L’interview est disponible en français en première page !
Last week, on Friday 8th, MAN WITH A MISSION came back in Paris for a sold-out show at La Machine du Moulin Rouge, a venue they already visited back in 2013. This time, the most famous wolf pack performed in front of 800 persons and left (as usual) the crowd exhausted and hot, but very much happy.
Before the start of the show, Jean-Ken Johnny (guitar, vocals, rap) accepted to answer our questions, a second meeting with the multi-talented wolf, two years after the last stop of the rock band in Paris, at Le Petit Bain. This time, Jean-Ken Johnny talked about their brand new single “Left Alive“, possible projects taking place in the future and goals! Let’s check it out!
Hi Jean-Ken Johnny, how do you feel about coming back with MAN WITH A MISSION in France after two years, with a sold-out show?
It’s so great! Today’s venue is actually the first venue where we ever held a headline show overseas. It’s really great to be back here, thank you very much for welcoming us!
In the last couple of years you released a lot of music, including the full album “Chasing the Horizon”, can you tell us more about this album?
“Chasing the Horizon” was the fifth album that we made, and as we are big fans of rock music, I kind of feel that these days rock music isn’t as powerful as it used to be, compared to when we were listening to it a lot. But we still believe that it has the power and the beauty it has always held, and we just didn’t want to make that album sound like a kind of dated rock album, but more like an evolving rock album. At the same time, we wanted to carry on the heritage of what we’ve always been looking forward to, what rock music should be, and the potential that rock music has. We were really proud of what we made!
You released “Left Alive” only a few days ago for a video game, can you tell us more about this new collaboration?
As you said, “Left Alive” was made for a huge game company from Japan, SQUARE ENIX. At first, they asked us if we were interested in making a song for the game. They told us about the plot, the story of the game and it was so cool, the story itself and the characters too, that we were really glad and excited to be collaborating with them. We are huge fans of Japanese games, so it was really an honour and a pleasure to do it.
Is this song going to be part of a bigger project later, like an album?
Yes, actually right now we are recording a lot of new items. We just released “Left Alive” but hopefully we can release a lot more, and maybe another album as soon as possible.
Do you think your image helps you with going beyond the languages and the cultural limits?
Yes, sure. Music itself has the power to cross over borders and even cross over religions, races, anything. It should have that power. But sometimes, sadly, it really depends on which country the music comes from. Sometimes people kind of listen to it as a different culture, a subculture, and that’s not a bad thing. But at the same time, when you see wolves rocking out on stage, you can see that they don’t care about where they come from. The image you see doesn’t immediately link to any image you already have. So, I guess in one way it helps a lot to focus more on the music than on what the band actually is.
You are on this planet for a special mission, and we know you can’t tell us what it’s all about, but did you make any progress regarding this mission?
We’ve been going on for nine years and we never told you guys about what the mission is, but it was always in our music. Last time we came to Paris, I think there were about 400 people, but tonight is sold out, so more people are gathering to listen to us! So, I guess we’re making some progress, yeah! (laughs)
You don’t want to be a representation of someone, but what would you like to represent for music?
That’s a hard question! (laughs) Obviously we’re wolves, we’re different from you guys! Sometimes, when you’re told something by another human, people don’t really listen to you because you’re not at the same position.
There are a lot of messages and a lot of important things all over the world. But most of the time, the one who’s really shutting you down is yourself. You have to be curious about a lot of things and at the same time you have to choose what you want to keep on going in the future, but you have to be responsible for it at the same time. I guess that’s what we have been talking about all the way through our music.
We’ve seen that some people are calling you the “New X JAPAN”. What do you think about this title?
Oh really? That’s an honour! (laughs) They’re a huge band! One time, Mr Yoshiki came to one of our shows and it was really an honour to meet him!
You have such an influence around the world because of your talent, your charisma and the story you’re telling, what do you think about it?
Well, there are a lot of behind stories about what we are and things like that. I hope you guys enjoy it a lot, but the most important things about us is our music, so please keep on listening to our music! (laughs)
In Japan, there is no band like yours. Do you think Japan is enough open-minded to understand who you are?
I guess so! (laughs) So far we’ve been in Japan for nine years or something like that. I guess Japan is familiar with us.
What are you going to do after all the shows of this European tour?
This European tour has been such a great tour so far and we still have five more shows to go, so I’m not really sure what we’re gonna do after it. It’s been a while since we visited all these countries and it’s so great to visit them all again. Right now, I guess we’re just enjoying the moment.
On your tours, what do you usually do to relax between two shows?
Between the shows, we’re actually just driving to another city or something like that. So, most of the time, we play card games with our manager. (laughs)
Lately, what music are you mostly listening to?
I guess I’ve been mostly listening to a lot of hip-hop, stuff on the charts all over the world, and a lot of Japanese music. Young Japanese artists are right now very interesting, they’re really hot and they’re really innovative in one way. Japan is kind of a diverse country for music, all kind of genres are going on. Rock is still very viral in Japan, and as you know even idols and J-Pop are also huge. It’s really great to see that there are a lot of new items coming every day. All the young Japanese artists have the potential to just cut through, even to the world. I’m really excited to see what they can do when they’ll break into the world.
And this question will be our last one. Do you have a final message for all of your fans coming here tonight?
Yes of course! It’s good to see you guys in Paris! It’s been a while since we last came here, and tonight is sold out, I actually heard it from our manager, so thank you! Thank you so much to you guys! We are always so thankful for your support, thankful for everything you guys have done. I’m sorry that it took so long, but hopefully, we’ll come back here as soon as possible. Nevertheless, enjoy tonight!
Stay tuned for our live report of MAN WITH A MISSION’s last show in Paris!
We would like to thank Jean-Ken Johnny for his time, all of MAN WITH A MISSION’s staff, and also the promoter Voulez-Vous Danser for making this interview possible!
