Our good friend Naoki (nokmr) was kind enough to send me these scans so that we can translate them into English for non-Japanese people to read and understand. “Draft King’s 5DK ~ The Draft King meeting!!~” is already on their seventh! On 8/10 [Saturday] at the one man live, the first mission was safely cleared, and heading towards the next mission we would like to follow their musical roots two at a time from this month’s edition onwards so that everyone can get to know them better. For this month’s edition we asked the guitarist MAO and the drummer SHIHO!! -----Alright then, I would like to ask you two about your musical roots. SHIHO-chan was lured [into music] in your high school age right? *SHIHO – Well, even if you say “lured” it was more half-assed and against my will (Lol). “Anyways you should try and come to the studio for a bit because it’s great!!” I was brought in by something like that, there I saw a senior playing the drums and I thought it was cool so I started playing them and it was fun. ----- Did you form a band right away after that? *SHIHO – No, after that point it was fun just to play the drums for a while, I didn’t have enough awareness for such things as bands. Gradually those around me began to form bands and gradually I began to feel that way. I just continued to play the drums every day and as they say before I knew it night had come. ----- Did you originally have an interest in music? *SHIHO – No, not at all (Lol). I didn’t even know the difference between drums and bass (Lol). Also now that I think about it, I originally had no intention of going too that high school so it was really an amazing amount of coincidences that led to now. If I hadn’t been lured at that time then I definitely wouldn’t have done any music. I might have still been in Okinawa to this day. ----- On the other hand, we’ve already asked you about it before but your motivation was touching a guitar when you were in middle school right? *MAO – That’s right. At that time, if I hadn’t acted solely out of curiosity thinking it was cool and hadn’t touched that guitar, I don’t think I would be playing guitar, for me it was an amazing coincidence too. ----- “Motivations” are interesting things aren’t they. The way you thought it was cool and the instruments themselves are different with each of you. *SHIHO – Truthfully if I picked up a guitar, it wouldn’t match me at all and likewise MAO playing drums wouldn’t match at all either (Lol). ----- With what timing did MAO-chan begin to seriously think about forming a band? *MAO – One occasion was when I decided to go to specialty school. After that is when Stereopony was recruiting a support guitarist and I applied, at that time I had made my resolution. ----- Then your first live was as a support guitarist for Stereopony? *MAO – My first live was unexpectedly at Makuhari Messe (Lol). ----- Makuhari Messe so abruptly!? *MAO – My start as a support guitarist for Stereopony was there. Truth be told I was so nervous that I don’t remember anything(Lol). *SHIHO – And about two weeks after that was the America tour (Lol). *MAO – And that was my first overseas (Lol). You never know what life has in store for you. Draft King is my first original band and first band period so I feel like I am incredibly blessed all around. ----- MAO-chan is the composer, SHIHO-chan writes the lyrics but with what timing do you guys work? * MAO – Even though things occur to me suddenly, at those times I will hurriedly write down the melody on my cell phone, but I’m basically the type that decides “Alright let’s write a song now”. * SHIHO – I’m like that too. Moreover I’ll suddenly wake up and lyrics will occur to me, there have been times when I have written them in like an hour (Lol). ----- That’s considerably quicky (Lol). Finally please tell me both of your dreams. * MAO – I want to appear on Kouhaku [Uta Gassen]. I want to show my parents my figure performing at Kouhaku. * SHIHO – There’s that too, but I also feel like I want to perform at the Tokyo Dome again. Just like MAO’s Makuhari Messe live, I was too nervous and can’t remember a thing but I want to enjoy a live at that place again.
Thanks for the translation, CK. I'm glad Stereopony is mentioned in this interview. I think this might be the first time they ever mention it? And as expected, Mao is the one who composes the songs and Shiho still writes lyrics. The part about Mao is interesting though. I wonder where it can be found that Stereopony was hiring a support guitarist.
