Part 1 of an Interview with KAMIJO from URE PIA Souken

NOTE:  This interview was translated by my friend Arianne from the Poland Street Team with my help checking for errors.  The two places I am posting this are here and my tumblr.  If there's any corrections I missed I apologize but this is the best I could do for her.

Have fun

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Solo debut of 「KAMIJO」, the young nobleman from School of Aesthetics! Brilliant story about the charm of Visual Kei full of 「poison」

Interview: Fujitani Chiaki
Translation: Ariane
Corrections: Amisbro (Joshua Curtis)

Leader of the Visual Kei band called Versailles, Kamijo appears with his solo debut and he also appears in URE PIA Souken!  We made a long interview with him about his solo single bewitching with its 「aesthetics」and about warm love to Visual Kei.

Versailles, the Visual Kei band, which with its beautiful way of perceiving the world was very famous even abroad, followed the concept of 「Descendants of the Rose」.  Leader of the band, KAMIJO-san on the 28^th of August will debut with his long awaited solo single『Louis ～Enketsu no La vie en Rose～』.  And in this kind of mood he visited URE PIA Souken! This interview is about his policy, approach to 「School of Aesthetics」.

- Kamijo-san, what made you think about the solo career, if earlier you have been active in bands?

KAMIJO: Versailles’ hiatus at the end of last year. I didn’t think of any other method, but solo career as the next method to express myself, so from the beginning I was thinking of debuting as a solo artist.

- So didn’t you think about creating a band for example?

KAMIJO:  I’m already in the band Versailles. And I was thinking if I’m good. Excluding Versailles I was playing in a band called LAREINE (major debut in 1999 and went on hiatus in 2007), that’s why I was thinking if I really need any other title in current situation? That’s why under the name 「KAMIJO」 I’ve started a solo career.

- And your debut single is to be released on 28^th of August『Louis ～Enketsu no La vie en Rose～』.

KAMIJO: The word 「Enketsu」is a word formation.  It should be understood as 「The charming color of blood」. Because I like France very much, initially the name of a band LAREINE was taken from French word describing QUEEN, so Marie Antoinette. It’s similar with Versailles, so all the time I was active (in projects) having the names related to French history. However, obviously 「KAMIJO」isn’t related to French language at all. It’s Japanese language with its full blast (laugh). That’s why I thought of using 「Louis」as a name for debut single.

- The name 「Louis」 brings to mind the king of France, Louis XVI, who was executed during The French Revolution.

KAMIJO: Yes, that’s right. For generations the word 「Louis」 was addressed to a king, that’s why I chose this name.  I created the song carrying so many various wishes, which match the scene of Visual Kei.

- Moreover, in addition to main song, B-side tracks 『Grazioso』and『Gensō trianon』on regular edition have been recorded.

KAMIJO: 『Grazioso』in Italian means 「Elegantly」.  This piece is probably the same story as written in 『Louis〜』, but seen from the other angle, because I think that everyone is living their life in a different way.  And I also ask myself, if I will go through my life in my individual elegant way.  Seems like I simply put my feelings about walking this path into this song.

『Gensō trianon』is also related to The French Revolution, but I want to entrust the question of “what kind of person is the main character?” to the listeners.  This song is already one year old and at first its title had to be 「Maboroshi」 (Illusion) and I’m glad that exactly like if illusion became reality, this song finally was able to see the daylight.

(The end of part 1 of 3)