During the first day of Japan Expo 2016, CKJ’s team had the opportunity to meet the Japanese rock band ROA. A good mean to get to know this band, who seduced Karasu stage’s public [editor’s note : Karasu is one of the most famous stage of the festival] and who met his fans during 4 days in Paris ! By the way, ROA left a little message to their fans, which you can watch at the end of the article ! 😉
Article disponible en français page 1 !
Check it out :
Hi, thanks a lot for this interview ! Could you present yourselves and the band for the persons who don’t know you yet ?
Akaba : We are the band ROA !
Moroboshimann : My name is Moroboshimann and I play shamisen [editor’s note : a traditional Japanese instrument] in the band.
Tono : I’m Tono, one of the guitarists.
Akaba : My name is Akaba, and I’m the drummer.
Masatomo : I’m the singer of the band, Masatomo.
Shu : I’m Shu and I also play the guitar.
Miyo-C : My name is Miyo-C and I’m ROA’s bassist.
Masatomo : Who’s your favorite member ? (laughs)
CKJ : We’re not allowed to tell you ! (laughs)
Where does the name ‘ROA’ come from ?
Akaba : Our band’s name means ‘ancestors’ assets‘. We’d like to unify Western music heritage and Asian (or Oriental) music heritage, and then to mix it and share the result to people. This is from this idea where our ‘Wayo Settyu‘ comes from.
Are you inspired by any other artists ?
Akaba : I listen to a lot of Japanese artists !
Masatomo : David Bowie !
Moroboshimann : It’s hard to answer such a question ! There’s a lot that I like ! But, I’d say Foo Fighters, an American band !
Tono : NOFX, a punk band !
Miyo-C : The Prodigy, a breakbeat English band !
Shu : Thanks to my dad, I listen to a lot of Western music, but also Japanese idols ! (laughs)
Akaba : We all listen to our favorite music, but we basically all love Western music.
After you released 4 singles and 1 EP, what are your future projects ? Are you preparing an album for this year ?
Akaba : We’d like to create a real full album, and not only an EP.
Shu : We just released a single and we tour in Japan until November, so it’s more likely to be next year, as we’re already really busy until the end of this year.
ROA’s discography :
Which one of your songs would you recommend for someone who doesn’t know your music yet ?
Akaba : It will be our song ‘JAIRO.M’, which already have a music video on Youtube. For instance, we’ve got 3 music videos uploaded on Youtube, so for those who never listened to us, we advise them to take a look at our Youtube’s account.
Shu : By the way, ‘JAIRO.M’ is the last song we played on stage today ! [editor’s note : Thursday, July 7th, ROA played at 13h45 on Karasu stage at Japan Expo].
“JAIRO.M” music video:
How do you imagine yourselves in 5 years ?
Miyo-C : Doing a European tour ! (laughs)
CKJ : If you really come, we’ll be there too ! (laughs)
ROA : Thank you very much !
By the way, did you have time during your French trip to visit Paris, or did you already know Paris before ?
ROA : It’s our first time in France !
Akaba : We didn’t had time to visit yet, but we hope to visit Paris tomorrow !
Miyo-C : French people are all cute ! (laughs) We’ve seen a lot of beautiful things [editor’s note : here they especially talk about girls] in France ! (laughs)
Akaba : We imagined a lot of things before coming here, especially because of terrorist attacks, but in reality people are really nice here and food is awesome ! So, we really appreciate our trip !
You said that you listen to Western music, do you know any French artists ?
Moroboshimann : Yeah, I know Gojira !
Thanks a lot for this interview !
ROA left a little message to their fans, you can check it out below :
Don’t forget that you can follow ROA’s carrier on their official website, their Facebook page, their Twitter account but also on Instagram and Youtube !
Thanks a lot ROA and also Japan Expo for this interview !
