Ah, vocês são foda! Na parte 1, teve uma galera que falou umas par de coisas engraçadas (na maioria das vezes sem querer). Mas tá bom, muito bom ter debate assim, ainda que às vezes inflamado, ainda que muitas vezes sem muito embasamento ou distinção entre fatos, evidências e gosto pessoal.

Eu pretendo responder uma série de comentários do outro e deste post num post futuro. Por enquanto, conheçam um pouco melhor o homem que fez a entrevista: Schultz. O estadunidense de 40 anos que dá aula de inglês no Japão não é um sujeito muito normal. Após a polêmica da tal entrevista com “Sr. Satoh”, determinou que, para ter um comentário sobre música aceito em seu blog, o autor do comentário deveria também comentar sobre um político de seu local de residência. Seu gosto musical passa por bandas como a brasileira Mukeka di Rato. Por isso e pelas fotos de shows do seu blog, eu diria que ele gosta mais de barulho do que de música. Tem uma “síndrome de velho” (sabe, acha que nada de certa geração pra frente presta) com relação a música que é aplicada com um “carinho especial” ao visual kei: apesar de toda sua crítica ao visual kei, parece não conhecer bem algumas bandas básicas como X JAPAN e LUNA SEA. Aparentemente, só teve contato com a coisa através de alguns shows pequenos no início da década de 2000. Porém, Schultz compartilhou comigo experiências interessantes sobre algumas de suas idas a shows de bandas visuais no Japão.

Novamente, não vou traduzir o texto. Por duas razões: 1) Tenho mais o que fazer; 2) Você pode praticar seu inglês, isn’t it great! ;D

1) Who are you? Name, age, country, job.

Schultz. 40. USA. English teacher.

2) What is your website and how long has it been active?

Tokyo Damage Report. I’ve been doing it for seven years, but I got kicked out of Japan around four years ago. So I stopped doing it for six months until I could get another visa. During that six months I guess I lost all my readers. Even these days, I still meet people in real life that tell me, “Oh I used to love that blog! Are you still doing it?!??”

3) How did you get in touch with Mr. Satoh?

Just luck! I didn’t go around looking for music industry people to interview! I thought he was just some ordinary guy, but it turns out that he has this fascinating past.

4) Is there anything you can say about him?

He looks very normal. You would not guess he used to be involved in that scene. Some people who don’t like the interview say I just made him up. That’s fine with me: if people think he doesn’t exist, the Yakuza won’t come looking for him!

5) Are there any other similar articles about the same subject of the interview that you intend to release?

I don’t have any other interviews about Japan's corrupt music industry.

But some readers were asking me to translate a Japanese magazine article that exposes “Jhonny’s Jimusho” — which is like a boy-band factory run by a pedophile who uses mafia-style business methods. I did not write the article but sometimes I translate things like that, just for fun.

6) What do you think of visual bands that dropped the heavy looks and changed their sound after a while, like X JAPAN, LUNA SEA, BUCK-TICK, DIR EN GREY, MUCC?

I don’t know about them. Satou-san (at the very end of the interview) talks about why bands might change their heavy looks when they get famous (but not those five bands specifically).

But I definitely think big huge hairdos should be required of all vk bands. This band “sex:virgin killer” is a sort of copy of old-style x-japan and has huge hair, and they only play with punk bands.

Can you post this link please on your article? Hopefully that will introduce vk fans to some more aggro rock sounds.

7) For what you said in the interview intro, you seem to despise visual kei. What do you like to listen?

Can’t stand the music, but honestly I enjoyed the SHOWS — if it was a show where fans would fight! This was back in 2001–2003. Don’t know if they do it nowdays. I fuckin’ had fun, I admit it!

The Japanese female fans had this very ritual violence. It’s not western slamming or moshing. There are at least three styles of combat, all unique to Japan. And that’s just the ones that I know about!

For example, the girls who could not get the places at the front row, they would form a line and charge at the girls who DID get front row places. The running girls would slam their shoulders and elbows into the kidneys of the girls next to the stage.

And here is what was amazing: they did this violence TO THE BEAT OF THE SONG. Again and again! And what is more, they would only do this to certain riffs! It had been decided by someone.

“On this riff, we all head bang. On the chorus, we all fist-pump. On the hook, we all attack the other girls.”

The fans were a hundred times better than the bands.

Especially since some of the girls looked very rich and had Vuitton handbags and long hair — not cosplay girls, in other words. You expect cosplay fans to be a bit weird, but conservative girls from rich families who also slamdance and punch girls is even better.

Fans discussing their favorite vk bands based on music or looks... that shit makes me laugh! It’s like if two aliens found some vynyl LPs but had never seen a record player, and they were discussing which song was better by comparing how shiny the records were. And yet they think they know so much. Funny!

Do vk fans outside Japan know about the ritual violence? Do they do it too? To me, if you don’t understand the ritual violence, if you don’t go to shows where girl gangs punch (in unison) to the beat, where working-class girls can slug it out with rich girls, if you haven’t been kicked in the face by a fifteen year old who is trying to crowd-surf to the stage, then all your music trivia and fan-photo-books are worthless.

As for music I listen to at home these days:

Uncle Murda, Weird Al Yanchovich, DSB, this Norwegian band called Shining that just released an insanely rad album called Blackjazz. Aiden Baker has great drone-music.

Favorite bands will always be Nomeansno, Opeth and James Brown.

~ ~ ~

Cara engraçado, haha! “Entender a violência ritual”... Um cara de 40 anos pensar assim soa pior do que a molecada fazendo escarcéu por proibirem roda no show do Charlotte (lembra dessa???).

Parte 3 vem aí!