinda, I freaked out and decided to do neck surgery. Actually that was my second neck surgery. I did my [first] neck surgery several years ago, but this time was even bigger — to put the artificial disk into my neck.
Oscar: Right.
Yoshiki: I was on the wheelchair for a while. I didn’t even know if I could play drums, [if] I could come back to the stage. But, somehow, somehow I convinced doctor I would play drums again. He didn’t give me a green light but if I change the style, hopefully I may be able to play drums. Don’t get me wrong, I’m gonna play as hard as I can still but I have to change the headbanging part. After all those years of headbanging — headbanging is very bad for anyone. I mean, it doesn’t have to be me, doesn’t have to be drummer. Can be guitar player or vocalist, you know, other musicians. Anyway, I’m trying to change the drumming style a little bit. We also have to play at Coachella which is amazing. That was one of my dreams. You know, first of all, to play right after neck surgery. But, you know, I was like, you know I talked to the agent and said “I’ll take it.” I’ll fix my body before Coachella. I’m very glad we can play Coachella because otherwise it might have taken a few more years for me to come back on stage. So, I think that was good.
Oscar: I think your fans are definitely gonna appreciate you going out there. Where’s the line between what your fans want to hear and what you wanna put out?
Yoshiki: That’s a great question. Especially these days, you know, that social media is very popular. We can listen to fans’ you know opinion, fans’ advice and everything. Which is very, extremely important. At the same time, artists should have their own direction. No matter what people say, I would like to create this. You know, maybe millions of fans may hate that song but this is what I wanna create. But, that’s kinda like my style. Sometimes, I’ll listen to my fans, you know, words and sometimes I ignore them.
Oscar: Right! No, definitely.
Yoshiki: I think sometimes artists need to do that otherwise, you know, you’re gonna lose why you’re existing. You know, you’re not just a medium.
Oscar: Exactly.
Yoshiki: Sometimes artists need to be selfish even though fans are extremely important.
Oscar: I have a few friends who are artists myself. That’s the reason why I ask that question. They’re always so worried about what the spectator’s gonna think. I’ve given them that advice that you just gave me. You know, sometimes you have to ignore that.
Yoshiki: You know there’s a fine line… but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Oscar: Switching gears now to your guys’ documentary film “We Are X.” It’s been premiered at the Sundance film festival and it even won best editing. Can you tell me how it came about and the impact it had on you, personally?
Yoshiki: Our story, you know, our band story is almost like too crazy to be true — too painful to be true. When I was talking to the agent almost like ten years ago, US agent, agent told me, ‘you have to make your documentary, it’s a very dramatic story.’ And I said, ‘I don’t wanna do it’. It’s too painful to open that door. But, several years of talking, people around me convinced that our story need able to help people’s lives; give people courage to move on. So that was a great reason. So we decided to create the documentary [We Are X]. I mean, I lost my father when I was ten years old. My father took his own life. Also the vocalist who I grew up with got brainwashed by cult, then he joined a cult. Also, our guitar player also passed away and my bass player took his own life. It was crazy story. But now I’m glad we made it because after three months release we got so many messages through social media saying, you know, ‘ I decided to live because of your film or your life story’.
Oscar: Wow
Yoshiki: Yeah, so it made me very happy.
Oscar: Sounds very heavy but I’m glad you did open up that door because it seems like it did open a lot of doors for a lot of other people.
Yoshiki: A lot of musicians, I think, may relate to me because sometimes we do lose the reason why we exist. I always like having this kind of talk. So I started helping people that made me feel very good especially, like, they are the reason for me to be in this world. So I started doing this. Anything happens around me or around the world, I try to help as much as I can.
WEB: xjapan.com
LINKS: wearexfilm.com