[If I’ve ever had an idol, it would have to be Billy Idol.]

– (laughs) Really?
[Really. But my first idol was probably Julie (Sawada Kenji)(1). From back when I was in elementary and middle school. On the way home from school, I’d pass a place where they had movie posters on display. They had posters for ‘Makai Tenshou’(2) with Julie as Amakusa Shiro on them. I remember thinking “Wow! Cool! I want that poster!” But they wouldn’t give me one.]

– Did you have posters of Julie in your room?
[No, I only had posters of (Lambourghini) Countachs (laughs).]

– Ahaha. What did you like about Julie?
[Of course, it was mostly his appearance. I liked men who wore make-up. That androgynous style.]

– Who were you interested in after Julie?
[Tsuchiya Masami-san (3), I think. And after him, Duran Duran. Their looks were cool, and I liked the music, too. I liked JAPAN’s (4) looks too, but I listened to their music and didn’t care much for it.]

– I bet you took a lot of those full-size portraits out of ‘Music Life’.
[Yeah, I did! And in ‘Young Guitar’ they had life size shots of guitarists’ hands. I used to compare my own hands to those. But showing their actual heads…… that was a great idea (laughs).]

– Later on, how did you progress?
[In middle school, it was Oosawa Yoshiyuki (5). The first time I saw the PV for his debut single, [Kanojou ni wa Wakaranai], I thought he was really cool. I liked the song, too. Later on it was Honda Yasuaki. (6) The Kyoukyoku boy he played in [Nerawareta Gakuen] was cool~. And after that I got into Billy Idol.]

– At last, the star’s grand entrance (laughs). But doesn’t he kind of deviate? From the rest.
[He is a little different. But I think that’s pretty cool, he’s my “anti-idol.” I thought the guitarist Steve Stevens was cool too. ……. Maybe I was more into him than Billy Idol (laughs). In middle school, I used to take a broom and pretend to play guitar like Steve Stevens. They’re a matched set. After that, I didn’t have any more idol-ish idols. I was never really the type to call myself a fan of someone, anyway.]

– Didn’t you ever have any female idols?
[Not a single one. Anyone you could name, I hated. They’re nothing but puppets acting like children. “You don’t write your own music! You don’t write your own lyrics!” I always thought.]

– You didn’t even think any of them were cute?
[No, I didn’t. I thought Kyonkyon (Koizumi Kyouko)’s type was cute, though. Asaka Yui, too. (7) But I still didn’t like them enough to consider myself a fan.]

– But tetsu-san, you don’t feel the same way about idol products, right?
[Ah, yeah, I do check out their products. Oh, I like Yazawa Ai’s manga [NANA], especially the band with Reira, Trance. (8) I wanna see something from that~. If I get the chance, I’d like to make a band exactly like that one.]

– That sounds very interesting.
[But I don’t want to do it if I’m not 100% sure there will be people listening to it (laughs).]

– (laughs) Out of all the people we’ve covered during this interview, is there anyone in particular you’d still like to meet?
[Not really. I don’t think there’s anyone I want to meet. That’s all from the past.]

– I’m sure there are a lot of younger musicians out there who have you as an idol, tetsu-san, and would like to meet you. What do you think of that?
[Well, it makes me very happy. A lot of young musicians tell me “I listen to L’Arc all the time,” or “My band does covers of you.” I’m getting old (laughs). It feels kinda strange.]

– How does it make you feel, knowing those people exist?
[Let’s see… I guess it feels cool, like I’ve really accomplished something.]

-Interviewer : Harada Sachi
Translated by Natalie Arnold.

1. Please see the old footnote from Chapter 05.Go back.

2. Makai Tenshou was an action/horror/samurai film from 1981, starring not only Julie, but also other big names of the time, such as Sonny Chiba. The title translates to ‘Samurai Reincarnation’. This movie was also the inspiration for the video game ‘Samurai Shodown’ which was also made into an anime. Go back.

3. Tsuchiya Masami was a member of the famous techno-pop group Ippudo. Again, please refer back to Chapter 05 where they were first mentioned. Go back.

4. JAPAN were a British group popular in the 70s. They were an immense success in Japan, especially early on. Later, they did collaborations with many artists, some of whom were Japanese. More information can be found here. Go back.

5. Oosawa Yoshiyuki was a solo singer. As above, he was previously mentioned in Chapter 05. The song title means ‘She doesn’t understand’. Go back.

6. Honda Yasuaki was a rock singer who later became an actor. He was a rather versatile idol. ‘Nerawareta Gakuen’ translates to ‘Targetted Academy’ and was the name of a TV drama he appeared in, which aired in 1982. His character was the ‘Kyoukyoku boy’, a term that only has meaning in the context of the program itself. Go back.

7. Koizumi Kyouko, nicknamed Kyonkyon, and Asaka Yui were both actresses and singers. They mostly appeared in TV dramas and just a few movies. Go back.

8. The manga [NANA] features two bands in its main storyline, Trapnest (aka Trance) and Black Stones (aka Blast). Actually, TETSU69 later did a song for the NANA tribute album, which was indeed for Trance. Also, this manga is being made into a movie at the time of this translation. Go back.