Miyavi: the interview

Shall we do this interview in English?
I'll try.

It sounds like you're pretty fluent...
Yeah, I'm just pretending [laughs]. I started studying English four years ago in LA. I went for three months, but it wasn't enough, so I brought my friend back to Japan. I had him staying 24 hours with me, and we kept speaking English. And my wife is from Hawaii...that's the best way!

Do you speak in English at home?
Yeah. But I'm trying to talk to my kids in Japanese, because I'm not a pro English speaker. My wife speaks to them in English. That's her first language. I don't want my kids to feel the same as me when I was studying English. It was so frustrating.

How's fatherhood?
Pretty good! Totally different from when I was single. I've realised how important having family is. Last Christmas and New Year's Day I spent time with my kids, my grandpa, my mum and my wife's family — it's been a while since I spent time with family like that.

Do you get a lot of time off?
Yep.

One of our Twitter followers sent in a question asking how you balance your time between fans and family.
It's pretty hard. I try not to be at home when I want to concentrate on my work, 'cause they're screaming and running around. So usually I go to the studio to write lyrics and compose music. I try to be a dad as much as possible at home.

Will they come on tour with you?
No, no. It's too hard. I can't handle it. I need to concentrate and focus on the show.

When you go on stage wearing all your make-up, are you becoming a character? Is Miyavi a character for you?
Yeah, kind of. But you know, nowadays I don't want to categorise myself with certain genres. I was influenced by industrial culture and 'visual-kei' — X Japan, Luna Sea... I felt it was so freeing; I could get myself free from restrictions. But over the years the image of 'visual-kei' has kind of started restricting me. The reason I put make-up on or wear the costume is to try and find my own style. It's like my guitar style — I'm just trying to be an original artist.

Your guitar playing is fairly spectacular. How did you come about your particular style?
While I was struggling. Actually, I got some of my ideas from bass players. I was like, what about playing like that [mimes slap bass] with the guitar? It might be original, right? At the beginning I couldn't strum the guitar with my fingers; I'd been using a pick, but I stopped and started trying to play with my fingers. I wasn't caring about something that somebody else had done before. I'm trying to break new ground — make a new style. And also, I'm a Japanese guitarist. Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, bass, rock, jazz — whatever — all of them are from Western culture. I wanted to find some reason why Japanese do it. So I mixed it up with a shamisen feeling, so that's why I go bang, bang, bang... [starts miming the strident downstrokes of a shamisen player].

Is that why you call yourself the 'Samurai guitarist'?
Yeah... some of my fans started calling me that, and I was like, 'Oh!' [clicks fingers as though a great idea has just come to him]. But I'm just trying to spread my music to the world... I'm not going to beat anybody... I want to blow the people away with my guitar, not with a sword!

Your first world tour is said to be the biggest a Japanese artist has ever accomplished. Is that correct?
[Looks bashful] Er, I think so. I'm not sure, though.

Why do you think you connected outside Japan, where other Japanese artists haven't?
I don't know. They are my people. My fanbase is all over the world. I've no other choice than that. I go there to play. It's kind of the same as having a Japanese nationwide tour — I go somewhere and my people are waiting for me. We can be connected via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace...that's how I found people waiting for me, so I wanted to make it happen. It was quite hard to make it happen, though. Five or six years ago, it was difficult for me to go because of some stupid situation... It's one of the reasons I became independent.

It's become easier since then?
I'm not interested in being 'Nippon-Ichi' — number one in Japan. I just want to be worldwide; an international artist. I'm proud of being Japanese and I love Japanese people, but I don't want to die just playing guitar in this country. All over the world there are different cultures, races — I think we can go beyond differences with music.

You're about to go on another world tour, and on Twitter you've been promising 'something new'...
Yeah! It'll be the first time to go to Europe with this style — only with a drummer. It'll be a new experience.

Are you still collaborating with BMX bikers, skateboarders — the kind of thing we see a lot of on your YouTube videos?
No, not anymore. Just two people onstage. That's enough to rock our people! Before, I collaborated with beat-boxers, tap dancers, Japanese wadaiko drummers — I called it 'Kabuki Boys'. In the future I want to do it again, but at this point I just want to do it with a guitar and drummer. That's enough. Just simplify the stage. Being solo is way easier for me. I don't have to wait for anybody else. It's all my responsibility.

You still collaborate occasionally with other artists, right?
Yeah, I'll do some more later this year.

Are there any dream collaborators out there for you?
Madonna. Prince — he's amazing; a genius. I think the only thing I have over him is my height! [Laughs]