Interview and Translation by Melissa

Japanese techno-pop sensation Perfume will soon embark on a US tour in support of their latest album“COSMIC EXPLORER“. The tour will start on August 26 in Los Angeles and ends on September 4 in New York City, where a total of 5 concerts across 4 cities will be held.

Before the girls started their trip to America, Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi had an opportunity to ask them a few questions regarding their collaboration with OK Go and the upcoming tour. Check out their cute answers below and make sure to catch Perfume’s shows while they are in the US!

Perfume US Tour 2016 Dates

August 26 – Los Angeles – The Wiltern

August 28 – San Francisco – The Warfield

August 31 – Chicago – The Vic Theatre

September 3 – New York City – HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM

September 4 – New York City – HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM

── Hello! Nice to meet you. We are Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi!

Perfume Nice to meet you!

── Perfume and OK Go collaborated on the song“I Don’t Understand You”, which was composed by OK Go and features both Perfume and OK Go’s vocals. How did this collaboration come about? How do you feel about this collaboration?

Perfume This collaboration with OK Go was definitely an amazing experience for us. It all started when OK Go was shooting their music video in Japan and they wanted a Japanese artist to appear in it. They thought we would be a great fit so they reached out to us. Finally we were able to appear in the beginning of their music video, which led to the following opportunities for us to collaborate more.

Later, not only did OK Go star in our music video as we wanted, but they also attended our show in Los Angeles. They were impressed with our performance and even offered us the chance to make a new song with them. Much to my surprise, this plan was really carried out when OK Go visited Japan again and wrote the new song for us. Since all members of Perfume have been huge fans of OK Go for quite a while, OK Go became a big influence for us and we’ve got lots of inspiration from them while creating our own music and videos. To us, they are such a fantastic band we always look up to that we never thought they would really collaborate with us on a new song. It feels like a dream come true and we are really honored to have worked with them. It was a great experience that we had never had in our career.

Furthermore, we were truly amazed at the band’s intuition as artists, when they brought up the idea of making a song together with us immediately after they watched our live performance. I was extremely happy about their appreciation of our music and show.

── That sounds amazing! By the way, do you have any plan touring with OK Go in the near future?

Perfume That would be so much fun! We definitely would love to if possible! We were once invited to OK Go’s concert in Japan and their stage presence was so awesome. We really wish to share a stage with them someday.

── What should American fans expect from your US tour? Do you plan to show us anything different from your domestic shows in Japan?

Perfume First of all, the venues to hold our concerts in the U.S. are not as big as those in Japan, so of course we won’t be able to bring the stage set that we used in Japan. In light of this, we are definitely going to put on a special show for our American audience. For all those who have listened to our albums, I’m pretty sure you will enjoy our performances!

── At Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi, we aim to spread the cutest, coolest, and most amazing aspects of Japanese culture. What do you think fits this criteria “Kawaii, Kakkoii and Sugoi” and want to recommend to your fans overseas? Can I ask all of the members to answer this question please?

Nocchi I would like to recommend Japanese food to our fans. (laugh) All of them are so delicious. Especially ramen, I definitely would choose it to represent the “Kawaii, Kakkoii and Sugoi” to me.

Kashiyuka To me, the socks that Japanese girls wear are so “Kawaii, Kakkoii and Sugoi”. In Japanese fashion, you always see girls wear socks with sandals, or in other cute ways. There are so many kinds of them, some with ribbons, some with thin laces. Usually they are made of strong fabrics so they last very well. Also these socks are not expensive, most of the time it only costs you 1000 yen to get 3 pairs.

A~chan Let me think… I would say the master of a sushi restaurant is the most “Kawaii, Kakkoii and Sugoi” to me! In a set meal, you usually can’t have more than 10 dishes; but if it’s sushi, the master always tries his best to make his customers enjoy whatever they want. No matter it’s 20 plates or 30 plates, the master is never tired of showing the deliciousness of various materials and happy to see his customers pleased with different flavors. Also because it takes an apprentice more than 10 years in training to finally reach the position of master, I do admire the effort and time they put into making sushi. Sushi masters have a cute side too: since they deal with sushi and food for most of their time, they don’t have much experience with girls, so they tend to behave very shy when it comes to talking with girls.

── Thank you very much for taking time to answer our questions! We are looking forward to your US tour!

Perfume Thank you very much!