During Anime Expo 2016, Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi conducted an interview with FLOW. It became a humorous interview, as they discussed which artists they’d like to perform with in the future, as well as anime they enjoy watching.
FLOW will be releasing their double A-side single “Kaze no Uta/BURN” on August 24, so be sure to check that out as well!
日本語版はこちらから。
── Hello! Nice to meet you.
FLOW Nice to meet you.
── First, may I have an introduction, along with your favorite American food please?
KEIGO I’m KEIGO on vocals. Nice to meet you. (My favorite American food is) hamburgers.
KOHSHI I’m KOHSHI on vocals. American food… I like Mexican food. That’s not even American, is it? (laughs)
FLOW (laughs)
GOT’S I’m GOT’S on bass. Hmm… I like meat, so probably steak.
TAKE I’m TAKE on guitar. When someone says American food, I instantly think of hamburgers. Oh, and pizza as well. The pizza we ate at Chicago was like a huge block. (laughs)
IWASAKI I’m IWASAKI on drums. I like American food in general, but my favorite is hamburgers. I came to Los Angeles yesterday, so I went to eat at Fatburger. It was so delicious! I ate a large-sized burger, but it was definitely something. (laughs)
KEIGO Maybe that’s why you feel sick now. (laughs)
IWASAKI But there was an even bigger one, with around four patties. Even I couldn’t go for that one.
── Have you been to In-N-Out?
IWASAKI I haven’t been able to go yet. I figured I’d go to Fatburger first.
TAKE In-N-Out？
── It’s a hamburger chain based in California.
TAKE What makes In-N-Out burgers special?
── It’s very juicy, and has a lot of lettuce.
TAKE Ah, so it’s pretty healthy?
── Compared to other burgers, yes.
IWASAKI But burgers aren’t that healthy to begin with. (laughs)
── I first found out about FLOW through your cover of “Okuru Kotoba” by Kaientai. (“Okuru Kotoba” is a famous graduation song in Japan.) What did you sing at your graduation?
FLOW “Aogeba Totoshi”
KEIGO And “Hotaru no Hikari” too.
GOT’S I’ve heard it’s been changing lately, and that students sing recent J-Pop songs at their graduation. Oh, I definitely sang “Okuru Kotoba” back then.
── You’re going to have a band battle with OLDCODEX on Sunday. If you were to battle any other band, which band would you choose?
KOHSHI GRANRODEO, even though it’d be hard to have an overseas battle since they rarely travel outside of Japan.
TAKE It’s not even rarely, they never come.
KOHSHI True, since KISHOW doesn’t like airplanes.
GOT’S For him, that’s where the battle starts. (laughs)
KEIGO It’ll be an airplane battle. (laughs) But we’d want to play together overseas since we have a FLOW×GRANRODEO collaboration.
GOT’S We have to pull him out, or else nothing’s going to start. (laughs)
TAKE Even today, someone brought a poster of “The Seven Didly Sins” to the autograph session.
── Mr. IWASAKI, I heard you were a manager at a bento shop before you became a musician. I was wondering what your favorite side dish in a bento is?
GOT’S Well, IWASAKI’s bento is known for the karaage chicken.
IWASAKI Yep.
KEIGO Karaage’s good. It’s a classic.
KOHSHI Hmm, side dish in bento… I really liked meatballs when I was in elementary school.
KEIGO That got me so hyped. (laughs)
KOHSHI Same. It’s good even when it’s cold.
KEIGO Yeah, you finish off all the rice with that.
KOHSHI Right?
IWASAKI If it’s a store-bought bento, then there’s always the idea of “Oh, that one tastes good” or something, but if it’s a homemade bento, each household has their different tamagoyaki and such.
TAKE Some people use extra sugar, while others add some soup into the flavor.
IWASAKI I think it’s a dish that brings out originality.
KOHSHI I remember thinking “Why would you put something juicy?!” when there were fruits in my bento. If you tilt it, everything becomes soaked in that flavor.
KEIGO Ah, the bento cliché.
KOHSHI I’d think, “Why is there a pineapple in here?!”
── Your songs are used in various anime. What are some anime that you enjoyed when you were young?
KEIGO When we were young, a lot of the comics on Weekly Shonen Jump became anime, so I used to watch those.
TAKE Jump was very popular back then, with Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Captain Tsubasa, Hokuto no Ken, Rokudenashi Blues… Oh wait, that last one wasn’t made into an anime. (laughs)
── Your songs have also been used for popular shonen anime. If Goku from Dragon Ball, Naruto from Naruto Shippuden, and Luffy from ONE PIECE were to fight, who do you think will win?
IWASAKI This is a hard one!
FLOW All of them are so strong.
KOHSHI Luffy’s super strong.
GOT’S But isn’t Goku the strongest?
KEIGO Ah, Goku is pretty strong. He can fly and even fight underwater.
GOT’S What about Naruto?
TAKE Ah, he’s a cheat.
FLOW (laughs)
KEIGO I think Naruto would be the first to go.
KOHSHI Yeah, Naruto would probably lose pretty quickly. (laughs)
IWASAKI I mean, Goku can use his powers from further away.
KEIGO And he can teleport too.
── Goku does seem to be quite strong.
GOT’S And he’s so buff.
KEIGO Plus, he keeps coming back to life.
── What do you do on your days off? Do you stay indoors, or do you go outdoors?
TAKE I’m a super outdoor person. I go to a nearby park and do pull-ups.
IWASAKI Is that really considered being an outdoor person? (laughs)
TAKE I work out while the children are all playing.
KEIGO Oh, you’re the type that makes it awkward for the kids to play.
TAKE They probably think, “Oh, that guy’s always there.”
KEIGO I play soccer a lot. TAKE plays with me, too.
── Soccer is so popular right now.
KEIGO It’s becoming more popular in the U.S. too, isn’t it? There’s major league soccer and Copa America.
GOT’S But baseball is even more popular in the U.S. right?
TAKE And in the U.S., it’s all about football.
── You participate in various music festivals. If you were to hold your own festival, which artists would you invite?
TAKE We’d actually like to have one someday. If we’re in Japan, we can invite GRANRODEO too. (laughs)
── It’d be a bit hard if the festival were in Okinawa. (laughs)
TAKE To invite ORANGE RANGE or to invite GRANRODEO… (laughs)
── At Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi, we aim to spread the cutest, coolest, and most amazing aspects of Japanese culture. What do you think fits such criteria?
GOT’S Animals… Especially bears. They can be so cute, but they have cooler aspects too. Bears are amazing!
KEIGO But that’s not really “Japanese” culture. There’s bears in America too. (laughs)
FLOW That’s true.
TAKE Maybe Goku when he was younger. His cuteness disappeared once he became buff, but when he had a tail, he was quite adorable.
KEIGO Hmm… Traditional Japanese clothing? Like kimono and hakama.
GOT’S Yep, that’s it. Forget about the bear.
FLOW (laughs)
KOHSHI Mexican food… It even comes with a “delicious” aspect. (laughs)
KEIGO Kawaii, Kakkoii, Oishii.
IWASAKI Japanese festivals. Recently, girls have been able to carry the mikoshi as well.
── Lastly, could you give a message to overseas fans please?
KEIGO This is our first time in Los Angeles, so we are very excited. Of course, we hope that this will not be our last time, and that we will be able to come back!
── Thank you so much!
FLOW Thank you!
0 Comments