KAMIJO - Interview about [Louis ~Enketsu no La Vie en Rose~]

This interview have been posted on Natalie.mu at first, the 19th of August, 2013.
You can find it by following this link.

The translation of this interview is by me, Malin Slifer.
Traduction française par ici.

Rose, History of France, Paul Mauriat...

An identity revealed in his first solo work.

Versailles' leader, Kamijo, suspended his activities in 2012's December, but he's back in a solo project, just have released his first single [Louis ～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～] (the Royal Blood of the Rosy Life).
Kamijo musical project caught attention especially with the appearance of Mana-sama, Malice Mizer's leader, in the title song's video clip.
His world is overrun by the aesthetic vision of the Rose's symbol, but what's the story he told in his first solo opus?
The interview will first check Versailles' activities' suspension.

The Rose have always been my greatest Symbol

──Mr. Kamijo, you've announced your solo project this January, announcing your first opus titled "Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～", so before talking about it, tell us first more about the suspension of Versailles' activities last december.

Versailles is a band that also worked with the Rose's symbol; we've also released a single titled "Rose" in the commemoration of our 5th anniversary last year's June. To use our own symbol have been like a landmark that permitted us to check what we've become in five years. And then, we've just choose to get a pause.

──You've used the Rose as the symbol of your first solo project's opus, [Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～], just as with Versailles.

Yes. Even before Versailles, I've always used the Rose to describe my world. And in fact, I've announced that I'm working on a solo project way before Versailles' formation. But well, by a stroke of fate, I've met HIZAKI, and was resolved to create a "Rose" band with him. And we've agreed on the creation of such a band, and Versailles was born. 6 years have passed already. And here I am again on my own rails. Let's say that the Rose have always been a great symbol deep within me.

I would like to express my awakening and motivation with Mana-sama’s appearance.

──Malice Mizer's Mana-sama, who appear in [Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～] music video, you know him from long ago according to what I've heard. Mana-sama's symbol have always been the Blue Rose, it actually seems that there is a connexion with your actual world's colors. Mr. Kamijo, may I ask you about your actual world's musical roots ?

My music's root is Paul Mauriat. I've loved him since my childhood. One of his most popular songs is "オリーブの首飾り[Olive no kubikazari] (in Japan) /El Bimbo", we have also Mr. Fuse Akira who covered one of his song "Queen of Saba", and there are many people around the world who are taking from his compositions that are so easy to listen to. A melody accompanied with lyrics that retrace the melancholy Europe is hit by, is really marvelous. A music so easy to listen to, like those you can find in cafeterias or some places like that. A music that make you say : what a beautiful music ! It excites me ! But I think that the fact of having an Electone teacher as a mother influenced me, and made this appetence and familiarization to such a music since my childhood. But I'll mention also near Paul Mauria, Richard Clayderman that I've listened to enormously.

──I see, easy listening then.

Yes. I felt some strong common points of this with Malice Mizer. I'm also well attached to Malice Mizer's musical theme, I would even say that I learn from it ! Malice Mizer is like a grand master, and I would like to be popular under that master's name, not without, a kind of tribute to M.M.. Or I may say in simpler words : a respect.

──Then, this seems to be something great. We may feel your philosophy somehow through this word.

I've been in LAREINE's band since 1994, and I thought it's normal to start writing Malice Mizer's name on the top of "Special thanks to:" list in the CD booklets. But I didn't dare to write "Malice Mizer"'s name. I evaluated it more respectful to not write it. But anyway, this time, Mana-sama is here in [Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～]'s music video. And like I thought, the Rose's symbol would be better expressed with Malice Mizer's presence. Because Mana-sama is here, I felt that this is the right moment to express my awakening with his appearance.

I’ve tried to create my own “if story”

──You've used many string instruments this time in [Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～]  to make it a classical song, what do you feel different between working in solo and a band ?

I didn't have any problem with the drums, bass, keyboard and the guitar. I've produced the totality of the content of my songs by myself, as for the performance, I've got the assistance of some musicians; they gave form to my songs.

──It’s "Atelier Temple" who did the arrangements, what is it ?

Atelier Temple (Temple Workshop) is my project's name, I've made a team since Versailles, and my manipulator partner Ikeda-kun cooperated this time, in a way I may trace what I'm creating. I've in my mind an image of the world with its clear sound accompanied by the name "Louis", and I feel that through composing, writing my songs (lyrics), I may give it a concrete shape (life). And "Louis" is a name I've always wanted to use.

── Who’s "Louis" ?

"Louis" is the french king ('s title). (Kamijo said Ou-"sama", in a sign of great respect to french king(s), he could just use Ou though.) Louis XVI is the well-known through the French Revolution, and during this one, Louis XVII got a mysterious death. It's my theme for this time. My anterior band's name, LAREINE, means "the Queen" in french, and I meant by it Marie-Antoinette. As for Versailles, it's Versailles' palace of course ! I really love France's History, and that's what made me work with names having reference to it, even for my solo project, I thought about starting from it.

──And you’ve linked its meanings to it too.

This time, having Louis XVII as a theme, I've transmitted this story in me in de [Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～]'s lyrics. We think that Louis XVII died after being jailed in the Temple's Tower, but there are many theories in which he escaped, that he survived somehow. So I've tried to write my own critique of his story. Louis XVII escaped from the Tower and met a vampire. I tried to write my own "if story", in which you'd think what if he escaped and had another life, etc. In the music video, I interpreted Louis XVII, stuck in the Temple's Tower, when I meet Mana-sama...etc. So I made all this while imagining that. Mana-sama awakened my past, something like that !

──And there’s no connexion between that and reality ?

I would say yes. I can't impose such a theory on anyone, you may think what you want. But I think that many different musics are going to be released so, produced all by the same person, and linked to my previous bands' activities. Seeing further, I'd that that anyone interested will find all my works as pieces of a puzzle, and would try to reconstruct it.

« Musical song » and « Human’s fragility in the French Revolution »

──The three songs of this single are「Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～」, 「Grazioso」(Gracious) and 「幻想トリアノン」(Trianon’s ghosts), are their stories linked ?

Yes they are.「Grazioso」 can be seen「Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～」’s lyrics from another view point .

──「Grazioso」is a song with a strong musical element. Even the lyrics are poetic.

I wanted to make it a musical song. La Vie en Rose mean in french "the Rosy Life" (Life in Rose -may also mean pink- / Pink life), something everyone thinks having deep inside the heart, a kind of thorny path, something like that. But everyone is doing his best and feels alive like that. Even these thorns will bloom from a day to another. I've put this sens and sang it in 「Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～」, and expressed it musically in [Grazioso]. I wanted [Grazioso] to be an elegant song, which gives a relaxation feeling, in a way it let the self walks firmly in its own path. I've composed it with such feelings. I sang in italian in this song for the first time. I thought it must be musical and then thought of Italy, and then decided to use authentic words.

──If we go further 「Grazioso」’s three beats, it could also be sung as opera, if we listening we feel elegance. How would you connect these to the third song「Gensou Trianon」 ?

「Gensou Trianon」reflects the war(s) while the French Revolution of course.

 ──It sounds painful.

Yes it is. Seeing the silhouette of your beloved one burning in the flammes, draws that specific thing called human fragility while the French Revolution. Marie-Antoinette passed her time in the Trianon, one of Versailles’ structures, so I’ve imagined a scene where soldiers somehow or posted in the palace’s threshold while war.

──It tells the History as if we’re living it, as expected from you.

I’m glade to hear this.

This in front of me, will always be culminant

──Your solo project’s songs are reflecting a strong personnality.「Louis～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～」is rich of classical elements, especially in its intro, despite being speedy it’s elegant. 

Yeah. I know that. A fursion of rock and orchestral music, I think it may be produced in an extreme high dimension. This time, I couldn't put violin, cello and viola all at once. I adapted a dynamic range for the electric guitar which was a great challenge,  but also a great success. The recording was made in three times, everything have been expressed in a different way, which made the process less rapid. And to make the sound be like the band's one I added the music played in one shot to the recorded one. And as you've noticed there's no guitar solo in the interlude of the song this time. I really love the guitar's sound, and made the riffs one by one. As for the interlude, I would like to do a guitar solo but I didn't decided so. I wanted my first opus from my solo work to be totally orchestral, no guitar solo in it then.

──You’ve such an engagement. How do you already think the live’s scene should be to be as expressif and attractive ?

For the live, Versailles have been catchy, I think I need time to be as attractive by myself. I want my music and visual to be so close to each other, and I’ll work on the live stage to be so. I want to make it by myself, making a live that reflects my first album. I’m impatient for that. 

──Do you already have an idea about your first album’s theme?

Yes I do, and this single is its prelude, I just have to exploit it.

──And is it the album that will have the story’s culminant point?

No, what I’ve in front of me is the culminant point. The realization of this single in this time is culminant in itself and unique. It’s of a non easy to produce type. And if to use the word culminant, I would better use it to describe my work’s outcome in such an epoch.

They mean : « I exist ».

──I would like to ask you about one other thing Mr. Kamijo. Why do you use such expressions hard to understand in your lyrics ? Like the use of Italian this time. Why don’t you choose simple terms, clearer and easier to understand ?

May I say they mean : « I exist » ? Plus, if they were too easy to be understood by anyone, I think that they wouldn’t really reflect me. For example; the expression “I love you” may be so easy and comprehensible by anyone, but yet, it sounds too difficult to be understood for me. So, I’d say that understanding what’s in me will make the comprehension of what I insinuate (in my lyrics) easier.

──I see.

After all, it’s so simple, it’s all about what I love. And that’s what every artist does no ? I think that it’s an awesome thing to work, even desperately, for what we like, it make people more real and beautiful, when they’re doing what they like to do. So me too, I’m doing what I love to do, not just what amuses me. In my case, everyone who likes my music and recognizes it, even those who don’t love France, they’ll find in it the symbols of Victorian beauty, and they’ll end up loving it I guess. So, I would say that I’m really happy to express and let the world know (meet) such a lovely aesthetic through my music.

Thanks to credit the blog if you retranslate this interview to another language.