采访：World’s End Girlfriend Interview

By Liu Kai, 2011年 3月 24日

《 English version 》

对于World’s End Girlfriend (世界末日女友)这支个人计划乐队确实蕴藏着太多神秘性。记得在四五年前，那时候Youtube也没有封，每天都在上边看一些音乐视频和现场，当然也包括WEG, 其中记得他许多现场视频都有用马赛克遮住了脸，还有一首充满各种屠杀和暴力的‘We Are the Massacre’的音乐video. 当时还有托日本朋友帮忙购买他的唱片，这些应该都是对WEG的一些记忆。

前一阵还正好看了是支裕和的电影《空気人形》，直译成中文就是《充气娃娃》，这是导演是支裕和一部关于都市童话的电影，有注意一下配乐正好是来自World’s End Girlfriend. 这部电影的对白并不多，所以很容易把心思集中在电影的配乐里。他唯美的音符不仅勾画出电影里都市的童话色彩，同样也描绘着人之间的冷漠与孤独。

回到这次采访，根本没想过有机会与WEG做这次采访，有一天与Josh在G-Chat聊天，他问我做一个World’s End Girlfriend采访怎么样，当时有些犹豫，且心想这不可能吧，应该不会太顺利。当然现在看来也没有想像的那么不妙，除了他想更深入聊音乐以外，其他的问题他似乎显得一点兴趣都没有。现在我们就正要在这里介绍一下。

另外，WEG 携乐队Black Hole Carnival 于4月2 / 3 日（上海/北京）在《觉》音乐+艺术节的音乐单元进行表演。

[+] 豆瓣页面 douban event page

旁边儿: 首先给我们介绍World’s End Girlfriend的相关背景，关于你自己，每天都主要做一些什么等…

World’s End Girlfriend: 我并不太喜欢谈论关于我自己以及我的相关背景。关于我的音乐而言，我认为那些事情没有谈论的必要。如果有人对我的背景和其他相关信息感兴趣，那可以在因特网上找到。

旁边儿: 去年发行的一张专辑 ‘Seven Idiots’，并且这是第一张在自己成立的厂牌Virgin-Babylon下发行的唱片，为何你选择自己发表这张唱片以及开始一个新厂牌？

WEG: 在过去这些年里，人们创作音乐也变得越来越容易了。我觉得越来越多的人将会选择成立自己的厂牌并通过其发行，这是值得去关注的一个现象。不管怎样，我也觉得可能通过于此，以一般方式去寻找或者去发现有趣的音乐的话将并不会是一件容易的事情，所以如果是这样，我尝试开始做自己的厂牌，这会拥有更强的特性和品牌的力量。如果厂牌发行一些有趣的作品，所潜在的传播推广方式会比以前更好些。在过去，日本只是重复许多西方发达国家的音乐，现今在日本也有一些原本独创的音乐，我想在日本当地挖掘出更加有趣的音乐。

旁边儿: 最近的专辑有注入许多不同以往的新元素，与过往的作品相比你自己对 ‘Seven Idiots’ 怎么评价？

WEG: 不管我的音乐风格在表面上有任何改变，我的音乐核心是一直没有改变的。这张专辑更具有挑战性也比较流行化。同样，我使用了不同的方式来创作这张专辑里的歌曲。首先，我以最通用的方法来创作了人声部分，像这样：旋律A / 旋律 B / Hook-Line. 然后我移除了所有人声部分， 再深入集中并重复地破坏它，最后建立和混制了歌曲剩下的部分直至完成整首。

旁边儿: 你演奏许多不同乐器同时自己负责混音制作，说说你最喜欢的音乐创作方向？你自己最擅长哪一种乐器？

WEG: 关于我会多种乐器演奏其实并不是正确的信息，我有把参于演奏的名单列在我的唱片里。我只是想通过音乐以简单方式来表达我自己的内心世界。现场表演和创作之间是截然不同的，因此这没法进行相互比较。

旁边儿: 在2006你与同样来自日本的器乐摇滚乐队Mono一起合作发行了专辑 ‘Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain’. 能否说一下这张专辑的合作？

WEG: 有一回我与Mono他们在同一场演出进行表演。后来我们又相遇了，完了我从我们的谈天当中有感受一些我们共通的东西，因此我们决定在一起合作。由于通常我都是自己一个人谱曲，所以对于我来说有合作这个想法本身就是非常有趣的。有其他人的音乐元素加入肯令对创作音乐会更加有挑战性，但这是一个非常棒的经历，对于向来只是喜欢独自创作的我来说，这更能让自己去发现一个人时所无法传达的东西。

旁边儿: 后来你与Mono也在北美地区做了一个特别长的巡演，可分享一些当时的巡演经历吗？

WEG: 那次和他们巡演真的是一天接一天的，我们一起坐车达到每一个目的地，演出然后回到旅馆休息。一路上我们几乎没有休息也没有时间观光， 但我学会了应付许多事情，每天在现场表演时应该所需要投入的情感，以及如何面对未知情况下所发生的事情。

旁边儿: 自从2000发行首张专辑’Ending Story’ 至今一共发表了十张专辑，如果要你选择，自己最满意的唱片是哪一张？为什么？

WEG: 我选择不回答这个问题。还是让听众去决定他们最喜欢的专辑吧。对于我来说，所有完成的作品都是重要的，它们就是我的生活。

旁边儿: 记得六年前你曾在广东表演过，那一次在中国有什么印象？关于参加今年《觉》你又有什么期待？

WEG: 事实上六年前那次在广东的表演我并不太满意，我没办法和台下观众的感觉汇结成在一起。这一次《觉》音乐+艺术节，我希望可以通过我的音乐直达观众的内心，并希望他们在音乐中完完全全得到新的感受和体验。

[+] 豆瓣页面 douban event page

It’s a kind of mystery when we talk about World ‘s End Girlfriend, a one-person project. I remember nearly four or five years ago, when the GFW was just a baby and Youtube wasn’t blocked, I could watch a lot of stuff. I watched tons of music videos and live shows, include World’s End Girlfriend. He covered his face in the video. There’s one song called “We Are the Massacre”, the music video is full of killing and violence. I liked it a lot, so I asked some Japanese friends to buy his record for me. This is my first memory of World’s End Girlfriend.

I saw a Japanese movie called Air Doll a long time ago, a city fairytale by Hirokazu Koreeda. The soundtrack was by World’s End Girlfriend. There is not much dialog in this movie, so you can focus on the score, the music. He used his beautiful musical compositions to depict the fairytale feeling in the city, and also to describe the loneliness and coldness of human life.

Back to this interview… I still can’t believe that I was able to interview him. One day I talked with Josh on G-chat , he asked me if I could interview World’s End Girlfriend. I hesitated in that moment, because I think it definitely couldn’t be so simple. Now everything seems fine. We only talk about music, he has no interest in anything else besides the music.

PS: WEG will play on April 2nd /3rd (shanghai/beijing) at the JUE festival with Black Hole Carnival .

pangbianr: First off, could you give us some background on World’s End Girlfriend, yourself, what you do most days, etc…

World’s End Girlfriend: I don’t like to talk about myself nor my background. I believe those things are not necessary for my music. If someone wants to know about my background, the information can be found on internet.

pbr: You released your latest album, 2010’s ‘Seven Idiots’, as the inaugural record on your own label, Virgin-Babylon Records. Why did you choose to self-release this record and start the label?

WEG: Making and putting your music out has become much easier over the past years. I think more and more people will start their own labels and self-distribution. It’s an interesting movement, however, I also felt that looking for music in general or finding interesting music became more difficult because of this. So I thought, if that’s the case then I’d start my own label that has strong characteristics and power of brand. If the label releases truly interesting materials, a potential for the information to spread is greater than before. In the past, Japan copied many Western music as the country developed. There is some original music in today’s Japan. I want to put out such interesting music from here.

pbr: The new album contains many elements not present in your earlier work. How would you characterize ‘Seven Idiots’ in comparison to your previous albums?

WEG: No matter how much my musical style on the surface has changed, the core of my music has always been the same. This album is more challenging yet more pop. Also, I used different production method to create songs on this album. First, I created vocal songs with a common format of melody A /melody B / hook-line. After that I removed all the vocal part, then intensively and repeatedly demolish, build up and mix up the remaining part to complete the track.

pbr: I remember you came to Guangdong about 6 years ago. What was your impression of your first show in China? What are your expectations upon returning to perform during the JUE festival?

WEG: I wasn’t satisfied with the performance I did in Guangdong 6-years ago. I couldn’t feel a sense of unity with the audience then. At the JUE festival, I want my music to reach to my audience’s heart. I want them to encounter completely new feelings and experience through my music.

pbr: You worked with fellow Tokyo-based instrumental rock band Mono on the album ‘Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain’ in 2006. How did this collaboration come about? What was your experience working together?

WEG: I met MONO when we played at the same show. We met again after that and felt something in common between us from our conversation, so we decided to work together. Since I usually compose music on my own, the idea of collaboration itself was quite exciting. Having other people’s element can be troublesome in creating music, but this was a very good experience for me as I was able to express things I wouldn’t if I was working alone.

pbr: In 2007, you and Mono went together on a long tour of North America. Could you share some interesting experiences from that tour?

WEG: That tour with MONO was just day after day of being in a car to the next destination, perform and go to our hotel. It was stoic with no sightseeing or day off, but I learned a lot of things such as how to put all your feelings into your performance every day and how to do your best in any kind of condition.

pbr: You are a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, violin, and piano, and you also do your own mixing. What aspect of making or producing music is your favorite? Do you feel more comfortable composing on one instrument in particular?

WEG: That information about me being a multi-instrumentalist is incorrect. I do list the performers’ name on my CD. I am simply expressing my inner world by composing music. Performing and composing are completely different from each other so it’s impossible to compare them.

pbr: Since your debut album “Ending Story” was released in 2000, you’ve released 10 records in as many years. If you had to choose, which do you think is the best World’s End Girlfriend album? Why?

WEG: I choose not to answer this question. It is up to listeners to decide their favorite album. For me, all the work I’ve done is important. They are my life.

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