 We recently caught up with rock-idol group “564” (Also known as “Goho Lolita Syndrome”) at Japan Expo LA and talked to them about their shows in the US! 564 is made up of Hiro and Halu and are actually second generation members of the group. They have a very unique sound that is both rocking and cute! Their fans get more than a little wild at their shows too and this was witnessed first-hand by the A-To-J members who were present! A-To-J: Please introduce yourself. Hiro: Hi I’m Hiro. Halu: Hi I’m Halu. A-To-J: How are you enjoying your time in America? Hiro: Am I enjoying it here? Yes! Halu: How should I say this? Hiro: Well first the cityscape… Halu: The cityscape is like what you would see in a movie. We look at the buildings and think: “Ah, we’ve come to America, we’ve come to Los Angeles!” Hiro: Next would be… Halu: The food! There are a lot of kinds of food that is different from Japan. Things we haven’t even seen before… Hiro: The convenience store sells very different things as well so it’s fun! A-To-J: Have you eaten something very different from back home? Hiro: Oh! There were strawberries in the salad! Halu: Yea! You don’t see that in Japan. It was surprising to see strawberries in a salad… Also I bought a sandwich that has cranberry and chicken in it from 7 Eleven, which I’ve never seen before either. I haven’t eaten it yet but that was a surprising combination to see! Hiro: Putting… “fruits in….” (In English) Halu: You don’t have to try to say it in English (Laughs) Hiro: I want to say, why would you put fruits in there?? Halu: In Japan they don’t put much fruits so it was quite surprising… A-To-J: What was some of the differences performing in front of the US fans? Halu: The main thing was the language… Since we don’t do MCs, we usually tell the audience “be louder” or things like that during the instrumental parts of the songs but we had a difficult time trying to think of ways to communicate that to the people here. We had to brace ourselves to use English… Hiro: But if say “wai wai!” the audience will do it with us! Halu: I think even if it was a little bit, they understood us. A-To-J: If you had to describe the genre of music you do to someone that has never heard of you before, how would you describe it to them? Halu: We’re cool and intense, but we would tell them that we’re still Japanese idols! Hiro: We’re idols that mix the “emotional” style and “moe” or cute Japanese style. A-To-J: What are your favorite musical artists? Halu: Since I like bands… I don’t listen to many bands overseas but for Japanese bands, I like a lot of intense bands. I go to lives and watch their live videos as well. A-To-J: Out of the songs you performed, which one was your favorite song? Hiro: “Kaika Sensen” JAWEYE-san, the person that was with us, made this song for us. It goes from intense to cute tones so it’s fun. A-To-J: Where in the world would you like to perform the most? 564: Anywhere?? I wonder where we would want to go… Hiro: This is actually my second time overseas… Halu: Maybe a place that we’ve never seen before… Then we can have the people of that place listen to our music so we can see their reactions to it. A developing country maybe… Hiro: With tribal people or something? Halu: Yeah! I would like to go to those kinds of places with a completely different culture and perform in front of them. I want to see if they still think we are enjoyable or if they would be surprised. A-To-J: Do you have any funny stories from any of your performances? Hiro: Like the time someone broke their bone? Halu: The audience is intense as well so they like to mosh so sometimes they end up with nosebleeds or broken teeth and glasses as well… But it happens often with audiences of artists in our genre. Hiro: Yes, quite often. For us it would be… Halu: We almost fell off the stage one time… actually we did fell… twice. (Laughs) Hiro: We get too excited! Halu: And when we get too excited we don’t see clearly and we fell off because of it. A-To-J: What are your next immediate plans for your music? Halu: Since we’ve gotten an opportunity to perform overseas so we want more overseas fans to know us. Hiro: We want to do lives in many different places. A-To-J: Please send a final message to your fans. Halu: We’re very happy that we were able to come to LA for the first time as 564! Since we met a lot of people that heard us for the first time, we hope we can use this chance for them to know us. We’re looking forward to the next time we can meet again! Thank you very much! For more information on 564/Goho Lolita Syndrome: Official Website: lolisyn564.com Twitter: @lolisyn The above interview was conducted by Manuel Figueroa with assistance by Molly Ring, filming by Eunice Wang, and translation by Tiffany Fujii. 
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 On September 19th Hello! Project group, °C-ute, performed for the first time in North America to packed house in Mexico City, Mexico. A full report on this once-in-a-lifetime experience can be found here. A-To-J Connections was lucky enough to not only attend this concert, but also to be granted an interview during their already busy schedule.
Thank you for giving us some time in your busy schedule. We’ll start this right off. How do you like Mexico? °C-ute: We like it here! Maimi: Since we’ve never come to Mexico before and it’s so far, we were wondering what kind of country it is, but when we arrived we realized there are some similarities to Japan; such as the sunset or, this is something minor but, the power outlets are the same. These things made me think that this is a comfortable place to live. Can you tell us something about your experience with the Mexican fans? Are they different than the ones back home? Saki: Since the reaction is big, it’s fun to perform! When we said “Viva Mexico!” everyone would scream. When the music started, they would also scream, but when everyone was trying to concentrate they would understand and become quiet. It was also easy to have eye contact with them. What did you do to prepare for this live in Mexico? Airi: We learned a bit of Spanish before coming here, such as Spanish we could use during the live, from a person from our company who is actually from Peru. We used some of those phrases during this live. Let’s talk about that live a little bit. Is there any specific song you enjoyed performing the most at yesterday's concert? Chisato: All the songs were fun because everyone reacted to them. I thought, “Wow, they get touched by each song!” But in particular, there is a song called “Gamusha LIFE” which has lyrics that portray °C-ute up until now. When I thought of all the fans in the audience we haven’t been able to meet before, my apologetic yet happy feelings flowed out and I was able to put in a lot of different feelings while performing this song. Speaking of the songs, did you come up with the set list? Chisato: There is an album that we sold here in Mexico and those songs were actually chosen by popularity votes, so we mostly put those into the live. Moving back to your time in Mexico, did you get any time to go sightseeing here in Mexico? Mai: We got to go to Cancun for a couple of days and the ocean was really beautiful. The ocean was layered with three different colors and I was surprised. Also, the city became lively at night and it was like Halloween, which also surprised me. What about food here? What exotic foods have you tried? Maimi: I was very surprised by the cactus! I didn’t think it was something that was edible. °C-ute: It was delicious! Maimi: Since we didn’t know how it would taste it required courage. It tasted sort of like okra, sort of like bell peppers…it had a slimy but interesting texture and I actually liked it! Are there any interesting souvenirs you're taking home? Chisato: We’re not even sure what we should buy for souvenirs. For food, we don’t know what we can and can’t bring home so we’re going to research and try to properly bring home something. Saki: Something Mexico-ish! What kinds of challenges do you run into when performing overseas? Saki: Because the audience is very different from usual, their reactions are very different. Such as singing with us or giving us hearts and blowing us kisses. I had to keep a cool head and perform without getting too carried away. If you can go overseas again, where would you like to go next? Airi: We would like to go wherever we get invited! If Mexico invites us again, we would love to come again. °C-ute: Definitely! Why do you think there has been a recent increase in popularity of Hello! Project both in Japan and abroad? Chisato: Nowadays, we’re able to do shows that people overseas can watch such as “Hello! Project Station” and “GREEN ROOM”. We even do live broadcasts of our lives occasionally. So the things that you weren’t able to see unless you came to Japan, you can now see through the internet. I think that it helps Hello! Project throughout the world. What is your next goal in Japan since you've had your Yokohama Arena concert recently? Mai: Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo Dome…. After 10 years of being a group and finally standing on the stage of Yokohama Arena, we realized that we want to keep on making our dreams come true, so we want to try our absolute best to be able to stand on more big stages. Is there any genre of music you would like to tackle next? Airi: Hmm…a genre of music…. Maimi: We’ve had the chance to sing many types of songs and now that we’re the oldest in Hello! Project…. Since we’ve been getting more following from overseas fans, I want to challenge singing in English as well. Lastly, do you have anything you'd like to say to all your foreign fans? Maimi: Through the internet, I think there are a lot of people that know °C-ute or Hello! Project, but I want them to see us live in person and I want them to realize there are a lot of things you can only feel when you see us live. I felt yesterday that no matter how far we are, through singing, our hearts can get closer. I hope that fans will come visit us in Japan and we will get more chances to go visit more places. You, the overseas fans, might think you won’t have a chance to see us in person, but if you keep on cheering for us, we hope to go visit as well someday! Thank you again for your time. The above interview was conducted and translated by Tiffany Fujii and assisted by Teepu Khan with photography and direction by Manuel Figueroa. °C-ute Are: ◆ Yajima Maimi (矢島舞美, Leader) ◆ Nakajima Saki (中島早貴) ◆ Suzuki Airi (鈴木愛理) ◆ Okai Chisato (岡井千聖) ◆ Hagiwara Mai (萩原舞) For more information on °C-ute, UP-FRONT and Hello! Project please follow Up-Front Link At: Twitter: @UpFrontLink Facebook: facebook.com/upfrontlink |
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