Press conference ~ Anna Tsuchiya: June 30 2007
Anime Expo Long Beach, CA
The Anna Tsuchiya press conference was held at Anime Expo 2007 in the Hyatt Long Beach.
Many of your songs contain English lyrics. Why is it that you chose to write the lyrics in English instead of in your native Japanese?
Well the reason why is that, when I was growing up, I was only listening to western music. This was in a time when my contemporaries in Japanese school would only be listening to Japanese idol music. I was different about that and I grew up just being used to singing English songs, so it was more natural for me to do that. Taking a Japanese song for example, if you’re a native Japanese speaker, the first thing that comes to you might be the lyrics that are in Japanese. But, if you take classical music for example, that music can so moving and powerful but it contains no lyrics. It’s classical music and I found that very interesting. Also, I speak Japanese and I don’t have a full grasp of fluency in English but yet I can sing in English. I can give an impression while singing to a Japanese audience and they may not fully understand what the lyrics are saying, but, I find it successful in conveying what I want to express in my songs with lyrics that they don’t fully understand. That’s something that I enjoy very much. That’s what I want to do with the words that, in our language, we do not fully grasp.
I always think that language is meant to convey what you want to say, but, at the same time, the language might be a hindering factor in any communication. There are things that you may want to convey but you can’t. Sometimes, I get the urge to say things in Japanese to an English speaking American audience and conversely in English to a Japanese audience. …it’s complicated!
How did the opportunity come about to perform at Anime Expo?
There is a NANA anime in Japan, and it’s very popular. It’s based on a manga by Ai Yazawa. She said that she wanted me to sing the songs for NANA. So, I read the manga and I thought it was very good and very intense. This was my first involvement in anime and I was invited to attend Anime Expo. Now I’ve been invited to Anime Expo to sing!
This concert is supposed to be the first of what’s been billed as a worldwide tour for you which sounds like an ambitious project. Tell us about that.
My thoughts about it? Well, I’ll be leaving my country and I’ll be showing what I’m doing to other people in other countries. They’ll be judging me and I wonder if I’ll be deemed good or if I’ll be deemed bad. This is still an unknown world to me, but what I’m doing isn’t something that’s fabricated. It’s coming from within me, all the music and lyrics, so I have a certain amount of confidence that I can convey my soul to the audience. At times, I still get nervous because I’m singing songs in English to an English speaking audience and I can feel myself being influenced to the language. But I know what I have in my heart and in my soul can still be conveyed. Regardless of country, I think that’s something I can do and so, in a way, I am strangely calm. This was the same here as well at Anime Expo. I think music, in a way, is something that can soften the differences between nationalities.
Author's note: He did! A great effort by Anna’s translator – thank you!
You’re a model, an actress, and a singer. Do you have a preference between those three?
Well, for me, my sole preference would be singing. I think all of these activities aren’t very far apart, but I feel intensity for life while being involved in music. I’m sure everyone feels differently but, in my case, I think acting and modeling are also ways of expressing themselves. It’s not necessarily something that you express with your true self. You would be uh playing a role given to you. For example, you might be playing a cute girl in a different place than what you might be actually doing. For example, people who watched Kamikaze Girls might get the impression that Anna is just a Yanki. If I were playing a different type of character, they might think that Anna is weak and cute. In the music world though, I get to do what I want. I get to have the most freedom to myself. Though there are many discriminating movements in life, I’ve been able to put my feelings in music. Music is what I want to create for the rest of my life.
I would like to get a comment about your feelings regarding the concert.
It was very fun! I was really anxious about what kind of reaction I’d be getting, but I wasn’t really nervous…there was a certain amount of unknowns. As the house lights went down and I heard all the cheering, I saw how everyone was so lively and full of energy and dancing. I could see everything from the stage and could feel all this. After the show, we talked with the band saying this was a great success.
The western image of Japanese women is that they’re polite and shy and giggle a lot. What do you think the image of today’s Japanese woman is, and are you helping to influence any change in that through your work?
Each country has its own model. With Japan, they think that the manly men are the samurai and the women follow them wearing kimono. If you look at Japan today, it’s different. There are those who like to maintain their black hair, then there are those who get tired of black hair and change the color. Every person is different. Japanese people may look shy, but if you cross certain barriers they are actually uplifting, cheerful people. There are a lot of people like me out there. Things are pretty much the same everywhere.
Do you feel like your music is attaining more of a pop dynamic?
Well, what I want to do is rock music. I actually think that rock music is really undefined and it’s only categorized by notions and images that individual people have come up with for what rock is supposed to be. These are suggestions that rock is supposed to be about rebellion or be just a dirty kind of music. However, these are just pre-conceived categorizations of the music. There shouldn’t be genre because, if you look at classical music and listen to Mozart and then Chopin, they’re very different. Chopin has passionate piano music, especially in the lower keys, but Mozart is more poppy. I think this all can be classified as rock music themselves. So, if you listen to Bubble Trip, which might be more poppy, it’s what I consider myself to be doing at this time. So, this time, it’s a poppy tune. Next time, though, I might end up doing something that sounds more like heavy metal. I can’t really tell what I might be doing until its actual production time. I don’t really want to limit my audience. Even if there are certain types of music that I’m not good at, I’d still like the challenge it and reach a broader audience. So, that’s what I have in mind and for this time. I chose a more poppy tune.
Transcription by Sarah; thank you to Kei for editing. Photos by The Anime Blog.
Thank you to Anna Tsuchiya, AVEX, and Anime Expo for making this possible.
links
Anna Tsuchiya Official Website
Anime Expo
Anna Tsuchiya at Anime Expo LIVE REPORT
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