Occasionally, the JaME team members do interviews, but not everything always goes right. From being told that there would be a translator but not having one show up, band members in bad moods giving off the “hurry, I want to leave as soon as possible!” vibe, worn-out band members falling asleep during the conversation to managers dictating what to say, mishaps do happen; it’s not always as much fun as it seems.
But, things could be worse. You know that feeling of utter embarrassment when you’ve done something stupid? Like falling flat on your face with a few hundred people watching? These embarrassing moments happen during interviews as well, and here’s a run down of Embarrassing Moments During JaME Interviews.
- Sarah, about nobodyknows+ in Long Beach, CA, United States [interview]
Shortly before my interview with the musical group nobodyknows+, I’d bought a new recorder to use during interviews. Foolishly, however, I hadn’t yet really played around with it or read the manual for it before sitting down with the six guys and their translator. We’d started the introductions when DJ MITSU suddenly noticed that the tape wasn’t moving. Embarrassed, I attempted to get it to record without any luck. DJ MITSU actually ended up picking it up and fiddling with it before NORI DA FUNKY SIBIRESATH and g-ton lent a hand as well. The three of them finally figured it out and got it to work.
Lesson learned: always make sure you’re familiar with your equipment beforehand (and if you do run into technical trouble, call nobodyknows+).
- Matron, about Plastic Tree in Helsinki, Finland [interview]
Once, while I was interviewing Plastic Tree, my skirt nearly dropped. My colleague yukionna and I were sitting on the sofa and my skirt was spread out so yukionna half-sat on it. And as I went to stand up, yukionna was still sitting and my skirt stuck underneath her. So that’s how I nearly lost my skirt. But, I sat down quickly again so yukionna could stand up first. The band members noticed this but they only laughed a little at me and Ryutarou even asked if I was okay. =D
- Kay about Electric Eel Shock in Amsterdam, the Netherlands [interview]
Quite some time ago, we were invited by the rock band Electric Eel Shock’s management to interview them about their upcoming album. We took the invitation and met them in a café in Amsterdam. The interview went fine, we had a lot of laughs and the guys gave pretty great answers to our questions. After the interview, we made our way over to the exit of the café. Everything went fine until we arrived at the front of the café…which was made completely out of glass…and the door disappeared on us! Because the huge windows and the door looked exactly the same, we stupidly couldn’t find it. While the band and their management were laughing at us, we managed to find the door and tried to hide our blushing faces as quickly as possible…
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Kay is the English version manager, aka editor in chief/executive editor and one of JaME’s vice-presidents. Between her job, second BA studies and random language courses, she’s able to find time to shout at her darling team members and write an article or two once in a while. If that isn’t enough, she runs a JRock company in her home country and occasionally organizes concerts of well-known Japanese rock acts.
Although she got into Japanese music through visual kei, she has now moved onto different sorts of music such as pop, alternative/indie rock and will talk your ears off about anything related to reggae in Japan. More information on this creature can be found at 
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Thhose stories were fun to read. Keep posting them!
Bwah bwah! The door thing amused me because that’s happened to me before now… luckily there wasn’t a band there to see it!