00:13I already had a radio show before even my album came out and after that I had like two, three
00:21radio shows in a week we had this like a huge trend that college girls were so
00:29popular in Japan and a lot of talents were college students and I was one of
00:36those so Miss DJ request parade parade was like they had every day different
00:44college students but they were also talents and it was live so so thrilling
00:49sometimes I had a partner with me who was a music critic so we talked about
00:56because I was of course a musician but huge music fan so we talked about music
01:02and played my favorite songs and I was so into tears for fears at that time so the
01:09record company loved me their record company they gave me okay I also wrote
01:13liner note for tears for fears for their 12 inch record I'm so excited and but and
01:20they came to my other radio show as a guest too so I met many people tears for fears
01:26Howard Jones all those British people from the 80s
01:32I received like three thousand four thousand letters every week at that time so the radio
01:39thing was a huge thing and also I had a concert tour but it was not like 200 cities it
01:48was more like
01:4930 cities in maybe two months pretty busy the first album came on September 21st in 83 I had to
02:00release the next one in six months and of course if you count the recording time I had to write
02:09songs
02:10quickly I had a lot of pressure because I had already a hit album and everybody's expecting was expecting for
02:17me to have
02:17another hit album and I didn't have much time and I was also a college student so that was hard
02:27even when you are in a good position or when you are having a the truth is good time you
02:37sometimes feel
02:38like you're not doing great right do you understand what I mean so when I finished my fourth album
02:45actually I recorded my fourth album in London that was fun
02:56I think things are kind of changing like I could not just make a demo with just me and piano
03:06anymore
03:07my record income record company stuff they were kind of giving me pressure no one makes your you know
03:14song demo is just piano anymore everybody has like four tracks or eight tracks and they were giving me
03:21pressure like you're so old-fashioned something and I didn't like it so I tried my best to please them
03:28and when I think about it I could just be me I could just be proud of myself you know
03:35the way I was but
03:36I cared about what people thought much more than than now so I tried to adjust but then my record
03:46company started to I don't know if everybody was thinking that way but a part of them started to tell
03:52me that maybe you should start singing other people's songs less writing and then I thought danger danger
04:04I quit my manager I quit my management company and I quit the record company at the same time it
04:08was so kind of a little bit crazy
04:12and I made my own production company and shopped for a record deal again
04:18I moved to Los Angeles in 1989 I made my sixth album in Los Angeles it's called Miss Lemon and
04:29I met this musician and I ended up falling in love
04:34I decided to move here and I had an ambition I was in love but I also had an ambition
04:42to break through
04:46the U.S. music scene because I was kind of still naive and young and I thought it was kind
04:52of easy it could come because until then everything kind of came my dream came through
04:57kind of easily I worked hard but it came to me so I had no doubt I could do it
05:05brave when the Warner Music Japan when they dropped me in 1999 that was a shocker and I knew it
05:19was gonna come because they were always kind of threatening me
05:22because you're in Los Angeles we can't promote your record as much as we want and you can't just jump
05:31into the train and come to the radio station
05:33I didn't show anything so we have our promotion is limited so someday maybe we have to kick you out
05:42it was right after I moved here they were like telling me that so I was I thought I was
05:49ready but actually I received a phone call on Thanksgiving Day that we had done with you
05:57so that was a shocker right after they dropped me I was still like it doesn't hurt me I'm gonna
06:04release my album independently
06:05and I did in the same year I released my first independent English album I was worried when I you
06:13know started to record like a little bit lower budget stuff
06:16that maybe it's gonna sound like a demo tape but that's not happening
06:21performing is fun but also can be a scary thing because it depends how you feel that day
06:29sometimes you don't feel great sometimes you feel great and sometimes your vocal cord is in a good condition but
06:37not so when I think I can say this about everything but when you're young you don't have fear you
06:44just have fun doing things
06:47but once you kind of learn like how to feel fear about something you get kind of small and okay
06:57so then after that again you have to learn how to break through that fear and that thing that I
07:07want to hide kind of thing so I always like to perform I always loved performing
07:15and I think that when I perform more like stuff coming up from my heart so a lot of people
07:23say that I like your live concert more than your record and that's a good compliment
07:28and that's why when I'm in Los Angeles I try to keep performing because if you don't perform for a
07:36long time like if you don't perform like six months then if I suddenly perform at the seventh month then
07:43you get really nervous
07:44when I was in Japan when I was in Japan and my probability was at the peak maybe I'm gonna
07:49have another peak so
07:50but I had more people more audience 3,000 4,000 now it's a little bit smaller but more intimate
08:01and they absolutely love me there's no one who's there to tease me or anything they just couldn't wait to
08:10see me again so I appreciate it
08:14I appreciate that every time they come back and it's like we we are sharing our lives together or something
08:24we grew up together we struggled together and one thing though I wanna my guy fans to get married and
08:34have wives and have children so my you know audience becomes three times more
08:43more people I say that I don't write songs from me recently it's a little bit slow I have to
08:57admit but it's not like I don't want to wait but usually it happens I hear something
09:06that melody and the melody and lyric came to me at the same time even a part of a song
09:14and then so I can create a song based on that from it
09:24so I usually don't force myself to write
09:27I can write if somebody says please write something in five minutes I can write but to me that's not
09:35real I almost feel like I'm a messenger
09:39and maybe there are some message out there up high and I'm almost like a medium or something that maybe
09:49they are ready to send those messages to me then I catch you that's how I feel so I feel
09:57that I'm talented talented musician but I'm a tool of God or the universe or something that's how I feel
10:09so I try and
10:09I try not to like brag about it I'm so musically talented I have to try because you can't be
10:17lazy if you want to succeed in anything but when you are trying your best the opportunity comes I think
10:24now I'm focusing on this macro scale and each episode I want to get better and better of course I'm
10:32trying my best the bestest
10:39then I'm gonna focus on my album while I'm auditioning for a few parts here and there but I wanna
10:47make an album because my latest album was released in 2004
10:532004 it's been a while so I have already songs so I just have to focus and start making productions
11:01I write songs for myself to make me feel better but it works for others too
11:14because we can relate to because we can relate to each other we all have pain in our hearts and
11:21because I've lived my life long enough I have so much experience in my life now so I think that
11:32my words reached to people's heart deeper than when I was 19 or 20
11:39my voice changed and maybe songs are not the same but I hope but I hope it has more depth
11:48actually a few years ago jvc victor victor entertainment japan released an album called
11:57Mari Iishima sings Lim Mimei and I produced it and I rearranged a few songs from the TV series
12:07and I wrote a new song called Why and I wrote a melody and Mimei wrote lyrics.
12:19It was me but I wrote it as Mimei's point of view.
12:27So the song is about why did you choose her instead of me?
12:36Her is Misa.
12:39My latest album is called Wonderful People.
12:42It's not just like a boy and girl love songs, more global, big love and especially like the title song
12:54Wonderful People.
12:55It's about more about life that like when you grow up when you're a child you get influenced by people
13:06around you like adults, your parents, your teachers and they tell you like you're not good enough.
13:13Why didn't you score 100 instead of 95 and we, when we are born I think we are all like
13:23really pure light, perfect.
13:25Maybe if we had like our previous lives, maybe we had something in our hearts, tape recorder, maybe some memories
13:35but we are all shiny light.
13:37But because of that, those like influence, we start losing our confidence and maybe I'm not good enough and then
13:46we become weird like a little bit like start crying.
13:50So the wonderful people is that my message is that we are still perfect as we are and I know
13:59we have maybe colors, we are not like crystal clear ball now but we have some colors but we are
14:07still perfect.
14:07So let's take care of ourselves first.
14:12And if you had a little pain when you had a little pain when you were a kid, just close
14:18your eyes.
14:19I'm like a guru now.
14:21Close your eyes and you kind of pat pat pat your little you in your heart.
14:27And if you do that like 30 minutes every day, you become stronger.
14:32Like oh, you went through so much but you are still okay.
14:36And I went through all that.
14:38Like a few years ago, I had a horrible broken heart experience.
14:45That kind of changed my life.
14:47So I almost appreciate the person who broke my heart.
14:49But I found out so many things about me and life.
14:53So the message is that, that just if someone tells you something nice, take it in and believe it.
15:02Because you're great, you're perfect.
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